Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (9 сообщений)

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The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
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Apple is #1 (in music)
Ars Technica is reporting that the NPD Group’s numbers are out! Apple is the number one distributor of music. They sell more music than anyone else, well, besides those “others” who are always throwing a wrench in the plan.

Credit: Ars Technica

Apple was in third place in just June of 2007. They have been steadily climbing upward since then. Amazon.com is in 4th place, even with their cheaper, higher quality, DRM-free music.

It seems that now would be a dangerous time for Apple to make many changes to their business model. Doing anything that is not “fair” to competition could land them in hot water. Being number one is a dangerous, yet good place to be.

I would say that if Apple does pursue the subscription music model now that they are number one, eMusic is likely to sue them for anti-competitive practices. Being number one will hurt Apple more than anything else right now. When they were number two, they could always claim they were just trying to carve out their share. Now, any increase or change in practices could easily be seen as squeezing more out of everyone else.

Update: Apple officially announced that it was the number 1 retailer in online music today. Money quote:

“We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”

In other words, “Thanks, iTunes users for lining our pockets!” Congrats to Apple.

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TAB Weekly: April 3, 2008
Today marks the very first episode of TAB Weekly. Each week we’ll be posting a podcast covering TAB articles and general Apple news. The podcast is great for those of you looking to hear a bit more commentary behind our posts and more news related to Apple in general.

You can listen to the podcast here in the player below and in the next few days we’ll have our iTunes Podcast feed setup where you’ll be able to subscribe directly to that. You can also subscribe directly to the our podcast feed.

We’d love to get your feedback on what you’d like to hear and if you have anything you’d like us to talk about or questions you’d like answered, we’ll be glad to put them in the show.

Download audio file (tabweekly-04032008.mp3)

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Photoshop CS4 64-bit version…for Windows only
The Apple/Adobe relationship has been a tad strained lately. Apple has been less than helpful with providing Adobe necessary information for their development process, and Adobe has taken the stance of ignorance in regards to porting their apps from Carbon to Cocoa.

Yesterday, Adobe’s John Nack wrote that the next version of Photoshop (CS4) would support 64-bit computing, but only on Windows. CS4 on OS X would stay 32-bit.

So why is this a big deal? For a majority of Photoshop users, this just plain will not matter or affect them. But for the Photoshop power-users (who are largely on the Mac platform), 64-bit computing would make a difference to them.

64-bit computing basically allows the application to process huge amounts of memory faster. Ultimately reducing processing time and creating a faster workflow. Nack gives an example.

For example, opening a 3.75 gigapixel image on a 4-core machine with 32GB RAM is about 10× faster.

I can’t say I know many people with a 4-core machine and 32GB of RAM…but the example still stands.

On the other hand, Gruber makes another great point.

Keep in mind that a Canon 1Ds Mark III — which sells at Amazon for $8,000 — generates 21 megapixel images. 3.75 gigapixels is 3,750 megapixels. You probably don't have images like that.

I feel like a lot of the hoopla surrounding this is more of a principle issue than a real business or technology issue for a lot of people. I can’t imagine the backlash that has come from this is really felt by so many people.

The idea that Photoshop CS4 will run faster on a 64-bit version of Windows Vista makes people more upset than the reality of it. You have to remember that the average copy of Windows Vista is only 32-bit capable. You have to purchase a separate version of Vista to have 64-bit capabilities.

Ultimately I think Photoshop CS4’s 64-bit capabilities just won’t be a big deal. Such a small, concentrated number of Vista users will be using it that I think it will just be forgotten until CS5 with Photoshop supports 64-bit editing on both OSX and Windows.

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Weekly Widget: MadLibs
I remember in Jr. High and High School wasting hours of class time doing madlibs with my classmates. I’m quite positive I learned more reading madlibs than reading Edgar Allen Poe.

Fortunately you now can waste your day away doing madlibs right on your Mac thanks to the MadLibs widget!

It includes 23 different madlib stories to do, many of which are Apple or computer related.

Download the widget, do some madlibs, and post them in the comments.

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8GB Nano on Woot for $140
If you were looking for an excuse to buy a new iPod Nano, I think I just found it. Woot.com is selling a blue or black 3rd Generation 8 GB Nano for only $134.99 with only $5 shipping. That makes it one penny shy of $140 for a shiny refurbished 8 GB nano.

You can also go to Apple’s refurbished iPod store and get a 4 GB 3rd Generation iPod with a $15 iTunes Gift Card for $129. Apple is selling the 8GB refurbed Nano for 169 Washingtons and it also comes with a $15 iTunes Gift card. The Woot deal is about $15 less than the Apple deal.

A quick Google search and Pricegrabber.com search show the next cheapest price for a 3rd Gen Nano at $179 and $177 respectively.

If you don’t know about Woot.com, they sell refurbished items daily. They start with an unknown limited supply, and sell it on a first come, first served basis. Also, they are excellent writers whose product descriptions always bring a smile.

It is a great place to find good deals, and they rarely have Apple produces there. Hurry on over before they sell out!

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Apple Posts Quicktime 7.6.2 Security Fix + iTunes Front Row Updates
Apple has posted Quicktime 7.4.5 to Software Update that includes 11 security fixes, three of which only impact Windows systems. Some of the vulnerabilities can lead to arbitrary code execution (i.e. bad people can run programs on your system) by just tricking you into viewing specially crafted content. While that may seem unlikely to you – “I never click on bad things!” – you can become compromised just by visiting a site that displays ads from a source that has had their image/media server usurped.

iTunes 7.6.2 “provides bug fixes to improve stability and performance.” One of Apple’s least-helpful (and, these days, all-too-frequent) software update explanations.

Similarly, Front Row 2.1.3 “provides for bug fixes and improved iTunes compatibility.”

Reboot required, so plan ahead.

If you experience any issues post-update, drop a note in the comments.

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C4[1] Videos Available
Jonathan ‘Wolf’ Rentzsch, the well-dressed gent who puts on the C4[1] conference for indie mac developers, has put online all the videos from this past year’s conference.

There is some great stuff here, especially Cabel Sasser’s talk about the history of Panic and some of the design challenges he faced as they built Coda. Wil Shipley was in top form as he discussed “Monster Marketing”.

You don’t have to be an indie mac developer to enjoy these videos. Some are more techie than others, but pretty much any mac fan will find a few gems there.

Check them out!

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April Fool's Pranks Round Up
Google is the master of April Fool’s day pranks and non-pranks. It seems the blogosphere and some news outlets want Apple to get in on the gig. Here are the phony stories that I found. If you saw any others, or want to add your own, feel free to add in the comments.

Wise Bread (a personal finance blog) claims that Apple is introducing a rewards program that will give people a cash payment for branding themselves, and a lifetime discount of 25% off any product at any Apple store. They are still working out an online discount system, too. This was the most creative and best one, I thought.

jkOnTheRun claims inside sources are dropping hints for a geek-targeted iPod Touch that has a 5-inch screen and is 1 inch thick to help geeks with awkward hands navigate better. Also, a Macbook Helium would be introduced. “Select reviewers” have their strings on one now.

MacUser took a page from Apple TV Take Two, and claimed that the G4 cube would get a Take Two upgrade as well. Expect “Take Two” to be the new “i” for Apple as the Hockey Puck mouse, the Lisa, and the NeXtcube would also be receiving the Take Two treatment.

The next logical step from having Doom on your iPhone is throwing InfoWorld reports that Apple’s new operating system, XI, will be based completely on iTunes. This was the first one I saw, and I actually believed it for a minute until I realized how absurd it sounded (and when I realized that it was April 1st). I thought this was a clever idea, but it made absolutely no sense and was too unbelievable.

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), Fake Steve avoided any product announcements yesterday.

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Beginning Mac: Color Labels
There are many different ways to organize files. From the classic folder structure to the more “experimental” metadata/tagging format. There’s no right or wrong way to do it…just what works best for you.

As a new Mac users it’s easy to get caught up in the “old” way of doing things (ie. how you organized items in Windows). I encourage you to step outside that box for a bit to give something else a try.

The OS X Finder has a “Label” feature where you can color code your files with 7 different colors. Color coding your files and folders does not change anything about them. It’s simply a tool for organization.

Choosing a color label

Choosing a color label is as simple as a right-click (or Control-Click) on the file or folder of your choice and then selecting one of the colors from the contextual menu.

You can change or remove the colors at any time by using the same method.

One step further

Using the color labeling feature of Finder works fine as is. It helps you visually separate a folder full of files with a simple glance.

But we can take things one step further and use the labels as an actual organizational tool.

By using the OS X Smart Folder feature, we can group files by the color of the label you chose. So for example, say you decided to mark all of your documents that revolved around insurance (car, health, life, etc etc), you can then create a Smart Folder to automatically group all of those documents in one place. It then automatically updates whenever you label a new file with that color.

In our original label example above, I’ve marked financial documents with the green label. Now we’ll create a Smart Folder to group all of files labeled with green into one folder.
1. Go to the Finder. In the menu bar at the very top of your screen, select File > New Smart Folder. A new Finder window will popup with no files inside.
2. Next we’ll be creating the “rule” that finds all the green-labeled files. In the upper-right corner of the new Finder window you will see a plus sign. Click on the plus sign to create a new rule.
3. You’ll see a couple of new drop-down items. Click on the first one that says “Kind” and select “Other…” from the bottom of the menu. You’ll be presented with numerous additional attributes you can use. We want to find the attribute called “File label” and select it. The select Okay.
4. The rule has now changed to let you pick the color label of your choice. In our example, we’ll select the green label. After selecting your label, your Mac will search all the files on your computer for any labeled with green and will then show you the results.
5. If you’d like, you can now save this Smart Folder by clicking on the Save button.
If all goes as planned, you should see something similar to this.

Homework

You now know the basics of organizing and labeling your files with color labels. Your homework is to develop a basic system of organization on just your documents. Don’t worry about trying to do this to all your files. Just use this as a way to organize documents spread across different folders.

Be sure to check out the video below that walks through this entire lesson.

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