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- TypingWeb gains Safari compatiblity
Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone
The biggest barrier to effectively using your Mac (or your iPhone) isn't processor speed or software compatibility -- it's poor typing speed. Who knew back at the invention of the manual typewriter that the QWERTY keyboard layout (alleged to have been designed to slow down typists and avoid jams) would still be our primary data interface more than a century later? Yes, we've got some other options now, but short of upgrading your RAM the best way to speed up your work is to simply learn to type.
To enhance that finger business, check out TypingWeb, which now offers a Safari-compatible (both for desktop and iPhone, as we originally noted here) and free set of typing drills. Using the service on my iPod touch, I discovered that my Blackberry-style two thumb technique was actually slowing me down compared to an index-finger approach that leveraged the word completion feature more effectively -- who knew?
For a full-scale Mac typing tutor, the classic (not Classic -- it runs in OS X now) choice is Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, available on a cross-platform CD.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone vs. gravity is no contest
Filed under: Flickr Find, iPhone
Apple's MagSafe power cords have probably saved thousands of laptops from untimely impacts -- too bad there's no such insurance policy for the iPhone. Brett Peters' phone had an unfortunate encounter with his young son and moments later, with the floor, and the result is as you see above. While the screen glass is shattered, Brett was able to lay a piece of clear packing tape on top of the phone and keep all the shards in place. You can see all the photos on Brett's blog and here on Flickr.
Believe it or not, the phone is still functional; more surprisingly, except for the most seriously damaged spots, the touchscreen still works. Brett is considering a screen replacement via this procedure, but in the meantime I'm sure he's having a heart-to-heart with his son about the facts of physics. 9.8m/s^2 -- it's not just a good idea, it's the law.
[via Twitter]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Found Footage: Conan on iChat
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Odds and ends, Internet, Found Footage
If you're a dedicated Conan watcher, you'll know that Conan O'Brien's normal bandleader, Max Weinberg, is often out on the road playing on tour with Bruce Springsteen, and away from the show for long periods of time. Conan misses Weinberg as much as we do, apparently, and so last night he decided to get back in touch with none other than Apple's own iChat video conferencing.
Sure enough, it's not a fake -- while there are lots of audio and video cables coming off of Conan's MacBook Pro, when they show the desktop (Leopard) and later on bring in a third person, you can see that it really is iChat, running as normal -- the cables are likely just to grab the audio and video for the broadcast.
Unfortunately, this also shows off iChat's limits -- while the technology is cool, it won't necessarily make the people you call any more interested in talking. Odds are that "drummerboymax08" isn't that interested in chatting with you either.
Thanks, Sabi! Video via Macenstein
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New "Get a Mac" ad: Office Stress
Filed under: Apple
Last night Apple released a new Get a Mac ad showcasing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Apple seems to keep releasing new ads during the American Idol shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You can watch this new ad by going to the Get a Mac page on Apple's website and clicking "Office Stress."
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New Macheist bundle on the way
Filed under: Deals
Eagle-eyed browsers of the MacHeist site may have noticed a preview video posted this afternoon that indicates a new retail bundle is just around the corner. You can't quite make out all the listed applications from the bundle, but a couple of those icons look familiar...
You can get the accumulated history of MacHeist here, if you've got some time on your hands. Likely pricing for the bundle will be $49 when it comes out.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Adobe's virtual library open to the public
Filed under: Multimedia, Software
Users of any of Adobe's products (at least the current ones) will want to check out Adobe TV. With a smorgasbord of tutorials and informational videos on a broad range of topics, it has something for everyone.
The content ranges from Photoshop tutorials from Layers Magazine to tips on dynamic media creation in Visual Communicator. Beginners and long-time users - be they web developers, graphic designers, video professionals, photographers, you name it - should be able to find something right up their alley... from down-to-earth Lightroom tutorials to the ridiculous (but informative) antics of Dr. Brown. The site is well organized and easy to navigate, and thankfully provides Youtube-style embed code for deep linking within the Flash site.
It sounds like the content will be updated regularly, keeping the collection current with Adobe's ever-growing lineup. Even if I often choose alternatives to Adobe's products in my workflow (don't worry, InDesign, you're safe for now...), I'm already gleaming useful information from Adobe TV. I find it a testament to Adobe's growth (and the power of acquisition) that the entire site is built with Adobe products, from video capture to final delivery. So, here's a toast to all-encompassing media production empires, so entrenched in the industry that they can afford to miss 64-bit boats and shirk interface conformity. Cheers!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Vista beats OS X? Really?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Switchers, Steve Jobs, Apple, Blogs
ComputerWorld's Preston Gralla posted a blog entry titled, Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X. Clearly, this was link-bait, but you know what, I'll bite.
And although I vehemently disagree with the post's title and assertion, I want to make it clear that I'm not coming at this from the typical rabid Mac-fangirl stance. Until August of last year, I still used a PC as my primary computer (I used Macs at school and for creative work); I used to work as a PC technician. In our TUAW backchannel chat, I'm usually the first person to take the "don't knee-jerkingly attack the PC" stance.
Still, it was impossible to read the post and NOT respond. Let's take a look at Mr. Gralla's arguments and dissect them one-by-one.Continue reading Vista beats OS X? Really?
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iTunes: Free Wednesday
As many of our readers let us know (thank you!), the UK single of the week finally went live late yesterday. Here it is for you to download and enjoy.
UK: The Black Keys, Lies - Single of the Week
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Each week we find a track from an artist or a band we've been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week.Переслать - Syncopation provides automatic iTunes synchronization
Filed under: Audio, Software, iTunes
A recurring question we get on Ask TUAW concerns managing multiple iTunes libraries, particularly keeping them in sync, whether for one user with two computers (e.g. laptop and desktop) or between multiple users with multiple machines (e.g. family members). It was with some interest, then, that I recently ran across Syncopation from Sonzea which promises to automate the process.
It will allow you either to clone a full library on two machines, or selectively sync your files (video as well as audio) via iTunes playlists or within the application itself. This could be very handy, for instance, if you want to keep an automatically updated subset of your music on your Mac portable with limited hard drive space.
Syncopation is $24.95 (for use on two Macs) and a demo is available. If you've had good experiences with Syncopation or other iTunes syncing tools, please let us know below.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Slimming down Windows for virtualization or Boot Camp
Filed under: OS, Portables, Switchers
What madness is this, a post about installing Windows? Well, actually, the folks over at VMware's Team Fusion link to this handy Lifehacker guide to trimming down Windows XP to the bare essentials. Obviously this is of interest to anybody running Windows on a Mac, particularly on a portable with limited hard drive space. So if you should find yourself needing to tread on the dark side (whether in Boot Camp, Parallels or Fusion), it's worth a look. Besides, as I always say, the less Windows the better. It's just a shame you have to build it yourself on a machine running Windows with the Windows utility nLite and can't simply download a pre-built virtual machine.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - TUAW first look: Papaya personal filesharing
Filed under: Software, Reviews
Papaya is a new utility for personal file sharing, and TUAW got a chance to put through its paces. We were pretty impressed with the ease of use it provides for getting your files across the office... or the globe.
Papaya provides a simple window and a multitude of methods for adding files to be shared. You can drag on to it, manually select files, snap a picture with your iSight or add the currently playing track from iTunes. You can even paste text snippets onto it for quick sharing of code or prose. It allows for the creation of folders - which it can automatically archive and compress at the time of download - and a web interface for navigating remote libraries.
Papaya sets itself up as a web server on port 6900 and takes very little network configuration (you will have to map that port to your machine if you're behind an Airport base station or other NAT router). When you add a file to Papaya, it automatically copies an address to the clipboard (an option in the preferences) which you can send directly to another user. While I wouldn't recommend broadcasting that address far and wide, it makes for a very convenient means of getting a larger file where it needs to go, without dealing with an interim server.
Papaya provides Quick Look previews, and the web interface is iTunes-like and easy to navigate. It can also resize images and define its own folder hierarchy without disturbing your original files. The files are served from where they exist on your drive, everything else is handled on-the-fly. It even provides access control on a per-file basis. Basically, it's file sharing at its most personal.
If you need to share files with friends, family or co-workers quickly and conveniently, give it a shot. The download is free, but a license will cost 20 Euros which, with the current state of the U.S. Dollar, is almost $32. While Papaya is extremely fluid and well though out, I do think that's a bit of a high price point for a file sharing utility, especially considering it's a convenience layer over the built-in functionality of your Mac. Fluid to use and pretty to look at, to be sure, but you'll have to make the decision as to whether the convenience is worth the price.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Keyboard Maestro 3 adds macro recording and remote access
Filed under: Software, Productivity
The well-known macro application Keyboard Maestro has been updated to version 3 and adds some interesting new features. In addition to a revamped interface, the new release allows you to record macros (series of key presses, mouse clicks, etc.) and play them back via various triggers. There are also new ways to trigger the macros; besides the normal hotkeys, macros can also be triggered with AppleScripts and even remotely with Keyboard Maestro's built-in web server. If you've ever wanted to automate your Mac, it's definitely worth a look.
Keyboard Maestro 3.0 is $36 with upgrade pricing from $18 - $26 for previous users; a demo is available.
[via MacNN]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - MindNode - Free mind mapping for Leopard
Filed under: Productivity, Freeware
Mind mapping seems to be one of those things that you either get, or just don't. For those who do, there's a new player in town.
MindNode is a free Leopard-only mind mapping application from Markus Müller, based in Austria. The application is by no means feature-rich; in fact, it's so simple as to be a bit disarming at first. But what it lacks in features, it makes up for in elegance.
The interface is incredibly clean. To create a new node, simply double-click anywhere on the window, or press the Tab key when focused on a node to create a new child node. To create a node at the same level as the one that is currently in focus, press option-Tab.
As new nodes are added at the same level, they surround the previous nodes. For example, the second new node appears below the original one. The third appears above. Below, above, below, above. While this is an easy way to keep everything grouped together, it's not particularly useful if you're using MindNode to create a list with any sort of ordering. Some would argue that mind maps should not worry about ordering since it should be all about capturing ideas. But given that mind maps are useful in large part because they allow for graphical organization, this behavior is a bit unfortunate.
Other than that one small beef, MindNode is a nice, small, but useful tool that will be right at home in your Applications folder for the next time you find yourself needing to do some brainstorming.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Native MobileTwitter for jailbroken iPhones
Filed under: iPhone
Many of have been waiting for a native iPhone twitter client for a long time. And while we wait for Craig Hockenberry's efforts to bear fruit, presumably in June, it's good to see MobileTwitter from Nicholas Pike which just recently showed up in the STE repository for Installer.app.
While there are definitely some rough edges, it basically works as advertised and seems superior to the Mobile Safari based options. Having the button bar at the bottom, however, seems less than ideal as it's rather too easy to hit while typing an update. Nonetheless, MobileTwitter is worth checking out for the Twitter-obsessed, especially considering the improvements Nicholas has promised are coming.
MobileTwitter is a free download (though much more easily done from Installer) and naturally requires a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Time Machine via Airport Extreme not officially supported
As we noted when the latest Airport Extreme Base Station firmware shipped, Time Machine now seems to recognize USB hard drives connected to the AEBS as valid backup locations. Was this feature added deliberately? Well, Glenn Fleishman over at TidBITS took the trouble to ask Apple about this and he reports that they told him that this is an unsupported feature (and not much else). This is unsurprising given that Apple never made mention of the feature connected with the firmware update (though it was originally promised before Leopard shipped). Fleishman himself even speculates that it was turned on by accident.
So what's the upshot? Apple is offering no support for using your AEBS this way, and so if you have a problem you're pretty much out of luck as far as they're concerned. Further, considering that there have been reports that the Airport Disk can be unreliable, it's probably not a good idea to depend on an Airport Disk and Time Machine for your only backup.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Is this the iPhone 3G chip?Engadget posted about some information they received from the ZiPhone folks. According to ZiPhone, they have spotted some code in the new iPhone 2.0 beta software that suggests Apple will use the Infineon 3G chipset. The code mentions "SGOLD3," which is a series of chips that Infineon produces. iPhone currently uses the S-GOLD2 EDGE chipset.
S-GOLD3H, also known as "PMB8878," supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA and has built-in acceleration and media playback features (which, incidentally, the iPhone already has and does well). This chip also includes a higher resolution camera, 5 mega-pixels instead of a 2. Engadget notes that the processor speed stays the same.
[via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Update Tuesday continues with Firmware Restoration CD 1.6
Filed under: Software Update
With three other software updates out the door today already, you could have forgiven Apple for not providing a fourth. However, Apple has also released an updated Firmware Restoration CD (version 1.6) for for a number of Mac models:
- Xserve (Early 2008)
- MacBook (13-inch Late 2007)
- iMac (20-inch Mid 2007)
- iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
You can download the Firmware Restoration CD from the Apple Support downloads website for your specific Mac. These CDs are great to keep around in case of firmware install issues (especially if you only have one Mac).
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Xserve (Early 2008)
- iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.3
Filed under: Software Update
In addition to the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air EFI updates, the iMac EFI firmware was also updated to version 1.3. Apple says that this update "fixes several issues to improve the stability of iMac computers."
You can download this update by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple's support website.
Please note: To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/iMac EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air EFI firmware updates
Filed under: Software Update
This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of [MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air] computers.
You can download this update by opening Software Update on your notebook (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from Apple's support website.
Apple also notes: To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/MacBook EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0
Filed under: Software Update
Today Apple released an update for the Aluminum Keyboards that ship with most of their desktop systems. This update applies to both wired and wireless keyboards. Here's the information that Apple gives us:
This firmware update addresses an issue with the aluminum Apple Keyboard and the aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing. The update also addresses other issues. Mac OS X 10.5.2 is required before installing this update.
Please note that as a firmware update, you must download the installer (either by downloading from Apple's website or by opening Software Update). Once the download has succeeded, you will be able to open the installer in the Utilities folder (~/Applications/Utilities/ )
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
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