Fresh Apple: The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (12 сообщений)

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IR-909 brings old school beatmaking to the iPhone
Filed under: Audio, iPod Family, Multimedia, Software, iPhone

Back in 1984, Roland released the TR-909 drum machine as a successor to their legendary 808. Over the years, the 909 became one of the most influential and widely-used instruments in the history of electronic music, right up there with the Minimoog and the AKAI MPC sampler.

Now you can pick up IR-909, a free iPhone / iPod Touch version of the 909 over at roventskij.net. It has the 909's 16-step sequencer, eight drum sounds, and four pattern storage.

The minimal, lovely interface is close enough to the 909 for aficionados of the original hardware without sacrificing usability on the iPhone / iPod Touch's small screen.

IR-909 may not be a full-fledged replacement for your software sampler or old-school hardware 909...but I'm betting it's fun to play with on the bus or the train. Or hook it up to a pair of portable speakers and get your "Planet Rock" on anywhere and everywhere. 'Cause I know you got the funk in you.

[via Create Digital Music]
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SynchStep: musical speedometer
Filed under: iPod Family, Software, iPhone
Here's an iPhone app with some potential. Greg Elliot of Poke has released SynchStep, an app for iPhones and iPod touches that chooses songs based on your walking pace. The project began before the iPhone, conceived as a self-contained MP3 player with the necessary hardware. Upon the advent of the accelerometer-toting iPhone/touch, it became more feasible to bring the idea to the masses.

The app has a simple, good-looking interface. I couldn't get it to work very well, though, after about 20 minutes of building and analyzing playlists followed by many carefully paced steps. Quite a few people witnessed me walking quickly by, only to see me pass a while later at a much slower pace, repeated ad ~~nauseum~~ nauseam with an increasingly frustrated look on my face.

I love the concept, though. I want it to work and I'm hoping I'm just doing something wrong. Maybe you should give it a try. I've always wanted a real-time, personal soundtrack. Coincidentally, the previous name for the project was PersonalSoundtrack, which I mention only because I like the former moniker slightly better for its more intimate connotations. Now, back to walking around like I'm in a Monty Python sketch.
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Apple wins two D&AD 'Black Pencil' awards
Filed under: Apple, Graphic Design
As reported elsewhere, Apple today won two Black Pencil awards from D&AD, a British organization (or "organisation," I suppose) that promotes the very best of design around the world.
This year, the iPhone and aluminum iMac both took home the top award. The iPod touch received second prize (a Yellow Pencil), and the iPod nano and aluminum keyboard were each nominated. Apple has won six Black Pencils since 1999.

This year, six Black Pencils were awarded, though some years D&AD hand out zero (Graphic designers, for example, were a little miffed this year that none of their work was good enough). Sixty-four Yellow Pencils were handed out, among 143 total nominations.
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FastMac releases external charger for Mac notebook batteries
Filed under: Accessories, Macbook Pro, MacBook
FastMac announced a new line of Mac notebook chargers today. FastMac found a work around for Apple not licensing the MagSafe chargers. TruePower U-Charge allows you to charge your notebook's batteries externally. Note that this does not power the Mac, it only charges batteries.

This charger will charge iBook G3/G4 12", PowerBook, MacBook, and MacBook Pro batteries without skipping a beat. FastMac also has plans for a 14.4V charger that would charge batteries for the clamshell iBook, iBook G4 14", and Ti PowerBook 15".

The TruePower U-Charge comes in 2 different colors (black and white) to match your machine better. The prices for these chargers start at $69.95. You can purchase the U-Charge on the FastMac website.
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Breakaway 1.7
Filed under: Audio, Software, Freeware
If you frequent the library (or quiet places) then Breakaway could be a god-send. You'll never be afraid of your headphones becoming unplugged when you have John Mayer playing loudly in iTunes. If you have ever used an iPod, then you know that when you unplug your headphones while playing a song it is automatically paused; Well, Breakaway does this for your Mac and iTunes.

You can choose from many different settings in Breakaway, including setting triggers and fade in/out speeds. The only downside to this application is that it doesn't work with USB headphones, only ones plugged into the audio out port on your Mac. However, this freeware is handy to have around.

You can download Breakaway for free from the developer's website.
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WWDC schedule: Ajax to iCal
Filed under: WWDC, Developer
Okay I promise this is that last time I'm talking about the WWDC schedule (I can't speak for my confreres). Earlier today Brett posted on a nice Ruby script to convert the data to a readable PDF. Yesterday when we first noted that the WWDC schedule was available I complained about the lack of iCal compatible files and apparently Adrian Kosmaczewski agreed. He proceeded to cook up a little script to make the necessary conversions. You can download iCal format ics files for the iPhone, Mac, and IT tracks at his website.
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FlyTunes Brings Free Streaming Radio to iPhone & iPod Touch
Filed under: Audio, iPod Family, Freeware, iPhone
One of the features of a lot of iPhone wannabes is a built-in FM radio so you can listen to your local stations. Why limit yourself to local stations? FlyTunes is a free streaming radio service that gives you access to over 375 channels of music, news, and sports on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Most of the channels are EDGE-friendly, so there is no need for a WiFi connection. To sign up for the service, all you need to do is point Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch to flytunes.fm, and then follow the on-screen instructions to sign up.

How well does it work? Pretty darned good! It took me a minute to figure out that I needed to tap on the play button twice - once to bring up a small arrow and another tap to bring up the QuickTime player and start the stream. It only took about 5 seconds for the stream to queue up and start playing, and I didn't hear a hiccup once during about 5 minutes of listening over an EDGE connection.

Head on over to flytunes.fm and get your fill of free tunes today!
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WWDC schedule: Ajax to PDF
Filed under: Cool tools, WWDC
Developers and other WWDC attendees looking for a simple printout of the sessions and labs at the conference may be disappointed with the results when printing out Apple's (very slick) Ajax calendars. You could save the pages to PDFs and have a calendar format, but for the purposes of a nice, list-format printout, I can't find a printable version. It's entirely possible I'm not looking hard enough, but at least one other person had the same problem ... and was resourceful enough to come up with a solution. Johannes Fahrenkrug is making available a Ruby script that will make a PDF with a nicely formatted table of all the sessions and labs offered at WWDC.

You can grab the script at his blog and running it is a simple matter of unzipping and executing the wwdcpdf.rb file from Terminal (or wherever you like to do such things). The output is a simple table format with some classic Helvetica action. Those familiar with FPDF may be able to get more artistic with it, or simply build off of the existing code to output in other print or screen-friendly ways. Given that it's based off of an XML file, you can even do some sorting and filtering with a little bit of Ruby magic. Johannes states that he'd be happy to see the script enhanced!
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Mail Unread Menu 3.1
Filed under: Software, Freeware
We've all been there: you have the Dock set to auto hide and you miss the Mail.app notification telling you there's new mail. Well, don't miss that presidential e-mail again with Mail Unread Menu. This little app sits in your menu bar awaiting your e-mail.

This menu bar application can replace right-clicking on the Mail.app icon in the dock. You can check for new mail, compose a new message, and view the new messages broken down by mail boxes. This application did, however, seem a bit laggy in updating the unread mail count.

You can download Mail Unread Menu 3.1 for free (donations accepted) by visiting the developer's website.
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Orange offers up iPhone for EMEA
Filed under: iPhone
In a short press release today, Orange announced it would bring the iPhone to "customers in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets later this year." The company offered no other details.
For some of these countries, it means that many carriers will be providing service for iPhone.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

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John Mayer found cheating on Apple, again
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple
John Mayer has been closely related with Apple for years. He has played after multiple keynotes and he got his MacBook Air earlier than anyone else. I wonder how Apple feels about his latest blog posting? Yeah, that's right, his new cell phone is a... erm, how should I put this nicely... a Blackberry? Seriously, John, did you ever even consider that your friend Steve might give you an iPhone?

We first noted John's two-timing tech ways when Blackberry/RIM sponsored his concert tour in the summer of 2007, but we always held out hope that his heart was in the right place. So much for our shattered popstar dreams.

[via Gizmodo]
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Ecamm releases renamed PhoneView
Filed under: iPod Family, Software, iPhone
Gallery: PhoneView

Remember iPhone Drive? And MegaPhone? Well, Ecamm's pretty sure they're (finally) not going to get sued with their newly renamed "PhoneView." Along with the new name for the iPhone/iPod touch data access tool, PhoneView delivers an overall software refresh.

You can now add and edit notes without rebooting after each change -- wait until you're done and tap "Apply Changes" for a single reboot instead. There's also undo/redo support for the notes editor. There's a new search feature for music, contacts, SMS, etc.

Read on for more details.
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