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iStat menus turns 1.3
Filed under: Software, Freeware
iSlayer has released version 1.3 of iStat menus, the powerful -- and free -- Mac system monitoring app. There are so many changes that the release notes for this latest update take up an entire page of the iSlayer website. Some of the more notable additions include:
- Monitoring power, current and voltage sensors on PPC and Intel Macs
- Controls for PPP and buttons for copying IP (Leopard only)
- Improved support for VPN connections
- Better MacBook Air temperature monitoring support (w00t!)
I use their calendar / time menu (see screenshot above) in place of the standard Mac time item in the menu bar. I also have to admit to an obsession with following the temperature of the CPU on my MacBook Air.

iSlayer requests a donation if you use and like iStat menus. For a download, click here.

Thanks for the heads-up on the update, Marc!
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A sketchpaper version of the iPhone
Filed under: Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, Graphic Design
I don't design websites very often (I've done maybe five or six total), but whenever I do, the first thing I do isn't anywhere near the web: I grab a pad of paper and a pencil and sit down somewhere away from the computer to sketch out my ideas for how the design will go.

Lots of developers will do the same thing with applications, and so, to help those developers, the folks at Labs.Boulevart were kind enough to put together sketchpaper versions of the iPhone. It's a free download (in PDF or Photoshop flavors) of just a bunch of images of the iPhone, left completely blank (sometimes with the MobileSafari and/or carrier bar on there) for designers of all kinds to sketch on and imagine with as they will.

Very cool idea, and the number of different setups and implementations they've thought of is impressive -- just the kind of thing to get the iPhone creative development juices flowing. If you're doing any kind of design for iPhone applications, native or on the web, this should be a cool tool to use.
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Touch Arcade interviews maker of iPhone Chopper
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Multimedia, iTunes
Touch Arcade has a nice interview up with David Frampton, author of both the Mac game Chopper and its upcoming port to the iPhone. Apparently the game is feature complete and now in testing, so hopefully it'll be one of the first apps up on the App Store when it arrives, supposedly sometime this month.

The game will use the iPhone's accelerometer to control the little helicopter, and Frampton says it's both a blessing and a curse, in that it makes things more fun to control, but the iPhone also has to be held at a certain angle to center it out (they're planning to get around this by adding a way to calibrate it for different playing situations). He also talks about how the iPhone's OpenGL ES version works, and says that, despite our worries about battery life, the iPhone is able to churn out a pretty consistent FPS as well as keeping battery usage fairly low. To be fair, Chopper is probably on the low end of graphics potential, but we'll take any good news we can get here.

The game is still on track for a release in late June, and while even Frampton doesn't have details to share about the App Store's launch day, Apple's past support of this title means that if any third party games make it into the App Store, this one will definitely be there as early as possible.
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Venture Bros. season 3 now in iTunes
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Video, Odds and ends, iTunes
Just a few short days after the new season started on Adult Swim, the latest episode of The Venture Bros. is now in iTunes for your downloading pleasure. I love this show, and this season will probably be the best yet -- show creators Jackson Publick (a.k.a. Christopher McCullogh) and Doc Hammer (no alias, that's what they call him) seem like they're going to dive full steam ahead into the huge backstory of this series (originally a spoof on the old Johnny Quest cartoons, but lately a play on everything from James Bond to Hunter S. Thompson), and it'll definitely be a wacky, hilarious ride.

Unfortunately, there's no season pass for the series -- maybe Apple is a little leery to give those out considering what happened earlier this year (and let's be honest, as awesome as this show is, it's crazy enough to have been a few episodes away from cancellation since it started -- God bless the folks at Adult Swim for letting it go as long as it has).

If you haven't seen this show yet, the best place to start is probably back in Season 1 (Careers in Science is probably the easiest place to start, for my money), but if you want to follow along in this latest season, the show's just an iTunes URL away.

[via TUAW alum D. Chartier]
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Freeware Find: IceClean 3.0b
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Freeware, Troubleshooting, Terminal Tips
Most of us know that we should perform regular maintenance on our Macs, usually simple things such as doing backups and shaking pizza crumbs out of the keyboard. But did you know that there are a number of UNIX System Tasks that are available for keeping your Mac running at peak performance?

A lot of Mac users don't want to pull up Terminal and type arcane text into the command line, so MacDentro has a GUI front end that you can use to run those commands and keep your Mac cruisin'. IceClean, now at version 3.0.6 has menus for OS X Maintenance, Cleanup, Security and Network, and Utilities, all of which are packed with menu choices or keyboard shortcut equivalents that make mundane maintenance chores simple to perform.

There are other apps available -- Maintenance and MacJanitor come to mind -- that perform similar tasks, but neither of those programs comes close to the depth of capability of IceClean.

The price is right, too - it's free, although you might want to send the MacDentro folks a donation if you find yourself using IceClean regularly. Download IceClean here.

Tip of the hat to our very own Victor Agreda for this find!
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iPhone-powered Lego vehicle
Filed under: Hacks, Mods, iPhone

If admiration of an iPod-powered Lego vehicle indicates that one is a nerd, then buy me a pocket protector and hike my pants up to my ribcage.The folks at BattleBricks have constructed just such a creature. Here's (briefly) how it works. There are two iPhones involved. The one on the vehicle displays certain colors based on commands issued from the 2nd controller iPhone via a Safari app written with Google's Web Toolkit. The vehicle executes a command based on the color it "sees."

You can download the source code for yourself from Battle Bricks. Think of the applications! Frighten children and small animals, attach a small brush and clear away dust bunnies or deliver very small parcels.

Good work, guys. We love it.

[Via Ars Technica]
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An Apple Store in Paris' Louvre pyramid
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
According to French newspaper La Tribune, Apple plans to build a 7700 square foot, two-level store underneath Le Louvre's pyramid. There's a shopping gallery underneath the world-famous museum, which attracts 8.7 million visitors each year and is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, according to La Tribune.

Quite a grand location for what will be France's first official Apple Store.

We've got no details on when construction will begin or when the store will open, so we'll ask any TUAW readers in Paris to keep their eyes peeled for us.

Thanks for the tip, Tim!
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Linkinus 1.3 brings split chats, embedded videos, and a performance boost
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Internet Tools

Linkinus is the preferred IRC client for a lot of our readers, I know (personally I tend towards Colloquy, but only because I'm a cheapskate and it's donationware), and they kindly dropped us a note to let us know they'd updated to version 1.3. The new build includes the ability to split chat windows (as seen above), in addition to a revamped UI, "major" performance upgrades, plaintext and Spotlight support for logging, and a whole slew of fun things to play around with, including, we're told, a "Whisper" style that will actually embed images, audio files, and YouTube and Google videos right into your chat windows (a la Campfire). Apparently IRC isn't just text anymore.

In fact, at $20 for all these features, Linkinus really is a steal for anyone who spends any amount of time in an IRC channel. Colloquy still does everything I need it to when I jump into IRC periodically, but if you want to chat like a pro in there, Linkinus is a great choice.
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TUAW Gallery: Apple Vanity Plates
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple
It looks like a lot of you TUAW readers have been pimpin' yo ride with Apple vanity plates.

After a couple of weeks of waiting for these plate pics -- several readers had to wait for their cars to be detailed before shooting the glamour shot -- TUAW is proud to present this gallery of Apple cultism on wheels. Enjoy!

Gallery: Apple Vanity Plates
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