Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (7 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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iPhone SDK Tutorial: Build a Simple RSS reader for the iPhone
With this I’m assuming you have a bit of familiarity with the iPhone SDK - you can download it for free from Apple’s site, and follow along here. We’re going to build an RSS feed reader for a simple feed (from The Apple Blog, no less).

Let’s get started
1. Open Xcode and choose the “File” menu, in which you’ll click the “New Project…” item.
2. Click “Application” under “iPhone OS” in the list at left.
3. On the right, choose “Navigation-Based Application”. Then click the “Choose…” button. You’ll be prompted to pick a name and location. Type in the name “TAB RSS reader”.
4. Save it wherever you wish.
The Xcode project window will appear, with the standard 3 panes - I recommend pulling the horizontal divider on the right side all the way to the top, since you’ll need that editor area and all the real estate you can give it.
(more…)

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Forum Activity: August 4, 2008
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Software Updates & New Release Highlights For Week Ending 2008-08-02
Apple’s Security Update and iTunes minor update received the bulk of the attention this week, but there were a few other post-worthy items as well:
- Sequence - 1.0.1 - The now $19.00USD innovative screen capture utility fixes a bug in video compression. I had not noticed the “é” in the name now (I believe that came with the actual 1.0 release) but am happy to report that QuickSilver still brings it up after hitting “se”. 10.5 only, tho, as it makes extensive use of a number of Leopard-only features.
- CLIX - 1.8.1d - After just mentioning it CLIX gets an update which adds built-in command-group sharing (.clix files) from within the application (sends an e-mail with an attachment, but thankfully does not open up Apple Mail to do so). It does incorporate address book lookups and enables you to choose from all available Apple Mail accounts (for the sending part). Again, it’s free and works on 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC).
- QuarkXPress - 8.0 - I do not do much desktop publishing at all these days, and – when I do – Pages provides most of what I need. Back in the pre-OS X days I used to be a QuarkXTension developer and still attempt to use Quark shortcuts in apps where I am doing more publishing-like activities. The app link goes to their 60-day demo (warning: 517MB, but pretty quick over cable modem) download where you can try some of the web features (Flash and Web Authoring Tools) and enhancements to tools that I cannot believe took this long to get into the program. I realize both Quark & Adobe use the “it’s for professonals” and “piracy” excuses for their software prices, but $799.00 seems a bit much, even for this highly extensible program. 10.4 & 10.5 compatible (Intel & PPC)
- Centre - 2.14.1 - This is a server-side app which requires a number of other components, but it can be setup on either OS X workstation or server and is a full-featured, web-based student management system that incorporates significant functionality into an open source program. I had not fully tried it on OS X prior to this release (I’ve done most of the installs on Linux), but this release works great and may be something institutions on a budget may want to investigate before the new school year starts. Free!, and OS X 10.1+
- Citrix ICA Client - 10.00.601 - A minor update (fix for XenDesktop connections) to this mostly-enterprise tool for running Windows apps remotely (you need the Citrix server software for this to work). Free and 10.3.9+
- Flip4Mac WMV - 2.2.1.7 - Telestream fixes a security vulnerability in their substitute for Windows Media Components in QuickTime and also improves some existing features. My installed version did not find the update (even with a manual check), so you, too, may want to grab this on your own and update manually if you use it. 10.3.9+ and pricing starts at free!
- Flip4Mac Drive-in - 1.0.0.72 - Flip4Mac has another app out (in beta) that requires a full review, but you need to go and grab this beta soon if you want an easy way to get DVD’s (that you own!) onto your system and also want to avoid the full price of $59.00USD for the finished version (users who activate the beta prior to 2008-08-15 are eligible to purchase for $19.00USD). 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC)
- VMware Fusion - 2.0b2 - Again, this is an app that requires a full review to do it justice, but if you are a VMware Fusion user you really should kick the tires with this pre-release as it significantly improves so many aspects of running virtual machines on your system (and not just Windows). 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel-only) and $79.99USD (but you can often find great deals with much more palatable prices).
- Accordance - 8.0.4 - This great Bible search & reference tool (exclusively OS X) releases a minor update to fix bugs in 3D map processing. They support a wide range of Mac operating systems and pricing really varies depending on the packages you want (all related to license fees).
- OmniPlan - 1.6 beta 2 - I dislike Microsoft Project, but have enough large projects on my plate that I wound up grabbig OmniPlan when it first came out just to help keep things in some semblance of order. It is less complex than Project (which is Windows-only), runs on OS X and has all the features I need. This beta fixes bugs, but I encourage OmniPlan users to give it a spin and provide feedback to the Omni folks since they are a solid bunch of developers who do a great deal for the Mac community. 10.4 & 10.5 (Intel & PPC)
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Find a carpool buddy with Carticipate

With gas prices costing an arm and a leg these days, people have found that carpooling is a great way to cut down on costs. Trouble is, it’s not always that easy to find a group of people that are traveling to your general destination.

Thankfully, with the iPhone’s location aware capabilities and the release of Carticipate, you can now make that task easier!

Carticipate helps you find other’s in the area (who also are Carticipate users) so you can find a buddy to carpool with. Simply drop in where you are going and when you want to go there and you will find others in your area that are on that same route so you can work out some traveling options.

Obviously this app only really works if there are other people in your area using Carticipate, but the potential here is really great.

One big thing going here to help with adoption rates of this app is that it doesn’t cost a dime. Yep, completely free! So if you’ve got an iPhone, be sure to download the app and see how it goes. Who knows, you might be able to reduce your gas bill a bit this month.

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Copy + Paste Coming Soon To An iPhone Near You?

This weekend was the 2nd annual iPhoneDevCamp held, mostly, in San Francisco. iPhoneDevCamp is a 3 day event where iPhone/iPod touch developers get together to learn and develop with other developers and this year seems to have churned out one of the most highly requested features for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Andrew Mager posted a video that shows Copy and Paste in use on the iPhone.

The video does not give many details on it but it seems, at this point, that the copy functionality basically copies all the text of a document/webpage/etc and then allows you to paste it in an input area. The video does not showcase any sort of “Select” functionality (such as selecting partial text) but regardless this would be a much welcomed addition to the iPhone/iPod touch.

John Gruber makes a great point in that Apple most likely will add a copy/paste feature but just hasn’t gotten to it yet. You can’t have everything all at once or you’d never get the product launched.

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iPod + Game Boy = iBoy
Growing up, my Game Boy was probably one of my favorite gaming devices. I have every single add-on you could get for that thing to the point where it was about the size of a volleyball…completely negating the point of a small handheld device. All of those add-ons included flip out speakers, a light, a magnifying glass, a joystick and more.

If only Nintendo had figured out how to record music from my cassettes onto it…

Over the years people have found all sorts of creative ways to house their iPods (including this legit wooden case). But I have to give major props to Ryan for the best I’ve ever seen. He managed to rig up an old Game Boy to house and fully control his iPod.

Say hello to the iBoy.

What are some other creative case mods you’ve seen for Apple products?

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Software Updates & New Release Highlights For Week Ending 2008-07-26
It’s been a rough couple of weeks (MacBook Pro was in the shop again) and I’m just getting caught up on some of the updates (again, I use or try these, so it’s not just a product listing/announcement summary). So, convince me to test your app and you can make it to this list!
- Flow - 1.0.3 - Nick wrote about around this time last year but the app is far from vaporware and actually manages to put a fressh look and feel on the task of network file transfers. The app interface is actually well thought out and highly usable. It has support for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and .Mac (a.k.a. MobileMe), has a pretty useful built in text editor (they obviously had web authors & programmers in mind), amazingly robust QuickLook support and the ability to make desktop bookmarks (droplets) for any file. Version 1.0.3 adds Amazon S3 support (when it’s up), bookmark importing from old school apps like Transmit and Cyberduck and bumps to speed, reliability and file editing. Leopard only & 29.00USD.
- CrossOver Games - 7.1.0 - Having used other CrossOver products, this was something that I wanted to try, especially having yet-another semi-virgin system to work from (with much reduced disk space as a result of migraing back to the original 160GB internal drive). While Wine-based gaming is nowhere near the same experience as the real thing (apps designed and written for OS X), CrossOver makes it possible to play games not yet ported and reduces the costs for switchers with large game libraries. I can confirm a working Half Life 2 for this post and will be continuing to experiment with it. This version incorporates the full Wine 1.0 release and fixes many game compatibility bugs. OS X 10.4 & 10.5 Intel-only.
- iLife (iPhoto / iMovie) & iWeb Updates - Apple release a bucket of bits including iLive Support 8.3 (stability improvements), iPhoto 7.1.4 (new greeting card & postcard themes and bug fixes), iMovie 7.1.4 (compatibility & bug fixes) and iWeb 2.0.4 (compatibility & bug fixes). Software Update should catch this, but you can grab the updates manually.
- MarsEdit - 2.2 - My blogging tool of choice issues a full dot release update with AtomPub support, customizable image markup (for fine grained control of image display) macros, a significant speed boost & five other additions. Compatible with OS X 10.3.9 through Leopard, $29.95 USD.
- BibleXpress - v1.01 [iPhone/iPod Touch] - BibleXpress puts the full text of the Bible on your iPhone in an app with a great interface and multiple translations. Version 1.0.1 is not for the squeamish as it has some bugs but adds enough much-awaited new translations - including the ESV (English Standard Version), NASB (New American Standard Version) and LBLA (La Biblia de Las Américas) - that it may be worth the quirks. Free upgrade or $29.99 (pricey, but mostly due to license fees for use of the translations).
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