Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (8 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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TAB Welcomes: Charles Moore
Hello, I’m a Mac writer.

Charles Moore here, another TAB newbie, and Darrell Etherington isn’t the only Canadian on the roster, as I’m a Canuck too, albeit from a different part of the country — far eastern mainland Nova Scotia. I’ve been a writer most of my life, a full-time freelancer since 1987, and a Mac Web contributor since 1988.

My first Mac was purchased used in 1992 moving up from an old WangWriter II word processor — a compact Plus with a gigantic 20 megabyte external MacCrate SCSI hard drive and a whopping 2.5 MB of RAM. I still have it, and it’s still in good working order, but over the years I’ve upgraded through an LC 520, a PowerBook 5300, a UMAX SuperMac S-900 Mac clone, a PowerBook 1400, a PowerBook WallStreet II, three Pismo PowerBooks — two of which are still in active production service — upgraded with 550 MHz G4 processors and some other hotrodding tweaks, a G3 dual-USB iBook, and a 17″ PowerBook G4 that is my current workhorse.

As you probably inferred from the foregoing list, I’m a consummate notebook fan, but I endeavor to keep up to speed across the Macintosh/ iPod/iPhone spectrum.

It’s great to be on board here at The Apple Blog, and I look forward to your feedback.

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AppLoop iPhone App Generator (Now Anyone Can Be A Developer!)
I’ve wanted really badly to develop an iPhone application since the SDK was announced. What kind of application? It doesn’t matter. Something not too ugly that does something of limited utility, and does it well. I ran into two problems: First, I have no development or coding experience (I stumble through basic HTML). Second, I never actually downloaded the SDK, out of laziness.

AppLoop, a new venture by Eric Kerr and Ashwani Kumar, aims to help me and others like me create iPhone apps while leaving intact my ignorance and my tendency towards sloth. The web-based generator takes any RSS feed and converts it into a native iPhone application, complete with offline storage so it’s not just a glorified web app. They even handle submitting the app and updates to the app store, and provide analytics. Functionality beyond RSS is expected to be forthcoming in paid versions of the AppLoop.
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Boxee Update Now Plays Hulu

The latest alpha release of boxee, released today, has added support for streaming shows from Hulu and CBS. In fact, I’m watching the season opener of Heroes on my Apple TV right now. Very cool stuff.

If you haven’t seen it yet, boxee installs on your Apple TV (via the patchstick method) and adds a new item to the main menu to access the boxee software. Once you launch boxee, it takes over the interface and allows you to select from different sources. When you’re done, you can exit back to the regular AppleTV interface.

Internet video isn’t as smooth on the Apple TV as it is going to hulu.com on my MacBook, despite sharing the same internet connection. I assume that the alpha release still has some work to be done on it. Still, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities that this latest release hints at.
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Beginning Mac: Optimizing Your Display's Color
With the release of the new MacBooks and Macbook Pros, I suspect there are many of you that have been holding out waiting to buy a new computer, and now that you have your shiny new notebooks, you need to get everything set up just how you like it. One of the most important things you can do is have a screen that you like to look at. This guide will walk you through calibrating your display to show color the way you’d like.

The first thing you want to do is set your screen brightness to the level that you think you will use the most. While the brightness won’t change much with the color, you will notice that certain color adjustments will look different when you change the brightness. Also, you can create different profiles that fit the way you use the computer. You may want to have a setting for watching movies, or editing pictures or typing documents. For this example, I will have the brightness all the way up, and I will be calibrating it for what looks good to me as I write.
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Camcorders and USB: Is Steve Jobs Right?
Much is being made of the lack of FireWire in the new MacBooks. Seems like everyone’s weighed in on this topic, myself included.

Even more recently, an email response to one irate customer set off more controversy. In this email, Steve Jobs himself is alleged to have responded:

Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.

So, is that true? Perhaps the best way to find out is to look at Amazon.com and see what’s selling, then check what interface they use.

I hit the bestsellers list from Amazon for camcorders, and the first thing I noticed is that the Flip series occupies five of the top 10 slots (as of this writing). The Flip supports USB 2.0, so it qualifies, but in case some people would like to have a little more camera representation than that, I decided to include the top 20 (which includes two more Flips).
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Apple to Sell Subsidized Notebooks in the U.K.?
The recent rise in the popularity and availability of netbooks has led some wireless carriers to package the computers at significant discounts for customers who purchase subscriptions. According to a recent report by Lisa Thompson, a tech research analyst with firm JRPG, Apple may be in talks to work out a similar deal with O2, a U.K.-based wireless provider.

A subsidized laptop offering from Apple would help alleviate complaints arising from the October 14 event that pricing on their new notebooks remained too high. Thompson also thinks that Apple is keen to avoid a netbook, as it might cannibalize MacBook sales, so discounting an existing product through a third-party allows them to essentially have their cake and eat it too.
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New iMacs Before The Holidays?
Apparently not content with an entirely revamped notebook line, rumors are circulating that Apple will also introduce refreshed 20 and 24-inch iMacs before year’s end. If true, new iMacs would be in keeping with earlier rumors that they would see spec bumps alongside the introduction of the new MacBooks.

While details remain scarce on what specific updates will be forthcoming, it is fairly safe to assume that no major design changes will be introduced, since the aluminum iMac has provided the template for the new look of the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and 24-inch Cinema display. Some sources, though not reliable, are suggesting a new 30-inch form factor that would retain the black-framed look.
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iPhone Shortcuts & Feature Requests
I love discovering things by accident. It makes me feel much more in tune with the device or operating system. So with any product I get my hands on, I immediately get to know it as well as I can. What can it do? What can't it do? Are there any cool hidden features or utilities not known or understood by the masses?

Since innovation clearly hasn't skimped out on the iPhone, it's natural that there are hidden talents built right in. Here are a few quick things I've discovered that you may, or may not have known about.

Typing

For Spanish speakers, the iPhone already has a comprehensive ability to understand Spanish vocabulary. But often enough you'll end up needing an accent mark or a tilde above a letter. In which case, holding down the appropriate letter will give you a mini pop up menu where you can choose the appropriate mark for your letter.

Another handy typing tip is for punctuation. At the end of your sentence, most often enough you'll use a period. Instead of hitting the ".?123" button and selecting the period, hit Space twice and it will automatically place a period for you and create the proper space for your next sentence.

If you aren't planning on using a period at the end of your sentence, another simple trick is to hold down the ".?123" and slide your finger to the right punctuation, then release. This will automatically place the punctuation and switch right back to the qwerty pad.
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