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- Apple's Q4 earnings estimates looking good
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial
Just a reminder: Apple will hold their fourth quarter financial conference call tomorrow, October 21st at 2PM Pacific time. We'll be live blogging the call, so be sure to check back for our up-to-the-minute report and analysis.
What should we expect? According to estimates from research firm NPD, it's good news, especially regarding Mac sales. Piper Jaffray analysts suggest, after examining the NPD data, that Mac sales grew by 25% - 29% in the fourth quarter. That's 25% yearly growth and represents nearly 2.8 million Macs.
It has also been suggested that iPod sales numbers will be slightly better than Wall Street projections. We'll know soon enough.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - AppLoop brings automated application development to the iPhone
Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch
With the iPhone SDK, Apple is pioneering a new mobile development platform that is ahead of it's time; however, this innovation comes with a major caveat: It requires Cocoa (or Objective-C) programming knowledge. You may ask "Why is this a problem?" Well, someone might have a really great idea for an iPhone application, but not have the programming knowledge to back it up and follow through with the idea. This is where AppLoop comes in.
AppLoop is a brand-new service that allows anyone with a web browser and RSS feed to create an application similar to the AP News app and submit it to the App Store -- without ever writing a single line of code. Their service works by generating a .plist file on the server side (based on your choices). The file is then passed through a couple of AppleScripts that generates the code based on the choices, and compiles it.
The entire app-creation process takes less than a minute to complete, and you have an application ready to be deployed to the App Store. Ad-hoc versions can be requested in advance of the app being placed on the App Store. Currently, AppLoop is offering the RSS reader application, but they have plans to add additional paid features down the road.
You can find out more information about this service by visiting their website, or by watching the video [link here] above. You can also see a gallery of screenshots from one of their applications.
Thanks for the information, Eric!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Aperture gets updated to 2.1.2
Filed under: Software, Apple Professional, Software Update
Apple just released an update for their professional photo management software, Aperture. Update 2.1.2 "Improves the printing quality of books ordered through the Aperture printing service." It sounds like this would be a welcomed update by many professional users who rely on photo books and prints ordered through Aperture.
You can download this update through Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update), or by downloading the installer package from Apple's update download website.
Update: Apple has just created a download page for the Aperture update.
Thanks for the tip, Nik!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Mac 101: Keep your battery happy and healthy
Filed under: Hardware, Portables, Tips and tricks, Mac 101
There's a good tip at CreativeBits today on prolonging your battery's life. Specifically, it's about letting it run through "cycles."
When your battery is fully charged, be it in your laptop, iPhone or iPod, and you let it run until the device dies, you've used up one cycle. Over time, it will lose its ability to retain a full charge. However, there are simple steps you can take to prolong its life (or draw out its death. However you choose to look at it). The folks at CreativeBits recommend at least one cycle every two weeks.
You can also use tools like CoconutBattery and iStatPro to see how many cycles your laptop battery has completed and to monitor its health.
For a more thorough look at your laptop's battery check out our article on battery calibration.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Rumor: Apple to sell subsidized notebooks in the UK?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Rumors, Apple Financial, Apple, MacBook, Deals
This would be an interesting deal -- rumor has it (that crazy rumor always has something, doesn't it?) that Apple may start selling subsidized MacBooks in the UK, with O2 including the notebooks with their wireless plans. Quite a proposal -- the idea, of course, would be for O2 to pick up a subscription by offering a discount on the already (relatively) cheap $999 MacBook. This plan has been rumored for a long time with iPhones (and I still believe it'll happen eventually), but with mobile broadband subscriptions on the rise, O2 and other services might start giving kickbacks on notebooks, too.
Of course, whatever discount you saved early on would cost you in the end with the continued cost of the broadband subscription. Which makes this deal as unlikely for people to buy into it as it does for Apple to agree. But you never know -- analysts especially are leading the call for cheaper and cheaper MacBooks, and a subsidy might be just the thing (even if it isn't actually popular with consumers) to push the MacBook down to around the $800 price where stockholders want it to be.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple, Psystar strike a deal
Filed under: Apple Corporate
CNET and The Mac Observer noted a legal filing on Friday that suggested Apple and Psystar were looking to bypass the normal lawsuit process and enter a phase of private arbitration and mediation.
The filing notes that Apple and Psystar will participate in the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, a way to keep legal costs down -- and the outcome private. For famously secretive Apple, this agreement seems right up their alley.
The agreement means the two companies will enter non-binding arbitration, present their case to a neutral party, and work out a deal through mediation.
This all probably comes down to one thing: cash money. Psystar has nowhere near the cash reserves that Apple has, so this less-expensive option is attractive to them. It's attractive to Apple because if they lose, the decision is kept under wraps. As CNET's Tom Krazit notes, if Apple is guilty of Psystar's antitrust accusations, it could hurt their other cases where they're accused of the same thing.
Of course, we'll know for certain the outcome simply by seeing if Psystar continues to sell their computers (or not) after January 31, when the ADR sessions wrap up.
[Via AppleInsider.]
Update: According to Psystar's attorneys, Apple and Psystar were ordered into the mediation by the court. According to several of our commenters, ADR is a common practice. Soulbarn says: "It is practically mandatory. It would be a surprise if it didn't happen, no matter who the case involved, big or small, famous or not famous, precedent-setting or non-precedent setting. It is part of the normal legal process." Thanks, everyone!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Save a life with your iPhone or iPod touch
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
If you came upon someone who was injured or had suffered a medical emergency, would you know how to react? In the midst of a crisis situation, even citizens who have been trained in first aid sometimes forget what they need to do to help save a life.
Several iPhone apps are now available to give you a hand. PhoneAid, First Aid, and 1st Reponse: Emergency Kit are all designed to be at your fingertips in the event of an emergency. Although it might be difficult or impossible to read an iPhone screen and perform CPR at the same time, the apps can help you or someone else give instructions in a panic situation.
Entanke's PhoneAid (click opens iTunes) provides verbal prompts telling you how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the Heimlich Maneuver on adults and children. It also has a handy "First Aid A-Z" section covering medical emergencies from bee stings to strokes. PhoneAid, shown at right, is available in the App Store at no cost until October 26. After that time, the price will be US$2.99.Continue reading Save a life with your iPhone or iPod touch
Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - The ever-extensible Evernote
Filed under: Software, Developer
Evernote, a versatile (and oft-mentioned) note-taking application for Mac and iPhone (as well as Windows and other mobile platforms), has recently opened up a Service API. This comes as an intriguing extension to the basic AppleScript support found in the 1.1.5 release, and opens up the possibility of creating homegrown interfaces ranging from simple calendar/todo managers to "thick" clients which can manipulate the entire collection of Evernote data.
The AppleScript library itself is quite useful, albeit slightly limiting. You can retrieve lists of notes based on searches, create new notebooks and notes from a variety of sources, and obtain properties for the various elements of Evernote. The most interesting feature of the AppleScript library is the import/export automation capability. You can export (in well-formed XML) entire notebooks, or notes from a list (such as one generated by a search). These can be transported automatically by whatever means work best for your purposes, and then imported on the other end. This, to me, is primarily interesting because it allows for "local" synchronization of large libraries without using up online quotas. It's also ideal for automatic backup of your notes, among other potential applications: a recent MacOSXHints tip shows a means of adding notes to Evernote via Quicksilver, complete with notebook, title and tagging syntax. Open the Evernote dictionary in Script Editor for the full set of definitions.
The AppleScript library lacks the ability to add tags to existing notes, move notes or delete notes and notebooks. These functions can, however, be found in the Service API. I'm waiting on an API key today, but I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities for both desktop and web applications. Libraries for the API are available in Java, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby -- along with sample code and documentation -- at the API overview page.
The last thing I'll mention is the query syntax, which can be of as much use in the Evernote search bar as it is in an AppleScript or API call. I hadn't fully realized the extent of the search grammar until I read the API documentation. For Evernote users who haven't explored this, it's a very effective way to build searches quickly without a lot of token-clicking. You can start with the basic tag syntax:
tag:"tuaw", which will find every note tagged with "tuaw." Prefix it with a minus sign (-tag:"tuaw") to ignore any result with the "tuaw" tag. Combine multiple search parameters for boolean searches; the default search is "all", requiring the results to match every parameter in the string (AND), but you can prefix the query withany:to make it an OR search. Other possible parameters includecreated:andupdated:(which respond to some natural language dates as well as a compact profile of ISO 8601),intitle:(search only in the titles of notes), as well as terms for narrowing to a specific notebook or querying just about any attribute of a note (latitude, longitude, altitude, author, source, etc.). See section C of the API docs for a full description of the search grammar.It's great to see such a useful application continuing to expand itself and allow for third-party interaction. If you're interested in developing around Evernote, or just playing with the possibilities, stop by the developer page and take a look around.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: An app that gives your iPhone something to do 24/7
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, First Look
You're probably keeping your iPhone busy most of the time making calls, surfing the Web, exchanging emails, playing games, and snapping photos. But what are you doing about making your iPhone work during those hours it is sitting in the dock soaking up a charge?
Chilli X has just the answer for you: PhotoFrame. The US$0.99 app displays six pictures from your photo library as a slideshow while your iPhone or iPod touch is docked, with a nice clock / calendar displayed at the bottom of each photo.
Controls allow users to select a 12 or 24 hour time display, and the app overrides your auto-lock setting so that it can show off your photos as long as you want. If you're impatient and want to see the next photo immediately, you can tap the picture or shake the iPhone or iPod touch.
If you're not using PhotoFrame (click opens iTunes) to keep your device occupied during those times you're sleeping or otherwise engaged, what is your favorite "downtime app?" Leave a comment below to keep the rest of us informed.
Thanks to Aidan for the tip!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New Get a Mac Ads: Bean Counter and V Word
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Apple
With all of the political mudslinging going around this time of year, Apple has decided to add a different type of mudslinging to the barrage of TV commercials. Tonight, they released two new "Get a Mac" ads: Bean Counter, and V Word.
In Bean Counter [direct video link], PC is sitting at a desk, counting money out into two stacks. The largest stack is for advertising and the smaller stack is for bug fixes for Vista. When Mac questions him, he says that he's having to take drastic action because of the frustration of Vista users. In the end, PC gives up budgeting and puts all of his money into advertising. This commercial is no doubt in response to Microsoft's recent advertising strategies. In V Word [direct video link], PC makes every attempt to "beep out" the word "Vista" in the ad.
Sure, these commercials are well thought out and somewhat funny; but is Apple's mudslinging getting a little old? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below, and don't forget to take part in our poll. You can watch the new commercials by visiting the Apple website.
Thanks for the tip, Tony!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - TUAW Unboxes the new MacBook Pro
Filed under: Apple, Macbook Pro
It would seem that everyone is buzzing about the new MacBook/Pro, so I went and bought one! Seriously, it was just to do the unboxing photos for TUAW (Really! Stop looking at me like that!). In the MacBook video, Apple tells us that they have reduced the size of the boxes that the MacBooks ship in ... they're not kidding either. The boxes are roughly the thickness of a ream of paper; and they're almost half as short as the old boxes.
Take a look for yourself and see the new box design (it's quite nice). We want to know if you will buy a new MacBook Pro so be sure to take part in our poll below.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
Об этом говорят...
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