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- Skype On Its Way to the iPhone
The holy mecca of VOIP calling could be coming to an iPhone near you. Om Malik wrote that he received a tip that Skype is nearing release on the iPhone. What does this mean for us iPhone users?
Well, if I had my druthers, this would be the full VOIP application we’ve all been waiting for on the iPhone. No more third-party implementations (or imitations). No more waiting. This would be the real deal.
However, I might not get my way. In fact, we could receive a Skype iPhone app that sucks. Yes, it might just be an app that provides basic presence information to the rest of Skypedom. Or, it might charge me mobile minutes to use the service when making a call. If either is the case, then we might have a big Skype FAIL for the iPhone.
To our friends at Skype: will we see a fully enabled client for the iPhone? Will I be able to make calls as well as communicate with my existing Skype friends? What will the UI look like? I think that is my biggest concern. Having seen Skype 4.0 on Windows, I am scared to see what we might receive for the iPhone. The Mac Skype client is reasonable (kind of boring, actually), but at least it feels Mac-like.
In the end, the tip Om received is just that, a tip. We’ll all have to wait and see if the Skype for the iPhone makes its debut next week at CTIA Wireless. Until then, I am saying a little Skype prayer…
Переслать - Variable iTunes Pricing to Take Effect On April 7
Way back in January, at Macworld 2009 (the last Apple Macworld, remember?), Apple announced a change in the pricing structure for iTunes songs.
The new model, which basically seems to have been a concession to music publishers in order to secure DRM-free tracks, prices individual songs at 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29. Currently, all iTunes tracks cost 99 cents. No specific implementation date was cited at the time, but a new report from the L.A. Times indicates that the changes will come April 7.
Not everyone in the industry is thrilled with the new pricing scheme. According to the L.A. Times article, former EMI Executive Tim Cohen is quoted as saying that, “This will be a PR nightmare. It is for the music industry what the AIG bonuses are for the insurance industry.” Charging those who don’t pirate music more, when piracy is more widespread then ever, admittedly doesn’t seem like the way to go about curbing the trend.
Details of how songs would be priced also emerged in the report. It will not be determined based on the age of releases, as some had previously suggested. Instead, price will be determined based on artist popularity. That means that Flo Rida fans will have to shell out more, while people like me who listen to music no one else has ever heard of or cares about might wind up actually benefiting from the deal.
If I was a diehard Ciara or All-American Rejects fan, I’d think about getting my download on now while the old pricing structure is still intact. Of course, if customers are sufficiently scared off by the new price scheme, the music industry might be forced to go back to the tried and true 99-cents method. Not that they’ll go quietly, mind you.
Переслать - Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2009: June 8-12
Where will you be this June? If you’re an Apple developer, you’ll want to be at San Francisco’s Moscone West for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2009 slated for June 8-12.
This is the premier event for Apple developers who create apps for Mac OS X or iPhone, and also for IT pros who work with Apple platforms. Besides rubbing elbows with developers of every level of experience, attendees can hit up technical sessions on Mac development, participate in hands-on labs, check out presentations by special guest speakers, and get in on workshops to help you design and create iPhone Apps.
Of course, what’s an industry conference without an awards ceremony? Each year Apple hands out design awards in categories like Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience, Best Leopard Game, and Best Student App. This year’s nominees haven’t been announced yet, but past winners have gone on to become familiar names in the Mac community.
Tickets to this extremely popular event usually sell out quickly, so if you plan to go, reserve your spot now. Tickets will set you back $1,595, but if you snag yours before April 24, Apple will knock off $300. ADC student members and Team Members in the iPhone Developer University Program can apply for one of 400 scholarships available through Apple.
Переслать - EA Getting Sporty With 2009 iPhone Lineup
With the GDC ‘09 well under way, there are heaps of announcements being made about video games by pretty much everyone in the biz.
Now that the iPhone and iPod touch have become genuine contenders in the mobile gaming world, they’re getting some high-profile game revelations as well. EA, for instance, who’ve already brought a lot of big titles to the platform, including Spore Origins and Sim City, will be bringing a slew of new games to the table this year.
In the pipeline for 2009 are a number of ports of some of their most popular titles for consoles and the PC, a hefty percentage of which are sports games, traditionally one of EA’s strong suits. Among the games announced at EA’s GDC keynote are Madden NFL, FIFA, NBA Live, and SSX, which join the previously announced Need for Speed and Tiger Words games.
The arrival of key franchises like NFL, FIFA, and NBA Live means that EA is taking iPhone gaming at least as seriously as the DS and PSP. Sales numbers on the iPhone platform are handily beating those of both Nintendo’s and Sony’s mobile platforms at the same time in their life cycle. The volume has to be tempting for industry-leading publishers, but the price points required to stay relevant in the App Store probably have them hesitant as well. In the end, profit margins will decide everything,
Besides the many sports games arriving on the iPhone in 2009, there are also many other offerings coming from EA, including Sims 3, which was previewed at Apple’s official announcement of iPhone OS 3.0. Sims 3 will feature an in-game purchasing system, as well as the ability to listen to your own music stored on the iPod through in-game objects, like a stereo system. Other games announced include Command & Conquer, Spore Creatures, American Idol and Wolfenstein RPG. A number of board game titles will also be released, including Connect 4, Battleship, Risk and Clue.
I think this upcoming year represents a significant make-or-break point for the iPhone as a gaming device, at least insofar as the continued support of major publishers is concerned. Last year things were probably rushed, and dealing with a brand-new control interface was a hit-or-miss learning experience. This year, they’ve had time to plan, and to come to terms with the iPhone’s advantages and limitations, and the novelty of the iPhone has somewhat worn off, so success should be due more to quality and less to a fleeting interest in new things.
Переслать - Apple Releases 17″ MacBook Pro Graphics Fix
A while back we reported about issues 17-inch MacBook Pro owners were having with vertical lines and other distortion appearing on their displays. Almost three weeks later, Apple has released a fix for the issue. Officially dubbed “MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0,” it’s downloadable immediately via Software Update.
Apple doesn’t point any fingers regarding the source of the problem, which seemed to be the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M card that handles dedicated graphics processing. Let’s hope this fix does finally resolve the issue once and for all, because otherwise Apple might have to move on to hardware replacement and even a general recall. Let us know whether or not the fix works if you were experiencing problems.
Переслать - Terminal Tips: Using the Command Line With Style
As great and as easy as the OS X user interface is, sometimes it is quicker or necessary to jump into the deep dark bowels of your system on the command line. OS X ships with the very competent Terminal.app that allows easy access to this, but the default view into your machine is dull and boring. It doesn’t have to be. Here are a few tips to style things up a bit.
Visor
Visor has been mentioned in the past here at TheAppleBlog, and for good reason. It works as an add-on to Terminal to give you a ‘quake-style’ drop down HUD interface. You press the hotkey and a terminal drops down from out of nowhere in a fast, convenient, out-of-the-way manner — complete with tab support.
If you search for Visor on the web, you’ll most likely end up at its Google Code page, where it seems that the most up-to-date version is 1.5a1 from November 2007. Fear not, for Visor is still being developed and the latest version is actually 1.81, released on March 5 of this year.
To download it you need to go its GitHub page and click the link to the pre-compiled binary. Follow the instructions to install it. 1.81 adds more options to play with, but most importantly for me, is that it enables full custom key-stroke support — so any keys defined in Terminal are usable in Visor.
Hiding Visor’s Terminal
Because Visor hooks into the Terminal application, it needs to be running and cluttering up your dock and command-tab icons all the time. Fortunately, there is a nice hack that will get Visor running ‘invisibly’ without any sign of Terminal.app running. This makes for a cleaner desktop experience while still leaving a terminal only one keystroke away.
To do this you need a plist editor — if you have the OS X Developer Tools installed you already have the Property List Editor app. If not you can download PlistEditPro which has a free trial period and will do the trick for you. The following steps assume you already have Visor installed and working.
- With Finder, show the package contents of ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/Visor.bundle (right click to access this option) and load the file Contents/Info.plist in your plist editor. From the root node, expand
SIMBLTargetApplications, thenItem 1and changeBundleIdentifierfromcom.apple.Terminaltocom.apple.Terminal_Visor - Make a copy of Terminal.app that is in /Applications/Utilities and call this copy Terminal_Visor.app
- With Finder, show the package contents of the new Terminal_Visor.app and open its Contents/Info.plist file in your plist editor. From the root node, change
CFBundleIdentifiertocom.apple.Terminal_Visor. - Run Terminal_Visor and make sure Visor works properly. Configure all Terminal preferences and settings to your liking. Right click on the Terminal_Visor dock icon and select Open At Login to make it starts up automatically.
- With Finder, show the package contents of /Applications/Utilities/Terminal_Visor.app and open its Contents/Info.plist file in your plist editor. Add a new
Numberentry at the bottom calledLSUIElementand set its value to1. (This entry can also be known by its descriptive name of “Application is agent (UIElement)”). Relaunch Terminal_Visor and there will be no sign that its running except when you press your Visor hotkey.
Now you have less clutter with the same power. To make Terminal_Visor visible again (to change preferences) change the
LSUIElementvalue back to0in its Info.plist. To quit Terminal_Visor when it is running, you can toggle the visor terminal with a hot-key and then press Command + Q.Colored Directory Listings
By default when you type the
lscommand you get a dull black and white listing. This is very old school and in this day and age we have the technological marvel of colored directory listings. This shows different file types in different colors, allowing you to be quickly informed with a simple glance. To enable support for this, all you need to do is create (or open it if it already exists) a file called ~\.bash_profile in a text editor (note the dot before the name — this is a hidden file). Add the following lines:export CLICOLOR=1export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacadStart a new terminal session and, lo and behold, you have a colored directory listing. You can customize what colors are used by modifying the LSCOLORS variable, which defines what type of file is shown as a particular color. A nifty tool to help you come up with the appropriate value for this is the LSCOLORS Generator.
A More Useful Command Prompt
When you start a terminal session you are normally greeted with a white prompt that looks something like
BedPro:~ Bed$, where “BedPro” is your machine name, “~” is the currently directory you’re in and “Bed” is your user name. This can be changed to almost anything you like and it can be helpful to do so to quickly differentiate the prompt from command output, and to show more information such as the fully qualified current directory path (like “\Users\Bed\Documents” rather than just “Documents”). My prompt (see screenshot above) is separated from the last command output by a blank line, lists who I am on what machine, and the full directory path. Then I have a blank line to type at.You can configure a custom prompt by creating (or editing, if it already exists) the text file ~/.bash_profile and adding a line like mine:
export PS1="\n\[\e[1;40;30m\]\u@\h:\w\n> \[\e[0m\]“The
\u@\h:\wgives meusername@host:fulldirectorywhile the\nis a newline. The other codes are the color definitions.For a full list of codes and colors you can use, see Bash Prompt Escape Sequences and Bash Prompt Colors.
Tweaking Colors
Colors can be rendered in various ways by Terminal.app, so in addition to setting the
lsand prompt colors in your .bash_profile, you may also need to tweak Terminal’s settings to achieve the results you like. These can be found in the Settings dialog. In particular I like to uncheck using bold fonts, and check using bright colors instead.Any other tips?
Are there any other Terminal add-ons you use that are indispensable? Have any other tips for a more stylish experience? Let us know in the comments.
Переслать - With Finder, show the package contents of ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/Visor.bundle (right click to access this option) and load the file Contents/Info.plist in your plist editor. From the root node, expand
- InstallerApp Desktop Client is Like iTunes for Unofficial Apps
Maybe you’ve gone the jailbreaking route with your iPhone, or maybe you haven’t, but you’ve likely been tempted by all the tantalizing apps and utilities available for those who have. Now there’s a new method for getting those apps on your iPhone, and it doesn’t necessarily require jailbreaking in order to work — although, I haven’t tested it out personally (you’ll see why later).
Ripdev’s new InstallerApp is a standalone application for your Mac computer (10.5 and up only, with a Windows version to follow) that allows you to install Installer and Cydia packages to your iPhone (not iPod touches, yet) via your computer over a USB connection, instead of directly through Cydia.app and Installer.app on the iPhone, as was necessary in the past.
The interface of the program resembles a very basic version of the iTunes store layout, with categories listed in the left hand frame, and a list view of application packages available displayed in the main frame on the right. You can search the database in the lower right hand corner of the app window, and add your own sources to the default ones included.
The most interesting thing about InstallerApp is its “Pusher” feature, which I hinted at above. It claims to allow you to put Installer.app on your iPhone, even if you haven’t jailbroken it first. The official InstallerApp site warns that this might cause instability on your iPhone, but the option is available for those feeling adventurous. Don’t expect this backdoor to stay open long, now that Apple is aware of it.
For $7, you can unlock all of InstallerApp’s features, but if you’re feeling understandably reluctant to part with your money, you can download the app now and use the “Pusher” feature to put Installer.app on non-jailbroken iPhones. I would, but my iPhone is running 3.0, and InstallerApp is not yet compatible with the beta firmware. Let us ksznow what happens if you’re brave enough to try it.
Переслать - Vuze Brings Easy Video Conversion to Apple Devices, but at What Cost?
I admit, I am a reformed Azureus user. When I made the transition from Windows to Mac for my primary machine, one hang-up that came with me was my devotion to Azureus, a program which (as I was soon to discover) was fast becoming unnecessarily resource-heavy and bloated, especially compared to lightweight Mac alternatives like Transmission, and more recently, uTorrent. I abandoned Azureus long before it stopped being open source and become Vuze, that Frankenstein beast of a media download manager.
Because I care about you, I actually installed the newly released version of Vuze on my MacBook today, even though it was painful to do so, and my notebook’s fan started working overtime the moment I did. The reason? Vuze now offers a quick and easy way to get video content in to your iTunes library and onto your iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV without getting your hands dirty with complicated conversion software.
It worked like a charm with the Katy Perry fluff piece I downloaded (if I have to endure Vuze, I should get to have some fun at least, right?); the conversion process took very little time and the video was available in my iTunes library immediately afterward. Likewise with a “Fast and Furious” trailer downloaded for the purposes of testing HD conversion, but I was disappointed to find that I couldn’t maintain HD quality during the conversion, since the max resolution supported under iTunes devices is 720×432 for Apple TV.
I suppose it’s very handy if you’re looking to quickly get video onto your portable Apple device, and if you don’t mind finding and/or downloading the file in Vuze (I tried adding a previously downloaded .mkv file to my Vuze library, but could not). And it works very well if you want to convert HD content for playback on your PS3 or Xbox 360, but overall, I don’t think the bargain is worth the price of admission, especially if you’re an advanced enough user to convert your video using HandBrake or some other similar program.
Переслать - Boxee Adds Pandora Radio and Hints at the Future
Yesterday, boxee released an update to their media center software for Apple TV and Mac OS X at a New York meetup. CEO Avner Ronen took the stage at Webster Hall to show some significant features in this latest alpha release including Pandora Radio, RadioTime, a new API for add-ons, an XUL-based framework for web-based video, and a PBS application from BoxeeHQ.
Pandora and RadioTime
The Pandora feature is absolutely brilliant. I had a chance to play with it for a while on Tuesday; it is the full Pandora experience on a 10-foot interface. You can log in to your account, select any of your channels, give a thumbs up or down, skip a song, and even create a new channel. I cannot begin to tell you how cool it is to listen to Pandora on my home theater sound system with the song information displayed on the big-screen TV, all thanks to boxee on the Apple TV. Driving this software with the free boxee remote iPhone app just makes it that much sweeter. Pandora on Apple TV is amazing.
The CTO of Pandora, Tom Conrad, got on stage at the meetup to talk about how excited his company was to be bringing their Internet radio service to the platform. You can get even more Internet radio by using the RadioTime application, finished just in time for the release, to listen to over 100,000 terrestrial radio stations. This app cleverly picks up your location by your IP address and presents you with a list of local stations. I found several popular FM stations (but not all of them) in the Denver area.
Developers, Start Your Engines!
The boxee API has big implications. The Pandora Radio service was built using it, and developers with Python and XML skills can build boxee apps with full control over the UI and the metadata for media playback. BoxeeHQ also released a PBS application in conjunction with the alpha release. This app updates every 30 minutes to pick up PBS shows as they’re added to the web site for viewing. If the excellent Pandora and PBS apps are any indication, we can look forward to really well-done add-ons for boxee.
Can We Get Hulu, Please?
The XUL-based framework for getting web content is built on the same technology as the Firefox browser. This should allow boxee to access just about any web-based video content, even Hulu’s RSS feeds. When asked about full Hulu support returning to boxee, Avner was noncommittal, but expressed hope that the pressures that prevented Hulu from working with boxee would fade over time. In contrast, ABC is working closely with boxee to bring their content to the media center software.
Will boxee Ever Reach Beta?
During the meetup, Avner also discussed some of what we can expect to see in the beta release. A lot of time was spent on the customizable home screen, which will allow you to arrange your favorite channels and content for quick access. There will also be more control over finding and adding friends, as well as over how you share what you’re watching with them.
I’m So Excited, and I Just Can’t Hide It
With apologies to the Pointer Sisters, I am about to lose control and I think I like it. Boxee just keeps getting better and better. The new radio features and the promise of the API and XUL-based framework have me really looking forward to the beta releases and an eventual 1.0 version. I am also fascinated by the evolution of the business plan. Avner was very sincere when he said that boxee is agnostic to the business model of their content partners — they just want to bring more people to content providers that are looking for more viewers. Netflix is one business model (access to content with a paid subscription) and ABC is another (free content with inline ads). I’m fascinated to see how this all works out.
If you watch the video loop of the presentation, be sure to hang around until they do the stupid human tricks contest at the end so you can watch the beatboxing performance that won the Mac mini giveaway.
Переслать - Genius Extended to Movies and TV in iTunes 8.1
I still have a lot of music-savvy friends who deny the validity of the the name Genius for Apple’s recently implemented iTunes music recommendation engine, but regardless of how appropriate the name may be, the service has now been turned on for movies and TV, too. That means selecting any movie or TV show in your library should bring up Genius recommendations in the sidebar, so long as you have it turned on and are using iTunes 8.1.
Genius results are about as accurate as you might expect based on your experience with its usage regarding music. The top results are always episodes from the same series and season as the content from your library. When I tested it out using “Battlestar Galactica,” Season 1, recommendations from beyond the series were fairly accurate, at least getting the genre right, and included “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Firefly” among the top results. A similar test with “Heroes,” a far more mainstream program, brought back bizarre results, with the top recommendation outside of the series itself being Dexter. Only parallel I can draw between the two is that Dexter is a serial killer and Sylar is sort of one too. And both star hot girls, maybe?
You also get a new TV Shows tab in the Genius: Just for You subsection of the iTunes store main page. As you can tell from the screenshot from my own recommendations, I am indeed a huge nerd, and aside from Supernatural, iTunes knows me all too well. I suppose it would have shown me Movies recommendations as well, but I don’t actually own any iTunes-purchased movies as of yet. Let us know in the comments how well those recommendations are working out.
Переслать - Go Green: 8 iPhone Apps to Help Save the Planet
These days, “going green” is all the rage. So it should be no surprise to anyone that “green” apps for the iPhone are, ahem, sprouting up all over.
I wonder though, with green-ness being such a trendy topic, are some developers just using the term as marketing? I gathered up the greenest apps I could find for my iPhone to see how much they might help me save the planet — and to see if they are true to the cause. The following are my findings.
Tips
I’m not the New Age, environmentally conscious type. Don’t get me wrong, I try to do the right things, but I’m not immersed in the movement, so to speak. But it’s my assumption that knowing how to do good for the environment is a combination of common sense and remembering the lessons taught on “Sesame Street.” In case you missed out on one or both of these key elements, the App Store carries a few free apps that give you tips for taking better care of the world around you.
- Go Green (free)
Displays a tip each time you launch it. That’s it. I came across a useful tip or two that I hadn’t considered before. - Green Tips (free)
Displays a tip at launch. Hit the refresh button for more tips (though there are not many to cycle through). Email them off if you find them to be especially helpful — I didn’t. - The Green Lemur (free)
By far the most full-featured of these three. Search, add tips to favorites, or browse by category. I did find some interesting ideas here as well.
Measuring Up
What does your carbon footprint look like? How can you whittle down your personal impact on the environment, and maybe even put some extra green in your pocket at the same time? Glad you asked! While the following apps each have their own focus, each of them can help you figure out an answer to these questions. The best part is that if you truly give them a chance, you could start saving yourself some money while also lessening your impact on the environment.
- MeterRead ($2.99)
Somewhat manual in usage (but then, no one said saving the planet would be easy!), use MeterRead to log your electric meter’s reading. You can log your readings and use them to predict your electrical consumption, and thus, your upcoming bill. Try to be more efficient, and maybe the next time you check the meter, your readings will hit below the projected usage. (More info on their site.) - greenMeter ($5.99)
My favorite of the bunch. Uses the accelerometer to determine the drag and resistance of your car/driving habits in real time. There are several usage meters to monitor, though real-time MPG has been my favorite. Really helps tune your driving for better efficiencies and fewer pointless emissions. (More info on their site.) - shopgreen (free)
By title, this doesn’t sound like it fits here, but it does. To use the app, just answer some questions about how you maintain your life. Answers that are good for the environment are tallied (like air-drying your clothes, or changing the furnace air filter), and the amount of CO2 you’ve saved is calculated. As a bonus, the CO2 savings gets you discounts at local, participating retailers for your efforts.
Shop Till You Drop
Shopping is shopping. If these weren’t free, I’d accuse them of capitalizing on the eco-friendly iPhone users. But they’re really just apps that help you find relevant retail locations nearby. I suppose if you used them to plan your route ahead of time, you’d put out fewer emissions driving back and forth.
- 3rdWhale (free)
Much like other location-aware shopping apps (and dare I say, Google Maps?) 3rdWhale finds you businesses nearby (select walking, biking, or driving distances). So what makes it green? The resulting businesses are supposedly eco-friendly, allowing you to patronize those taking care of the world around us. - Yowza! (free)
Not yet out, Yowza! presents one of the more interesting ideas of the bunch. Also location aware, it brings up coupons for retailers nearby. So not only could it save you some cash, but it’s claim is that you can use the digital coupon right on your phone’s screen, rather than printing more paper that will just get tossed out.
Conclusion
In my experience, I wouldn’t say any of these are playing the “green” card for profit — they are all legitimately taking their own shot at saving the environment. Despite some being far less useful than others, (your mileage may vary, of course) their cause is still noble. If you’re thinking it’s time to give something back to Mother Earth, it can’t hurt to give any of these apps a try.
And of course, if you’ve got the goods on a green app that I missed here that’s made a difference for you, please share!
Переслать - Go Green (free)
- MacHeist 3 Bundle Announced
Today, MacHeist announced the contents of their latest application bundle, providing the opportunity to purchase software to the value of $558 for the bargain price of $39. A huge range of applications are included, ranging from eBay companions to professional 3-D animation tools.
Over the past few months, various ‘missions’ have given regular readers the chance to gain additional discounts on the bundle and gather free licenses for various applications. The final bundle will be on sale for two weeks, with 25 percent of all money paid being donated to a charity of your choice. This analysis will take a brief look at each application on offer to see just how far your $39 can go.
iSale (SRP $39.95)
iSale is a fully fledged desktop application for eBay, allowing you to create really good looking auctions with ease. Interesting features include the ability to easily integrate video descriptions into your auction, and a companion iPhone app. iSale’s main competitor is GarageSale.
Picturesque (SRP $34.95)
Pitched as “Making Images Gorgeous,” Picturesque is a simple image editing tool which allows you to quickly and easily add interesting effects to your photographs and graphics. It isn’t a great image editor as such, but more of an enhancement tool for adding reflections, 3D effects, curves, shadows, borders etc. It isn’t an app I’d pay $35 for, but is good to have included.
SousChef (SRP $30.00)
As someone who loves cooking, I’m very interested to give SousChef a try. I’m not generally a fan of desktop software for managing recipes (searching the Internet generally works fine), but the fact that SousChef collates every users recipe into a searchable ‘cloud’ does offer an interesting angle. It also has a great large text mode for viewing your recipe across the kitchen.
World of Goo (SRP $20.00)
World of Goo is a physics based puzzle/construction game with, as the name would suggest, copious amounts of goo. Its unusual, cartoon style graphics coupled with a reasonably realistic physics engine make for a reasonably odd experience. If you’re not really into puzzle games, I expect it will only provide a few hours of entertainment, though it’s received some very good reviews.
PhoneView (SRP $19.95)
I’ve been trying various applications similar to PhoneView for some time, a tool which allows you to access and manage iPhone data from your Mac. In particular, I like to maintain a backup of all my SMS messages for safe keeping. While I do generally trust iTunes, PhoneView looks like a great application for keeping your own additional iPhone backup.
LittleSnapper (SRP $39.00)
LittleSnapper is a brilliant application for storing and editing screenshots or web page ’snaps’. The interface is delightful, it integrates with all major web browsers, and vector based editing tools allow you to annotate your images in a really impressive fashion. If you need an app for keeping track of inspirational websites, graphics and screenshots, the inclusion of LittleSnapper alone justifies the $39 price tag.
Acorn (SRP $49.95)
Acorn isn’t an application I’ve come across previously, but again falls into the category of an “image editor for the rest of us.” It strips away all the Photoshop bloat and provides a simple way for a regular Mac user to edit photographs or create simple graphics.
Kinemac (SRP $299.00)
Dubbed a “3D real time animation & presentation app,” Kinemac allows you to create impressive 3-D animations without requiring vast amounts of knowledge. It’s a reasonably technical tool, and while undoubtedly impressive, probably won’t really appeal to the average Mac user. The high price tag does bump up the value of the MacHeist bundle, which is undoubtedly one reason for its inclusion.
WireTap Studio (SRP $69.00)
WireTap allows you to record any audio which is being played by your Mac. Similar to Audio Hijack Pro, it provides a simple way to record audio in a lossless format, organize and store clips, and export to a variety of formats. Very useful for recording podcasts, iTunes audio, or Skype conversations.
This app is only ‘unlocked’ when $100,000 is raised for charity (likely to only take a couple of days).
BoinxTV (SRP $199.00)
We’ve covered BoinxTV in an in-depth review previously, so I’d recommend reading Matthew’s comments from a few months ago. Essentially it is a simple way to create and edit great looking video presentations, save them to disk, and broadcast them in real-time if desired.
This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.
The Hit List (SRP $69.95)
The Hit List is a direct competitor to Things, providing a simple tool for organizing lists and “Getting Things Done.” It combines a simple interface with a powerful feature set, genuinely helping you to stay on top of your tasks. It’s definitely worth trying out.
This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.
Espresso (SRP $80.00)
Espresso was only released from beta a couple of days ago, and offers an impressive text/code editor, integrated FTP, CSS editing tools, powerful preview functionality, and plugin support. It’s a fantastic competitor to Coda for web developers, and is another gem in this bundle of apps.
This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.
Big Bang Board Games (SRP $24.95)
The seemingly obligatory board game app for MacHeist, Big Bang Board Games offers an impressive 3-D interface for playing Checkers, Chess, Reversi, Backgammon and more. Online multiplayer support is also built in, and it’s a fun app to open when you need to kill a few minutes — a huge step forward from Minesweeper!
This app is only available for the first 25,000 buyers.
Conclusion
As ever, this year’s MacHeist bundle packs a decent punch across a wide range of software genres. There will be an app (or two!) for you whether you’re looking for games, web development, image editing, or audio/video tools.
The price of $39 is an absolute steal for such a powerful collection of applications, and I’d definitely urge you to consider it a good investment for your software needs over the coming year!
Переслать - Apple Introduces Cross-border Shopping, for Some
Up until today, Apple customers have only been able to ship products bought via Apple’s online stores to addresses located in the country of the store they’re ordering from. I say up until today because as of now, that’s no longer the case.
Now if you wanted to give your friend in Mexico an iPod for his birthday, all you have to do is opt for Cross Border shopping from Apple.com. There are currently 20 countries available for international delivery.
While the list does include France, Italy, Spain, UK, and Mexico, one notable absence is Canada. I mean, seriously, we’re right here. Mexico gets the nod, but we’re left out in the cold (excuse the pun)? Well, life isn’t fair, and a list of 20 means a lot of other countries are probably feeling left out as well, so I’ll swallow my national pride and move on.
Shopping internationally is easy, but easier if you speak the language of the country you want to ship to, because you have to shop at the international store of your choice in order to place your order. That means you’re also billed in the international currency of the store you’re shopping at, with the conversion rate from USD being determined by your bank at the time of the actual transaction. That means that buying the entry-level Mac mini for your friend in the UK right now would cost you US$735, and I’m not sure how the taxation works on that. Definitely not a way to take advantage of the generally cheaper U.S. pricing.
If you don’t speak the language of the store you want to buy from (say, British, for example), you can call Apple directly and they’ll help you with your order in the language of your choosing. At this time you can only use a credit card to pay. Not sure if this will really catch on in a big way, but there must be some market out there for it if Apple’s already gone and done it.
Переслать - OnLive Will Make a Hardcore Gaming Machine Out of Your MacBook
The Game Developers Conference for 2009 is just underway, and already there’s some big news which has particular relevance for that rare and frustrated breed, the Mac gamer.
I’m a Mac gamer myself, and have pretty much given up the OS X side of things and just decided to do all my gaming in a Windows Boot Camp partition. My days of option-booting may be drawing to a close, however, thanks to a new venture that could make gaming a lot more democratic, much to the dismay of hardware manufacturers.
The service in question is called OnLive, and it will basically offer game streaming to whatever machine you happen to have. You can either get it via a very small set-top unit that attaches directly to your TV, or through a desktop software client. That’s when the magic happens. OnLive uses server farms to do all of the heavy lifting for your computer, so that your resources aren’t important. That means my Eee PC can handle Crysis, though I would never actually use that tiny machine for gaming. More importantly, my MacBook and my Mac mini can both handle Crysis without breaking a sweat. Which means I’m belatedly glad that I didn’t spring for that MacBook Pro or Mac Pro desktop.
I can hear your concerns, because mine were the same. This sounds too good to be true, right? Won’t it suffer by being only a marginal company, lacking support? No and no. Kotaku and Time have both actually tried out OnLive, and found it far from lacking. In fact, both reported impressive results. Apparently, OnLive avoids lag using patented video compression and compensation algorithms that result in a very smooth, extremely playable gaming experience, despite the fact that it’s actually content streaming from the cloud.
And do they have support? Oh boy, do they. Check out this quote from Kotaku’s coverage:
The best part? It already has serious buy-in from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic Games. Oh, and 2D Boy.
So publishers are behind it, but considering the threat it represents to both console (the set-top peripheral costs less than a Wii) and PC gaming manufacturers, you can bet that a lot of hardware folks will be dead set against it. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of defense they can mount.
OnLive is set to launch late in the year, with an external beta planned for summer. It’ll probably be a subscription-based service when it does launch, so some might object to not actually owning any games, but considering the rate at which I grow bored of most, it seems like the perfect set up for me. I see a future where I’m playing Mass Effect 2 on the highest graphics setting without so much as a hiccup on my Mac mini. Please help make this a dream come true, OnLive.
Переслать - Unlocked iPhones for Sale in the UK Thanks to Play.com
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, now that it is possible to unlock the iPhone for use on any GSM carrier, but Play.com is now officially offering a sim-free version of the 16GB iPhone for sale on their website without having first unlocked it from O2. According to Play.com, the offer is completely above board, and takes advantage of EU regulations which ensure the availability of sim-free mobile phones to all networks.
This news isn’t to say every barrier is now removed from any UK resident owning an iPhone. There’s still the little issue of cost, and with the iPhone that’s actually not a little issue at all. Play.com is selling the sim-free version for £599, which works out to about $882 U.S. dollars (using today’s conversion rate). That’s a heck of a lot more expensive than the $599 no-contract AT&T model we’ve been hearing about lately. But can you really put a price on freedom? I sure can, and it’s a lot less than $900.
Unfortunately, I don’t really have a choice. There are no import options for North American customers, so over on this side of the pond we’ll have to stick to paying out the nose on eBay for less-than-legit alternatives. Still, I can’t help hoping that this is only the beginning of a loosening of the locked-down distribution model of the iPhone. I understand that Apple can’t be seen willfully encouraging sim-free sales, in the interest of keeping their carrier partners happy, but there’s nothing wrong with quietly giving up the goods when someone like Play.com points out a legal necessity, is there? Of course Canada, where I live, has the most draconian cellular racket in this or any other hemisphere, so I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Переслать - WeatherCal Adds a New Trick to the Bare Bones Lineup
WeatherCal may be a one-trick pony, but it is one nice looking pony all the same. This $10 release from Bare Bones Software marries weather data and iCal in a very elegant utility.
In a nutshell, WeatherCal creates calendar events in iCal with the five-day forecast for any location around the world. It starts out by finding the location in your “Me” card in Address Book, but you can add more locations by typing in the city and state or zip code. For locations outside the United States, you use the city and country (or city and province in Canada). Once you’ve added the location to System Preferences, WeatherCal will create a new calendar in iCal for that location and then inserts events for the next five days that show the forecast.
Data is provided by Weather Underground and the calendar events include a link to get more details on the Weather Underground web site.
Weather data is refreshed every hour to keep the forecast up to date.
Pro Tip: When entering a new location, you can also use airport codes.
There is no limit on the number of locations, but there might be a practical limit as iCal seems to have refresh problems with more than 10 calendars or so.
Rich Siegel, founder of Bare Bones Software, said that the idea came from one of their developers, Steve Kalkwarf, who simply had a flash of inspiration to solve a problem of personal interest. They had a look at a prototype around the office and decided that it was actually pretty cool. Rich also said that Weather Underground was great to work with and provided WeatherCal with a worldwide feed so they could address the needs of customers outside the U.S., which was a design goal from the start.
Bare Bones Software took some extra steps to deal with non-English characters like å, ä, and ö. You can type in “Luleå” or “Lulea” (in Sweden) and WeatherCal will find it either way. In my own testing, I found that the Russian text “Нижний Новгород” is not recognized, but the strict English transliteration “Niznij Novgorod” does work. I am used to some other transliteration schemes for Russian, but it’s a quick matter to get used to the way the data is formatted by Weather Underground. Users outside the U.S. will have to learn the English spelling or transliteration for their locations, but since this is essentially a one-time task, I suspect it will not be too onerous. If you have questions about a particular city, you can always go to the wunderground.com and browse through their maps and city listings to see how it is listed there.
There are other solutions for getting weather info on your Mac (dashboard widgets, etc.), but there is a nice practical advantage in having this info in local iCal calendars. Subscription calendars in iCal do not sync to MobileMe, but local calendars do carry over. Because your five day forecast is in a local calendar, WeatherCal provides a way for you to see the weather you are interested in checking on all your desktops, iPhone, iPod touch, and online at me.com.
Another practical reason was outlined by beta tester Jan Moström of Sweden:
Although I have other weather forecast applications on my Mac I tend to use WeatherCal the most … since I already have my calendar open.
The license allows you to install WeatherCal on any Mac that you own, but if you are syncing iCal with MobileMe, it is probably best to install the utility on one machine and let MobileMe sync the iCal data to the other Macs.
Pro Tip: If you are tracking a few locations, in Leopard you can create a Calendar Group (I named mine “WeatherCal”), and place all your forecast calendars in there. That way you can turn all your forecasts on and off with one click.
If you’re a big iCal user, then this utility is a really nice solution to having the weather forecast handy. There is a real benefit to having the weather info right where you schedule outings and activities in iCal. I really like how it is implemented as a local calendar so that it can sync to MobileMe. For $10, WeatherCal solves a particular problem with the polish that one would expect from Bare Bones Software.
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