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- Get Chrome for OS X Early With Chromium Nightlies
Google’s Chrome browser is fast, small, and “nearly” perfect. Using the same Webkit rendering engine as Safari, and its own custom V8 javascript engine, Chrome has been blowing away the competition on Windows for over a year. Google is finally nearing a release for the Mac, but since the browser is open source, you can get almost everything from Chrome in the Chromium Nightlies. These builds are separate from the official Google Chrome developers preview, they are in-development versions of Chrome, and are updated almost every night.
I’ve been using the Chromium builds off and on for months, and have recently switched back to it as my primary browser. Chromium reminds me of when Firefox first spun off of Mozilla. It was then, as Chromium is now, small, bare-bones, devoid of feature bloat, and fast.
Unfortunately. the Nightlies are not the easiest thing in the world to find, and Chromium doesn’t update itself when a new build is available. So, I used a little Automator and shell script action to build this tiny app that will download the latest version of Chromium to your Downloads folder. If you’ve got Growl installed it will also send Growl an alert that it is finished, but that’s it. That’s all it does, very simple, nothing fancy.
You can download the “ChromeUp” Automator application here (45kb, ZIP).
Переслать - Rejected App Gets Special Approval From Steve Jobs Himself
If there’s one thing you can count on about Apple’s App Store review policy, it’s that the process will be consistently inconsistent. Today, an app launches that was originally rejected for known and acknowledged use of private APIs, despite the fact that developers haven’t modified the app in any way since its rejection.
Knocking Live Video, the app in question, makes use of Apple’s forbidden private APIs to enable live video streaming over Wi-Fi and 3G for the first time on the platform. Apple has made clear its policy on the use of private APIs, most recently via the introduction of an automated layer of the review process for app submissions that automatically checks all code for the presence of unauthorized API usage.
Knocking’s usage of live streaming video is very particular, as Ars Technica explains, something which may have had something to do with it being approved while other apps like Qik haven’t been able to break down the streaming wall:
Knocking Live Video uses an interesting take on streaming video. Unlike Qik, which is designed to stream video to multiple clients, Knocking streams from one iPhone to another. (…) You simply launch the app and “knock” another iPhone user with Knocking Live Video installed. That user will receive the “knock” via push notification. Once answered, you can then stream live video directly to them. An iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G is required to transmit video, but other iPhones and iPod touches can receive and view the stream via WiFi.
The app was initially rejected about a month ago for unauthorized use of the private APIs, but Knocking development Brian Meehan decided not to just take the refusal lying down. Instead, he went straight to the top, contacting Steve Jobs directly via email. Jobs has been known to actually respond to emails personally on occasion, so it was at least worth a shot. Meehan’s plea was not about self-interest, but instead focused on appealing to Jobs as a lifelong Apple user who wanted to create a better experience for other members of the community.
The Monday following Meehan’s email, which was sent on a Saturday night in late November, he was contacted by an unnamed Apple executive who informed him that the app’s rejection had been reversed, and that the decision to allow it into the App Store had come “directly from the top.” It is now available for free in the App Store.
Hopefully this means that Apple is at least considering expanding the pool of publicly available APIs. Access to the live streaming video API would allow a lot of applications that have been shelved to see the light of day. It proves one thing at least: Apple is listening to the iPhone development community, even though it may not always appear that way.
Переслать - 10 OS X Games for the Holidays
Recently, my boss at my day job was considering getting a Mac and asked that fateful question: So, what about games?
A few years ago, any response to that question would have been met with an awkward silence and an embarrassed look and a rush to change the subject to the weather. Now a days, thankfully, the answer is: Not that bad, actually. The switch to Intel processors, along with TransGaming’s Cider, has allowed companies to port their games to OS X.
The bad news is, almost all the games on this list require a Mac with an Intel-based processor to run, and most of them either do not work on the old GMA 950 chip, or are severely limited.
Massively Multiplayer Online Games
I’ve got a weak spot for these enormous time sinks. They do come with a not-so-hidden cost of a monthly subscription fee and potential dirty looks from your spouse as you’re up until 3am trying go get “just one more level.”
Warhammer Online
Derived from the old Warhammer miniatures war games, we’ve covered this one previously. It’s still a good choice for someone who also likes bashing their fellow man in the face as well as computer-controlled monsters. You can download the endless trial, which will let you play a portion of the game for free, or you can also buy the retail Windows version for about $20 — you don’t need to install it, and the Mac version isn’t on the disc, but you can use the account key to create the account and then download the Mac client.Eve Online
A space-themed MMO where you pilot your own ship is a nice distraction from the chicks-in-chainmail you find in fantasy games — really, that bikini has a high armor rating? Riiiiiight. While my experiences with Eve are limited, from what friends have told me, “once you get over the learning curve, it’s quite fun.” So, if you’re tired of burly elves and svelte dwarves (or is it the other way around?), Eve Online might be worth a look. As with Warhammer, you can either download it online or pick up a box set at a retailer.
World of Warcraft
It’s hard to mention a gaming roundup without talking about the 800 pound gorilla of the gaming market. Recently celebrating its fifth anniversary and over 11 million subscribers, WoW shows no indication of slowing down this decade. Blizzard has always been a staunch supporter of the Mac, and the box you buy at the store will have the Mac installers on the disc. There’s even a handy iPhone app you can view your character and guild info with.Shooters
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
In a break from the World War 2 theme of the earlier Call of Duty game, as you’d assume from the title, this one is set in the modern era. The single-player campaign is one of the best I’ve ever experienced — I’ve got a fairly low finish rate on games, and this once was interesting all the way to the end. You’ll play the part of two soldiers in different areas of the world (A British SAS trooper and an American marine) working on two plot lines. I found the level design varied and well-paced — each level felt bereft of the usual “padding” developers add to the game to make it longer. At around 12 hours long, the campaign is relatively short, but, frankly, I’d rather most games be this short and well done than inflated.Bioshock
Yeah, I know, like Call of Duty 4, it came out a few years ago for consoles and PCs. This Art Deco themed shooter answers the question: What would happen if Ann Rand built an underwater complex based on her Objectivist theories? Naturally, something goes wrong and you get to unravel it. As with Call of Duty 4, Bioshock is one of the few games that compelled me to finish it, and is one of the few games so scary it caused the hair on my arms to stand up.Sim Games
Sims 3
It’s hard to ignore the siren’s call of a game that lets you block off the bathroom and watch your Sims go mad. The Sims franchise is a guilty pleasure of mine. Apparently I’m not so busy micromanaging my own life, I need to micromanage a Sim’s virtual life, too. The Sims 3 has a few new features, like careers. Previously, when your Sim went to work, he or she disappeared into a black hole from which money spouted. Now, they can advance up a career path. I just wish they’d learn to use the bathroom at work.X-Plane
Back in my PC gaming days, I was a huge fan of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s shuttering of that development group killed the program — not that we’d have seen a Mac version. X-Plane seems to be the Mac equivalent of it. I’ve yet to play it, and, sadly, any attempt at downloading the demo has failed. You can get it at the Apple store but the online store claims a 2-3 week shipping time.Strategy Games
Civ 4
The Civilization series has been a long staple in the strategy era, and Civ 4 is one of my favorites. Civ 4 adds a few new features over previous versions: religion is much more important, you can promote units, and now you can see your overall score. There is also a slimmed down iPhone version.Whimsical
Lego Series
If there’s something more fun than a Lego adaptation of Star Wars or Indiana Jones, I don’t know what it is. I love how they are both true to the source material, yet light-hearted. These are fun for the whole family.Peggle
Part pinball, part blockout, part crazy, the idea behind Peggle is to eliminate the orange pegs. You are given 10 balls to complete this task. If the ball lands in the scoop at the bottom, you get a free ball. Most of my experience has been with the iPhone app, but I’ve been loving it.Any sort of a roundup like this is heavily biased on the author’s tastes: in my case, it’s apparent I like MMOs, shooters, and strategy games. Now it’s your turn: What games would you like to give or receive this holiday season?
Переслать - Video Calls on the iPhone, Courtesy of Fring
As our sister site GigaOM reports, video calling has indeed arrived on the iPhone. It’s just a little one-way, is all. A new version of Fring supports video calls made using both its own and the Skype network, but you’re only able to receive video, not transmit it, since the camera on the iPhone 3GS still resides on the side of the phone opposite the screen.
So long as you have iPhone OS 3.0 installed on your iPhone, you should be able to receive video calls with Fring from desktop and certain Nokia phone users once you install the update. As with everything cool on the iPhone, you’ll have to have a Wi-Fi connection to use video calling features, just as you must to make and receive voice calls, too. This despite AT&T’s announcement that it would allow VOIP on its network.
Video calling works as advertised, but I’ll warn you that it can be an unnerving experience to talk to someone who can’t see you, but who you can see, for all parties involved. You can even initiate video calls from the iPhone, but obviously doing so still won’t enable video services on your end.
It’s a neat trick, and handy if you’re on the road and haven’t seen a loved one for quite a while, but until Apple gets wise to this trend (if it is one; some think video calling will never catch on in the mainstream), I’ll be placing my iPhone Skype calls the old-fashioned way, to avoid the accompanying feeling of slightly creepy voyeurism that comes with watching without being watched. The video below will help you fathom the system if you’re not interested or able to give it a go yourself.
Переслать - Mac OS X, iPhone OS, Safari Down or Flat in November
November was not a great month for Apple, at least according to web metrics firm Net Applications. While one could argue the launch of Windows 7 in October may have negatively impacted market share for OS X, Safari also lost ground to Chrome, and even the iPhone OS saw a slight decline against competitors.
For OS X, the decline could actually be good news. In the first full month since the release of Windows 7, OS X declined to 5.12 percent of the overall market, down from 5.27 percent last month. That’s not so bad. However, if Windows 7 is to blame for that modest decline, it’s a little difficult to understand how Linux saw an increase of 0.04 percent, to an even one-hundredth of overall market share. More positively, Snow Leopard continues to account for an increasing share of the OS X user base.
From September through November, OS X 10.6 represented 18 percent, 22 percent and 27 percent, respectively, of the OS X user base. Those are impressive gains after launching on Aug. 28. In contrast, Windows 7 launched on Oct. 22, and nearly six weeks later is just reaching 5 percent of Windows market share. Faster uptake of OS X means new technologies see more widespread support sooner; slower for Windows 7 means more support headaches for Microsoft.
Similarly, Safari 4 has become the standard among Mac versions of the web browser, accounting for more than 80 percent of Safari users since launching in June. In terms of overall market share, Safari, including the Windows version, represents 4.36 percent, down slightly from 4.4 percent in October. Still, that percentage is moving slowly upward over time, though not nearly as fast as Google’s Chrome. Chrome is now at 3.93 percent, up from 3.57 percent for the previous month, and will almost assuredly pass Safari on the desktop within three months. Of course, some solace can be had in that Chrome and Safari both use WebKit. More WebKit users, and Gecko users with Firefox, ultimately mean a greater adherence to neutral standards for web browsers.
As for the iPhone, November was one of those rare months that saw the iPhone OS lose ground. In terms of overall market share among operating systems, iPhone OS may be insignificant, but the actual number of users probably exceeds 60 million. Nonetheless, market share for iPhone OS was 0.43 percent in November, down from 0.44 in October. Competing mobile operating systems like JavaME, Symbian, Andriod and RIM, all saw increases of 0.01 or 0.02 percent, minuscule changes, but still increasing.
It should be noted, though, that Net Applications data this month comes with a “preliminary” warning label. That could mean there are still slight variations to be found. For a month that showed a little decline for Apple, it might turn out to be more of a plateau.
Переслать - Socialite Leaves Beta, Brings Twitter Lists to Mac Desktop
If you’re looking for a solution that keeps track of various social networks at once, all in one centralized location, EventBox for the Mac was a nice beta program that did the trick. EventBox is no more, but the program still exists. It’s changed names and become Socialite (much more appropriate if you ask me), and come out of beta, too.
I downloaded the demo of the 1.0 release and ran it through its paces. The demo lets you have all the functionality of the full version, but you’re limited to running three different services or accounts. Which, honestly, isn’t much of a limitation for many users, myself included.
All Your Services, One Place
Socialite covers all the major bases, including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. That would be enough for me, but it also will log you into Digg and Google Reader, or let you track RSS feeds yourself manually. For many people I know, opening Socialite first thing in the morning would clear their to-do list for the day.
Facebook integration lets you access status updates and photo albums, both yours and those of your friends. You can upload photos and update your status, but inbox access is still not a part of the deal, until Facebook opens that up to the API. Twitter gives you access to your timeline, mentions, and direct messages, and allows you to view your lists and lists you subscribe to. You can’t create new lists or modify them in this version of Socialite. Flickr includes contacts photos, but also Interestingness, which is one of my favorite parts of Flickr, so I’m glad it’s included.
Many Features, One Simple UI
None of these services share the same UI in their native formats. That’s why Socialite’s interface is so impressive. It manages to make the process of working with multiple services in the same shell incredibly intuitive and relatively painless. Well-designed icons, and consistent function placement across the board help make this happen.
Best of all, if you’d rather just deal with things as one big mess, you can work with updates from all your services at once in the macro view “Unread” menu, and all of the appropriate actions for each separate service still appears in the options section for each. And clicking on any update automatically brings up the quick input field related to that service.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None?
Socialite is a great program, and well designed, but it can’t take the place of Tweetie on my Mac. The problem is that since starting to use Twitter, I’ve become less and less dependent on other social networks I belong to. Facebook I can check twice a day really, if I feel like it, and Flickr is something I never really used to begin with. No matter how well Socialite does Twitter, Tweetie still does it better, and with a much smaller memory footprint.
Still, if you like to frequent many social sites, and especially if you’re a Google Reader user, Socialite could be the perfect program to help keep things organized and nicely aggregated in one convenient location.
Переслать - Chrome for Mac Imminent, Why We Should Care
It has been a long time coming. Google’s Chrome web browser has been available on Windows for over a year, while Mac users have been left with three options — take their chances with a nightly build of the open-source fork of Chrome (dubbed Chromium), use Google’s developer release, or wait for an official Google release.
TechCrunch’s MG Siegler reported yesterday that Chrome for Mac is just a handful of bugs away from a release — specifically, seven bugs, in case you’re counting. But in order to reach their end-of-year deadline for release, the code-jockeys at Google had to do a bit of a hatchet-job on the Mac version of their browser.
So far, Siegler says, all signs point to the exclusion of the Bookmark Manager, App Mode (which emulates the single-window web app functionality offered by Fluid), Task Manager, Gears, Sync for Mac (for syncing bookmarks across Macs), Multi-touch Gesture support, Full Screen Mode and Extensions.
Mike Pinkerton, Technical Lead for Google Chrome for Mac, was asked by Twitter user @boundlessdreamz “When will extensions work correctly on mac? Is that a blocker?”
Pinkerton replied, “No on extensions for beta. But we’ll get them soon. Must draw the line somewhere.”
If you’re a Safari user, you won’t feel too bad about missing Extensions support. If Safari proves anything, it’s that a fully functional and productive web browser doesn’t need to be chock-full of third-party extensions. Mine has only two; Evernote and 1Password. And I could probably live without the former, if I’m honest.
The lack of Gears comes as no great surprise, either. Google Gears doesn’t work on Snow Leopard anyway, and Google has been uncharacteristically rubbish at communicating why it’s being so slow at fixing it. On this point, Siegler adds, “Apparently, Google plans to push ahead with full HTML5 support rather than rely on Gears, at least on the Mac.”
I wonder what prompted that decision? Timing? Complexity? Or perhaps Gears becomes less desirable in a standards-compliant WebKit-world where functionality, speed and compatibility across multiple devices and multiple form-factors becomes the driving force in browser development.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know which technology more elegantly supports offline data storage; Gears or HTML5. In any case, Gears’ absence on Snow Leopard is deeply irritating for those of us who want to use GMail offline, or take advantage of drag-and-drop functionality in Google Wave. If Chrome marks the start of a Google-wide migration away from Gears and toward HTML5 (even if only for the Mac), I welcome it.
Also out of the equation (at this stage, anyway) is any mention of 64-bit compatibility. But there is, predictably, nothing surprising about that at all. If, like me, you’ve been pursuing the 64-bit dream, you’ll know how consistently disappointing the experience is — practically no one is building apps with true support for 64-bit OS X — and no, Apple’s home-grown Mail and iCal apps don’t count!
Why Should We Care?
For the last five months I’ve tried various builds of Chromium, which has so far been a bit of a mixed-bag when it comes to little things like performance and stability. Oh wait — did I say those were “little things?” Of course, what I meant to say was “stonking-great major issues.”
To be fair, Chromium shows promise, but it’s still much too “unfinished” to be my primary browser. And in case you were wondering, my primary browser is Safari. No, not because I’m an Apple fanboi, but because it’s stable, it’s lightweight, and it’s not a resource-hog. I used to love Firefox and recommended it to everyone, but I barely use the thing these days. Even with no third-party extensions installed, it takes an age to load and the UI is bafflingly inconsistent with the rest of OS X.
Ultimately, why should we care about Yet Another Browser? Well, just consider how much time you spend in a browser every day. Personally, most of my time is spent in Safari. I regularly have several dozen tabs open, often for days at a time. Most of my work is made up of hours spent reading, researching and writing, and while the latter used to take place in a dedicated word processor, Safari is now so stable and dependable I’ve gradually started doing more and more real-time, “live” writing inside the browser. I never would have taken that risk a year ago, but now I barely give it a thought.
In fact, the browser is such a primary, fundamental element in day-to-day computing that Google has built an entire operating system out of it.
In short, web browsers are big business, and make all the difference in how we perceive, experience and interact with the web. I’m all for a new browser that’s fast and functional and plays well with the websites and services I already use. I’m looking forward to putting Chrome for Mac through its paces — I hope it was worth the wait.
Переслать - Psystar and Apple Ink Settlement Deal in Copyright Case
In an unexpected twist in the drawn-out battle between Psystar and Apple, the two companies agreed Monday to a partial settlement that could end the case after 17 months of back-and-forth between them, Computerworld is reporting. Details on the settlement are sparse, but what is known is quite surprising.
The terms of the settlement would see Psystar pay Apple damages, though the amount has not yet been determined. It would also see Apple drop any and all trademark, trade-dress and state law claims, which would effectively eliminate the need for a trial. As a partial settlement, the agreement would not go into effect until Psystar has exhausted all of its appeals before the court.
It’s an interesting deal, because it looks like it wouldn’t necessarily stop Psystar from selling its Mac clones. Instead, the company would be limited to selling its “Open” line of computers without OS X preinstalled, and that responsibility would lie instead with customers. Apparently that’s a compromise Apple is willing to live with, and with good reason, since the Mac maker would have to go after many other clone makers if it wasn’t.
Here are the terms of the deal, as stated in a motion filed Monday by Psystar:
Psystar and Apple today entered into a partial settlement that is embodied in a stipulation that will be filed with the court tomorrow. Psystar has agreed on certain amounts to be awarded as statutory damages on Apple’s copyright claims in exchange for Apple’s agreement not to execute on these awards until all appeals in this matter have been concluded. Moreover, Apple has agreed to voluntarily dismiss all its trademark, trade-dress, and state-law claims. This partial settlement eliminates the need for a trial and reduces the issues before this court to the scope of any permanent injunction on Apple’s copyright claims.
That means that Apple’s permanent injunction, which it filed last week, would still be decided by the court. Psystar moved to have its software, the Rebel EFI program, to be excepted from the injunction. Rebel EFI allows users to install any OS on any hardware, but Psystar maintains that since it is entirely its own product, and is not sold together with any hardware or Mac OS X, it should be exempt from Apple’s motion. Also, Psystar goes onto note that even its customers, should they choose to use Rebel EFI to install OS X on non-authorized hardware, should also be exempt from any legal repercussions:
Psystar’s end users do not engage in commercial use of Mac OS X and their use would qualify as use for “internal purposes” even under the standards articulated by Apple in its summary-judgment briefing.
Hard to vilify this new moderate stance taken by the clone maker, which is probably why Apple seems to have agreed to the terms. Whether or not Rebel EFI will continue to be sold, however, is now up to the courts.
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