Fresh Apple: TheAppleBlog (6 сообщений)

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TheAppleBlog
TheAppleBlog, 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.
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Buy Mac Software, Help the Haiti Aid Effort

Ever since the tragic earthquake struck Haiti last week, people the world over have been generously donating towards the much-needed aid effort. Thankfully, due to several unique and innovative schemes, it has never been easier to make a pledge. One such upcoming program is the Indie+Relief fundraiser, which aims to raise money for the vital relief fund through the sale of certain Mac and iPhone software.

Tomorrow, Jan. 20, Indie+Relief will be taking all of the sale proceedings from a range of applications and be giving them to select charities. The impressive list of applications on offer include the likes of image editor Acorn, MarketCircle’s Billings, cataloging software Delicious Library 2, web-statistics manager Ego, FTP-client Flow, newsreader Instapaper Pro, to-do list Things, Twitter client Twitterific and many, many more.

The project started only a few days ago and has been made possible due to a joint collaboration between developers Garret Murray and Second Gear. Since they announced the project, a whole host of other developers from the Mac and iPhone community have gotten involved, with the Indie+Relief site now listing over 130 applications. Developers partaking in the fund raising all had the opportunity to select any charity of their choice, all which will benefit the Haiti aid process. Popular charities include The Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF.

If you are in the market to buy any of the listed applications, then be sure to take the plunge this coming Wednesday, as all of the proceeds will go to Haitian aid organizations, and if you’re not, be sure to check out Indie+Relief anyway as you may just find something new!

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Apple Rumors Gone Amok

I’ve been an iPod-listening, iPhone-talking, iMac-computing, Macbook-toting Apple fan since 1986 when I first used AppleWorks on a Apple IIe. I’ve stood behind the platform through thick and thin and my t-shirt collection proves it. However, one aspect of the Apple culture to which I refuse to subscribe is rumors and conjecture.

The iSlate (or is it now iTablet again?) frenzy has me particularly annoyed and Gawker’s recent “scavenger hunt” for clues about the mythical new Apple device makes me want to zap their PRAM with extreme prejudice. I’m puzzled as to what purpose knowing about potential Apple’s products a few weeks early could serve? Asking people to risk their jobs to serve the Apple paparazzi machine is completely irresponsible.

I’m also concerned that the rumor mongering is expanding at an exponential level. Theorizing what Apple could or should come up with is great. For an awesome retrospective of such products check out Appledesign: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group. The line between fictional Apple announcements and rumors is thin. In 2010, with image and video editing tools, fans can create a fictional Apple product, report it as a rumor, and be taken seriously. Actual true, verifiable Apple news a few weeks before a suspected product announcement grinds to a halt. Personally, I think TheAppleBlog has done a good job or steering clear of the more fanciful theories out there and focusing on what is more plausible and real.

My friends at Apple have some interesting takes on the rumor frenzy which I find fascinating. As TheAppleBlog already reported, some leaks are intentional. The more rumors spread and mutate, the less likely the “true” leak is recognized. With so many different images of what the Tablet could be, nobody is 100 percent sure of what it actually is. More fascinating is that sometimes these fan visualizations of what could be are viewed by Apple employees and could be incorporated into later products. The rumors could serve as prototypes of the next generation.

So is that why everyone is into rumors? To improve Apple design? I suspect for most it’s just impatience. Everyone’s so excited for “one more thing,” they’re willing to risk it all for a glimpse. And this is different than paparazzi taking pictures of celebrities walking their dogs how?

Wait until Christmas morning to open the presents and stop looking in the closet to see where Mom stashed the Hanukkah goodies.

This is just one writer’s opinion on the lack of value in rumors. What’s yours?

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New Year's Resolutions iPhone Apps: Finding Romance

We’ve already covered iPhone apps that will help you keep a New Year’s Resolution to get in better shape. Today we’re going to cover something a bit more personal, finding romance.

Dating has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, back then putting a personal ad online was considered a bit desperate. Today online dating services, dating gurus and checking potential dates out online is par for the course. Thankfully your iPhone can keep you plugged in to what you need so you can hopefully have someone to take out by Valentine’s.

Note: all links point to iTunes store.

Black Book
Price: $2.99 (free version also available)
Rating: 4 stars
It may be cliché, but keeping a central repository of the people you’ve dated along with their likes and dislikes can actually be extremely helpful. You don’t want to forget on the fifth date that the lady you’ve been wooing hates bowling and accidentally take her to the Bowl-O-Rama. Sure you could keep this information in the notes section of your iPhone’s address book, but having a private place to store your thoughts on dates is probably a good idea, and Black Book offers password protection to keep prying eyes out. For the ladies out there who might want something more feminine, the developer also offers Pink Book.

Match.com
Price: Free
Rating: 3 stars
It’s not the youngest or hippest dating network out there, but then again neither are some of us. Match.com is still one of the largest personals networks and the iPhone app does a good job of giving you access to most of the network’s features, albeit not all. There is a neat location feature that lets you search for people nearby. You can upload photos to your profile from the application as well as receive notification if someone’s winked at you or sent you a message.

Dating DNA Plus
Price: $4.99 (free version also available)
Rating: 3 stars
For those who want to go a bit beyond Match.com, Dating DNA offers compatibility checking, which makes it easier to find someone who you might actually get along with. The interface is clean and simple to use, including a nice coverflow view of potential matches. You can limit your profile’s visibility to those who meet a certain compatibility profile and do location based searches for possible matches as well.

Background Check App
Price: Free
Rating: 3 stars
Going out into the world of dating can sometimes be a bit scary, and if you’re not sure about that guy you met on that dating site a quick background check might not be a bad idea. This app includes three free background checks per week and in addition to standard information like criminal history and property records also finds information about their social networks online.

AstroLove
Price: $1.99
Rating: 3 stars
If you believe the future of your love life is in the stars, figuratively not literally, then AstroLove is for you. Easily and quickly find out how compatible you are with anyone else based on their birthdate. You get easy to read meters for love, stability and passion, as well as more in-depth advice. And even if you don’t believe in astrology, it can make for a fun conversation starter.

iWedding Deluxe
Price: $7.99
If you do get a date, and things go really well, you may find yourself planning a wedding by the end of the year. If so, iWedding Deluxe is your one stop shop, complete with budgeting, to-dos, guest tracking and seating charts. There’s also a database of wedding ideas if you need some inspiration for your big day. The application is well-organized and easy to use, a great way to keep your wedding from overwhelming you. You should note that there’s a previous version called iWedding which is now obsolete, so buy this version instead. There’s no difference in price, just a result of Apple’s poor App Store policies, but that’s a different article.

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7 for 7: Countdown to the Apple Tablet

Official word yesterday that there is indeed an Apple event on the 27th didn’t generate the frenetic response typically associated with such news, probably because the blogosphere, twitterverse and mainstream media have all been going gaga over it for weeks.

The Wall Street Journal correctly pegged the event date and location, and also said the company would discuss its “mobile products” at the event. Assuming WSJ got that last bit right as well, the event promises much more than a new Apple tablet product introduction.

Beginning tomorrow, January 20, I’ll publish seven daily posts about my expectations for Apple’s event. The last of these will be published on the 26th, and on the 27th, we will all learn whether my expectations were on target or off the mark. Stay tuned for seven posts in seven days about what we’ll hear on the 27th. Lucky 7, or craps? We’ll know soon enough.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Rumored Apple Tablet: Opportunities Too Big to Ignore

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Touch-Enabled iMac: Do We Need One?

Everyone is going nuts for touch. My television has touch controls on the side of the bezel, virtually every new smartphone that comes out these days has to boast a touch-sensitive screen, and a lot of them are now showing off touch-enabled back cases. The Magic Mouse, Apple’s latest take on an interface device, also has touch controls, and Cupertino seems to be betting on the tech as a surefire winner.

But when is touch too much? The latest rumors, coming from the Chinese-language Commercial Times newspaper, as reported by DigiTimes, suggest that Apple will be launching a brand new addition to the iMac line in 2010 with a touch-enabled display. If the report is accurate, the new iMac would have a 22-inch screen, in between the current 21.5-inch and 27-inch models.

The report is based on a supplier called Quanta supposedly receiving the outsourcing contract to make the machines, with Sintek Photronic supplying the necessary touchscreen panels. The rumor is at least plausible, and even a likely next step coming from a manufacturer like Apple that has consistently done touch well and introduced it across much of its product line in some form or another. The question isn’t whether or not Apple will do it, it’s whether or not it should.

I get a tablet computer. I understand what that’s for, how people will use it, and how, thanks to mobility, touch controls make sense. I can’t say the same thing for touch-enabled desktops, except in special cases. For retail, sure, and for restaurants and other similar industry applications where touch has been used because it makes an exceeding amount of sense to do so, that I understand. But as I sit at my home office typing up this post, I wonder if I would derive any benefit by being able to control my iMac by touching the screen versus using my mouse.

In fact, I already sort of have touchscreen computing capability in my iMac, via a connected Wacom Cintiq monitor. Admittedly, you have to use a stylus, so it isn’t exactly the same, but I still finding myself abstaining from using it for anything but drawing and photo editing. Even the Sony Vaio L (check out the second “Con”) and other PCs already on the market with the tech built-in strike me as fairly silly. I’ve used them on display in Best Buy and the like, but that’s an entirely different thing from sitting at a desk and using it for many hours at a time.

Touch control will also be shoehorned into a number of different applications. Unlike the more expensive versions of Windows 7, Snow Leopard isn’t designed to work on a touch-enabled machine, and neither are any of the Mac apps you’d be using with your computer. I can see flick scrolling and image browsing being a bit of a boon, but not enough to merit the inclusion of the tech, especially when it would mean constantly having to switch from using the mouse to interacting with the screen in all likelihood.

Where touchscreen desktop computing has been introduced, it has faced questions about how truly useful and effective it is. Galen Gruman at TechWorld describes his disappointment with the Windows 7 implementation of touch in a piece that soberly addresses the tech’s current shortcomings. In this excerpt, he discusses some UI and feedback problems with the idea:

[O]n a touchscreen, your hand and arm obscure your view of where your fingertip actually is, making it hard to actually touch the intended radio button, close box, slider, or what-have-you. It doesn’t help that these elements are often small. And there’s no tactile feel to substitute for the lost visual feedback.

It’s far from his only strike against touchscreen desktop computing, but even on its own, it describes an issue so annoying as to set me against the concept of a touch sensitive iMac, at least until the next generation of OS X takes touchscreen computing as its focus instead of as an afterthought or add-on.

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Take Our Mobile Tech Survey: Win $50 to Amazon

Here at TheAppleBlog, we think our readers are some of the best leading indicators of what will happen in the tech world, be it for Apple products or technology in general. With this in mind, we wondered what would happen if we asked you your thoughts about tech products such as smartphones and web tablets.

So here it is, a short survey asking about just that. We also think you would love to see the results, so if you take the survey, we’ll send you an executive summary of the report we’ll produce for GigaOM Pro, and we’ll also be posting some results on The AppleBlog as well. And if that doesn’t compel you, if you take the survey you might win one of two $50 Amazon gift certificates we’ll be giving away to those who take the survey.

And just so you know, these results are only going to be used for this survey and analysis for a report (which you’ll get the summary results for in PDF), and nothing else.

So head on over, take the survey. It’ll only take a few minutes. You’ll also get some interesting analysis as well as maybe some free Amazon $.

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