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- MacHeist Returns: Offers 7 Mac Apps For Less Than $20
Software bundle website, MacHeist, has unveiled its latest offer. The ‘nanoBundle2‘ was made public as midnight struck on Wednesday, revealing a range of seven Mac OS X applications.
For those unaware, a typical MacHeist promotion sees a number of Mac applications being made available at a discount rate (sometimes even for free), but only for a limited time. Following a build-up of teasing tweets this past week, the bundle is now available, with the latest collection of software including:
MacJournal (Retail: $39.95)
Writing software, MacJournal, from Mariner Software is an Apple Design Award winning application which claims to be perfect for any amount of writing, whether that’s just a quick small list, a more detailed blog entry or a full-on book.
RipIt (Retail: $19.95)
RipIt is a simple DVD importing tool from ‘the little app factory.’ The application aims to make the process of importing your DVD collection onto your Mac as simple as it is for CD’s. You can even compress your DVD’s for portable use on an iPhone.
Clips (Retail: $27)
Ever went to copy something and suddenly stopped, remembering that you may already have something stored on your computers clipboard? Conceited Software are offering clipboard management application, Clips, as the solution to just that problem.
CoverScout (Retail: $39.95)
Equinux’s CoverScout is one of several currently available apps that will take an ever-growing iTunes library, then find and replace any missing cover-art. Developers Equinux claim that due to the visual nature of humans, music with no cover-art is more likely to be ignored when browsing your collection.
Flow (Retail: $25)
Flow is an FTP client from Extendmac which boasts not just a fresh clean user interface but also claims to take advantage of the latest OS X technologies. Beyond its basic FTP capabilities, Flow also has live editing and other development tools. It also is an Apple Design Award winner.
Tales Of Monkey Island (Retail: $34.95)
Although currently locked, Telltale Games’ adventure title Tales Of Monkey Island will be unlocked for all MacHeist customers once 50,000 bundles have been sold. Once that goal has been reached, six episodes of pirate based fun will be yours.
RapidWeaver (Retail: $79)
RapidWeaver, the last application in the latest MacHeist bundle, is a website creation tool from Realmac Software. The application has similarities to that of Apple’s iWeb.
The nanobundle2 is available now for just seven days, so if you were looking to buy any of the above applications now would clearly be a good time. If you were to purchase each of the included applications separately it would cost an excess of $266. So buying through MacHeist not only donates money to charities (over $1.5 million since the heist’s began), but it could also save you up to $246!
Переслать - iPad to Hit Stores March 10, But Only for Employees?
Sources from within Apple are claiming that the iPad will be in stores starting March 10, if a recent Examiner post is to be believed.
Examiner’s report claims that the tablet devices will be hitting Apple retail stores early in order to give employees and employees only, plenty of time to get up-to-speed with using the new tablet device, ahead of its official launch.
The iPad is expected to arrive before the month is out, with many blogs increasingly hinting at a March 26 launch date. Examiner sources, which allegedly include an anonymous “Apple Store manager in Southern California,” also claimed that the iPad’s advertisement campaign will kick off around the 15th of this month. The advertisement campaign is said to be focusing heavily on the iBookstore and e-book capabilities of the upcoming device, no doubt with an intent to take some steam out of the Kindle’s successes.
Finally, the Examiner report also hinted that individuals who set up camp ahead of the launch, in order to become one of the first to get their hands on an iPad, will be rewarded. Just what this Apple related reward may be is unknown.
However, despite all the detailed dates, rumors of possible production problems could negate the planned launch. Let’s just hope it doesn’t.
Переслать - Apple Still Needs a Sub-$700 Conventional Notebook
Writing in the Huffington Post, Larry Magid raises the point that PC netbooks are hot sellers for very good reasons — namely that these small laptops, which typically cost between $300 and $400, can do most things a large portion of users want to do with a laptop computer, and do them much more cheaply, as well as being handily smaller and lighter than traditional laptops.
Small Laptop Price Premium Dynamic Turned On Its Head
I agree, and along with Magid note the irony of a changing dynamic where, reversing erstwhile conventional wisdom that computer consumers would be obliged to pay extra for the required engineering of miniaturization, with smaller laptops often costing more than larger siblings of the same brand (think PowerBook Duo vs. PowerBook or MacBook Air and MacBook), netbooks have turned the cost/weight equation on its head.
Mainstream netbooks, particularly ones equipped with the latest Intel Atom N270 processors running at 1.60 GHz, with a GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, are perfectly adequate for most common tasks people use computers for such as Web surfing and e-mail, and even for watching web video. At least for non-touch typists, their usually undersized keyboards are also considered tolerable.
Downward Pressure On All Laptop Pricing
Then there’s the netbook phenomenon’s collateral effect of exerting strong downward pressure on standard sized notebook computer prices, to which even Apple has not been immune, as exemplified by the 13″ MacBook Pro being cheaper than its aluminum unibody MacBook predecessor, and the debut of a lower entry level 15″ MacBook Pro stripped of its ExpressCard Slot and discrete graphics processor/VRAM.
A prima facie topical example is Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Edge, which has a 13-inch display, a typically excellent Lenovo full-size keyboard, an AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive, three USB ports, runs Windows 7, offers five-hour real world battery runtime, and is priced starting at an easy-on-the-wallet $599. Move up to a 1.3GHz Core Duo Intel processor and 4GB of memory and you’re still at $799.
That’s of course only $200 less than Apple’s entry-level MacBook, which at $999 has a much more powerful 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia 9600M integrated graphics, but only 2GB of RAM, a measly two USB ports, and a 250GB hard drive. To get the same 4GB of memory and 320GB of storage specs as the $799 Lenovo or even a $399 Dell Inspiron 15, you’re up to $1,149, while a comparable spec MacBook Pro will set you back a whopping (by comparison) $1,399 — a thousand dollars greater than your typical netbook.
Mac Still Greater Value, But Gap Narrowing
Now personally, I still think greater value is found in the Macs, especially due to their OS X-clusivity, and projected durability over the longer haul, or if you need the extra processing and graphics power they offer. But, with PC competition stiffening, and consensus building that Windows 7 is actually a pretty decent operating system, the OS X advantage is diminishing. That base AMD-powered Lenovo ThinkPad Edge for $600 bucks looks particularly enticing for cash-strapped or value-oriented users whose computing power needs are typically modest, especially in this challenging economy
That’s why I continue to stubbornly contend that the forthcoming iPad notwithstanding, Apple still needs a conventional clamshell notebook contender in the $600 – $700 price category.
Related GigaOM Pro Research: Report: The Future of Netbooks!
Переслать - How-To: Expand Wake On Demand Support Under OS X 10.6
Recently, I’ve been migrating the functionality of my old Ubuntu Linux server to my wife’s old iMac. Since a big part of the reason to decommission my old Linux PC was to reduce my total power consumption, I wanted to fully utilize Snow Leopard’s Wake On Demand functionality with as many services as possible.
Wake On Demand is a relatively new feature that arrived with Snow Leopard. It allows your Mac to be put into sleep mode and then be woken up on demand when one of its services is required. This feature requires a compatible Apple AirPort Base Station (or Time Capsule) and OS X 10.6 running on the Mac. Most of the standard system services (File Sharing, Screen Sharing, Scanner & Printer Sharing etc.) will work automagically with this setup, but custom services such a my subversion and the built-in web sharing do not. However it’s not hard to make these services compatible with Wake On Demand with only a little bit of work to set it up. Here’s how I did it.
Bonjour
For the Wake On Demand functionality to work properly, any service being hosted by a Mac must be registered with Bonjour, Apple’s zero config service discovery protocol. This is how the Airport Base Station knows when its appropriate to wake up a sleeping Mac. To assist with getting a complete picture, I’d recommend downloading a great free utility called Bonjour Browser. This application will show you all the services currently being broadcast by Bonjour on your network. Any service displayed here will be automatically enabled to use Wake On Demand by your AirPort base station. Most of the server software components such as File Sharing will register with Bonjour itself, however for the ones that don’t, we need to do it on their behalf.
Luckily this is easy, as OS X comes with a command line utility called dns-sd, the DNS Service Discovery tool. This ties directly in with the Bonjour system and with it we can register services with Bonjour. Lets use subversion as our example. Subversion’s TCP port is usually 3690, so assuming you have a standard setup, we can register subversion with Bonjour with:
dns-sd -R "SVN" _svn._tcp. . 3690 pdl=application/svnserveIf we run this command manually in Terminal.app, we can quickly verify that our Bonjour broadcast was successful by using Bonjour Browser. The service will remain registered with Bonjour for as long as the dns-sd command is still running; as soon as we press Control+C to kill the command, we can see in Bonjour Browser that our service disappears.
Of course it’s not terribly useful if we need to manually run a command every time our computer reboots (even if Macs don’t need to be rebooted that often). To make the Bonjour registration occur automatically at system startup we need to launch our command using the launchd subsystem, which OS X uses for automatically starting background services. The easiest way to configure this to run automatically via launchd is by using Lingon. You can grab the latest version from Sourceforge. For more details on using Lingon see this previous article I put together, but for this task we just need to add a new User Daemon.
Run Lingon, click the New button and select User Daemons.
Fill out the dialog as follows:
Name:org.subversion.bonjour
What:dns-sd -R "SVN" _svn._tcp. . 3690 pdl=application/svnserveBe sure to tick the “Keep it running all the time” and “Run it when it is loaded by the system” checkboxes. Click the save button and restart your Mac. If everything has been done right, you should be able to see this instance of dns-sd in Activity Monitor when viewing All Processes.
Rinse and Repeat
The process described above can also be used for any other service, such as for the Web Sharing service (port 80) or any other custom service that you’ve setup. Simply replace the references to the application protocol (ie. svn) and the applicable port number and create a new launchd item for each one. This isn’t the most ideal solution, as each new instance of dns-sd takes about 380KB of memory, however if you’re running a number of these extra services I would assume that you have at least 2GB of ram and the impact of 380KB is negligible. Each instance of dns-sd also uses a negligible amount of CPU processing time so it won’t get in the way of other processes. Of course the perfect ideal solution would be that the server software you’re running registers itself with Bonjour, but if that was the case you wouldn’t need to be reading this article.
Final Result
With everything set up correctly, you should now be able to replicate the following test:
- Put your Mac to sleep
- From another device on your network access your custom service(s)
- Rejoice with a warm fuzzy feeling as you realize your electricity bill will be lower and your carbon footprint is a smaller than it was yesterday.
I hope this has helped someone else achieve on-demand server bliss, with the peace of mind of minimal power consumption like it has for me. Do you have an even better way of doing it?
Переслать - iPad's 3G Pricing: Why It's So Great
As someone who's followed the wireless industry closely for years, one of the most interesting announcements to come out of the iPad keynote were the wireless plans. The wireless industry in the U.S. has been one of the least consumer-friendly industries for years (just consider the fact that consumers regularly pay as much as $1,000 per megabyte for text messages). There has been a slow change in how the wireless industry prices data, however, and the iPad's data plans with AT&T highlight this.
This change first drew my attention when the Kindle was originally released with unlimited data access built into the price. This was a sea change in how cellular data is sold, as the cost basically became transparent for the customer. That's not to say the customer isn't paying for it, you are, but there's no monthly line item that you are aware of. Now, the Kindle, and other e-book readers that offer similar services, are something of an extreme example because of the very small amount of data that's actually used to send a book to the device. The iPad, however, shows that this isn't an isolated incident.
Let's take a close look at the iPad's mobile data plans. For $15 per month you get 250MB of data transfer and free usage of AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspot network. For twice that amount you get "unlimited" data (read 5GB per month as is standard in the wireless industry) plus access to AT&T's WiFi network. Despite what many are saying, that $15 plan is actually a pretty good deal for many people. For example, I'm a heavy iPhone user, so the first thing I do every morning is pull out my iPhone and check my RSS feeds. I have it in my hand and am usually accessing the Internet for hours every day. Despite that, I regularly use less than 200MB of data each month. This is possible because I, like most people, have access to high-speed WiFi networks at home and work, where I spend most of my time.
Throw in the free access to AT&T Wi-Fi networks and I imagine that most users can get away with that 250MB of use per month without too much trouble. That means that for the first time people can get everywhere access to almost the entire Internet for the same price that dial-up cost a few years ago. Of course for tech geeks like us we're going to be afraid that we'll blow past that 250MB pretty quick and probably spring for the $30 per month plan. Even here, however, we're getting a pretty great deal compared to the $60 per month that cellular companies regularly charge for unlimited data for your computer, even dinky little computers like netbooks.
Perhaps even more important, however, is the fact that these data plans are available on a prepaid basis and can be cancelled at any time. Up until now, in order to get the privilege of paying $60 per month for 5GB of data for your netbook you would have to pay a couple hundred dollars for a modem. If you want that modem for free you're stuck signing a contract for two years. The fact that I can get an iPad with 3G capabilities, and then buy service on a month-to-month basis as necessary is pretty great.
The iPad's data plans are in fact a major competitive advantage for the device. For other companies to compete effectively in this space they're going to not only have to put together a device that matches the iPad's hardware and software experience, but that also matches its connectivity experience. This isn't going to be easy in the short term, and it's a clear example of how Apple has been able to leverage its relationship with AT&T to get a pretty great deal for consumers (as long as you don't live in New York or San Francisco). In the long term you can bet that companies like Verizon, Sprint, HTC and Asus are going to be forced to match or beat the pricing and structure of these plans, and that's going to be a win for all of us, no matter what device we use.
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
• How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic
• With The iPad, Apple Takes Google To the Mat
• Web Tablet Survey: Apple's iPad Hits Right Notes
Переслать - Condé Nast Confirms At Least 5 Magazine Titles iPad Bound
When Apple does eventually get around to shipping the iPad, which may not be as soon as many of us had hoped, we’ll at least have some good quality, familiar content to enjoy on the platform according to an internal announcement by Condé Nast as reported by the New York Times. Five well known magazine titles will be making the jump to the iPad shortly after it begins to appear on store shelves.
The titles in question are Wired, GQ (for which an iPhone app already exists), Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour. Video has already been making the rounds about what an iPad (and other tablet) based version of Wired will look like and how it will function. We’ll probably see something very similar from the others, although it will be interesting to see if each takes a different approach to the new medium.
The schedule for release of the above-mentioned titles is staggered, with the tablet version of GQ due in April to coincide with the iPad’s launch (if indeed Apple makes that date). Vanity Fair and Wired are said to then be following with a June release, and The New Yorker and Glamour are bringing up the rear with a much more vague summer timeframe for deployment. All of the magazines will reportedly be sold through iTunes, though Wired is planned as a multi-platform release, and Condé Nast is also involved in the multi-publisher project that aims to be “Hulu for magazines.”
When Apple introduced the iPad, it spent a lot of time talking about the iBookstore, and about its arrangement with book publishers to bring novels and non-fiction content to the platform. What it didn’t really mention at all was how periodicals would fit into this new device’s repertoire. As someone who takes full advantage of the Kindle’s magazine and newspaper subscription options, the absence of any such mention made me a little nervous.
The marquee value associated with these top Nast titles makes me feel a little bit better about the iPad’s future as a magazine reader. Sure, reading The New Yorker on my Kindle is fine, since its almost entirely about the text and not so much about images, but the potential the iPad holds for titles like National Geographic actually has my mouth watering. Especially as the platform matures and publishers move away from static content and towards innovative formats that take better advantage of the iPad’s special abilities.
The evolution of magazines into digital media won’t only affect users of the iPad, though. It’ll also help determine the winner in the brewing war between Adobe and Apple regarding Flash. Apple seems immovably set against using the tech on any of its iPhone OS-based devices, but Condé Nast and other publishers aren’t yet ready to completely cut off that avenue to consumer dollars. All Things Digital reports that they’ll explore both options until the picture of which is more viable becomes clear:
[I]n a conversation I had with Chuck Townsend last week, Condé's CEO was more blunt: He can't fully embrace the Wired version, which was created with Adobe's (ADBE) help and uses Adobe's Flash platform, unless Apple (AAPL) embraces Flash.
Condé will have "two parallel development tracks going until the relationship between Apple and Adobe is clear," he told me Friday.Until some kind of resolution is achieved, consumers will be the ones to suffer. The Wired iPad app will look much like the one we’ve seen in the video, with lots of rich content, but the other magazine titles being prepared will likely just be static versions of the originals until Condé sees the value in investing in Apple’s platform over Adobe’s. Personally, I think Jobs is right to deny Flash access, especially given the exciting new abilities HTML5 is giving to web content, so I’m willing to wait a while to see Flash fail. Does a magazine impasse affect your feelings on the subject either way?
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
• How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic
• With The iPad, Apple Takes Google To the Mat
• Web Tablet Survey: Apple's iPad Hits Right Notes
Переслать - Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone
While Tuesdays are known for Apple product launches, today the company announced not a new Mac but a lawsuit over patent infringement related to the iPhone. The target was mobile phone maker HTC, and none other than Steve Jobs was making the accusations.
"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
At issue are some 20 patents relating to the “iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware,” though specifics have not yet been divulged, nor has there been a response from HTC. More details will undoubtedly be made public as the lawsuit proceeds in both the U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Nonetheless, the accusation of intellectual property theft over handheld device patents sounds oddly familiar, except it wasn’t Apple making the accusation recently, but Nokia.
In December, Nokia sued Apple over patents relating to standards covering "wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption,” accusing Apple of “attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation." Apple promptly countersued, General Counsel Bruce Sewell also using the S-Word, stating that "other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours."
If this all sounds harsh, it is. The flurry of patent lawsuits and counter-lawsuits is something of an anomaly, in that companies like Apple, HTC, and Nokia normally use their massive patent portfolios to protect themselves from litigation. It’s like the concept of nuclear weapon stockpiles and mutually assured destruction (MAD), but with lawyers. What’s got Apple and others pushing the red button now is nothing less than the future of personal computing. As portability moves from the laptop to the handheld, companies like Apple apparently feel the potential legal fallout is worth the risk.
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