Iphone Updates

If you’re a fan of web-based group chat tool Campfire, you may be pleased to learn that it’s now available for the iPhone. Now, when you visit Campfire sites on the iPhone, you’ll be directed to an iPhone-optimized version.

Due to the way the developers have created the iPhone version, you’ll need to use two-fingered scrolling to move through your transcript. For more details, check out 37signal’s post, where they explain the technical reasons for the two-finger scroll. Apparently, on the iPhone the “auto” overflow property for HTML gets rendered as a separate frame.

If you’d like to learn more about the iPhone’s special capabilities and limitations with respect to its Mobile Safari implementation, I strongly recommend you look into the iPhone Web Dev group at google groups.

The first MacBook Air knowledge base article I posted about wasn’t exactly breaking news, but you can find out lots of new tidbits about the MacBook Air by perusing the newly unveiled MacBook Air support page. Take a look at the User’s Guide (PDF), chime in on the forums, or figure out how to setup your MacBook Air.

Looks like there is some interesting stuff in there, and perhaps reading about the MacBook Air will help you stop compulsively refreshing that tracking information Apple sent you.

One of my intermittent day-job responsibilities is to move big chunks of data (20 GB or more in a session) from the friendly, forgiving, name-your-files-whatever-you-want confines of a Mac OS X server onto cranky, finicky, no-funky-characters (but portable) NAS devices so that the data can travel with a production team to some far-away city. This is generally a straightforward and simple task, except for one annoying fact: illegal characters, as SMB or NTFS define them, in file or folder names can bring those massive copies to a screeching halt. Major buzzkill!

There are a few ways to clean up filenames to make them legal for transfer; I’ve used both FileBuddy and A Better Finder Rename with success, and ABFR even has an “NTFS legal” preset for quick action. For a single-purpose tool, though, there’s now NTFSready, This 10-euro donationware tool will hunt through your files and folders for illegal characters, nuke them, and that’s about all there is. Is it worth it? Well, if you need to rename files for NTFS use on an everyday basis, maybe. At 10 euro, though, I’d say you’re better off paying the $19.95 for ABFR and getting the flexibility that comes with it.

If you want an instant conversion mechanism for web videos to iPod-able formats, there’s the recently mentioned Tooble; if you want the same capability in a handy Safari plugin, there’s CosmoPod. The 2.0 version of CosmoPod is now available and it offers H.264 support, QuickTime 7.4 compatibility, and more.

CosmoPod will convert almost all web video and dump it directly to iTunes to be synced to your device, for €6.90 or $10, and there’s a 5-day demo available. Check it out.

As we speak many, many people are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their MacBook Air. When you open up the MacBook Air you’ll see that it includes a Leopard installation disk, as every other Mac does. This Apple KB article supplies us with an interesting fact: the Leopard disk will only work with a MacBook Air. The Installer checks to see if it is running on an Air, and if it isn’t refuses to install Leopard.

Clearly, with support for multi-touch gestures and Remote Disc, the MacBook Air is likely running a slightly custom install of OS X, so it makes sense that Apple would limit it to installing on the Air. In the same vein Apple warns you not to try and install a non-MacBook Air version of Leopard onto the Air. Something to keep in mind.

Update: This is why you shouldn’t blog before having your morning caffeine, folks. As many people in the comments pointed out this isn’t new to the MacBook Air, most restore disks only work the with model of Mac that they came with. It is still interesting to note, though, for people new to the Mac (right? Any body?).

ZDNet’s George Ou doesn’t exactly have a great record when it comes to Apple related analysis, but even the stopped clock is right twice a day, and he’s got an interesting article up about the forthcoming HD movies that Apple is planning to offer with Apple TV Take Two. His central point is this: high definition video is about more than resolution (whether 720p or 1080i/p); it also matters significantly how much the video is compressed. So his complaint is that the HD download services (both Xbox Live and the forthcoming Apple TV) offer video compressed so highly that even if it has the requisite number of pixels it “is simply not HD by any respectable definition.” He’s got another post illustrating the point.

Having become a bit of a HD video buff myself, I think his central claim is true. The highly-compressed video from the download services does not hold a candle to Blu-ray or HD DVD on a large 1080p display. If you think about the files’ relative sizes, how could it possibly? By the same token, however, it’s not entirely clear that this is what matters most to consumers. The obvious comparison is to audio; 128kb AAC files sound significantly worse than CDs with complex music and yet Apple has sold literally billions of them. So it may turn out that the convenience of the HD downloads ends up trumping video quality except for the videophiles. However, if that’s so it’s nonetheless true that average consumers make up the fat part of the curve where the real money is to be made. So even if Ou is right about the technical issues, it’s not entirely clear that it’ll matter in the long run. What do you think?

Although I am, and always will be, a devoted user of Apple products, the Macintosh and OSX, occasionally I find the need to do something that only the vagaries of Windows can accomplish. In the past, this required me to have a separate computer (a PC) with an install of Windows.

Fortunately, with Apple’s switch to all Intel all the time, I no longer need that other Windows PC and instead can use a “virtual” Windows PC running on my Mac with the help of a software product provided by Parallels or VMware.

In the past, I was a big fan of Parallels and used it exclusively. More recently, though, I have switched to VMware Fusion for my Windows virtualization needs. Nothing against Parallels, its still a great product, but I just find VMware a bit more “Mac-like” and easier to setup and use. If you agree and use VMware Fusion as well, head on over to their website because there’s an update to the software waiting there just for you.

This update is, according to the VMware site: “a maintenance release that contains fixes for a variety of issues.” What might these issues be, you may wonder? Well, if you really want to know, feel free to read the release notes. Or, if you decide to just “go for it” and not read the fine print, go here and download away.

When it comes to alarm-clock applications for the Mac, we’ve got two very fine choices — Alarm Clock Pro from Koingo Software, and Awaken from Embraceware. For most people, using your Mac as an alarm clock may seem a little unusual, but at the time I happened to be at University I lived in fear of my regular alarm clock’s tone. So, with my Mac on the desk a few feet away, I set about finding a suitable Mac alarm clock application. I eventually settled with Awaken, and since then it’s interrupted plentiful hours of slumber with music of my choosing.

You can imagine my joy then, to discover that Awaken was updated on Sunday to a whole new version: version 4. A significant re-write under-the-hood and a new UI cap a feature list that now includes: the ability to run scripts with alarms; the ability to select specific podcasts (not just music as with prior versions); better Apple Remote support and an improved full-screen mode.

Best of all, the update from version 3.x to 4 is free for registered users (though, you will need to re-enter your registration information and alarms after updating), and costs just $12.95.

The same geniuses who brought you the iJailbreak solution for Apple’s latest iPhone and iPod Touch 1.1.3 firmware have gone that extra mile of tweaking and created iJailbreak Mobile: now you can enable unofficial third-party software on your cellphone or PMP without even needing to use your Mac or PC.  Requiring your device has already been Jailbroken for versions 1.1.1 or 1.1.2, the process involves adding ‘http://ijailbreak.com/repo.plist’ to Installer.app and running the new application that installs while with a decent WiFi connection.

 

Photo via Crunchgear

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Here in the UK it’s not uncommon for the iPod Touch to be described as “all the best bits of the iPhone” with the less-successful parts (the non-3G phone, the relatively-poor camera, and of course the carrier lock) omitted; Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf is willing to go one further, however: he’s claiming that Apple gave up 1.5 million iPhone sales during Q4 2007 by releasing the Touch with its almost-iPhone feature set, and moreover knew exactly what they were doing.

“If the company is successful in this endeavour, it would provide a compelling upgrade path for the estimated 85 million people who already own iPods.  And it could attract new users to both the iPhone and the iPod platform as well. The company appears willing to risk the cannibalization of a significant number of iPhones to accomplish this” Charlie Wolf, analyst, Needham & Co.

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UK Apple partner O2, who hold the exclusivity contract on the British version of the iPhone, have today announced a refresh of their iPhone-specific monthly tariffs that could see users with up to three times the amount of included voice minutes and SMS text messages as before.  While the two entry-level packages – priced at £35 ($69) and £45 ($89) – will not change in price, subscribers on the cheapest tariff, say, will receive 600 minutes rather than 200.

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Today, Apple added a new “Find Out How” section to their website. This new page features video tutorials of the following aspects of the Mac:

• Mac OS X
• Photos
• Movies
• Web
• Music
• Documents

This information is no doubt welcome to many new switchers, or potential switchers, who want to learn more about the user interface. You can also subscribe to these in iTunes by clicking the “Download videos to iTunes” button at the bottom of the video window.

Thanks Joseph!

This is fun. A couple of years ago, we pointed out a nice archive of Apple’s homepage. Today, the folks at Macenstein have collected similar images from Flickr user Kernel Panic into a video history. Some of the really old stuff isn’t represented, but it’s still a fun way to waste a few minutes.

Who remembers Apple Cafe? How about the smoking bunny suit? Or my favorite: “Beyond the rumor sites. Way beyond.”

Enjoy.

The search for the missing iPhones continues, with analyst Tony Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research throwing more numbers around in what at least partly looks like an attempt to justify his ongoing warmth toward Apple stock.  Sacconaghi suggests that a whopping 27-percent of the iPhones sold in 2007 have been unlocked and, in the vast majority of cases, are being used in countries where the cellphone is not officially available.  That works out to around one-million handsets unlocked, each estimated to be generating 50-percent less revenue and 75-percent less profits for Apple compared to those registered to authorised carriers.

 

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If you’re an iWork 08 user, then you may want to run a software update, as Apple has just pushed out updates for all three applications. As ever, there’s hugely informative release notes: for Pages 3.0.2 and Numbers 1.0.2 “[t]his update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X” while the Keynote 4.0.2 update “primarily addresses performance issues while playing or exporting presentations.”

On the TUAW Intel testbed here in the UK, the updates weigh in at 32.4MB, 29.3MB and 27.4MB for Keynote, Pages and Numbers respectively.

Keynote 4.0.2 at Apple.com
Pages 3.0.2 at Apple.com
Numbers 1.0.2 at Apple.com

Thanks to all those who sent this in!

The world’s thinnest notebook is now shipping, Apple announced today. MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point. And at it’s maximum height of 0.76-inches, it’s less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.
Apple also announced that the free Apple TV software update enabling movie rentals is not quite finished and will now be available in another week or two.

In a turn of events that almost seems too bizarre to be true, Russian journalist and 14-year Mac user Alex Patsay has written an open letter to Apple PR following what sounds to be a disastrous launch event in Moscow.  According to Patsay, Apple has added a 75-percent markup on iPods in Russia – taking a 16GB iPod Touch to the equivalent of $710 – and priced the MacBook Air above even inflated European prices: $5,000 for the SSD version.

More worrying, Apple is apparently contravening Russian law by failing to offer the MacBook Air with Cyrillic lettering on the keyboard, nor a Russian-localised iPod Touch.

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Software is a cruel mistress, and no one knows that better than the fine folks at Microsoft’s Mac BU. They work hard to bring us the best Mac software they can, and yet there are some in the Mac community that won’t cut them a break just because they work for Microsoft.

That’s why I feel for them, given the flaw that has been found in the Office 2008 for Mac installer. It would seem that the Office installer incorrectly sets some permissions on files, allowing a second local user on your Mac, i.e. a user other than the admin user installing the software, to modify the Office apps and some supporting libraries. This, of course, is not a good thing but the Mac BU has posted instructions on their blog to fix this via some Terminal commands. They also promise that an update to Office will be coming along shortly which will fix the problem for those of users who aren’t comfortable in the Terminal.

A great response to an unfortunate mistake, but something tells me TUAW commenters will not be kind to our friends at the Mac BU.

Mike Lee, the “world’s toughest programmer,” and official Major-domo for Delicious Monster sat down with Scott to show off some features coming to Delicious Library 2. We know a lot of you are itching for the release of this one, and Mike gives an answer to when it’ll ship… sort of.

Other items in the video:
- sharing your library
- media launching
- more categories (now tracks gadgets)
- .Mac (and more) publishing options
- metadata support
- robust import/export tools
- one click backup
- why no pro version?
- scripting support!
- plus a first look at a feature that will have Cory flipping out

Mike also talks about charity, and his efforts to help in Madagascar. The read link will take you to Mike’s Club Thievey where you can help.

The video is after the jump.

Continue reading TUAW Interviews Mike Lee of Delicious Monster, looks at Delicious Library 2

If you’ve been dying to find out what the MacBook Air is really like, and weren’t fortunate enough to be at Macworld to spend a little time hands-on with the latest Apple laptop, our colleagues over at sister-site Engadget have been busy testing the MacBook Air, and have just posted their review.

Taking you through all the innovations (and compromises) it comes highly recommended especially with the galleries. Even as someone who was at Macworld, I remain astounded at the engineering involved in getting this machine just as thin as it is. Ryan Block makes some excellent points, and his concluding sentence (not wanting to ruin it for you) will undoubtedly resonate with a lot of people — TUAW staff included.

The fixtures at Apple Stores are very physical manifestations of Apple’s legendary attention to detail. They are amongst the best designed consumer experiences I have ever had in an electronics store (many high end boutiques offer up the same attention to detail, but they are also not selling computers and iPods). Therefore, it makes sense to me that some people might want to buy similar things for their own and now you can. OOBject has compiled a list of all the materials that go into an Apple store (OK, if not everything in an Apple store, then lots of things that you might find).

Remember, TUAW isn’t responsible for any damage to your credit cards that this link might cause.

Some critics scoff at the notion that as many as 30% of all iPhones are being used in countries without an official carrier agreement. Just from our own reader comments/reports (and dim-witted criminals) we have no problem with the plausibility of those figures. One thing is for certain, plenty of people outside the officially contracted countries have and are using iPhones. And we want pictures!

Reader Jim wrote to us with this suggestion, and we think it’s just great. So, here’s the deal – if you live in a country where the iPhone is not officially available (or you are visiting one of those countries) and you spot someone using an iPhone, take a picture. If you are a non-carrier iPhone owner yourself, we want your pictures too! We would like to see shots that at least somewhat indicative of their geographical location — just so we can answer any of the nay-sayers who try to claim the photos are fake.

Send your pictures to photos AT tuaw.com and we’ll post up a gallery of the submissions. I think it will be interesting to see how many places the iPhone has traveled, even without an official contract.

Thanks Jim!

The MacBook Air is a sexy machine, there is no doubting that, but how does it perform? Our buddies at Macworld ran some preliminary tests and this thing isn’t a speed demon. Macworld tested a stock MacBook Air 1.6GHz processor and the 80 gig harddrive and compared it to a stock MacBook (2Ghz Core 2 Duo), a MacBook Pro (2.2GHz Core 2 Duo), a Mac mini (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo), and a PowerBook (1.67GHz G4).

How did the MacBook Air rate? Well, it beat the PowerBook and that’s something, right? All the other Intel based Macs were faster than the MacBook Air, but these results aren’t too shocking. If you’re interested in a MacBook Air you aren’t buying it for performance, but rather for its compact size.

Many TUAW readers, I would assume, are in either employed by, or dabble in, the creative pursuits. This means from time to time you have to fire up an illustration program, or design something using a color scheme. Luckily, I spend most of my time writing, not designing. I am mildly colorblind, and have very poor color sense (if you’ve watched any of our videos from Macworld featuring me you know I’m not kidding) so picking the right color scheme for anything is often beyond my feeble talents. That’s why I was so very excited when I first heard of kuler.

kuler is a rather cool Flash web app, from the fine folks at Adobe, that makes it simple to pick a pleasing color combination. Even better, if lets you save your combo and share it with the rest of the kuler users, who can rate the combos and find one that is just right for that Knight Rider tribute website they are working on.

But, I hear you asking, what the heck does this have to do with Macs? Well, my impatient reader, let me tell you about Mondrianum. Mondrianum is a cool plugin for your Mac that lets you access kuler combinations from within any app that has a color palette available. You can search kuler combos, see the highest rate, the most popular, or the most recent additions and you can even save favorite colors in little wells at the bottom of the window.

Mondrianum (which is a very clever name) is currently in beta and only works with Leopard.

Netgear’s ReadyNAS is a NAS, yes, but it comes pre-configured with an iTunes server, bittorent, wireless disk and printer support and more. Quite the plug-and-play darling, Netgear was kind enough to create some Mac-friendly tools to manage the thing (it’s got a Widget!). You can configure the thing to your heart’s delight , which makes it that much more versatile.

There are several flavors of ReadyNAS: a rackmount server for business folk, a cute entry-level NAS called Storage Central, the Duo series, and the terribly gorgeous NV+ series. The sweet spot for most people will likely be the Duo or NV+, as the Storage Central doesn’t have the extensive RAID tools every other model above does. The product grid says something about embedded mirror/data protection, but I’m not sure that is RAID (or configurable).

Prices for the NV+ with a whopping 4TB of X-RAID storage ran from roughly $2,000 to $3,000. By comparison, the old Storage Central lines can be found online for around $70 (hard drive not included, $90 from Netgear), but the new line, Storage Central Turbo, was floating close to the MSRP of $200 (shows $189.99 on the Netgear store).

Check out the demo with Scott after the jump.

Continue reading Show floor video: Netgear ReadyNAS stores and plays it all

There have been plenty of attempts at LCD glasses, iPod goggles, 3D eyewear, and even a hacked iPod cyborg model, but the Zeiss Cinemizer is a little different. First of all, if the name Zeiss looks familiar, it should be. That’s Carl Zeiss, one of the most respected names in optics. The Cinemizer, as a result, has a pristine viewing experience, but perhaps more importantly, doesn’t suffer from the front-heavy, nose-jamming weight you find on previous offerings.

The Cinemizer supports 3D (if the video is 3D to begin with), and has a battery/control system that’s about as elegant as you’re going to get with something you have to strap your iPod into. Check out the video as Mike puts it through the paces. Unfortunately our “mind’s eye” adapter was in the shop, so you won’t be seeing what Mike sees, but his description and facial contortions are hilarious ample enough.

(Video after the jump)

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: TUAW Hands-on with the Zeiss Cinemizer, 3D goggles for your iPod

Sometimes I wonder if the frequent use of the terms “unlock” and “jailbreak” in conversations about the iPhone has caused a cognitive break for people who would otherwise keep to the straight and narrow. Case in point: two New York truckdrivers and an accomplice decided the best way to easy money was to crack open a shipment of 300 iPhones bound for Hong Kong, pull the phones out of the bottom of the shipping crate, throw in some reams of paper for weight and then re-shrinkwrap the package for delivery. Genius!

Unfortunately for the three men, the package didn’t look quite right to an airline worker in Hong Kong, who alerted cops. The investigation led back to the Baldwin, LI shipping company that had transferred the iPhone crate, and the drivers who had sold the illicit phones (some on Craigslist) for an $80,000 windfall. The men were arrested in possession of $23,000 (quite a bit of cash already gone on luxury splurges) and just about to move to Florida. Per the NY Daily News:

When he was asked about them last week, the truck drivers’ boss said, “It’s funny you should be asking about them. They just resigned.”

No kidding. I think we’ve all learned something today… first, if you’re going to replace packaged iPhones with something, rock beats paper. Second, 300 iPhones in a crate going to Hong Kong, where they aren’t officially on sale? Maybe those 30% unlock estimates aren’t so wacky after all.

No, this won’t be another post where I explain my reasons for loving and ordering the MacBook Air. That will come later when I actually have the MBA in my hands. Until then, I want to pass along a little bit of knowledge I learned while doing Mac consulting many moons ago: many files and folders on your Mac should be left alone and not moved or thrown away.

One particular incident that illustrates this point happened to a user who called me one day saying his entire Microsoft Entourage store of emails, contacts, etc. had just “disappeared” and Entourage had “reset to when it was new.” Well, naturally that sounded a bit odd to me so I went over to see what I could do to resolve this little problem.

After a bit of searching around I discovered the user had “accidentally” moved a very important folder out of a folder called “Documents” (which is located in his individual “Users” folder) to the Trash. For the win, can you guess which folder he threw in the trash? iI you guessed it was his “Microsoft User Data” folder, you would be correct.

Fortunately for this particular user, after moving the folder back where it belonged all was well with Entourage and his data was restored. Let’s go over that again, just to be clear. This particular folder, the “Microsoft User Data” folder, is located in your particular “Documents” folder on the hard drive of your computer.

Continue reading Mac 101: Don’t move those files!

The stability of the latest iPhone Jailbreak method – which allows unofficial third-party applications to be run on handsets with the latest 1.1.3 Apple firmware – is being questioned, as multiple users report issues with their iPhones after installing the patch.  Most common is for AT&T customers who have previously upgraded to 1.1.3 being unable to connect to the network after attempting the Jailbreak.

 

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After both AT&T and Apple reported strong performance in 2007, you’d think it would be a time of celebrations for market-weary analysts.  However, discrepancies in the figures each company has presented are leading to head-scratching and an increasing number of questions.  Apple has announced total iPhone sales of 3.7 million across the US and their European carrier partners; AT&T revealed yesterday that they sold 2 million of the handsets in 2007.  With estimated European sales – likely something of a sore point at Cupertino – figured to be between 300,000 and 400,000, that leaves 1.3 million iPhones unaccounted for.

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After suspicions that the rumored iPhone 1.1.3 Jailbreak solution was a hoax, the Dev Team have pleased us all by rolling out a working patchfor the latest iPhone firmware that leaves unlocked handsets compatible with any SIM and, thanks to some clever on-the-fly adaptation of Apple’s official firmware update, doesn’t wipe any data from your cellphone.  Available in Mac and PC versions, the software downloads the 1.1.3 upgrade, decompresses is, Jailbreaks and adds Installer.app to it, then flashes the iPhone with the modified version.  After a reboot you not only have all of the latest Apple features – including multi-recipient SMS and assisted-GPS – but the ability to load third-party applications in advance of the official SDK.

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Even as Sprint tentatively rolls out the XOHM network here in the States, the largest Indian telecom company is planning to build a mobile WiMax network covering three states on the subcontinent capable of serving 250 million people. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is leaning on Soma Networks to build the broadband-speed network in response to government requirement that 20 million broadband lines be in service by 2010. The WiMax rollout will first hit the largest and most-connected states, but BSNL is planning on extending the network if things go well. Soma says it’s shipping thousands of base stations to get the network operational at full speed, and that when it’s done, 400 Indian cities will be covered, with downstream speeds of 1.5 megabits per seconds. No word on when that might be, but the race is officially on, Sprint.

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He we go again. Like an evil pope preparing to recapture the Holy Land, Jeff Jones, Microsoft’s self-proclaimed “Security Guy” (and Microsoft Director) just published the Vista One Year Vulnerability Report. As you can see from the graph above, JJ’s methodology concludes that Microsoft’s Vista easily bests the first year vulnerabilities found in XP, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and Apple’s own OS X. As contentious as the report is, is anyone else reflecting on the fact that Vista is more than a year old for businesses (almost exactly one for consumers) yet XP continues to ship standard on many PCs?

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Take this for what it’s worth. After all, DigiTimes’ rumor record has been piss-poor of late. Nevertheless, the widely quoted Taiwanese-tattle rag says that projected iPhone shipments have been reduced from 2 million units to “around 1 – 1.2 million” for the current quarter ending March 2008. This according to Economic Daily News (EDN) sources at component suppliers. Nevertheless, Apple’s own CFO and COO team said on Tuesday that Apple “remains very confident” that they will ship 10 million handsets by the end of 2008 as originally stated — even while projecting a very low (even for Apple) EPS for the March quarter. So who ya going to believe?

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24 years ago today the public could, for the first time, buy themselves a Macintosh computer. This little computer, which cost $2500, changed the way people interact with machines on a very real level. It is also the reason that TUAW exists. Without the Macintosh 128k there would be no TUAW, no Mac, and (most likely) no Apple.

Sound off in the comments if you bought one of those first Macs and share your story of how it impacted your life.

Thanks to everyone who reminded us about this.

It has definitely been an iPhone-friendly day on the interwebs. It was just a few hours ago that the iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak was released to the public by Nate True (from cre.ations.net). However, this was a Windows-only version of the jailbreak; but Nate was working on a Mac version and has just released it!

You can download the Mac version of the software from the cre.ations.net website. Please note that this jailbreak might be hazardous to your iPhone’s health. Before you jailbreak your iPhone, be sure to backup in iTunes — and as always, hacking your iPhone is completely at your own risk.

DiskWarrior, my personal favorite disk repair utility (especially if the problem drive is the startup disk) has just been updated to Version 4.1. The new version is now fully compatible with Leopard (there were some issues with repairing disk permissions on a Leopard startup volume), so if you rely on DiskWarrior as an essential part of your Mac Toolkit arsenal (as I do), you can rest easy.

Alsoft has also introduced some additional Leopard specific repair features in DiskWarrior 4.1. What has me the most excited is the ability to repair directory hard links. Hard-linking is a key part of how Time Machine creates back-ups. How the process works is complicated (although this article does a very good job of trying to explain the whole process), but it is a vital part of Apple’s back-up system. The ability to repair directory hard links means that DiskWarrior 4.1 should be able to at least attempt to repair a Time Machine volume. That has actually been my only concern about Time Machine — what happens if that volume become corrupted or wonky? I hope I don’t find out first-hand, but I’m glad some options exist.

Current users will soon be able to download an update CD directly from Alsoft’s website that will create a new DiskWarrior startup disc (in the event that the drive needing repair is the startup volume and you don’t have access to another Mac). However, please note that the update will only startup the same set of Macs as your current CD. So if your current CD will only boot up to June 2007 MacBook Pros, the update CD will not allow that disc to be used with a November 2007 MacBook.

One other caveat, if you want to run DiskWarrior 4.1 from a version of OS X other than Leopard (say, Tiger), two features will not work. You will not be able to repair permissions of a OS X 10.5 startup disk and you will not be able to rebuild a FileVault created under OS X 10.5. So if you need to repair a Leopard volume, it is best to either run the startup CD or access the drive from a computer that is also running Leopard.

Spaces, Leopard’s virtual desktop feature, is excellent for expanding your desktop by up to 16 workspaces, however, it would be really cool if you could assign specific applications to always open in the same space. Well, you can!

All you have to do is open the Spaces preference pane (Apple Menu > System Preferences > Exposé and Spaces > Spaces tab). Once there, just drag the application you would like to add to the specific space in the overview pane.

An Apple patent application under the name “Illuminated touch pad” has been published by the US Patent & Trademark Office. There are several innovations detailed in the application, but it pertains primarily to touch sensitive inputs that provide light-based visual feedback. Among the variations included is a system that provides feedback with variable intensity (or color) based on direction and speed of the object in the sensing field. It’s a possible indicator of some future advancements in the interface of the iPod classic.

The technology presented could be used in a multitude of devices, current and future. Ultimately, it’s another indicator that Apple will continue to refine the user experience in innovative ways. Of course, I never had many doubts in that area. The MacNN has a detailed description of the patents applied for.

We’re kicking off a few weeks of giveaways with a little bit of Macworld swag from Ambrosia Software. If you didn’t attend Macworld, now’s your chance to pretend you stopped by the Ambrosia booth anyway (for the full experience be sure to watch our interview with founder Andrew Welch too).

What’s in the box? A WireTap Studio t-shirt (XL), a WireTap Studio pin, and a DVD with trial versions of all Ambrosia apps. Basically what you see in the image to the right. Not bad, considering all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (be sure to check your email and validate the comment so it appears). We’ll leave comments and the giveaway open from now until Friday just before midnight (11:59 Eastern). Oh, this one is still just in the US, you gotta be 18, etc. Full rules after the jump.

Recap:

• Ambrosia Macworld swag giveaway, prizes are a t-shirt, pin and DVD.
• To enter, leave a comment on this post. If you’re really cool you’ll tell us your favorite Ambrosia app.
• Comment must be left before January 25, 11:59PM Eastern time.
• Three winners will be chosen, and their prizes shipped directly from Ambrosia.
• Complete Official Rules click here.

Continue reading Ambrosia Macworld swag giveaway

While we wait for Apple to cram a TV tuner or cable card into the Apple TV (don’t hold your breath– seriously), El Gato continues to pump out some nice hardware/software tools for watching the tube on your Mac. One thing that caught my eye: you can start distributing recorded live video around your house 30 seconds or so after the EyeTV starts recording a show. I remember when we had to rig some VLC nonsense together to get livestreaming on a remote machine with the old EyeTV. Oh, and they’ve apparently added something very similar to the Season Pass feature on Tivo, which is quite cool.

Check out a nice demo after the jump.

Continue reading Show floor video: El Gato HD hardware and EyeTV 3

I always have a hard time letting Macworld go. When the last day of Expo rolls around it sort of feels like you’re graduating from college and moving away from all your friends. There are some heartfelt goodbyes, promises to stay in touch, and a cap or two are hurled into the air. That’s why I’ll take any excuse I can get to relive those blissful moments one more time, and it would seem that the New York Times is with me on that. They sent a photographer to Macworld 2008 to create this slideshow of Macworld attendees and their gadgets. The most interesting thing is the vast amount of non-Apple gadgets that are on display (there is every someone using a PC!).

How many more sleeps until Macworld 2009?

Mike spoke to Ambrosia Software founder Andrew Welch about their newest app, WireTap Studio. Andrew gave us a few clues as to what to expect in the next version of Snapz Pro, and had a little criticism for Apple regarding games on the Mac.

A splinter dev team has just released its 1.1.3 jailbreak. This jailbreak, as discussed in our earlier post provides a “soft upgrade” path for jailbroken 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 users. (See that post for many of the technical details.) For right now, this jailbreak is limited to Windows users only, with a Mac release expected shortly. This does not jailbreak the iPod touch–iPhone only for now.

A special edition of Nate True’s iBrickr software will prepare the image used for the update and a second installer portion will flash the phone. Smxy repository maintainer, Shaun Erickson has packed up this second portion of the jailbreak, which will be available via Installer.app.

iPhone hacker NerveGas raised concerns as to whether this release would illegally distribute Apple software. Nate assures me that he merely uses a diff (differences) file between the 1.1.3 firmware as provided and the jailbroken 1.1.3 firmware. NerveGas asked me to mention that this release is not canon and distributed against his wishes and against the wishes of some of the dev/elite team. From what I understand, the dev team was behind this release until shortly before Nate took it live. NerveGas’s copyright concerns divided the team, splitting opinions on whether it should go live just at the wire.

Huge kudos for this jailbreak go primarily to the awesome iPhone hackers “planetbeing” and _Fred, who were the first to jailbreak. Other amazing developers include Zibri, netkas, NerveGas, asap18, bgm, Bugout, bushing, chris_, dinopio, drudge, gray, MuscleNerd, natetrue, pr3d4t0r, roxfan, Turbo, Zf[strike], np101137, pumpkin, and kroo, along with many contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

Update: How to fix GoogleMaps Locations–this fix only works for fully legal customers (at&t, orange, o2) (Thanks Netkas!)

Update: We’re still fairly unsure as to what exactly is in the jailbreak software. Nate had told me the only possible infringement would be the difference file between the 1.1.3 dmg and the jailbroken dmg but I’m now told by others (thanks kroo!) that it includes Apple’s iTunesMobileDevice.dll. Engadget’s on-staff legal guru Nilay Patel says that you cannot include Apple’s code in another release, whether or not Apple posts the code online for free, adding that there’s probably a license agreement somewhere that prevents modification.

Looking for a cheezburger to go with your iPhone? You’re in luck. The goofballs (and I say that with fondest affection) over at ICanHasCheezburger have created an official iPhone app so you can cart the cats around with you wherever you go. Just bookmark this on your phone’s Safari browser and whenever you visit you’ll be greeted by the 30 most recent lolcat pictures. It even updates every time there’s a new post.

Don’t have an iPhone? To dream and drool, check out the demo page the creators put together (it’s only viewable on a Mac).

Now this site needs the same treatment.

Ah, it is that magical time after an Apple announcement: the big media reviews are starting to roll in. As you might be aware Apple loans out new hardware to technology journalists to put through their paces. The MacBook Air, being a new product, was delivered to a few tech heavy hitters (with the slightly less heavy hitters having to wait a little longer to get their review unit. And no, TUAW doesn’t get any review units from Apple) sometime last week, and have been subjected to lots of prodding. The first few reviews are up, and they all pretty much say the same thing: the MacBook Air is really thin, and a great machine so long as you don’t need the ports it doesn’t have. The good news seems to be that Apple’s estimate of 5 hours of battery life doesn’t seem to be too far off.

Read ‘em’ for yourself:

• Edward Baig’s review in USA Today
• Steven Levy’s review in Newsweek
• Walt Mossberg’s review in The Wall Street Journal

Our friends at Engadget just received their review unit, and have confirmed what we suspected: the external SuperDrive will not work with other Macs. They also list what you can and can’t do with Remote Disc.

And finally, the groovy folks at Gearlog have received their review unit and kindly posted unboxing pictures. Who doesn’t like a good set of unboxing pictures?

TUAW can confirm that the dev/elite team is closing in on a public jailbreak of the recently released 1.1.3 iPhone firmware. Chances of having your 1.1.3 iPhone or iPod touch updated and jailbroken within the next week are good. The jailbreak appears to be based on a “soft update” exploit that merges the files from 1.1.2 and 1.1.3, so you get all the jailbreaky-goodness of 1.1.2 while enjoying the fabulous jiggling icons and WebClips of 1.1.3 — plus access to the 1.1.3 command line and all the fun custom software that entails. More details as this develops.

Thanks to aCujo.

What we know

The team has developed a soft jailbreak based on upgrading your 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhone or iPod touch to 1.1.3 software. You perform this upgrade by decrypting a disk image inside the Apple-supplied ipsw archive. This archive lives in your home library and can be downloaded on-demand from Apple. The team will supply the decryption key along with instructions on how to perform the soft upgrade–there may be a tool as well that automates this process similar to the jailbreak.jar from the 1.1.2 jailbreak. Those who have avoided upgrading in order to preserve their iPhone unlocks will be able to use most of the 1.1.3 software but will not have access to the new Google Location feature.

Timeline

Live Updates

Baseband and Google Location: You won’t have to upgrade your baseband–but Google Location won’t work unless you do. So that’s a tradeoff. If you don’t plan to unlock the iPhone, you’re better off upgrading your baseband. Don’t forget: Downgrades are limited to boot loader 3.9. With 4.6, you can downgrade the firmware but not the baseband. (Thanks Nervegas.) Nicholas A. asks “Can AT&T customers update to the new baseband and still have a jailbreak?” Yes. Alva E: “Will this work with IPSF?” Yes–but don’t upgrade your baseband!

Gaining access to Google Location (prevents unlock) I’m told (again, thank you NerveGas) that the easiest way to upgrade is to use iTunes to upgrade to 1.1.3 and then downgrade (TUAW method, better illustrated method) to apply the jailbreak. This allows you access to all the Google Location stuff plus phone calls if you’re an AT&T customer. If you’re not, it’s best to stay below 1.1.3 and *then* do the jailbreak.

1.1.3 Unlock? No. Yes, people are working on a 1.1.3 unlock–but that’s not going to happen in the same short time frame that the jailbreak will appear in.

Prerequisites Hav0c asks: “Can you update from 1.1.1 or do you need 1.1.2?” NerveGas says: 1.1.1 will work fine.

When will the jailbreak be released? Current time estimate for jailbreak release: “Soon”, according to NerveGas

What are bootloaders? Reader asks: “What’s Boot Loader 3.9?” Answer Bootloader is the iPhone program that loads up the operating system (I think this comes from “pulling your self up by your own bootstraps”). Apple has released several versions of the bootloader and unlocks have been limited to which bootloader is running on your system. 1.0.2-1.1.1 shipped with bootloader 3.9. Newer iPhones run 4.6. This shows you how to check which version of the bootloader you’re running. As a rule, it doesn’t matter–unless you want or need to unlock.

How does this all work? The dev/elites are apparently working on making the upgrade as easy as possible, according to NerveGas. Since the devs cannot release the decrypted software (copyright issues), the jailbreak will tell you how to decrypt your own dmgs and load the updated software onto your unit. Nmrlron asks: “What happened to the not release 1.1.3 jailbreak until the SDK?” NerveGas answered: “This is not strictly speaking a full jailbreak. This is a soft upgrade process that lets us continue to keep the vulnerabilities secret.”

Using special SIMs Will you be able to use TurboSIM/StealthSIM, etc? Since this frankenupgrade does not affect the baseband, one assumes that yes, you will be able to use these–but that’s a personal guess and unconfirmed.

A post today at iLounge suggests that a close analysis of Apple’s sales numbers for iPhone, contrasted with AT&T activation stats, leads to a somewhat surprising conclusion: somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of all iPhones sold worldwide are being sold to users who intend to unlock them, or possibly to middlemen who are shipping the phones to countries not yet serviced by Apple and its carrier partners.

While there wasn’t a hard number on the most recent results conference call, the Q4 call indicated that 250,000 phones had already been sold to unlockers, by Apple’s estimate. Clearly, there’s demand out there for iPhone outside the exclusive carrier relationships.

If you do any work in Office you’ve probably been waiting for the latest update for a couple of years now. Especially if you’re on an Intel machine or have struggled with Entourage’s funky interface (or is that just me?). Last week Microsoft released Office 2008 for the Mac, and it’s a doozy of an update. Being a universal binary is really the least of the changes. This is a complete overhaul, with a ton of UI changes and workflow improvements. Amanda Lefebvre takes us on a whirlwind tour of some new features, and explains the difference between the three different editions of Office.

I use Thunderbird for email on my laptop running Ubuntu. It works great, but the default skin isn’t to my liking. I’ve tried skinning it with mixed results, but today I’ve found The Skin I’ve Been Looking For (but not in a creepy, Buffalo Bill kind of way).

Deviant Art user ~Rio-2007 has posted a very convincing Mail for Leopard skin. After download, simply apply the skin via Thunderbird’s Add-Ons option (Thunderbird 2.0 is required).

Try it out. Because even our non-Macs must resemble Macs, not that we’re obsessed.