Iphone Updates

“We’ve tested the Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, the iMac, the Mac Mini, and the XServe,” exclaims Richard Hoffman (informationweek,com). “There’s not a bad Apple among the bunch, and some are truly superb.” In fact, Hoffman stipulates that “the entire product line is one of the strongest Apple’s ever had. Without hyperbole, it may be the best overall line of computers anyone has had, ever.”

Are you a browser fiend? The sort of person who loves Safari, yet can’t quite live with some of its peculiarities? If you hadn’t guessed, I certainly am one of those people. I love the speed and simplicity of Safari, but it never worked as well as (say) Camino, particularly when it came to persuading links from the likes of Gmail to open in the same window. No number of SIMBL hacks (yes, hacks) seemed to persuade Safari to open links in the existing window – driving me away from Safari, and instead swear by Camino.

But that’s about to change, as Apple has added a hidden preference to Safari 3.1 that allows you to tell Safari to stick to one window. Even in Gmail. Tipster Dennis Stevense, explains in a blog post that through a simple Terminal command, true one-window mode is finally, finally, here for Safari. All you need to enter is the command below into Terminal, hit enter, and you’re sorted.

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Thanks Dennis!

Update: If you want to reverse the change, it’s a simple matter of entering the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

Engadget has gotten their hands on iPhone firmware version 2.0. Some of the new features include a scientific calculator when you turn your iPhone sideways with the calculator open and the previously announced Exchange support is as smooth as it should be.

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In awarding Safari 3.1 for Windows a four (out of five) star rating, Michael Muchmore (pcmag.com) indicates that in addition to being able to resize its window from any edge, “a slew of new improvements, some unique features, impressive speed, and future-looking standards support makes it a worthy browsing partner.” It gets flying colors for complience with HTML and CSS standards, kudos for color accuracy, raves for speed and memory tests, and a thumbs up for stability: “in a couple of days’ use of the new browser, I wasn’t able to crash it once” in Windows XP SP2, Vista, or Mac OS X Leopard.

Are you a browser fiend? The sort of person who loves Safari, yet can’t quite live with some of its peculiarities? If you hadn’t guessed, I certainly am one of those people. I love the speed and simplicity of Safari, but it never worked as well as (say) Camino, particularly when it came to persuading links from the likes of Gmail to open in the same window. No number of SIMBL hacks (yes, hacks) seemed to persuade Safari to open links in the existing window – driving me away from Safari, and instead swear by Camino.

But that’s about to change, as Apple has added a hidden preference to Safari 3.1 that allows you to tell Safari to stick to one window. Even in Gmail. Tipster Dennis Stevense, explains in a blog post that through a simple Terminal command, true one-window mode is finally, finally, here for Safari. All you need to enter is the command below into Terminal, hit enter, and you’re sorted.

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Thanks Dennis!

Update: If you want to reverse the change, it’s a simple matter of entering the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

Two big TUAW snaps up to reader Timothy Colburn for tracking down this fab iPod nano offer. Between now and June 30th, when you buy a refurb nano, Apple is going to throw in a $15 iTunes gift card. Sweet! Make sure to read through the how to and the terms and conditions because they’re significantly longer than the offer itself.

So does this mean that Apple is readying itself for an iPod refresh? We have no idea — but a nano in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Update: Just got back from my son’s school play and found several notes in my mailbox about this offer. Apparently, Apple sales associates are not honoring this promotion any more and the promo has been removed from the website.

TUAW reader Rowan Pope pointed us to this insane MacBook Air hacking post. How many USB ports does the Air support? Apple says just one; this post says up to 7. Apparently, the Air has a few extra live USB port connections built into that thar skinny little computer. How do we know this? Because the guy downloaded developer documentation for the ICH-8 chip, which offers 5 low-speed and 2 high-speed USB controllers.

He popped open his Air and measured the voltage at each pin. He then used a hacked memory key with a modded USB extension cable (with an extra resistor just to be safe). After connecting the memory key to one of the pins, his MacBook Air system log reported a USB error. A few more tests and adjustments later, he actually got his laptop to recognize the drive. In total, he found three working USB connections plus an unused SATA controller.

TUAW is awed. Be sure to check out the other mod on this much-opened Air: a carbon-fiber bottom case. Sleek!

If you run iTunes or QuickTime on your Windows PC, but not Safari, you might have seen an uninvited guest show up in the Apple Software Update earlier this week. Yes, Apple thinks you need yet another browser. They tried to slip the new Safari 3.1 in for iTunes owners, a move that has some Windows users up in arms.

Cybernet reminds us that this wasn’t quite unexpected — Steve did say that Apple had made inroads on Windows with iTunes, and that they planned to use those inroads to send Safari around. The only problem is that, while yes, the button and the text do say “Install,” the program is usually used for “updating” software, and so getting new software with the deal wasn’t something a lot of users expected. And users who don’t do anything but the default (I can guarantee you that, since I bought my mother an iPod for Christmas, my parents now have Safari 3.1 installed on their PC, despite the fact that they still aren’t quite sure how that Firefox I installed for them works), are basically getting software they didn’t plan to have.

Sneaky unwanted software scheme, or just a not-so-subtle hint to Windows users that they could be using a better browser? You decide. I just know that I’m going to be paying a little closer attention to exactly what my Software “Update” is updating (or “installing”) from now on.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

If you were one of those people who were excited that Adobe was going to apparently fight to get Flash on the iPhone, get ready to be unexcited: Adobe has decided that despite what they thought earlier, they’re not actually going to be able to get Flash on there using only the SDK from Apple. Nope, Adobe has admitted that they need Apple’s help to get it working (not a big surprise there), and since Apple isn’t really keen to help at all, odds are it’s just not going to happen.

Adobe then announced that they didn’t need your iPhone anyway, Apple, and that they hate you, Apple, and that you never let them have any fun, and that they wish you’d just die! And that they’d never been born! Then they ran to pout in the corner for a good 20 minutes, only to be seen a little while later playing with their trains like nothing had happened.

America’s favorite ex-con (that’s Martha Stewart, not her dog Sharkey, as seen above) just loves her new MacBook Air, according to her blog. Like most MBA owners, she’s “amazed” by how thin it is, and is thrilled that the trackpad “works much the same way as the Apple iPhone” — in fact, her whole writeup reads exactly like an ad from Apple, complete with the link to the Apple Store at the end. Who knew Martha was such a Mac-head?

Although she does settle that debate about whether the book counts as a laptop or a laptop support unit: Martha still keeps her HP right next to the Air, not only because she likes to keep up with both platforms, but apparently because when aides come by her desk to work, she wants them to have choices. And we all know what choice is: a good thing.

In this edition of Ask TUAW we’ll be looking at questions about migrating to a new Mac, full screen video, saving disk space on a notebook, coping data from an iPhone back to a Mac, viewing facing pages in Pages, making audiobooks and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you’re running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we’ll assume you’re running Leopard if you don’t specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue reading Ask TUAW: Migration questions, saving disk space, making audiobooks and more

iPhone hacker Niacin has just released his version of iBooter. Running on Mac, Windows and Linux, iBooter offers an interactive diagnostic and customization tool that talks directly with Apple’s iPhone bootloader. With it you can set environmental variables, write a custom picture to the display (faboo if you’re tired of that USB plug and the iTunes logo), run USB commands and diagnose why, for example, your iPhone isn’t booting correctly.

Full installation instructions are available at the iBooter website as well as downloads for all three platforms. If you need to send commands directly to the baseband, iBooter is the tool you’ve been looking for.

CIOs and IT pros pay money — a lot of money — for the opinions of the Gartner Group. Since I’m not shelling out $95 to buy “Gartner Changes It’s iPhone Enterprise Recommendations,” even though I’m sure it would be worth a giggle or two, I’ll just point you to some folks who have read the new report. Short summary: author Ken Dulaney acknowledges that the circumstances leading to Gartner’s original “burn it, it’s a witch!” stance on the iPhone for enterprise use have changed, and with the additional support for Exchange and ActiveSync coming in June there are far fewer reasons to take a strict stand against iPhones in corporate settings.

Since Dulaney was the principal author of Gartner’s first report, we commend him for sticking with the issue and setting the record straight. Now, about all those C-suite folks who already have iPhones… well, as Gartner describes the support levels required to handle idiosyncratic devices, there’s “concierge,” “appliance” and “platform” levels of support, with “concierge” being the most hands-on and resource-intensive (the iPhone is moving from “concierge” to “appliance” status with the June 2.0 update). How much do you want to bet that CEOs, CFOs and CIOs who go off the reservation and buy themselves iPhones and MacBook Airs are already getting, and will continue to get, “concierge”-level support from their IT departments? Yeah, that’s what I thought too.

Back when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone SDK, he told excited developers that the only applications Apple wouldn’t be permitting through the AppStore were those illegal or pornographic.  Now that some of the dust has settled – and those 100,000+ coders sitting down in front of the SDK! – questions are being asked about just how accurate that statement was.  While it’s open-season for mobile entertainment software such as games, productive apps or messenger clients, developers behind services such as Rhapsody or Napster, who would rival Apple’s own iTunes store, are curious to know Steve Jobs stance on them creating programs for the iPhone.

“It’s an open question at this point how amenable Apple will be to offering products or applications that could conceivably interfere with its own iTunes revenue stream.  The real interesting test case will be Amazon.  Here’s a music vendor selling songs that are clearly compatible with the iPhone. Unlike with Rhapsody or Napster, there’s no DRM you need to make work” Ross Rubin, analyst, NPD Group

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It looks like Steve Jobs sharp criticism of Adobe’s mobile Flash offering was enough to send them scurrying off to download the iPhone SDK. The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] is reporting that Adobe have been examining the public release of the developer’s package, and are considering creating a special iPhone version of the Flash player.

“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone. We have evaluated [the iPhone SDK] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves”Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe

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Engadget has gotten their hands on iPhone firmware version 2.0. Some of the new features include a scientific calculator when you turn your iPhone sideways with the calculator open and the previously announced Exchange support is as smooth as it should be.

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If you happen to be a photographer who likes to take digital photos using the RAW format, then Apple has just released an update you might want to take a look at and, perhaps, even apply. Appearing today in Software Update is what Apple calls the “Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.0.”

According to the notes in Software Update, this new update “extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras:

Hasselblad CFV-16
Hasselblad H3D-31
Hasselblad H3D-31II
Leaf Aptus 54S
Leaf Aptus 65S
Nikon D60
Olympus E-3
Pentax *ist DL2
Pentax *ist DS2
Pentax K100D Super
Sony DSLR-A200
Sony DSLR-A350

If you’re curious, you can also find more info on this update, which according to this page seems to be a bit of a security update as well, by going to the Apple support site. Of course, as always, if you decide to apply this update and your Mac explodes or something, be sure to let us know.

Potential big changes afoot in the way Apple handles iTunes downloads, with the FT reporting that discussions are underway regarding both “all you can eat” unlimited downloads, based on an at-purchase premium, and subscription-based downloads for the iPhone. While Apple themselves refused to comment on the rumors, “executives familiar with the negotiations” cited disagreements over the price offered to the labels per-device as the primary stumbling block so far.

Apple is understood to be offering around $20 out of the sale of each iPhone or iPod Touch in order for the labels to agree to catalogue access; this is a quarter of what Nokia have agreed to with their “Comes With Music” scheme announced last December. “It’s who blinks first, and whether or not anyone does blink” commented one executive.

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“We’re inseparable from our Macs, and have been for a decade,” says well-known tattoo artist Guy Aitchison. “Computers and the Internet have completely revolutionized our trade,” allowing Aitchison and fellow tattoo artist Michele Wortman to move freely between digital and analog media and to bring elements from a variety of sources into their designs. “I’ve used a Mac to create almost all my designs since I started tattooing,” says Wortman. “With the Mac, we can take our art much further.”

The cloud storage and sync offering from Sharpcast, SugarSync, has released a public beta of its OS X client today, complementing the existing Windows, web and mobile (WinMo + Blackberry, iPhone coming soon) clients. The Mac client and the Windows client appear pretty much the same, but once you set up your sync you don’t have to look at the client UI very often.

SugarSync is a for-pay service that extends your local files seamlessly to your other computers, to a secure webpage, and pretty much to anywhere you think they ought to go. CEO Gibu Thomas describes SugarSync as “get my stuff everywhere,” a supercharged and cross-platform version of .Mac iDisk synchronization. Our colleagues at Download Squad have checked out the service in detail, and there’s a good writeup at webware.com as well.

To use SugarSync, you can define a set of folders to sync, photos to share, “Magic Briefcase” files that live in the cloud and sync down on demand, click and go — then the defined content will be available on all your computers. With both “full sync” and “light sync” modes, you can leave rarely used files on the SugarSync side and only retrieve them as needed (great for those MacBook Air users hungry for storage). You can also selectively share photo galleries or other content via the web UI.

Once you get past the 45-day, 10 GB of storage trial period, you can use the discount available through 4/15 to get a half- off data plan (starts at $25/yr for 10 GB, up to 250 GB for $250/yr).The advantages of SugarSync for backup, specificity of synced items, and a supported client may make you give it a look as an alternative to iDisk, or to cloud solutions like OmniDrive, JungleDisk or other clients for Amazon’s S3 that require you to roll your own synchronization plan.

The market research firm Gartner, reports Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com), is now recommending iPhone to enterprise clients. Dalrymple quotes Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, as saying that the forthcoming release of iPhone software 2.0 will allow “enterprises to develop local code and create applications that do not depend on network capabilities” and that the availability of Exchange Active Sync, push-based email, and additional security features “will open up a huge market for the iPhone” in the enterprise.

Evernote has plans for your brain. More specifically, a vision for the the augmentation of your memory. Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote and a recent Mac convert (who’s been enthusiastically replacing his relatives’ PCs with Macs to cut down on tech support calls) filled us in on Evernote’s big plans.

Originally, Evernote was a Windows desktop application for taking notes, and it was (and is) top-ranked in its class. Then they decided that a broader array of input options and more accessibility could take Evernote light years beyond the initial plans. This included creating a Mac desktop client and a web application to interface everything. It can take your text notes, web clippings, pictures and more, organizing them with a tagging system and attribute filter. The ultimate goal of Evernote is to be, as Phil puts it, a “universal human memory extension.”

The Mac desktop client is being developed from the ground up, not ported from the Windows client. This makes for a true Mac experience and a beautiful interface. Feature parity will eventually be maintained (Windows users currently have a slightly different feature set), but the two clients are being developed separately. Read on after the jump to find out what makes Evernote different from your current system for tracking all the information in your life (and find out how you can get in on it!).

Continue reading Evernote: universal human memory extension

“With the 3.1 release” of Safari for both the Mac and PC, writes Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub, “Safari has become the fastest browser you can use. If that isn’t enough reason to make a switch, its strong adherence to Web standards and rapid adoption of new technologies might make you think again.”

When is an iPhone not an iPhone? When it’s a spirit-level, of course; at least, that’s the latest way to repurpose your $399+ wunderphone. Photographer Ben Long was seemingly staging a ghetto photoshoot but lacked a level to make sure his camera was straight. Thankfully he’d had the foresight to Jailbreak his iPhone, load iLevel – which taps into the iPhone’s accelerometer – and slapped that on the back of the Canon to get the shot balanced.

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With the megapixel race already past the point of noticeable benefit to consumers, it looks like the next camera arms race will be the number of lenses your rig sports — a team at Stanford is working on a 3D camera that uses 12,616 micro-lenses to generate high quality 3 megapixel images with self-contained “depth maps” that measure the distance to every object in the frame. The system works by focusing each lens above four different overlapping sensor arrays, which work in concert to determine depth — just like your eyes. Unlike similar systems, the Stanford rig is able to use that data to create a depth map without lasers, prisms, or even complex calibration, which will allow the team to shrink the tech down to compact and cellphone camera size. Once it’s ubiquitous, the teams says depth map information can be used to do anything from enhancing facial recognition systems to improving robot vision, but there’s still a long way to go — the team has just started trying to work out how to manufacture the system.

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There certainly hasn’t been any shortage of XPERIA X1 details to emerge since the desirable device was first announced back in February, but those still looking for something to whet their appetite until they can actually get their hands on one can now get their fix courtesy of a new white paper released by Sony Ericsson, which packs a bundle of interesting new tidbits. That includes details on the pre-loaded XPERIA panels, along with word of DLNA-compatible media sharing via ActiveSync or WiFi, details on the video recording recording options (30fps MPEG-4 and 30fps H.263, both VGA), and confirmation that the only browser included will be Internet Explorer. Also according to the white paper, you can expect Google Maps and Java ME to be installed by default, and you’ll get Exchange Direct Push email built-in, with setup wizards provided for Gmail, Yahoo, and Live Hotmail. What’s more, as Inxperia points out, there is also a noticeable lack of 1700MHz support, although we doubt that’ll be a deal-breaker for too many folks.

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The University of Michigan’s COM-BAT most definitely isn’t the first mechanical animal to get its inspirations from the bat, but it’s probably the best equipped to play a vital role in modern day warfare. A select group of Wolverines have been blessed with a $10 million grant from the US Army in order to concoct a “six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat [that] would gather data from sights, sounds and smells in urban combat zones and transmit information back to a soldier in real time.” Purportedly, the critter will eventually boast a bevy of sensors, miniature microphones and detectors for picking up nuclear radiation and poisonous gases. Even more interesting, creators are hoping to implement “energy scavenging,” which would enable the bat to stay charged from wind / solar energy along with vibrations and “other sources.” So much for being nocturnal, eh?

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Just a week after we laid hands on a pair of new multimedia powerhouses from Acer, along comes ASUS to keep things interesting. Announced today, the 15.4-inch M50 packs quite the punch, with options for Intel’s latest smattering of Penryn processors, an optional Blu-ray drive and an available ATI Mobile Radeon HD3650 with 1GB of VRAM. The unit also comes with your choice of WXGA, WXGA+ or WSXGA+ panels, any Vista flavor you like, WiFi, up to 4GB of RAM, HDMI and a built-in hybrid TV tuner. Also included is a dual-function trackpad, which enables users to flip through tracks or playlists and adjust the volume of the Altec Lansing speakers when not mousing about. Regrettably, ASUS has yet to dole out any accompanying pricing information, but we doubt this bundle of joy will be anywhere close to a bargain.

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We still don’t know what happened in the 700MHz auction, but Verizon’s going full steam ahead with its open-network policy, holding a press conference today to detail the “Any Apps, Any Device” plan announced back in November. Things should get rolling retail-style by the second half of the year, and it looks like all hardware manufacturers have to do is get their devices certified by Verizon, which characterized the technical requirements as being only slightly stricter than industry standards — the goal is to allow access to the network without causing problems, but other than that there aren’t any UI rules or anything like that. Peace out, BREW. Only FCC-approved devices will be taken in for testing, and there’s a fee for certification, but in return manufacturers are promised a four-week turnaround (eight weeks for the “best practices” cert), with mandatory re-testing every 36 months. As far as apps go, it’s a free for all — customers can do as they wish. Verizon said that the open policy will still be in force when LTE rolls out — the big push into EV-DO was a winning bet, so it’s going to try and be aggressive with 4G as well. The best part? A new flat-rate, multi-device service plan is being considered that would allow all your mobile devices to connect for the price of a single subscription. All in all, a surprising set of announcements for Big Red — in one fell swoop, it’s gone from the most locked-down carrier being at least on par with the GSM networks, and potentially even more flexible if these pricing plans actually pan out. Hmmm, is that a mad rush of Android devs we hear?

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While solid-state hard drives are still only just beginning to catch on, if a group of researchers from Thorrn Micro Technologies have their way, there could soon be another solid-state laptop component headed your way. That component in question is a microchip-sized fan, which boasts no moving parts but is apparently capable of keeping a laptop or other electronic devices cool. To do that, the fan reportedly makes use of the same technology found in household air purifiers, which results in a flow rate three times greater than typical small mechanical fan, not to mention lower power consumption and completely silent operation. Of course, the fan is still in the early testing stages, but the researchers see virtually no end to its potential, with them boasting that it’s “one of the most significant advancements in electronics cooling since heat pipes,” and adding that it could “change the cooling paradigm for mobile electronics.”

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While we’re likely still quite a ways away from having nuke detectors in every cellphone, the Department of Homeland Security is apparently at least making some progress in other somewhat portable options, with it now showing off a radiation-hunting Chevy Suburban XL built with a little help from Raytheon. Intended specifically for the DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, the SUV boasts two sliding panels that can swing out for maintenance but remain neatly concealed when on duty, as opposed to current systems that are mounted in the back of pick-up trucks. That, of course, gets paired with a laptop, which provides a full spectroscopic analysis, and the entire system can be configured to trigger a number of different alarms, including a simple vibration alert to a dedicated PDA, or a scare-the-wits-out-of-everyone approach that involves setting off the car alarm, lights, horn and siren.

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We’re used to seeing fashion-centric devices bedecked in jewels all the time, but the E90 is pretty much exclusively the domain of the business set, and we’re having a hard time imagining Joe Stock Broker going, like, totally crazy over this pimped version. The Nokia phone has been set with 408 diamonds and an 18 carat white gold shell by Peter Aloisson and retails for around $80k. Yeah, Joe Stocks is really going to flip. We have nothing more to add, other than our traditional, time-worn plea to Nokia: please release a 3G version of this in the States, we swear it’s not too late.

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Still mourning the passing of the Foleo? You and the other couple of dozen people on earth that need something like that might find a winner in the REDFLY Mobile Companion unveiled at CES this year. The device offers external control of Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices over Bluetooth 2.0 or USB, with a full keyboard, 8-inch 800 x 480 LCD and some USB and VGA plugs for tapping into external drives and an external monitor. ZDNet’s Matthew Miller got an early beta version of the device to test out, and while he admits he’s in the minority of people willing to shell out $500 for something like this, he was fairly impressed by the build quality and usability of the device. The biggest drawback is that you can’t use the device on its own without a phone, but if you’re a heavy browser user or need to do some serious text input, but aren’t doing anything serious enough to demand a real laptop, the REDFLY might just hit some sort of sweetspot for heavy Windows Mobile users. Or it could sell 12 units, it could really go either way.

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We do love our ScreenSteps here at TUAW. Following up on some great features introduced in version 2, bluemango is releasing version 2.0.3 today with a brand new post-to-blog feature. The feature makes use of a Screensteps Live account to host images, then provides the HTML markup to paste into a blog entry.

If you’re not familiar with it, ScreenSteps 2 is an application that makes the process of documenting software and on-screen tasks simple and elegant. ScreenSteps Live is bluemango’s online complement to their desktop software, allowing users to publish lessons on the web after creating them in ScreenSteps 2. The post-to-blog feature is documented at the developer’s own Live account, with instructions for WordPress that are easily translated to other platforms. The concept is very cool and will aid a lot of people in sharing tutorials and software documentation. The blog templates are also customizable to fit your stylistic needs.

I would love to see some closer blog integration and automatic uploading via XMLRPC, ala TUAW favorite MarsEdit. Taking into account that ScreenSteps is not aspiring to be a blog editor, though, and the fact that they’re seeking integration with ScreenSteps Live, I think the simplistic cut-and-paste approach fits the bill and provides the flexibility to post the exported output in a broader variety of places.

In addition to our own Macworld show floor coverage of ScreenSteps, there are screencasts done by ScreenCastsOnline covering ScreenSteps 2 and ScreenSteps Live. There are free accounts available to try out ScreenSteps Live, and plans start at $12/month. ScreenSteps 2 Standard is $39.95 (pro version with HTML and PDF export is $59.95) with a free demo and academic discounts. And it’s available for Windows, too, for those with cross-platform needs.

Update 9 pm ET: Our comrade David Chartier from Ars Technica points out that the 7.1.3 firmware itself may not be necessary for the new functionality to work; he says he tested a 7.1 AEBS with a machine running Time Capsule & Airport 1.0, and Time Machine was able to see the remote disk. Other readers have reminded us that the disk must be formatted as HFS+ with journaling, and you may have to mount it in the Finder before Time Machine sees it. The freeware TimeMachineScheduler is disabled by this update, comments note.

Update 6:45 am Thursday: More comments point out that if you take a locally-connected Time Machine drive and attach it to an AEBS, you will be starting over with new backups (because the remote backups are stored on sparseimages, not as folders). Something to keep in mind if you already have a long backup history — you might want to use a different drive.

Sometimes the fixes are subtle and quiet. Once TUAW reader Peder downloaded today’s Airport updates and ran the utility, he noticed a new version of the Airport Extreme firmware queued up and ready (v7.3.1). When he installed and rebooted his AEBS — which happened to have a USB hard drive hanging off of it… well, let him tell you:

After downloading the latest Airport-update I checked for updates for my AirPort Extreme. After upgrading to version 7.3.1, Time Machine recognised the attached USB-drive.

If this is a reproducible result — this means you, everyone, go ahead and start testing this firmware! — that means that the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Time Machine to AirDisk feature of Leopard has finally arrived. Sure, the Time Capsule is a one-piece solution and quite economical, but for all the AEBS owners out there who have been waiting patiently, this would be a very nice bit of March madness indeed. [Response to "just-a-guy" below: Remember, this is the Airport EXTREME only; the Express doesn't support AirDisk at all.]

Seeing the same results as Peder? By all means let us know. He was kind enough to send us a few screenshots, see below.

AirPort Flow is a way to see all of your traffic flowing to and from your AirPort base station in graph form. The bit rates are retrieved by using SNMP (which means you must have an AirPort router that supports this and have it enabled).

The user interface for AirPort Flow nicely fits in with Mac OS X Leopard; as it was designed for Leopard. The display stays above all other windows so you can keep a check on the bit rate as you are working. AirPort Flow was recently updated to 1.2 which added the ability to check for the number of wireless clients connected.

You can download AirPort Flow from the Memention website for the lovely price of free.

Apple has released updates for Time Machine and Airport, giving us three update reboots in three days. The update improves Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule and offers some fixes for AirPort drivers. I don’t, at this point, see any indications of the rumored Airport-Extreme-as-Time-Capsule abilities, but I’m assuming that will require an Airport Extreme firmware update.

The update is available through Software Update.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Yesterday, we pointed out the story of Charlie Rose and his MacBook Air. Just in case you missed it, Charlie was walking along the Manhattan streets with his MacBook Air. He tripped and instinctively saved the Air… and kissed the pavement.

That night, he did his show with one heck of a shiner. We asked you, dear readers, to fill Charlie’s thought balloon. After combing through more than 100 entries, we’ve chosen our favorite, which you can see above. Congratulations, Spudnuts!

The runner-ups to “iAche” include

1. “”My Sudden Motion Sensor didn’t park my head soon enough.” by Geoff
2. “Boom!” by Michael L.
3. “It’s cheaper to fix my face.” by x.

Thanks, everyone (and get well soon, Charlie).

In February we covered Pingdom’s release of a website badge and monitoring service that tracked the status of the Apple Store. A lot of our readers were resourceful enough to make their own widgets from the banner, but Pingdom has polished up and released a widget for everyone who looks forward to the excited anticipation of downtime hysteria.

The widget, and Pingdom’s service in general, have the potential to be a blessing to Apple’s servers. By pinging once and distributing the results to the masses, it could prevent thousands of simultaneous connections from refresh-happy Apple fans. Not that the servers haven’t always handled the traffic with a fair amount of aplomb; it’s just that much more breathing room.

Software releases (Safari 3.1 and a Security Update) marked this Tuesday, but without the bated-breath downtime we’d begun to expect. A little element of scheduling surprise, such as the 802.11n Airport Express release on Monday, makes this widget significantly more useful. So, grab the widget from Pingdom and enjoy future frenzies!

TUAW has finally been able to confirm actual acceptances into the $99 iPhone developer program. This is what we have been able to learn:

The accepted developers were apparently among the first to apply. Rather than wait for the SDK to download, many of the developers applied as soon as they saw the application page.

The accepted developers previously received the rejection letter (aka what Mike beautifully calls the “limbogram”). While the acceptance letter arrived this morning, developers reportedly received their initial rejections as early as the first Friday after applying.

The acceptances appear to be random. One lucky developer noted his surprise that he, with essentially no iPhone coding background, was accepted while experienced, well-known Mac software houses were rejected.

The program is firewalled. Unless you are authorized, you will not get access to Apple’s documentation and support site.

Five iPhone limit. For anyone hoping to find a back door way to distribute software, tough luck. You may develop for up to five iPhones and that’s it. So no distribution sans Apple.

Test devices are iBricks — so to speak. Adding the pre-release iPhone OS to your iPhone seems to kill actual phone functionality. Update: We have unconfirmed reports that some developer phones continue to work as expected; as soon as we can clarify this we will.

TUAW congratulates the lucky developers who got into the program. If you got your happy note this morning and have more to add, let us know in the comments or use our tip line for confidentiality. Update: Unless you submit a working email address with your tip, we cannot get back to you. (Hint hint, T.W.)

The rumors are apparently true, after a fashion — despite reports of Jobs’ opposition to the idea, Adobe has told the Wall Street Journal that after reviewing the iPhone’s SDK, their CEO says they can bring Flash to the device all by themselves. It’ll be super interesting to see if Adobe tries to make an end run around Apple to get their platform on the iPhone via the SDK, or if Apple cooperates to let them do it (Flash, for all of its foibles, is definitely a big part of the current internet).

But at this point it seems like Adobe is dead set on getting Flash on the iPhone whether Apple consents or not. We’ll watch this one as it develops obviously — by the time the rest of the SDK-driven apps come around in June, browsing Flash sites might be the last thing on everyone’s minds.

According to the Financial Times, Apple is (still) considering an “all-you-can-eat” subscription model, which is strange, because why would anyone want to eat digital music? They must mean “listen.” Yes, as speculated before (in order to figure out what Jobs will be doing in a year, just listen to what he says he won’t do now, apparently), Apple might come up with a plan where you would pay either a monthly fee or a lifetime subscription to download music from iTunes presumably straight into your iPod or iPhone.

Supposedly what’s holding the deal up isn’t the price negotiation between consumers and Apple, it’s between Apple and the record companies. Nokia, which is planning a similar deal, is reportedly happy to pay $80 per device to the music companies for the rights, but Apple is only offering $20.

Which makes sense — Apple is the 800 lb. gorilla in the media device market, and so they have the ability in most cases to pay what they want or not bother. If the two sides do come to a deal, however, even the terms of property are still up in the air. A few ideas being bounced around would let consumers keep a certain number of songs even if they changed devices, while some deals would only allow access while the subscription was active.

What this may mean for us as consumers, at least, would be that Apple is planning to bring the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store to even more devices in the iPod line (or at least expand the capacity of the iPod touch to hold a subscription collection like this). If Apple really is planning to open up their library to a subscription, they should make it as easy as possible to obtain the music on demand.

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won’t be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don’t forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Continue reading iTunes: Free Tuesday

The rumors are apparently true, after a fashion — despite reports of Jobs’ opposition to the idea, Adobe has told the Wall Street Journal that after reviewing the iPhone’s SDK, their CEO says they can bring Flash to the device all by themselves. It’ll be super interesting to see if Adobe tries to make an end run around Apple to get their platform on the iPhone via the SDK, or if Apple cooperates to let them do it (Flash, for all of its foibles, is definitely a big part of the current internet).

But at this point it seems like Adobe is dead set on getting Flash on the iPhone whether Apple consents or not. We’ll watch this one as it develops obviously — by the time the rest of the SDK-driven apps come around in June, browsing Flash sites might be the last thing on everyone’s minds.

Our lucky friends at Engadget somehow got to play with the iPhone 1.2/2.0 beta (no word on if they’ll send it along to Erica anytime soon), and they confirmed a lot of things we’d guessed at previously.

Exchange support works as smoothly as Scott and Mike had hoped, but there’s still no two-pane Mail client. The multiple mail message selection works, however, and we finally found out why the Calculator button has changed — apparently there are a ton of new features in there, including a sideways scientific calcalculator. There are a number of other fun features and improvements as well, although the main event, the App Store, only functions enough to give an error that it can’t connect.

June can’t come any faster, as far as we’re concerned. Bring on the iPhone version 2.0!

Fire up Software Update, Mac users. Security Update 2008-002 has been released. According to Apple, this update “…is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Previous security updates have been incorporated into this security update.”

So, it improves security. How exciting. As usual, we ask you to report any problems you encounter after installing this update. Good luck, true believers! Note that this update, like the earlier Safari 3.1, requires a reboot.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

A lot of iPhone dev types have known about the SBMobileScreenshotr preference for a very long time. What we didn’t know was how to make it do anything. The software programming site RipDev solved the mystery.

After setting the preference

If you’d rather not edit your property lists directly, add http://repository.ripdev.com as an Installer repository and install Apple Screenshot Enabler. Warning: trying to remove the mod via Installer.app caused my phone to reboot. It just would not uninstall properly.

Thanks TJ

According to the Financial Times, Apple is (still) considering an “all-you-can-eat” subscription model, which is strange, because why would anyone want to eat digital music? They must mean “listen.” Yes, as speculated before (in order to figure out what Jobs will be doing in a year, just listen to what he says he won’t do now, apparently), Apple might come up with a plan where you would pay either a monthly fee or a lifetime subscription to download music from iTunes presumably straight into your iPod or iPhone.

Supposedly what’s holding the deal up isn’t the price negotiation between consumers and Apple, it’s between Apple and the record companies. Nokia, which is planning a similar deal, is reportedly happy to pay $80 per device to the music companies for the rights, but Apple is only offering $20.

Which makes sense — Apple is the 800 lb. gorilla in the media device market, and so they have the ability in most cases to pay what they want or not bother. If the two sides do come to a deal, however, even the terms of property are still up in the air. A few ideas being bounced around would let consumers keep a certain number of songs even if they changed devices, while some deals would only allow access while the subscription was active.

What this may mean for us as consumers, at least, would be that Apple is planning to bring the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store to even more devices in the iPod line (or at least expand the capacity of the iPod touch to hold a subscription collection like this). If Apple really is planning to open up their library to a subscription, they should make it as easy as possible to obtain the music on demand.

Here’s a nice bit of information. Many iTunes customers bought season passes to television shows in iTunes that never aired as a result of the recent writers’ strike. As of this writing, Apple has begun addressing their concerns.

In an email that has been delivered to some customers, Apple describes how customer plans will be extended into the next season, or refunds will be issued:

“We will make all additional episodes which are broadcast during the 2007-08 season available to you as we receive them. If the season does end up with fewer episodes, you will receive a partial refund to make up for the difference.”

Also, some customers are finding an instant iTunes Store credit that may be used towards the purchase of any two TV episodes, music videos, or short films on the iTunes Store.

Let us know if you receive one. Thanks, Apple!

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won’t be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don’t forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Continue reading iTunes: Free Tuesday