Iphone Updates

Ever wished you could drag the contents of one PDF into another? You can — using Preview in Mac OS X Leopard. We show you how in the latest Quick Tip of the Week.

As a scientist, your Mac can be a valuable asset, especially when it comes time to share your research findings with colleagues. To find out how you can use tools on your Mac to create research posters, websites, and dynamic presentations, visit the Science Productivity Lab, where you’ll find tips and tutorials created with the needs of the scientific community in mind.

A good many of our neighbors to the north have been eagerly awaiting information regarding the iPhone 3G data/voice plans from Rogers/Fido. Well that day has come, and while they have come up with plans that feature more data for the iPhone, they apparently don’t believe in unlimited data. Hit the jump for a breakdown of their rates.

• $60 – 150 daytime minutes, 75 sent text messages, 400MB of data
• $75 – 300 daytime minutes, 100 sent text messages, 750MB of data
• $100 – 600 daytime minutes, 200 sent text messages, 1GB of data
• $115 – 800 daytime minutes, 300 sent test messages, 2GB of data

I feel really bad for the Canadian customers that want an iPhone. First, there is no unlimited data plan, which while some people may never go over that 2GB cap on the $115 plan, I still would much rather not have to worry about it. As for the customers that don’t really use that many daytime minutes, they’re still forced into purchasing more minutes just to get more data.

There are a few things that Rogers is throwing in, like free incoming text messages, and free access to Rogers and Fido Wi-Fi hotspots. While those are a couple of niceties, they don’t make up for what the plans are lacking.

[via MacRumors]

Reports suggest that Apple’s ongoing discussions with China Mobile are now back on track, with the distinct possibility the iPhone 3G could make it to the country this year…

A recent report at Alley Insider suggests that it could take up to six months to even be approved as an official iPhone application developer, and that’s before you even get to submit applications to Apple for inclusion in the online store. No word on how long it takes to have an application approved by Apple, but with over 250,000 downloads of the SDK, there’s sure to be a lot of interest…

Canadians have been waiting a long time for the iPhone to arrive — they’ve even signed online petitions — but now it seems that there’s a very large fly in the ointment. Unlike iPhone users in the US and the UK (to name just two countries), Canadian iPhone 3G users will have to sign up for a three-year contract with Rogers, and even then they’ll not get truly unlimited Internet access…

Canadians have been waiting a long time for the iPhone to arrive — they’ve even signed online petitions — but now it seems that there’s a very large fly in the ointment. Unlike iPhone users in the US and the UK (to name just two countries), Canadian iPhone 3G users will have to sign up for a three-year contract with Rogers, and even then they’ll not get truly unlimited Internet access…

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Enterprise

Computerworld is reporting on the results of a Yankee Group Research report that finds that 80% of US businesses now have Macs. This represents an huge increase from just two years ago when only 47% of businesses reported having Mac users. The Yankee Group estimates that corporate marketshare has risen to 8-10% overall with 21% of firms reporting more than 50 Mac users. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, 28% are running Windows in virtualization.

While the consumer marketshare (and better yet, profitshare) numbers have looking up for some time now, it’s good to see that Apple is finally starting to gain (or regain) a serious foothold in the corporate sphere as well. It’s no surprise that as more users get acquainted with Apple gear at home that they’re bringing pressure on corporate IT managers to implement Macs at work as well. Things just keep rolling for the bean counters in Cupertino.

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Filed under: Retail

Apple opened a new retail store in San Antonio, Texas earlier today, number 14 for the Lone Star State. As usual, we asked any TUAW readers who may have attended to share their reports and/or pictures. So, did you go, and if you did, how was it? Let us know in the comments. Here’s hoping you scored a T-shirt!

If you haven’t gone down to the store yet, grab your camera and add anything especially interesting to our Flickr pool!

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Filed under: Features, TUAW Business, Weekend Review

Welcome to the latest installment of TUAW’s best of the week, where we gather up our favorite posts for your easy clicking enjoyment. If you’re using either Microsoft Office 2004 or Office 2008, you might want to check auto update sometime in the near future.

TV shows added to Australia iTunes Store
First the land down under gets the iPhone and Apple Store, now they’re getting iTunes TV shows. This is no doubt something that Apple should have done a long time ago, but I’m sure there are many rejoicing Australians!

Mod: use your MacBook Air Superdrive on any machine
Ever since the MacBook Air Superdrives have been out, we’ve all been asking ourselves the same question: how can we use this on any Mac? Well, some creative individual found out a sure-fire way to do this.

Take back your iWeb galleries in Firefox 3
Have you been lonely without your iWeb galleries? Well, be lonely no more because someone found a way to fix Firefox’s? … erm … Apple’s? … erm … someone’s problem with iWeb galleries in Firefox 3.

Last day to buy MacHeist Bundle
The MacHeist retail bundle is finally over, but you can now find MacHeist’s new summer bundle that features Parallels and other nice applications for a very low price.

Keep your iPhone from losing its cookies
Has the cookie monster been lurking in your iPhone? Join Brett as he tries to find a way to rid the loss of cookies from your iPhone.

Original iPhone warranties about to expire
Did you buy a first generation iPhone? If you’re reading this today, chances are your iPhone’s warranty will be up tomorrow.

iTunes: Free Thursday
Get some free tunes.

Ask TUAW: 5.1 surround sound, bookmark syncing, MobileMe, MDI files, and more
Get some free Mac help.

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There are probably more than a few of you thinking about selling off your old 2.5G iPhone in order to make some room in your bank account for the new iPhone 3G. Unfortunately you’ll discover that there is no good way to securely erase all of your personal data from the phone, not yet at least.

This oversight is one that Apple intends to correct with the new iPhone 2.0 update. When you finally have the new software (which likely won’t be coming out until the iPhone 3G launch happens on July 11) you’ll be able to safely and securely destroy all of your private data. Think of it as the phone equivalent of your Secure Empty Trash on your Mac.

[via TUAW]

As we hit the 1st birthday of the phone that brought us into a new future, we also prepare for the incoming of a brand new birth in iPhone’s life. We are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of iPhone 2.5G’s brother, iPhone 3G, but will never forget the times we’ve shared with the original.

So happy first birthday iPhone, we look forward to many more…

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear iPhone…Happy birthday to you!

Filed under: .Mac

.Mac web services were “temporarily unavailable” for a time this morning, and things are still a little shaky. No explanation was given for the outage.

Mail was working when tested, but iDisk access through afp:// still appears to be shut off (at 10:50 a.m. ET). Homepages and access to iDisk public folders seem to be OK, too. We’ll keep tabs on this, and let you know when the service is back up and running. Check back soon!

Update (11:20 a.m. ET): Web access seems to be up and running, but iDisk via afp:// is still down.

Update (1:45 p.m. ET): iDisk access is back up, but I’m not sure when that happened. One computer is still unable to connect, and the other computer connects just fine.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

This time around in Ask TUAW we’ll be fielding questions related to bookmark syncing, MobileMe, 5.1 surround sound, MDI files, batch audio conversion, multiple iPods 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 Mac 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: 5.1 surround sound, bookmark syncing, MobileMe, MDI files, and more

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According to reports, Apple has set size and price limitations on applications sold through the iTunes Store. Developers can charge anything from 99 cents to $999.99 (not sure how this translates to UK pricing), and no application can be larger than 2GB…

According to rumours, O2 may be working with Apple UK to train up its retail store employees to sign up new customers. Previously, it was believed that Apple stores would only be able to sell the pay-as-you-go model of the iPhone, because staff would be unfamiliar with the process involved in credit checking and signing up customers to a mobile contract…

Though I’m not keen on the idea of cramming another web browser on the iPhone (though I’ll admit I’m fairly happy with Safari on the handset), it’s possible that developers will find a way of porting other browsers to the phone. The trouble is that there may be no official way to do this, as Apple’s SDK licence agreement suggests that “No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s) [...] An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.”…

ZAGG has announced that its InvisibleSHIELD protective film product is now available for the iPhone 3G, two weeks ahead of the handset’s launch. The polyurethane material used was originally used by the US military to protect helicopter blades from wind, sand, and wear and tear from high-speed travel, so it’s sure to protect the iPhone. The advantage of InvisibleSHIELD is that the iPhone’s sleek looks are not covered up with a bulky case…

This morning, O2 (seemingly) inadvertently published pricing for the Pay-As-You-Go iPhone 3G, then quickly retracted it. Eagle-eyed sites gleaned that the 8GB iPhone 3G will cost £299.99, while the 16GB model will cost £359.99. Included with that is six months of Wi-Fi and unlimited Internet access, after which users would need to top up a minimum of £10 per month to keep the Internet access active…

Now before i am labelled as being sexist, the title is based upon a news article in the LA Times. I’m sure it could just as readily apply to classical guitarist who insist on trying to use the iPhone with their “picking” hand. Yes, the iPhone is apparently badly designed because the touchscreen is difficult to use for those with long fingernails. In the main that’s women. And women who aren’t cool, bizarrely, because one reviewer in the past has claimed that “people who use Apple products are too cool for fingernails.”…

The new iPhone software is exciting, and of course we’re all looking forward to 3G, GPS, a proper headphone jack… but what about cut and paste? It seems that this oft-requested (and moaned about) feature could still be lacking from iPhone 2.0 software, and while iMarklet is not a complete, nor fully integrated, solution, it could at least provide some of the functionality iPhone users want…

There’s little denying that the photo is real, and though the story may be a little far-fetched, it has been a while since we’ve had any iPhone celebrity gossip so we’re running with it…

Plenty of speculation on the Internet about how much Brits will have to pay for a contract-free (unsubsidised) iPhone 3G. Though some sites have reported this as fact, an O2 representative has stated that no official pricing for a pay-as-you-go iPhone 3G has been announced yet. However, £350 is the price that’s being thrown around, presumably for the 8GB model…

iSkin has announced its Fuze protective skin for the iPhone, a lightweight, stylish case which complements the phone’s aesthetics…

The lower price of the iPhone 3G compared to the first model. and the fact that it has several new features, could lead to twice the demand from consumers as the first iPhone…

Filed under: Hardware, iPod Family

Last year, we wrote about Life Fitness’ plan to build exercise equipment with built-in iPod integration, allowing users do dock their iPod and control it from the machine itself.

This week, 24 Hour Fitness (the largest fitness club chain in the United States) announced their intention to install similar equipment at locations in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Portland and Salt Lake City. Unlike the Life Fitness machines, equipment at the 24 Hour Fitness clubs will record workout data in the same way that the Nike+ kit for the iPod does, and prepare it for upload at NikePlus.com. Expect the new machines to begin to arrive in July.

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Filed under: iPod Family, Apple, iPhone

Are you sitting down for this one? Good. Here goes: Apple is going to keep taking market share from “traditional PCs.” I know, it’s a real shocker. But so says Zacks Investment Research (which is not, apparently, run by a dude named Zack as you’d think). They say that consumers are enjoying Apple’s innovations, and that a strong product line lead by the iPod, iPhone, and the MacBook Air will continue to increase Apple’s business and give them a bigger piece of the personal computing pie. Who knew?

But Zacks isn’t jumping into anything — they still say that the iPod line will slow down over the next few years, so they’re going “hold” with AAPL. Still, it’s a good thing they told us about that marketshare thing. Without analysts like these, we’d have no idea what we’re buying lately.

[via MacBytes]

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial

Once again, it’s that time of year when tourists flock to the beaches, students leave their books behind and Apple executives describe how they’ve made much more money than the rest of us.

Earlier this week, Apple announced that their third-quarter earnings call will take place on July 21, 2008, at 2 p.m. Pacific time. It’s been an up-and-down quarter for Apple’s stock. It should also be noted that this will be the first report to contain information on sales of the iPhone 3G, assuming they do go on sale on July 11th without a glitch.

We’ll be live blogging the call, so be sure and check back on the 21st. See you then!

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It’s great to get unlimited Internet access using the iPhone, even more so when the 3G version arrives next month, but AT&T has made it clear that tethering it to a laptop PC is not an option…

It will come as very little surprise to many people, particularly those who read the early iPhone billing horror stories, but data roaming is a very expensive business…

While there are a lot of unknowns in this story, it seems that an Australian retailer is offering consumers an unlocked iPhone imported from Hong Kong, retailing for AU$775 and AU$875 for the 8GB and 16GB versions. If it turns out that the iPhone 3G cannot be unlocked immediately — which is sure to be the case as it took hackers around two months to crack the first version, and Apple is sure to have beefed up security this time around — then Linelink will provide a free unlocking service at such a time as the solution becomes available…

With the first generation iPhone sold out for over a month, the price they’re fetching on eBay and other auction and resale sites is still at a premium…

Apple’s tight-lipped security, and a plethora of Non-Disclosure Agreements with the companies it has on board to test the iPhone 2.0 software, is making it difficult to recommend the iPhone 3G to enterprise, according to a Gartner analyst. Though Apple has promised much when it comes to making the newest iPhone software - coming on 11th July - far more business-friendly, there’s no easy way to confirm how suitable it will be for enterprise until it launches next month…

One notable omission from the iPhone, which many would like to see added, is support for Flash. Adobe has reportedly been working on porting Flash to the iPhone for some time. In a recent statement, CEO Shantanu Narayen said that the company had a version of Flash working on an iPhone emulator, and was working on getting it onto a real iPhone…

Presuming the figures are true, and not spin, early indications suggest that the iPhone 3G could do very well in Britain. O2 has said that over 130,000 people registered their interest in the iPhone 3G online, to be notified when more details about getting the handset are available. Of course, simply registering interest in the iPhone doesn’t mean everyone will buy one, but it must be an encouraging figure for both Apple and O2…

When businesses want to protect revenue, it inevitably leads to a load of bureaucracy and time-wasting that rarely benefits the consumer. Thanks to the threat of the iPhone 3G being jailbroken and/or unlocked, it seems as if AT&T (and, most likely, other international operators) will insist on the iPhone 3G being activated in store, rather than relying on the innovative iTunes activation method Apple pioneered last year…

T-Mobile has announced that its German, Dutch, and Austrian customers will be able to purchase the 8GB iPhone 3G for one Euro, providing that they sign up for one of the more expensive monthly plans — the €69 and €89 per month plans to be precise…

Then you’ll want to download the free Making of Bruce & Lloyd Out of Control. The short, now available on iTunes, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the hilarious new film that parallels the Get Smart movie. It features Bruce (Masi Oka of Heroes) and Lloyd (Nate Torrence of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) as they conjure up inventions for use by unsuspecting CONTROL agents.

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Software Update

Apple just released an update to their Pro Application support for Mac OS X. According to Apple, this update “improves reliability for Apple’s professional applications.” This update is recommended to all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server and Logic Studio. Final Cut Pro 6.0.4 and Compressor 3.0.3 are applications included in the update.

You can download this update by opening Software Update (choosing Software Update from the Apple menu) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple Support Downloads site. You can visit the Pro Applications support note for more information about this update.

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Filed under: OS, Software, Deals

If you’ve been looking to snag Parallels Desktop version 3.0, but don’t want to pay the $79.99 associated with Parallels then a summer MacHeist bundle is just the thing. MacHeist is currently offering Parallels Desktop + Mac Pilot for only $49 (US).

Returning MacHeist customers receive a $10 discount, making the bundle only $39. That’s a steal! In addition, the first 1000 customers to purchase the bundle will recieve a free “mystery application” (one that’s an Apple award winner) which will be detailed on Friday.

Update: The rumor on the street is hinting at the “mystery application” to be either Coda or Lineform.

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From 11th July, finding a high speed public Wi-Fi network for your iPhone could get a lot easier, as O2 has done a deal with BT Openzone to open up over 3,000 hotspots. iPhone users will then get free, unlimited access to these hotspots, just as they currently do on the Cloud network, with no change to their monthly tariff…

It seems a number of people are unhappy with Apple, claiming the company is misleading consumers by claiming that the second generation iPhone is half the price of the first one. Salon, for example, complains that the AT&T tariffs are now more expensive, and so the ultimate cost of the iPhone 3G is more than that of the first iPhone…

“comScore has today released the results of a study into iPhone related searches” during the month of April, reports Davey Winder (itwire.com).The study “reveals that there were 6.9 million searches on related keywords during that period.” Of the 6.9 million searches, 1.5 million of them were for the term “iPhone” and Google delivered 88.4% of the search returns.

I’ve thought for some time that it would be awesome if I could control iTunes from my iPhone. I tend to just let my tunes play throughout my house, as my speakers can be heard throughout most of the house. Unfortunately when I want to pause the music or change a song, I have to run to my computer. Well it seems that Apple already has something up their sleeve in this department.

For those that have downloaded the pre-release version of iTunes 7.7 (for developers) there was a little something snuck into that pesky ‘Read Me’ that most of us simply skip through. The important snipit is below.

Use iTunes 7.7 to sync music, video, and more with iPhone 3G, and download applications from the iTunes Store exclusively designed for iPhone and iPod touch with software version 2.0 or later. Also use the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store.

I would venture to guess that you’ll be limited to controlling iTunes on only the PC that the iPhone is synced with, which shouldn’t be an issue for most people. This particular feature had been rumored to be coming since late April. It’s good to see some of these rumors coming true.

[via Macrumors]

We’ve heard talk about both activation of the iPhone 3G in-store at the time of purchase, and the possibility for some people to complete their activation at home. While we still don’t know the official details, an Italian news site seems to think they know the answer. It’s actually both.

According to the rumor, half of the activation will be done in-store. This will include activation of the phone with your carrier, and choosing your rate plan. Once you get home, you’ll need to use iTunes to set up billing information so that you can purchase and download programs via the App Store.

[via MacNN]

Quite apart from the new iPhone being 3G, one of the things I’m most excited about is that it now has GPS. Sure, this may seem old hat to anyone with a dedicated satnav device, or even another mobile phone with the technology on, but I haven’t yet owned a device with GPS, and I want one…

Too bad that something with such a detailed name (the Honlai QingBar MP101) is just a concept at present. If it was real, this product would allow you to project a 640×480 resolution image of between 15 and 27 inches from a connected iPhone…

We don’t know a whole lot about worldwide pricing and contract deals for the iPhone 3G, and though O2 has published details of its 18-month contract tariffs, the Pay-As-You-Go section still draws a blank. However, Vodafone — one of the two networks currently able to sell the iPhone 3G in Italy — has published details of the contract-free iPhone 3G on its web site…

Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends

I love the iPhone, save for one thing. It sits on my desk every night, right near my computer, and the speakers I’ve got hooked up to it. And every 15 minutes, when the iPhone checks email for me, I get that buzzing — the sound of radio interference flying across my speaker wires. And almost every night, I have to jump out of bed angrily just to shut off the speakers and stop the buzzing. Little did I know, all I’ve ever needed was an empty can of Red Bull.

Yes, someone has fashioned a “shield” out of an emptied and carved up Red Bull can, and supposedly it works like a charm — just fashion it around the dock that came with the iPhone, use a little doublestick tape to make sure it stays on there (and I would maybe put some around the edges, too, so you don’t slice your fingers open every time you pull the iPhone off the dock), and no more buzzing sound.

The maker does wonder if it would affect the actual signal of the iPhone at all, but it hasn’t so far. If you’ve got a Red Bull can around to cut up and are driven as nuts as I am by that buzzing noise, here’s your makeshift solution. The other option is to buy speakers that don’t buzz, of course, but this seems a lot cheaper.

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