Iphone Updates

GEAR4 has announced its new range of protective cases for the iPhone 3G, including silicon skins, hard plastic shells, leather cases, and screen protectors. The X-Shield is a hard plastic case with leather backing, featuring protection via the hard plastic case and a high quality leather exterior. £29.99…

Filed under: Enterprise, Software, Internet Tools, Developer

When I saw the words Provue Development and Panorama in a press release this morning, I felt like I was suddenly transported back to the 80s. When the Mac first came out in 1984, Provue was there with the first real database manager for the Mac (OverVue). It’s great to see that they’re still developing innovative products like Panorama Enterprise Server. The $399 Panorama Enterprise Server is a RAM-based database server for Mac OS X 10.4 and above.

Panorama Enterprise Server works with Provue’s desktop database application Panorama 5.5 to create network-based databases. It distributes RAM-based copies of shared data across a network in a mesh architecture. By distributing the load of common database actions over a number of machines, speed is improved dramatically.

Another unique feature is that users can disconnect from the network, work offline, and their database changes sync back up to the rest of the meshed computers when they are reconnected. Panorama Enterprise Server has remote configuration, management, and debug tools to keep DBAs happy, as well as automatic backup of live databases. Designers will like the visual design tools for building HTML and CSS-based forms, and support for Google Analytics.

Provue offers a 45-day free trial of both Panorama 5.5 and Enterprise Server.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Retail, Macbook Pro, MacBook

AppleInsider reported today that Apple is advising resellers to stock up on the better-selling iPods and MacBooks, as factory supplies are expected to slow to a trickle in August. There’s speculation that this could be due to a release of new models.

For 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros and the standard MacBooks, Apple was recommending that channel partners place orders that would give them a 3-week supply. For iPods, a 4-week supply was advised.

Apple usually notifies resellers via bulletins like this when they’re getting ready to refresh a product line. This points to a product introduction for the new laptops and iPods (most likely the iPod touch and nano) in late August or September. While this is late for the school buying season, it could mark an early entry into the holiday buying season with an agressive launch of new products.

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This sleek and smooth case for your iPhone 3G is fashionable and fully transparent which is perfect for casual and business attire!

Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, co-writers and co-producers of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, came to the Apple Store, SoHo, to speak about the making of the second feature-length movie based on the award-winning television series. Now on iTunes, you can watch video clips from the event, learn how Final Cut Pro played a part in the film’s production, and listen as the talented fillmmakers answer audience questions.

Filed under: Software

The team down the road from me at Carsonified have been doing it, and you can do it too.

Fluid is a fantastic free app that turns any web site into a self-contained application on your Mac. If you want to keep your webmail outside your normal web browser, Fluid is what you need.

Thing is, all the apps it creates need icons, just as any app in your Applications folder does. By default, Fluid grabs the .ico files it finds on web sites and uses them as icons, but they don’t scale well. Where can you find decent alternatives?

The answer is the Fluid icons pool on Flickr, where a busy community of Fluid users have been busy making a selection of beautiful icons that work perfectly with any Fluid SSBs (Site-Specific Browsers) you’ve created. The icons in the pool might look weird to start with, but that’s because the PNG originals have been converted to JPG format by Flickr’s brain. To make use of an icon you like, make sure you view and download the full-size original, which will be the PNG file you need.

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Filed under: iPhone, App Store

Managing passwords on the go is about to get easier, now that 1Password for iPhone has hit the App Store [iTunes link]. The release features secure notes, wireless sync to your Mac, and all the credential-caching fun you expect from the full-size tool — in a handy pantsable format.

I was able to install 1Password on my iPod touch and (after a few false starts) synchronize my 600+ desktop entries to the device, but unfortunately now 1Password coughs and dies on the touch when launched. I did manage to get some setup screenshots before things went south, including the desktop-side code entry to pair the device and the computer, so feel free to peruse the gallery — once we have a bit more time (and I’ve thinned out my sync list) we’ll give the long-awaited utility the full review it deserves.

1Password for iPhone requires 1Password 2.8.1 on the Mac for synchronization. For a limited time, 1Password for iPhone can be downloaded free of charge.

Update: Agile has let it be known that version 1.2 of 1Password has already been sent in to the App Store, so you should be seeing the upgrade as soon as Apple gets it loaded (which may be a little while).

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This premium skin case is made from a durable, flexible dust-free silicon which will keep your iPhone 3G protected from scratches and other mishaps.

If you have a song you like to hear whenever you startup your Mac or an application — Safari, perhaps — you can’t do without, let Mac OS X Leopard launch them for you when you log in to your account or start up your Mac. Learn how by reading the latest Pro Tip of the Week.

Under extremely tight deadlines to shoot and wrap X-Files: I Want to Believe, director Chris Carter coaxed Oscar-winning editor Richard Harris out of retirement to pull off the impossible. And thanks to Final Cut Pro, Harris did. “I like the simplicity of Final Cut,” he says. “I’m not a technical guy, but it was just very friendly, as well as flexible enough to handle all the formats. And certainly the HD picture output is better than anything I’ve seen.”

Filed under: Software, Blast From the Past

Back in the summer of 1989, as an eager, green college intern for a major publishing company, I arrived on my first day of work to find that my office wasn’t so much an office as it was a storage room. Sure, it had ample space and ventilation, but it was a glorified closet all the same — home to my desk, shelves and boxes, and a few critical pieces of gear. Along with the network hubs for the floor, we had a rather sexy test system (a NeXT Cube, complete with 400dpi laser printer!) and an SE/30 running an unfamiliar email server. One of my tasks for the summer was to administer this server, which (considering the speed of delivery) bore the unlikely moniker “QuickMail.”

With the ability to connect to other QM servers over intermittent dial-up links, offering gateways to public systems like AppleLink & CompuServe, and UUCP capability for Internet mail servers (yeah, old school), QuickMail Server and its companion client app made managing email for a small Mac LAN straightforward and easy. Future versions of the system expanded to offer webmail and POP compatibility, allowing for a heterogeneous mix of clients, but the original QM never lost its vintage UI or no-frills attitude.

Nearly 20 years later, Outspring, the inheritor of the QuickMail product line from original developer CE Software, has made it official: QuickMail is dead. Support for the product has ended, and users are encouraged to pony up the $39 to upgrade to Outspring Mail, the successor client — as for the server, good luck (I’d recommend Kerio, Zimbra, EIMS or OS X Server, and Emailchemy to handle moving the user data). Farewell, QM; you and your sweetheart/nemesis Eudora enjoy your well-deserved retirement.

Written by Michael Rose.

[via Macintouch]

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Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, Mac 101

If you’re anything like me — and I sincerely hope you’re not, for your sake — you have a large iTunes music library, but the music that you like right now is only a small fraction of that total. (Yeah, that embarrassing ’96 Dave Matthews Band album is getting pretty dusty.)

Since my musical tastes vary from day to day, and songs quickly fall in and out of my fickle favor, I love assigning ratings to the music I like this minute. I have a five-star rating for la crème de la crème, and a four-star rating for stuff that’s pretty good. Three-star items are sadly relegated to history.

Next, I combine ratings with smart playlists: Now I can add and remove songs from my current rotation just by changing their star rating. I can do this on-the-go, too: Change a rating on my iPod, and the playlists are updated immediately, and eventually synced back to the computer.

Follow me across the jump to see how you can dynamically and efficiently manage your music as quickly as your tastes change.

Continue reading Mac 101: Stars and Smart Playlists

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AdMob offers $1,000,000 in total to the best iPhone developers, check out here:

Tags:$1000000 admob best developer iphone$1000000, admob, best, developer, iphone

On iTunes U, John Boudreau (siliconvalley.com) explains, “a series of lectures by renowned University of California-Berkeley philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus is absolutely free.” No tuition costs at all. In fact, iTunes U offers “more than 50,000 audio and video tracks — course lectures, language lessons, speeches — from scores of universities and colleges.” What would you like to learn about today?

Readers of PC Magazine once again awarded top scores to Apple products. iPhone (8.9 out of 10), Mac desktops, (9.1/10), Mac laptops (9.2/10), iPod (8.4/10), and AirPort Base Stations (9.0/10) all achieved Readers’ Choice status and performed “Significantly better than average” in the annual reader survey. Respondents named iPhone the “ultimate smartphone,” and say PC Mag editors of Mac desktops: “No Windows vendor can touch the favorable scores Apple received across the board.”

Watch collectors, astronomers, and those who simply admire a beautiful feat of engineering have been waxing enthusiastic over the Emerald Chronometer. A $4.99 application, Emerald Chronometer models seven “high-end mechanical watches,” offering such “complications” as sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, longitude, latitude, and others.

If you’re a Stephen King fan — or a fan of graphic novels — you’ll really enjoy Stephen King’s N. You can download the first five episodes of the new animated graphic novel series from iTunes when you purchase a season pass for just $3.99. Then, each Monday over the next four weeks, iTunes will automatically download new episodes, five at a time, as they become available.

The unique wave-shaped closures on the sides define the design elegance of this protective case for the new iPhone 3G.

Filed under: Software

UK web development team Clearleft has released its web site usability testing application, Silverback.

In short, Silverback turns a Mac into a portable usability testing laboratory. What used to require a complicated and cumbersome set up involving several computers, a video camera, and lots of time, can now be done much faster and with less hassle. You only need a Mac with a built-in or attached camera, and a copy of Silverback.

The application records video footage of the user, and combines it with recorded footage of their activity on screen. Clicks, inputs, pointer movements and the user’s speech and facial expressions are all combined into a single video file that can be quickly exported. One nice touch allows the test facilitator to add “bookmarks” during a session by clicking a button on the Mac’s Apple Remote. Nothing distracting will show up in front of the user, but the bookmark is still recorded invisibly in the background.

The only thing that doesn’t appear to be included – at least in this initial release – is the ability to edit the output video file before exporting. Even so, it looks like it could be an invaluable tool for anyone who makes software or web sites for a living. If you want to find out more, watch the five-minute demo video, which is a useful summary of aims and features.

Silverback is Tiger and Leopard compatible, sells for $49.95 and can be used as a fully functional demo for 30 days. As an added bonus, 10% of all profits generated will be donated to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

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Filed under: Retail, Apple

The rumored Apple Store, Sainte Catherine in Montréal is opening today, in grand style. If you’re in the area of 1321 Ste-Catherine st west besides the Ogilvy Department Store at the corner De la Montagne st (which I totally just grabbed from the store’s website, I have no idea where any of that is) you should stop on by.

It looks like the store will also have a number of musical guests for the next few days to keep interest up. Amongst the musical folks stopping by the store are:

• The Stills on July 26th
• Alex Cuba on July 27th
• Anik Jean on July 28th
• David Usher on July 29th

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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Rob Enderle, everyone’s “love to hate” analyst, has suggested that Apple’s iPhone “wasn’t finished” much like Microsoft’s Vista operating system. “Clearly, Apple is having manufacturing and software problems,” independent analyst Rob Enderle says. “A star product like the iPhone does a lot of great things for Apple, but when things go wrong, it can bring down the entire image of a company.”…

Truphone has announced a number of new features which should ensure that its users don’t run out of call credit while using the service out and about. Customers can top-up while on the go, either via a mobile-optimised Web page or automated telephone top-up service…

Probably because it functions as a video and music iPod and now has access to a whole host of applications, it seems the most popular iPhone 3G is the 16GB model. At least, that’s the handset which seems to always be out of stock. Though both O2 and The Carphone Warehouse had new stock delivered last week, both are running short of the 16GB model (still only available in black, it has to be noted)…

Though the MobileMe service, which has been plagued with problems since it semi-launched earlier in the month alongside the iPhone 3G, is already live in the UK, Apple has just sent out an email to those who signed up for more information inviting them to take part in a free trial…

When you’re on the road and have no place to plug in, how can you optimize battery performance on your Mac laptop? Find out by watching the latest QuickTip of the Week.

These new, fun and trendy pouches from Golla Finland are a great way to protect your phone and look cool at the same time!Unique designs, bright colors and acute attention to detail will be turning heads all over the world. These are no ordinary, boring carrying cases and if you are looking for something different and funky to carry your Apple iPhone in, these pouches are IT!

A great new application for your iPhone is coming in the next days or weeks. It will turn your iPhone into a wireless drive for file storage.

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Tags:data drive iphone storage wirelessdata, drive, iphone, storage, wireless

Filed under: MobileMe

MobileMe has been off to a rough start. The mail outages aren’t good and giving people free time to use a service that doesn’t work is a cold comfort. Sadly, the bad news just keeps coming for MobileMe.

Walt Mossberg, Personal Technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is generally an Apple fan but he isn’t gaga for MobileMe. Even discounting the amount of trouble Apple has been having keeping MobileMe up, Mossberg points out that even when fully functional the service doesn’t work well.

He points out the push that isn’t really push, the sluggishness of the web interface, and a host of issues with syncing data with Outlook on a PC. Walt suggests you wait before buying MobileMe.

How has MobileMe been treating you? Let us know in the comments.

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I received some emails last week from a couple of affiliate marketing people suggesting that O2 was going to stop selling the Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Samsung Tocco and Sony Ericsson C905 from 25th July until further notice, in favour of selling the iPhone 3G. One was particularly odd as it addressed me as an affiliate member, even though I’ve never sold phones on behalf of any mobile handset in my life, advising me to remove all affiliate links referring to the above four phones by 25th July…

Filed under: Software

RiftVault, which we covered when it was in a pre-release state, is now a full 1.0 release. $39.95 will get you this snazzy app which stores your important information the way it should be stored: using encryption. RiftVault is designed to hold credit card information, passwords, banking info, and even files that you want secured (using the very clever ‘Safe Deposit Box’ feature).

Everything that RiftVault stores for you is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption. When you open an item it is unencrypted and cached for fast access only to be flushed from RAM when you close the item. Check out our gallery to get a glimpse of what this app has to offer.

RiftVault is available now for $39.95 and there is a free 30 day demo.

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Filed under: Retail, Apple

The last time that we looked into the Charleston, South Carolina Apple Store, they were only in the construction/hiring process. Well, the time has finally come: some South Carolinians will rejoice, while others (like me) will want more. Apple has announced that the first South Carolina store will open this Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. The King Street Apple Store is located at 301 King Street in the downtown district.

What do you think about the first Apple retail store coming to South Carolina? Do you support their (belated) efforts? Will you be attending the grand opening? Do you have pictures of the store?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Filed under: Apple, iPhone

Apple has finally posted three new iPhone 3G commercials on their website. In these ads, Apple seems to be pushing (quite literally) the features of the new iPhone 3G/2.0 firmware. Push, half the price, twice as fast, and other Jobsian quotes are in these new ads.

Just in case you were wondering, the song playing in the background of the new commercials is You, Me and the Bourgeoisie by the Submarines (iTunes link). You can watch Everyone, Unslow, and Work Friendly on the iPhone ads website.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Filed under: Accessories, Apple TV, Mac 101

If you’re like me, then you have multiple Macs with IR sensors in the same room. What happens when you push the menu button on your Apple remote? Chances are it will launch Front Row on every Mac in the room. I had this problem until I discovered Apple remote pairing.

To pair your remote with a specific Mac or Apple TV, just hold down the menu and the next (fast forward) buttons for 5 seconds making sure you’re within 5 inches of the IR sensor on the device.

You can unpair a remote by going into System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences) and click security. From the Security System Preference pane, select the “Unpair” button at the bottom the preference pane.

Lastly, you can disable the use of remotes all together. To do this, head back to the Security System Preference pane and click the check box labeled “Disable remote control infrared receiver.” This will keep rogue remotes away from your Mac.

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Filed under: Accessories, Apple TV, Mac 101

If you’re like me, then you have multiple Macs with IR sensors in the same room. What happens when you push the menu button on your Apple remote? Chances are it will launch Front Row on every Mac in the room. I had this problem until I discovered Apple remote pairing.

To pair your remote with a specific Mac or Apple TV, just hold down the menu and the next (fast forward) buttons for 5 seconds making sure you’re within 5 inches of the IR sensor on the device.

You can unpair a remote by going into System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences) and click security. From the Security System Preference pane, select the “Unpair” button at the bottom the preference pane.

Lastly, you can disable the use of remotes all together. To do this, head back to the Security System Preference pane and click the check box labeled “Disable remote control infrared receiver.” This will keep rogue remotes away from your Mac.

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What issues did some MobileMe members experience? How is Apple addressing them? What improvements to MobileMe will Apple be delivering? To keep members informed about MobileMe services — and the progress we make addressing issues affecting them — Apple today launched MobileMe Status. There, members will find the very latest information about MobileMe as we strive to improve the service for everyone.

Originally used to protect the leading edges of military helicopter blades from wear and tear, the invisibleSHIELD has now become the leading brand in handheld device protection.

An audio engineer for 33 years, Greg Price offers simple advice to those who’d like to become great engineers themselves. “‘First, you have to play an instrument,’” reports Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com), “‘and second, you have to use a Mac.’” “When it comes to making music, using a Mac isn’t something you should do, Price emphasized, it’s a must.”

Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com) spent his first week with iPhone 3G in Los Angeles, and it “made my trip a little easier,” he says. So much so, that Dalrymple is positively smitten: “I love the iPhone 3G and have already recommended it to many of the people that e-mailed me since its release looking for advice. The addition of GPS made the iPhone much more effective for traveling and MobileMe is a godsend.”

Filed under: Education, iPhone, SDK

Precious little information is available just now, but Stanford appears to be offering a course in the Autumn entitled “iPhone Application Programming.”

Award-winning iPhone app developer Craig Hockenberry wonders aloud if Apple will even allow such a course to be taught, presumably thanks to the ongoing NDA mummalum that Erica wrote about earlier today.

If anyone has any more information about the course and its instructor, we’re all ears: please feel free to tip us.

Update: Tipsters Quinn and Dave helpfully inform us that the course will likely be taught by one (or more) of the same Apple employees that teach a Cocoa Programming course on campus. Apple and Stanford have shared a close relationship: Whether or not that gets them around the NDA restrictions probably will require a lawyer to understand and explain. Thanks, guys!

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Filed under: Software, Hacks, Tips and tricks, Apple, iPhone

IntoMobile has a few good tips on how to extend your iPhone’s battery life, and most of them involve the most obvious thing you can do to keep your iPhone running: cut down on any and all extra functions. They actually recommend to turn off 3G, but you don’t have to go that far — just by holding down the Home button, you can close any background applications sucking up juice. And by resetting your phone, you can do the same thing — clear out anything running that you’re not using.

Actually, while I was in Los Angeles last week, I heard the great Leo Laporte mention a great tip on his radio show: turn off the “Ask to join networks” feature in the WiFi settings. If you’re like me, you almost always know when there’s a WiFi network around that you can use on your iPhone, and so it’s pointless (and a waste of battery life) for the iPhone to be constantly searching for one. You can always flip it back on if you do want to do a little poking around, but leaving it off will significantly help battery life.

In fact, when in extreme trouble, you can go even farther and just switch the whole thing into Airplane Mode. It’ll make your phone useless, but when you really need it — out on a trip, or waiting to make an important call — the extra battery time might make all the difference.

[via Apple Enthusiast]

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“The big winners in Apple’s new online App Store are gamemakers,” says Ryan Kim (sfgate.com). After all, “seven of the top 10 paid applications, including the top five, were video games,” and he reports that Simon Jeffery, president of Sega of America “expects to sell 1 million downloads of Super Monkey Ball on iPhone.” “This is a very viable platform,” Jeffery said. “We’re just scratching the surface on the iPhone.’”

“It’s hard to be a tech reviewer if products arrive pretty close to perfect,” laments Mark Kellner (washingtontimes.com). But he admits to being “very impressed” with iPhone 3G: “The phone performs very well, e-mail is a breeze, and as a music player, the iPhone-in-iPod mode has no equal.”

Got a minute? Then you have time to enjoy a lecture from a faculty member at the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Speaking on a wide range of topics — from enthography to philosphy to music — the lecturers offer insight, whimsy, and, above all, brevity.

Originally used to protect the leading edges of military helicopter blades from wear and tear, the invisibleSHIELD has now become the leading brand in handheld device protection.

Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret (allthingsd.com) consider the new App Store “the single best feature in Apple’s second generation iPhone 3G.” The “easy availability of so many programs,” they say, “makes the iPhone a true computing platform, like a pocket-sized Windows or Macintosh PC,” one that allows iPhone owners to “have a device with fresh, different capabilities every day.”

Filed under: Software

Call me crazy but I bet there are a few would-be, and some actual, novelists out there who read TUAW. Am I right? Thought so. If you are amongst that august group then you might be tickled by the Blue Technologies Group’s text editor: Ulysses. It was built from the ground up with writers in mind with features that include:

• Grouping of files
• Semantic Text editing (this allows you to create your own markup language. You can mark up your document in a way that makes sense to you and then export it and see those words that you marked as bold show up as bold in the resulting document. Trust me, this is cool stuff)
• A single window for all your documents
• Powerful search

And that is just scratching the surface. Read the full feature run down to find out all the details.
Ulysses now comes in two flavors: Ulysses is the full featured application which costs 79.99 € (half off for EDU buyers) and Ulysses Core which has a subset of features (check out this chart to see what the Core version leaves out) and will set you back 39.99 € ( 25.99 € for education buyers).

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Filed under: iPhone

Unclutterer is one of my favorite blogs. They offer practical advice and tips on keeping your work, home and life tidy and clutter-free.

This week, they’ve posted an article on using the iPhone for increased productivity and clutter reduction. There are several great tips, including my favorite — photograph the bar codes of your membership cards (gym, Staples, etc.) and store them in an appropriately named album. Most scanners should have no trouble reading the bar codes (test this before ditching your cards, of course).

They also mention apps like Jott and Evernote. It’s definitely worth a read. Check it out.

Update: Their website seems to be having a bit of trouble this morning, folks. We’re sure they’re working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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“Better than the original in almost every way,” iPhone 3G “is an endless source of entertainment — as well as a platform for useful business applications that transform it from a cute gadget into a true hand-held computer,” suggests Mike Himowitz (baltimoresun.com).

Thanks to a “dramatic overhaul,” Aperture 2, “Apple’s all-in-one photography tool, overtakes Adobe’s Lightroom,” reports Alex Singleton (macworld.co.uk). “Much faster than its predecessor,” Aperture 2 has “a new user interface [that] makes it more appealing to first-time users, and over 100 new features means it significantly leapfrogs Lightroom in functionality.”

What makes the App Store “a win for the user”? Andy Ihnatko (suntimes.com) ticks off the reasons: “The entire universe of iPhone software is in one central location.” “Prices start at free.” “Buying and installing an app is dead simple and reliable.” And thanks to the App Store, iPhone and iPod touch now “represent a formidable and legitimate new computing platform.”