Iphone Updates

Filed under: OS, Terminal Tips

Without using Exposé, it is hard to tell which Mac OS X applications are hidden and which aren’t. But, with a simple Terminal hack, you can have all your application icons displayed as transparent. Simply open Terminal.app (Applications > Utilities) and type the following command exactly:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

Once you type the command and press enter, you need to restart the Dock by typing “killall Dock” and pressing enter. Once the Dock restarts and you hide applications, you will notice that hidden applications have a transparent look. If you want to reverse the command, just replace the “YES” with a “NO” and restart the Dock again.

Like these tips and tricks? Why not take a look at TUAW’s Mac 101 and Terminal Tips category.

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Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple, Developer

Steve “Woz” Wozniak is often considered the “God” of Apple. He was the designer of the first ever Apple computers (Apple / & Apple //). At a recent developer forum at Intel, Woz gave a bit of advice to the engineers. He told them that, “the right way of going through life” is pursuing a vision without compromise.

“If you have technical ideas, if you know what you’re good at, and you know what you’re doing is right … you have to shut them out,” Woz said, in reference to others telling you how to do something.

According to InformationWeek, Woz went on to discuss other topics. He talked about being a successful inventor. While on this topic, he admitted that not having money helps the creativity.

InformationWeek has the full details on the interview.

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Filed under: OS, Terminal Tips

Without using Exposé, it is hard to tell which Mac OS X applications are hidden and which aren’t. But, with a simple Terminal hack, you can have all your application icons displayed as transparent. Simply open Terminal.app (Applications > Utilities) and type the following command exactly:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

Once you type the command and press enter, you need to restart the Dock by typing “killall Dock” and pressing enter. Once the Dock restarts and you hide applications, you will notice that hidden applications have a transparent look. If you want to reverse the command, just replace the “YES” with a “NO” and restart the Dock again.

Like these tips and tricks? Why not take a look at TUAW’s Mac 101 and Terminal Tips category.

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Filed under: Gaming, TUAW Business

Rounding out the last of our back to school giveaways, we’d like to give you a shot at wasting time. School can’t be all about studying and learning, can it? Of course, if you happen to be in school for game design this could actually be homework… Plus, if you don’t win, there’s always Jared and SimStapler. The point: we want you to have fun.

Big thanks to Freeverse for the prize package, which includes your choice of a Freeverse iPhone game (Wingnuts Moto Racer and Sudoku iPhone are currently available), plus the following games: Hordes of Orcs, Kill Monty, Neon Tango and Big Brain Games. That should give your Xbox 360 a break.

To enter, tell us your favorite non-videogame game from your childhood (like chess, Parcheesi, Risk, etc.). The other rules (same as always) are below.

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, leave a comment telling us your favorite game (not a video game) from childhood.
• The comment must be left before August 24, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: One iPhone game (up to $10), Hordes of Orcs ($24.95), Kill Monty ($19.95), Neon Tango ($24.95), Big Brain Games ($29.95)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

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Latest iPhone News: Friday 22 August 2008 More white 16GB iPhone 3Gs in UK For those who really care, the Carphone Warehouse has announced that it has stocks of the 16GB white iPhone 3G, so if you were waiting for…

Surprisingly few people have made videos about GTS World Racing for the iPhone. Here’s the cream of the small crop.

1. Astraware The Original

Of course, we have to link to the creators, for without them, we’d be playing Super Monkey Ball all day instead.

2. iPod touch Lab

There’s dedication: this is application number 223! Does that mean there are 222 other videos somewhere? We’ve some catching up to do, clearly. Anyway, this is a fairly short and sweet video, plenty of crashing (everyone crashes into that green car in front of them on the grid at least once) More…

Filed under: iPod Family, Leopard, iPhone

Good morning, Mr. Phelps. The man you are looking at is Justin T. iPhoneuser, one of our loyal TUAW readers. Recently, Justin’s iPhone went kablooey and when he tried to restore, he found that his backups were corrupted. He lost a great deal of data and time, all because Time Machine hadn’t backed up his iPhone’s data.

Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to help Justin back up his data with Time Machine so he never has to face this kind of data loss again. As usual, should any of your team members be caught by Apple, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds…

[This is the part where the Theme Music usually plays.]

Read on for your TUAWpossible Mission Briefing.

Continue reading Mission TUAWpossible: Back up your iPhone with Time Machine

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Filed under: Productivity, Tips and tricks, Developer, Graphic Design

As the economy makes with the poop, we can all use a little bit of extra help finding work. Whether it’s side projects, or full-time employment, there are plenty of jobs available for system administrators, programmers, and creative people — all who use a Mac.

I’ve assembled a collection of sites and job boards that cater to those with a technical and creative skill set — people who probably use a Mac. This is by no means a complete list, but should help anyone starting to look for work.

Comments consisting of “how could you dare possibly omit [insert name of board here]” will be met with resigned sighs from me, but cheers from our readers. So feel free to point people in the direction of boards that you’ve used or trusted before in comments.

Follow me across the jump for the list.

Continue reading Get a Mac, get a job

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Even as an iPhone fan, I don’t get the excitement about the UK getting larger stocks of the white iPhone. Those who hacked the original iPhone senseless have only themselves to blame, and personally I’m happy to get hold of any version of the 16GB iPhone, and really don’t care what colour it is (so long as it’s not pink, of course.)…

Latest iPhone News: Thursday 21 August 2008

OpenClip

Copy and paste functionality, which has long eluded iPhone users, could be coming to third party applications if they implement the open source OpenClip software. I’m not convinced it’s enough, though it’s a valiant attempt.

Whether you like watching them or creating your own, you’ll find a wealth of fascinating material about documentaries on iTunes U. Especially from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. There you can hear poets, photographers, and filmmakers speak about creating documentaries, and you can listen to audio documentaries recorded by Duke University students.

Think you have what it takes to be selected as one of the top emerging photographers of the year? If so, you have only one day left to submit your work for consideration in American Photo’s 2008 Emerging Photographers project. All you need is ten outstanding images, Aperture 2, and the free Portfolio Review export plug-in that you’ll find — along with complete details — on American Photo’s website.

It’s time to vote on what you’d like to see more of on iPhonic.tv. Is it the latest iPhone-related news, more reviews of applications, analysis and opinion, or interviews? Vote below, and we’ll see what we can do…

There’s a lot of buzz on the Internet at present about an open source bit of software called OpenClip, which is effectively cut-and-paste functionality that other developers can build into their applications to bring users closer to the feature many have been crying out for since the iPhone launched last year. The trouble is, the system is flawed. Leave aside the fact that it hasn’t been sanctioned by Apple, and focus on the issue that it’s only going to work with third party applications, and from developers who choose to implement it at that…

We think you’ll really enjoy Off the Air, Pizza Box, Throne, and Calming Teas, the four latest TV ads now playing on the Get a Mac site. While you’re visiting, you may also want to watch the long version of Sad Song. It’s a classic. Maybe your friends would like to see them, too.

You may depend on Preview to read and annotate PDFs. But did you know that you can use Preview to crop, rotate, and resize photos? Using tools available in Preview, you can also adjust exposure, saturation, and sharpness. Or make Auto Levels adjustments. Preview even lets you remove backgrounds. To find out how to make easy photo edits in Preview, watch the latest Quick Tip of the Week.

“The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show that Apple has dramatically outpaced its rival computer makers in the hearts of U.S. consumers,” reports Asher Hawkins (forbes.com). The ACSI survey “ranks Apple at 85” out of 100, “11 points above the computer-maker industry average.” In fact, “Apple’s rating is also an all-time high for the computer industry.”

Pro photographer Ben Horton may depend on his unique vision to capture compelling images, but he relies on his Macs and Aperture 2 to process, perfect and present his photos to the world. “The whole app feels right,” he says. “It’s easy to maneuver and all the editing tools are in one place. I don’t like to spend a lot of time figuring out how to use a program, and with Aperture, I don’t have to.”

Do you crossword? Then you’re gonna love 2 Across. Eliza Block’s stellar crossword puzzle game for iPhone and iPod touch lets you download puzzles from a variety of sources — including the Times, Washington Post, and The Onion — and solve them on the go. 2 Across gets rave reviews from puzzle fans, and Block has even made a new Lite Edition available for the thriftiest puzzlers.

How better to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the legendary Warner Brothers Studio than by watching some of the great films they’ve produced over the years? And that’s just what we’re doing at iTunes, making it easy for you to find such box-office hits as Matrix Reloaded, Goodfellas, Risky Business, Blade Runner, and eighty-one other classic Warner Brothers films, many newly restored for the occasion.

eBay is the latest web site to announce an optimised web site for the iPhone. In fact, it’s created two mobile versions — one for “the rest” and one for the iPhone. That’s great in theory, but what I don’t like is being forced to use the mobile version of the site when I want to use the full version. Granted, I may be taking my life in my hands using the “grown up” version of a web site, but given that I can’t run Flash or Java on my iPhone anyway, I’m not likely to come to a grinding halt…

Turkey is already on the list of iPhone “coming soon” countries, so a deal between Apple and an operator must have already been in the pipeline. Leading mobile telco Turkcell has announced that it will bring the iPhone to Turkey later this year. No specific dates or prices have been given for the launch, but that’s not particularly surprising as consumers in other countries were also left in the dark until very close to launch date…

“When you’re starting a small company,” explains Lane Becker, “every minute and every dollar counts.” That’s why he and co-founders Thor and Amy Muller chose an all-Apple infrastructure for Get Satisfaction, the startup they launched to bring peer-to-peer customer assistance to corporate customer service.

On August 27, you can meet actor, comedian, and writer Steve Coogan as he visits the Apple Retail Store, SoHo to discuss his new movie, Hamlet 2. The hilarious (and irreverent) comedy — the comedy smash of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival — arrives in theaters on August 22. In addition to Coogan, the movie stars Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, David Arquette, and Elisabeth Shue. Enjoy the Hamlet 2 trailer.

Part crime drama, part political intrigue, the Bank Job nabbed critical acclaim when it stole into theaters this year. Now available for both purchase ($14.99) and rental ($3.99), the film tells the story of a successful 1971 bank heist that scored not only millions of pounds in cash and jewelry but also incriminating evidence implicating members of the royal family in murder, corruption, and a sex scandal.

“Issues are the last things a kid needs at college and Macs have fewer issues with viruses, malware, and icky stuff like that,” explains Bob LeVitus (chron.com). He recently sent his own daughter off to college with — what else? — her own Mac, and to help fellow parents make the right choice for their undergrads, LeVitus lists the twelve reasons “why your student should take a Mac to college.”

Not too long ago, Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com)) announced that his long-desired goal of recording his own Blues album on his Mac had run into a bit of a musical snag. He ran out of mic preamps for recording. Not to worry, readers came to the rescue, and in his latest Creative Note, Dalrymple describes the solutions that got his project back on track.

WIth Disk Utility in Mac OS X Leopard, you can write to some types of optical media multiple times — not just once. Doing so allows you to fill up those discs with more data and make them an even more economical storage destination. To find out how, watch the most recent Quick Tip of the Week.

iPhone-friendly instant messaging application Palringo has just gained “Push to Talk” functionality which effectively allows users to send voice instant messages. The advantages of Palringo are fairly clear. Unlike phone operators that may offer these kinds of services, but with tie-ins or only on specific handsets, iPhone users can use the same service that countless others use on a huge variety of handsets and with any operator…

It’s hard to trust Apple rumours, but one iPhone 3G user claims to have received a one-line email from Steve Jobs suggesting that two per cent of iPhone 3G users are experiencing some kind of hardware problem preventing them from getting a reliable network connection. Today’s software update, taking the iPhone firmware from 2.0.1 to 2.0.2, has supposedly improved network connectivity and speed for some users, while others claim no improvement. One in fifty users with problems: some may say that’s a relatively small number, but one in fifty is fairly sizeable in my opinion…

“Did you know, sir, then?” Harry asks Dumbledore. Directed by David Yates and starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), the sixth movie based on J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series arrives in theaters this November. Enjoy the first trailer from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.) and hear what Dumbledore admits to Harry.

From July 13 to September 7, 2008, the Indianapolis Museum of Art hosts the exhibition To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition — now available on iTunes U — “explores the ancient Egyptian belief that death was an enemy that could be beaten through proper preparation.” The video podcast lets you view rare objects, some never seen in the U.S. before, from as early as the 19th dynasty.

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store

Another venerable title from the world of Palm OS and Windows Mobile has made it to the iPhone and iPod touch.SplashID for iPhone / iPod touch is now shipping. With over 500,000 copies of SplashID sold, it’s by far the most popular secure personal information manager for handheld devices.

Developer SplashData has provided features that make this application very attractive. For example, there are Mac and Windows desktop apps that sync wirelessly with the iPhone version, so you can do a lot of your editing and data entry from the desktop instead of using the iPhone’s keyboard. Data is protected by 256-bit Blowfish encryption, and there’s a built-in generator for creating unguessable passwords.

SplashID is available now from the App Store (click opens iTunes) for $9.95 and the desktop version is available at the SplashData website for $19.99. There’s also a 30-day free trial available.

Two of SplashData’s other mobile titles, SplashMoney and SplashShopper, are also now available for iPhone and iPod touch.

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Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends

Microsoft has set aside $300 million for an ad campaign featuring once-funny comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a series of advertisements targeting Apple. [Insert "master of his domain" joke here. -Ed.]

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft will pay Seinfeld $10 million to appear in a series of ads for its “Windows, Not Walls” campaign that will feature Seinfeld and Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman. According to AdWeek, other highly-relevant comics like Chris Rock and Will Ferrell may also appear in the ads.

Wired notes that Microsoft’s “choice of Seinfeld was an effort to avoid pandering to the kids with ‘a celebrity that was too hip.’” Mission accomplished.

It’s unclear why the titan even has to advertise; its highly successful Windows Vista and Zune media player products have dominated the landscape for … I’m sorry. I just can’t type anymore. I’m laughing too hard.

The campaign is due to launch September 4, and will be produced by MDC Partners’ Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The agency is responsible for such memorable hits as Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” and Miller Lite’s “Man Laws,” the latter with Burt Reynolds. Will his star ever stop rising?

[via Macworld]

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Last week I previewed GTS World Racing for the iPhone, and now here’s a video demo of the game in all its glory. You might not believe it, but I’ve been playing the game for over a week. Look out for a few nifty manoeuvres, surrounded by a lot of dirt eating.

BlackBerry trying to become more “consumer” and iPhone trying to become more “corporate” — it’s an interesting battle that I didn’t expect to see when the iPhone was launched last year, and one that could be set to intensify if HSBC follows through on the rumours. Yes, the world’s fourth largest bank could be about to kit out two-thirds of its worldwide workforce with iPhones, ditching the BlackBerrys they currently use. That’s around 200,000 of the handsets, and would be a major result for Apple, and a blow to RIM. Is it likely to happen? CIO of HSBC Australia/NZ, Brenton Hush, said that “it’s definitely something we are considering from a HSBC Group perspective. We always explore the potential application of new technologies and this is no different.” I’m not convinced, though, and here’s why…

Regular readers will have noticed that we’ve been bereft of comments for quite some time now, and though we’re working at bringing them back as soon as we can, I’m feeling deprived of getting feedback from you all. Of course, I could just leave you my email address so you can praise or rant at me, but that might get a bit much. So, instead, via the wonder that is Facebook (yeah, I know, yawn), iPhonic.tv now has a group…

As I’ve already reported, a number of users are having significant problems with maintaining a 3G connection on their iPhone. Now, Sweden’s premier engineering publication “Ny Teknik” has got hold of a test report from “experts” which suggests that the iPhone could be among a handful of mobile handsets that fall short of the International Telecommunication Union’s standards…

Marking a change from Apple’s current policy, US national retailer Best Buy has announced it is to begin selling the iPhone 3G from 7th September. Currently, only AT&T and Apple Stores are selling the handset in the US, and in many other countries only the network operator and possibly carefully chosen retail stores in the telecoms sector can sell the handset. This marks the first time a general store has been given Apple’s permission to sell the iPhone…

The stampede begins as soon as the winning goal is scored or the sprinter crosses the finishing line. That’s when the photographers covering Olympic events madly rush to the massive Kodak Photographer’s Center, download and process their images, and file them with their news bureaus back home. And as David Schloss (macworld.com) reports, most are doing so on Macs running Aperture 2.

The Executive [OVRMLD] for the iPhone 3G is a stylish and classy form fitting case. This case is designed to offer users exceptional hard mold protection with an attractive outer design while allowing easy access to all features of the iPhone 3G.

Whether you like watching them or creating your own, you’ll find a wealth of fascinating material about documentaries on iTunes U. Especially from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. There you can hear poets, photographers, and filmmakers speak about creating documentaries, and you can listen to audio documentaries recorded by Duke University students.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Blogging, Developer

Erik Schwiebert is one of the lead developers on the Mac Business Unit team under the Microsoft banner. I find their position constantly interesting — even in these enlightened days of Safari for Windows, many dyed-in-the-wool Mac users still consider Microsoft the enemy, and yet the Mac BU has always been like a kind of diplomatic envoy. We have to use things like Office and Entourage, so we cautiously let them across the border, regarding them like strange visitors from the other side of the wall.

But maybe that’s just all in my mind. Recently, the Mac BU released an update for Office 2008, and lots of users, apparently, have suffered from error problems while trying to install it. So many, in fact, that Schwiebert has responded to the problems on his blog, saying that the problems are most likely because users have deleted or otherwise messed with files inside the installation, causing the installer to abort. And that strange Mac BU/Mac users fragile truce comes into play here as well — he specifically calls out Xslimmer and Monolingual, two programs that delete often-unnecessary files in OS X, for causing the issues.

There’s a workaround floating around, but Schwiebert warns it leaves the application suite in a possibly unstable and unsupportable state. Unfortunately, Schwiebert doesn’t really offer any solutions (other, we guess, than to reinstall the software so that it’s back to the full install, and then apply the update). And the alliance between the Mac BU and their users remains fragile — we’ve got to work together, but it seems that many are unhappy about it.

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Filed under: TUAW Business

So if you’re looking to ditch the CDs when you move into the dorm but don’t have the time or inclination to rip them yourself, why not take a look at Ripstyles? They were kind enough to offer today’s prize: 200 CDs in their Premiere Stylizing service can be ripped for free (and they’ll give you a deal if you want to rip more).

But if you don’t win the prize, fear not. They are also offering a 10% discount off all their CD conversion services, as well as their Ripserver, by simply using the promo code “TUAW” (no quotes). Not bad, considering it can take hours to rip hundreds of discs. That’s time you could spend studying!

As usual, read the rules below. This time, in order to enter the giveaway, we’d like you to tell us your favorite song in the comments. Good luck!

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us your favorite song.
• The comment must be left before August 22, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: 200 CDs converted using Ripstyles Premiere service ($158 value)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

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iLounge reports on an issue that’s causing headaches for many iPhone 3G owners: that of poor and fluctuating 3G coverage even in locations where the signal is supposed to be good, and in fact is good on other handsets. It’s a problem which AT&T and Apple are looking into in the US, but is also plaguing owners around the world. The worrying conclusion some people are drawing — though it should be noted that this isn’t yet proven — is that there’s a problem with the “immature (3G) chipset” believed to have been provided by Infineon…

Ideaworks3D has announced that its cross-platform Airplay software development kit, designed for the creation of advanced games and applications for mobile devices, now supports the iPhone and iPod touch. The software allows developers to build a single application binary and distribute it to all supported operating systems and devices. Airplay is fully optimised for the iPhone hardware, including the ARM11 CPU and the Imagination Technologies POWERVR graphics processor. Airplay will automatically optimise data sets for the iPhone hardware; for example, applying PVRTC texture compression where possible…

Truphone has announced the new “Tru Saver” bundle deal for its North American customers, offering some of the best prices for long distance calls. It offers callers within the US and Canada, or those calling the US and Canada from anywhere else in the world, a price of 1.5 cents per minute, and up to 1,000 minutes a month for a flat rate of $14.99…

iZotope has announced that its iDrum application for the iPhone and iPod touch is now available in the App Store. iDrum lets users tap virtual pads to create rhythms, shake the handset to clear them, and use slide and flick gestures to navigate the application’s interface…

For those of you who aren’t helping TechCrunch maintain its second position in the list of most popular blogs, let me tell you what the latest nugget from Michael Arrington is: The iPhone’s “killer apps” are email and the web browser. Well, there’s a shock. Granted, TechCrunch is aimed at the digerati – those who know what Twitter and FriendFeed are and use them more than five times an hour. The usage patterns of “ordinary” (and extremely important) users may vary…

I’ve avoided reporting on the “I Am Rich” application, despite the amount of column inches it has generated, because in my opinion it was a ridiculous application which should never have made it into the App Store. In case you’ve been lucky enough to avoid the news so far, an application called “I Am Rich” — which sold for $999.99 and did nothing but display a ruby on the screen, plus a misspelled, punctuation-poor mantra — made it past Apple’s censors into the store. Eight people bought it, some claiming to have done so accidentally, and over the weekend, Apple pulled it from the App Store. German software developer, Armin Heinrich, said it was all meant to be a joke, but he has since received some rather abusive emails and phone messages because of the application…