Iphone Updates

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Other Events, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store

I’m lucky enough to be heading out to E3 next week, so I’ll be puttering around the show looking for great iPhone apps and games to tell you all about, but it looks like CES might be the place to be for iPhone software in 2010: the show is going to expand the exhibit space for Apple’s mobile platforms by 5x. We knew there was going to be a bigger iPhone/iPod related event there, but we didn’t know it was going to be quite that big. Organizers say that the App Store’s huge growth justifies the size of the event, but of course Apple’s exit from Macworld (and that event’s move to February, away from the Vegas CES show in January) didn’t hurt either.

Don’t look for any official iPhone or iPod setups at CES — Apple says that trade shows aren’t a huge part of their marketing plan any more. We can’t really blame them; they already have their own events whenever they want, well-attended and well-covered by the press. But this show will probably be a nice opportunity for iPhone developers. There’s a lot of apps out there, and every chance developers get to show off to the press will probably be welcome.

TUAWCES expands iPod, iPhone exhibit space at next year’s show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 May 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Odds and ends, TUAW Business, Podcasts

It’s a quiet weekend here at TUAW HQ, as most of our US-based team is enjoying a well-deserved break over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Since everyone’s drinking mojitos by the pool, we’re not doing a talkcast tonight (sorry!), but you can grab last week’s show (featuring host Christina “C-Mac” Warren and the rest of the usual suspects) direct from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

Here’s a quick update on some of the stories making Mac and iPhone news this weekend:

• Daring Fireball’s John Gruber weighs in on the upcoming iPhone refresh rumors, citing informed sources who tell him that the CPU and RAM upgrades for the next-generation handheld will deliver impressive performance boosts, making this year’s model up to twice as fast as the iPhone 3G. He also backs up the expected addition of a magnetometer and a video-capable improved camera (alongside the long-rumored video editing tools on the phone). You can see a thorough roundup of the state of iPhone rumors over at Wired’s Gadget Lab. Perhaps the upcoming iPhone refresh is behind the expected ramp-up in distributed support hiring noted earlier this week.
• Kwame Jones discovered a preliminary interface for renting and purchasing movies & TV shows on the iPhone and iPod touch, which should be loads of fun even though it will be limited to WiFi connections.
• MDN and other sites have noted a North Carolina effort to get Apple to build a major server farm in the Tarheel State, with up to $46 million USD in tax incentives available if the company reaches a $1B investment threshold in nine years. Seems a shame that lawmakers declared the scuppernong grape as the official state fruit a few years ago, doesn’t it.
• Glenn Fleischman from TidBITS pointed out that the UVA freshman computing survey is out again, showing more impressive gains for the Mac platform year-over-year. UC Davis shows a tripling of share for the Mac over the past three years.
• In a very quick turnaround, Cartier sued Apple for two iPhone apps that it claimed ripped off its products — and then promptly withdrew the action. Nicely done.
• The First Ascent team, videoblogging their way up Mount Everest using solar power and MacBook Pro laptops, reached the summit earlier this week. Congratulations!
• The long-admired Windows photo app ACDsee finally released a Mac beta this week; it’s worth a look.
• More photos and inside views from the Zurich Apple Store opening via ifoAppleStore.

Got something that’s too good not to share? Give us a tip!

TUAWWeekend news roundup, no talkcast this week originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 24 May 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Eucalyptus [App Store] has been finally allowed to appear in the App Store after being rejected by Apple. The e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod touch was rejected because a person could get sexually oriented books like the Kama Sutra, even though the book is in the public domain and freely available on the web.

The program author let us know the US$9.99 app was approved late last night. He said, “Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store.”

“Since my previous post, I’ve been so pleased with the overwhelmingly positive articles, blog posts, comments and tweets – and also the emails from those of you who felt so strongly about the issue you wanted to contact me directly. They were all much appreciated. Thanks for all the support. It’s been a roller coaster of a weekend!”

The controversy over this app once again points out how crazy the Apple standards for applications are. Dozens of fart apps are fine (not to mention apps that thoroughly infringe other companies’ IP or steal their graphics) but an e-book reader that simply loads public domain books was verboten. It doesn’t make any sense, and further, the situation doesn’t seem to be improving. Developers are left to try and get publicity to embarrass Apple into being a bit more sensible.

TUAWEucalyptus for iPhone gets a new lease on life originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 24 May 2009 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Features, Productivity, Friday Favorite

If you have a photographic memory, you may recall an article I wrote for TUAW about a year ago describing how to use AppleScript to make it easier to transcribe QuickTime movies and audio. In the comments for that piece, a program was pointed out to me (thanks imnotjesus) which has become a valuable tool in my toolbox. Transcriva is a single-purpose program for transcribing video and audio clips with a rich set of features certain to make your life easier. If you’re doing professional transcription, recording audio notes in a class or a meeting for later reference, preparing sub-titles for a movie, or anything which involves copying what’s being said or shown into text form, Transcriva has tools to fit, and pricing I find very reasonable.

The main window of Transcriva offers a library view of your transcriptions, a media playback bar and your current transcription. With user-configurable keyboard shortcuts, it’s possible to comfortably operate during a transcription without your hands ever needing to leave the keyboard. It even works with a foot pedal, if you’re set up with one. You can control playback speed and set it to match your typing speed, as well automatically jump back a configurable number of seconds when you pause and resume playback.

Of all of the features available, Follow-Along is my favorite. It allows you to play back your audio after you’ve transcribed it, and highlights the appropriate sections of the transcription as the playback head moves through them. More importantly, clicking on an area of the transcription jumps to its related point in the playback, allowing you to quickly review the audio associated with a note or transcription. This is important because that’s exactly how I use Transcriva, taking notes from audio recordings or even during a recording when I’m using the built-in record features. Then I can review my hastily typed notes and immediately hear the audio that was happening at the time I took the note.

It’s great for recording meetings and annotating recorded Skype conversations. I imagine it would be an amazing tool in class, if you were in a situation where recording and typing were allowed. I haven’t been to school for a while. The functionality is similar to Pear Note, but at $29.99US, Transcriva comes in $10US cheaper and packs more features.

Transcriva can handle just about any type of audio or video you can play on your Mac. It uses QuickTime, and with Flip4Mac and Perian installed, you can extend the possibilities to include WMV, AVI, DIVX, FLV and more. When you’re done with a transcription, you can export it to RTF or Word formats for sharing, publishing or continuing editing externally. I use Transcriva to recap interviews I do over Skype, and take my notes in an “outline” format which I can, with a little finagling, turn into a mind map or outline for an article.

Transcriva has made my life exponentially easier and is a tool I’d gladly recommend to anyone with similar needs. My direct experience with the developer has also been great, with quick response times and a single bug report resulting in a new build within a couple of days. Transcriva is free to try, $29.99US to buy. You can download the trial at the Bartas Technologies site. If you hurry, it’s even discounted to $19.99US in the MacUpdate Promo today.

TUAWFriday Favorite: Transcriva originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 22 May 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following the launch of Sky+ Remote Control for the iPhone earlier this month, Sky News has announced a free news application is now available to download from the iTunes app store. The new app delivers breaking news by text, images and video and features seven different categories for users to choose from: top stories, UK news, sport, business, world news, showbiz and skynews.com’s popular ‘strange news’ category. Users can sign up to receive breaking news via SMS text alerts…

In its 5-star (out of 5) review, Stuff.tv calls Apple TV a “hot buy.” “The whole interface is stunningly slick and pretty,” and Stuff.tv found “loads of movies to buy and rent.” You can start watching the “brilliant on-demand content” almost immediately, and the HD movies “look superb” and offer “excellent” sound quality “with near-CD dynamics, detail and punch.”

It zooms around the course at speeds up to 160mph, goes from 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds, and looks just like other Formula 3 race cars on the track. But WorldFirstF3 is fundamentally unlike other race cars. Environmentally friendly, it’s fueled by chocolate and includes plant-based components, such as a steering wheel made from carrots and body parts made from potatoes. See it in action on iTunes U.

Opening in US theaters on June 5, My Life in Ruins stars Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Richard Dreyfuss, Harland Williams, and Rachel Dratch. In the film directed by Donald Petrie, Vardalos plays Georgia, a Greek American tour guide. While leading a group around Greece, Georgia begins to see things in new ways, finding her kefi — Greek for mojo — in the process.

It’s been a while since we’ve featured seriously blingy cases and covers for the iPhone, so we just had to jump on the news that Audrey Charm has released a range of crystal-encrusted frames for the iPhone 3G. “Made from silver, gold, or chromium plated metal, each frame features protective neoprene inner lining, cutouts for access to all ports and controls, as well as holes for attaching a lanyard or decorative charm, and either pink, clear, or black Swarovski crystals on the front.” The iPhone 3G version costs $66. Audrey Charm

Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

We all know Macs pretty much created desktop publishing in 1985 with the original Mac and the Laserwriter Printer. Now it seems, Macs are preferred by some criminals doing desktop counterfeiting.

An article in the Vancouver Sun today recounts how the largest bogus money lab in British Columbia history was busted. The Mounties found almost $100,000 dollars in fake US bills, and $130,000 worth of Canadian bills.

Of course everything was seized, including the computers being used by the crooks, which looks like at least one iMac. The photo also appears to include a couple of scanners, and a laser printer.

Well, I guess the counterfeiters would be among those who agree that Macs ‘just work’, even though sometimes you get caught.

Thanks to Anton for tipping us to this story.

TUAWA different kind of desktop publishing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 21 May 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

We all know Macs pretty much created desktop publishing in 1985 with the original Mac and the Laserwriter Printer. Now it seems, Macs are preferred by some criminals doing desktop counterfeiting.

An article in the Vancouver Sun today recounts how the largest bogus money lab in British Columbia history was busted. The Mounties found almost $100,000 dollars in fake US bills, and $130,000 worth of Canadian bills.

Of course everything was seized, including the computers being used by the crooks, which looks like at least one iMac. The photo also appears to include a couple of scanners, and a laser printer.

Well, I guess the counterfeiters would be among those who agree that Macs ‘just work’, even though sometimes you get caught.

Thanks to Anton for tipping us to this story.

TUAWA different kind of desktop publishing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 21 May 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Electonic Arts hot new title, The Sims 3, doesn’t come out until June 2, but as Peter Cohen (macworld.com) tells us, “that shouldn’t stop you from trying it out” ahead of time. Just visit an Apple Retail Store. There, Cohen reports, “you can test the ‘Create A Sim‘ feature. You can also sample the ‘Create A Style’ feature that lets you edit your Sim’s attire and hair.”

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there’s fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow‘s terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it’s great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It’s a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad.

“Artistic”? “Beautiful”? “Sad”? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can — Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you’re a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven’t played through it yet (it’s fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it’s definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.

TUAWBraid comes to the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 21 May 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With its pounding soundtrack, non-stop action, superb graphics, and intuitive tilt-control steering, Need for Speed Undercover is one of the best racing games on the App Store. It features 24 challenging ventures and 8 race modes that will keep you busy and entertained for a long time. And you can pick your ride from any of 20 high-performance vehicles. Ready for the action?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Software Update, Bad Apple, Leopard

I really didn’t have any complaints about the latest Mac OS update. It went smoothly on 3 Macs, and I didn’t hear any complaints from friends or associates.

While many people moan about things that didn’t get fixed, I’m somewhat concerned about the things that the 10.5.7 update DID fix that I didn’t know about.

A bit of background: For about a year I’ve had a Logitech Webcam. It was designed for the Mac, and was meant to replace the iSight firewire webcam that Apple unceremoniously discontinued.

The Logitech unit, a Quickcam Vision Pro for Mac, has a wonderful crisp image and a nice wide angle view. It is plug and play. That’s the problem. As some other users have seen, its internal aperture adjustment sometimes goes haywire, and you have to unplug it, and re-plug it in again to get a picture that is not really, really dark. It’s kind of plug and play, then unplug or don’t play. Then plug it in again.

Continue reading OS X 10.5.7: The hidden fixes

TUAWOS X 10.5.7: The hidden fixes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A friend or colleague sends you a link to a training video or other movie she thinks you may want to see. You could click the link and watch it online in Safari. But what if you don’t have time to watch it right away or you’d prefer to watch it on the train ride home? Mac OS X Leopard has a simple solution. Find out what it is by viewing the latest tip from the Business Theater.

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends

Are you wondering what to do with the 2.5″ SATA drive that you yanked out of your MacBook or Mac mini so you could replace it with a SATA Solid State Drive? For $19.99, the OWC Express USB 2.0 bus-powered enclosure provides a new home for that old drive so you can use it as a backup or spare drive.

The Express enclosure is just slightly larger than an iPhone at 3.07″ x 5.12″ x .55″ (78mm x 130mm x 14mm), and weighs just 2 ounces (56g) empty. Just toss in your old 2.5″ SATA drive and you have a bus-powered USB 2.0 drive that easily fits in your pocket. You can also shop around for new bare SATA drives; a 500GB, 5400 RPM drive can be had for as low as US$97 (I’m sure you can find them for less!), making for a low-cost and portable backup solution.

There are other similar USB 2.0 enclosures out there; MacAlly’s PHR-250A (US$19) and StarTech SAT2510U2 Infosafe (US$17.96) are about the same size and weight as the Express, while the Vantec NexStar SX NST-285S2-BK (US$22.02) and Sabrent EC-UST25 (US$14.97) are larger and heavier.

What’s your favorite use for disk drives that you’ve pulled out of your Macs? Leave a comment below.

TUAWA house for your homeless 2.5″ SATA drive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

In a shot across the iPhone’s bow, Palm is launching its new Palm Pre smartphone the weekend before Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference. This means any iPhone announcements at WWDC will be undoubtedly compared to Palm’s new platform.

The Pre handset will cost $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you sign up for a two-year contract with Sprint. The monthly service costs roughly the same as AT&T’s iPhone plan but offers unlimited text messaging — a $20 option with Ma Bell.

Electronista points out that the Pre has some small technical advantages over the iPhone as well: a three megapixel camera, an optional inductive charger, and EVDO networking. Depending on the area, EVDO can be faster than both EDGE and GPRS, but not faster than HSDPA (the latter of which AT&T is rolling out across the U.S.). In any case, AT&T is already preparing its sales staff for the looming battle.

Also, Sprint claims that having a Pre will cost $1,430 less over the two-year contract period compared to owning an iPhone for the same period.

Meanwhile, for those of us on Verizon, we’ll just have to make do with calculators connected by string. Which reminds me — you all got the notice Verizon was upgrading us to nylon cord this week, right?

[Via IGM]

TUAWPalm Pre takes aim at iPhone, launches days before WWDC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The LG Viewty II (Smart) – also labelled the LG GC900 – is due out in the UK next month. How does it stack up against the iPhone 3G? Read on for a comparison…

Look & Feel

Not a dissimilar look between the two phones though in my opinion the iPhone 3G still has the edge in terms of sleekness. There’s not much to choose between them in terms of dimensions. The iPhone is very slightly larger, at 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm versus the Viewty Smart’s 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4mm. The iPhone 3G is very slightly heavier, at 133g compared to 102g.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Apple’s push notifications sure are neat, but they aren’t the brass ring for developers on the iPhone. That, so far, would be background processes. And while Apple has said that background processes would just be too much of a drain on the iPhone’s battery, that doesn’t mean they don’t want them, too.

Ars Technica reports that Apple is still trying to figure out a way for certain apps to do it. There’s two options laid out here: one is user-based, in which the user actually approves certain apps to run in the background, with the consequence (if you do choose to enable that) of lower battery lifetime. The second has Apple approving apps for background action, allowing certain developers to run based on limits of “resource usage such as RAM or network bandwidth.”

Obviously, there are pros and cons to each plan — giving the power to the user means they will be able to choose when the battery is drained (on a particularly busy day, for instance, or when the iPhone is plugged in), but it also means that users will have the ability to crash their own phones (allowing too many background processes could cause issues). And of course, while leaving the choice in Apple’s hands will make sure background processing is only used in the “right circumstances,” we all know how great Apple is at app approval.

Ars concludes on the same point that I would: if background processes are really going to make a difference, they’ll likely rely on a future iteration of the iPhone, as the one we’ve got now is just not built to run apps all the time, no matter who chooses them. Even if Apple is working out a way to run certain apps in the background, they are almost certainly spending more time beefing up the iPhone hardware as well.

TUAWRumor: Apple working towards putting background processes on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Odds and ends, Security, MobileMe

Several TUAW readers have contacted us about a MobileMe phishing scam. These readers are getting an email that looks surprisingly official (see below). When they click on the Log In button, they’re going to a page that has already been shut down. That might not always be the case.

Never, never, NEVER click on a link or button in an email asking for personal or financial information — that’s a sure way to become a victim of a phishing scam. If you receive a note like this, log into your MobileMe account and update your billing info directly, if it really needs to be updated. Do NOT click on the button.

A couple quick ways to see where a link or button in an email is going to take you are to hover your mouse over a link to see the real URL, or to right-click a button and select properties from the menu to see what URL is embedded in the button. Be careful out there, folks — there are a lot of unscrupulous people who would love to take all of your money.

A tip of the hat to Noah for supplying the screenshot!

TUAWBeware of MobileMe phishing scam originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Rumors, Snow Leopard

Mac Magazine has posted (English translation) what they’re claiming to be several screenshots and videos of Snow Leopard, the forthcoming major update to OS X. Some of the goodies on display include a slider that allows you to adjust the size of icons in a Finder window (much like iPhoto does), new Stacks behavior and a peek at Quicktime X, which has a black border in this build.

In the video above, we see some cool smart quotes, smart dashes, smart dates (add to iCal; view date in iCal) and auto-correction of spelling errors.

We first saw screenshots last year, and Apple issued a code freeze on the APIs last week. I, for one, am looking forward to this tidied up version of Leopard.

For more, check out this video.

TUAWAlleged Snow Leopard screenshots and video originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review

I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to get an iPhone to capture barcodes clearly, but Occipital has done it with a new $1.99US iPhone app called RedLaser [App Store]. Why capture barcodes? One good use is to find better prices for a product. Scan a product in the store, then RedLaser captures the barcode and does a quick Google or Amazon search to give you quick price comparisons.

I tried the app at a bookstore and my local Best Buy and was surprised how well it worked. You need pretty good light to capture a barcode, which is an issue with the iPhone camera, not the RedLaser software. You need to hold the camera steady. The best way is by holding down the button to take the picture, then release when you are steady.

RedLaser gives you the option to try again, and guides you on how far the camera needs to be away from the barcode. Then RedLaser instantly goes out to the internet and gets you the price comparisons.

In practice I had some misses. The camera wasn’t at quite the right distance, or I was a bit shaky holding it. In most instances, however, I was able to get the barcode and see the price comparisons I was looking for. It’s also important that the camera not be tilted in relation to the barcode. Try to keep everything lined up. And the app will not work at all unless you have an internet connection. It would be nice if it could store the barcodes, then go out and identify them when you have a good signal.

You also get the ability to mail your product list to yourself or a friend to read it on a bigger screen when you get home.

The clever technology in the app is able to sharpen the image a great deal, making the iPhone camera a feasible platform for this app. When you take the picture the barcode will look pretty fuzzy, but after a couple of seconds of processing it looks quite good, which is the magic that RedLaser accomplishes.

I’d expect this will work fine for most people, but there are some negative comments at the iTunes store as well, largely, I suspect, from people who couldn’t hold it steady, had bad light, or glare falling across the barcode. When I eliminated those issues, it seemed to work fine.

Note: This app only recognizes US and UK UPC and EAN barcodes. It works works best on standard-sized barcodes, but I had success with some smaller ones as well.

Here’s are some screen shots of RedLaser in action:

TUAWRedLaser for iPhone scans for bargains originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store

Imagine this scenario: you’re watching the latest episode of “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel when an ad for Nationwide Insurance appears. Are they trying to sell you insurance? Of course, but they’re also touting their new Nationwide Mobile (click opens iTunes) iPhone app, which Nationwide policyholders can use to report accidents, start claims, and find local agents or repair shops.

Later, you’re watching NBA playoff action and you see an ad for E*TRADE that catches your attention. It’s not that you want to lose more money in the stock market, but you’re fascinated because the ad is talking about the E*TRADE Mobile Pro app for the iPhone. Banks have been doing iPhone apps for a while, with Chase and Bank of America taking the lead.

Are you beginning to see a trend here? Sure, maybe a handful of ads doesn’t make a trend, but more and more companies are delivering apps that provide a mobile solution for their customers, and then advertising that iPhone-based solution to a wider audience on TV. Why? The iPhone, despite being on the market for two years, is still considered to be leading-edge technology, and it has an unparalleled “cool factor”. Any company wanting to show that it’s cool and on top of current mobile technology is going to jump on the iPhone connection.

I wouldn’t expect to see any Microsoft apps for iPhone soon. What apps and related ads would you like to see?

Update: Thanks to the many readers who pointed out that there are two Microsoft apps available: Seadragon Mobile and Microsoft Tag Reader. Of course, I seriously doubt if they’re going to tout either of these apps in a TV ad.

Additionally, we’ve seen a DirectTV ad that shows a customer interacting with the service via his iPhone. They’re not promoting the mobile app or the iPhone, just using it in a matter-of-fact way. Interesting.

TUAWTrend: Company-specific apps and ads originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In his Commencement Address at Arizona State University, President Barack Obama challenged graduates not to “chase after the usual brass rings” but “to dig deeper,” “find the greatness that lies within each of us,” and follow their “passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame.” Enjoy the entire commencement address on iTunes U.

Ready for an UPisode? You’ll find quite a few — as well as a trailer or two — on the Apple Movie Trailers site. Pixar’s tenth film and first 3D movie, UP features the voices of Ed Asner and Jordan Nagai and tells the story of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen (Asner), his 8-year-old stowaway Russell (Nagai), and their “adventure of a lifetime.” UP opens in theaters on May 29. Enjoy.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

I have been in love with Gameloft games on the iPhone since I bought my first one last year. Not only do their games have great graphics, they also have great controls and game play. Gameloft has recently released several new iPhone/iPod touch games, and I’m going to give you a first look at three of them: Terminator Salvation, Assassin’s Creed, and Let’s Golf.

Terminator Salvation ($5.99 US)
If you have followed the Terminator franchise or television series, then you may already know the plot of this game. In this third person shooter, you’ll travel around as John Conner, the leader of the resistance against the machine invasion. The game is in a 3D landscape of Los Angeles in 2018, and the gameplay is what we’ve come to expect from a Gameloft game. There is an “analog” control in the bottom left of the screen that allows you to move around; when you are ready to pan around the landscape, you can do so my touching and dragging anywhere on the screen. By touching the fire button in the bottom right of the screen you can fire the weapon.

There are four different control types to choose between: using the Virtual Pad (details described above), the wheel pad (drag your fingers along the corner of the screen to adjust viewing angle), the accelerometer (tilting the iPhone/iPod touch to move the characters around on-screen), or reversed accelerometer. You can also reverse the orientation of the screen in the controls; this is a feature that I think all iPhone games should have. In the game, you can play either the roles of John Conner or Marcus Wright — when you assume each of the characters, you will gain different abilities. There are 6 weapons and 8 levels that you can unlock, which will undoubtedly provide you with many hours of play.

This game really packs a punch in the iPhone gaming scene and is definitely worth a look. You can check out Terminator Salvation on the App Store for $5.99 US.

Assassin’s Creed ($9.99 US)
Assassin’s Creed has been around for a few years on many of the larger game platforms (PS3, Xbox, etc.), but recently came to the iPhone/iPod touch, and puts the same great gameplay into the hands of players around the world. In the game you play a master assassin named Altaïr who goes out on a quest to find an object that will end the crusades in the Holy Land.

In this realistic 3D RPG, you’ll find yourself in sword fights, learning combat moves, and in hand-to-hand combat with enemies you encounter. You will be able to earn 6 weapons throughout the game, and there are mini-games to unlock. I love RPG games, and this one definitely kept me coming back for more until I completed every level. Hands-down, this is the best iPhone game that I have ever played — I was blown away from the first time I picked it up. Beautiful graphics, great controls with virtual “analog” stick, and great cinematic cuts in-between levels and missions.

You can check out Assassin’s Creed on the App Store for only $9.99 US — this will well worth the price in my opinion.

Let’s Golf ($4.99 US)
The iPhone has its fair share of golfing games, and I’ve taken a look at a few of them myself, but I have yet to find one that provides both great gameplay and great graphics. Until now. Let’s Golf provides the right amount of features that any golfer would love to have, such as the ability to control what your player looks like or precision controls for your swing.

You have the ability to choose between several playing modes including instant play and tournaments. There are also over 63 holes located in 4 separate 3D environments: Fiji, America, England, and Scotland. If you are a casual player, you’ll enjoy the basic controls, but if you are an experienced virtual golfer, you can switch to the advanced controls where you can precisely adjust the power of the swing and even add spin.

For $4.99US, this game is packed with features, and even includes a local Wi-Fi multiplayer mode that will allow you to challenge your friends to a golf match. You can check out Let’s Golf in the App Store.

TUAWA look at three new Gameloft iPhone games originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Troubleshooting

While Jason D. O’Grady considers anything more than ordinatrix inflagrante to be success when he’s installing a new operating system, he and others are still reporting on the various and sundry issues that have cropped up since Tuesday’s 10.5.7 update:

• I can’t find my brain: Some users are reporting that their Buffalo (among other) external disks aren’t mounting after installing the update. Solution: Nothing concrete, though many people are suggesting installing the combo update you can download from Apple’s site, rather than using Software Update. You can participate in Apple’s Support Discussion on the topic if you share this problem. [via MacNN.]

• Blue screen of death: No joke: since the update restarts your computer up to three times, some users are getting hung up on the first blue screen that appears after the gray Apple logo screen. Solution: Wait until disk activity stops, then shut down the computer hard by holding down the power button. [via PowerPage.]

• I was blind, but now I see: The update is causing some video cards to output non-native display resolutions. Instead of outputting 1920 x 1200, instead Mac OS X will try and output 1920 x 1080 (which works fine for HDMI, but not many widescreen displays). Solution: An oldie-but-goodie: Zap the PRAM by holding down command + option + P + R at startup until the computer restarts a few times, then letting go. [also via PowerPage.]

• Cold fusion: VMWare is suggesting people hold off on updating if their configuration includes an ATI graphics card and they use Fusion to run 3D Windows apps. (2D apps are just fine.) Slow and poor rendering and general crashiness are symptoms of the problem. Solution: None yet. Apple and ATI are working on an update. [via MacNN.]

Got problems of your own? Let us know by leaving a comment.

TUAWTroubleshooting Roundup: Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you like the idea of eating fresher, locally grown produce, it helps to know what fruits and vegetables are in season and where you can get them. And that’s how Locavore can help. It lets you see at a glance what’s currently in season where you live and what will be in season soon. And to help you purchase the veggies you crave, Locavore helps you locate local farmers’ markets.

Filed under: Retail, iPhone

For new customers wanting an iPhone 3G, you now have another way to buy it – ordering straight from Apple, an option that hasn’t existed since the original iPhone was sold. Online purchasing was taken away with the introduction of the 3G. AT&T brought it back in December, and only now has Apple caught up.

New subscribers can activate their service online, then have their new iPhones shipped straight to their door. Current AT&T customers will need to reserve their iPhones online, then go pick them up at the Apple Store.

As I found out last month, having existing subscribers go in to pick up their iPhone can be a very good move, because things can certainly go wrong. When I went to the Apple Store to pick up my new iPhone 3G, it turns out that when I purchased my original iPhone in November 2007 that they didn’t enter it into the system properly. I was nearly charged the full price of the iPhone rather than the subsidized price offered to those who wanted to upgrade from EDGE to 3G. A trip to the nearby AT&T store took care of that, but it was the sort of thing that was far easier to handle in person than over the phone. They were able to pull up my original receipt and override the system so I was recognized as a previous adopter rather than someone just trying to break my original contract.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

TUAWApple offers iPhone 3G purchase online originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 May 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They may have battled hypothermia, endured altitude sickness, and dodged an avalanche or two, but Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker were determined to take you along on their successful ascent of Mt. Everest. The two shot footage as they climbed; then used Final Cut Pro and a MacBook Pro to produce daily, three-minute “video dispatches” they shared courtesy of National Geographic Adventure Magazine.

Filed under: Hardware, Software, Hacks, iPhone

It’s impossible not to love a blog post that begins, “I found a way to remote control my R2D2 with an iPhone.”

The video above shows the author, ggpipe, using the iPhone’s accelerometer to control R2′s dome. Pretty cool. In the future, he plans to use the phone to send text to R2′s logic displays. We love it and can’t wait to see a fully assembled, iPhone-powered R2D2!

It’s great to see people extending the iPhone’s capabilities, and homegrown remotes are a cool choice. A couple of weeks ago, we posted a story about a guy who turned his iPhone into an R/C aircraft controller, and last year we saw Delphi’s Wireless Vehicle Access software that lets you control many of your car’s functions. Keep up the good work, everyone!

[Via Rick Yaeger]

TUAWiPhone-controlled R2D2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 12 May 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the first time there have been rumours or analyst opinions on a plan-free iPhone for the US. Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said that he expected Apple to unveil new, cheaper iPhones that would appeal to more cost-conscious consumers. “I feel very confident there will be a lower-cost alternative,” he said, implying that not only might the handset itself be cheaper, but that it could also come without a data plan and instead be usable as a “pay as you go” model, similar to what’s already available in the UK and other parts of Europe (albeit with a hefty price tag)…

The recently released Bento for the iPhone and iPod touch, reports Jeffery Battersby (macworld.com), “is an amazing, versatile, and powerful application, making it possible for you to create databases and manage a variety of information, all from your mobile device.” And when its combined with the desktop version, “the Bento app is the best, easiest to use database application you’ll find on the iPhone or any other similar device.”

If you’re ready to make the move from iPhoto to Aperture 2, professional photographer Derrick Story is here to help. In “iPhoto to Aperture: Going Pro,” he offers an informative training course designed to smooth your transition. Before signing up for his Lynda.com course, you can even sample several course sessions, including “Ten reasons to move to Aperture.”

“We’re looking at how to get news and information to people in the way they want it, when they want it,” says Mark Morneau, Gannet’s Vice President of Information Technology. Determined to transform its 900-plus print publications into interactive, always-on digital media, the media giant has already developed an iPhone app for its flagship USA TODAY. But how else is iPhone helping Gannett cross the digital divide?

PURE has just announced its new Sirocco 150 DAB/FM radio hi-fi system offering full iPhone compatibility. Carrying the “Works with iPhone” label, it adheres to Apple’s performance standards. This complete system features a built-in CD player, both DAB and FM radio, SD card reader and USB port, plus dock for iPod and iPhone. There’s also a sleep timer and alarm, headphone socket and stereo audio input…

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

At least, that’s what our sister publication is reporting. If true, there will be a tremendous firestorm of anger from iPhone customers who expected to use this app the way the Sling app runs on other devices, including some cellphones on AT&T that are able to use 3G. Using this $30.00 app on just Wi-Fi is a real turn off to many users. This app has had its share of ups and downs, with Sling confidently predicting it was on the way. It may be on the way, but it appears to have been seriously crippled. Editor’s note: The story is now confirmed by Sling. Wi-Fi only (at this time).

Engadget is saying the app will be released after midnight EDT tonight. They also say older Sling hardware WILL work with the mobile app, albeit unsupported.I would think hardware stores will be busy today with sales of pitchforks and torches.

We have calls into Sling for an explanation. I don’t think this is going to be pretty.

One of our British readers (thanks Adrien) says the app is already in the UK app store. Here is a link to a capture of the page in iTunes. No doubt about it. People are not going to be happy with Sling, Apple, or AT&T.

TUAWOoooo nooooo! SlingMobile for iPhone won’t work on 3G originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 12 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a new cartoonish shoot-em-up coming to the iPhone in the form of Dinosmash from Eurocenter. Set in a 3D world and Internet connected so that you can pit your skills against other players, the mission is simple: you have to shoot other dinosaurs in order to score points. Up to 16 players can compete in a single game. Advanced multiplayer features include an automatic matchmaking system, so hopefully you won’t have to struggle to find others to play against…

Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, Apple

The paint wasn’t even dry on the Laptop Hunter ads and Microsoft is after Apple again, this time with a 30 second TV spot [YouTube link] complaining about the costs of filling an iPod, and what an absolute bargain the Zune Pass is.

Claiming that it would cost $30,000US to fill a 120 gigabyte iPod with music, and only 15 dollars a month for a Zune pass, Microsoft wants to make a point that in these trying economic times, Microsoft products make the most sense.

Of course, a lot of the math here is fuzzy, and if you stop buying the Zune pass you lose all your music, except for the ten tracks you get to keep a month. It also doesn’t address how many people, like myself, use their iPod. I have a large collection of music on CD going back to the 1980′s. I want it to be portable, and to have in the car, so I rip the music in iTunes, and it costs me nothing additional to have about 500 CDs at my beck and call.

For a company as dominant as Microsoft is, they seem plenty worried about Apple. Of course, the Zune hasn’t exactly been a world beating product, and who can forget the little New Year’s Day present when a lot of Zunes simply expired?

I give Microsoft props for trying. It keeps the Apple fans riled up and on their toes, and certainly choice is a wonderful thing in consumer electronics.

Thanks to Maggy for tipping us to the new ad.

[H/T to Ars Technica]

TUAWMicrosoft takes aim at the iPod originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 May 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Productivity, iPhone

Things Touch 1.3.5 has been released along with Things 1.1 and, among a heap of bug fixes and UI improvements, you’ll find a new feature for syncing Areas of Responsibility from your Mac to your iPhone (it’s not yet possible to create Areas in Things Touch). The feature requires Things 1.1 on the Mac side, which was officially released today, but has actually been available (sans release notes) for about a week (assumedly waiting for Things Touch to make it through App Store approval).

Another new addition (which is more exciting, to me) is full AppleScript support in Things on the Mac. I haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet, but it’s a topic I discussed with Cultured Code at the last Macworld Expo and I’m excited to see it come to fruition. People using Things in any kind of group setting will appreciate the reconsidered approach to task delegation, as well.

For those who aren’t familiar with Things in general, I’ll take a quick step back. Things for the Mac has been a staunch competitor in the Mac task-management colosseum. Battling it out with OmniFocus and newer gladiators like The Hit List, it’s been recognized by many for its simplicity and elegance. Things is powerful and flexible, while remaining reliable and simple. Things Touch is its iPhone companion, usable on its own or synced with Things Mac.

You may be asking, what’s an “Area of Responsibility?” This is one of the features of Things which was hardest for me to grasp. It’s not quite a GTD context, and it’s not a folder for projects. Basically, Areas provide a flexible means of handling tasks which aren’t part of a “project” and aren’t necessarily sequential in nature. In the words of Cultured Code:

With an Area of Responsibility (or simply “Area”), you don’t ask yourself about the desired outcome, but what standards you would like to maintain. An Area corresponds to an ongoing activity. These could be, for example, job responsibilities, roles you have taken on in your family, or personal responsibilities like health.

Things is available for download as a free trial, and can be purchased for $49.95US. Things Touch, the iPhone version, is available in the App Store for $9.99US.

TUAWThings 1.1/Things Touch 1.3.5: Area Sync originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 May 2009 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, First Look, App Review

If there’s a genre of iPhone app that’s even more prevalent than fart apps, it’s file transfer and viewing apps.

File Magic 2.0 (click opens iTunes) is the newest entry into this market from SplashData, an app development firm with years of history in the mobile space. As with the other apps of this type, File Magic provides a way to send files from a Mac or PC to an iPhone or iPod touch, then view those files on the handheld.

For those of you who are using Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, you’ll be happy to know that File Magic supports the XML-based .xlsx, .docx, and .pptx file formats for viewing, as well as a number of other document, sound, image, and video file formats. Like Quickoffice, File Magic does not support any of the iWork file formats.

Continue reading First Look: File Magic 2.0

TUAWFirst Look: File Magic 2.0 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The season finale for 30 Rock “featured a We Are The World–type music video called He Needs a Kidney,” reports Matt Sayles (usatoday.com). The music video, which includes a message from Tina Fey, is now on iTunes, and if you download the $0.99 video, “NBC, Universal Media Studios and Apple will donate 100% of the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation.”

If you’d like to win a chance to shoot with pro photographers, learn Aperture, and take a free photo workshop in Mount Rainier National Park, you’ll want to participate in the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop contest. To do so, simply submit one of your best photographs. If selected, you’ll learn how to use Aperture 2 to process, perfect, and publish the great photographs you take at Mount Rainier.

From the big ones that we keep chilled in the office to the small ones that we carry in our fanny packs, we thirsty humans empty more than 155 billion bottles of water a year. Convenient though bottled water may be, what effect, ask the researchers at Open University, does our growing infatuation with bottled water have on the environment? Indulge in Bottled Water and find out.

It’s back. Next week, the fourth film in the Terminator series opens in U.S. theaters. Set in 2018, Terminator Salvation stars Christian Bale as John Connor and introduces both a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and a new character, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), instrumental to the resistance. In his effort to destroy Skynet Connor grows to depend on Wright even as his doubts about him grow.

Filed under: Enterprise, OS, Software, How-tos, Freeware, Open Source

Sometimes you have to use Windows. Supporting clients in multiple-OS environments makes this a necessity for some Mac users, while others want to run applications that are available in Windows only. You can get a preview of the latest flavor of Windows, Windows 7, by running Release Candidate 1 of the new OS either in a virtual environment such as VMWare Fusion, Parallels, or VirtualBox, or in Apple’s own Boot Camp. Christina did a thorough rundown of the options for running Win 7 on Mac back in January.

Of course, you may not own Fusion or Parallels, and perhaps you don’t want to have to boot into Windows separately. In that case, you can download a copy of Sun’s VirtualBox application (it’s free) and then download a copy of Windows 7 RC1 from the Microsoft website (it’s free, too!). Follow these detailed instructions or watch the video, and you’ll have a free way to test Windows 7 until at least June 1, 2010. Windows 7 will shut down after every two hours of use after March 1, 2010, which is Microsoft’s subtle way of telling you to buy the OS or update to a later build.

If you’re a VMWare Fusion user, the VMWare team has instructions and a video available here. Want to try out Win7 RC1 with Boot Camp? There are instructions here. For Parallels 4 users, I was unable to find a good set of instructions, so if any TUAW readers can provide me with a link, I’ll update this post.

How is Windows 7 RC1 as an operating system? It’s faster than Windows Vista on my 3 year old iMac, and some features look surprisingly Mac-like. I’ll leave it to you as an exercise to see how much you like or dislike it.

TUAWInstalling Windows 7 RC1 on your Mac… for free originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 10 May 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may already know that in addition to dragging unwanted items to the Trash, you actually have to select Empty Trash from the Finder menu in order to delete those items from your Mac. But do you know why Mac OS X Leopard offers another option, Secure Empty Trash, in the Finder menu? Read the latest tip to find out.

Übermind has released a new version of its geotagging plug-in for Aperture 2. Called Maperture Pro, the plug-in adds a variety of new features. These include support for importing Tracklog data from GPS devices, altitude (Z-axis) tagging, reverse geocoding, adding or updating the GPS data in images, adding custom keywords, and other options. Get a free demo of the $39.95 plug-in from Apple Downloads.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Financial

Although overall shipments for Macs are at an 18-month low , worldwide numbers continue to climb. Macworld UK pointed to a Gartner study evaluating UK PC shipments for the first quarter of 2009. Apple has moved up, joining the top five PC manufacturers in terms of units shipped for the first time.

According to Gartner, Apple shipped 143 thousand units in the UK the first quarter of 2009, accounting for 4.8% marketshare. That represents a 6.6% growth year over year, which is in sharp contrast to the 5.1 percent decrease in the overall UK PC market.

At 4.8 percent, Apple is still a relatively small player — the number four manufacturer, Toshiba, shipped nearly twice as many units — but these numbers prove that Apple adoption is remaining strong, regardless of the economy.

The figures that will probably get the most play in the non-Mac press are those from Acer, the number three manufacturer in the UK. Acer’s year-over-year growth in terms of units shipped was up a whopping 40.6%, due in large part to its price-conscious netbook offerings.

Apple and Acer approach the PC market from opposite ends of the spectrum; Acer goes for high-volume, low-margin sales, Apple does high-margin, lower-volume, yet both companies are succeeding in an industry that is declining worldwide.

What does this mean? Well, to me, it means that despite Microsoft’s quips, price doesn’t necessarily dictate market share.

TUAWApple cracks top five UK PC makers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 May 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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