Iphone Updates

Filed under: Odds and ends, iTunes, Graphic Design

TUAWInside the new iTunes LP format originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Junk mail can get in the way of dealing with the real work in your inbox. This video tip shows you how to set up junk mail filtering preferences in Mac OS X Mail that will flag what is junk and exempt what isn’t, keeping you and your inbox better focused.

The latest releases of Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio are loaded with tools designed to make video production and music creation easier and more intuitive than ever. See them in action during the Pro Studio World Tour, a free event coming to a city near you.

Reviewer Stephen H. Wildstrom (businessweek.com) calls Snow Leopard an “inexpensive and painless upgrade” that “also completes the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing, which enhances performance and allows the use of vast amounts of memory. Apple has pulled it off seamlessly.”

In a comprehensive Snow Leopard review, Michael Gartenberg (slashgear.com) writes: “Apple has evolved the OS in ways that change core infrastructure while preserving and refining the experience that has differentiated the platform over the years. The result is an elegant, modern OS with some new features that help it retain the status of best of breed in personal computing.”

Calling out significant new Logic Studio features such as flexible audio editing, streamlined audio production, expanded guitar amps and effects, and enhanced MainStage live-performance capabilities, reviewer Peter Kirn (macworld.com) awards it 4.5/5 mice. Writes Kirn: “The choice is easy: Logic Pro 9 should not be missed.”

David Pogue (nytimes.com), reviewing Mac OS X Snow Leopard, applauds “the radical concept of a software update that’s smaller, faster and better — instead of bigger, slower and more bloated. May the rest of the industry take the hint.”

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Snow Leopard

Let’s face it; the Mac OS X Dock is pretty boring. I mean, other than the little glowing blue LED underneath active applications that a lot of people can’t see anyway, it’s just a boring, opaque white reflective shelf. Wouldn’t you like to add some excitement to it?

Well, you still can’t relive the glory of your high school athletic prowess and put that dusty third-place trophy for shot-put on the shelf, but you can make the Dock look nicer with Dock Library. It’s a shareware application from Dative Studios that enables quick switching of your Dock styles. TUAW covered this little application in 2008, but we have a lot of new readers who may not be aware of how Dock Library works.

Dock Library doesn’t come with a bunch of built-in styles; for those, you need to go to sites such as LeopardDocks.com or LeopardDocks.net, both of which have a variety of free Dock templates ranging from the commonplace to the absurd.

After installing Dock Library, I chose the nice “Coffee Table Rounded” Dock design (see below), which looks like beautifully finished wood and has rounded corners. What’s really nice is that those blue LEDs really show up under my active applications now, and that Dock Library works with Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard with no issues.

I’m curious to find out what bizarre or cool Dock templates our readers would like to see — your ideas might be just the thing to stimulate some creative designer to submit a new template to the LeopardDocks sites. Leave your comments below.

[via Download Squad and Sizlopedia]

TUAWWhat’s up, Dock? Give your Dock a little class with Dock Library originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Internet Tools

There will be a day in the not-too-distant future when playing 3D games in your browser — without extra plugins like Flash or Unity — will be a reality.

The WebGL project, which has quickly made the blogging rounds this morning, combines aspects of HTML 5, JavaScript, and the OpenGL 3D drawing engine in an effort to create 3D graphics that appear right in your browser. Thus far, it’s only beginning to show up in WebKit (the engine powering Safari and Google Chrome), but the glimpses as seen in the video above really show the power in these browsers.

[Via Download Squad]

TUAWWebKit going 3D with WebGL originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Accessories, Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Multimedia, Video, Apple TV

As Steve Sande has reported, Apple has discontinued the 40 GB Apple TV unit, and dropped the 160 GB unit U.S. $100.00. The large capacity set top box now sells for $229.00, the price that the now-eliminated 40 GB unit used to sell for.

Apple has continuously referred to the Apple TV unit as a ‘hobby’, perhaps a way to explain less than stellar sales figures. It’s way overdue for some kind of update and new features; perhaps an ‘all you can eat’ rental program similar to the Netflix model.

At the same time, the Apple TV service has had plenty of issues: everything from failures to authenticate users, to (for the last few days) an inability to browse the HD rentals beyond titles starting with the letter ‘B.’

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster had recently predicted that Apple would drop the 40 GB unit and lower the price of the remaining 160 GB unit, a prediction that turned out to be spot on. Munster has also predicted Apple would add DVR capabilities to the device.

Now, if only Apple would let that mysterious USB port on the back of the Apple TV allow more storage, and fix the service glitches, a lot of people would celebrate.

Some price adjustments for rentals would also be welcome. It is cheaper to rent Blu-ray titles at Blockbuster overnight then get the same title from Apple. Yes, you have to go get it, but the picture quality is better on the Blu-ray disk.

It’s hard to figure out exactly where Apple should go with this device. I don’t find the YouTube content compelling on a hi-def screen. Rentals are fine, but severely limited by the MPAA rules that only let me keep the rental for 24 hours. We’re starting to see YouTube and Netflix being built into both TV sets and some new DVD/Blu-ray players, which will further diminish the Apple TV value. Hopefully Apple is up to something, or the ‘hobby’ will remain a half-baked idea that never took off.

Thanks to Jeremy for the the tip.

TUAWApple TV: What happens now? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reviewing iTunes 9, Walt Mossberg (online.wsj.com) calls it “the biggest overhaul of the familiar program in recent years.” Citing Home Sharing (“worked perfectly”) and easier app organization on an iPhone or iPod touch as his favorite new features, he concludes: “Overall, iTunes 9 is a nice improvement on a much-used program.”

Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Andy Ihnatko (suntimes.com) writes that the iPod nano “continues to build upon the nano’s tremendous equity,” adding that: “Apple has another winner here.” After testing the new video capabilities of the iPod nano, he recommends it to readers as “still the go-to choice.”

Filed under: Accessories, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPod nano

quirky is a design firm with a difference. Rather than pay a brain trust to sit around and think up product ideas, they let average Anns and Andys submit designs that are then refined and named by a community of site visitors. When designs are ready for production, quirky sets a threshold number of units to be sold to be profitable, and once that number of orders comes in, they send the design off for manufacturing.

Plato said “…the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.” In this case quirky community member Jeff Scholen was driven not only by the need to neatly wrap up the thin power cable and thick AC line going into his Apple MagSafe Power Adapter, but also keep the transformer “box” off of the floor or desk and give it a way to stay cool.

In less than 24 hours, the design was finalized through input from Apple fans worldwide and the PowerCurl (US$9.99) was ready to roll. It comes in “quirky orange” only, but has two sizes to match the 60W and 85W MagSafe Power Adapters.

The quirky community has also come up with a case design for the new iPod nano that not only protects that shiny finish, but acts as a stand and video handgrip as well. The Kickster (US$14.35) is awaiting your commitment to purchase before it moves into production.

TUAWPowerCurl: A quirky way to wrap up your MagSafe Power Adapter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reviewer Tim Bajarin (pcmag.com) writes that the iPod nano could “change the way families integrate video capture into their lives” and “take spontaneous video capture to new levels.” Bajarin suggests that “given its aggressive price, it just might become the No. 1 digital video camera for the modern family.”

Reviewer Donald Bell (cnet.com) gives the iPod touch a 4 1/2 out of 5 rating, declaring it still “king of the hill.” Writes Bell: “We think the second-generation iPod touch is one of the best iPods ever made. Inside and out, the iPod touch is in a league of its own in the world of portable entertainment.”

Reviewing the iPod touch, Tim Gideon (pcmag.com) makes it an Editor’s Choice (5/5) for high-end portable media players, declaring that “there’s still not a better portable media player out there.” Adds Gideon: “In three years, the competition has yet to catch up. When you improve the best player on the market, even in tiny increments, it remains the best.”

Dan Frakes (macworld.com) awards iTunes 9 four out of five mice and calls it a “worthy upgrade for new users, those with massive media libraries, and those who want to more-easily share their media between family members.” Frakes says that iTunes 9 makes it “easier for new users to bring in media and start enjoying it.”

Reviewer Jamie Lendino (pcmag.com) names iTunes 9 an Editor’s Choice for music software, rating it 4/5. Citing the redesigned store, improved syncing, and more sophisticated Genius recommendations, Lendino writes: “With iTunes 9, Apple is pulling further and further away from the pack.”

Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends

I’m pretty paranoid about making sure that backups are done on all of my Macs. That’s why I carry a small Western Digital MyPassport hard drive with me wherever I go with my MacBook Air, since I do at least one Time Machine backup a day — even when I’m on the road.

This is my second MyPassport drive. That’s not saying that anything is wrong with the Western Digital drives; it’s just that the first one I owned fell off of a classroom desk while a backup was in progress, pulling out the USB cable and dropping about three feet onto a hard floor. The drive appeared to be OK, but never worked again.

That’s why I was happy to hear that OWC announced the Mercury On-The-Go Pro series of portable bus-powered SSD drives yesterday. Solid-state drives, since they have no moving parts, can put up with a lot more abuse than traditional platter-based drives. They also offer better read performance than regular hard drives, and are often less power-hungry.

The drives come in three different capacities — 64 GB (US$279.99), 128 GB (US$449.99), and 256 GB (US$729.99) — and all offer 64 MB of cache, as well as Firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 interfaces. Being bus-powered, they don’t need an AC adapter, making the On-The-Go Pro series perfect for road trips.

While SSD drives are still more expensive than traditional hard drives, they’re definitely more rugged, and in the long run that might be less costly than replacing a dropped hard drive. I’ve had extremely good success with OWC’s products in the past, making this a doubly-attractive proposition. Of course, making sure my students don’t cause my drives to take a dive off of a desk is a cheaper solution!

TUAWOWC announces portable, bus-powered external SSD drives originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By moving your cursor to the corners of the screen you can start and disable the screen saver or even move all of your windows aside to show the desktop. This short video shows you how to customize these active screen corners.

Filed under: Accessories, Odds and ends, Graphic Design

We reported the Infectious “Cut to the Core” design contest a while back, but the winners have just been announced and their designs are truly gorgeous. I rarely sticker my computers, but the Infectious skins are vinyl and won’t leave a mess behind when you remove them. These designs are created to work around the glowing Apple logo on the top half of your notebook computers, and the winners really hit the mark.

Congratulations to Jun Nuñez who takes home first prize of $1000 for his vision of the Apple logo as the pulsing heart of a robot with ReCharged. Kudos as well to Aren Vandenburgh and his design “Creative Workflow, Dimo Trifonov and his old-school rainbow striped Back to Basics and to Jamal Issawi and his arcade game-inspired Mac Man.

You can buy the winners’ designs directly from Infectious for your 13″, 15″ and 17″ Mac laptops. Skins cost $29.99 each. Check out the winners in the gallery, below.

TUAWInfectious ‘Cut to the Core’ design challenge winners originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone, iPod touch

The Apple Support forums are a’buzz with reports of several users upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1 and discovering a new “feature” which was not available previously. As mentioned in our comments, after upgrading to 3.1, some original iPhone and iPhone 3G owners with Exchange accounts are having trouble accessing their email. Apparently the server-side encryption policy option for mobile devices (only available as of Exchange 2007 SP1) is now being appropriately enforced.

This is not affecting owners of the iPhone 3GS, due to the newer device’s support for Exchange encryption. Prior to iPhone OS 3.1 the encryption policy was ignored for all models. Now that 3.1 is available, users are seeing this policy being correctly enforced and older iPhones without encryption support are left without access to Exchange services.

I have yet to find any reports of issues with the iPod touch, but I suspect that it will also be affected by this software change. We’re awaiting confirmation from Apple on whether this will impact the newly announced iPod touch models as well.

While many are reacting to this issue as though it’s a bug, and are reporting it as such, the reality is that the Exchange encryption requirement is a feature and the fact that it was not being correctly enforced was actually a security hole. IT administrators with Exchange 2007 SP1 servers and iPhone clients are probably going to be fielding an above-average level of incoming questions, but at least they can rest easy knowing that Exchange encryption is now working correctly. Cold comfort for their users, though.

If you are running into this issue, the straightforward (though pricey) solution is to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS; or consider bribing your IT guy with Red Bull so he will disable the encryption requirement for mobile devices. But we want to hear from you; are you using an Exchange account? Can you still access it following the upgrade to 3.1? Which device are you using, iPhone or iPod touch; 3G or 3GS? Is this a little thing that means a lot to you from a security perspective or have you been left high and dry without access to critical email?

Update: MacRumors points out that Apple has now covered this situation in a new KB article.

[Via Broadband Reports]

TUAWiPhone OS 3.1 now enforces Exchange encryption policy, may block pre-3GS iPhones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat

Mac-using Facebook fans are going to be happy to learn about Facebook’s experimental Desktop Notifications app. Desktop Notifications sits in the menu bar, and pops up notifications (using Growl if you have it) when they occur. It also gives you quick access to your news feed, profile page, and quick ways to update your status or start a new Facebook email message.

There are two things about Desktop Notifications that are compelling, yet have nothing to do with the app itself. The first is the fact that it’s a native Mac application, rather than yet another Facebook client written on Adobe Air. The second is that it was actually developed by Facebook themselves [Update] Thanks to Raul and Nate for pointing out in the comments that the application is marked as “not developed by Facebook”, though one of the developers listed works for Facebook. It’s unclear at this point how serious this project is; it’s clearly marked as experimental, which is clearly becoming the post-Gmail way of denoting that something is beta.

In terms of raw functionality, Desktop Notifications is pretty barebones, since most of what it does is take you to a particular Facebook page. Personally I kind of like it that way. It’s relatively light in terms of memory usage, and uses virtually no CPU cycles at all unless you are actively interacting with it, which is exactly what I want from a utility that is running all the time.

My one beef is that the built-in hotkey that pops up a status update dialog box conflicts with another utility on my system, and there is no way to modify it. Since Desktop Notifications is still in the experimental stage, that’s a pretty small complaint.

[Update] Commenter Scott points out that there is a preference setting to change the hotkey.

[via TechCrunch]

TUAWGet your notifications: experimental Mac app from Facebook originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPod nano, iPod touch

Well, looks like we weren’t the only ones wondering about the two big questions of the day — the New York Times sat down briefly with Steve Jobs post-event this morning and found out the whys and wherefores on the following:

• Why doesn’t the iPod nano take still pictures? Jobs says that the tiny teensy CMOS sensor in the nano isn’t up to the quality standards needed for stills; it’s too thin. “The sensors for doing a still camera… they are just way too thick to ever fit inside the Nano.”
• What about a camera for the iPod touch? The product path for the touch, apparently, is that it’s a great gaming device and it’s the lowest investment option for getting access to the App Store; given that, the push was to get it down to a price point everyone could afford instead of adding new features like a camera. “So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff – we need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.” Not to say it won’t ever happen.

So much for my idea of a firmware update to the nano enabling still images down the road.

TUAWNY Times asks, Steve answers: Why no camera on the iPod touch and no stills on the nano? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone, App Store

One of the great new features in iTunes 9 is app management; I’ve been begging for this one (among other things). We can now organize our pages (and pages) of apps right in iTunes, no more dragging jiggly icons across 9 or 10 screens. I’m ecstatic (and wondering what took so long).

From Apple’s website:

[...] it’s easier to organize all the apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, because now you can do it right in iTunes, right from your computer. Shop the App Store on your computer, iPhone, or iPod touch. Then go to your iTunes library to arrange (and rearrange) your apps and add (or delete) Home screens. iTunes automatically syncs your new Home screens with your iPhone or iPod touch.

TUAWiTunes 9: App Management originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Software Update, Snow Leopard

The InterWebs were buzzing last evening with word that Build 10B504 of Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard had been seeded to developers. This build appeared about a week after the initial 10.6.1 seed, which was allegedly seeded to developers only three or four days after 10.6 hit the streets.

What’s interesting about this build is that it addresses only two documented issues — the occasional crashing of Desktop Services in Finder, and excessive “dyld shared cache” messages in the Console.

Many issues that Mac users have experienced since installing Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard can be attributed to third-party software incompatibilities, but there is common agreement that there are other bugs that need to be addressed in the OS.

So, when will the new Snow Leopard cub actually hit our Macs? Mac OS X 10.5.1 was released 21 days after Leopard’s first leap, and Mac OS X 10.4.1 squeaked out the doors at Cupertino a mere 17 days after Tiger first growled. It wouldn’t be surprising, then, to see the first “dot-release” of Snow Leopard showing up in Software Update in the next week.

Whenever it happens, we’ll be sure to let you know.

[via MacRumors]

TUAWMac OS X 10.6.1 build 10B504 seeded to developers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store

The first thing I thought when I saw that the C64 emulator we posted about the other day still had the BASIC interpreter hidden in it was, “Well that won’t last.” And unfortunately for fans of software emulation on the iPhone, I was right: the software got pulled from the App Store but quick. You can’t really blame Apple here — they’ve made it pretty clear that they don’t actually want people running unlicensed, emulated code on the iPhone, so it’s not hard to see why, when it was discovered you could still activate the interpreter, they cleared it out of the store.

The good news is that the emulator has been updated to delete the interpreter completely, and the owners of the software have resubmitted it yet again to the App Store. But as much as I enjoy seeing emulators on the iPhone (I’ve made it very clear I’d love to see an official NES arcade app), I can’t say I’d blame Apple for just passing on this one outright. They’ve had to go through this app at least twice now, and especially since app approval is already taking so long, that’s pretty much a waste of time. Mistakes like leaving the BASIC in the app (Edit: My mistake — they intentionally left it in and hidden, with the expectation that Apple would later allow it. Doesn’t seem very likely.) are making it much easier at this point for Apple to just say “no emulators, period,” and move on. Hopefully this app will get re-approved, and that’ll be the end of it.

TUAWC64 emulator un-approved again originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reviewing Snow Leopard, Troy Dreier (computershopper.com) recommends that everyone with an Intel-supported Mac “absolutely get it.” Dreier rates Snow Leopard an Editors’ Choice, arguing that “for $29 you can’t afford to be without it.”

Having used Snow Leopard for a week, reviewer Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus (www.chron.com) declares the release “quite stable” and recommends an immediate upgrade for his readers: “Install Snow Leopard, and in less than an hour almost everything you do with your Mac will be faster, and almost every feature you came to know and love in Leopard will be improved and refined by Snow Leopard.”

Filed under: Cool tools, Snow Leopard

I stumbled upon a great example of the Snow Leopard Services that I’ve been drooling over. The S3 Upload Service by August Lilleaas is available as a workflow which can be opened in Automator, so you can examine its inner workings. It uses AppleScript and Ruby, easily passed back and forth thanks to Automator’s building-block-style workflow. It lets you upload a publicly-accessible file to an S3 bucket, and copies the URL into your clipboard upon successful upload.

The workflow requires that you at least have RubyGems installed, and have an Amazon S3 account set up, but it will handle the rest. It asks for your S3 credentials with an AppleScript popup, which has the unfortunate side effect of not being able to be forced to the front very easily and tends to get lost behind other windows. There are workarounds to that, but no way to keep it on top once it’s up. It looks possible to build custom nibs for your services, so I might play around with making a general-purpose utility panel popup to fill the void in my own projects.

In the process of rolling my own Services in Snow Leopard, I’ve definitely found some limitations, but I’m having fun working around them. This one is a great example of passing results — returned from different languages — and processing them, all within Automator. It’s not super-polished — your mileage may vary — but a big thanks to August for putting it out there for the rest of us to play with!

TUAWSnow Leopard Services in practice: Amazon S3 uploader originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple today introduced iTunes 9, the latest version of the world’s most popular software application to purchase, manage and play media, packed with innovative features such as iTunes LP, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, as well as a redesigned store and improved syncing. iTunes 9 makes it easier than ever to discover, purchase and enjoy your music, movies, TV shows, and apps for iPhone and iPod touch from Apple’s revolutionary App Store.

The new iPod nano adds a video camera, mic and speaker to the world’s most popular music player, allowing you to shoot video wherever you are, view it on your iPod nano and use your computer to easily transfer your videos to YouTube. The new iPod nano—available today in an 8GB model for $149 and a 16GB model for $179—features an ultra-thin and sleek design with a larger 2.2-inch color display and gorgeous polished aluminum and glass enclosure in nine brilliant colors.

The new iPod touch, starting at just $199, gives you a great iPod, a great pocket computer, a great game player and access to Apple’s revolutionary App Store with over 75,000 applications. iPod touch features Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface, a gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a built-in accelerometer and speaker in an amazingly thin metal design that slips easily into your pocket.

The iPod shuffle, the world’s smallest music player and the first music player to talk to you, is available now, starting at just $59, in five great colors. iPod shuffle’s intuitive controls are conveniently located on the headphone cord, letting you navigate and enjoy music without even looking.

Filed under: Macbook Pro, MacBook, Leopard, Snow Leopard

We’ve seen the benchmarks. We’ve heard from the techno-geeks. According to Apple, Snow Leopard should result in some impressive speed gains, and hefty hard drive space recapture. But does this speed bump actually result in tangible benefits for the average user? Do you really get back a functional amount of hard drive space? I undertook an intentionally low-tech approach to find out, looking at the space on the drive, and using my iPhone’s stopwatch function to time various functions before and after upgrade. I took measurements on two computers: a low-end, bare bones white MacBook used lightly as a secondary computer, and a higher-end MacBook Pro used heavily as a primary computer. The white MacBook was generally speedy and efficient before the upgrade, due to the fact that it had very little installed on it. However, the MacBook Pro was bloated and slow due to lots of programs, with problems magnified by years of hard drive image flashes over various computer upgrades, typical of the non-technical business user.

All start up times are true start up times. In other words, I didn’t deem the computer to have “started up” until I had full, no-lag control of a fully-propagated desktop. Same went for the programs whose start up times I tested — none were deemed started up until the program was responding to input and usable. I picked some common programs that I felt reflected typical use. I turned on auto-login to the primary account on both computers to gain timing accuracy. Not all the results are comparable between computers; certain programs were on one computer but not the other. But, in general, the task was instructive.

Continue reading Will Snow Leopard really make my computer any faster?

TUAWWill Snow Leopard really make my computer any faster? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Software, Odds and ends, Bad Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, Snow Leopard

The world was looking bleak and dreary after Snow Leopard arrived last week, for my little menu bar friend, iStat Menus for Mac, was incompatible with the new version of Mac OS X.

This morning, however, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, fluffy kittens are playing again (see image at right for proof), and all is right with the world! iStat Menus 2.0 has arrived, and now my CPU monitor, calendar, and clock are back in the menu bar where they’re supposed to be. The new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatible version is running just fine, and less than a week of darkness filled the hearts of all of those who love iStat Menus. You can download it for free, although a donation is requested.

While iStat’s developer, iSlayer, has resolved this disturbance in The Force, there’s still a dark and evil presence in the universe. Apple, taking on the role of Emperor Palpatine with gusto, recently forced all iPhone developers to remove or retool apps that use a Free Memory function to display memory usage and/or clear out wired or inactive memory. As a result, iStat for iPhone [App Store] version 1.1 was released with the Free Memory function removed. Bjango (the iPhone arm of iSlayer) has kindly posted instructions for how to use version 1.0 to keep the function intact, but we’re all wondering why Apple decided to axe all apps that performed this useful function.

Since this latest kerfuffle has forced Bjango to release a feature-limited version of iStat for iPhone, the company has reduced the price to US$1.99. There’s no word from Apple on why they chose to kill all of the Free Memory apps. When you’re the Emperor, you don’t have to give any reasons for stomping on kittens.

TUAWAll is right with the world; iStat Menus 2.0 is here originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Snow Leopard – Apple – appstore – Operating system

Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, Apple

While the past few days have seen a spy saga of a stolen laptop and a few rapidly recovered stolen iPhones, the story at the Sagemore Apple Store in Marlton, New Jersey is more of your basic “five guys vs. a plate-glass door.” A well-organized 2 am robbery at the store netted the team a substantial haul of 23 MacBook Pro laptops, 14 iPhones and nine iPod touch handhelds.

Even though the store was staffed with a security guard, the thieves were able to time their run right after his rounds, and clear the merchandise from the store in 31 seconds flat. Security video of the theft is in the 2nd half of this post.

Anyone with tips on the identity of the masked bandits is being asked to call police at 856-983-1118 or the confidential tip line at 856-988-4699.

Thanks to Justin for sending this in. H/T to ifoAppleStore, which (unbeknownst to us) also reported the story yesterday afternoon.

Continue reading More from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars

TUAWMore from the police blotter: Sagemore Apple Store hit by burglars originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
Apple – IPhone – TUAW – IpodTouch – Theft

Filed under: Software, Snow Leopard

One feature of Mac OS X, sometimes forgotten about, that has caused gripes from many users for a long time is Spaces. When it was first introduced almost two years ago in Leopard, some applications would not always “play nice” with each other, causing windows not to display or move correctly.

Microsoft Office applications in particular were prone to these problems. There were always some nagging issues that would not allow Spaces to work correctly, due to the way Office windows are drawn on the screen. Over time, they started working better, but a few issues still remained with Office, especially in Word when the Toolbox floating window was in use.

With Snow Leopard’s debut, however, Microsoft states that these issues have been fixed through “collaborative efforts” with Apple. Hopefully, this will help a lot of eager and frustrated Spaces users manage their many windows on their desktops.

Do you use Spaces, or have you held off because of these issues? Leave a comment below and share your experiences!

TUAWOffice 2008 and Spaces issues, finally fixed in Snow Leopard? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
Microsoft Office – Snow Leopard – Apple – Mac OS X – Microsoft

Filed under: Peripherals, Internet, Reviews, Road Tested

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been testing the Verizon MiFi portable WiFi hotspot. After writing about the MiFi, a few months back, I was placed on a waiting list to receive a test unit. Could the MiFi enhance the iPod touch experience to bring it into the realm of the iPhone? A unit finally came free and I finally got my hands-on experience to discover whether my assumptions would be proved right or wrong.

The MiFi, which is a portable EV-DO router, provides a 3G connection through an absolutely tiny unit. All plastic, it’s about as thick as an iPhone and about two-thirds as large as its front face. The MiFi’s entire user interface is its single button (seen at the bottom right of the image here). When pressed, the button switches on and glows green. Pressed again and held, the unit turns off and the green glow disappears. Sprint offers a near-identical unit, except it’s finished in brushed metal instead of black.

Read on to discover how my MiFi testing went…

Continue reading Road Tested: the Verizon MiFi portable broadband router

TUAWRoad Tested: the Verizon MiFi portable broadband router originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
iPhone – Apple – IpodTouch – TUAW – Wi-Fi

Filed under: Enterprise, Hardware, Odds and ends, Open Source, Xserve, Rig of the Week, Mac OS X Server

One of the largest personal iTunes libraries I’ve ever seen belongs to a client of mine. This client, who was a DJ in the 50′s and 60′s, has a huge collection of vinyl albums and singles that he painstakingly digitized, cleaned up, and catalogued in iTunes. Needless to say, opening iTunes on his Mac Pro is an exercise in patience.

Thinking about his music storage needs, and the huge amount of digital photos and video that my wife are accumulating, got me musing about other ways to do mass storage inexpensively. At this point, I’m probably OK with a DroboPro, but what if I needed petabytes (1 petabyte = 1,024 terabytes = 1,048,576 gigabytes) of storage? Most solutions at this point in time are quite expensive.

As of 6 AM PDT this morning, off-site backup vendor BackBlaze has put their solution to mass storage needs, the BackBlaze Storage Pod, out to the world as an open source project. Their solution is a relatively inexpensive box (US$7,867 for 67 TB of storage) made up of off-the-shelf components that can be reproduced and/or improved upon by others who also need huge amounts of cheap storage. See those red boxes in the picture to the right? Each one of those contains 67 TB of RAID 6 storage in a 4U box. For a petabyte of storage, you’re going to need to spend about $117,000 on about fifteen of the boxes.

Continue reading Need a few petabytes of Mac storage? Build your own BackBlaze Storage Pod

TUAWNeed a few petabytes of Mac storage? Build your own BackBlaze Storage Pod originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac OS X – Apple – Open Source – TUAW – Operating system

Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, Mac mini, Snow Leopard

Here’s an interesting feature of Snow Leopard that you may or may not (probably not) find particularly useful. Apparently after upgrading to 10.6 several users at the Apple Discussion Forums — mostly owners of Mac mini or MacBook models with the GMA950 graphics subsystem — are reporting poor performance with Front Row.

The performance issue seems to effect navigation as well as playback, resulting in jerky video/audio in the menu and when watching a movie. This is also not limited to pesky DiVx files or QuickTime plug-ins either, as some users are reporting seeing the problem with iTunes purchases and others are even running a completely stock installation. Interestingly enough, some of the same users with Front Row issues are not seeing the same problems when playing back with QuickTime X.

In my opinion, this is not much of a surprise following such a major upgrade to many of the OS’s underpinnings — including an overhaul to QuickTime on which Front Row is largely based. This is the reason I did not upgrade the Mac mini in my living room. Aside from being a full-time webserver, I also rely on it for multimedia functionality as well.

Some folks with complaints have found solace in either Plex or Boxee as these fine media players do not rely on QuickTime or iTunes. For most though, a working Front Row would be ideal. Personally, I have not checked for problems with Front Row since my multimedia Mac hasn’t been upgraded. However, I did note some wonkiness on another machine when using QuickLook to playback some video files through Finder. I have a sneaking suspicion there is something going on related to QuickTime X being used by other programs (i.e. FrontRow or QuickLook). What say you dear readers? Is your Front Row experience causing you grief or are you simply smirking because you haven’t received your pre-order upgraded yet?

Thanks to Ivey for sending this in via Twitter.

TUAWFront Row performance on the mini takes a dive with Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
Apple – Snow Leopard – MacMini – Front Row – QuickTime

Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPod Family, iTS, Rumors, iTunes, Steve Jobs, iPod nano, iPod classic

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster is having a busy week. First, he predicted that the iPhone will go non-exclusive in the US by next year, and today he’s suggesting that Steve Jobs will appear at Apple’s September 9th press event.

We fully expect new iPods and iTunes next Wednesday, but Steve would be a surprise. We know that he’s returned to work, but this would be his first public appearance as Apple’s head since he took medical leave back in January. Depending on how he looks, a visit from Steve could nudge the stock up a notch or two.

It sure would be fun to see Steve, but we hope he’s happy and healthy more than anything. In any case, we’ve got just over a week to wait. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Via AppleInsider]

TUAWRumor: Steve Jobs will appear at Sept. 9 event originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
Steve Jobs – iPhone – Apple – IPod Classic – IPod

Junk mail can get in the way of dealing with the real work in your inbox. This video tip shows you how to set up junk mail filtering preferences in Mac OS X Mail that will flag what is junk and exempt what isn’t, keeping you and your inbox better focused.

The latest releases of Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio are loaded with tools designed to make video production and music creation easier and more intuitive than ever. See them in action during the Pro Studio World Tour, a free event coming to a city near you.

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, iPhone

There’s been much news of “exploding” iPhones lately. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, the European Commission formally asked Apple to investigate a series of reports that users’ iPhones were abruptly cracking and/or catching fire. According to the French periodical Les Echos, an iPhone in Aix-en-Provence, France, started to “crackle and pop like a deep-frier” before breaking violently apart.

This past Friday, Apple said that, in all cases, the iPhones in question were damaged by an “external force,” not a faulty battery or glass screen:

“To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits. The iPhones with broken glass that we have analyzed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone.”

It does seem odd that at least four cases have been reported in France in short order. Still, it’s even stranger that iPhones would suddenly turn into Molotov cocktails. We’ll keep you updated on this story.

TUAWApple: “Exploding” iPhones succumbed to external pressure originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
iPhone – France – Apple – European Commission – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

Last week, we spent almost the entire hour shaking our heads and making “tsk, tsk” noises over the FCC responses to the Google Voice imbroglio. You can download the show, along with all past shows, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

We’ll be back live tonight with a hearty helping of Snow Leopard goodness, including hands-on upgrade reports, favorite features so far, gotchas that have been discovered and of course, your calls and questions. Saddle up!

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.

TUAWTalkcast reminder: 10pm ET Sunday, the Snow Leopard aftermath originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sponsored Topics:
Google – TalkShoe – Voice over Internet Protocol – Snow Leopard – TUAW

Reviewer Stephen H. Wildstrom (businessweek.com) calls Snow Leopard an “inexpensive and painless upgrade” that “also completes the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing, which enhances performance and allows the use of vast amounts of memory. Apple has pulled it off seamlessly.”

In a comprehensive Snow Leopard review, Michael Gartenberg (slashgear.com) writes: “Apple has evolved the OS in ways that change core infrastructure while preserving and refining the experience that has differentiated the platform over the years. The result is an elegant, modern OS with some new features that help it retain the status of best of breed in personal computing.”

Calling out significant new Logic Studio features such as flexible audio editing, streamlined audio production, expanded guitar amps and effects, and enhanced MainStage live-performance capabilities, reviewer Peter Kirn (macworld.com) awards it 4.5/5 mice. Writes Kirn: “The choice is easy: Logic Pro 9 should not be missed.”

David Pogue (nytimes.com), reviewing Mac OS X Snow Leopard, applauds “the radical concept of a software update that’s smaller, faster and better — instead of bigger, slower and more bloated. May the rest of the industry take the hint.”