Iphone Updates

Reviewing the new MacBook, Michael DeAgonia (computerworld.com) calls it ”a solid laptop that feels sculpted instead of assembled and has the processing power users need.” DeAgonia concludes that the MacBook “is a compelling computer at a compelling price,” with “beauty that is more than skin deep.”

A clever new infographic from gigaom.com shows how the App Store puts more than 100,000 apps at your fingertips — and generates millions of dollars for app developers worldwide.

“Design USA: Contemporary Innovation” at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York offers visitors an iPod touch on which to access exclusive exhibition content. The iPod touch supplements the physical exhibition with “a wealth of interviews, slide shows and snippets of performances, all related to the 78 architects and designers represented in the show. Available free, this device sends the traditional audio guide the way of the one-horse buggy.”

Today, MobileMe introduced a new Gallery app for iPhone and iPod touch. The app features iPhone- and iPod touch-optimized controls and beautiful gallery displays that make browsing photos and videos easier and more interactive than ever before. The Gallery app is free for MobileMe members and available now on the App Store in iTunes.

Now available for download, FileMaker Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager is the fast, free, and easy way to get instant access to contact and customer details. View call history, notes from meetings and conversations, upcoming to-do items, related documents and files, important emails, sales opportunities, receipts, and more. This download includes a free trial of new Bento 3 for Mac.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata (twincities.com) reports that the iPod touch “has taken classrooms by storm” in several Minnesota K-12 schools, increasing student enthusiasm and engagement and offering new ways to teach children with special needs.

Thomas Houston (switched.com) reports that Pro photographer Chase Jarvis has created Best Camera, an iPhone app “that lets you shoot, apply multiple filters and effects, and share via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and the Best Camera photography community.” In an accompanying video, Jarvis discusses mobile photography, shooting, and his new app.

Filed under: Odds and ends, MobileMe

Be very careful if you get an email from Apple telling you they need to re-check your credit card information. One of our readers got just such an email, and he didn’t fall for it.

This particular rip-off comes from an ‘Apple-bills.com’ domain, which has nothing to do with Apple. They’ll be glad to take your credit card info, and give you a big surprise when you get your next billing statement.

An Apple representative confirmed that the email is not from Apple. They also suggest you send copies of the email and relevant details to spam@me.com if you get one.

This isn’t the first time this scam has gone after MobileMe users. We reported on some MobileMe scams in May. In February another scam site was telling people their MobileMe renewal was not received and to do it again. Back in 2008, ComputerWorld reported on another phony scheme that fleeced about 200 MobileMe customers in a single day. It’s probably a good idea to not click on links in emails that ask for financial or credit card information, and it is easy to check with any vendor to see if the request is legitimate.

If you ever have questions about a MobileMe renewal, you can go to: www.apple.com/support/mobileme/ and do a live chat with an Apple support agent. Also, don’t update from an email. Log into your account and update there.

Just before posting this I tried the link our reader sent. The first time I clicked I saw the fake Apple page. Now there is an error page there instead.

Thanks to Asif for the tip.

TUAWPhishing schemes targeting MobileMe users again originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – TUAW – Unofficial Apple Weblog – MobileMe – Me

Filed under: Rumors, iPhone

If there’s anything consistently consistent about the purported Apple tablet, it’s that it’s said to be, in essence, a larger iPhone. Expanding on this, Boy Genius Report cites its “close Apple contact” that claims the device is “an iPhone on steroids.”

Like its iPhone brethren, the tablet is said to sport an ARM processor, adding the caveat that the processor will be “incredibly fast.” Also according to the report, the tablet will support multi-touch gestures that are said to be “out of control.” Back in 2005, Apple acquired FingerWorks, a company that specialized in gesture-based computing. According to former Apple engineers, FingerWorks will have its footprint — er, fingerprints — on the purported tablet.

The meat behind these potatoes is said to be the iPhone OS kernel. For this reason, there hasn’t been an updated build of the iPhone OS out of fears that tablet-related references in the code would leak.

TUAWRumor: Apple tablet said to be “iPhone on steroids” originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – FingerWorks – Boy Genius Report – TUAW

As one of the largest research universities in the United States, the University of Washington brings together 65,000 students, faculty members, and administrative staff. From the laboratory to the dormitory, this thriving academic community stays connected with iPhone and the university’s proprietary m.UW app, which gives students and staff mobile access to campus maps, news, directories, course schedules, and lectures.

Brian X. Chen (wired.com) reports that Abilene Christian University has just finished the first year of a pilot program in which 1,000 freshman students each received a free iPhone or iPod touch to explore how the always-connected devices ”might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity.” Says Bill Rankin, a professor who helped plan the initiative: “I think this is the next platform for education.”

Reviewer Peter Cohen (loopinsight.com) writes that “iPhone and iPod touch both make great handheld gaming systems” and offers thirty reasons why in a select roundup of racing, action, and strategy games available in the App Store.

DLA Phillips Fox, founded 145 years ago, is one of Australia’s largest legal firms, providing services in 29 countries around the world. With iPhone in the hands of almost every partner in the 1,300-person firm, they can offer faster, more flexible responses to their clients’ legal needs. John Dockett, General Manager of IT, says choosing iPhone was “one of the smarter things we ever did.”

In an in-depth review of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, Ryan Faas (computerworld.com) cites “performance gains, improvements to several collaboration tools introduced in Leopard Server, enhanced simple administration for non-technical users and new features designed for mobile access and for supporting the iPhone.” Adds Fass: “Snow Leopard Server is a tremendous value.”

Reviewer James Galbraith (macworld.com) gives the new quad-core 27-inch iMac computers with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 “Nehalem” processors 4.5/5 mice, calling them “worth the wait.” In performance tests, writes Galbraith, the 2.55GHz Core i5 iMac was “the fastest standard configuration Mac we’ve ever tested” and the Core i7 “showed even greater performance prowess.”

Yep it is finally here. The Voda iPhone. There’s very little to distinguish the Voda iPhone from the ones sold by Orange and O2. The big difference, so the bloke in the Voda shop told me this morning, is that…

A custom coffee table book by co-author and publisher Rick Smolan takes you back to — and into — the story of Obama’s rise to the presidency. Says co-author and publisher Rick Smolan: “Every component of this project, from photo editing to design to video, was created entirely on a Mac.”

Using a Mac Pro as the keystone of his rural radiology practice in Bemidji, Minnesota, Dr. Hilton Bakker is able not only to reduce the costs of his own practice but those of the hospitals who use his services. Says Bakker: “If hospitals can use Mac technology to do radiology cheaper, that’s my goal. Health care costs too much. If I can do my little bit to make it cheaper, that’s cool.”

Reviewer Jason Snell (macworld.com) awards Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server 4.5/5 mice, calling it a “fantastic product for workgroups, small businesses, and even schools to use.” Emphasing value, Snell adds: “Mac mini server is just too good a deal to pass up.”

Best Buy has a round up of the best iPhone accessories and gadgets at CES 2010 here. The two that caught my eye the most are the iLuv app station and the Cydle i30 Digital TV add on. There’s…

Jim Dalrymple (loopinsight.com) reports on one-year-old non-profit organization Nuru, formed by ex-Marine platoon leader Jake Harriman, who “served two tours of duty in Iraq where he realized that the key to ending terrorism was to end extreme poverty.” To that end, Nuru educates communities in impoverished nations using technology, particularly Mac Pro and MacBook Pro computers, iPhone, Final Cut Studio, iChat, and MobileMe.

Filed under: Audio, Software Update

Two pieces of Apple’s Logic Studio suite for Mac, Logic Pro and MainStage, have been updated today and the new versions are available immediately through Software Update or the links below.

The Logic Pro 9.1 update includes support for 64-bit native mode, compatibility with 64-bit Audio Unit plug-ins, and support for file names over 32 characters long. According to the update notes, samples are now mapped correctly when using the “Contiguous Zones” opetion in the EXS editor. The full release notes are available for viewing here.

MainStage 2.1 also includes 64-bit native mode and compatibility with the 64-bit Audio Unit plug-ins. Other fixes and improvements include better compatibility with MainStage 1.x documents, improved recording when using the Loopback plug-in, and multiple playback plug-ins in the same group now sync reliably. Full release notes are available here.

Enabling 64-bit native mode for both applications requires Mac OS X 10.6.2 or later.

[A tip of the studio professional hat to TUAW reader samw for letting us know about the update]

TUAWLogic Pro and MainStage updated, now 64-bit friendly originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac OS X – TUAW – MainStage – Logic Pro – Apple

Apple opens its newest retail store on New York’s Upper West Side on Saturday, November 14 at 10:00 a.m. Set beneath a breathtaking all-glass arched roof, the street level of the Apple Store Upper West Side will offer more Macs, iPods and iPhones than any store in the world and feature the largest area ever created by Apple for personal training and technical support, including a 45-foot Genius Bar.

At DOER Marine, a California company that designs and builds subsea vehicles, engineers are working to create a manned vehicle that can explore the ocean floor. VP of Operations Ian Griffith credits iPhone for keeping their engineering team responsive and nimble enough to make it happen — no matter where they are in the world. “The iPhone accelerates how we perform as a team,” says Griffith.

Gotta love this! It is a hat that houses your iPhone.touch so you watch videos on the quiet. It even includes a magnifying glass to increase the size of the screen. Great for the beach, but not too hot…

Reviewer Mark A. Kellner (washingtontimes.com) calls the new Magic Mouse “transformative,” “supereasy and very fast,” and “really, really worth it.” Kellner concludes: “After decades of using computer input devices, I think this is the finest mouse ever.”

Reviewing the new MacBook, Michael DeAgonia (computerworld.com) calls it ”a solid laptop that feels sculpted instead of assembled and has the processing power users need.” DeAgonia concludes that the MacBook “is a compelling computer at a compelling price,” with “beauty that is more than skin deep.”

Fans of platinum-selling R&B artist John Legend bring the same high expectations for each new album to every live concert. On his current tour, Legend, music director Eugene “Man-Man” Roberts and his band meet and beat those expectations by playing their best studio sounds along with fresh live riffs through MacBook Pro laptops running Logic Studio and MainStage.

One of the highlights of this year’s CES 2010 Unveiled was a pico projector from a company called Microvision which is named the ShowWX. It is showing video footage here from an iPhone. As you can see it is…

After carefully considering the competition, Senior Editor Donald Bell (cnet.com) makes iPod touch the CNET Editors’ Choice among top MP3 players, writing that it “remains king of the hill.” Adds Bell: “Whether you’re buying one for yourself or giving it as a gift, the third-generation iPod touch does not disappoint.”

Today, MobileMe introduced a new Gallery app for iPhone and iPod touch. The app features iPhone- and iPod touch-optimized controls and beautiful gallery displays that make browsing photos and videos easier and more interactive than ever before. The Gallery app is free for MobileMe members and available now on the App Store in iTunes.

There are loads of iPhone solar chargers on sale but the Novothink Surge iPhone solar charger and app is probably the best. It fits snugly on to your phone and can deliver thirty minutes of power for two hours…

The AR Drone Quadricopter (that’s a four propeller helicopter to you and me) is a very cool device that is sure to be one of the year’s hottest gadgets. It is controlled by either an iPhone or an iPod…

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Retail, Mac Pro

While researching MacBook Pros, the folks at cmyplay produced an infographic charting the relative prices of MacBook Pros around the world. The variation is amazing.

The lowest cost was found in the US … mostly. Certain models cost less in Hong Kong, but as the author notes, that could be due to exchange rate fluctuations. Prices were significantly higher in South Africa. For example, an entry-level 13″ MacBook Pro 2.26GHz in South Africa retails for about the same prices as a mid-level 15″ MacBook Pro (2.53GHz) in the US. Note that Apple does not have official representation in South Africa.

However, the highest prices were found in Brazil (where Apple does have official representation). As cmyplay notes, “For the amount to purchase a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro 2.8GHz in Brazil, a person could buy two of the same machine in the US.” One Brazilian commenter noted that Brazil’s import duties and sales tax, especially on electronics, is very high.

Good work, cmyplay! Your graphic is beautiful and offers a perspective we might not otherwise have considered. Make sure you visit the post to see the full image.

[Via Gizmodo]

TUAWMacBook prices around the world originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – South Africa – MacBook Pro – MacBook – Hong Kong

Now available for download, FileMaker Bento 3 Contact and Customer Manager is the fast, free, and easy way to get instant access to contact and customer details. View call history, notes from meetings and conversations, upcoming to-do items, related documents and files, important emails, sales opportunities, receipts, and more. This download includes a free trial of new Bento 3 for Mac.

Filed under: iLife, Multimedia, Video, Tips and tricks, MobileMe

For all the things Apple does right, there are some strange decisions in the integration of iPhoto and MobileMe. iPhoto has a wonderful way to create animated slideshows with music and professional looking transitions and you can look at them all day on your Mac, or send them to your iPhone or AppleTV. But things get ugly when you want to post them on the web for family and friends using MobileMe. It’s baffling, but there is no direct way to upload an animation you’ve created to MobileMe, even though you can easily send stills or even iMovie videos to the web.

Well, it can be done, but it’s a non-intuitive work around.

First, create your slide show in an iPhoto folder the usual way. Then hit the “Export” button on the lower right of the iPhoto screen. From there, you can determine the size of the QuickTime movie you want to make. If it’s for the web, I’d suggest the large size.

The movie will render, and then be placed in your iPhoto Slideshows folder inside the Pictures folder. From there, you have a couple of options, none of which are well documented: One way is to open your newly created movie in the latest version of QuickTime. Then from the Share menu, select “MobileMe gallery” from the options presented (you’ll get the screen you can see in the thumbnail above). Another way to go is to is to import the movie into iMovie first, and then export it out to MobileMe from there. You can also drag the movie back into iPhoto (and yes, I know this is nutty) and then click the MobileMe icon to upload it there.

Why can’t you do this directly from iPhoto? Search me. It should be there — maybe we’ll see it in the app’s next version. If you have another method to do this let us know.

TUAWTUAW Tip: Get your animated slideshows to MobileMe originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – IPhone – MobileMe – Apple TV – ILife

Filed under: Cult of Mac

My Painting Has Crashed from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo.

James Théopane was asked to create a piece of artwork for his employer. He fused an old painting, a motor built from a kit, and new art done on canvas to create a fantastic interactive piece that pays tribute to the spinning pizza of death / rainbow pinwheel cursor / Marble of Doom. Read about how Theopane developed this work on his Posterous site.

[Via Neatorama]

TUAWFound Footage: Spinning Wheel of Death painting originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Cult of Mac – TUAW – Painting – Macintosh

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Rumors, Other Events, Apple

Here’s an interesting story that popped up this week, made even more relevant by all of the tablet rumors flying around lately. John Martellaro at the Mac Observer has called out the Wall Street Journal piece earlier this week as a controlled leak from Apple. What he says makes sense: the news came from an unnamed source and was published by two different authors, the WSJ’s Apple beat writers, to keep the responsibility divided (and keep Walt Mossberg above the fray, perhaps). If Apple does want to leak information, it seems easy enough — as Martellaro says, an executive phones a friend, asks to keep their name out of the story, and then a rumor is out there. Of course, there’s the question of how often (if ever) this actually happens; most Mac media folk have never been on the receiving end of such a leak.

The other real question is: why? Apple could merely be sending ideas out there to see how they’ll play — the WSJ post specifically mentioned a 10 or 11″ display, so it’s possible they wanted to pre-test that idea. Martellaro also reckons that Apple’s message could have been directed at another company, either a competitor or a partner who needed to be reminded that the tablet release was approaching quickly. And finally, it could have been directed at us press — rumors build more rumors, which build hype, which, as Martellaro says, put butts in seats at the event later this month.

Of course, there’s always the question of stock manipulation, and it could be argued that leaks like this might cause problems there. But otherwise, leaks by Apple are more or less harmless to everyone besides the company itself. If Apple did leak something it doesn’t end up delivering on (i.e. promises of one product and another one ends up getting released), it’s the companys own reputation that will be on the line. Apple can say that it doesn’t respond to or support rumors, but when the company’s own executives are allegedly telling the WSJ what the tablet is like, the onus falls on the company’s reputation as a whole.

[via Apple Insider]

TUAWApple’s “controlled leaks” and how they spin them originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Wall Street Journal – Macintosh – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Walt Mossberg

Filed under: Software, Reviews, Friday Favorite

Welcome to Friday Favorites! Every Friday, one of us will get all sloppy over an app, web service, or Mac feature that makes us grin like an idiot every time we use it. This week, Brett tells us about his favorite new snippet manager.

If you write code, you probably reuse blocks of it. Whether you’re working in HTML, CSS, AppleScript, Objective-C … it’s all code, and a really well-written chunk of it deserves to be used again. You can put a few of your most commonly used snippets into TextExpander, sure, but the biggest problem is finding that function you know you wrote last year but haven’t used since. This common little conundrum has given rise to some very elegant applications that aim to solve this and other related problems.

There have been a few great options lately for snippet organization. CodeCollector Pro has been my long-running favorite, with Snippet a close second. I like Snippet’s sexiness, but miss having a nice, big, multi-pane window to organize with. CodeCollector Pro is a solid workhorse, but actions such as adding new snippets are a little more cumbersome than I’d like. I often just clip things into Evernote when I’m in a hurry …

Then, along came Snippets (note the ‘s’ that differentiates it from Snippet) to steal my heart. It’s got Code Collector’s utility, Evernote’s searchability, and it’s got an extra dash of sexy, ala Snippet. It has the standard sytax-highlighted code viewer, and a sidebar with groups and folders. Snippets are classified by language, which can be set in a dropdown or by just dragging a snippet to a language folder. It functions on a hybrid folder/tag concept, which happens to be the way I do just about everything. Each snippet can have a description, as well as labels (tags) and all full-text indexed for searching. You’ve also got groups, which are like folders, but a snippet can belong to multiple groups. It has smart folders which, as you know, function like automatic groups with boolean criteria. On top of all that, folders, smart folders and groups can all be gathered hierarchically in nested folders, with parent folders showing all of the contents of their child folders. Whew!

TUAWFriday Favorite: Snippets originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TextExpander – Evernote – Apple – HTML – TUAW

Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends

We’re dreaming of a TUAW tablet
Just like the Newton we used to own…
Where the touch pad glistens,
And the sensors listen
To hear accelerometer events, and so…

We’re dreaming of a TUAW tablet
With every blog post that we write,
May your devices be merry and bright…
And may your tablet be beautiful and light

Thanks to reader Juan Secin, who imagined and designed this conceptual mock-up

TUAWWe’re dreaming of a TUAW tablet… originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Cult of Mac – Newton – tablet – TUAW

Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends, Other Events, iPhone

(image by Cult of Mac)

As expected, there are a number of iPhone and iPod-related accessories coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Here’s a couple we’ve seen already:

• iHome’s got both audio systems and alarm clocks on display — the clocks even have a sync button that will pull the time in straight from your iPhone or iPod, so no more having to set it yourself.
• They’ve also got another unit for the kitchen, but is it just us or do these all look pretty much the same?
• Sharper Image has a clock that uses an app on the iPhone screen as the clock hands, while sitting in a dock that holds numbers around the handset. They also have a speaker dock that can pull sports, news, and weather information from a custom app and display it on a separate LED screen. Pretty cool, actually, even if an iPhone already gives you all of that information anyway.
• FLO TV and Mophie are trying to bring mobile television to the iPhone this year.
• And Tunebug is showing off “surface sound” speakers — you attach a little piece to a bike helmet or other surface, and it turns the whole thing into a giant speaker, sending the music into your head. Freaky.

So far, as you can see, it’s mostly clocks and speakers. Which sounds about right for CES, actually — not everybody gets to release an augmented reality helicopter. We’ll keep an eye on the show all this week, and let you know about any other iPod-related releases there.

TUAWCES Watch: More clocks and docks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Consumer Electronics Show – Apple – Las Vegas Nevada – Cult of Mac

Filed under: Software, Open Source

There are many options for running Windows programs on the Mac. Boot Camp, for instance, is included with OS X for installing Windows on a separate partition. Parallels, VMware, and Sun offer virtualization software that let you run your Windows programs without logging out of OS X. And then there’s Wine.

TUAWHow to run Windows apps for free with Wine on OS X originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Open Source – Windows – Operating system – Mac OS – Microsoft Windows

Filed under: Video, Podcasting

It’s Wednesday, which means that there’s going to be another exciting episode of TUAW TV Live this afternoon!

Not.

Coming back to reality after a few weeks of semi-comatose holiday “time off,” your host set up an appointment with a client right at the same time as the weekly Ustream show. It won’t happen again, since that time is now blocked off in iCal in bright, shiny red. This week’s show, however, is going to happen on Thursday, January 7th, at the regularly scheduled time (5 PM ET).

If you’d like to watch one of the previous episodes, head over to http://ustream.tv/TUAW and you can pull up the fun from either the December 23rd or the December 30th shows.

TUAWThis week’s TUAW TV Live moved to Thursday due to memory error originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Television – Ustream – TUAW – TUAW TV Live – Arts

Filed under: Software, Cool tools

I discovered AppZapper years ago. It was a huge boon for me, helping me keep my support folders a little cleaner as I began the early stages of my habit of installing 2 or more new apps a day, trying them, and usually deleting them. It let me drag an application to its interface, and would then search for related files that application may have left around the hard drive. A quick double-check (by me) to make sure it wasn’t mistaken, one click and poof, all traces removed.

I’ve tried other, similar applications over the years … CleanApp has some great features, and Amnesia is pretty cool, but AppZapper “just worked.” I managed to stay loyal to it long after I had assumed its development had gone dead. Then, to my pleasant surprise, a major update dropped yesterday. My AppZapper is not only freshened up, it’s bursting with some very cool features.

The standard drag and drop panel of old is still around, and its automatic search is snappier. Up at the top corner of that first panel, though, is a switch flips the panel around, revealing the “Hit List.” This clever screen lets you sort a grid of all your applications, plugins, preference panels and widgets (all together or individually) based on their last-opened date and file size.

You can, for example, see all the apps on your drive that are larger than 50MB and haven’t been touched in the last two months. From there, you can click on one, see its related files in the bottom bar, and click the “Zap” button to say goodbye. You can also launch apps directly from this screen, which is helpful for those moments when the app’s name sounds familiar, but you can’t for the life of you remember what it does. These are 90% sha-na-na-na, hey hey for me, but it’s always nice to be sure.

Random warning: the new version of AppZapper makes a rather loud, somewhat grating zapping sound when performing a delete. I recommend you jump straight into preferences and disable that (before it scares the whole house in the middle of the night because you forgot to turn your speakers down when you were testing it out).

Lastly, there’s a whole license management section built into AppZapper now. It’s not just for apps you hate anymore, but the ones you love. Just drag items from Finder or out of the Hit List to indicate you own them. It will create a card for the app, and clicking the card flips it around and allows you to enter purchase info, license details and attach files. Not as full featured as something like 1Password or LicenseKeeper, but it’s a really well-executed touch on this new incarnation of an old classic.

My license of old seemed to upgrade fine, so I believe existing owners of AppZapper can enjoy the upgrade for free. New users can try out a free download, and pay $12.95US if you love it.

TUAWAppZapper: a great big upgrade for a small utility originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppZapper – Apple – Drag-and-drop – 1Password – Hit List

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Apple

A blogger at the Baltimore Sun found an Apple patent filed last month that describes a multitouch interface for manipulating “three-dimensional virtual objects.” The patent seems pretty vague in terms of implementation, but essentially Apple is citing a way to control 3D objects, whether they be icons, game objects, or characters, with a two-dimensional multitouch screen. Sounds like what you’re already doing with a game like Zen Bound.

Given that “the tablet” is the hot thing to speculate about lately, there are rumors bubbling up that this type of navigation and manipulation could be found in Apple’s new device. But that doesn’t seem very likely — most of what we’ve heard about the tablet is that it’ll offer a higher resolution version of the iPhone’s interface, and Apple has no reason yet to step away from that. It’s possible that this patent could be covering a new app set to release on the tablet, but of course as with everything here, we’ll have to wait and see what Jobs shows us on stage later this month.

[Via Engadget]

TUAWApple files patent for multitouch manipulation of 3D objects originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – iPhone – Baltimore Sun – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Patent

Filed under: Apple, Apple History

As we mentioned a few days ago, CNBC will air Welcome to Macintosh tonight at 9:30Pm Eastern/6:30 Pacific time. Welcome to Macintosh is an indie documentary that provides an intimate look at Apple’s history. It’s been shown at different times and places over the past year, and you can also buy it from iTunes [link], but now you can watch the documentary for free.

Then tomorrow night, Tuesday January 5 at 10PM, CNBC will be airing another Mac documentary, MacHEADS, a film that explores the fanaticism and loyalty of Apple users.

Finally, don’t forget to set your DVRs for CNBC’s third Mac feature, Planet of the Apps, airing on January 7th at 10PM ET/PT, the only CNBC original of the three where they take a look into the “app-economy.”

Is it just me, or does January 2010 seem to be Apple’s month?

TUAWReminder: Welcome to Macintosh airs tonight on CNBC, more docs to follow originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Macintosh – TUAW – iTune – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Filed under: iTS, How-tos, iTunes, Mac 101

The iTunes Store and App Store have mastered the art of the impulse purchase. “Only two bucks? Sure, why not?” The good news is that you can send a song, album, movie or TV show to a friend just as easily.

Let’s start with music. First, find the album or song you’d like to send. If you’re sending a song, you’ll see a drop-down arrow next to the track’s “Buy” button. Click it to reveal the menu at right, then select “Gift this song.”

You’re brought to a new screen (in the gallery below). From there you only need to enter some information, click continue and you’re done! Your recipient will receive a nice email message with a download link. The process is the same for albums, individual TV shows, audiobooks (though the “Gift this audiobook” looks different) and movies.

Note that you can’t gift entire TV seasons (bummer) or iPhone/iPod touch apps. However, you can opt to share a link to an interesting app. With the app selected, click the same drop-down button to reveal the “Tell a Friend” option. The same is true of Podcasts – hit that “Tell a Friend” button to let everyone know what you’re listening to. With just a few clicks, you can share your favorite content with anyone you want!

TUAWMac 101: Purchase a file in iTunes for someone else originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Apple – iTune – IPhone – TUAW

Nice parody for the iPhone and the Nexus One:

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Tags:google iphone nexus nexus one phonegoogle, iphone, nexus, nexus one, phone

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store

When you’re trying to live a more healthy lifestyle, it takes more than just watching your weight and exercising. Experts agree that you should eat a balanced diet, drink at least eight glasses of water per day, sleep well, and take nutritional supplements.

That’s the idea behind Healthy Me [US$0.99, iTunes Link] from developer Teddy Newell. Healthy Me features a simple and colorful interface for watching your weight approach your goal as well as tracking how many servings of the major food groups you’ve eaten, whether or not you exercised, and more.

Since it’s always nice to receive positive feedback when you’ve done something good for your body, Healthy Me gives you gold stars for achieving certain goals, as well as providing positive reinforcement through happy messages. The background of the app changes throughout the day, and there are even fun sound effects that play as you enter your daily info.

Newell has provided TUAW with 20 promo codes to give away, so you have a chance to win Healthy Me. The details follow:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us if you made a health-related New Year’s resolution and if so, what that resolution is.
• The comment must be left before Monday, January 4, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Twenty winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Healthy Me (Value: US$0.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

My next wish is for an app that I can just point my iPhone camera at to see how many calories I’m about to consume. Developers — get to work!

TUAWHealthy Me: Another TUAW giveaway to help your New Year’s resolutions originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – AppStore – Apple – TUAW – NewYear

Filed under: Humor, Software, Odds and ends, Apple

Remember back when Apple made concept videos of their future hardware instead of people making concepts for them? I actually don’t, but that’s just because I’m a young punk — the last major official concept video I remember seeing was the old (and somewhat prescient) “You Will” commercials. But on the eve of what already seems like the year of the tablet, here’s a retro look at a 1987 video made by Apple featuring the “Knowledge Navigator,” a tablet-style computer with web access (sorry, “university network access” — the web didn’t exist yet) and personified software agents to search, field calls, and even run apps and simulations.

Good stuff — I doubt we’ll see video clips of bowtied male secretaries answering calls from the iPhone if the tablet should appear later this month, but here in this future time of 2010, it’s fun to look back and see what we thought we’d be doing now: asking favors from Jill Gilbert, taking Kathy to the airport by 2, and ignoring calls from Mom.

[Via DF]

TUAWFound Footage: Knowledge Navigator concept from 1987 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – TUAW – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Hardware