Iphone Updates

Tagalicious is a $20 Mac application from the The Little App Factory (best known for their excellent DVD ripper RipIt), which will clean up your iTunes library metadata, fetch artwork, and even find lyrics. So far, it’s been extremely impressive both in accuracy and price.

I had a Guns N’ Roses song “1-01 Sweet Child O’ Mine.mp3″ with existing metadata saying it was the song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from their Greatest Hits album. Tagalicious said it was “Welcome to the Jungle.” I played the file in iTunes, and sure enough, my metadata was wrong. It was “Welcome to the Jungle.” I have no idea how Tagalicious figured that out, but I suspect it is guilty of practicing witchcraft.

The current version 1.0.1 shows a great deal of promise, although it lacks some more advanced features. Then again, that is what version 1.x releases are all about: get a solid foundation started, and then see where you need to grow.

Read on for more details and information.

TUAWTUAW Review: Tagalicious for iTunes metadata, artwork, and lyrics originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Little App Factory – iTunes – Arts

CNET reports that for the fourth consecutive year, J.D. Power and Associates has ranked Apple highest in customer satisfaction among smartphone manufacturers. The study showed that iPhone scored particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features, and physical design.

We received a lot of tips today from people who ordered the new $99 Apple TV on September 1st and have, like me, been anxiously checking the order status in the online Apple Store. As of today, many orders are showing the message you see above — that the device has been “prepared for shipment” sometime in September.

Well, today is September 27th, which doesn’t leave all that much time for Apple or the OEM to ship these devices. My guess is that the 747 freighters are lining up on the tarmac in Shanghai or Hong Kong, waiting to be loaded with the first half-million or so Apple TVs.

Fellow TUAW blogger Mike Rose and I both ordered our Apple TVs shortly after the announcement on September 1st, so whoever gets the first one will probably take dibs on doing a full review of the new iOS-powered streaming video box. Be sure to visit TUAW regularly this week for all of your Apple TV news.

Thanks to all of the TUAW readers who wrote in to tell us that you saw the “prepared for shipment” status.

TUAWNew Apple TVs prepared for shipment originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Hong Kong – Apple Store – Television

We received a lot of tips today from people who ordered the new $99 Apple TV on September 1st and have, like me, been anxiously checking the order status in the online Apple Store. As of today, many orders are showing the message you see above — that the device has been “prepared for shipment” sometime in September.

Well, today is September 27th, which doesn’t leave all that much time for Apple or the OEM to ship these devices. My guess is that the 747 freighters are lining up on the tarmac in Shanghai or Hong Kong, waiting to be loaded with the first half-million or so Apple TVs.

Fellow TUAW blogger Mike Rose and I both ordered our Apple TVs shortly after the announcement on September 1st, so whoever gets the first one will probably take dibs on doing a full review of the new iOS-powered streaming video box. Be sure to visit TUAW regularly this week for all of your Apple TV news.

Thanks to all of the TUAW readers who wrote in to tell us that you saw the “prepared for shipment” status.

TUAWNew Apple TVs prepared for shipment originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Hong Kong – Apple Store – Television

I’ll be honest — I heard that Aftermath was a zombie game and almost gave up on it. I wouldn’t be offended if you did the same, since lots of developers (especially iPhone developers) are depending a little too much on zombies for their gameplay. Yes, it’s fun to fight the walking undead, but they’re used over and over again because a) they’re easy to program, and b) they let you make a “shooting humans” game without getting involved in the whole morality thing.

But Aftermath is still worth a look. While a lot of zombie games on the store go abstract or silly, this one sticks pretty close to realistic, and it has some serious quality and interesting gameplay behind it. You’re fighting zombies and moving through levels, but instead of aiming and shooting a gun, you’re actually aiming a flashlight, and your gun automatically fires for you. The projected light makes the whole affair very atmospheric; the game’s just dark enough that it actually feels a little spooky trying to navigate the shuffling brain-eaters to your next objective.

Particularly if you’re a fan of Left 4 Dead or that ilk, Aftermath is probably worth a look — it’s US$1.99 on the App Store right now. And please, developers, unless they’re as inventive and well-done as this one, let’s keep the zombie games to a minimum. Maybe we could fight werewolves instead? Or angry robots?

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Aftermath originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple Inc. – game

Back before the iPhone was formally announced, there was talk that Steve Jobs was simply not happy with the product because Apple’s engineers couldn’t figure out how to eliminate all of the physical buttons. There was just no practical way to put the functions of a power switch or home button into a touch-only interface. But all of that hasn’t stopped Apple from trying.

A recently-filed patent by Apple clearly shows that the company means business when it comes to sleek, clutter-free interfaces. This particular patent aims to take advantage of multiple sides of a device (in this case, it appears to be the iPad, as pictured), including parts of the casing, in order to perform functions that physical buttons currently handle.

Talk of an interactive case has come up before, but with this new patent, it’s clear the minds at Apple are still churning about in search for that holy grail of button-free, ultra-portable devices. I’m just not so sure there will be a way to get rid of them entirely — who wants to have to resort to a paperclip to reset their device?

TUAWMultitouch casing could remove buttons from iPhone, iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Steve Jobs – Patent

Since the iPad was first announced in January of this year, there’s been speculation that a smaller form factor — say, something between an iPad and an iPod touch — would be added to the line.

Shanzai.com, a site that follows China’s technology industry, has posted a rumor to the effect that Apple’s next tablet will resemble “an oversized iPhone 4″ rather than a smaller iPad. Shanzai says that they have “ears to the ground in Shenzen,” the home of Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn, and that loose lips have stated that the 7″ tablet is a “finished product.”

Sam Levin of AppMinute.com and I discussed the possibility of a smaller tablet on a podcast we recorded right after our abortive attempt at doing TUAW TV Live this week. Apple abhors a lot of different products that are not heavily differentiated. I brought up the example of Archos, which has a line of six Android-based tablets that range in screen size from 2.8″ to 10.1.” That just seems to be a bit odd, as there’s not a tremendous amount that really makes the devices different other than screen size. Apple, however, has managed to turn the iPod line into four completely different products — the minimalist shuffle, the tiny touch screen nano, the Classic, and the iPod touch.

Would Apple risk cannibalizing sales of the iPod touch on the small device side and the existing iPad on the larger tablet side to bring in a new form factor? Does a smaller iPad that would be difficult to type on make sense? What do you think? Leave your comments below.

[via 9to5Mac]

TUAW7-inch iPad coming? Loose lips in Shenzen say yes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPhone – iPod – IpodTouch

Accordance, long regarded as the premier Bible study software for the Mac, has a new version 9 that’s now available for download.

At first glance, it may look at a lot like version 8, but that’s because most of the changes have gone on under the hood. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this isn’t a big update, though, because it is, and there’s more coming.

Four primary new features will appeal to almost all users:

“Workspace Zones” are a new way of grouping tools. Put Bibles in one zone, dictionaries in another, or put related tools for a project together so that you can access them all at once. These also seem to work better side-by-side than what I was able to do previously. Maybe there was a way before, but if so, it’s much, much easier now.

Learning a language is more than just translating words; you also have to understand syntax, grammar, idioms, and so forth. This won’t make you a Greek or Hebrew scholar by itself, but it’s a good reminder for those who have been out of seminary for a while and need a refresher, or a good aid to those just trying to learn.

“Easy Install” is OakTree’s way of saying “you won’t have to wait around for discs to arrive in the mail anymore.” Most of their resources are now available for immediate download. Good riddance to media through the mail. Keeping track of installation disks and unlock codes is a hassle that no one will miss. If you haven’t already created a user account on Accordance’s website, now is the time to do it. You may need to contact support to get your past order history added to your account, but once all the pieces are in place, this is going to be a huge boon for everyone involved.

I’ve definitely saved the best for last: Search All. My biggest gripe about Accordance 8 (which was the first version that I used) was that, when I searched for something, I didn’t get the feeling that I was getting results from all of the different books that are part of my Accordance library. That was one of the biggest advantages that Logos had over Accordance. Search All eliminates that. Not only that, but it’s fast, and I mean really fast. It’s fast enough that you’ll wonder how it was that fast. OK, I’ll admit that wasn’t particularly eloquent, but you get the point.

So, those are some of the details, but how does Accordance 9 feel? Read on.

TUAWAccordance 9 is another big step forward in Bible study software originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Bible Study – Christianity – Bible – Accordance

Okay, so Steve Jobs may have said something like “The world doesn’t need any more fart apps.” But, really, did the world actually need a summary of every fart app on App Store in under two minutes?

Do pretzels need mustard, or does peanut butter need jelly? We here at TUAW firmly respond: No comment.

TUAWNo comment: Current infoMania versus the fart apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Steve Jobs – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPhone

We’ve received a number of tips this morning from readers who say that their credit cards are being charged for pre-ordered Apple TVs. That generally means that they’re about to ship. Customers tell us that the charges began to show up overnight and into this morning.

The online Apple Store still lists the shipping time as 2-3 weeks. I haven’t ordered one myself, but the Netflix feature alone makes it very tempting. Start looking for yours soon.

In the meantime, consider grabbing a package tracking app and follow your new toy’s journey.

TUAWApple TV pre-orders ready to ship originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Netflix – AppStore – AppleTV

Apple has a surprising ally in its campaign of apathy against Sony’s Blu-ray disc format. Microsoft, of all companies, has also stepped out with a passive-aggressive stance against the standard, as UK head of Xbox gaming head Steven McGill says that “Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format.” He says that Microsoft was right to stick with the older DVD format for its game consoles, and that with the rise of streaming content and the infrastructure to deliver it, there’s no longer a need for a disc-based format.

Apple would probably agree, given the recent introduction of the Apple TV and its streaming content possibilities. Apple and Jobs alike have never been interested in Blu-ray as a format — originally, the reason given was that they just wanted to see whether HD-DVD or Blu-ray would become the preferred standard, but at this point, with iTunes moving more and more away from physical media entirely, it seems unlikely that Apple will court Sony and its proprietary format at all. So on this issue, at least, Apple and Microsoft appear to have found some common ground.

[via Slashdot]

TUAWMicrosoft joins Apple in stance against Blu-ray originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft – Sony – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Xbox

If you tuned into TUAW TV Live and you’re seeing nothing, don’t feel bad — neither am I. We’re having problems with our streaming provider. We will reschedule today’s show with Sam Levin for sometime in the near future, and listen to Sam’s podcast, AppMInute, to listen to some audio we recorded today.

We thank you for your patience.

TUAWTUAW TV Live: Down due to technical difficulties originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Sam Levin – Podcast – Television – IPhone

Guild Wars 2 is going to become the latest big PC game to get a satellite iPhone app. Our friends at Massively have a post up about the “extended experience” that ArenaNet is going to offer in the MMO sequel. You won’t be able to play the full game on your iPhone or iPad, but you will be able to chat with friends, browse the world of the game, access character and achievement information, and even wiki information about the game, either from a mobile location or just using the mobile device alongside you as you play. It all sounds really interesting, and actually very forward-thinking; lots of gamers have an extra device around them as they’re playing these PC games, so why not use the iPhone or iPad to enable mobile connectivity and add on to the experience as you play.

Guild Wars 2 is, of course, the sequel to the very popular first ArenaNet title, and it’s expected out sometime in 2010 or 2011. The app will presumably be out sometime close to the game’s release, though some of the functionality is mentioned as future plans, so we’ll have to see. Meanwhile, there’s a growing trend of supplementing PC gaming with iOS apps. Both Blizzard Entertainment and Fallen Earth developer Icarus Studios have released apps designed to work in tandem with their desktop titles. It’s an intriguing idea — most of the viewpoints on the App Store have it replacing traditional desktop computing, but these companies are using Apple’s devices to supplement their other products.

TUAWGuild Wars 2 uses iOS apps for ‘extended experience’ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ArenaNet – iPhone – Guild Wars 2 – IPad – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Archaeologist Steven Ellis and his team are using iPad — with apps like Pages, FMTouch, iDraw, OmniGraffle, and Photos — to capture invaluable historical data in the trenches at Pompeii. Says Ellis, “That my team could both type and draw on the screen, and also examine all previously entered data, made it an ideal single-device solution.”

We’ve seen just about every type of iDevice case ever made, but this one takes the prize for originality.

Based on the famous Ohio Art Etch A Sketch magic screen drawing slate, the Etch A Sketch iPad Case ($39) from Headcase is very realistic looking, down to the cheesy gold paint on the logo. The case should be realistic, as it is officially licensed by Ohio Art.

There are some differences between the case and the real Etch A Sketch: the white knobs won’t act as cursor control on your cursor-less iPad, the case has a couple of indentations for the ambient light detector and home button, and the battery life on the original Etch A Sketch is much better. Oh, and the original Etch A Sketch is $17.99, while an iPad costs considerably more.

Check out the gallery below for more shots of this clever iPad case.

TUAWOfficial Etch A Sketch case makes iPad even more attractive to your kids originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Etch A Sketch – Ohio Art Company – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Ohio – Art

CNBC reports that iPad is the highest-scoring product the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has ever tracked.

Taiwanese customers placed 200,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders, yet carriers fear that only about one-fourth of those orders will be filled by the end of the year.

iPhonetouch.Blorge reports that Apple’s three Taiwanese carrier partners, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone, had access to a mere 1,800 iPhone 4s when they finally became available on September 15th. Additionally, the carriers expect to receive no more than 50,000 units before the year’s end.

Meanwhile, the chairman of manufacturer Foxconn told the press that his company is pumping out 1.5 iPhones per second — that’s about 137,000 units per day — to keep up with the enormous global demand. In fact, Foxconn recently bought 1,000 special machining rigs at $20k each to help them stay on track. Most manufacturers own one. Unless they’re on Kamino.

Remember that “antenna issue” that was supposed to doom the iPhone 4? Um, yeah.

[Via Macsimum News]

TUAWTaiwanese carriers can’t meet iPhone 4 pre-orders originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Taiwan – Foxconn

Several iTunes 10 users were less than thrilled with the new all-grey UI theme. I’ve gotten used to it, but I agree it was a bit prettier with the color icons in the sidebar. Here’s how you can replace the grey entirely with an eye-popping, high-contrast black and white.

First, quit iTunes. Then open up Terminal and enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes high-contrast-mode-enable -bool TRUE

Re-launch and pow! You’ll be presented with the UI depicted above. It’s definitely legible, and Macworld suggests that it looks best in List View. They also explain how to switch back.

We don’t know if the stark theme is better, but it is different.

TUAWHow to replace iTunes 10′s grey with eye-popping black originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – iTunes – Apple – Macworld – Macintosh

TUAWRegister now for MacTech 2010, $50 off for TUAW readers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Los Angeles – Macintosh – Griffith Observatory – Andy Ihnatko

If you can get past the sight of Windows 3.11 (gack…) and Windows 95 (hurl!) running on an iPad, then hit the play button in the YouTube embed above and be prepared to be visually and audibly assaulted (by no less than Metallica).

YouTube user MSComputerVideos provides a complete tutorial on how to make your iPad look like a relic from the 1990s by using a jailbroken iPad and the open-source Bochs emulator (frequently used for such efforts).

A rip of the ‘Kill ‘Em All’ t-shirt to tipster MS.

TUAWFound Footage: Windows 95, 3.1 running on jailbroken iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPad – YouTube – Emulator

IGN calls iPod touch “the greatest iPod to date,” noting its new A4 processor, built-in cameras, FaceTime video calling, and Retina display — which results in “incredibly smooth and detailed menus, game graphics, photos, and video playback.” The reviewer adds that the hardware improvements make iPod touch “uniquely prepared to take on richer, more complex games” and that “the latest model may be a worthy upgrade for gaming applications alone.”

Apple has announced that the iPad will be officially launched in five Latin American countries and China tomorrow, September 17, 2010.

The über-popular iPad will be available in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru starting tomorrow. In China, the Wi-Fi model is launching, while the Wi-Fi + 3G is listed on the online Chinese Apple Store as “Coming Soon.”

TUAW also received a number of tips this morning that U.S. electronics retailer Micro Center is beginning to sell iPads in a number of locations. Recent rumors also point to mega-retailers Target and Walmart selling the iPad before the critical Christmas buying season.

With the influx of new markets and retailers, it’s a good thing Apple is ramping up production of iPads.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWT-1 Day for Latin American, Chinese launch of iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – China – IPad – Colombia

Reviewing iPod nano, Peter Ha (TIME.com) writes that “the current generation nano is focused on one thing and one thing only — music.” Citing its small size, extremely responsive Multi-Touch display, and “intuitive UI,” Ha notes that iPod nano “now rivals the shuffle as the smallest iPod and the touch as one of the coolest and ‘funnest’ iPods ever made.”

From world-class hospitality to medical rehabilitation, iPad is helping to transform the way businesses work. See how Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, RehabCare, and other organizations are using iPad to improve the way they get business done.

Watch this video profile to see how the Mac has changed the way teachers teach and students learn in the Greene County school system in rural North Carolina. A new project-based curriculum has engaged and motivated students, and college-going rates have risen dramatically.

Apple today announced that in less than 48 hours since its launch on Wednesday, more than one million users have joined Ping, its new social network for music. Ping lets users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading. “One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,“ said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.“

Computerworld reviewer Michael deAgonia writes that for “the past month, the latest 27-inch iMac from Apple has been the center of my digital universe.” Citing the computer’s high-resolution LED-backlit display, clean design, and speed, deAgonia concludes: “The iMac is pretty much everything I could want from a modern computer, the ultimate all-in-one.”

FileMaker, Inc. announced the Bento 3 Project Manager, a brand new set of templates designed to make it easy for Mac users to track their personal projects and manage their time within one integrated, intuitive place. The Bento 3 Project Manager includes a free 30-day trial of the popular Bento 3 personal database for Mac, plus two professionally designed, ready-to-use templates.

The new iPod touch features Apple’s stunning Retina display, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1, and Game Center — all combined in the thinnest and lightest iPod touch ever. The instantly wearable iPod nano, now completely redesigned with Multi-Touch, lets users navigate their music collections by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. And the colorful, clip-and-go iPod shuffle — with buttons, VoiceOver, and playlists — offers the very best features of iPod shuffle at only $49.

iTunes 10 features Ping, a new social network for music that lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading. With Ping you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, and the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes — plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99. With Apple TV, you can choose from the largest online selection of HD movies to rent, including first-run movies for just $4.99, and the largest online selection of HD TV show episodes to rent — from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America — for just 99 cents.

Computer Shopper makes the quad-core Mac Pro an Editors’ Choice, citing its speedy performance, easy upgradability, and new lower price. The reviewers write: “Creative professionals who need a machine with both muscle and good looks, and Mac fans who love to game, will find a lot to like in the new Mac Pro.”

In just over three years, iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million — making it one of the world’s most popular online educational catalogs. A dedicated area within the iTunes Store, iTunes U offers users public access to university courses, lab demonstrations, special lectures, and more from world class institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne, and Université de Montréal.

JM Family — an $8 billion diversified automotive company and the largest Toyota distributor on the planet — has integrated iPhone and business apps available in the App Store into all of their daily operations. The company has also created a custom app that enables their sales organization to quickly track, review, and update dealership numbers.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform is “getting favorable reviews from the companies whose advertisements were the first to run on the new system.” The article quotes Joe Jacoby, a senior manager of Nissan’s media operations, who says, “What iAd promises is the most progressive thing I’ve seen to date” in digital advertising.

PC Magazine makes the new quad-core 27-inch iMac an Editors’ Choice, calling it “a highly sophisticated, yet simple to use media PC.” The magazine found the new iMac to be faster than other all-in-one models they’ve recently tested and concludes that it “cements the Apple iMac as the all-in-one desktop to have and to beat.”

This is about the coolest thing done with an iPad since, well, the iPad itself was created. A firm named Dentsu London has used an iPad to create a series of stop motion shots assembled from sequential long exposure light paintings. They created a set of 3D graphics and then programmed the iPad to show a set of cross sections, frame-by-frame, of those graphics. The cross sections were “painted” into the air with long exposure photographs, and then the photographs were all put together into a stop motion animation.

The end effect is just amazing — don’t just watch the beginning on how they did it, make sure you stick around for the film itself. It’s a beautiful piece, as well as an ingenious way of using the iPad to create something exceptional. If you’re really interested in these images, the creators have also put together a book featuring some of the best stills from the video. It’s quite an impressive piece of work.

[via TDW]

TUAWLight painting in stop motion with the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stop motion – IPad – Animation – lightpainting – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Editor Bradley Buecker describes how he cut his first feature film, Eat Pray Love, using Final Cut Pro. To edit more than 70 hours of footage shot on location in New York, Italy, India, and Indonesia, Buecker found a fast, efficient editing format in ProRes 422 (Proxy), introduced in Final Cut Pro 7.

SF Weekly profiles a Redwood City mother, Shannon Rosa, who blogged that iPad had helped her nine-year-old autistic son, Leo. “With the iPad, Leo electrifies the air around him with independence and daily new skills,” she wrote. The article credits Rosa’s post with contributing to a “quiet revolution” in the autistic community focused on using iPad for teaching communication and social skills to autistic children.

The San Jose Mercury News reviewer Troy Wolverton gives Magic Trackpad a 4.5/5 rating, calling it a “winner” and noting that it “could give other desktop users a good reason to finally ditch their mice.” He concludes, “I like the Magic Trackpad a lot and hope it will spark imitators on the PC side.”

Gadgetwise blogger Nick Bilton at The New York Times reports taking Magic Trackpad for a test drive that covered “two-finger scroll on Web pages, pinch and zoom on images in Apple’s Preview application, and a number of other multitouch features.” He concludes: “I’m pretty certain I will never own a traditional mouse again, at least when I use an Apple computer. Instead I will own a trackpad — a Magic Trackpad.”

Check out a few new iPhone apps demos to see how apps are changing the way businesses do business.The featured apps and the companies that use them are: Workday, used at illumina; Cisco WebEx, at RTKL; Documents to Go, at Unisys; and Airstrip OB, at Memorial Hermann.

Happy (belated) birthday today to Mac OS X. Yes, the OS itself actually released to the public on March 24, 2001 (which means its actual “birthday,” in my mind, isn’t until next March), but Macworld points out that, on September 13, 2000, Steve gave us the very first peek at the foundation of modern Apple computing at the Apple Expo in Paris. That’s ten years ago yesterday — we never were all that good with remembering birthdays.

Macworld lists out the ten most significant contributions of the OS to the Mac experience, but things like the Time Machine and Spotlight are on there, and of course, those weren’t introduced until much later. The OS itself was actually announced six days after the year 2000 started, and the Apple Expo announcement was the beta reveal. Steve Jobs had just come back to the company, bringing his NeXT experience with him, and OS X made waves early on for being a Unix-based operating system. The Aqua user interface was the other big feature of the OS right away — as Jobs said at that first Macworld Expo, “when you saw it you wanted to lick it.” Customers found that out immediately: the beta product itself was released in stores for US$29.95.

I’m sure we’ll have more coverage of the past ten years of OS X as we move forward into next March, but it’s pretty amazing to think how far both we and Apple have come over the last ten years already, all the way from OS X to iOS and everywhere in-between.

TUAWMac OS X beta was released ten years ago yesterday originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs – Apple – Mac OS X – Operating system – Unofficial Apple Weblog

HP recently announced two new wireless, Web-connected All-in-One printers that provide features that are sure to make Apple owners happy. The printers, the HP Officejet Pro 8500A e-All-in-One series (above at left, starting at US$299, currently available with a rebate for just $229) and Officejet 7500A Wide-Format e-All-in-One (above at right, starting at $299, not currently shown on the US HP website) feature connectivity to the Web, which allows them to print from various services without needing to fire up a computer to do the printing. Here’s a quick look at some of the unique (and some not-so-unique) features:

• HP ePrint — sometime this fall, you’ll be able to download the HP ePrint iOS app and print documents on your device directly to your HP Officejet Pro 8500A or Officejet 7500A from literally anywhere you have an internet connection. Until then, or when you’re on any internet-connected device, you can attach your document to an email and send it to your printer. ePrint supports PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, and GIF files, and you’ll receive feedback from the printer if the print job is successful or if there’s an issue.
• Borderless printing — If you want to print anything from a 3″ x 5″ card up to a 13″ x 19″ brochure, you can do it on the 7500A Wide-Format printer, and you can print to the edge of the paper. That’s useful for doing printing of business documents on-demand, rather than sending them to a printer.
• Wireless and Wired networking — Both printers have built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and 10/100Base-T Ethernet networking capabilities. The LCD display on the printers makes setup easy with on-screen instructions. (Correction: Wi-Fi is an option available at additional cost on the 8500A.)

TUAWNew HP e-All-in-One printers make it easy to print from anywhere originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hewlett-Packard – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Printer – IEEE 802.11n-2009

Sega America hosted an iPhone gaming event earlier this week, and the lineup of titles they’ve got coming to the App Store this fall is a gamer’s dream: Chu Chu Rocket (my favorite Dreamcast game!) is coming to iOS, along with classic side scrollers Gunstar Heroes and Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog Episode 1 (the brand new 2D version of Sonic), and a free-to-play strategy/RPG MMO called Kingdom Conquest. TouchArcade was there at the event, and they say that Chu Chu Rocket is all you hope it will be, the new Sonic looks excellent, and Kingdom Conquest sounds like an intriguing mix of genres. Card battling, empire building, and RPG questing all built into one Sega-published free-to-play title? Chu Chu and Sonic already have their pedigrees, but it doesn’t sound like you can go wrong with that last one.

What a lineup from Sega for this year — I’m actually more excited about their iPhone releases than I am about anything they’re bringing out on consoles or any other platform. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of Game Center in any of these previews, but all of the games seem to have multiplayer of some sort, from 1-4 players over both Bluetooth and wifi. So it’s probably a pretty good presumption that they’ll be Game Center-enabled in some way.

So lots to look forward to in the next few months. Should be fun.

TUAWSega bringing Chu Chu Rocket, others to iPhone soon originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sega – IPhone – Dreamcast – App Store – Sonic the Hedgehog

IGN calls iPod touch “the greatest iPod to date,” noting its new A4 processor, built-in cameras, FaceTime video calling, and Retina display — which results in “incredibly smooth and detailed menus, game graphics, photos, and video playback.” The reviewer adds that the hardware improvements make iPod touch “uniquely prepared to take on richer, more complex games” and that “the latest model may be a worthy upgrade for gaming applications alone.”

Reviewing iPod nano, Peter Ha (TIME.com) writes that “the current generation nano is focused on one thing and one thing only — music.” Citing its small size, extremely responsive Multi-Touch display, and “intuitive UI,” Ha notes that iPod nano “now rivals the shuffle as the smallest iPod and the touch as one of the coolest and ‘funnest’ iPods ever made.”

It’s not rare for Apple fanboys and girls to have more than one Apple device. Since the iPad appeared on the scene in April, there’s good chance that you’ll find an iPad and either an iPhone or an iPod in the well-equipped Apple home. So how do you keep all of those devices charged without turning your counter space into a nest of cabling?

XtremeMac has come to the rescue with the new InCharge Duo for iPad (US$59.99), a dual dock that not only provides the necessary 2.1 amps to charge the iPad, but can charge an iPhone or iPod with Dock Connector at the same time. Since your iPad has such good battery life, you can also use the InCharge Duo to charge up any combination of other iDevices while you’re using the iPad.

The InCharge Duo looks much nicer than some dual chargers I’ve seen and used. It’s a sleek dark grey unit with a tiny logo on the front and two small LEDs that provide charge status. It would be perfect for use in a bedroom, as the LEDs are dim enough that they won’t keep anyone but the most severe insomniac awake. Read on for details on how you can win one from TUAW.

TUAWTUAW review and giveaway: XtremeMac InCharge Duo for iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – iPod – IPad – Unofficial Apple Weblog

With the news that Apple has eased restrictions on third-party development tools, a very excited-sounding Adobe has announced it will resume working on its Flash-to-iPhone compiler, Packager for iPhone.

Soon after the news leaked in April that Apple was restricting third-party tools, a very publicly angry Adobe announced that its fledgling Packager app, part of Flash Professional CS5, wouldn’t be receiving future support after Apple’s restrictions effectively rendered the program useless.

Times have certainly changed now. “We’re hearing from our developer community that Packager apps are already being approved for the App Store,” Adobe says. Support for Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in, however, is still excluded from iOS.

Adobe has every reason to be excited about this, as do Flash developers, who will now have a relatively easy way to recompile their Flash apps for sale on the App Store. Whether that will also translate into high-quality apps is something we users will learn for ourselves as they show up on the App Store over the coming days and weeks.

[Via Mac Rumors]

TUAWAdobe resumes efforts on Packager for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Store – Apple – Adobe – Adobe Systems – IPhone

From world-class hospitality to medical rehabilitation, iPad is helping to transform the way businesses work. See how Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, RehabCare, and other organizations are using iPad to improve the way they get business done.