So the latest from Apple was released early on the morning of the 25th…

Did you upgrade? Problems? Going to wait for the inevitable 10.8.1 in a couple of weeks?

Share your story in the comments!

The latest version of Apples flagship OS has been released and what better way to celebrate than with the amazing @siracusa’s OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: the Ars Technica review at Ars Technica.

Update: If you’re into meta-ness, you can check out Marco’s review of John Siracusa’s review.

We’ve been waiting for this for a while, and looks like Tapbots delivered. Via Daring Fireball Linked List.

First saw on MacRumors that Apple has seeded the OS/X Mountain Lion GM to Developers. The GM is the ‘Gold Master’, and while this doesn’t mean that a release to end users is coming any second now, it does mean that the release is very close, I’d say within “weeks”, but to make the ship date of “July” there are only 3 left in the month anyway.

Apple released the Golden Master (GM) version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers today. The “golden master” designation indicates that this version of the software is intended to be the final version released to the public, barring any last-minute issues. The Build is 12A269.

No idea if this hints at a release date previous to the 19th, but we (the ones who will download and install this the second it’s released) can hope.

Very interesting….. Apple releases Podcasts app for iOS

Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.

So this would explain the lack of podcasts in the iOS 6 betas. Thing is don’t want a ton of different apps for different things taking up space on my home screen, I want one app, say “Music” that handles all music, podcasts, and audiobook functions.

Stupid Apple.

Update: Ok I take it back a little. It’s got some nice features (yes yes, available in other apps such as Instacast and in every single one of the 8,434 podcast clients for Android):

• You can properly subscribe to new podcasts from the app
• Has both skip back and skip forward (podcasters aren’t going to like this much)
• Automatically imports your current podcasts, has an unplayed
• Looks like it has a super-sexy (though oddly Skeuomorphic design that’s bound to attract both praise and critique
• Doesn’t look like there’s a “update all” yet. Come on, if there’s one feature to add it’s this one. Ok, it looks like if you go into the settings for a podcast there’s a ‘subscription’ toggle and an ‘auto-download’ toggle, which (I assume), will check for and download updates when they’re available, though it appears (at least after having run the app and not connecting to iTunes yet) that you have to set the subscription, episodes to keep, and auto-download settings for each podcast. I assume that when connecting to iTunes it’ll pull these settings from it (I hope anyway). IE: “Just works”.
• A few questions still remain though. How will this affect playing from the music app? Will it automatically interact “properly” with iTunes, etc.

A couple of links with comparisons of the new in-house (combined with TomTom and Waze it sounds like) Apple mapping solution for iOS6 and the current Google Maps integration.

• Comparison: Apple Maps versus Google Maps in Canada in iOS 6 from iPhone in Canada.com
• Side by Side comparison at Gizmodo
• Cars.com has their comparision and focuses some attention on the non-maps part of the system, such as search results automatically pulling in photos, yelp reviews, and not having to hit the search button to search.

Bad news is that the Apple solution seems like it has a long way to go. Good news is it’s still a beta and the release rumors are the fall, so they have time to go that distance.

So iFixit tears down the new Retina MacBook Pro, calls it ‘least repairable laptop’ yet. This is one of two things:

• A travesty perpetrated by an evil company that is restricting you from doing what you want, with hardware you own, and no doubt an attempt to screw you over with their overpriced upgrade options.
• Completely expected and the natural progression, similar to how you can’t rebuild your own engine in a new car like you could with something from the 60’s or 70’s

I’m not happy that even the RAM isn’t user upgradable, but if you think about the engineering needed to create they design and form factor that they did, it’s not unexpected. I can assure you two things though: lack of user-upgradability will not affect Apple’s sales, and this will create many arguments on the internet.

Pros can rejoice a little bit, in addition to a (very minor) bump in the Mac Pro lineup yesterday, according to an email from Tim Cook to Macworld, Apple is planning a professional Mac for 2013.

Thanks for your email. Our Pro customers like you are really important to us. Although we didn’t have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today’s event, don’t worry as we’re working on something really great for later next year. We also updated the current model today.

No idea if this means a new type of computer to replace the current Mac Pro, or a similar update with USB3, Thunderbolt, updated CPUs, etc.

Well, it’s finally over, the almost 2 hour keynote from Apple’s WWDC has finished and the good stuff is up and available for you mac nerds. In short:

• New MacBook Pro with Retina - Available today
• iOS 6 Preview - Shipping in the fall (assuming this’ll be out with the iPhone 5)
• Updates to the rest of the MacBook line - Available today
• Mountain Lion Preview - Shipping for $20 in July

Missing in action was any mention of Apple TV (how dare they not say anything about something that they never announced!), Mac Pro, or iMac. Though some of it might be simply that there is only so much they can announce in a 2 hour keynote.

Overall not disappointing at all. The new MacBook Pro retina version (wonder how that’ll match up in the lineup, compared to the normal macbook pro… why would anyone get the normal MBP when you pay a bit more and get this monster machine). Maps on iOS I’m really interested to see if non-major US cities get screwed (and as there’s no choice of mapping apps on iOS if the new maps isn’t as good as google maps, you are kinda boned), and I’m really loving the new updates and tweaks that’ll show up in Mountain Lion. The “power nap” system where it’ll get updates and notifications while still asleep and finally proper syncing of notes, reminders, etc. Some other nifty stuff too, but hit the links above for that.

Ok, enough with the Apple stuff, on to the rest of the news.

“Timsmas” doesn’t have the same ring as “Jobsmas”, but I’m willing to give it a try anyway and see how it goes. Yes, non-Apple people beware, tomorrow is a big day for the Apple faithful, with a plethora of potential awesomeness being announced or released. Maybe. As usual I’ll point you to someone else who has done the research to collect the latest rumors, live blog locations, and prediction roundups:

WWDC 2012: Live Blogs Round Up, Predictions for Tomorrow’s Keynote over at iPhone in Canada was the one that caught my eye!

Fascinating writeup on How does Apple keep secrets so well on Quora.

In JK’s office, Joe watches in amazement as JK boots up an Intel PC and up on the screen comes the familiar ‘Welcome to Macintosh’.

Joe pauses, silent for a moment, then says, “I’ll be right back.”

Well, well worth the full read. Linked originally by Gruber.

Text from Xcode is an awesome blog for those enjoying some Apple / XCode humor. I think this one is my favorite so far.

Yup, you can get Coda 2 and Diet Coda for sale now (50% off till the end of Thursday) on the Mac App and iTunes stores.

Perian posts end of life notice:

t’s been one of the best and most useful tools I have had access to and invariably the first thing I reinstall after any upgrade. And now, according to a statement by its devs, it’s reaching the end of the road.

Sad, but awesome that they are posting all the code to github or google code. They also have a nice list of alternatives on their site.

Todays The Joy of Tech comic pretty much perfectly sums up my thoughts on the Apple is avoiding paying billions in taxes story that “broke” this weekend. Seriously, I’m pretty sure that every big company (Microsoft, Google, et all) all do exactly this, but somehow putting “Apple” in the headline makes it something that lasted for more than a day on the internet.

The Apple response is a good read.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like that companies making BILLIONS of dollars every quarter avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes, but I make deductions on my taxes, and do my best to avoid paying anything extra, so why shouldn’t they? The argument of “if Apple had to pay an extra 40 billion in taxes, they wouldn’t be able to employ the 50,000 people that they do now”. I think it’s fine to get all high and mighty, but until you go to the CRA or IRS or whatever and say “no sir, please let me pay the maximum taxes possible” and not “can I deduct my cat as a dependant”, you can’t complain too much, as this is just a difference in scale (and that companies with a lot of money can afford to hire accountants who know all the tricks).

Ars asks Does “Mastered for iTunes” matter to music? and then goes deep into exactly what it means.

Instapaper and Readability competator Read it Later has gone free and been renamed Pocket. Their new site, http://getpocket.com/ has been relaunched and looks good. I’m personally an instapaper guy but I have to say that the iPad app looks very Flipboard-like, and is propbably worth checking out. Also the app is now free, which makes it a no-brainer :)

50 Creative MacBook Decals and Stickers via @moo.com.

I’ll take the portal one please!

Tim Cook Unboxes the new iPad. Ok, that is friggin’ hilarious.

The Verge has the full story on how a startup built the Gmail app Google couldn’t, or hit the announcement where I saw it on 9-5 Mac.

Personally I think it looks great and has some nice things beyond what you get in the default client (ie: faces associated with addressbook entries, a built in photo browser), but I don’t do enough emailing from my phone for the $2.99 to be worth it (and I don’t use gmail for my primary mail). Still, if you’re a heavy iOS gmail user, or love the desktop client, this might be the app for you!

iPhone in Canada has What You Need to Know from today’s Apple iPad event.

So we’re about 20 minutes from the start of the next Apple Keynote where (we all assume) the iPad 3 will be released. Looking through the iPad 3 rumor round-up I can be sure of two things:

• Apple will release something
• People will bitch, complain, and be disappointed

Just like every other Apple announcement.

Speaking of Windows 8, “No Compromises”, Apple and Gruber, here’s 54 minutes of John Gruber at Cingleton 2011. Good video, even if you’re hardcore anti-Apple, to understand why the Apple faithful are the way they are (to some degree) and what offends them about the non-Apple world, and why they love, love, love their Apple products.

Or you could ignore it and just call him a shill, I’m sure he’s heard worse.

Nice look at the required ofr Retina display Macs, iPads, and HiDPI. Goes through what is retina, how close are current hardware models to “retina” display quality, and what’s needed to get there. Most importantly, is it needed?

Seen over on 9 to 5 Mac is the story (and video) where a Mastering engineer proves “Mastered for iTunes” doesn’t ‘sound closer to the CD’.

If you don’t know, Apple launched a “Mastered for iTunes” section where they said the tracks were remastered to sound better than the standard iTunes encoding for their audio. Sadly this is (allegedly) not true. I was hoping that this was more than just a PR and cash grab by Apple, but unless this guys methodology is simply wrong, it seems it is just lip service… His conclusions come in around 9:50 in.

Course, these days 99% of people listen to music on crappy laptop speakers or even crappier earbuds and wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between lossless WAV and a 64bit mp3 anyway.

Apple Issues Invitations for iPad 3 Media Event on March 7, via MacRumors.

Let the in depth analysis begin!

If you’re an Alfred (app launcher for the mac) user, and haven’t bought their “power pack” yet (and you probably have if you’ve tried Alfred as it makes it much more useful) you’ll be happy to see that as a Happy 2nd Birthday to Alfred there’s a 10% discount on the Powerpack this week

Hot on the heels of two big releases, we’re offering a 10% discount on the Powerpack so if you haven’t yet adopted the powerful add-on to Alfred’s free version yet, this is your chance.

Readability for iOS Arrives March 1. Video shows you what to expect.

Ten exciting system changes in Mountain Lion goes into a bit more detail about some of the other behind the scenes changes in the upcoming release of OS X.

So this greated me when I came into work this morning: Apple - OS X Mountain Lion. Innovation comes back to the Mac.. Actually it was a random text message from my buddy PeeJay saying “this is a test from the iMessage desktop app”.

Short version (and I honestly have just seen this stuff) is a lot of “lets sync everything everywhere” coming to the mac. The tweet anywhere/reminders/notes/notifications and game center from iOS on your desktop. Logical next step from what I can see, but still a great improvement.

Other places to find info:

• Daring Fireball
• Download the iMessage for Mac beta
• Looks like the move towards a walled garden](http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/16/apple-releases-public-beta-of-new-messages-app-for-os-x/) is getting closer too :(
• Read more on pretty much any Apple blog anywhere… :)

The iBooks Author 1.01 is out with an updated EULA, clarifying what Apple has and doesn’t have rights over.

The change is an important one though, clarifying that Apple has rights over the format a book is in, not the content. If someone wants to charge a fee for an .ibooks formatted file, that document can only be sold or distributed through Apple, and that work will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple. The restriction does not include works distributed in non-.ibooks formats (such as the Kindle,) as TUAW’s Erica Sadun previously discussed.

Hopefully this’ll clear up any questions about Apple’s intentions.

Launching ahead of their media event today, At their 7am PST media event, Apple Launches iBooks 2 with Interactive Textbooks, also iTunes 10.5.3 to support textbook syncing. Sadly the textbooks are US only, but I presume more will be showing up soon.

Apple is partnering with McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on the textbook front, with the three companies currently responsible for 90% of textbook sales in the United States. McGraw-Hill and Pearson are rolling out a handful of introductory titles today, with more coming soon.

I wonder what's left to announce at the event? Or maybe it's just going to go through the tools in more details....

Oops, completely missed that it was an EST announcement, not a PST one, so when I saw the links at 7am this morning that was after the announcement :)

Fun little video comparing Mac Classic II vs. MacBook Air: which boots faster?

Well, as I predicted, it hasn't been all that long and a Siri Port For the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G has been Released. Not strictly legal as it requires some files from the 4S that aren't publicly available, so we'll see how long before it's taken offline. Until then though, the Cydia store has it up and ready for your jailbroken iDevices.

MacRumors has A Clear Explanation of iTunes Match, as it was just released (US only so far, bah humbug).

Hands-On With the Apple Store EasyPay System over at The Mac Observer. This is the next version of the Apple Store iPhone app (now available in Canada too!) which started as a pretty lame location aware sort of store app, but has now evolved to allow you to complete an entire purchase with only the iPhone app (though I think there must be some sort of monitoring to make sure people don't just go through the motions and walk out with stuff).

Product purchased, we looked around, feeling a little odd about having not worked with an employee, and then walked out of the store. Not a single employee nor the uniformed security door gave us a second look, despite the fact that we were walking out with an $200+ product under our arm.

Seems like now that apple has reduced the number of buttons on a laptop to 0 they can start reducing the need for pesky things like retail employees.

I'm not sure how it's possible, but apparently @Jackoplane has gotten Siri Running Successfully On All iOS 5 Devices, No Jailbreak. Not sure how you'd run it (as a normal app maybe?) and if so does it hook in and integrate the same as Siri on the 4S (no idea how).

Still, I'm excited for this, especially in the "is it restricted to the 4S because of marketing or technical reasons" question.

Update: Jack says you do need to jailbreak to get it to work.

Linked for headline alone:

The Cycle Wherein Apple Creates A Product And People Copy It And Then "Improve" Upon The Design And Then People Ask Apple To Do The Same "Improvements" And Apple Doesn't And Then People Get Mad At Apple And Apple Keeps Making More Money Than Everyone Else

Via Gruber.

So I've now been using iOS5 and the new Lion 10.7.2 update for about a day, and I figure that would give me enough insight to write up a quick little review.

In General

Mostly the same, not so revolutionary and mind bending that you'd notice any differences without looking. Good and bad of course, no one likes massive changes, but we all like something to remind us we're using something new. There are some changes in the UI of course, the on/off/yes/no switches have changed appearance, and there are other subtle tweaks.

The Bad

Sometimes Apple does things that make no sense to me and piss me off. In this release it did two of these things.

1. Split the "iPod" app, which previously played your movies, podcasts, audiobooks, and music all from one convenient location; into two separate apps, "Music", and "Video". I don't use a lot of the video functionality from my iPhone, so the video playing parts of the iPod app were pretty much ignored, but the problem is they have now created another Apple app icon that I can't delete from the phone and have to hide away in some back corner folder like the stocks and calculator apps.


2. The Newsstand app is great for the iPad but honestly the iPhone screen is way too small to properly appreciate the magazines that are offered. However they have created YAAITICDFMI (Yet Another Apple Application Icon That I Can't Delete From My iPhone) and has to be hidden away in the back corner with the Video app, but this app can't be put in a folder. Yes you read that right, the Newsstand application icon cannot be put in a folder on your home screen, unlike every other application icon, Apple created or not.

   I can only guess this is either a) a bug or b) some misguided attempt to give it more visibility (I think that Microsoft calls this "surfacing functionality"). Maybe because if it's in a folder you can't see the pretty magazine icons appearing as your subscription pulls them down? I can only hope that it's "a" - a bug.

   The reason for this I found is that the Newsstand application is a magic folder itself, and as you know iOS doesn't allow you to have a folder in a folder. There is also a workaround if you really don't want to have Newsstand outside of a folder.

   As for the app itself I played around a bit and the "free" magazines I installed all were just the magazine "app", and to get content you had to do in app purchases for $5 for an issue. The New York Times was the exception here, and it had a nice mobile interface. Still, I think this will be much like iBooks and simply not be used by me, until I get an iPad and have a better device for a reading experience of course.
   

For the bad though, that's all I've found so far, and both those problems are currently hidden away on my very last home screen.

The Good

Notifications
Lots of nice little tweaks can be found. Obviously the notifications are awesome. I don't have access to an Android phone, but from what i can tell this brings iPhones dismal state of push notifications into parity with the Android OS, which is great news for iOS users. Androiders mock all you want, this makes us happy, and we're happy that Apple stole from the current best of breed notification system out there. Getting the "slide to go to action" functionality from either your lock screen or the notifications pull down is great and very useful.

The Camera
The Camera from lock screen is also a welcome change, I daresay that this is going to be my favorite new feature as a photographer. The camera app starts more quickly as well it seems, but that could be just the new-install smell. I'll re-visit this in a week or two and see if it's still as good. I don't' do a lot of image editing on the phone, and when I do it's more specific than the new functionality in the Photos app, but that's nice to have for the times you need a quick crop, red-eye, or auto-enhance.

iMessage
This system is a way for you to send free text messages between iOS 5 phones. Like face time, it's baked right into the "Messages" app (where you send your SMSs), no need to open another app, no need to create an account, you just need the newest version of iOS. At first I thought this was going to be one of those "Apple giveth, Apple taketh" apps where you have to send messages to a user at their @me.com account to have it work, but no, SMS your friend at their phone number as normal, and if they have an iPhone that's got iOS5, the message bubble will be blue instead of green and you'll know that the message isn't being added to your SMS limit for your plan (if you're like me and don't have unlimited texts).

Reminders App
The new Reminders app is nice as well. I'm a bit of a slut for productivity / TODO applications, with AppiGo's "Todo" being my current favorite, but I am wanting to give Reminders a shot. It has one feature that is either a great demo or actually amazingly useful, that is the location based reminders.

If you haven't used it, you basically set a reminder like you would in any app, and in addition to a due time, you have a location field and you can set to to remind you when, for example, you leave your current location. This worked great for me in my test with two minor caveats. You can't seem to set the radius that it kicks in at, so when I was reminded down the street when I left my location tonight that might have been too far or too close for you, but that's a bit of the apple way. It might also depend on the resolution and detail of GPS coverage you have as well. Secondly (and this should be obvious) the GPS on your phone will be active until all location based reminders are completed (or else how will it know where you are when you leave). So the idea of having a bunch of these for when you are near the grocery store, home, and the office might not be a good idea depending on battery drain.

The resolution of the GPS might be set purposefully wide as well to reduce the battery drain caused by polling, causing it to not use as much battery and to have a slightly less accurate location reminder "net". Another thing that will become more obvious with testing.

Reminder will sync through iCloud (more on that in a second) with the reminders check boxes in your iCal calendar (at least on OS/X). It nicely separates them into separate lists as well, based on what calendar your reminders are for. I had a bunch that were pre-populated and I had to figure out where they were coming from, I was wondering if maybe Apple was smart enough to pull data right out of Todo! Sadly no. While you get over the air syncing with Reminder for free, the sophistication of the app leaves much to be desired, compared to Todo. However for what it is, it does it's job well and doesn't shut out competition from other apps.

Now if only the other apps would add in the location aware secret sauce!

iCloud on iOS and OS/X
I have had mobile me for a couple of years, only the last year however because I forgot to cancel it. Having it mostly because paying $99 was worth having the over the air sync of contacts and calendar entries between my phone computer and website, as well as the "find my iPhone" feature (of course that was after my iPhone was stolen in 2008).

Since then though things have changed. Find my iPhone is free, and now Mobile Me has converted to iCloud. iCloud is basically mobile me, but now it's baked even more deeply into iTunes, OS/X, iOS and the various apps that use it. Here's a video link to Apple's description of it.

Converting from Mobile Me to iCloud is easy and step by step, just run through it on the website and as long as your OS (phone or computer) is the right version, after a few seconds (you back everything up before you start this of course) you get a notification that everything is upgraded. That easy.

Using it is a bit harder. Not that it's hard to use, I mean; it "just works", but not much really uses it. I'm not a user of Keynote or Pages on mobile so that doesn't really work as a test case, and I know as time goes on more applications will put it to use. Right now though the best example is that I can take a picture with my phone and a couple of minutes later (not quite as instant as they show in the video) it will appear in iPhoto in a Photo Stream album. Of course you have to turn these on in various control panel settings on your computer, iPhone settings, and of course know to go to the 'Photo Stream' source in the left hand side. Still, once it's up and working, it seems to work well.

One downside of the move is that you lose your mobile me gallery, so if you want to access your images from a website, you're out of luck unless you share them off manually through flickr, Dropbox, email, twitter or similar. Hopefully apple will replace this functionality soon.

I'm really looking forward to what will happen with this in the future.

The "Meh" (Or The I Don't Know Enough to do Anything But Guess)

Siri
Honestly no clue, it's not available for the iPhone 4, and since Rogers would charge me an extra $340 (on top of the subsidized cost of the phone), I most likely won't be getting one until my contract is up.

There are a couple of different ways to look at Siri only being on the iPhone 4S.
The pessimist would say it's a shameless money grab by Apple to sell more of the new phone, and quite frankly, I'm sure in part it is. I don't begrudge them for making money though, they are a company whose job is to make money. Other thoughts people have put forward though, one that this is a slow rollout starting with the 4S and later moving to the 4 to see how the load goes on their new data centres. This would be nice to think (as an iPhone 4 user at least). Another idea is that there is something in the iPhone 4S hardware that is required for the Siri processing. Some new voice de-mangling chip, an accent normalizer DSP.... something like that. Again, a possibility, we'll see what happens when the iTearStuffApart guys get a hold of the new hardware.

I think of it a bit like this, if Honda was to replace the whole interior of my 2 year old car with brand new seats, trim, and everything except for the current new fancy Blaupunkt radio (leaving my crappy default version), I'd still be pretty happy.

WiFi Sync
Much as I'd love to be able to say that this feature brings iPhone in parity with what Android has had for ages, I don't think it is. Since no one has given me an Android phone to test for a couple of weeks yet (any googlers want to help me out here?) I don't know exactly how the sync works on it, so I can only tell you how the Apple system works.

My dream for Wifi sync was that when I was on a wifi connection I could hit the sync button and my phone would magically sync my podcasts, any new apps, music, etc though the internet through iCloud.

It almost works like this, except you have to be on the same network as your main "syncing" machine, and plugged in. Being the Apple media model is a single location to sync all your stuff from, this does make sense. Maybe in the future the sync system will utilize iCloud and it will work more like this. Having to be plugged in makes sense as well (for the auto-sync) for battery life, though you can trigger it manually.

Other Updates
Safari, Mail, and various other apps got tweaks and twiddles that add polish to their already great experiences. No doubt others can write about this stuff is far more detail than I can. A few details I did notice:

• Long song or podcasts titles now auto-scroll in the Music app, resolving a huge nitpick I've had for ages where the title would cut off after a certain number of characters and there was basically no way to view the full title of a song or podcast if it was long (as they tend to be).


• Safari now has Reader and Reading List integration, open links in background, and private browsing, and also feels faster (again this could be just the new car smell of a new OS install)


• More fonts, Emoji, multiple routes in the maps app, and much more. Great coverage over on MacStories.net for a nice long list.

Additional resources for iOS5 information can be found at such sites as:

• iOS 5 Review at MacWorld


• iOS 5 iPhone Walkthrough



Apple/Mac , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 09:11 PM

If you're on the internet tonight at all you will see hundreds if not thousands of posts about Steve Jobs and his passing most of them remembering him, thanking him, and honoring him. Even the people who are not "apple people" are saying that he will be missed and had an immense impact on technology and the world in general. Instead of flooding the site with a ton of Steve Jobs posts I figured I'd simply post something from someone who I respect i the tech industry, and who I listen to every week through various podcasts. Here's what Andy Ihnatko has to say about Steve Jobs, and in this case, an Apple store.

[...] Steve Jobs was correctly known as the most productively hands-on CEO in technology or maybe even any other industry. The Apple Stores were a particular obsession. If you walked in and discovered that the table of hard drives had become a table of headphones and the hard drives were now on the third shelf of the first bank of product shelves, it was probably because of something Steve decided earlier in the week.

Steve is dead. But you walk into an Apple Store and you see all the reasons why he was such a phenomenal CEO, and why so many people feel the way I do tonight.
[...]

Sad news coming through the various social networks, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple has passed away. The Remembering Steve Jobs page is up at Apple.com, and I'm sure the next week or two will be online debates as to whether he was hitler or jesus, with no margin for error one way or the other.

Love him or hate him you can't say he didn't impact the computer industry and the world (or at least, you could, and I'm sure people will).

Screw them though, this makes me sad that he's passed on.

My Android friends will be happy to see that Apple Was Denied Trademark for 'Multi-Touch' Due to Lack of 'Distinctiveness'. I have to agree, this is an obvious patent and letting them keep it would open the door up (even moreso I guess) to stupid patents for obvious things. That said, I hope that Apple isn't now bombarded by Samsung and friends for other equally stupid and obvious patents. I love Apple and all, but this suing for patent BS needs to stop from all sides.

Bonus: some interesting image comparisons between Samsung and Apple via this reddit thread.

Apple releases Final Cut Pro free trial, major update.

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, available through the Mac App Store right now, brings Xsan integration for distributed remote collaborative editing; XML support, which will allow project and event info to be imported and exported to external programs; and simplified export of audio, video and graphics with a new "Roles" feature. Other new additions include GPU-accelerated exports and full-screen mode for OS X Lion users, among others.

I'm sure the film geeks will still bitch, but it's nice to see that Apple is listening to it's pro users (or at least seems to be).

Showing I'm not a completely blind apple-fanboy, looks like this is a big oversight from Apple: Lion permissions oversight lets non-admin user to change other account passwords.

"Oops."

Mac people looking to run Windows, Linux, or other Mac OS installs on a mac will be happy to see that VMware Fusion 4 has been released. You can read the press release here.

Highlights include:

• Full OS X Lion support
  
• Performance improvements
  
• UI Improvements for a more "mac" like experience
  

Update: Here's the Team Fusion blog post with more details and pretty screenshots.

Interesting piece over on DF called The New Apple Advantage where shopping for a MacBook Air-like windows computer is looked at. Probably not reading for Apple haters, but interesting nonetheless. I don't agree with everything in there, while I like the idea of choice, the idea of "too much" choice is a pain in the ass (anyone who's gone through the KDE 3.x settings dialogs will see this), but too few choice (ie: the Apple way where you get one computer per "market segment" and only one) is also a PITA. A good read to remind us (the geeks who go out and buy their computers in multiple little brown boxes and put them together on our desks at home) how the other half lives and has to deal with things.

Shrine Of Apple has an interesting goal, even outside the obvious "Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field infected zombie wave of rabid fanboy" application. It's goal is to create awesome archive images of every apple product ever. Currently they don't have everything, but a decent start. If you don't get a twinge of nostalgia from your high school (ish) days at the Disk II images, well, you're probably not around 35 and went to school where they had apple computers with those disk drives.

Joy of Tech has a great funny look at Steve Jobs' Calendar Now He's No Longer CEO.

Ars has their massive Mac OS X 10.7 Lion review up, in case you hadn't heard that Apple released the latest version of their OS this morning. I did the upgrade and it went very boringly, it just worked. Haven't had a chance to dig in too far yet, but I'm sure if you care enough about this stuff you'll be prepared to see what may or may not work for you by the time you're at the upgrade point.

Macheads rejoice, you can give Mr. Jobs more money tomorrow as Mac OS X Lion launches July 20.

Apple's put out a New iCloud FAQ enumerating what will be in the new iCloud vs mobile me services and what won't. Short answer is almost everything that you want, and iDisk and iWeb won't be, but not many people will care about those (IMHO).

Sorry folks, busy day at work today, so not much posted. If you're not aware, Apple's big WWDC show was this morning, and Macenstein has a wrap up of WWDC 2011: The Good The Bad, and the Meh.

The Apple press release leaves nothing much to the imagination about what's coming up next Monday:

CUPERTINO, California--May 31, 2011--Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple's advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering.

Ars Technica has a nice wrapup of a decade of Mac OS X reviews, complete with all the hits and misses.

Nifty new ad campaign from Microsoft where Microsoft wants buyers to 'do the math' and select a netbook over a MacBook Air.

[...]you'll see Microsoft's pairing of the 11" MacBook Air with three US$300-ish netbooks. While the price comparison is stark, the fact is that these netbooks are not even close to the MacBook Air where it counts, and to put them in the same category is silly at best and deliberately deceptive at worst.

As someone who was at an Apple store recently fondling lovingly checking out a MacBook air with a friend, the comparison of a MacBook air to a netbook is stupid. Of course, this is a company's ad campaign trying consumers to buy their products over someone else's products, so just like Apple will emphasize quality and user experience over HP/Dell/MS/etc, this isn't shocking. It's definitely interesting to see what's included and what's left out of all these ad campaigns, regardless of what "side" you're on.

Who didn't see this lawsuit coming? The whole debacle has hit the point where the lawyers have been called in. *sigh*

So here are my thoughts...

1. This isn't a big deal




• The file is only available on your computer or your phone, and if someone with nefarious intent has access to either, you're boned already


• The file isn't sent to Apple, but kept on your computer and iPhone only
  
• This is also covered (from what I hear) in the terms of service (which no one reads)




2. However, Apple should truncate or encrypt the file




• You can fix this by setting the "encrypt backup" to prevent it from being available on your computer


• I believe that Android does this as well, but their file is truncated to the last week or day or last few entries instead of all locations.




3. You can turn it all off at the expense of usability




• This data exists so that when you run an application that uses GPS it doesn't take 2 minutes (or more) to sync up with the satellites, and acts as a "fast-forward" to having an idea where you are.
  
• You can remove these capabilities completely by turning off the "location services", but then of course you don't get any location based information.




4. Sadly there's a give and take. We want to quickly 4Square, geotag our images, and see who's nearby, but to get this we have to have that information stored somewhere for our little mini-computer that we carry around in our pocket.

Personally I don't think that anyone has been hurt so badly by this that they desire money (though abusive spouses snooping on where you've been is something that is not a pretty thought), and that in the end I'm sure the only people who are going to come out ahead in this lawsuit are the lawyers, as usual.

MacAppStorm has the In-Depth Showdown of 5 of the Best Twitter Apps for Mac.

Xcode 4: the super mega awesome review:

diting: Xcode gets brains There have been many criticisms of Xcode, especially from those coming from other platforms. "The UI sucks", "the key bindings are different", "it doesn't give me a blow job upon a successful build". Most of them are silly complaints that boil down to either a) Xcode is different, or b) an inability to check if a preference exists. However, there are lots of valid criticisms about Xcode, especially with regards to code completion, refactoring and other similar features. All these ones boil down to a very simple fact: Xcode doesn't really know much about your code. Thankfully Xcode 4 is more than just a pretty face, it also has brains.

Also, screw you Apple for not allowing free account apple devs to download the new version and selling it for $5 in the app store, that's just lame :(

The Apple-heads will already know that iOS 4.3 was released today (why 2 days early? who knows), and if you're interested in what's changed, you'll want to check out the iOS 4.3 walkthrough.

Yes, there's some sort of Apple thing today, if you want to look at the liveblogs like a nutcase you know where to go, if you don't but are interested you'll probably not be able to avoid the news and/or rabid fanboys at your place of work, if you don't care, well, I haven't put any links or extra details here for you to get annoyed at :)

Sorry non-mac people, but I found more details of what's new in Lion, in video form. Some nice stuff there, not hugely different, but some bold changes nontheless.

Odd that something with a fair number of new things (outside of the CPU speed bump) was released fairly quietly. If you're a fanboy, hit the Apple MacBook Pro page for details on what's new. If not, continue to mutter about crazy people paying 4x what you can get the same hardware for from HP or Dell.

Cool to see that the latest Untethered Jailbreak For iOS 4.2.1 is out, and iPhoneInCanada has step-by-step instructions on how to use it. Note that this won't carrier unlock your phone, just jailbreak it so you can install non-apple sanctioned apps and utilities on it.

Well named site with lots of good things that Mac users might just not know yet.

If you have any care about the Apple and Mac world you'll know that Mac OS X 10.6.6 with the new software app store has been released. I only had a few minutes this morning to play with it, and the only change I could see in the OS was the addition of the app store. The app store itself is very iOS and iTunes like, the only thing I don't know if I like is that when an app is downloaded it's automatically put in your dock, which may or may not be what you want. Course, you also know where the app is and can move it to where you want it from there.

9-5 Mac also noted a huge bonus that you can get apple's Aperture photo editing and management software for only $80. I'm a Lightroom fanboy, but that much of a discount makes me say "maybe it'd be worth it if only to keep from having to try to find ways to get around the 30 day trial limitation!

If you are lucky enough to be one of the people to get one, you'll be happy to know that you can Install Mac OS X on a Cr-48 Chrome notebook. Not sure what the performance is like though, I've seen OS/X on a netbook and I must say that with less than 2G of ram, the Mac OS is not a happy camper. Course, you're getting a Mac(ish) notebook for a very small cost (well, if you got it free from Google you get it... well, free!).

Cool article on how to Install Mac OS X on any Intel-based PC using iBoot and Multi-Beast. Very cool if it works, though I just finished recovering my own computer from trying to upgrade the OS on it, so I don't think I really want to go mucking with it now that it's working :)

Interesting article on why Computertworld things thatApple will steal the shows at CES 2011.... even though they aren't going to be there.

All those Mac-using Windows journalists will be running for a CES hotspot to get their 'first looks' and passive aggressive criticisms filed. Meanwhile the Apple-holics will be gushing, hopefully over apps with a little more about them than this one, but you'd have to be blind, dumb or stupid not to be able to see the reality-creating Apple hype machine rolling into action.

Hot on the heels of the Evernote 4.0 for windows release, there's a great Evernote Beta for Mac. You have to check the 'update to beta versions' in the preferences to get it, but I have to say it's a nice upgrade.

Perks include a new easy to use management of shared folders, stacking notebooks for better organization, and other UI tweaks especially in the left hand panel. Note that this is a beta so if you're really worried about your data, read the warnings and take heed, and maybe wait for the official public release. I had no issues with the upgrade for my 614 notes however.

Other than the two different versions at different prices ($0.99 for the normal version and $1.99 for the HD version with high res graphics for iPhone 4 and iPad devices), I'm happy to hear that id Software's 'RAGE' is out for iOS, combining three things I love, iPhone gaming, awesome graphics, and First Person Shooters.

For anyone who was waiting for this, it's out. Fanboy as I am though, absolutely nothing in the list of changes excites me in the least. It's a minor-minor point release with bug fixes. Meh.

Sophos offers Free Anti-Virus Home Edition for Mac. Some would say that this isn't needed, or to quote one blog, is "giving away free bicycles to fish", but hey, it's free, and if you are a mac user and do occasionally poke your head in corners of the net requiring you to run software you would rather not, but still "have" to, this is a nice little backup for you to warez run them with confidence.

Leave it to the apple geeks to completely zapruder a screenshot. Case in point, some interesting analysis from the few shots we saw of OS/X "Lion" at the last apple event.

Sounds like once again Apple will Offer a Live Video Stream of Today's Media Event. Sounds like it'll be Apple devices only (iOS and OS/X) to view it though :( There'll be live blogging of everything again I'm sure.

If you're an Apple person who refers to days like this as "Jobsmas" you know where to go to find out what's expected, where to find it, etc.

Update: Here's a list of sites to keep an eye on in case you don't know where to go :)

TUAW has rumors of what's coming for Mac OS 10.7 at tomorrow's big Apple event.

The people who have been waiting and waiting for Apple to get their faces out of this silly mobile stuff and update the OS, iLife, etc will be happy to hear that there is a "Back to the Mac" Event Oct. 20. The logo can't really be interpreted as anything other than an introduction of OS/X 10.7 "Lion" (but who really knows). Be interesting to see what happens next week.

Engadget's review of the new Apple TV.

Thanks Aryk for the link to this Gizmodo Ultimate Tablet Showdown, comparing the specs of iPad vs. PlayBook vs. Galaxy Tab vs. Slate.

Two points:

• The iPad appears to be last in all but the most important categories (IMHO), price, battery life, and applications. -- me
  
• "it's the only thing that actually exists in real life :)" -- Aryk
  

The latter point will go away (in theory) in time, but the former is fairly normal for Apple... the iPod's list of features is going to come in pretty much last compared to any other mp3 player, yet it dominates, even without expandable memory, an FM tuner, OGG playback, etc. I don't think the iPad will "lose" because of this though. On that note, Apple, you guys still haven't contacted me to send me a review unit.... time to get on that mmmkay? :)

The guys at Panic have been working on helping out on a project called Einstein, the Newton OS emulator for iPhone and iPad. Looking forward to the release :)

Jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch users who are worried about upgrading their version of iOS, fear not! SOunds like an iOS 4.1 Jailbreak Tool is Coming Soon.

Ars Technica reviews iTunes 10.

Macrumors has a good list of Requirements and Workarounds for the live Apple event that's happening today at 10. As you (as an apple fanboy) probably already know, this is the first time in ages that Apple has provided a live stream of a keynote, potentially putting an end to a fair chunk of the "live blogging" done by such sites as Engadget, GDGT, Gizmodo, etc. This isn't (yet) a crushing blow for it though because a) you can't scroll back a video to see what you've missed (well, you can, but not as easily as scrolling up a webpage to catch the highlights) and b) currently it's only streaming to apple devices (safari on OS/X and iOS devices).

Short story is there's not a simple hack like changing your browser ID string because the stream is using a technology called "live http streaming", which is a "standard" in that it's a standard, but only implemented so far in OS/X and iOS devices. So the live bloggers have another keynote at least.

• MacRumors Live
  
• Live.Gizmodo
  
• Engadget
  
• GDGT
  

Update: The workaround of using VLC seems to work nicely, just 'open network location' and paste in the URL. Right now the test URL is

http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/gear1/prog_index.m3u8

You'll have to find the "real" URL for the keynote is though, probably on MacRumors or similar. I'll update here with the real URL when I find it.

Update: Here's a rebroadcast on ustream as well as a possible stream (doesn't work for me in VLC though). Best of luck to you guys though...

It's been a long time coming, but maybe now the "Apple doesn't care about the desktop" criers can quiet down. On the menu today:

• 27-Inch LED Cinema Display updated with the latest bells and whistles. $999 is pretty steep, but 2560x1440 would be nice, especially if you're a professional photographer or the like, or have a 27" iMac that you need a second screen for.
  
• Mac Pro with options for up to 12 cores and SSD drives. Nice, but you (of course) pay a premium price. Hyperthreading in the new processors means you get 24 virtual cores presented to the OS. Wow.
  
• Upgraded iMacs with new processors (up to 2.93Ghz i7) and new video options.
  
• Magic Trackpad to let you have the iPhone/Touch multi-scrolling/swiping experience on your desktop computer. As an iPhone user I see the want for this (as lots of the time I want to just "swipe" on my desktop), but I'm not sure how well it'll sell. Pretty sure it'll show up as a standard feature or attached to the keyboard in the next version.
  
  Apple/Mac - Posted by Arcterex at 08:40 AM

You know things have gotten to a fever pitch when you have to have a Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4. Also, because he's awesome, John Gruber has translated it from PR speak.

Pretty amazing iPhone 4 knockoff. Wish the video had more of the "OS" that it is using. Probably a skinned WINCE 6.x like the others.

Lifehacker asks How Does the Newly Released uTorrent for Mac Compare to Transmission?

Nice comparision, and some tips for features you may not have seen in one client or the other yet.

Wired has a nice list of 10 Stellar iPad Apps That Will Blow You Away, shared out by my buddy @introdus who insists on taunting me with great looking apps for a device I don't have :)

This article is one of those "one ad-filled page per app" things, which begs for the new Safari "reader" feature which strips ads and combines these stupid multi-page articles into one clean page.

It's slow going, but as Valve Releases 'Counter-Strike: Source' for Mac OS X the offerings on Steam for Mac are starting to fill out.

If you're out there and are subscribed to Apple's Mobile Me, you'll be happy to see that The New MobileMe Mail is Now Available to All Members, and there are some new features, including a nice new look. Oh, and you can now (finally) get the 'find my iphone' functionality in an iPhone or iPad app.

Personally there are two reasons I subscribe to it, outside forgetting to cancel after my 90 day trial period expired.

1. Seamless address book and calendar syncing (though I understand that I can do this through google sync as well)
   
2. Find my iPhone (which of course came out just after my first iPhone was stolen
   

Safari Extensions is a Tumblog for extensions for the newly released Safari 5 (which now supports extensions).

As a bonus, I found from this reddit story that the shortcut key to 'undo close tab' is cmd-z. Technically this makes sense (ctrl-z being undo) but the other two major browsers (chrome and firefox) use ctrl-shift-t to do this, so it would have been nice. Also it doesn't seem to undo multiple tab closes, which would be nice as well.

Nice writeup on The Good The Bad, and the Meh at WWDC from Macenstein.

Apple pretty much announces the Mac platform is dead. Well, Apple didn't so much come out and announce this as they didn't come out and announce ANYTHING that didn't have to do with their handheld devices. Oh well. At this point Mac developers are used to being treated as second class citizens.

Pretty much my thoughts, though I have to say I'm impressed with the "reader" feature in Safari 5 (think a sexy built in version of the Readability bookmarklet). Too bad the browser doesn't hold up to Chrome and Firefox (IMHO).

First there was a press release, then it was pulled, then there was speculation, but now if you run software update you'll get Apple's Safari 5. BTW Apple, you forgot to change the "title" attribute on the Safari 5 page, it still says "introducing safari 4". Wonder if they put it up faster than intended due to the leak / early release of the press release. Actually looking at it it looks like most/all the text, other than the 'Safari 5' header is for the old Safari 4 version. The web is too real time for them to handle!

MacRumors has their iPhone 4 Hands-On Reviews and First Impressions. Nice to hear that some of the claims by Apple aren't just hyperbole.

• As we said, it's shockingly thin.
• The screen is truly outrageous -- you basically cannot see pixels on it. We're not being hyperbolic when we say it's easily the best looking mobile phone screen we've ever laid eyes on.
• The build quality is really solid. The home button feels much snappier, and on the whole it just feel like a tightly-packed device, but it's not heavy.
• The side buttons are really nice and clicky.
• iOS 4 is very familiar -- there's not a lot added to fit and finish.

For those of you keeping track, here's The official WWDC 2010 Bingo card.

Seems that some people were there 12 Hours Before the Event. Wow. On the other hand, those of us not lucky enough to be there will have to rely on the live blogs. I'll update this post as I find them, but for now you probably want to get

• Macworld live coverage
  
• Ars has some too
  
• MacRumors Live
  
• Engadget's live blog
  
• Gizmodo's liveblog
  
• Coolest so far is the 9-5mac Livepanel that shows you everything.
  
• Appstorm is also up.
  
• Andy I has has his own liveblogging script
  
• Leo and the TWiT guys have a live chat going on in video (not of the conference sadly)
  

The Apple Blog has their WWDC 2010 Predictions. Pretty much all as expected, but you never know, something could shake it all up. I'm just wanting to see the new iPhone so I can upgrade my 3G, which is feeling a bit clunkier every day....

Thanks to PeeJay for the link to the Video Clips of Last Night's D8 Interview With Steve Jobs. If you're wanting more in depth discussion as well, check out this week's MacBreak Weekly podcast.

Update: Collected all on one page.

TUAW has their list of 7 anti-Apple cliches that need to die, and (with shorter details) a few anti-Microsoft cliches that are good as dead as well.

I didn't realize until today when Aryk pointed me to this article: iTunes Gift Cards now Canadapatible for purchasing apps in Great White North that the fact you couldn't purchase apps with iTunes credits was just restricted to Canada (or at least non-US)... I figured it was a limitation of the whole system. Turns out not, and that's good news, cause I still have $8 sitting from a gift card from years ago just itching to be used on the latest and greatest apps!

Check out the story or the great Mac Half Life 2 '1984' teaser video on youtube. Looking forward to this too, and as the rest of the games on Steam start rolling out their Mac versions.

Peejay threw me over this great Apple Keynote Bloopers video with the comment "Lotta people died for that video".

All said, that's not bad for 10 years of doing live demos in keynotes, and The Steve is pretty good at shaking it off or making a joke about it. Some good stuff in there though.

Gruber links over to the question of Should Adobe Ship a Jailbreak iPhone Version of Flash Player? and my answer would be "yes", with the reasoning behind that being that it will either prove Apple very right or very wrong, as there are really only two scenarios:

• It will crash and burn horribly, as the Android flash demo which crashed repeatedly, or the battery life of the flash-enabled tablet. Apple will be all "ha, we told you we were right" and people will go "oh, maybe flash isn't something we need on our portable devices"
  
• Adobe will pull a rabbit out of a hat and you get some magical framework that doesn't drain your battery or burn your leg when it runs, and your wife/gf/bf/husband can now play their clicky games. Apple would then say "that's all good, but we already have HTML5 that does all that already, what about mouseovers huh!?" and people will continue to bitch about Apple while continuing to buy the product and/or jailbreak (or on a long shot, move towards Android/etc and force Apple to innovate more/better.
  

MacAppStorm has the list of The Ultimate List of 50 Free Mac Games, proving that the Mac can compete on the gaming front. Uhm... yea.... Still, there are a few gems in there, and hey, the price is right right?

If you're wondering if you should buy the low end iMac and replace the drive, or are a bit nervous about doing it yourself and figure the extra money for the larger drive is worth it, this How-To on Replacing Your iMac's Hard Drive might help you make a decision.

If you're into blogging and Macs, you probably know about MarsEdit, and if you're into MarsEdit, you'll probably want to know that MarsEdit 3 has been released. Hit up the press release with the details.

The beta of Steam for Mac has been set for May 12. Love the imagery they've gotten in the gallery :)

Fairly unprecedented almost unprecedented for Steve Jobs to so publicly speak, and his Thoughts on Flash are well worth the read.

Panic software has just released Transmit 4.0, an upgrade to the staple of FTP/File transfer apps for the Mac. It supposes ftp, sftp, amazon s3, webdav and more, plus all sorts of speed increases and sexy UI tweaks. Be sure you read through the (very nice and ajaxy) webpage, but don't miss the "one more thing" at the bottom which might just push me over the edge to buy this right now.

A redditer has posted a video of his app which Wirelessly syncs your iPhone with iTunes. This would be awesome to have, and according to the author it doesn't violate any of the rules, uses only legit APIs. Guess we'll see if a) it appears in OS 4.0 or b) it's rejected for duplicating functionality. Hopefully it appears somewhere, cause I'd really like to have this functionality :)

Next time you or someone around you asks "why the heck would you develop for a company like Apple that does all these evil things to it's developers", you probably want to check out this estimate that the Top 1000 iPad apps make $372k a day. That's 372,000 potential reasons a day that a developer would accept whatever rules and restrictions Apple puts on them to break into that top 1000. I'm going to guess that the top 2000 apps are making decent money as well.

If you're ok with whoring yourself out for free stuff, you can do so and get a free copy of WebSave from sandwichlab.

The fanboys will be happy to know that the MacBook Pros were finally given the i5/i7 upgrades that have been rumored for the last six months. AppleInsider has the release story and the look inside with the details. Short story is upgraded processors, graphics, batteries, display size, hard drive (if you feel like shelling out $1300+ for the 512G SSD option) and a new trackpad that has the same inertial scrolling as you're used to on your iPhone.

In case anyone is feeling generous, my uber-dream machine (with SSD HD) is $4193 CND, and my "I'd be perfectly happy with that upgrade" machine is a (mere) $2460 CND (or $2880 with 8G of RAM, which probably would be better assuming I didn't just go aftermarket for the RAM).

The Steam on Mac - Beta Application is now open. Note you will need to do this from your mac so you can send along the 'about this mac' information.

Moving up in computer size, we go from smartphones to netbooks, with a link to The definitive Netbook Hackintosh guide, which lists what parts of what netbooks will work if you want to turn a netbook into a hackintosh running Mac software.

Seems that Opera Mini has been submitted to the App Store. Now to see if/when it shows up on the other side. Google voice is in a perpetual state of not-rejected-not-accepted, while other app updates have been coming through in 24-48 hours. Guess we'll see if Opera Mini violates the "no duplication of iphone app functionality" clause. Assuming we need another browser on the iPhone that is. Not that Mobile Safari is the be-all and end-all, but do we need 2 (or 4, or 100) mobile browsers for the iPhone?

That said, looking at the video on the page, the UI is pretty nice, and if you don't mind sending all your data through the Opera caching servers, the speed does look dramatically better. Ok, I'm sold, gimme Opera Mini!!

You can keep up with how long it's been with the Countup page.

No, not shameless promotion, but if you picked up the latest MacHeist you got CoverScout, and you might be a bit of a dummy (like me) and need a good tutorial on how to Tidy Up Your Album Artwork. Like that by default it only looks in your ~/Music directory instead of where your music might actually be stored (like say, having it on a NAS drive, like me). I thought it was working way too fast...

Good stuff on the AppStorm website for putting up the tutorial. Now to wait for 33,000+ songs to get indexed.

MacNN has some details of a couple of teasers indicating that Valve confirms intends to produce games for mac. Namely, an image with Gordon Freeman with a Mac logo on his chest is a pretty good indication :)

Thanks to my Coworker Randy for pointing out that through MacHeist that Squeeze for mac is free today. Hit the MacHeist page to generate a key. You'll of course have to sign up for MacHeist and give them your name and email....

Apparently yesterday Apple sold it's 10 billionth iTunes download.

As speculated earlier today, Apple did in fact manage to sell their 10 billionth iTunes download. This represents a huge milestone for both Apple and the music industry. Apple has revolutionized the music industry with the iPod and iTunes.

Yea, I'm thinking maybe this digital music thing might take off after all...

So looking through the What's new in Aperture 3 page, it looks like some people's dreams will come true, with "Faces" and "Places" from iPhoto appearing, brushes for retouching (echoing the local adjustment brushes from Lightroom), presets (they didn't have those before?), and what looks like a gorgeous full scren browser for browsing and viewing. Rounding out the major features is new slideshows with advanced affects, ability to combine video and audio with your photos, etc (sounds like they mixed in some Final Cut/iMovie in there as well).

All I can say is I kinda wish I a) wasn't already invested in Lightroom (come on Adobe, bring us Lightroom 3!!!) and that my main and most powerful computer wasn't a windows machine.

TUAW notes that iTunes 9.0.3 was released, and hopefully based on the release notes, it'll fix the current bug I have where podcasts aren't properly synced to the iPhone if you manage them by hand.

Apple has produced (finally) the Apple iPad. Short story, a big iPhone with no camera, a wifi + optional 3G, a book store and a new suite of office suite apps, compatible with current iPhone apps.

In a way I'm a bit disappointed that all the "it can't just be a big iPhone" talk wasn't true, and that the system looks and acts like a bit iPhone instead of a small computer with an iPhone-like UI. IE: no video conferencing, no multi-tasking, and most of the other limitations of the iPhone OS.

That said, they basically killed a big chunk of the Amazon kindle market with the "iBooks". If I can transfer my PDF eBooks to it and view in full color, with zooming and panning and page flipping? Awesome. The non-active screen on the kindle will keep some of the more "high end" readers who appreciate the lack of eyestrain, but I'd be willing to bet that most of the good parts of the kindle (with the Apple Book store and it's power) plus all the awesomeness of the iPhone and it's apps will make a compelling argument.

Other stats:

• Low end price (16G storage, wifi only) $499 (great low price)
  
• High end (64G + 3G) $829 (expected it to be that high to begin with)
  
• Available in 60 days (both US and internationally)
  
• International 3G by June
  
• 3G service from AT&T in the US, in two tiers (250mb and unlimited)
  

The product page has more, plus a video. Personally I'm vaguely excited, it looks beautiful and comes with a great Reality Distortion Field, and some of the potential (my own collected eBooks, videos, etc) I can completely see. But replacing my laptop and all it can do with this isn't going to save much weight or space in the backpack I take to work all day. I still want one though :)

Hands on from Gizmodo.

Dude over at reddit is putting together a Mac tips ebook and submitted a draft for comments. Some nice tips in there for new switchers and old.

Nice list of 16 useful Mac cheat Sheets @smashingtips.

Thanks to Peejay for pointing me to the Engadget story where it's finally official.... IApple holding January 27th event to show off its 'latest creation'. So now the blogosphere will explode with more speculation, instead of exploding if Apple didn't have an announcement.

Of course the "Latest Creation" part indicates that this is probably not an iPhone OS 4.0 announcement or a new iTunes (though both of those I'd appreciate as well).

Best comment for the Engadget story IMHO is by DirtyVegas:

1) Expensive or not, it will look super cool and sell like hotcakes
2) We can stop with dumb tablet rumors and look forward to 2nd gen tablet rumors.

Update: The nuts over at TUAW have already started Zaprudering the Invite.

Microsoft's Slate: Exactly Unlike Apple's Upcoming Tablet :

And I guarantee you will not see a single control element (button, tab, scrollbar and the like) migrate, intact and unchanged, from desktop OS X to tablet OS. Apple knows not to make that mistake. Microsoft does not; it's loading Windows 7 -- unmodified UI et al -- onto its tablet. But this time there's not even a stylus to help you. You gotta use your pinkies. The result -- an awkward, practically unusable UI.

Ballmer very handily (pun intended) demonstrated this by fumbling about with the thing. His fingers weren't particularly good at hitting the UI controls on the 7-inch screen that, due to its very form factor, rendered Windows controls as little more than diminutive dots.

Yes it's a slanted source, of course they have better hops for the (rumored) Apple tablet. However, they do key onto a few details about some of the different design philosophies of the two companies. For example. compare the start menu based, stylus using windows mobile to a completely new iPhone OS (at least different from standard desktop computing for the most part).

A bit sad in a way, especially considering the awesome looking (rumored) Courier tablet that we heard about a while back as the (rumored) tablet from MS.

Again, lets not forget about the (rumored) table being (rumored) to be announced at the (rumored) media event on the (rumored) date of Jan 26 or 27. :)

I'm sorry, but this is getting ridiculous at this point.... so the rumored Apple tablet/reader/slate has a rumored media event who is now rumored to have it's rumored date changed to Wednesday, Jan. 27. Take that for what it's worth. Seriously, I'm excited about new Apple products as much as the next guy, but the amount of photoshopped tablets, rumored specs, fake video, and naval gazing from the Apple fanboys ever since the iPhone has got to be a record of some sort. For something that there is zero released information about it's got events, date changes, specs, and changing uses and form factors.

This is why Apple stock always takes a dive after a product release, people work themselves into such a lather about what could be happening and what they hope will happen that even if Apple upgrades an entire product line and introduces new products with new capabilities they still are disappointed after. If there is a tablet released there's no way it'll live up to the expectations and everyone will a) buy one and b) moan and whine about how it doesn't have a front facing camera, display full PDFs in color, or link directly into their mind (like the combined information about the increased shipments of chips from [random company in random country] and new plugs being developed by [other random company] obviously pointed to in the leaked PDF on a Taiwanese media board before it was taken down for no reason but we know it was by Apple lawyers of course).

And we of course will still continue to hang on every word :)

Gruber gives us some end-of-the-year tidbits about the (still mythical and rumored) Apple Tablet.

The interwebs are abuz with the Apple Special Media Event Scheduled for January 26th. Tablet time? Complete rumor? iPhone version 4?

So after allegations of fake reviews and various other slimey-feeling activities, app maker Molinker as expelled from the AppStore.

There's nothing wrong here I don't think, the app maker was doing slimey things, they were called on it, Apple was notified, and they were removed. Good on Apple for responding appropriately (IMHO).

I didn't know what to expect when I started the video called OS Xbox Pro is the hottest hackintosh ever, but after I have to admit that it made me feel kinda funny in my you know, hardware and apple places.

The Mac based password form saver/filling known as 1Password has released 1Password 3.0. If you own it already it should be a free upgrade (depending on when you purchased it of course). They are also have put their 1Password Pro iPhone app (link goes to iTunes store) on for the low low price of free.

I'm of two minds about this story about Steve Jobs' Personal, Terse Reply to an Apple Developer. On one hand, big companies that create an eco-system around themselves of small developers creating great software, and then slapping them down for legal stuff, pisses me right off. Remember the debacle a few years ago with Mike Rowe vs. Microsoft? See it here if you don't.

On the other hand, Jobs' reply (which is both awesome and horrible IMHO), is true, and looking at the product page, it looks like his suggestion has already been done, and other than a no doubt feverish night rebuilding software and resource strings, no harm no foul. Still a crappy thing to do to a small company though.

You have to love the hacking/modding community. Seems they have a Workaround to Restores Mac OS X 10.6.2 Compatibility With Intel Atom Processors to get the functionality back that was removed in the last update.

Similar to MacHeist, The Mac Sale is giving you a bunch of mac apps for one low low price.

Speaking of MacHeist, I see that they didn't make their 500,000 users to unlock the last app, Mariner Write. Sad, but honestly the set of apps in their NanoBundle weren't all that impressive (IMHO).

Run a netbook hackintosh? Upgrade to the latest OS 10.6.2? Did you get it right in the jibbly bits from Apple and their removal of Atom processor support? If so, you'll be happy to know that a Fix for Netbook Hackintoshes is in the Works, and a Temporary Fix is Already Available.

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.2, fixing the guest account bug as well as as a bunch of other issues and fixes. Wonder if the "four finger swipe gesture" issue is the oddness I've found with expose.

The MacHeist nanoBundle is in the process of a live announcement. The following apps are part of this years MacHeist:

• Shovebox
  
• WriteRoom
  
• Twitteriffic
  
• TinyGrab
  
• Hords of Orcs
  
• MarinerWrite
  

Sadly I must say that other than the cool live announcement, the software is fairly "meh" to me, as I either have no use for the software or already use something equal or better.

A very special day as VMware ships Fusion 3.0, many performance and integration improvements, the most interesting are some Windows 7 updates that allow Aero effects. Looking forward to trying this one out.

A good look at how to run Windows 7 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard at no additional cost for those folks wanting to flirt back with a reverse switch :)

Remember that Droid teaser that came out the other day with the bunch of "iDon't" things that the iPhone doesn't do? If not, here it is. Anyway, someone has a very cool response video worth watching: iDon't Care.

The Apple Store is back, and the following things are up and on the main Apple site:

• New iMac with bumped specs and all sorts of goodies like SD, 16:10 screen ratio, new faster video, and more.
  
• Mini with bumped specs and comes in a server version.
  
• New buttonless (again with the button-hate Steve!) and multi-touch Magic Mouse, which is actually fairly attractive after using a trackpad for so long.
  
• The white MacBook has gained a unibody, 7 hour battery, and bumps all around. And it's still $999 US, which makes it a very attractive machine. Still pricey compared to the $300 machines you can get at Best Buy, but if you look at the specs and quality compared to them....
  

Interesting timing too, two days before the Windows 7 release.

Great song lyrics: Apple Store is down, apologies to Julie Andrews over at TUAW. Store is actually still down, so who knows what treats we'll get when it comes back up. Rumors are rampant though, from new Mighty Mouse to new iMacs, Mac Minis and a magical multi-touch trackpad.

Or maybe it's just maintenance.

Update: 9-5 Mac reports new everythings, but I don't see them yet... Store is still down. 9-5 Mac is down currently, here's the page from my RSS:

Apple updates iMacs, Minis, MacBooks, Keyboards, Mice, Airports, kitchen sink
by Seth Weintraub
After a harrowing Apple Store outage today, Apple today updated a great deal of its consumer line of products.

As anticipated by many, the iMac line got updated with a new low cost 21.5 inch HD model. Utilizing a new 1920x1080 16:9 aspect ratio screen, the new iMac replaces the previous 20 inch models.

Mac Minis got a mild refresh updating processor speeds mildly while getting a new 1TB version.

9 to 5 Mac posted this story: Apple's Phil Schiller: 'Win 7 upgrade hassle - why not just buy a Mac?' and I couldn't help but comment. First of all, I'm coming to realize that I'm an Apple Fanboy (the first step is admitting it) but I think I'm also a realist. First of all, a couple of points that I'm sure people have already made about the article:

• The steps listed for a Windows upgrade are pretty much exactly the same for a Mac upgrade. The only caveat is that you can only upgrade from certain versions of Windows to certain versions of Windows 7, whereas there is only one OS/X version so you don't have to deal with "can I upgrade from Home Premium to Business or from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium". However, either OS if you're doing a fresh upgrade (re-installing the OS on a freshly formatted hard drive) you still have to back up, format, reinstall, and restore your personal data.
  
• The people who upgrade their computers from XP/Vista to Windows 7 aren't "average". The average person will get Windows 7 when they get a new PC. These are probably the more common case than Apple users who upgrade from Tiger/Leopard by buying a new Mac.
  
• "... those friendly staff at the Apple Store will swap all your personal files across for you.". Technically this is probably true, however when you have to schedule time a week in advance to have someone look at a broken iPhone headphone jack, I can only imagine the waiting period for someone who is bringing in a full PC setup and a Mac setup to move files across. I know I wouldn't have the patience :)
  

The Google Quick Search box, which as an aside I didn't realize had an update in August (it doesn't have an auto update or check for update capacity), got a nice tutorial with lots of good tips and tricks.

If you don't know, the GQSB is a free quicksilver / launchy / launchbar type application launcher and magic do-everything app for the Mac. The article is a nice intro to GQSB and a good introduction to what these type of launchers can do for those who think that there's no point in these where the win7/vista start menu or spotlight in the mac can find your applications quickly.

I haven't seen much confirmation of this, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't point to a story where <screaming alarm voice>a Major bug in Snow Leopard deletes all user data</screaming alarm voice>. It appears to be centered around the guest account, and logging into it, then back into your account deletes all your data (if it's true, Steve Jobs deserves a spanking, cause that's bad), but might also have to do with the way you upgraded to Snow Leopard, upgrade vs fresh install or something. Read the article and watch for news about this, and maybe stop using the guest account until this is all worked out. And maybe switch back to a PC for a bit too....

The Apple Blog has some details of VMware Fusion 3, expected at the end of this month.

iTunes 9.0.1 looks like the random crashing and becoming unresponsive bugs are fixed (yay).

Finer Things in Mac is a cool (though sometimes overly fanboy-ish) collection of some of the little things in the OS/X system that makes it a joy to work in (most of the time).

The Apple Blog notes that in iTunes 9 Smart Playlists Are Now Smarter , in particular, you can now mix and match the ALL and ANY match operators, so you can say that I want all 4+ rated songs from any of these x,y,z artists. Previously you could only apply either the AND or the ANY operator to smart playlist rules, and you had to hack things (ie: create a separate playlist of your ANY artists and then another one that uses the source as that playlist, and then apply the ALL rule). Or something like that. Look at the screenshot and you'll be happy if you've made a lot of iTunes smart playlists :)

Sounds like the iPhone OS 3.1 Update is Causing Crashes On iPhone 3G's so sayeth the Apple Blog. I've noticed mine has gotten a bit less stable, and my iTunes 9 has gotten really bad, as well as I've been hit by this bug, which seems restricted to only Canadian accounts.

Hopefully Apple will release a couple of updates to get things back to the stability of iPhone OS 3.0 and iTunes 8.x.

Some cool Q&A with Steve Jobs after the Apple event, where he clarifies some of the decisions made for products (ie: why no camera on the Touch).

So it's all over and it was.... pretty good, but not spectacular. Ars has a nice wrapup. Basically nothing really new, like a tablet, but:

• New iTunes 9 with enhanced cover-art, sharing, new genius stuff, and app organization, and updated store, available today
  
• New iPhone OS 3.1, available today.
  
• New 64G iPod Touch with faster processor
  
• New iPod Nano with a 640x480 video camera, FM radio, and some apps
  
• New 160G iPod Classic
  
• Lots of price changes on Touch, Nano, etc.
  

So not a huge amount to get excited about, but a nice update to the entire lineup. Explore around Apple.com to see more details and goodness. Also pretty much every tech blog will have a similar update.

Awesome article at LifeHacker on How to Build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, Start to Finish, including hardware, partitioning, etc etc. Might be time to upgrade for a bit less than Apple charges for their insane hardware :)

The only danger of course, is some random update somewhere down the road will render your nice $800 Hackintosh rig a brick. Course, at that point you can just install Windows 7 on it!

First of all, the Ars Technica review of Snow Leopard is exhaustive, going into about every detail you'd want. Here's my take too, if you care:

I'm a bit underwhelmed to be honest. I know that Apple hyped this as "no new features" and that there wasn't anything to really expect, but I still felt a bit empty after the install. However:
Pros:

• Saved 10+G of space (from 73G or so free to 90-something)
  
• Feels faster (could be just the effect of a new install though)
  
• New expose features
  
• My multi-touch trackpad now supports the four finger expose actions
  
• Exchange support in mail (meh)
  
• Quicktime X is pretty sexy
  
• Some little tweaks, ie: an 'ignore' button on the 'mounted drives can't be found' dialog, and the oft-mentioned CD ejection improvements :)
  
• Hey, it's only $35.... that's practically the cost of a trip to Starbucks these days! Definitely less than the price of entry to a Windows 7 install, or a brand new Mac OS X Leopard disk (which as an aside, you don't need to have to do the Snow Leopard install).
  

• Some apps aren't updated for 64bit operation yet
  
  
  
  • I have a couple of extras in my control panel that require a control panel relaunch to access
    
  • Flip4mac doesn't work for playing WMV files through QuicktimeX (but I can play them through mail.app)
    
  
  
• I still have to get used to the way that expose does it's things, I was starting to get used to how it arranged windows before, now I'm going to have to re-learn
  
• The 4 finger gestures for expose and show desktop can be .... twitchy. Half the time doing the 'undo' move (ie: swipe down to show expose, swipe up to un-expose) when I take my fingers off it re-exposes. Either I'm operating the trackpad incorrectly, or it needs to detect the difference between taking your fingers off the trackpad and doing the movement again.
  
• I can't say I see the huge and noticable performance changes other people say. Yes it feels faster, but I can't say that after a few days of using Snow Leopard I can still say it feels faster than before.
  

My consensus, hey, it's $29 and as long as you realize it's basically a service pack and roll up of tweaks, you'll be fine.

Yup, August 28th is here, which means that Snow Leopard is available to the general public today. Here is Snow Leopard reviews roundup over at TUAW, and I'm sure there will be many more today.

My favorite summary from that page is from Macworld's Jason Snell:

"Failing a massive makeover, then, we've got to take joy in the little gifts that Snow Leopard gives us. And there are a lot of them. I'd like to pick my favorite, but the fact is, they're all small enough that I can't really choose one. But if I could gather up the whole lot of them in my arms, I'd give them a hug."

I'm heading down to the local London Drugs computer department in about an hour when they open to see if they have it in as "Jay" said they would when I was there yesterday, and this weekend will be a weekend-o-OS-upgrades for me.

Anyone upgraded yet? Thoughts?

Not trying to make it Snow Leopard week here, but this is something I want to know for myself, thanks Darren for the Snow Leopard Compatibility List.

Well, looks like reddit is making fun of more reliable disk eject in Snow Leopard (pic, and context (bottom of the page)). While I don't think that disk eject improvements necessarily needs it's own icon, it is a feature that's nice to have, and makes the OS experience better. Ever had one of those times when you try to eject a CD or removable drive and it just says "can't eject" and you can't figure out why, and end up having to reboot? It happens on Mac, Windows, and Linux... this is just a little feature that will tell you what process is preventing the ejection. Simple, but a nice bit of polish (IMHO) that adds a bit more user friendliness to the OS. Pretty sure that Ubuntu has this as well come to think of it.

As another side note, looks like Windows 7 does this too, which is more good news.

No, not by some sort of space doubling compression utility, just by creating a machine with dual Internal SATA Hard Drives!

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is going to be available on Friday August 28th, and is available for pre-order now. If you're a mac-head and unfamiliar with Snow Leopard and what it'll bring, you can check out this page for more details. Short story is it's evolutionary, new/better tech, nicer quicktime, Exchange support out of the box, and lots of nice little tweaks.

Anyone heard of Plex Media Center for OS X before? Looks pretty sexy... the only thing that these are all missing are support for decoder cards (a la MythTV) or something to auto-torrent download to give the impression of recording TV. MythTV is kinda old and busted looking and in terms of some of the features (especially compared to the new sexiness that these media center apps have), but it will record TV which none of the other systems do (for the most part).

I want it all dammit! In the form factor of a mac mini. And a pony!

I don't know if this was the fault, but my home-brew Time Capsule setup has been failing lately, and this weekend I probably put in 5+ hours of mucking around to try to get it working, and then it'd work, go for a few (1-20) Gb, and then fail. Looks like this might have been caused by the Mozy backup, which has been fixed. Fingers crossed that I can get this set up and working tonight with the updated Mozy software!

Macenstein has a cool Time-lapse video of a Macworld cover creation. As a photography it's particularly interesting in their lighting setup and the amount of post processing that's involved to get the shiny gadgets to look so shiny. Also I didn't realize what was all involved in setting up and tweaking all the stuff on the cover, fonts, and text and layout and whatnot.

TomTom has called a Media Event for September 22nd for some journalists (apparently yours truly wasn't on the invite list). They aren't sure if this is for the iPhone app and holster (which had UK pricing of £113 leaked a few days ago or something else), but the message is about how "TomTom will reveal the future of navigation to you".

Also, this is from a .nl site via google translate, blogged by a rumors site, picked up from an iphone subsite of the "topnewsdigest" site, and then by me, so take it as worth the paper it's written on :)

MacRumors has some details of the recently rumored iTunes 9's Social Media Integration features. I'm not sure if I want more cruft in my iTunes though. Version 8's big new feature, Genius, seemed more about selling you new music than anything, but I do enjoy being able to create a playlist of similar music when I'm listening to something I'm really in the mood for with one click. I'm thinking that while it seems like a small thing, it'll start being a given for future media player systems.

I'm looking forward to see what apple pulls out. I'm wondering if version 9 will also tie into new hardware somehow.

Looks like Apple reinstated the matte display option on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, for the lovely charge of $50. WTF?

So let me get this straight.... first they change the perfectly fine matte display on the new model of the MBP to a sexy glossy screen that causes glare/reflection problems that people bitch about. Then they change the whole lineup of laptops to use the new glossy screen. People whine, and Apple Fanboys say how you just need to move your head a bit and stop whining The Steve Knows Best for us. Now they bring back the original for half a c-note. This rings back to the "black macbook" model option, where a black paint-job cost $250 (or something crazy like that).

We've never had a matte display, we've always had the glossy display.
[bad attempt at a 1984 reference].

The ever-vigilant Macenstein blog nicely lists out what we know so far about the oft-rumored Apple tablet system. Great conclusion with:

Excited? Us too. Seeing the specs laid out like this really cuts through all the rumors and really solidifies the iTablet in the mind... I can almost feel it in my hand! (By the way, it weighs between 8 ounces and 13 lbs).

If you haven't heard about the NinjaWords kafuffle, here's the readers digest notes. It's a dictionary app that Apple rejected from the iPhone app store because it contained dirty words (the 7 dirty words apparently are in the standard english dictionary). Daring Fireball got a letter from Phil Schiller and has put up his response. An excerpt that seems to be part of the root of the rejection:

The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable.
[...]
It is certainly arguable whether Wiktionary's English dictionary content should be rated 17+. I personally disagree with that. But what I -- and, judging from reaction around the web yesterday, many others -- found outrageous was the idea that Apple insisted that Ninjawords both filter its dictionary and still carry the 17+ rating.

That is not the case, and that is good.

Aryk pointed me to FreeAppAlert, which gives you Free iPhone apps that were paid iPhone apps yesterday.

Apple has posted a fix for the SMS vulnerability for the iPhone, so sayeth Pixelated Geek. Go forth and update before your phone is part of a botnet!

Not all from Apple is wine and roses. Check out this dialog between the developers of a Google Voice app and Apple in There's No App for That. What I've discovered with Apple is when things work, they were very well and life is good and you feel like you're dancing on candy rainbows. But if things go badly, they go very, frustratingly, hair-ripping-out, mindblowingly badly, and, as you can see from the exchange in the link, this holds true for the App store process. For every "write a fart app and make $7k a day" there's something like this...

Interesting look at Rounded Rectangles and the UI costs and benefits.

If you've been paying attention to the tech world (or at least the Apple rumor world) for the last couple of years, ever since the iPhone rumors of a "big" iPhone in the form of a Mac Tablet have been flying. Now, I've seen a lot of argument against the tablet / NetBook as an a) viable platform and b) good market for Apple to get into, but the Apple Blog makes some good points for an Apple Tablet in Late 2009. My favorite is "September comes before Christmas" :)

So as you may have noticed if you're an iPhone fanboy, a comany called Navigon released a fairly good looking GPS app ahead of TomTom. Wish you could check it out, even if only to see how the interface feels? You can, kinda. Use these instructions to get yourself a free iTunes account in Australia, then search in the app store for 'navigon', and you'll see (and download) they released a free 'lite' version of their app (itms link to .au store).

Of course, unless you're in Australia you won't be able to use it, and I have no idea if it'll even run or just bitch that you're on the wrong side of the world. However, in theory it'll give you a demo and you'll be able to get a feel for things to see if you want to drop the $69 (or $99 after Aug 15). Also as this is a lite version there isn't any GPS or "active route" support available anyway :)

So I have no idea what's up with the TomTom iPhone app that was so touted at the last couple of Apple iPhone events. Sadly, either the app was a complete tech demo (read that as you will) or they are somehow strategically doing nothing to let people know that it's coming (or not). In the meatime, MacRumors has a look at the Navigon GPS unit. Bonus here is it's a single up-front cost (though at $69 till August 15, $99 after it's a bit pricey), and I believe that the map updates are said to be free.

Some folks in the forums seem to think it's not the best deal, or are waiting to see what TomTom is doing. They also point out "gmaps", which is far less ($20) and has state/country (including Canada, yay!) specific releases. Sadly some of the reviews for gmap aren't all that great.

Personally I too am waiting for the TomTom, just to see what the options are. I really want the charging mount, as one reason I don't like using the iPhone maps in the car too much is I worry about battery life. Also if the mount can be setup to pipe into my stereo, hey, double-plus-good bonus? However, if the mount is super expensive, or the app has a large cost associated (ie: monthly fees, map update costs that are high, or a huge upfront cost), I may find something else. Personally I think that TomTom is killing themselves a bit by not giving out any new information... Course, they may also be trying to figure out how to make money on the app without completely cannibalizing their hardware business.

Anyone out there doing the turn-by-turn iPhone GPS thing? Suggestions? Good finds?

Today only, the iPhone astronomy app SkyVoyager (and it's companion app, SKyGazer) is free today only. Haven't seen them yet, but given they are normally $14, might be an idea to grab them...

Speaking of Apple, here's a great example of them being bastards. Seems the new iTunes 8.2.1 release cripples the Palm Pre. On one hand this is Apple's software and they can do with it what they want, and one could argue that keeping other devices from faking it out and using it is in their business interests... if you like iTunes and want a smartphone, the only choice is really the iPhone/iPod and not a Palm Pre.

On the other hand, geez, are they going to get into an arms race with the 13 people who bought the Pre to battle to stop them from using the iTunes store and listening to the music they are buying from the iTunes store on non-Apple devices?

That said, anyone not see this coming? :)

Yea yea, a bit fanboy-ish, but this article on the Apple Blog about Hidden Gems in Apple Design has some good info not only on why Apple Fanboys are apple fanboys (and why it seems that when people start using a Mac they fall in love), but also some nifty things to look for next time you see an Apple ad. For product designers, some things to take note of here too :)

Mac App Storm has a few notes about what to look forward to in the next version of OS/X. Nice upgrade I think, but about on par with (and I know this blasphemy) Windows 7.

Mac App Storm has a few notes about what to look forward to in the next version of OS/X. Nice upgrade I think, but about on par with (and I know this blasphemy) Windows 7.

Bit of a puff piece on the Apple Blog about the Apple Retail Store Success. It brings up some excellent points, as someone who has been in an Apple Store and a Future Shop in the last 2 weeks or so, let me say that talking to the salespeople in the Future Shop/London Drugs/Best Buys of the world could be used as torture for enemy combatants.

"Tell us your invasion plans." "Never!" "Tell us now or we'll make you talk to a Best Buy salesman about wireless routers." "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

That said it's not all wine and roses in the Apple Store as they suggest, their main failing point (IMHO) is the people, not the knowledge or anything like that, but availability. I was in wondering why my laptop DVD drive was simply spitting out disks (duh, turned out it was busted) and had to beg and pull the "I drove in from way out in the Valley to Vancouver and I hardly ever make it out here!" and push out a couple of single, tiny tears to get slotted in to see someone at the "genius bar" when someone's scheduled 15 minute time was late. Also having to go through an orange shirted "concierge" person who (in this case) seemed completely elitist and condescending... "we'll have to see sir, our geniuses are very busy".

That said they did get me in, and did seem to take personal interest in making sure I did get helped, and the concierge did make sure I got things all set up when I was heading out the door.

Anyway, it's an interesting look at how Apple has made the retail experience a bit more appealing to the consumer.

Pretty great story about getting a stolen iPhone back from a thief, using the Find My iPhone service. The full story is here, and even if it is a publicity stunt by Apple (in this day and age of "social networking" and "new media" it wouldn't surprise me), it's still a great story. Best line of all is:

"We laughed triumphantly, adrenaline racing, feeling like the Jack Bauer trio. (Disregard the fact that we'd just left a Lego convention."

According to Bloomberg, it sounds like Steve Jobs is said to Be Considering Liver Transplant. This is screaming across the twitterscape now.

Guess we'll see if this is a) true and b) has any official word from the Apple compound.

Update: Or maybe he had a transplant two months ago.

Evernote for iPhone 3.0 is Here, and it's sexy. Lots of UI improvements, integrated maps, seems way less crashy and even a bit faster (though the taking a snapshot still seems to take forever). Big update though, a nice complement to the new iPhone OS 3.0 update :)

It's not all wine and roses in the Apple World sadly. Seems that Apple is now warning about unsupported players' iTunes integration. This of course is referring to Palm emulating an iPod with their Pre. So far just an article on the support site, but I have no doubt that a minor iTunes update will come out soon to "address" these issues.

Well, still no OS update this morning, sounds like it'll be out sometime around 10-12 (or 5pm-7pm depending on who you listen to). In the mean time, you can How To Use The Best 40 Features of iPhone 3.0, so you at least know where to go for the new bits, instead of trying to find them all. IE: I didn't know shake to shuffle was a new feature.

OK, this is probably fake, but it's a good fake, and hey, who wouldn't want iPhone/iPod OS running on Mac Pro with touch screen monitor. Seriously cool (though I'm pretty sure that typing with the keyboard would be faster :)

Just to show that not everything in apple is ponies and rainbows, MacRumors is reporting that the new 13" and 15" MacBook Pros Have a Slower SATA Interface, using SATA 1.5 instead of SATA 3, which is what the previous "new" laptops had.

Whether this will affect "real world" usage or not has yet to be seen, but it would affect battery life (making it longer), by making the computer, slower.

Since it's now been released to developers, screenshots of iPhone 3.0 OS GM are around, showing all the new Apple-y goodness.

The google mac team have released Google Quick Search Box. Looks like they are edging into the QuickSilver (not not in development anymore) and TaskBar (non-free).

This is interesting because while being an app launcher and app "do stuff with"-er (though doesn't seem quick as cool as launchbar or quicksilver in terms of chaining stuff together), is it is obviously a google search engine, and you can integrate search from your google or twitter accounts.

A bit of testing sees it as having very much potential. Intuitive if you're used to using QS or LB at all, feels a bit laggy compared to QS/LB, but having things like results popping right in (ie: put in "weather " and the first result is the current weather. Way cool.

Also according to the reddit article the development is done by the QuickSilver creator, Nicholas Jitkoff.

I'm sold so far....

Sorry I was away all day folks, had a day of driving around... I did catch some of Apple's WWDC. Here's the wrap-up (for the 3 of you who haven't heard so far) and the highlights:

• New MacBook Pro 13" model (cool if you want something more portable).
• Snow Leopard will have better multi-core support, re-written 64bit finder, exchange support, lots of funky APIs, etc. So what? Oh, and the upgrade price will be $29. That's a bit of a big deal, when you're paying $399 for Vista Ultimate, and even when Apple folks are used to paying the Apple Tax of $129 for the OS/X upgrades. Course, $29 is the upgrade price too, I think the "full boxed" version is still $129 though. Coming September sometime.
  
• New Quicktime with less UI. Snow Leopard only I think.
  
• Something about a new iPhone.
  
  
  
  • Same form factor as the old one (which is now $99).
    
  • 16/32Gb vs 8/16Gb from previous versions (expected)
    
  • Faster processor (cool)
    
  • Video shooting/editing/sharing from iPhone (cool, not my thing)
    
  • 3mp camera with autofocus and macro (cool, probably still crappy compared to my 14mp DSLR though :) )
    
  • Voice control, iPhone now recognizes your contacts for calling and iPod artists and songs (potentially very cool)
    
  • Compass (needed for turn-by-turn driving I guess, other than that, meh)
    
  • Tons of software improvements in iPhone OS 3.0, but these were already known and demonstrated in March.
    
  
  
• iPhone OS 3.0 and the new iPhone 3Gs available starting June 17th.
  

So that's about the wrapup from the high level view, I think I got the major points. Honestly I'm not hugely impressed, as usual. Lots of new stuff, but nothing mindblowing. I guess every year can't be like the release of the original iPhone. I think most of my disappointment is that probably 90% of the new coolness of the iPhone 3Gs is in the software, which is available to all iPhones, and was shown off months ago.

As a counter point of course, Paul Thorrott (Windows guy, but someone who I respect a lot) has a reality check for the fanboys out there. Some of his points are very valid as usual, some seem a bit snarky and like a killjoy :) Still, a counter point that's needed.

Well, WWDC is less than a week away, and the Apple rumor mill is in high gear. The Flickr set with the WWDC 2009 Banners ('One Year Later, Light-Years Ahead') is up, and the iPhone rumor roundup has been compiled.

So what do you think? Boring "meh" updates (we all know that iPhone OS 3.0 is going to be out RSN and that at least is going to be cool, based on the demo given early this year and the developer seed information that's been coming out), or will we be wowed? Is there going to be a new iPhone (all signs point to yes) and if so, will it be awesome, or just an evolutionary move up (bumped storage, processor, slightly different case) or will there be something "OMFG WTF WOW" to see. Will there be the oft-rumored tablet and changes / updates to the Macbook and Mac pro lines? Maybe just some more speed bumps. Biggest question though, will The Steve be onstage again?

Adium, the multi-IM client for the Mac, has released 1.4 beta and stable 1.3.4 releases. This is a major update beta wise anyway. The 1.3.4 stable has more polish, but the 1.4 beta release includes Twitter and IRC as protocols, along with a "ridiculously long" list of improvements :)

Just a note of warning, users of the Twitterfon twitter iPhone client, changes are coming. The author posted a blog post about the upcoming Ad support for TwitterFon 1.5. The change (which just showed up as an update for me this morning) has quick add/remove, rich tweet view, and user lookup among the other changes. Looking at the Twitterfon page it also looks like there's now a "Pro" version of the app.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I use Twitterfon because it's clean, free, and uncluttered with ads. On the other hand, the app author deserves a bit of a payday to reward him for the great work! Guess the simple answer would be to suck it up and get the pro version for (most likely, as it's not yet actually out it seems) less than the cost of your starbucks double no-whip skim latte :)

However, if you're a cheap bastard like me, maybe hold off on the upgrade to Twitterfon 1.5 until someone else sees how intrusive the ads are.

Darren pointed me to Poolga, a free iPhone wallpaper site. Looks good, with some decent quality wallpapers too.

Dreaming Of Beetles has downloads of intel optimized builds of Firefox for mac. Version 3.5b5pre at the moment. I hear it actually even feels faster then the official betas. We'll see how it goes.

The Apple Blog has Four Useful Quicklook Plugins.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has Six things I learned from losing my iPhone 3G. Speaking as someone who had an iPhone 3G stolen, I can attest to all of these, except the replacement cost... for me it was $930 CND for a new unit (luckily half covered by insurance). Still a blatant ripoff though :(

Amidst the Apple Blog's Weekly App Store Picks I noticed that there is now a lite (and free) version of Wolf-3D iPhone game (if you're too cheap to spend the $4.99 on the main game that is).

Some testing by CNET and their Xtreme typing challenge had typing in some extreme conditions pitting an iPhone against an EEEEEEEEPC.

Their completely unscientific test came to the same result as I have... while the iPhone isn't tactile, the smarts in the software (auto-correct, guessing what the next letter will be and increasing the hit box for it, etc) makes it far easy to just stab along quickly, and for the most part will figure it all out properly. Course, if you're hacking out an email on the train, the jostling around you're going to get isn't the same as what this guy is experiencing :)

10 Mac applications that promise to improve your productivity. Cool.

Tweetie for Mac OS X was released last night, and the twitter app has gained a lot of buzz. It's sexy, sleek, and while some of the UI elements are a bit odd (for me) it's definitely a good contender for twittering from your mac desktop. Makes me think I should check out the tweetie for iPhone (I use TwitterFon right now).

Business Week goes over the Microsoft "Laptop Hunter" ads and asks What You Don't Get for $699. Blah blah point of view blah blah fanboys blah blah of course :) I don't buy the "you are paying more for security" argument... AVG is free and most of the software I use is free anyway. That said, looking forward to Windows 7, things like burning ISOs on the desktop is a very nice feature (that I've had in Linux for the last 10 years or so... :)

25 (Most Wanted) Tips For iPhone 3G has some nice stuff, even that I hadn't heard before.

The Apple Blog has a nice Dev Session on how to create a orientation aware clock. Very nice and easy to follow for those of us completely new to iPhone development.

Seems the latest beta of the iPhone OS 3.0 has some video recording capabilities revealed, but you have to alter the config to say that the hardware has a video camera. Macenstein asks Will Apple pretend iPhone video recording requires the new iPhone? as there are many jailbroken phones that use video recording just fine. *sighI* another case of Apple deciding what we can do with the hardware that the user (theoretically) owns?

iTunes drops all DRM, adds variable pricing according to many blogs around. A few posts I've noted say it's not that easy (ie: impossible) to find songs at the "low" price point of $0.69. The lack of DRM is nice though.

The Apple Blog has some details on Skype for iPhone, including screenshots. Basically it looks a lot like the normal iPhone phone app, which is good. I'm interested to see how it works like in real life. I've had the Fring app which allows VOIP connection on the iPhone via Skype, but I honestly haven't ever actually called anyone on it :)

Update: It's here. Well, in the US app store anyway. Hope it comes to Canada soon.

Update2: Seems it might not. This CBC story has this:

Chaim Haas, a public relations representative acting on behalf of Skype, said the application is available in every country in which the iPhone is on sale and in which Apple has an iTunes Store — with the exception of Canada.

Just heard about Video Monkey via MacBreak Weekly as a theoretical replacement for the now-defunct VisualHub video converter software. Definitely going to check this out tonight!

Via Appstorm.net comes a nice set of 50 iPhone Wallpapers for Design Lovers. Some better than others, worth a look anyway.

The Apple Blog has a First Look at the iPhone OS 3.0 Beta. Lots of screenshots and impressions there.

Update: More screenshots here. Lots of great detail about how things work, excellent read @ iLounge.

Psystar: Psystar Ignores Every Lawyer In The Entire World, Debuts New Compact OS X Desktop

Again with the Apple stuff, will it never stop?! You can keep an eye on the iPhone OS 3.0 event today by checking out either Engadget or the @macrumors twitter stream. If you're a twitterer you probably you that doing a search for #iPhone will probably garner you some good stuff as well :)

Update:
Highlights from the event are below (hit the read more):

• In-app purchases (ie: buy another 10 levels, or extend your subscription to a magazine app).. for paid apps only. Hopefully not abused by developers
  
• Peer 2 Peer connectivity - seamlessly connect with local devices running the same app. Sounds pretty awesome for gaming.
  
• More hardware access for accessories. Blood pressure readers that work with the iPhone, or an FM transmitter that automagically talks to the iPhone (or iPod of course) to tune to the right station, or speaker that can control the EQ on the iPhone.
  
• Maps can be embedded right into apps.
  
• Turn by Turn Applications - wooo! Course, I think that not having this was a rule from apple and not a restriction in the hardware, but whatever :) Have to bring your own maps though (WTF?). Guess this is a statement on sending someone into a lake because google maps haven't been updated. Huge download size I'm guessing :( Oh well, still, good to finally have.
  
• Push notifications so that applications can get updates without "running". Completely re-architected to deal with performance and battery life issues. Now "good to go" though.
  
• In-app voice and video APIs. Yay, no more shelling everything to youtube!
  
• Copy, cut and paste. Finally. Geez... was starting to get mad that they could do scalling, streaming video but not a simple text operation that's been around for 30 years now.... The UI is nice, but not a 2 year development effort I'd hope. Shake to undo (very iPhone-y), copying HTML, images, works in all apps, etc. Nifty, welcome to 1984!
  
• Landscape keyboard support in all core apps. IE: Mail.
  
• More big stuff.... MMS (multimedia SMS) will let you send photos/contact vcards/audio/location over SMS.
  
• More little stuff... calendar has ICS subscriptions now, stocks have a landscape mode and support for news details at the bottom.
  
• Global search!!!! Well, "key applications" search anyway, so mail, calendar, etc. All nicely integrated in something familiar to Mac people called "spotlight" :)
  
• Sync your notes, auto-fill, youtube accounts, stereo bluetooth headphone support (finally again!).
  
• Developer beta available today (cool), full release available in the summer (meh, want it now), it's a free update for the iPhone (yay) and $9.95 for the iPod Touch (boo (but standard apple fare if you remember the 2.0 upgrade)). No MMS or stereo bluetooth for 1st gen iPhone users (boo (not affecting me though)).
  

I'm fairly excited to be honest, I'm looking forward to what people can do with this in their apps, and I'm happy there aren't any silly "new feature XXX only will work on our new iPhone 3.0 hardware" restrictions. At least not yet :) I'm also glad they haven't radically changed the iPhone, but have added to it significantly. I'm especially interested in the spotlight app, and seeing how it works in practice and how well. It sounded like it was an 'always open' app in the leftmost screen, which makes it more useful than a search app you have to open up each time.

Still, we'll see :) Going to download the SDK tonight and start programming something to make my millions with!!

Tomorrow Apple will give a sneak peak at the 3.0 version of the iPhone firmware. No clue so far as to if this will be on a new hardware platform (ie: version 3 of the iPhone handset) or just an upgrade to the current version. Hopefully some of each (ie: I don't want to buy a new $500 phone to get access to whatever new features there are).

A lot (lot) of "3.0 firmware wishlists" have appeared, mostly fueled simply by wishes, practically none with any actual inside information on them (some might argue that there are leaks who do go to people like Kevin Rose with details, but again, who knows. Anyway, one of the good lists I found was from Frasier Speirs, who has his own iPhone OS 3.0 Wishlist.

My list is pretty simple:

• Cut & Paste
  
• Background tasks/notification/whatever... anything to let me have an IM/Twitter running at the same time as I'm surfing or whatever
  
• Some sexyness in the UI, nothing too chromey, but with some sort of update to make things look a bit more modern. Maybe a skinnable system?
  

iPod Shuffle Unboxing and Hands On from the Apple Blog.

Boing Boing Gadgets reviews the iPod Shuffle (Third Generation).

[...] The new iPod Shuffle is Apple's worst product in years. Its headphone module-interface fails because it's really about physical appearances: it does nothing to improve the experience of listening to music, and is in fact irritating until you've learned how to use it.

DIY: Star Trek iPhone Is the Definitive iPhone (If You Are Picard or Jason Chen)

Two bits of mac news for the price of one!

• iTunes 8.1 "Coming Soon". Claims to have a speed boost for large libraries (yay) and to have expanded the Genius feature for movies and TV shows (meh).
  
• If you haven't seen the new iPod Shuffle you haven't read your RSS feeds yet this morning. Smaller form factor (didn't realize that was possible), 4G of storage, and the new "VoiceOver" functionality which will speak you the name of the current Artist/Song as well as the playlist (of which you can have several now). At $79 that's not bad. I like that they're putting more functionality into the shuffle still.
  

Confessions of an Apple Store Employee has some insight into how things work inside the Apple stores from a former employee.

Saw the news this morning that Apple has released Safari 4 beta for the masses. It's free of course, for mac and PC, and has a few interesting new changes:

• Faster Javascript interpreter (everyone's doing it, Google Chrome, Firefox 3.1 and (I think) IE8 all have amped up JS engines)
  
• Tabs on top (meh, copying Google Chrome one could argue... I don't see the big deal personally)
  
• Sexy history browsing (coverflow full page previews, sexy as only Apple can do)
  
• Sexy "Top Sites" (again, very similar to the Google Chrome home page or Opera speed dial feature, but sexy again, as Apple does best)
  
• Native look on windows (probably a good thing)
  
• Developer tools (if they are of the caliber of Firebug and friends, then that's great news)
  
• See what else is new.
  

I'm going to give it a go on my Mac for a while, just to see how it is, and see if I can tell just what part of Firefox I'm so attached to. The one thing it really needs is a Firefox-like import of saved data... losing my history, saved passwords, form data, etc would really suck for a convert :(

Interesting article on the design and pricing in the Apple iPhone App Store. Check out Cold Hard Truth of the App Store.

IPhoto: iPhoto's Facial Recognition Feature Works on Cats

Just discovered TwitterFon twitter app for the iPhone thanks to @chasejarvis.... lots of features, free, no ads, more functional (IMHO) than my previous one (twitteriffic). Going to give this one a good go and see if it works as well as it looks. Oh, and did I mention it's free?

Nice article on the apple blog - More Mac Viruses, Similar Sources: Time to Worry?

Really, as it stands, the only people at risk are those trying to pirate software, so it’s not really a case of “Is the OS less secure?”, so much as it is one of “Are Mac users security savvy?”.

Personally I look at it this way... if you download the iwork trial from apple.com and install it, it'll ask you for your password before it installs itself. If you go to your friendly neighborhood torrent site, download ilife09.torrent, and click the installer it (I presume) asks for your password before it installs a trojan and then installs iLife.

Is this some new form of super-evil mac virus? An age where apple-heads can't surf in peace? An age where you shouldn't suggest an iMac to your grandma because it'll come to life, kick her in the behind, and impregnate her granddaughter?

I'm thinking not. I could put up a shell script that has in it a request for password followed by deleting your system while it plays a clown song and put it up for download and most likely it'd still get downloaded and accused of being an evil mac virus. The sort of viruses we're talking about here are simple trojans (IMHO) and requires no more than the normal (well, perhaps normal by windows and I-surf-pirate-sites standards) amount of care and attention in surfing and downloading.

Thanks to a FUBAR on my part and losing my carefully crafted addressbook on my MBP, I did some looking into finding a way to do time machine backups without spending $600 on Time Capsule and utilizing my already existing NAS device. Turns out that Time Machine with SMB and NFS Shares is very possible with a bit of diddling with settings. This guy got it working with remotely mounted AFP, SMB and NFS shares on a random NAS device.

Also looks like there's an addon for DroboShare via the DroboApps SDK called BackMyFruitUp to add Time Capsule like capabilities, which looks to have potential too.

Now I know what my project tonight will be!

Macworld San Francisco 2009 Keynote Live Coverage is up at Macrumors..... just got in so haven't had a chance to see much. iLife '09 seems to be out though!

I don't plan on pimping every new iphone or apple accessory here, but this looks interesting... Ars has a review for the Incase Power Slider battery backup for iPhone 3G. It's like a thick case for your iphone, but it has extra battery charge. Hit the article for pics and review. Might be worth the $$..... I already have a thick case on my phone, assuming this doesn't make it too much larger, or unreasonably heavy that is.

Found this via Reddit... looks like Apple's new online ad does that page destruction thing that wii did a bit ago. Kinda cool. Annoying as hell I'm sure to encounter in the wild though...

Wow, not only has Apple released iPhone 2.2 firmware, but it's available to me right away! Anyone tried it yet? Any fail? Awh, who am I kidding, I'm downloading it and installing it right now!

According to the release notes no cut and paste, but the expected bug fixes, performance fixes, over the air podcast updating, street view (and some other) map improvements, as well as toggling for spelling. So pretty much what people were expecting.

I'll let you know if it explodes my phone :)

Update: No issues, heck, even a fast download speed. Since I just updated all my podcasts I'll have to wait to use it in practice, but in theory the 'get more episodes' just pops you into the itunes store and allows you to download episodes from the listing there (I never use the itunes store on the iphone so no idea if that was there before). It also does the right thing when it syncs to iTunes as well, loading any new podcasts you weren't subscribed to in. Looks very slick.

The street view is sexy, and probably the new "must show" app for iphone/touch owners. You need an address in a city with street view of course, and if you have it click on the orange icon on the left of the label (try searching for "1 microsoft way seattle" as an example). The transition to street view is done with the usual care and attention so the user knows what's going on (ie: is swoops in). Pinch and drag are all there and work as expected, the only niggle I have (and not sure what could be done about it) is that I almost want to pinch or double tap to move down the street, but I need to tap on the street "arrows" just like in the actual google maps street view. I'm not sure how you'd distinguish between a "move forward" doubletap or pinch and a "zoom in" double tap or pinch. Still, a very minor thing.

Safari does indeed now have the google search as a primary element in the nav bar. Not sure if this is a needed thing or not, but I guess it saves a tap...

Haven't looked at the rest of the stuff, but it feels a bit faster overall, though that might be the reality distortion field :)

Apple: Aluminum MacBook X-Ray Makes Perfect Desktop Background

This will be a cool thing for the iPhone / Touch (second gen only) users.... Voice Search Coming to the iPhone via the google mobile app. There's a nice little video demonstrating it in true Google fashion. Basically speak your google search into the microphone and it gives it to you.... how much simpler could it be?

MacRumors asks the very leading question of iPhone 2.2 Firmware 10 Days Away? If so, very cool, as there are a bunch of new stuff (no copy and paste yet!!?!?!?!?) that's rumored to be in it, coolest for me being updating of podcasts over the air (well, over 3G for <10mb and wifi for >10mb) which will mean I don't have to worry about running out of stuff to listen to if I'm away from my main syncing computer. Street view is nifty, the Japanese emoji icons get a "well whatever" and the rumored new look for safari with the google bar on the title bar (anyone have screenshots of this?) sounds interesting.

Course, apple being apple, we'll see what happens in 10 days :)

Rumors are that apple will Activate Podcast Downloads in 2.2 Firmware at MacRumors. This and street view would make the 2.2 a very nice upgrade... Course, cut and paste and background notifications would make it even better!

Woo! Finally Google Earth Comes to the iPhone!

Amidst the launch of Google’s own Android mobile operating system, the company is bringing its Google Earth software to the iPhone App Store. As reported by our sister site News.com, the iPhone version replciates much of the desktop application’s core experience, downloading imagery from Google’s servers as the perspective shifts and dotting the map with landmarks, photos, and other information.

Installing this now, wonder if it'll be better than the Earthscape app that is already there and is not bad...

A concept computer that came out this morning was the OLO iPhone-powered Laptop. Basically the iphone plugs in to where the trackpad would be and acts as the CPU and touchpad. Interesting idea... not sure how realistic this is, but it's definitely an interesting concept.

Looks like all the rumors were true... next Wednesday there is a MacBook Event. From the Apple Blog:

Members of the media have just received word that the rumored October 14 MacBook event is rumor no more. Invitations sent by Apple’s PR department confirm that next Tuesday will see a special event hosted by the company at its Cupertino campus.

Wonder which (if any) of the various rumors will come true.

TUAW notes that the iPhone NDA was dropped. The NDA (better known by developers as ) was a large burden on people developing software as sharing information and tips makes developing software much easier. Now Apple has removed this barrier, hopefully we'll see better/stronger/faster iPhone and iPod Touch apps.

Sorry about the slew of apple stuff, but this is more for me to check when I get home. Seems there are some Free iTunes HD TV shows up on iTunes. Seems (according to the comments) they aren't available in Canada. *sigh* Sucks to live in the north it seems. Hopefully this link willl help my 'merkin friends though.

However, these two links claim to get itunes downloads from anywhere, though it's legality and tested-ness is unknown.

The folks over in the MacRumors forums are compiling a List Of 2.1 Features that may be interesting above and beyond the ones noted in the official changelog (which in typical Apple fashion is about 5 lines long). Some nice stuff in there, little fixes like apps going back to where they belong when they are updated. Looking forward to the iPhone version on Friday.

Since MacRumors doesn't have their live event coverage site up, however the Gizmodo Liveblog is up and going for today's 10AM PST iPod-o-gasm is.

Update: So if you haven't seen already, here's the rundown:

• iTunes 8, with new cover view and the genius playlist creator (available now).
  
• The new rumored iPod nano "thinnie" version (as opposed to the 3rd gen "fatties"). Also includes microphone accelerometer for video playing when it's on it's side and coverflow like the iphone/touch, shake to shuffle, and a new headphone with play/pause/next/prev/volume controls on it (like the iPhone/touch but better).
  
• New iPod touch form factor (the iphone look) and hardware volume controls and the new headphones.
  
• iPod Touch/iPhone 2.1 software with the Genius mode and "bugfixes" to increase battery life and other suck. No word on cut and paste though. This is available now for the Touch.
  

Macrumors has the Let's Rock: Rumor Roundup and Expectations for tomorrows apple event. Personally the one thing i'm really hoping for is the new version of iTunes with proper tagging support. I'll be miffed if the new iPods are released as rumored as I just replaced one of the 3rd gen Nanos that was stolen! Ah well, I'm fine and happy with the 3rd gen and the 4th gen (should it be released) better do something pretty amazing for me to want to upgrade.

Lately I've been re-doing my music collection thanks to a new fileserver and a new computer. Since the new computer is a Mac, the logical choice for music is iTunes. It's not perfect of course, but it does the job, and is the logical choice if you have any iPod type devices. However one of the places where it completely falls down is in realm of tagging, as smart playlists can only get you so far, and sometimes I want to say that something belongs to my "highschoolmemories" collection as well as "hotdancetracks" and dragging those into playlists just doesn't cut it. Enter the power of applescript and quicksilver (sorry guys, this is a Mac only link). Check out how to set up tagging tracks in iTunes with Quicksilver via MacOSXHints.com.

Another method that will work for everyone is from this lifehacker article using the power of "grouping".

Kinda a cool little app if you're a D&D guy or gal, Mach Dice: Roll for iPhone supports up to 100 d100 die, and is funky 3d and makes good use of the accelerometer.

This is pretty cool.... iPhone factory workers send message of peace to our lands via the iPhone’s camera is from a guy who found a bunch of pictures on his new iPhone.... not the "accidental" type pictures I've heard of before, but more of a proper photoshoot!

To balance out the last mac-vs-pc-pricing post I made a few days ago, Paul Thurrott has his own perspective on the issue of Mac laptops cost twice as much as PC laptops.

Tom's Hardware has a good article on The Apple Mac Cost Misconception. As a recent mac user, this hits my heart because I've heard a lot of these misconceptions for years from my peers (and myself of course). Good to see it all laid out.

From the section on "I can build a mac pro for half the price":

The above is essentially a baseline Mac Pro replicated using the cheapest minimum required components to build. The difference? A negligible $5.67. Those who claim that they can build "the same" PC for half the price are at this point baseless.

Darren pointed to me the google page on Google Calendar CalDAV support, which is the ability to sync Google Calendar with iCal. Very interesting, I'm going to have to check out how to best use this, as some of my stuff is in iCal and I really like the idea and portability of Google Calendars, but I don't actually use it.

Engaget has it's own iPhone 3G review.

Stage 1 in the new iPhone mania is complete, Apple Released iTunes 7.7 which allows access to the app store. W00t! Well, in theory "W00t!" as I'm still doing the install, and I've seen some people saying that even with the new iTunes they don't see the App Store. Wonder if there'll be different rules for us Canadians too :( Will let you know when my install is done and I can test.

Update: iTunes 7.7 installed on my macbook with the latest Leopard, no app store in sight. Either it's being rolled out in waves, or the Canadian iTunes store is behind the times again. Note that the new iphone 2.0 firmware has been found by macrumors posters already.

Update2: Ah, you have to go into the iTunes preferences and enable the 'applications' source before the store will show up. Only shows a black screen for me though.

Update3: Ah, there it is.... 2 minutes in and already I have about 10 downloads of apps going!

Wall-to-wall iPhone coverage here at UFies.org points to the First iPhone 3G reviews via the WSJ, USA Today and NY Times. Summary:

Overall, the new phone "mostly keeps its promises."

Not bad I guess.....

Story from Darren about the Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple stores without iPhones looks a bit like rumormongering to me, but as Darren noted, it doesn't matter, it's still bad press for Rogers and I really hope that all the bad press and (presumed) public pressure will help to make them reconsider their data plans. Really, they have a huge opportunity to offer reasonable data rates for Canadians, which they should take (says I the consumer). Of course, the minimal competition up here means they have no need to, hence the $115/month plan that gets you 2G of transfer :(

In other iPhone 3G news, engaget has some 3G iPhone in the wild pictures. Not a huge amound there sadly.

Just to get everyone riled up for the Apple keynote on Monday, here's a link to the “Just One More Thing…” Timeline which includes videos from back to the late 90's of all the "just one more thing" moments (and other historical stuff :)

*come on iphone 2.0 available-in-canada-and-non-sucky-data-plans!*

The Macalope looks at the iPhone 2.0 FUD-o-rama.

Rob Enderle, in regards to anything Apple, is not an "analyst", Eric. He is a quote machine. And, thus, the horny one will not be linking to or bothering to dissect the source of Zeman's piece.

Another rumor has it that there'll be a 3G iPhone in Canada next month with reasonable data costs over at the Apple blog. The $7 unlimited data plan they predict sounds very good, especially compared to the $97 for 25mb that they currently have. This combined with an upgraded / tweaked iPhone, maybe a 32mb version, and I'm there. I love my iPod Touch, but would love to combine it with my phone for one less bit to carry around :)

Course, all this depends on a new iPhone, a 3G version, and Rogers not to completely shaft us Canadians with data plan pricing.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog spreads this juicy bit for me and all my Canuck friends:It's official: iPhones in Canada via Rogers. Of course, I'll believe it when I see it "for real". Of course, 25mb for $97/month will kill it for me and many others I'm sure. Canada's lack of decent data plans is going to hinder iPhones up here until someone gets us out of this data backwater (Darren's words).

Very exciting is a feature from Lifehacker on how to Turn Your iPod Touch into an iPhone and allow you to make VoIP phone calls from your iPod touch or iPhone using a freeware application called SIP-VoIP.

Very exciting stuff!

After a few weeks with a "Beta has expired" message, and no new beta to download, looks like MS has gotten their act together and released Beta 3 of the RDP Mac Client.

Now the question is, is this a new beta with actual changes, or just the same software with the expiry date removed? Being that the only information about the beta is here there's no actual information about any changes. Oh, and the 'feedback' link to read the forums about it doesn't work. *sigh*

If you're looking for an alternative (if you hadn't found one already), the de-facto seems to be CoRD, which I've played with a bit.

An article I've been waiting for, on Developing Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard. Most important is that it has "official" update commands... myself being a total rails newbie I was glad to see this:

Out of the box, you get Ruby version 1.8.6 and Rails version 1.2.6, the latest stable releases at the time Leopard shipped. Ruby releases are few and far between (it's still at 1.8.6), but Rails has frequent new releases. In fact, the application we'll build requires Rails 2.0.2. The good news is it's easy to upgrade Rails and RubyGems. Make sure your system is up to date now by running these commands:

Instead of just hoping that running random commands would make it work. Coming from a Linux world of package managers where doing something "outside" the package world potentially pollutes the filesystem with outside code.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog asks some questions to Cory about What do you expect from the upcoming iPhone SDK, which is scheduled to launch Thursday March 3^rd. Not all questions answered, and some guesses in there, but still, bit of news.

Glad my iPod Touch is on it's way back home to me!

Interesting writeup called Things I Learned At The Apple Store (here's part 2).

* For God sakes, people were lining up -- waiting time, 22 minutes -- to get a seat in the Apple "lounge" at the back of the store. What was special there? Nothing. A chance to sit, read some magazines, drink coffee and sample some computer stuff.

Interesting read and follow up... especially to see how vile the reaction is to saying nice things about an apple store.

Humanized has a good article on one particular aspect of usability in the Mac Vs. Windows dispute.... Luxury Computing talks about some of the challenges in doing some simple things in both Mac and Windows.

After going through the same three dialog boxes, the wizard appears yet again; this time it’s found a “HID-compliant device”, and I have to go through the same song and dance, after which I get yet another wizard for a “HID-compliant device”.

Another "what tool for what toolbox?" debate, though some usability issues are more like using a hammer that randomly smacks you in the thumb by itself (Ok, so I'm not all that good at analogies :)

I'm not sure if I would have paid $2500 for a 20 year old computer.... but the unboxing pics and story about it certainly is interesting.

Unofficial apple weblog has a Complete guide to iPhone car integration now online.

Rogers, please move your butts and get me an iPhone up in Canada!

iTransmogrify! allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to view flash video on their devices. Bookmark a javascript bookmarklet and it'll magically transmogrify the flash into a format playable on the non-flash apple devices (damn you Steve Jobs!).

How simple is this... there is a 1.1.3 "JailBreak" in Installer. Basically ensure you have the right version of a couple of packages, and a couple of settings (autolock set to never!) and time to wait (about 20-40 minutes from the forums)... then click the '1.1.3 jailbreak (dev team)' icon. Doesn't get any easier than that does it?

Darren sent me a link to just what I was looking for for my popcorn watching for MacWorld..... a page with all the MacWorld live blogs on it! Watch Macrumors, engaget, mac observer and gizmodo updates all at the same time!

RSS Reader for Mac - NetNewsWire now no longer is a for pay version and a Lite version, but a completely free version. Version 3.1 is available for download here.

I've been a Google Reader fan since the new version came out a couple of years back... I'm definately going to give NNW a shot again as I did used to use it back in the old days when I had a PowerBook. Via 50 Leaves.

Macenstein has asked the question I've been pondering the last few days, remind me again why we want an ultra portable? The biggest rumor that I've seen of what's incoming at macworld in a week is that Apple will be releasing an ultra portable, touch based system that is whafer thin. From the Macenstein article:

For some reason I am just missing the allure of a wafer thin MacBook, and I would like someone out there to set me straight. What am I missing here?

Anyone remember Origami, the Microsoft UMPC? They had a great advertising campaign which seemed to peter out as soon as it was released. Has anyone heard anything about UMPC in the "real" media since then?

Anyway, the same goes, IMHO, for an apple device. Yes, the apple touchscreen from the iPhone and iPod Touch is fantastic and could be an improvement over the pen based interface, and the on-screen keyboard and predictive typing that those devices have could be useful on such a device. Isn't this a solution looking for a problem? Macenstein goes through what the current Apple offerings have, where the holes are and aren't, cost thoughts, etc.

I have to agree, it's a supremely cool idea, but I can't see it being hugely useful outside a couple of minor areas.

• Uber-mac-fanboys / early adopters
  
• Super super specialized areas (ie: salesperson at a mac store for checking inventory or something like that)
  
• Some other super-specialized segment?
  

We'll see in a week I guess. I personally am prepared to be totally disappointed by this years MacWorld.

First Look: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 over at Ars.

Macenstein and Gear live have details on the iPhone firmware 1.1.3. This of course will also break any jailbroken apps.... *sigh* :(

Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone, with info based on trends, how recently things were updated, etc.

Don't want to pay a boatload for an iMac or Powerbook? Lifehacker show how to Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800.

If you're a lucky one with an iPhone or iPod Touch and want to upgrade to the 1.1.2 firmware but don't want to lose your custom apps and setup, conceited software has released a windows/linux solution as TUAW. I've as yet untested by myself on my Touch, so read the comments and research before you put your baby at risk. Apparently the big draw to the 1.1.2 release is a speed boost, but that looks like about it (unless you use non-english characters a lot).

As they generally do, Ars Technica has produce a fantastic Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard review.

Very cool... no more needing a mac or PC to install custom apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Check out this Instant Jailbreak for iPhone and iPod touch which lets you do it all by visiting a webpage on your iPhone or Touch's Safari web browser.

It'll be very interesting to see what happens with the next firmware update...

Darren pointed me to an article proclaiming that a Molson beer contest confirms Apple iPhone coming to Canada in January. $800 though, that's a bit steep (assuming that's the the retail price). Are they going to be selling for $200 less in April though?

Still, good to know things are heading north. Big questions now are a) will the carrier be Rogers and b) will they come out with an unlimited data plan...

Stuff like this Mac OS X Leopard - Guided Tour show once again why Apple is the king of marketing. I watched the movie and even though I have never used any of the features they show, nor have ever wanted them, I so want a mac running Leopard right now. The goodness wasn't only in the demo, but also the slickness of the features. Timeline, ichat, stacks..... all soooo slick. Am I right or am I right about this?

Course, I want to be able to play more than 3 games, so sadly it'll doubtfully replace my windows gaming box. But a nice macbook pro? Hmm.....

TUAW also has some thoughts.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says he admits that Leopard has more “Wow!” than Vista … in theory anyway and goes on to enumerate some of the bits (a nice summary by the way). One thing really stuck out for me though.:

Google Map Addresses
View a detailed map of any address in Address Book. Just hold down the Control key while clicking any address and select “Map of” and Safari will show you its location in Google Maps.
[Note that this is one of those re-tweaked features - I believe that this is already in OS X Address Book but uses MapQuest instead of Google Maps. But yeah, it’s cool. Why can’t Outlook Express/Windows Mail have this?]

Isn't this basically the feature in MS Office where it would parse out addresses / phone numbers and make them yellow and clickable to add them to your address book or something? And wasn't this the feature that when it was announced (2002 or 2003 probably) had people up in arms about invasion of privacy, Microsoft stealing our data, etc etc? Sure it's slightly different, hooking into maps, but still... a bit of hypocrisy mayhap (not on Adrian's part as much as the net in general giving Apple/Google a big pass and coming down harder on MS for some things).

Darren passed me on the best news I've heard all day.... the Apple Hot News that a third party SDK for the iPhone and iPod Touch will be available in February. Should be sooner, and it'll be interesting to see how they make it open to developers, without putting way too many hoops to jump through for developers. Putting some of the iPhone apps on the Touch would be great as well :)

Also while you're at it, availability in Canada and unlimited data plans would be great!

Apple Answers Leopard Questions and gives some interesting insight to what's going to be out in less than 10 days.

Jailbreak Guide for the iPod Touch over at TouchDev.net. Looks like it's still a bit convoluted and sounds like you still need a Mac to do it though. Hopefully it'll just get easier (or heaven forbid), get blessed by apple to allow access into the device without jumping through hoops.

Darren passed on the rumor that Holt Renfrew Insider Says iPhone Coming to Canada in Two Weeks. Interesting to see, fingers crossed after I had a chance to check one out recently.

Apple's latest ("it'll brick hacked iPhones") update has garnered a re-review from Gizmodo.

It's understandable for Apple to wage a war on unlocking the iPhone, since the company shares revenue from fees with AT&T. But the truth is, if cellphone service was awesome, like it is on iTunes, there wouldn't be a need to unlock the iPhone.

The last image on the page, the chart, is the most telling I think. Hopefully Apple will change their way/tune soon to win back some of the love.

Well, according to Gizmodo, the new iPhone firmware (1.1.1) won't brick your iPhone. Good thing to know, not that I have an iPhone of course... Lots of other good info in the article though, best to read the full thing through.

Apple, please bring them to Canada. Pretty please? With sugar on top?

I totally agree with this Muppet's rant about iPhones (or rather, lack thereof) in Canada.

Just cause I really want one of these puppies, heres some iPod Touch unpacking tour and first look pics and commentary from AppleInsider.

[...] but the Touch lacks a fourth conductor on the headphone jack, so there's no way to use the iPhone's mic, a second strike for the potential of VoIP after its lack of Bluetooth.

Macrumors.com posted a link to the iPod Touch Manual which will be interesting to read through.

Suddenly the decision (for me as a Canadian) to get an iPhone or an iPod Touch just got a bit murkier. The iPhone has no ETA in Canada yet, so before the rationale was it's not here, the iPod Touch is (or will be sometime, my local apple store is giving me the "1-2 weeks for the new nano and classic, no ETA given for the Touch" run-around), so the only real choice for now is the 16G iPod Touch right? Now there is a iPhone Free Software Unlock that GIzmodo has tested, which means in theory I can go down to Seattle, get myself an iPhone, and use it up here unlocked.

Grrr......

My ex-boss made his first iPhone call, and talks a bit about how the The iPhone came to Canada. Still not sure I'd pay $600 for this especially with rumors of a new iPod (please, please let it be touch with full screen video and a hard drive or at least 64G of solid state storage) and that Apple could turn it off with one sync of new firmware pushed down. Still, cool to know someone who had used an iPhone :)

Welp, looks like it only took a month or so... Engaget says: iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity. Glad it's finally happened..... now gotta get me some of that (assuming that this isn't nuked the next iPhone update).

How I broke into the iPhone UNIX files and lived to tell about it, via The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Full shell access via software, no serial or special hackery required.

Ars Technica has a great iPhone in depth review full of pictures, screenshots, tech info, etc.

Cool, Houston, we have filesystem access. Kinda, I think :)

Well, that didn't take long? iPhone full shell access is here! Course, you need to do a bit of soldering to get the serial cable connected. Still, shouldn't be long now.

Well, I spent what little time on Saturday I had free reading iPhone reviews, watching the 'first unboxing' videos, usage videos, screenshot galleries, etc. Darren found a nice initial (but in-depth) review of the wee beastie (I want one!).

The end result from pretty much everything I've read is that it's gorgeous and amazingly user friendly (JK has a nice writeup on the little details that make Apple the leader in UI. It's not the major things, it's the little bits....) and gorgeous to look at and use. They keyboard gets some getting used to, and EDGE for data transfer sucks slightly more than other options. Definitely sounds like the pros outweighs the cons by a long shot though.

Sorry for yet more iPhone news, but I'm going to be pretty busy the next couple of days, it'll be quiet around here :) Till then though, here's the Slashdot story, the Mossberg review after two weeks of use, and other reviews. Looks like basically the iPhone will be mostly a winner. Some details that people are pointing to seem perfectly legit (not being able to set itunes songs as ring tones for example) but knowing apple these sorts of deficiencies are either a) not really that big a deal, and people will quickly learn to live with out them or with the alternatives or b) quickly addressed with software updates.

There'll be lovers and haters though. How about a nice Windows Vs Linux flame war instead? :)

Engaget did some research and found out just How does the iPhone stack up in total cost? Hint: bloody expensive :) The base $500-$600 sure doesn't help that's for sure, but the yearly price is way above even double or triple that! Course, the other providers compared aren't that much better.