The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
Filed under: Software, Features, TUAW Faceoff
Everybody needs to sleep, and more than just a few hours each night. It's not just a matter of being in a foul mood all day; there are some pretty serious physiological effects of sleep deprivation. Since you tend to learn the most when you do things incorrectly, I know plenty about lost sleep. Anything that helps my insomnia is worth checking into, so I've spent some time looking at ways my Mac and my iPhone might help me lay down, and stay down. I took a look at the iPhone first; there are more than a few apps available which make me drowsy, but only two that I could find which do it intentionally: aSleep and Ambiance. Fluff your pillow and read on to see how they stack up against each other and a few desktop applications.
Continue reading TUAW Sleep-off: Ambiance vs. aSleep vs. your Mac
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: TUAW Business, Podcasts
If you haven't tuned in yet for last week's talkcast, go check it out -- it features Scott's farewell announcement and our cranky assessment of MobileMe's first weeks. Download direct, or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.Join us again tonight (Sunday 8/3) for our next live show, 10 pm ET as usual. Since this is the first anniversary of our little podcasting experiment (the kickoff show was back on 8/2/2007), we'll be looking back at the past year of Apple news and casting our Predict-O-Matics forward into the fall. We'll also be digging into the Ghost of Trivia Past bag for some trivia giveaways, all quite vintage (Mac OS 9 games! A broken iPod Mini! A copy of iMovie 3 Solutions by Erica Sadun, which we can probably get autographed for you! A pile of Zip disks -- with a drive!) but delivered with love.
Continue reading Reminder, TUAW Talkcast 1st anniversary show at 10pm ET
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
I have a confession: I like playing games on my iPhone. But I also like listening to my own music. Like chocolate and peanut butter these are two things that should go together. The only problem is that many iPhone games have their own (generally lame) music that stops the iPod app from playing.So for the sake of myself, and others like me, I thought it would be good to get a list of iPhone / iPod touch games which allow you to play while listening to your own music. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to buy all of the hundreds of games on the iTunes Store for research purposes, so I thought I'd throw it out to the readers. I'll get us started with a couple of my favorites: Enigmo and Moonlight Mahjong Lite (both iTunes links).
What games allow you to play while listening to your own music?Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Bluetooth, iPhone
Who says crime doesn't pay?Aliph, makers of the ultra-cool noise-reducing Jawbone Bluetooth headset, have come up with a great marketing scheme. If you live in California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, or Washington -- all states with laws requiring hands-free use of mobile phones -- and receive a ticket for yapping with your iPhone plastered to your ear, Jawbone will deduct $20 off the purchase price of one of their headsets.
You can't get a discount on the Silver Tongue model, but the prices for the Goldy Lips and Blah Blah Black versions end up at $129.99 and $109.99 respectively. All you need to do is go to the Jawbone website, look for the Hands Free Ticket Processor, and enter your state and ticket number. $20 is taken off the original purchase price, and you're ready to go.
This is one case where I wish I did live in a nanny state that was forcing me to use a hands-free kit!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: iPhone
USA Today has an interview with AT&T head Randall Stephenson in which he discusses the success of the iPhone for the wireless carrier. He notes that in the original deal back on 2005 they were "betting on Jobs" -- and it's now clear that that bet paid off: "It's everything we hoped it would be," according to Stephenson.In fact the Apple/AT&T partnership is going so well that AT&T managed to wrangle another year of exclusivity out of Apple, extending its US monopoly on the iPhone at least until 2010. This extension is part of the iPhone 3G deal that eliminated revenue sharing with Apple, but has AT&T paying about $300 per phone up front. The numbers continue to look good for both parties, with the iPhone generating almost twice the revenue as the average AT&T wireless customer. Then again, it's hardly a surprise. It's not like betting on Steve Jobs' tech business savvy is that much a risk these last few years.
[via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
With my girlfriend in the process of refurbishing her kitchen, I found myself in need of (and without) a carpenter's level yesterday afternoon. But then I remembered Bubble Level, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch.
A penny short of a dollar later, I had myself a working, surprisingly accurate level right in my iPod touch.
Bubble Level allows you to calibrate it (for example, with an actual bubble level) so its measurements are accurate enough to use for household chores and hobbies. (Professionals may still need the precision that a traditional liquid bubble level provides.)
Bonus: it tracks how level the device is in two dimensions: laying your iPod or iPhone on a table allows the bubble to travel toward the center circle on the interface.
Bubble Level is 99 cents, and available in the App Store now. You can also check out A Level, a similar app that's expected to support calibration in the next release (it's from Posimotion, winners of TUAW's Most Risque iPhone App Name award).
Filed under: Odds and ends, Software Update, iPhone, App Store
Want to carry your family tree with you?Synium Software, the developer of a genealogy app called MacFamilyTree, has announced a mobile companion for their Mac product. MobileFamilyTree for iPhone and iPod touch requires MacFamilyTree 5.2.3 to run, and allows genealogists to review, edit, or add to family tree information anywhere at anytime. Once you're back at your Mac, MobileFamilyTree syncs your changes with MacFamilyTree.
This is great for adding genealogical information on the spot from interviews with relatives, doing additional research on the road, or just having a copy of your family history to review wherever you are. MobileFamilyTree is a free update to registered users of MacFamilyTree 5.2.3, or available for $4.99 from the App Store (click here to view the app in iTunes).
[via prMac]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
Adam Tow's MsgFiler plug-in for Mail.app has been a favorite of many Mac users since it was first released in 2006. In the succinct words of Mr. Tow:"MsgFiler is a plug-in for Apple Mail which quickly files emails into existing mailbox folders. MsgFiler's fast searching means you just have to type a few characters to find the right mailbox. Move selected messages with a click or open a mailbox without having to navigate the mailbox folder pane. MsgFiler is optimized for keyboard-only usage, perfect for Apple Mail power users."
Version 2.0.3 has just arrived on the scene, with a new installer app and refinement of the interface being the two big changes. MsgFiler now works properly on HFS+ Case-Sensitve partitions and ignores mailbox directories, and Adam has added a new "Hide mailboxes from inactive and offline accounts" feature for the proverbial icing on the cake.
MsgFiler is shareware ($8) and is available from the tow.com web site, Version Tracker, and other shareware distribution sites.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: OS, Bad Apple, Security
The distance between good intentions and actual results seems to be getting longer and longer. While Apple did release a security patch yesterday that included a fix to BIND for the highly publicized cache poisoning exploit -- some time after most other vendors got updates out to customers -- that fix doesn't seem to be, you know, actually working.Multiple sources have noted that Apple's DNS patch, at least on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 client versions, isn't implementing the key feature that's meant to block cache poisoning: port randomization on requests. While the same version of BIND running on Linux systems behaves as expected, Mac OS X machines doggedly issue DNS requests on sequential ports, making them far more vulnerable to spoofing by malicious folk.
This may seem like an esoteric vulnerability, and indeed for most Mac users the more important question is whether or not your ISP or network manager has patched the primary DNS servers you rely on (you can check your DNS server status via Dan Kaminsky's tool here). The behavior of Apple on this security issue, however, is very troubling. Waiting weeks to issue a patch for a key vulnerability and lagging behind other OS vendors is bad enough; shipping that patch only to have the user community discover that it doesn't work worth a bucket of warm spit ... that's not the act of a company that claims to care deeply about the security of its customers.
Update: Kaminsky suggests that we lighten up; Mac OS X Server (which would be the most vulnerable to attack, if it serves as the primary DNS for your network) has been patched, even if the client patch isn't behaving properly yet.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Freeware, iPhone, App Store
It's a week of superlatives for Apple content providers!Tapulous announced that their free game for iPhone 2.0 / iPod touch, Tap Tap Revenge (click opens iTunes) should reach the one million download mark sometime this weekend. Tap Tap Revenge joins Facebook in the million-download club, with Facebook being the first app to reach these lofty heights last week. A visit to the Tapulous website shows a counter ticking off the downloads (less than five thousand to go as of 10:42 AM ET today).
Tap Tap Revenge uses soundtrack music by indie artists and over 2.5 million song downloads have been counted so far. Tapulous is now approaching the major labels on a "Pro" version of the game that would feature music by top stars.
On Wednesday, Walt Disney Co. announced that they have sold over 5 million movies to viewers through the iTunes Store since the company started offering their releases online. While Disney CEO and President Rob Iger noted that although the company doesn't achieve the same margin on online sales as they do through traditional channels, it's the increase in online consumption of movies that the company is focusing on.
[Disney info via Marketwatch]Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Software, Graphic Design
Love it or hate it (with the burning fire of a million angry suns), Quark yesterday released QuarkXPress 8, which features new tools for developing for the web, workspace enhancements, and refinements to tools to finally bring it into the 20th century. Steve Sande mentioned back in May that it was coming, and now it's finally here.
Quark 8, the William Shatner of page layout software (old, bloated, sweaty, and desperate to stay relevant), allows you to create content for the web using HTML and Flash without writing any code. This has been a feature of Quark since QuarkImmedia and Quark Interactive Designer, but now appears to be fully rolled into QuarkXPress, to the abject horror of web designers everywhere.
Also, a new feature: A measurements palette. That's right, it's 2008, and they're adding a measurements palette. Also: east-Asian language support and hanging punctuation. Wow. Well done, Quark.
I've been using QuarkXPress since version 3, and having very briefly tried the new version, it's a little depressing to see them keep trying to reclaim their glory years. Small design shops, freelancers, and many printers have largely moved to InDesign for their page layout software. Yes, Quark 8 is light-years ahead of where they were, but still light-years behind where they need to be.
Quark makes its money on giant-scale installations at newspapers and magazines, so we'll see how quickly their enterprise customers adopt this new version. My guess: not very, as many printers I've dealt with overseas, especially in Asia, are still using QuarkXPress 6.
A 60-day trial is available, and is a whopping 517MB to download. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 and a G5 processor or higher. New licenses are $800, and upgrades are a scant $300. Discounts are available for education and non-profit customers, too.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Retail, Bad Apple, Apple, Macbook Pro
When faced with the dilemma of upgrading my iBook G4 in June, I started looking for a replacement that would have the same performance as my Intel iMac. I decided upon getting a MacBook Pro 15". With money in hand, I eagerly clicked the "buy now" button on Apple's website. Little did I know that I would be trading in my MacBook Pro more than 6 times over the next 2 months. I received my first MacBook Pro, and it was beautiful. I loved everything about it. However, after 2 weeks of use, I started noticing the screen striping symptom that others before me have noted. This problem usually occurred after charging the computer from a half-filled battery and unplugging the MagSafe power cable. I didn't think anything of this problem, since it only happened once or twice. After another week of use, the striping problem started becoming an everyday part of charging the computer. I called Apple and even emailed them the picture that you see above (minus the additional note) -- they did nothing and said it was a "software glitch."
The first MacBook Pro did have another problem: When I went to check my email one day, every program would crash repeatedly. I immediately ran the Apple hardware test (AHT) to find out what was going on. As any unlucky person (me) would have it, the memory sticks were dead. I called AppleCare, told them all of the problems I was having and then told them about the AHT results. They set up a replacement order since I was having hardware problems within the first month of ownership.
Continue reading to learn more about my MacBook Pro woes.
Continue reading Apple's quality dwindling: My MacBook Pro sob story
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsFiled under: Hardware, Mac 101
Is your Mac acting funny? If so, you can use the install disks that came with your machine to test your hardware. To use Apple's Hardware Test (AHT), insert install disk #1 and reboot your Mac while holding down the "d" key on the keyboard (Intel machines only). The AHT software will load and ask for your language -- choose your correct language and click the arrow. From the main menu you can click the "Hardware-Tests" tab. Two tests are available: standard and extended. The standard hardware test will allow you to do a quick, 1-3 minute test of the memory and logic board, while the extended test will run an hour-long test of your system. You can get to the extended test by clicking either a button or check box (this depends on your AHT software version).
Want to see more tips and tricks like this? Check out TUAW's Mac 101 section.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
