Archive for November, 2007
November 29, 2007
The iPhone launch here in the U.K. has been hotly debated over recently, with all sorts of (lacklustre) sales figures mentioned, and a fair-few inaccuracies in supposedly factual coverage. An investigation by the BBC (being aired tonight) brings the launch yet more dangerous criticism - although on this occasion it’s levelled at reseller Carphone Warehouse, who according to Auntie have apparently been misleading customers over insurance for the iPhone. The reason for the agressive (and inaccurate) upselling? Sales persons’ desire to grab a slice of commission for the insurance sale.
The investigation, as part of the BBC’s Watchdog programme airs tonight, 8pm on BBC1.
November 29, 2007
If you’ve been watching TV during the last few days chances are you have already seen this: Apple has released a new iTunes commercial. The new commercial features Mary J. Blige singing ‘Work That’ out while those iconic silhouette dancers dance around with hip mounted iPods (not an iPhone in sight!).
What do you think about these iPod/iTunes ads? Still cool, or is it time for Apple to come up with something fresh? Sound off in the comments.
November 29, 2007
Well slap my Safari and call me Susan– it seems that the rumors of Inquisitor’s demise (like so many things nowadays) were greatly exaggerated. Apple Reporter points out that Inquisitor, the Safari search plugin that everyone likes so much, has been “repackaged” for Leopard. Originally, we were told that the fact that InputManagers were being discontinued in the new OS would kill off Inquisitor and other Safari plugins that used them, but Inquisitor works.
Of course, as we’ve already noted, noone knows for how long. But it seems that instead of deleting them whole hog, Apple just reined InputManagers in, and Inquisitor was able to stay in business. Good news.
November 29, 2007
Lara Croft is back on the Mac. Feral Interactive let us know that they have released Tomb Raider Anniversary for our favorite architecture.
There are a few hitches– it’s Intel processors only at this point (though a Universal binary is due next year), and like most 3D games lately, GMA video cards are out. 10.4 is listed, there’s no indication of whether the game works in Leopard or not. The good news is that while a lot of Tomb Raider games lately have been terrible, this one is supposed to be a nice return to the spelunking of old. The Windows version got reviewed favorably, but there’s no word yet on exactly how the Mac version looks. We’ve heard good things about other Feral ports– maybe this kind of release is just what Mac gaming needs a lot more of.
November 29, 2007
When the cat’s away, the mice will play.
The cat being Steve Jobs (absent from Apple in 1996) and the mice a team of Newton developers who found themselves alone with 4,000 modems and a video camera. As you’ve undoubtedly surmised, they created an impressive domino-type arrangement of the modems in the halls of Apple.
The video is longer than it needs to be, so skip ahead a bit. While you’re at it, dig the 90’s fashion statements. Flock Of Seagulls Nirvana concert, anyone?
November 29, 2007
We Mac users take our web browsers seriously, which helps account for the fact that there are just so many of them to choose from. For my money the top browser on OS X is Camino (though Safari 3 is closing in fast). Camino, as you can see from the accompanying picture here, makes a big deal out of its ‘Mac Style,’ and it does feel much more at home on a Mac than Firefox does (though the Firefox team is working on that).
Camino is free, as are most browsers these days (Ominweb, I’m looking at you), but that doesn’t mean you can’t chip in to support development. The Camino Project recently announced that they can now take donations. Working with the Mozilla Foundation the Camino Project has setup a way for you to donate money to support the app, and get the added bonus of writing it off on your taxes. Best of all, the Mozilla Foundation will offer a 2 for 1 match until the end of the year, or until the donations reach $10,000, whichever comes first.
If you’re a big Camino user be sure to head on over to their donation page and send ‘em a few dollars.
November 29, 2007
Not all preferences appear in your iPhone Settings application. As I discussed rather thoroughly in my Modding Mac OS X book, it’s not that hard to dig through applications and discover undocumented–or in this case unpromoted–preferences that add spice to your Mac or iPhone. I decided to put the iPhone’s SpringBoard to the test. That’s the app that runs your main home page. This core application contained over a dozen user-settable preferences. I tested them all and selected my six favorites. If you have access to the command line, you can start having fun with these settings yourself. This post shows you how.
Continue reading A half dozen fun undocumented iPhone preferences
November 29, 2007
Fortune’s Big Tech blog has posted an interview with Greg Joswiak, the head of iPod and iPhone marketing. In the interview, Joswiak talks about the evolution of new iPod features and how Apple has taken the device beyond just a simple music player.
Of particular interest (at least to me) is Joswiak’s mention of iPhone application development and sales. He talks about his excitement in bringing “legitimate” developers into the iPhone application space (heh) and promises digital application signatures. Although he spins this as a way to ensure the application on your iPhone is the correct application that the developers intended to ship, it’s also pretty obviously a way to ensure that the application on your iPhone has been vetted by Apple. The apps will conform to a development environment that maintains “security and reliability” while offering “some really cool things”, i.e. no unlocks and a possibly limited subset of the development space.
One thing the article makes clear is that the SDK will not be invitation only. Joswiak says the SDK will bring in grassroots small developers as well as “legitimate” developers, a move he sees as “awesome”.
November 29, 2007
Quick Look is a beautiful thing, and in my view practically itself worth the cost of admission to Leopard. Unfortunately, the more you get used to it, the more annoying it is when you get to a file format that Quick Look doesn’t support. Fortunately, Apple was smart enough to design Quick Look with an open architecture that allows developers to write their own plugins and support more file formats, which Japanese developer Taiyo used to write two excellent plugins.
The first addresses a serious annoyance with the default Quick Look implementation on folders. If you invoke Quick Look with a folder selected in the Finder you’ll get…a picture of the folder icon. Frankly, that’s pretty stupid. Taiyo’s Folder Quick Look Plugin fixes this by displaying the folder’s contents, which is how it should have been done in the first place. Likewise, Taiyo’s Zip Quick Look Plugin displays the contents of zip files.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing more and more of these expansions of Quick Look in the days ahead, which will make this quintessential Leopard feature that much more useful. Both the Folder Quick Look Plugin and the Zip Quick Look Plugin are free downloads. Place them in your /Library/QuickLook/ or ~/Library/QuickLook/ folders and they should work immediately.
November 29, 2007
Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won’t be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don’t forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.
Continue reading iTunes: Free Tuesday
