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Engadget announces first full-software iPhone unlock
Filed under: iPhoneVery late last night, I chatted with Ryan Block of Engadget. At that time, he was happily engaged in making calls on his iPhone using a T-Mobile SIM. Today Engadget announces a full iPhone software-only unlock. According to Ryan, this unlock comes courtesy of iPhone SIM Free.com. I haven't personally tried out the unlock but Ryan writes that he can confirm "100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US".So what does this mean? It means that the iPhone just went International. You can use any SIM on the iPhone using tools like iASign and iActivator, and with the same limitations: namely no Visual Voicemail or YouTube video (at least not without a hack) and your minutes and data are charged per the plan associated with the SIM. Also the phone number seems to go MIA in iTunes, which lists it as "N/A".The unlock adds a new...

TUAW Talkcast #4: Best of the week, more reader questions - available for download
Filed under: PodcastsThe 4th edition of our new TUAW Talkcast went pretty well last night. We had a good turnout of readers joining in on the fun, and we all had a good time discussing things like imaginary iPhone feature updates, that quirky new Apple Keyboard and how well one can type on a glass display without buttons. We also fielded more questions from show participants such as Windows gaming on a Mac mini and how to truly delete images from iPhoto, and I must say: that question & answer segment is becoming one of my favorite parts of the show.We did have a few issues with audio quality, as I think Gizmo was misbehaving a little, but I tried cleaning up as best I could. There's only so much magic software can work on quirky audio, even in Mac OS X. Since we are still navigating the TalkShoe waters however, we appreciate your patience while trying to iron out the kinks, and we'll gladly accept any advice on how to improve audio quality (though we're aware of the...

Rumor: Apple event Sept. 5
Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, Other EventsInfinite Loop (IL) is reporting that their sources "inside" Apple have leaked September 5th as the date of a future press event. Supposedly on the bill: New iPods! Some will run Mac OS X and some will be full-screen. When pressed, IL's source said that AppleInsider's latest report "...seems about right."Of course, this is all speculation, so keep that in mind.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A doubly bad day for AT&T: Second iPhone unlock publicized
Filed under: iPhoneAs Erica announced earlier today, our colleagues at Engadget confirmed a software-only unlock for the iPhone that's got their unit happily working on the T-Mobile network. Fine and dandy, but here's where it gets confusing. The AP/CNN has reported that a New Jersey teenager named George Hotz (with the help of some friends) has also unlocked the iPhone for use with T-Mobile; this unlock is described in the story as taking "about two hours" and involved expertise with "both soldering and software," so clearly it's not the same process as the software-only unlock from iPhoneSIMfree.com that Engadget has verified. Commenters inform me this is the same George who appeared in a YouTube video a couple of days ago with a claimed unlock hack.Aside from the TurboSIM process, these unlocks are the first widely-publicized and (presumably) stable methods of unlocking the phone. What are the odds of two completely different methods of unlocking the iPhone hitting the newswires...

Glasgow Apple Store sneak preview
Filed under: RetailWhile the Glasgow Apple Store is set to open on Saturday, August 25th, a few lucky people - like TUAW reader Mo - were invited to a sneak peek opening for friends and family. Check out Mo's Flickr set for some shots of the store's interior, which features one of those beautiful spiral staircases (here's a view from the top). Thanks for sharing, Mo! Your shots look great.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple Store Glasgow: Your reports
Filed under: RetailApple opened a new retail store in Glasgow, UK this weekend. As usual, we asked any TUAW operatives who may have attended to share their reports and/or pictures. So, did you go, and if you did, how was it? Let us know in the comments. Here's hoping you scored a T-shirt or even the Opening Day Contest's grand prize!If you haven't gone down to the store yet, show us a little love and set the in-store Macs to TUAW!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Embed .Mac Web Gallery thumbnails in RapidWeaver pages
Filed under: Software, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Internet, Internet Tools, .MacThe new .Mac Web Galleries are great, but they unfortunately can only be built by iPhoto '08 and integrated into iWeb pages. Thanks to this RapidWeaver forum post from Günter, however, RW users have a trick for embedding those slick scrolling .Mac Web Gallery thumbnails into their pages. The trick more or less involves creating at least one or more .Mac Web Galleries, opening iWeb and using its new widgets feature to embed one of your galleries in an iWeb page, publishing to a folder and copying the specific piece of .Mac Web Gallery code out of that iWeb page and into a RapidWeaver Blocks page. It isn't exactly pretty, but I think I know of a way to simplify this process, at least for some of you. The way I figure it, if you're already publishing an iWeb page to your .Mac account with your galleries embedded in them, you can just open your iDisk and drill down to Web/Sites, find the page...

Uncle Walt says the new iMac rocks Vista
Filed under: OS, Switchers, iMacEver since Boot Camp was released it has been no surprise to find out that the Intel Macs also make for some of the best Windows machines too (well, if you can bring yourself to install it, that is). Anyway, Walt Mossberg, dean of tech writers, has gotten one of the new iMacs and for kicks installed Vista via Boot Camp. And sure enough, Uncle Walt says he tested it "using Vista's built-in Windows Experience Index, a rating system that goes from 1 to 5.9, with scores above 3.0 generally required for full, quick performance. My iMac scored a 5.0, the best score of any consumer Vista machine I have tested." This was apparently the 2.8GHz machine as he says it was the top-of-the-line model. I know some folks were disappointed with the new iMacs slightly anemic graphics cards, but it's good to know they can still rock Vista if called upon to do so.[via MacVolPlace]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Five widgets for football junkies
Filed under: Odds and ends, Internet ToolsAs I write this, there are 12 excruciatingly long days until the start of the 2007 NFL football season. This year, the best-dressed Macs will have spiffy new dashboard widgets to help us follow our fantasy picks, favorite teams, league stats, and every game nuance we can think of. Here are the top five widgets every football fan needs to have: NFL Kickoff 2007 Countdown 4.0 - If you need to know right down to the nanosecond how long it is before kickoff, this widget is for you. Okay, it doesn't offer quite that much detail, but it will get you within the minute range. The rest you can figure out on your own. WagerWidget - If you like a friendly bet to go with your game, the WagerWidget gives you point spreads, odds updates, and other tips you might need to know before you make that call to Johnny NoFingers. Apple's widget directory - There's all sorts of goodies lurking here, like news feeds for the Cowboys and Raiders. Fantasy...

Leopard welcome video in the wild
Filed under: OS, Rumors Well, lookey here. Someone has posted the welcome video that accompanies build 9A527 of Leopard to YouTube. Of course, we can't vouch for its validity, but it's very cool.As the familiar music plays, we're hurtled through space - Time Machine style - while the word "Welcome" is displayed in several languages, finally landing on a large, silver "X." We love it.One question: Is it October yet?Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

RapidoMap: slick geocoding for free
Filed under: iLife, Odds and ends, FreewareWe've previously covered quite a few different applications to geocode your photos. Geocoding or geotagging is the process of adding location information (latitude and longitude) to the EXIF metadata of your photos, so you can see where they were taken. RapidoMap is one of the newest of these tools and looks to have a couple of particularly nice features. The application integrates a browser for Yahoo Maps which is how you actually locate your photos on the globe. It has an iLife media browser that makes it easy to get your photos in, and a built-in Flickr uploader.Best of all, RapidoMap is a free download from app4mac (points off to them, however, for using an installer package).[via Macworld]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

TUAW Best of the Week
Filed under: Features, TUAW Business, Weekend ReviewWelcome to this week's installment of TUAW best of the week, where we gather up our favorite posts of the week for your easy clicking enjoyment. David Pogue on iMovie '08: "What the [bleep]!"iMovie '08 was not everything we'd hoped. Play Audio URLs from the iPhone Command LineI discovered that the iPhone File system was more flexible than imagined. TUAW Tip: Turn off your remote control infrared receiverEither pair a remote to your Mac or use Security preferences. iPhone now available as refurbThe iPhone takes another step towards affordability. Want an iPod shuffle and have way too much money?The bling is the thing. ComputerWiz disassembles the new and old Airport ExtremesThere's nothing we love quite like hardware disassembly stories. Apple's new keyboards not working for someThe new keyboards are slick, beautiful--and defective.Can you be too thin or too powerful?Between this and the "Fat Nano" are you getting a sense of...

Help with USB problems
Filed under: Peripherals, Tips and tricks, TroubleshootingI have found that strange USB problems creep up occasionally, often with no obvious cause (see, for instance, this week's Ask TUAW comments). I myself have a USB hard drive that sometimes just randomly disappears from my desktop and I have heard quite a few other folks report similar problems. Well MacFixIt has a nice tutorial up that offers some good suggestions from the obvious (unplug and replug) to the not so obvious (replace the relevant kernel extensions). So if you've ever had USB problems, this would be a good one to file away for future reference.[via MacVolPlace]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Analysis: iWork and Office for Mac
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iWorkDavid Weiss is an employee at Microsoft's MacBU, and while he has makes it clear that he doesn't speak for Microsoft or the MacBU, his recent post about iWork '08 is interesting from a couple of directions. He starts with a little self-congratulatory back-patting for Microsoft's embracing an "open" XML file format and talks a little bit about the challenges involved with "starting from scratch" in writing an office application. Most telling, however, is his conclusion. He writes that the "core value of Office on the Mac" is simple: compatibility. What's interesting about this is about what he doesn't say. He doesn't say that the "core value" of Office is getting your work done efficiently, or producing nice documents, spreadsheets or presentations. Basically what we need the MacBU for is to keep us compatible with Windows. And as I've started to play with iWork '08 I think he's more or less correct. Office for Mac is just about compatibility...

TUAW Tip: Open more than 8 windows at once in iPhone Safari
Filed under: Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips, iPhoneReader John Tokash wrote in with this tip that shows how to open more than 8 windows at once in iPhone Safari. Here's how it works: After opening 8 windows, quit Safari. To do this, press and hold Home for 4-8 seconds until Safari quits and you return to your home screen. Next, tap on Weather, wait for the screen to load and tap on the Y! icon at the bottom left. This opens a new screen in Safari. Repeat the quit-Weather-Y! sequence as desired. Downside? The dot navigation at the bottom of the Safari screen no longer works but you can still scroll through all open windows.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Inquisitor updates, and is doomed?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, Software, Internet Tools, AppleInquisitor, a bee-you-tiful Safari plugin that allows you to get instant, Spotlight-esque search results, has updated to 3.0 v43, adding "aesthetic tweaks" (always nice) and slightly better output from Google. The new version is available for free download right now.And unfortunately, it may be the last version-- Dave Watanabe, the creator, writes on his blog that the rumors say Input Manager, which is the construct that Inquisitor uses to work the way it does, may be eliminated in Leopard. And that would leave a lot of plugins, including Inquisitor, out in the cold. It's not guaranteed yet-- some say that while Input Manager may be disabled by default, it'll still be allowed to be enabled when a plugin tries to use them-- but Watanabe says that if Apple ditches it completely, it would mean the end of Inquisitor.Supposedly Apple claims Input Managers are a security risk, but Watanabe is asking Inquisitor...

Fix those Aluminium Keyboard woes
Filed under: Peripherals, How-tosA few days ago, Scott mentioned that some people (myself included) had been experiencing issues with the F3 and F4 keys. Re-installation of the Keyboard Update 1.1 made no difference, and my F3 and F4 keys remained sadly nonfunctional on Apple's slim-line keyboard. Until this evening, that is, when yours truly received an email detailing a way that, in the author's experience, had resolved issues with the F3 & F4 keys. After having run the steps, I too am enjoying Dashboard and Exposé nirvana as Steve intended. So how do you go about fixing this? Read on to find out.Continue reading Fix those Aluminium Keyboard woesPermalink | Email this | Comments

Is it legal to unlock your iPhone?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, iPhoneJust in case you missed it, Engadget did a nice little analysis of whether it's legal to unlock your iPhone or not-- a more and more pertinent question as we get closer and closer to having unlocking solutions become available. In short, it is legal... mostly.The main questions of legality lie around an exception to the DMCA, which allows you to unlock your cell phone "for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network." Under that law and that exception, it's perfectly legal to use an iPhone on T-mobile, Verizon, or any other provider that you can get it to work with. Things really only get prickly when you start selling those unlocked phones, or somehow profit off of selling unlocked phones. Then, Apple and AT&T start to have a case against you for honing in on their business.Oh, and the other fun part is that the DMCA exemption that gives you an out on this one actually expires in...

Subsume: Facebook updates via Growl and Address Book
Filed under: Software, Internet ToolsIf you're looking for the 'next thing' with which to boost your Facebook ninja status, Subsume just might be it. Right now it's an alpha so it's a little rough around the edges, but it primarily displays updates from your Facebook friends with Growl, a TUAW favorite that allows applications to display useful popup alerts when something happens (your song changes in iTunes, new email arrives, a buddy goes offline, etc.). Setting up Subsume is easy, just like with any other app that hooks into Facebook; you're taken to a Facebook login that prompts you for your credentials (if you aren't logged in already), then Facebook asks you to authorize Subsume to display your info. At an interval that Subsume's site doesn't describe yet (remember: it's an alpha folks), the app will check your Facebook account for any status updates from your friends, then display them in Growl's handy, unobtrusive update alerts. For the Facebook obsessed, this could...

Fake loading screens for iPhone
Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, iPhoneThere are tons of iPhone wallpapers out there by now, but this set is extra special-- it's a set of satirical wallpapers, designed, says Josh, to "show off the true power of the iPhone" by replacing the standard loading screen with one of your own. Did you know your iPhone could attract total strangers, create Universal Healthcare, or even resolve global warming? It can-- just as soon as the loading bar completes.I think my favorite is the one shown here, though. Sure, since it's just a picture, you could say that the bar will never finish, so the iPhone will never be obsolete. But as one of the people waiting for v2.0 to buy an iPhone, seeing the bar past halfway at least inspires a little hope that we're almost there.Thanks, Josh!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments