Home / tuaw.com rss archive / August-27-2007


Penny Arcade game coming to Mac next year
Filed under: Gaming, Humor, SoftwareThe Penny Arcade Expo was held this past weekend in Seattle, Washington, and we got lots of news about the Penny Arcade videogame, officially titled (you might want to sit down for this one) Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. I told you it would be long.The game is scheduled to appear on PC, Mac, and Linux (as well as downloadable on consoles) in 2008, and will feature a robust character creation system, and all of the Penny Arcade characters. The "Episode One" part also hints at what might be an interesting mechanic-- you'll be able to create a character in the first game, and then carry that character over other episode releases. Joystiq reports that the game looks good, and should be a fun, if short, experience.So look for an interactive Penny Arcade on your Mac next year. And in the meantime, watch out for those Claw Shrimp. They're vicious.Read | Permalink | Email...

Shawn Blanc interviews Brent Simmons
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, AppleBrent Simmons, creator of the beloved NetNewsWire RSS app, is a talkative guy. We've chatted with him quite a few times about various Mac issues, and late last week he gave another interview to Shawn Blanc over at his website.The interview is mostly about NetNewsWire-- the inspiration for its various features, and the development process Simmons goes through (he writes way more code than he ever uses, and calls himself an "anti-packrat"). There's also a picture of Simmons' workspace (above)-- he works on a Cinema display hooked up to a 17" iMac, with a 17" PowerBook around for PPC testing. He also has a HappyLite Sunshine Simulator right there-- I would think shining a light in my face every morning would wear me out, but he says it helps his Seattle existence, and if it gave us NNW (3.1 is on the way, we're told), I won't argue.Always a good guy, that Simmons, except that he's a little indecisive--...

Beta Beat: Parallels releases Beta2, with Shared Folders improvements
Parallels has dropped a new version of their beta release, and it looks good. In addition to a Coherence improvement that now lets any Windows window appear in full preview style on the Dock (as well as show up in Exposé), Windows and OS X can now share the contents of their home folders. That is really awesome-- now, your My Documents and Home folders can share exactly the same contents, so you don't have to worry about where things are being saved, or whether one OS can access the other's information. Finally, it really is like running two operating systems on the same computer, because you can access the same files in the same places in both OSes.Very nice-- this is exactly the kind of stuff people were dreaming about when Apple switched to Intel. The new beta2 for Parallels 3.0 is available for free download with a 3.0 license, and you can get it right here.[via Ars Technica]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

System Preference changes, new Preview toolbar in latest Leopard build
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Apple, LeopardThe latest Leopard build has dropped, and screenshots, legal or otherwise, are making their way out into the world. Over the weekend, we posted what looks like the opening movie, and here's a shot of Leopard's System Preferences screen. There are a few changes in there-- the Dashboard and Exposé panel is now called "Exposé and Spaces," and quite a few of the icons, including the Dock, Displays, and Sharing icons. And as reader Dave told us, the Control key on the Keyboard and Mouse icon no longer has the Open Apple. Sad.Apparently there's also a new toolbar for Preview.app as well, but I haven't yet seen a screenshot of that one yet. October is just over a month away!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Swift Publisher 2.2 is ready for Leopard
Filed under: Multimedia, SoftwareEarlier today, BeLight released version 2.2 of Swift Publisher, their nifty page layout application. If you're unfamiliar, Swift Publisher does a very nice job of making flyers, bookets, catalogs, etc. I used it for a couple of small projects, and enjoyed the experience.Version 2.2 brings the following changes: Compatibility with Leopard Improved iPhoto import New default zoom setting Various bug fixesSwift Publisher requires Mac OS 10.3 or later, is universal and a single license will cost you $44.95US.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

GTD with VoodooPad
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Productivity, Tips and tricksChris at Trichech.us has written up a short guide (and included a useful little AppleScript) on how to run GTD in VoodooPad, the get-it-down quick application that we love so much here at TUAW.Basically it revolves around a series of tags-- if you have a task that needs to be done in a certain context (such as home or office, or even as specific as "at the computer" or as general as "thinking"), you just tag it with @ and then whatever the tag is. When the script is run, it grabs all of the tagged lines, and combines them all on one page, so you have an at-a-glance look at what needs to be done where. And you can even date items, and see them placed on the "Actions" page as well.The big problem with me and any GTD plan is just that I tend to be so picky-- if a system doesn't work exactly the way I want it to, I tend to get lazy and start ditching it for good old pen and paper again (which causes me to...

Create your own iPhone remote application
Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Developer, iPhoneOne of the good things about the "very sweet solution" of iPhone development is that you don't need any special tools or too much knowhow to create neat applications-- if you know a little HTML, a little PHP, and have access to a text editor, you can come up with some pretty cool stuff. This tutorial from IBM's DeveloperWorks is about as simple as it gets, and yet it shows you how you can use your iPhone as a remote for iTunes, Keynote, or any other AppleScript-able applications on your Mac, with no jailbreakin' necessary.Of course, as he mentions at the end, Telekinesis did most of this stuff early on, so if you've got something standard that you want to do (like control iTunes), you don't need to write the code yourself any more. But combine the tutorial with any other custom AppleScripts you've written (or might write), and a lot of possibilities open up in terms of what you can do with your computer, straight from...

TUAW Talkcast #4: Best of the Week & more - Join us tonight!
Filed under: PodcastsIt's that time of the week again folks - the TUAW Talkcast is once again upon us! Our regular host Michael Rose is taking the week off, so I'll be taking the hosting reigns for the night. Join TUAW bloggers Dave Caolo, Erica "iPhone Pwner" Sadun, Mike Schramm and myself for a discussion on the week's big news, hopefully some live Ask TUAW where we field your questions and yet another trivia contest for a TUAW shirt! After the show is done, we'll open up the lines so everyone can chat before calling it a night.To participate or listen in on our TalkShoe-powered Talkcasts, register (free) at TalkShoe.com. This will give you a pin you can use to call in with a regular or VoIP phone. If you want to text chat with us and other participants, you'll need to download and sign in with their java client as well. If you can't be with us tonight though, don't worry - as usual, we'll provide the recording for download and via our TUAW Podcast feed (RSS and iTunes) within...

The zunePhone
Filed under: Humor, Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPhoneMark sent us this silly mockup of a zunePhone that his coworker made, complete with the signature commercial music for the iPhone (which is actually called "Perfect Timing (This Morning)" by Orba Squara, available on an iTS near you). What's up with that hand? Did he actually animate it using stills from the real commercials? If so, A for effort, even if it does end up looking a little strange.The flashing 12:00 makes me laugh (as does what happens to the Polaroid after it's done developing), but otherwise, this phone is pretty much what you'd expect from Microsoft-- a blatant copy, only done messier, tackier, and much, much later. Good times.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sending QuickTime movies with Entourage
Filed under: TUAW TipsThey say that necessity is the mother of invention, but personally I'd nominate frustration instead. Lots of the time, the things you need to do, or think you need to do (get more exercise, pay your taxes) get pushed off or procrastinated into irrelevancy, but the things that frustrate you -- even if they're below the radar -- will drive you to the point of saying "I'm going to fix this @!#*& problem no matter what it takes!" Inventions motivated by frustration tend to be quick hacks that provide at least a momentary sense of achievement, if nothing more.If I wasn't deeply frustrated with the QuickTime Pro feature that lets you quickly email a movie, but only if you use Mail.app as your email client, I wouldn't have spent the time and energy to whomp up this Applescript. Entourage users can throw it into the Entourage script menu, or stash it in a quick-run location or under a hotkey if you want. All it does is export the frontmost movie from QuickTime...

iPhone: it is all about the firmware
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software Update, iPhoneMany people are eagerly awaiting the big, big software update for the iPhone. You know the one, it'll add full Exchange support, chat, and free money for everyone! However, Russell Beattie thinks we're all overlooking one point: the ease of updating the iPhone.Russell makes a great point, and one that I have been thinking about myself. We all have lots of electronic devices which are all running some flavor or another of software. When was the last time that software was updated? And how was the software update experience? Now compare that to the fast click at which Apple is releasing updates, minor though they may be, and how easy it is to apply them. Night and day, at least in my experience.Once again the Apple experience is leading the pack here.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

American Photo and Apple team up to find the next great photographer
Filed under: Odds and ends, AppleI am sure there are more than a few photographers out there reading TUAW (Mac users are a creative lot), so this is for you. American Photo is looking for the next great photographer by scouring the web for amateur photographers to feature in a special upcoming edition of their magazine. Apple has created a special plugin for Aperture which lets you submit your photos to American Photo's 'Portfolio Review' and get them in the running for publication (which is available for download).American Photo suggests you check out Aperture's free trail, but I assume if you have a full version of Aperture the plugin will work just fine.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Why, hello there.
Filed under: Odds and ends, TUAW BusinessI had my own personal unboxing of the new 24" iMac (yes, it's every wonderful thing you've heard, and more) and sat down to migrate all the info from my old Mac. Just as I was thinking life couldn't get any better, I got an invitation to join the TUAW team. I fainted, but of course made sure to fall sideways so I didn't mar the Mac's beautiful, glossy screen. Now that I have regained consciousness and finished installing all the important apps (the triumvirate -- Firefox, Adium, and Skitch), I'm all set to start blogging. If you get around the Weblogs, Inc. network at all, you may know me from Download Squad and DIY Life. I'm sure I'll have just as much fun here as I do there and, hey, maybe now I can justify getting that iPhone. All in the name of research, right?Permalink | Email this | Comments

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus adds OTA HDTV
Filed under: Hardware, MultimediaWe've covered the Elgato EyeTV 205 before, but now the Mac video peripherals company has pushed out a substantial revision, the EyeTV 250 Plus, which adds over-the-air HDTV capability. The Plus model is in many ways like the EyeTV Hybrid, and requires a beefy Dual G5 or Intel machine to decode the HDTV stream, but like the older 250 also includes a hardware encoder for digitizing analog sources (e.g. video tapes, etc.). In addition to the included EyeTV PVR software the the 250 Plus ships with Roxio Toast 8 Basic to allow you to burn recordings to disk.The EyeTV 250 Plus is $199.95 and is available now.[via MacMerc]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well hello there!
Filed under: Odds and ends, TUAW BusinessGreetings, TUAW readers. England calling! It's great to be here, writing alongside a great team of Apple-loving bloggers. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that I'm joining from Download Squad just like fellow newcomer Lisa Hoover, and boy am I excited. Us Europeans, whilst lacking the iPhone, iTunes Video Store and the (relative) inexpense of Apple products, love our Apple kit just as much as the rest of the world, so you can imagine my reaction at being offered the chance of writing for the motley crew fine folks here at TUAW.I look forward to seeing where the next year takes us - and playing a part in bringing you all the greatest things to do with your Apple gear!Disclosure: I am a free-lance contractor with a company whose product has been covered on TUAW in the past. Readers should also be aware that there are impartiality clauses we agree to adhere to as part of our contracts on ANY Weblogs Inc property.Permalink | Email...

TUAW Back-to-School Giveaway Day Ten: iPod nano
Filed under: TUAW BusinessGet 'em while they still exist in their current form factor: today's prize is an iPod nano. Again, you pick the color. The catch? Apple has to actually make a nano in the color you request. It was the same deal for yesterday's shuffle giveaway, sorry all you ColorWare fans.To enter, leave a comment on this post between 5AM and 11:59PM EST on August 24. Validate the comment for it to qualify, and only one per person please. Full rules on our TUAW Back-to-School Giveaway page. Good luck and thanks for reading!Permalink | Email this | Comments

Uncle Steve's Benz on Google Street View
Filed under: Steve JobsYou've no doubt noticed the addition of Google Street View to certain locales in the US. It provides street level pictures by means of roving Google vans (and cars). Anyway, they've now got a view of Waverly Steet in Palo Alto, which just happens to be the home of our favorite CEO, complete with license plate-free Mercedes. So courtesy of Google you too can engage in a little cyber-stalking. (Somehow I think I'm already regretting this post, but the public's got a right to know!)[via Digg]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Walmart Photos QuickUpload for Safari
Filed under: Cool tools, FreewareI use Walmart's online photo service quite a bit; it's cheap and quality is rather good for the cost (if a bit too dark). The best thing about it is that that you can upload your photos from home and pick them up an hour later at most Walmart locations for 19 cents each (4x6). The downside is the web browser form-based uploading. You have to select the images one by one, which obviously takes forever if you have a lot of pictures. Naturally enough they have desktop software for Windows, but not Mac. However, I recently had a lot of photos to upload and started digging around their site for a better solution. After a lot of clicking, I finally came across a deeply buried and hard-to-find little gem: the QuickUpload plugin for Safari. If you download and install it (I've only tested it with Safari 2), it will allow you to select and upload an indefinite number of photos much more easily. So what I do is export the photos I want to print from Aperture...

Software bundle offered for school-bound Mac users
Filed under: Software, Productivity, Education, Internet ToolsIf you're on your way back to school this year, or you know someone who is, a new MacToSchool software bundle could save you some cash. Featuring twelve apps ranging in appeal and actual usefulness, this bundle offers $300 worth of software for $49.95. Included in the MacToSchool package are apps like Clockwork, a simple desktop timer, WriteRoom, the popular full-screen text editor that helps you focus on your writing, a family history app, a calendar-based financial planner and more. Pencils Down - a test building app for teachers - is even included, making this package appealing to the other side of the education fence that, as the husband of a high school English teacher can attest to, often doesn't get the attention and discounts it deserves. The typical price you would have to pay for even a few of these apps could easily add up to $50, so this could certainly be a valuable package. Each app at the MacToSchool.org...

Date set for Kentucky Apple Store
Filed under: RetailA couple of months ago, TUAW operative Kelly noticed listings for Apple retail positions in her home state of Kentucky. Then, reader Chris sent in this spyshot of the barricade in front of the future store.Today, the Courier-Journal.com has announced an opening date for this store: September 8th. This will be Kentucky's very first Apple Store, so expect long lines and excited shoppers. You'll find it on Shelbyville Road near Mall St. Matthews and Oxmoor Center.If you attend this opening, let us know! It should be fun.[Via ifoAppleStore]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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 peak 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

Maybe iMovie '08 isn't such a bad change after all
Filed under: iLife, Software, BlogsMany folks who were used to the array of features iMovie '06 offered were understandably upset when iMovie '08 uprooted just about everything they knew. After all, they had the figurative rug pulled out right from under them. Eric at no one sequel, however, doesn't see this as a bad thing. Eric's entire post is definitely worth a read, but to summarize: while iMovie '06 is a good product, it doesn't exactly live up to the Apple and iLife reputation of "just working." iMovie '06 users need to learn a little too much about video editing - time codes, time lines, "rendering", etc. - causing a significant portion of the public to avoid the practice altogether. I agree with Eric - perhaps it isn't Apple's job to bring pro features and workflows to the general user. Instead, maybe it's their job to to eliminate the need for those features to exist in the mind of said user, greatly simplifying the barrier to entry in video editing so that more can...

New iPhone class action filed in NY over iPhone SIM lock-in, international roaming fees
Filed under: Hardware, iPhoneYou know what they say: let the good times class action lawsuits roll! Or something like that. The latest in what I'm sure is to be a long list of iPhone-related class action lawsuits was filed in New York today over the iPhone's SIM card lock-in, as well as what the plaintiff alleges is Apple withholding of information on roaming data charges. The plaintiff, Herbert H. Kliegerman, wants the iPhone unlock code, and he also wants to restrain Apple from selling iPhones without disclosing both that the included SIM cards are locked to AT&T, and that users could incur roaming data charges when traveling internationally. We have a PDF of the lawsuit (sent to us directly by the plaintiff), but considering the facts that: Kliegerman's complaints seem to have much more to do with AT&T's practices than Apple's US SIM cards, to my knowledge, are always locked to their particular provider, meaning travelers have always had to purchase...

PodBrix to sell young Jobs and Woz figures
Filed under: Accessories, Steve Jobs, The Woz, Apple HistoryPodBrix produces nifty lego figures that commemorate moments in Apple history, like the 1984 ad and a Steve Jobs keynote (I've got this one), as well as other things. Two days from now, their next creation will go on sale: The young Jobs and Woz playset. While the Woz works on a circuit board, Jobs has another idea (yes, the thought bubble is a part of the set). PodBrix has only produced 300 of these, and they typically sell out in minutes. Set your watches for 9:00 PM EST on 8/29/07. Good luck, and let us know if you get one!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPhone double header: First native IM client AND first native IRC released
Filed under: Software, iPhoneBig news today on the iPhone development front. This morning brings the release of both a native instant messaging client and a native IRC client. Apollo IM just entered Version Negative 1, an early beta release. It is available as well via Installer.app. Apollo IM has been developed by "Arminius" and offers iPhone-native instant messaging capabilities. Future releases will support file transfer as well as MSN/Yahoo/Jabber/Gtalk support. "Pogi"'s iRCm provides a GUI-based Internet Relay Chat client for your iPhone. You can join channels, issue raw IRC commands and take part in conversations. iRCm is available for download at Google Code, and packages have been loaded for both Installer.app and PXL. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Native_iPhone_IM_client_and_native_iPhone_IRC_client_released'; Both applications have been developed with Shimmer/PXL, the iPhone auto-updates library. Shimmer allows iPhone code to "call home" and update themselves...

iPhone GUI Inconsistencies: Take 1
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhoneThe iPhone offers many ways to send mail. Unfortunately, consistency is not the strong point here. You'd imagine Apple would have designed a single universally recognized "compose email" button and placed it more-or-less in the same place for each application. You'd be wrong. Here's a quick run-down of several extremely different ways to create a new message across several programs: Compose Button. The compose button, which looks like a square with a pencil through it, appears at the bottom right of many Mail screens and in the SMS Text application at the top-right of the screen. The Reply/Forward button appears just to the left of the Compose icon in Mail. Tap this to reply to a message or forward it on to another party. Envelope Icon. In the Notes application, the envelope icon appears on the bottom of the page, to the left of the garbage can. Tap it to email the current note. Use-For Icon. The use-photo-for icon appears at the...

TUAW Back-to-School Giveaway Day 11: TUAW t-shirt
Filed under: TUAW BusinessWelcome to Monday, first day of the work week for those of us with such desk-chaining schedules. Today's prize is a way to brighten your Monday: a t-shirt! No, not a cool "Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays" tee, like this one. It's our limited-edition TUAW shirt, the first of its kind, with supplies running pretty low at this point (we're hoping the winner wears a small, but we'll accommodate as we can). To sweeten the deal, today's winner also gets an Ambrosia pack, complete with t-shirt, cap, mug and neat-o pack of playing cards.To enter, leave a comment on this post between 5AM and 11:59PM EST on August 27. Validate the comment for it to qualify, and only one per person please. Full rules on our TUAW Back-to-School Giveaway page. Good luck and thanks for reading!Permalink | Email this | Comments