Home / tuaw.com rss archive / September-24-2007


Office 2008 for Mac versions and pricing announced
Filed under: SoftwareI'm becoming the Microsoft Office Maven here at TUAW it would seem (which isn't as cool as being TUAW's iPhone hacker, Erica, but I'll take what I can get). The latest news from our friends at Redmond concerns editions and price (Oh! Pricing!). There will be three different flavors of Office 2008 for the Mac, and they are as follows: Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac: This is the core version of the productivity suite which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Entourage. This version includes some Automator workflows, as well as Exchange support in Entourage (you'll see why I mention this in a moment). You can pick this version up for $399.95 (US) for the full retail version and $239.95 for an upgrade. Microsoft Office for the Mac Home and Student Edition: This is aimed at the segment of the market that needs to edit documents and such, but isn't in an Exchange environment. As such the version of Entourage included in Home and Student Edition does...

TUAW makes Jisho better, version 2.1.1 out now
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, DeveloperThe other week, we posted about Jisho, a Japanese to English translator for the Mac, and James, the developer, sent us another notice today that he's since updated to version 2.1.1. I can't find a changelist anywhere (and the site still says version 2.1) but James says there's a new intro splash screen, and an enhanced interface and accuracy. So if you grabbed it when we mentioned it last week, make sure to get the upgrade as well.He wants to personally thank you, the readers of TUAW, for helping him make his software better, and we must echo his sentiments-- you guys rock. We are nothing but proud to bring developers like James a great audience like you, thanks very much.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Schiller on unlocked iPhones
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, iPhoneThe Associated Press managed to talk to Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, about Apple's recent announcement that hacked or unlocked iPhones might become expensive paperweights after an upcoming software update is applied to them. (The AP also quoted our very own Erica Sadun on the topic.)Phil says that this isn't about punishing people for unlocking their iPhones, but rather that the various iPhone unlocking apps have 'caused damage to the iPhone software' and that Apple can't be help responsible for what happens to a hacked iPhone.I'm willing to believe that Apple isn't maliciously trying to brick iPhones that have been unlocked. It is far more probable that the update might, under certain circumstances, break your hacked iPhone and Apple doesn't want to spend the time fixing the update to play nice, and they don't want to have to pay for all the broken iPhones that may result.That's my...

Macgamefiles gets a redesign, gives devs more power
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Freeware, Internet ToolsInside Mac Games reports that their sister site, Macgamefiles.com, has received a complete site redesign, its first since the site started up seven years ago. In addition to a whole new look, the site's got some extra new features, too, including lots of new Developer features-- devs can now have control over their own files, and check download statistics, as well as a few other profile-related features.It'd be a real stretch to call the Mac games scene bourgeoning-- a few almost on-time releases from EA does not a market make. But kudos to Macgamefiles for serving up games and demos as long as they have. And giving developers that much more control over how their games are listed and presented is definitely an admirable move as well.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPhone Tech Talks
Filed under: Apple, Developer, iPhoneThe Apple Developer Connection will be offering a series of iPhone Tech Talks in October and early November. The iPhone Tech Talk will give you a chance to ask Apple how to make your Web 2.0 app sing on the iPhone (though probably not literally). Like all of Apple's Tech Talks these events are free to ADC members, but you must register ahead of time because space is limited. The iPhone Tech Talks are taking place in the following cities: Boston, MA 10/09 Philadelphia, PA 10/11 Washington, DC 10/12 Seattle, WA 10/22 Minneapolis, MN 10/25 Atlanta, GA 11/05Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Found Footage: Quicksilver in real life
Filed under: Humor, Software, Video, Odds and ends, Open Source, Found FootageWhen I posted about Mac apps in real life a while back, the number one request I heard in the comments was for Quicksilver. And it wasn't very surprising-- who wouldn't love to implement Quicksilver's genius and simplicity in some way for the real world?And now, Matt McInerney's done it-- he's created this video (from what looks like a bunch of iSight stills-- weird effect and even weirder music) in which, with just a snap, he can Quicksilver up anything on his mind. There's still a few bugs, though-- Garageband pulls up a guitar pick instead of an actual guitar (or a whole garage band), and I don't know what version of Cashbox he's using, but mine never actually gives me money.[via 43F]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Radioshift 1.0
Filed under: Audio, Software, Internet ToolsRadioshift is the latest app from those audio obsessed fellows at Rogue Amoeba. Thanks the to included Radio Guide, which has over 50,000 internet streamed radio programs listed, this app allows you to find your favorite radio show and record it. The power of the app is that it doesn't just record the program once, but it will record every instance of the program. Your favorite radio show airs once a week? Set Radioshift to record the stream and forget it (until it starts to play on your iPod thanks to Radioshift's ability to add the shows to iTunes).It is worth mentioning that Radioshift, out of the box, only records radio shows that offer up an internet stream. You can combine it with the radio SHARK to record Over the Air programs as well though.Radioshift costs $32, and has a free trial available.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hahlo updates to version 2
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools, iPhoneiPhone (although I guess we should really say MobileSafari, since the iPod touch can do it too) Twitter client Hahlo got a nice little update over the weekend. Quite a few things have changed, so I'll just point you to Dean's blog to see all the new features. Basically, as he says, everything that you can do in Twitter can now be done right through Hahlo, including timelines, friends, direct messages, following, and so on. Links have been added inline, and now an @ reply is just a touch away. There are also a bunch of pretty links, including hahlo.com/username, which takes you to the username of the account you're looking for.Very, very nice. Right now, I do most of my twittering through Twitterific, but with an app this nice on the iPhone (errr, MobileSafari), I might not need anything else.[via DF]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Vivendi wants bigger cut of iTunes pie
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, iTS, ApplePoor, poor Vivendi Universal, Apple is really pulling a fast one on them (which I assume is why they didn't renew their iTunes contract). Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said that the contract between Apple and content providers is 'indecent.' It would seem that Vivendi Universal, and other content providers, only get .70 Euros out of the .99 Euro price of tracks on iTunes. It is enough to make you shed a tear, right?I imagine that Levy will only be happy when Apple pays Vivendi 2 euros for each .99 euro track as well as a few euros for each iPod sold (it worked for the Zune!). My question to Mr. Levy is this: out of that .70 euro that you get from Apple for one of your artist's work, how much is going to the artist? I'm betting that amount is the truly indecent one.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

iPod Touch: State of the Jailbreak as of 09/24/2007
Filed under: iPod Family, HacksThe iPod touch jailbreak effort continues to grind forward in slow steady steps. "Martyn", hardware expert and hacker extraordinaire, posted on Craig's List until he found a lady whose iPod touch screen had been smashed. Since the unit was not covered under Apple Care, said lady swapped the dead touch for a nice pretty iPod nano. He took the smashed touch back to his lair and extracted its chips. At this time, Martyn is dumping data from those NAND chips and expects to finish recovering that data by tomorrow morning.It will take some time after dumping the raw data to make sense of that information. Don't expect me to be able to test out the iPod touch applications on the iPhone for some time to come. It is still unclear whether the data is encrypted or not and whether Martyn and his peers will be able to reconstruct the complete file system. Visit the touchdev wiki for more details as they develop.Read | Permalink |&nbsp...

Apple: "iPhone unlockers will end up with iBricks"
Filed under: Bad Apple, Apple, iPhoneHere at TUAW HQ (located on this occasion very much east of the Atlantic ocean), we've been receiving a flurry of tips about a certain press release from Cupertino folks about iPhone unlocking. The short of it? Apple's telling consumers that "unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed." For consumers everywhere, that's a daunting proposition if you've bitten the bullet and chosen to run one of the numerous unlocking applications out there.The word on the street is that Apple, whilst looking for ways ensure customers did not brick their iPhones after a future software update (namely, the one including the iTunes WiFi Music Store), have simply chosen to take the somewhat easier route of stating "Users who make unauthorized modificatio...

How to relock your iPhone before the firmware update
Filed under: Hacks, How-tos, iPhoneApple has your unlocked iPhone in their crosshairs. What do you do? Here's my first go at a re-locking guide. I'll update and confirm as time and feedback permit. This method in no way guarantees that your iPhone will survive the update after being unlocked. If possible, deactivate your iPhone. Use whatever method you used to activate it if your iPhone is not activated with AT&T.Download the 1.0.2 firmware to your computer and unzip it. Extract the ramdisk as such: dd if=009-7698-4.dmg of=ramdisk.dmg bs=512 skip=4 conv=sync Mount the extracted ramdisk. From the ramdisk, copy /usr/local/bin/bbupdater, /usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.14.08_G.eep, and /usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.14.08_G.fls to your iPhone. Place these into a folder on the OS partition (such as /bbupdate) and not into a folder on /var/root. The /var/root partition is set noexec and you cannot run programs from there. Disable com.apple.CommCenter.plist--either...

Wes Anderson premieres new short on iTunes this week
Filed under: iTS, Software, Video, Odds and ends, iTunesThe Wall Street Journal is reporting that before director and filmmaker Wes Anderson releases his new movie The Darjeeling Limited (it's typical Anderson, which isn't a bad thing if you liked The Life Aquatic or The Royal Tenenbaums as much as I did), he'll release a short film called Hotel Chevaliet later this week at Apple stores across the country and for free on iTunes.It sounds pretty awesome-- the new short has a few connections to the upcoming movie, but is a film on its own more than just a teaser or trailer. I'm in Chicago, just a mile or so from the Michigan Ave. Store, so I may head down there on Tuesday night to check it out.And there's one more interesting note in the article-- Anderson says he shot the movie in 2 1/2 days and edited it on his own computer in a week. What kind of computer was that, Mr. Anderson? Could Apple be able to pick up someone to finally defend iMovie?Read | Permalink&n...

Prepaid Data Packages and the iPhone
Filed under: iPhoneI recently had the chance to sit down with my iPhone and a prepaid SIM with a $50 account balance. I really got a chance to see how the iPhone would function with a pay-as-you-go plan and its data plan. What I learned was this: although using iPhone with pay-as-you-go means you can make occasional phone calls when you need to, you'll want to avoid EDGE data and stick to WiFi whenever possible. Here's the complete run-down.Continue reading Prepaid Data Packages and the iPhonePermalink | Email this | Comments

Google calendar receives an iPhone makeover
Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhoneGoogle has released their iPhone makeover for Google Calendar. It's pretty nice. Simply point your iPhone to calendar.google.com and sign in. You'll see each of your color-coded calendars displayed in a iPhone-friendly layout. Touch any day to view its details, and move from day to day with the navigation buttons at the bottom of the page. I did notice one problem. The "Quick Add" field is at the bottom of the page, and when I touched it to enter some text, the iPhone's keyboard rose to cover it, so I couldn't see what I was typing until I had hit "Done." I'm sure this will get fixed before long, but until then, brush up on your iPhone keyboarding skills.[Via David Chartier. Hm, that name's familiar...]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Leopard to exclude 800MHz systems
Filed under: Hardware, OSApple will cull their hardware line a but further with the release of Leopard in October. According to AppleInsider, the latest developer build describes the system requirements as "...an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor." My own 1.25GHz iMac barely makes the cut, which means it will run Leopard slowly, even packed with RAM. Other machines, like the 800MHz PowerBook G4, Quicksilver PowerMac, iMac and iBook, aren't so lucky.And with that, many of us suddenly have "vintage" machines. I remember finally replacing my 333MHz iBook when it refused an install of iMovie, due to screen resolution requirements. Perhaps this experience will finally get the old iMac off my desk.[Via Twitter]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

EyeTV software update supports iPhone, iPod Touch
Filed under: Multimedia, SoftwareElgato's EyeTV software lets users watch, record and schedule TV on their Macs, as well as transfer recordings to the iPod. I've got an EyeTV Hybrid connected to my G4 iMac and it works wonderfully, despite the older processor and modest video card (64 MB DDR RAM). Our own Mike Rose wrote a thorough review in March which you can read here.Today, Elgato announced EyeTV software version 2.5 (available Sept. 25th), which has some cool features. The most exciting is Wi Fi access to your recordings with an iPhone or iPod Touch. Both can connect to a web server running within EyeTV 2.5 (via Safari), browse the EyeTV archive and playlists and play shows with a touch. Very cool. Other changes include: One-click export of files for the iPhone and iPod touch. The EyeTV window can be set to float above all other windows (Yay!) Improved H.264 HDTV playback (This requires at least an Intel Core 2 Duo processor) Time-shift recording for analog...

Wii Transfer 2.5
Filed under: SoftwareI want a Wii, it is true, and one of the reasons I want one (other than the fact that it is awesome) is a small app called Wii Transfer. Wii Transfer is a Mac app that lets you get your media onto your Wii (movies, audio, pictures) amongst other things (and don't forget to check our interview with Manton Reese, Wii Transfer's creator).Wii Transfer 2.5 adds a few neat functions. You can browse your Safari and Firefox bookmarks on the Wii's browser, stream movies, and set background music for picture slideshows.Wii Transfer 2.5 costs $19 and there is a demo with limited functionality available.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Starbucks to distribute iTunes "Song of the day" cards
Filed under: iPod Family, iTS, iPhoneWhen the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks launches in New York and Seattle on Tuesday, October 2nd, the coffee giant will be armed with promotions.First of all, they'll distribute 1.5 million "Song of the day" cards across 10,000 locations. Each card will provide a free single from artists like Bob Dylan (Of course - Steve loves Dylan. In fact, Dylan's "Joker Man" will be the first giveaway), Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews via iTunes (US). They'll be valid until the end of 2007.Also, select Starbucks locations will sell "iTunes Digital Release Cards," which allow customers to download music and bonus materials (like music videos and digital booklets) from artists like KT Tunstall and Eddie Vedder. These must be activated at Starbucks before use in the iTunes Store (US).Finally, they'll also be selling the "Starbucks Card Plus Two"; a re-chargable coffee card that includes two free downloads from iTunes (US).If you're unfamiliar with...