Author Archive

iPhoto update 7.1.5 released

Oct 27, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Tonight, Apple released iPhoto update 7.1.5. According to Apple, this update “Improves the printing quality of books, cards and calendars ordered via the iPhoto printing service.” A welcome change for many iPhoto users who use Apple’s print services. This update is reminiscent of the Aperture update that showed up last week.

You can update iPhoto by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update), or by downloading the installer package from the Apple website.

Thanks for the Tips, Tony and others!

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First Look: Shelf Life

Oct 23, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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There are many iPhone applications geared towards helping you shop at the grocery store, but none of them can track how old your food in the fridge is. A new application called Shelf Life [iTunes link] hopes to help you out in this area.

Shelf Life keeps an inventory of your perishable groceries and, based on the date each is added to the list, displays either a green or red bubble beside it. The color will let you know if the item is okay to eat or not. Adding an item to the application is as easy as taping the “+” button in the upper right-hand corner — once you start typing a name, the application will predict what you are trying to add. The predictive typing is based on other user input, as are the expiration times.

Overall, this application is extremely solid, and allows the user to quickly input items and see what food is about to expire. With the economic times we’re in, everyone is trying to save, and this application could definitely help you achieve this goal. Shelf Life is now available on the App Store for $1.99. You can also check out our gallery of screenshots.

Gallery: First Look: Shelf Life

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Classics brings a different approach to reading on the iPhone

Oct 23, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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A new application coming soon to an iPhone near you hopes to bring a new experience for reading e-books. Classics.app, which is being developed by Andrew Kazmierski and Phillip Ryu, will allow its users to read classic works of literature … right on their iPhones!

Classics will feature public domain ebooks like Alice in Wonderland, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, and Paradise Lost. Best part of the application? The developers will be offering free updates to owners. With future updates will come a new collection of books. Classics should leave many iPhone owners flipping the virtual pages of books (just remember to charge your iPhone regularly).

Classics will be available soon on the App Store for an introductory price of $2.99. Until it is released, you can watch a short demo movie on their website, and sign up for updates.

For some insight into how Classics was made, check out the designer’s blog.

Thanks for the info, Phil!

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Happy 7th Birthday, iPod!

Oct 23, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Gallery: iPods over the years

It’s hard to believe that 7 years have passed since Steve took the stage and introduced our friend, the iPod. Over the past few years, the iPod has gone from new guy on the block to “funnest” guy on the block. While the basic design hasn’t changed much (for the Classic model at least), the features definitely have. When the iPod launched in 2001, it was basically a FireWire-capable hard drive and MP3 player — nothing more, nothing less.

The first iPod sold for $399 for a 5GB version (which was Mac-only). Apple later came out with a 10GB version of the same iPod for $499. Here’s some fun facts about the first iPod via Mactracker:

  • Codename: Dulcimer
  • Dimensions: 4.02″ H x 2.43″ W x 0.78″ D
  • Weight: 0.41 lbs.
  • iPod OS: version 1.0, upgradeable to 1.5
  • Introduced: October 2001
  • Terminated: April 2003
  • Hard Drive: 4200 RPM in capacities of 5/10/20 GB

To celebrate the iPod’s birthday, we have created a gallery to show the many changes over the years. If you want to brush-up on your iPod trivia, check out Wikipedia’s iPod page. If you have any happy (or unhappy) memories of the iPod, be sure to reminisce in the comments.

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New “Get a Mac” ad: Bake Sale

Oct 22, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Continuing with their recent bashing of Vista, Apple has released yet another “Get a Mac” ad. In Bake Sale [direct video link], PC is selling bake goods to raise money in order to “fix Vista.” Mac asks why, and PC goes on to explain that the marketing team decided to run an “expensive ad campaign instead of fixing Vista.” Mac then offers to help out by buying a cupcake … a 10 million dollar cupcake.

If there was any doubt about these ads being a response to the Microsoft ads, this one should definitely settle it. In our last post, we took a poll to see if anyone was tired of these Get a Mac ads — currently 58.2% of the people that voted say they still like them.

You can watch this new ad by visiting the Apple website, or by using the link to the video file.

Thanks for the tip, Kevin!

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iPhone App Graveyard: It’s where unloved apps go

Oct 21, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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We know of a few iPhone applications that were unloved by Apple. What are we talking about? You know … the cool iPhone applications that developers make — then Apple doesn’t approve of them, and they never see the light of day again (or maybe they do). Needless to say, there are probably more iPhone applications out there that we don’t know about.

That is the basis of the iPhone Application Graveyard — it is a website designed to document all of the rejected iPhone applications. The site is run by Peter Hosey of Growl and Adium fame. Developers can email him tidbits of information about their unloved application, and he will post it to the site.

Which rejected application do you wish you could have on the App Store?

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Apple’s System Preference icon goes “Green”

Oct 21, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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With the introduction of EPEAT Gold rated MacBooks and MacBook Pros last week, Apple has definitely been warming up to the environmental movement lately. So, it was only fitting that they would change a small part of System Preferences to reflect the EPEAT rating.

That’s right, the Energy Saver icon has changed from an old incandescent bulb to a newer, more energy-efficient fluorescent bulb. Now you will only have to change the energy saver icon every 7 years, but be careful when you dispose of the old icons because they contain mercury (just kidding).

digg_url = ‘http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/21/apples-system-preference-icon-goes-green/’;

This change has only shown up on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Do you think Apple will eventually update their entire line to have this new icon (and, of course, be EPA Gold rated)? We definitely hope so!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Perian 1.1.2 released, fixes updating

Oct 21, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Last night, Perian was updated to version 1.1.2. If you need to extend the capabilities of QuickTime, the free Perian plugin allows QuickTime to play back all kinds of popular video formats (.AVI, .MKV, .FLV and more). It’s a handy utility for anyone who watches a lot of video on their Mac.

Here’s a list of the bug fixes/improvements in 1.1.2:

  • Fixed update checker never running - this version requires a manual install
  • Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV
  • Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime
  • Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s

You can download the update to Perian from the project’s website. You can also see the version history list on their support website.

Thanks for the tip, Chris!

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AppLoop brings automated application development to the iPhone

Oct 20, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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With the iPhone SDK, Apple is pioneering a new mobile development platform that is ahead of it’s time; however, this innovation comes with a major caveat: It requires Cocoa (or Objective-C) programming knowledge. You may ask “Why is this a problem?” Well, someone might have a really great idea for an iPhone application, but not have the programming knowledge to back it up and follow through with the idea. This is where AppLoop comes in.

AppLoop is a brand-new service that allows anyone with a web browser and RSS feed to create an application similar to the AP News app and submit it to the App Store — without ever writing a single line of code. Their service works by generating a .plist file on the server side (based on your choices). The file is then passed through a couple of AppleScripts that generates the code based on the choices, and compiles it.

The entire app-creation process takes less than a minute to complete, and you have an application ready to be deployed to the App Store. Ad-hoc versions can be requested in advance of the app being placed on the App Store. Currently, AppLoop is offering the RSS reader application, but they have plans to add additional paid features down the road.

You can find out more information about this service by visiting their website, or by watching the video [link here] above. You can also see a gallery of screenshots from one of their applications.

Gallery: AppLoop demo applications

Thanks for the information, Eric!

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Aperture gets updated to 2.1.2

Oct 20, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Apple just released an update for their professional photo management software, Aperture. Update 2.1.2 “Improves the printing quality of books ordered through the Aperture printing service.” It sounds like this would be a welcomed update by many professional users who rely on photo books and prints ordered through Aperture.

You can download this update through Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update), or by downloading the installer package from Apple’s update download website.

Thanks for the tip, Nik!

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New Get a Mac Ads: Bean Counter and V Word

Oct 19, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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With all of the political mudslinging going around this time of year, Apple has decided to add a different type of mudslinging to the barrage of TV commercials. Tonight, they released two new “Get a Mac” ads: Bean Counter, and V Word.

In Bean Counter [direct video link], PC is sitting at a desk, counting money out into two stacks. The largest stack is for advertising and the smaller stack is for bug fixes for Vista. When Mac questions him, he says that he’s having to take drastic action because of the frustration of Vista users. In the end, PC gives up budgeting and puts all of his money into advertising. This commercial is no doubt in response to Microsoft’s recent advertising strategies. In V Word [direct video link], PC makes every attempt to “beep out” the word “Vista” in the ad.

Sure, these commercials are well thought out and somewhat funny; but is Apple’s mudslinging getting a little old? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to take part in our poll. You can watch the new commercials by visiting the Apple website.

Thanks for the tip, Tony!

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TUAW Unboxes the new MacBook Pro

Oct 17, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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It would seem that everyone is buzzing about the new MacBook/Pro, so I went and bought one! Seriously, it was just to do the unboxing photos for TUAW (Really! Stop looking at me like that!). In the MacBook video, Apple tells us that they have reduced the size of the boxes that the MacBooks ship in … they’re not kidding either. The boxes are roughly the thickness of a ream of paper; and they’re almost half as short as the old boxes.

Gallery: MacBook Pro (October 2008) Unboxing

Take a look for yourself and see the new box design (it’s quite nice). We want to know if you will buy a new MacBook Pro so be sure to take part in our poll below.

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Aw, I just bought a MacBook last week …

Oct 17, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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When I was faced with the decision of buying a MacBook Pro or waiting, I immediately took the leap of faith without knowing if Apple would be releasing a new unit within the next few weeks or not. As it turns out, I was wrong and Apple did release a new MacBook Pro. However, I did not suck it up and go on … I went searching for some answers as to what you can do if you are in the same situation. In this post, I’m going to tell you what I found out.

When you purchase a new product from Apple (either through the online store, or though a brick-and-mortar store) you have 14 days to return the product. With this 14-day policy, Apple also gives you price protection. From my understanding this covers both pricing decreases as well as new products coming out.

When I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple Store, they immediately looked at my receipt and asked if I wanted a new one. I thought, “This can’t be this easy, can it?” There is a caveat with replacing your old machine with a new model: the Apple Store might charge you a “re-stocking” fee. This is a 10% fee based on the initial purchase price. I questioned them about this and they told me that I would be getting an upgraded product. However, I was able to get my re-stocking fee waived after talking with the manager for a little while.

The Bottom Line
If you bought a MacBook/Pro/Air in the past 14 days and want to upgrade to one of the newer models, it definitely wouldn’t hurt to call up your local store (or Apple online customer service at 1-800-MY-APPLE) and talk to them about returning. Don’t be surprised if they tell you about the restocking fee, they told me the same story until I took it into the store. Unlike most computer companies, Apple does try to make the situation right, and most of the time, you come out on top of the matter.

Additional Resources

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Engadget goes hands-on with new Apple products

Oct 14, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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Just in case you missed the Apple event today, they released some pretty neat upgrades to their notebook line, and a new 24″ LED Cinema display. While we were not invited to the fun party, our sister blog, Engadget was — and they took some awesome hands-on photos.

So far, they have played around with all of the products except the MacBook Air. You can see the hands-on pictures by clicking the links below:

You may have noticed from the pictures (i.e. the one above) that the new MacBooks/Pros only have glossy screens (and by glossy, we mean like a mirror). Apple tells me that the screens are in fact glass, and not a plastic overlay.

We want to know how you feel about Apple’s move to all-glossy screens. Be sure to express your thoughts in the comments, and take part in our poll.

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Apple releases MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.2

Oct 14, 2008 Blogs, Technology

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With the new MacBook and MacBook Pro computers shipping today and appearing in stores tomorrow, everyone is waiting to get their hands on one. We can’t say when you’ll get yours, but we can predict exactly what you’ll be doing when you get home with it. That’s because Apple just released a software update for the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. Seriously, they couldn’t have updated them at the factory?

The update is a whopping 45 MB, and is recommended for all users of the “precision aluminum unibody enclosure MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers introduced in October 2008.” (Wow, long description there, Apple).

They note that the update “improves compatibility with external displays and includes a variety of software fixes.” If you somehow (magically, perhaps?) have your MacBook/Pro already, you can download the update by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from Apple’s software downloads website.

Thanks for the tip, Thomas!

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