Category: Tutorials

Apple has quietly tweaked the Game Center terms of service to add in the rule that whenever you first invite a friend to join your friends list in the gaming social network app, your real first and last names (as entered in your iTunes account) are shown to them. You still use a nickname as a full ID (and Game Center will still show your nickname when you log in to browse achievements or see what people are playing), but when you first “friend” someone, they get to see your real name.

Apple has been able to get away with this one somehow — the iTunes-based Ping social network also makes liberal use of the real name associated with an Apple account when adding friends, but for some reason nobody has made too much of a fuss about it. Consider Apple lucky — when Blizzard Entertainment tried to require real names to be shared on their World of Warcraft forums, their community raised such a clamor that they had to back down and keep the forums anonymous.

But Apple hasn’t had that problem, either because the audiences are different, or just because people don’t care so much about anonymity among their Game Center or Ping friends. We’ll have to see how the community responds to a change like this.

Game Center terms of service updated, real names shared on invitation originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our favorite Wall Street analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, called the iPad “the Mac of the masses” in a weekend analysis of how the iPad was selling in the pre-Christmas shopping runup. That was based on an unscientific observation that the iPad was apparently making inroads among demographics that normally don’t buy Macs.

If my personal observations are any indication, there’s a lot of interest in the iPad among senior citizens. Many of the older folks I’ve talked to are fascinated by the device and find it to be perfect for their Internet usage — email, web browsing, looking at pictures, reading books, and watching videos. It’s incredibly easy to use, it’s fast, it’s non-threatening, and there’s no need to worry about malware.

Given these friendly attributes, I’d speculate that we’ll see a lot of older people getting iPads as Christmas gifts this year. If you’re one of the people who will be on the giving end of one of these holiday transactions, here are some ideas for senior-friendly iPad apps that you might want to pre-install on your gift before you wrap it up.

Continue reading TUAW’s Holiday Gift Guide: 10 iPad apps for seniors

TUAW’s Holiday Gift Guide: 10 iPad apps for seniors originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a great piece of Apple history. In this video (check it out after the break), Steve Jobs gives a demonstration of a NeXT computer. You’ll remember that Steve formed NeXT in 1995 after being ousted from Apple. Years later, in 1996, Apple purchased NeXT after Steve’s return. Much of the current Mac OS X system is built on the OPENSTEP foundation.

You needn’t look too closely to see the predecessors of Mac OS X, like the dock, the services menu, the home directory and windows that display their contents while being dragged. It’s also interesting to hear Steve put the Mac down on a couple of occasions. For a nice illustration of how NeXT features became a part of Mac OS X, look here.

Looking at this, one could argue that Steve’s dismissal from Apple was the best thing that happened to the Mac OS.

[Via Reddit]

Continue reading Found Footage: Steve Jobs demonstrates NeXT Step

Found Footage: Steve Jobs demonstrates NeXT Step originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Financial Times (FT) is reporting today (subscription required) that Rupert Murdoch’s forthcoming iPad publication, The Daily, may be delayed until 2011. Quoting “people familiar to the project,” FT says that the joint venture between News Corp and Apple is likely to debut next year. Neither Apple or News Corp supplied FT with a comment. You’ve got to wonder if the issue of in-store subscriptions is holding up the works, or if the rumored December 9th launch date was overly optimistic to begin with.

The article goes on to suggest that The Daily will cost US$0.99 per week and will be similar to a mid-market tabloid (think The New York Post or the UK’s Daily Mail) in style and tone. Murdoch notes that they’ll need to sell 800,000 regular subscriptions to keep the wheels turning.

While an ambitious project, The Daily won’t be the first iPad-exclusive publication from a major name. Richard Branson’s Project debuted today, and Gourmet Magazine was recently reborn as Gourmet Live for iPad.

[Via Electronista]

Daily iPad publication reportedly delayed until 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Security research specialist Nitesh Dhanjani has demonstrated how mobile Safari’s ability to hide a web page’s URL can be used to trick users. Specifically, his proof-of-concept site shows a “fake” URL filed once the real one has been hidden, preventing users from realizing that they’re not looking at the site they intended to see.

Dhanjani goes on to note that, in situations where a URL filed should be visible, a hacker could simply present the fake one, tricking most users. He offers more detail on his blog, and says that he’s been in communication with Apple about the issue. You can check out a brief video of how the trick works after the break.

[Via MacObserver]

Continue reading iPhone URL display poses potential security threat

iPhone URL display poses potential security threat originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back to our mighty list of daily deals, courtesy the fine folks at Dealnews. Each of these deals are time-sensitive — in other words, get ’em while you can.

• iPhone App Store Freebies: Orient, Road Hog, ARSoccer, more
• iPhone App Price Drops: Perfect Photo, Cabela’s Hunts, LoTR Defense, more
• ZAGG: iPhone Accessories Cyber Monday Sale: 50% off sitewide no minimum
• Buy.com: ZyXEL 2-Bay NAS / Media Server for $90 + free shipping
• HandHeldItems: Up to 70% off select iPad cases + 20% off coupon
  
• Buy.com: OtterBox Commuter Case for iPad for $28 + $7 s&h (our review of the Commuter is here)
• ExperCom: Apple iMac Core i7 Quad 2.8GHz 27″ Desktop w/ AppleCare for $1,849 + $29 s&h
• Buy.com: EyeClops Portable Mini Projector for $35 + free shipping
• TigerDirect: Refurbished Netgear 802.11n Wireless 4-Port Router for $15 + $3 s&h
• iGoneMobile: Mini DVI to HDMI Adapter with 6-foot HDMI cable for $7 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: LightFrame 2 for Mac downloads for $15

Daily Deals for November 30, 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Major League Baseball star Carl Crawford is shopping for a new team, and has sent iPads packed with video highlights of his career to prospective coaches and managers. Specifically, Crawford’s agent Greg Genske is distributing the iPads, according to Business Insider.

If artists can share their portfolios with an iPad, why not pro athletes? The move was a stunt for sure, and a costly one at that. But not to worry, Business Insider reports that if Crawford attracts the US$100 million deal he’s expected to, those 30 iPads will be paid off by his second at-bat (four at-bats per game works out to $33,333 per at-bat). Not bad for a day’s work.

Carl Crawford distributes iPads with “highlight reel” to prospective teams originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPad is launching in several countries today, including Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, and Taiwan. In Taiwan, the device will be carried by several Apple Premium Resellers, including Tsann Kuen, Fnac, Studio A and DataExpress 3C retail chains.

The iPad began its assault on the tablet market in the U.S., then moved over to Europe and Asia. Today, less than a year later, the little tablet is disrupting the long-standing PC market. Its relative low cost and sleek appeal have reeled in shoppers who typically avoid Apple products.

Please send us your stories and pictures of launch day via the comments. We’d love to share in the fun.

[Via 9to5Mac]

Update: Czech Republic pricing can be found here.

International iPad launches today originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the most asked-for features for the second generation of the iPad is for a front-facing camera that can be used with Apple’s FaceTime video chat app. After all, with FaceTime available on every iPhone 4 and downloadable in beta form for Mac OS X, the ability to engage in video-enhanced conversations with friends and family on future iPads is a foregone conclusion.

Now Digitimes is reporting that a supplier for the lens module (optics and CCD sensor) for the iPad 2 has been selected by Apple. Largan Precision, the Taiwanese supplier for the 5-megapixel lens module used in the iPhone 4, filed documents with the Taiwan Stock Exchange noting that the company has been selected as the sole lens module supplier for the iPad 2 with shipments beginning in the first quarter of 2011.

Not surprisingly, Largan is staying quiet about the deal. The web of secrecy that surrounds announcements of new Apple products extends to suppliers, so we’re sure that no confirmation from the company will be forthcoming… not that it’s needed.

The front-facing camera for the iPhone 4 is only VGA quality to allow for higher video refresh rates over Wi-Fi for FaceTime, so we could speculate that this VGA webcam module might be used in the iPad 2. By the way, the 5-megapixel lens module that is used in the primary iPhone 4 camera isn’t shown on Largan’s product page, but an 8-megapixel unit is. Is it too early to start speculating that the next generation iPhone will sport an 8-megapixel camera?

iPad 2 camera supplier selected, remains mum originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Easy come, easy go. Apple has reportedly asked (politely, we assume) PhotoFast not to sell the 256GB MacBook Air SSD upgrade kit we were so eager to get our hands on. In fact, the product page is throwing a 404 this morning.

The kit looked great, and included the 256GB upgrade chip as well as a USB 3.0 housing for the 64GB chip currently in the 11.6-inch Air. Plus, it could read and write at 250MB/s while Apple’s SSD clocks in between 150MB/s and 160MB/s.

PhotoFast is currently licensed with Apple to make Apple accessories through the MFi Program, a privilege that would be a bummer to lose, to say the least. Cheer up, MacBook Air users, and imagine what could have been.

[Hat tip to 9to5 Mac and Engadget]

Apple kills PhotoFast 256GB MacBook Air upgrade kit originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the latest sign of a trend that has been ongoing in the tech industry for more than a decade, Apple has gobbled up another big chunk of land in Cupertino, CA that is being vacated by Hewlett-Packard. Apple recently closed on a deal to buy HP’s 98 acre Cupertino campus for an undisclosed price. The former HP property is north of a 50 acre site that Apple bought in 2006 and east of the main Infinite Loop campus that has been home to Apple since the early 1990s.

Apple has been on a steady growth path, with a stream of new products, since the return of Steve Jobs in the late 1990s; HP has been heading in the opposite direction, having shed numerous traditional businesses in that same time. Apple had $65 billion in sales in its last fiscal year and added 12,300 employees, bringing its total headcount to 46,600. The 57 buildings currently occupied by Apple are reportedly “bursting at the seams,” but the company has not yet provided a timetable or plan for revamping its new campus. Several thousand HP employees that currently work in Cupertino will be consolidated in Palo Alto over the next two years.

This latest move brings the Apple-HP relationship full circle. When Apple was founded in 1976, Steve Wozniak was an engineer working in HP’s calculator division. As with most large companies, HP had a policy that anything invented by employees belonged to the company, even if it was created on personal time. Wozniak offered the Apple I and Apple II designs to HP, but the company didn’t want to get into the personal computer business at the time, which paved the way for Woz to eventually leave and join his partner Jobs at their startup on a full-time basis. If HP had made different choices in the late 1970s, the many innovative products created by Apple over the years might never have been built, and today’s technology landscape would probably be a very different place.

[via Mac.Blorge]

Apple buys former HP campus in Cupertino originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Flickr HD (or flickr hd, as it’s styled in the App Store) just got a nice update recently to version 6.0, and it’s quite an excellent way to browse and view the popular photo-sharing site Flickr on an iOS device. The latest version brings a feature called “Instaswitch,” which will automatically change the picture shown on the app every single minute, right on the minute (I guess it loads up in the background). The app can also display a clock and the photo information on the screen, so you can use your iOS device as a digital photo frame and bring shots in directly from your Flickr account, public photos from someone you know or even Flickr’s own favorites feed.

An update early next month is set to bring even more options into the app, including being able to adjust the time that each picture changes. If you spend a lot of time looking at your iPhone or iPad’s battery charging screen and would rather give it a little something better to do while sitting in a dock or a stand, Flickr HD is a nice app, and it’s on sale right now for just US$1.99.

TUAW’s Daily App: Flickr HD originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan’s Softbank Mobile is subsidizing the entire cost of a 16GB iPad 3G (translated link) for those willing to sign a contract for two years of monthly data plan payments. By agreeing to pay Softbank $56 (¥4,725) a month at least 24 times, customers get the iPad for free — sort of. The way the plan is structured, the monthly payments are actually split evenly between the unlimited data plan and payments on the device.

One of the many upsides to buying an iPad is that, even if you opt for the 3G version, you don’t have to get locked into another two-year AT&T contract. On the other hand, that means you’ll have to pay Apple’s full list price to get one. Japanese customers now have an option to get a 16GB iPad 3G for no up front cost, but they’ll give up a lot of freedom by doing so.

[via Engadget]

iPad 3G available for free in Japan with two-year Softbank contract originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the holiday weekend, we noted that the Glif is now available for ordering (although it’s not shipping quite yet). The iPhone 4 stand / tripod mount gadget is a triple threat: functional, attractively designed and the owner of a great backstory.

The Glif guys wanted to share the experience of producing their product, so they released a short video covering the injection molding process out in South Dakota. If you’re a fan of the Science Channel’s hypnotic How It’s Made show, you’ll dig this clip. It’s embedded in the second half of this post.

Again, congratulations to team Glif on taking their idea from the napkin stage to physical realization.

Thanks to Dustin for the heads-up.

Continue reading Found Footage: Injection molding process for the Glif

Found Footage: Injection molding process for the Glif originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just over a month ago, we told you about a new content and website creation app called Project ROME that Adobe had released for a public trial. We just got a note from Adobe and a link to a forum post saying, in essence, … never mind. Based on feedback from users, Adobe has decided to abandon development of the product after just a few weeks of public availability.

Adobe has not given any specific reasons for canceling ROME, but our own brief trial showed its capabilities to be pretty limited. With all of the content creation software already available and the ease of building sites with content management systems like WordPress or Squarespace, ROME didn’t seem to offer much that was novel. The education version of Project ROME is completely canceled, but the “commercial” version will remain available on Adobe labs for anyone who wants to use it.

Continue reading Adobe gives the sack to Project ROME design app

Adobe gives the sack to Project ROME design app originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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