Author: Blancer

It’s much harder to put together a 5-apps post for the Zombie Apocalypse than you might think. Do we focus on serious topics like first aid or do we try to inject a little humor like Plants vs. Zombies for “training skills”. In the end, we came to the conclusion that this was simply too complex a topic to limit to just five app titles. We give you five app topics instead — and we’ve skipped the entertainment component.

In that spirit of deadly serious preparedness training, we give you “5 App Categories for the zombie apocalpyse”.

First Aid

The app store is brimming with first aid applications. We liked the free Know-it-All First Aid refresher app, which seems to have plenty of good reviews and cover the basics. Other well-reviewed apps included Pocket First Aid and CPR ($3.99), and Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide ($0.99). Emergency health response is a vital component of survival during the apocalypse.

Maps

During the Zombie Apocalypse, you’ll want access to a navigation application that uses cached maps. These apps tend to be quite large (typically over a gigabyte) but when the Zombies are after you and the Internet is dead, cached information may be a lifesaver. We recommend Navigon (various prices based on region) and TomTom (ditto).

Survival manuals

App store is home to any number of survival manuals. You may wish to check out iSurvival ($1.99), iSurvive ($1.99), the Army Ranger handbook ($2.99), Wilderness Survival ($3.99), or Survive It ($1.99). TUAW recommends against Zombie Apocalypse-specific titles (e.g. Zombie Apocalypse Manual, $0.99) as they do not provide as balanced coverage as the general topic apps.

Flashlight apps

There are a bajillion free flashlight apps on the App Store, many of them that can enable your built-in LED like this one. Flashlights can help you find your way through the moonless night as you run across the gravel pits. Be careful though. They can draw more attention to you by the hoards of the undead, who are not (despite their stumbling gait) blind.

You can use a free Safety Flasher to signal your compatriots once you know they haven’t been infected.

TUAW recommends against picking up multitool versions of flashlight apps. You don’t want to be measuring shelves or using a level at the same time you’re fleeing for your life. Also skippo the virtual Zippos. They won’t do you any good in a real-world Zombie face-off.

Camouflage

Consider picking up the free Zombie Nombie Lite if you think you may need to enter situations where you must camouflage yourself amongst actual Zombies. Hold the app in front of your face, shuffle and make a lot of moaning sounds. You’ll blend in perfectly.

As a final note, let us point out that apps like the Zombie Survival Guide Scanner are meant for entertainment purposes only. Do not attempt to use these in real life apocalypses.

5 apps for the Zombie Apocalypse originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I am slowly reading through Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs and, like many of you, I’m fascinated by the complex series of events and people who created the Apple we know today. Another good read that covers a portion of Apple history is a e-book series called Timeline.

Written by John Buck, the two-volume set discusses the history and development of video editing from its early beginnings back in 1898 to the recent development of tools like Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Studio and QuickTime. The book ends its coverage in the year 2000.

Apple fans will find the second volume particularly interesting, as it chronicles the events that led to the creation of Final Cut Pro, QuickTime and iMovie. It focuses on the engineers and programmers who created these historic software programs, and the machines that influenced the development of the growing field of digital nonlinear video editing.

You’ll learn about programmers like Randy Ubilios, who created the early versions of Adobe Premiere and then Final Cut when it was developed by Macromedia, and Ralph Guggenheim, a Lucasfilm employee who created the video group that eventually became Pixar.

You can read some excerpts from Timeline at Buck’s website. The book series was released in digital format only and is available from Amazon, iBookstore, Sony Reader store and Barnes and Noble.

[Via The Loop]

E-book series details the evolution of iMovie originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

I am a great fan of your articles on all Apple-related products.

I have a question for you about Siri. I am Dutch, live in Switzerland and work in a international company. How will this reflect on my Siri usage? Even with Voice Control I have a problem. My iPhone is setup in English (working language) but Dutch or Swiss/German names are not picked up well. So, did anyone try this out so far?

Thanks for an answer.

Your loving nephew,

Hester B.

Dear Hester,

Here’s a quick answer, courtesy of the “Talking to Siri” eBook: You can enter phonetic names in the Contacts app. These help with both pronunciation and recognition.

Auntie created a contact for “Sergio Jones” in her address book, making sure to add a phonetic pronunciation field for the first name of “Ser hee yo” (Edit > Add field).

Sure enough, once added, Siri was able to interpret Auntie’s request to “Call Ser hee yo” to the right contact.

The secret lies in using English-sounding phonemes. When Auntie pronounces Sergio correctly — with rolled R, and the non-English-sounding “e” like “air” — Siri will not pick it up. You need to English-ify the way you say it, so you better match what Siri expects.

Auntie’s friend Sjoerd van Geffen regaled her this morning with hilarious stories about trying to make a C-64 pronounce the Dutch “eu” sound. For some names, Auntie is afraid, you’re just going to have to sacrifice the proper vowels.

When talking to Siri with US-English set as your default language, you have to adapt the way you speak: unnaturally enunciated word endings, longer pauses between words than you’re used to, and flatter English-y vowels. Try using “Choord” for “Sjoerd” and “Leak ah” for Lieke.

Your Mac offers a great way to build these up. Use the “say” command from the Terminal app’s command line, e.g. “Say leak ah”. Fortunately Siri is even a little better at the “sounds like” translations than “say” is.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help Siri pronounce Dutch names originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dark Meadow isn’t really my kind of app — it’s a little too scary for my tastes, and I tend to gravitate away from scary games in general. But we did mention it as a quality app in our recent Halloween roundup, and a new update for the app increases the game’s level cap, adds a New Game+ option so you can go back into the fray after completing the game for the first time, and optimizes the game for iPhone 4S users.

The game is sort of an RPG, though it’s basically just an excuse for you to explore the location and story of a mysterious hospital, all rendered in beautiful Unreal Engine 3 graphics. As you can see above, the game looks great, All of your actions are gesture-based, sort of like Infinity Blade. The game’s probably not all that scary for you hardcore game players, but I hear this one evokes a strong mood, and I’m a chicken.

If you’re interested, you can play Dark Meadow as a universal app now for just $1.99, on sale for the update. Happy Halloween! Just don’t get too scared yourself.

Daily iPhone App: Dark Meadow originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“iTat” is a questionable name for a product, but the actual effect of these “iPhone tattoos” looks pretty good. iTat is a system for etching on the back glass panel of the iPhone, which, on the black iPhone, looks like a sort of tattoo. The whole process is being offered by a company called Sirtified, and you can choose a patterned look, etch a picture, or put text on the back of your iPhone in any way you want. Personally I just like the patterns, but I also think subtler is better.

Unfortunately, it’s a DIY process. You put a special vinyl sticker on the back of the iPhone, rub in some “Super Magical Etching Fluid” (likely some mix of hydrofluoric acid, not to be played with), then wait a few minutes while the glass gets eaten away. It only takes a few minutes and sounds pretty easy if you follow directions (in fact, you can buy the fluid in art stores, and try etching even without their kit if you want), but the only assurance your iPhone gets is that it’s apparently easy to replace the back cover if you need to.

(It actually is very easy to swap the iPhone’s back out, though you will need a “pentalobe” screwdriver. In fact, if you’re going to be customizing your iPhone with strong chemicals, it’s a good idea to remove the backside plate first anyway. –Ed)

Still, if you want a nice etched pattern on the back of your favorite device, no pain, no gain, right? If you do jump on something like this, be sure to let us know how it works out.

iTat tattoos up the back of your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Music sharing site SoundCloud has had an iPhone app for a while, but the company has just released a version of the service built specifically for the iPad. SoundCloud generally opted for the dual-pane look in the app, which means you can browse around your friends and their shares, all while listening to and learning about any music you happen to pull up on the side of the screen.

A video of SoundCloud’s app runs through the main features, but you might as well just download the app for yourself — it’s completely free, just like the rest of SoundCloud. There are quite a few apps out there that will let you listen to and browse socially around your favorite music, but if you happen to be a SoundCloud fan or just like the heavy social network integration, you might be excited try this app out.

SoundCloud iPad app out now originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve never heard of a deal like this, but we’ll take it anyway. Halfbrick’s great game Jetpack Joyride (one of the best iOS games of the year, honestly), is being given away for free by none other than Apple. You have to be a Facebook member, but if you ‘like’ Apple’s official App Store Facebook page, you can get a code that will nab you a free copy of the game from the App Store.

The one catch is that you have to essentially allow Apple access to your information on Facebook, but all it’s asking for is to have that information (which might be public on your profile anyway, depending on your settings). It’s worth nothing that the company doesn’t ask for the right to post things on your profile, though those concerned about that probably won’t take the deal anyway.

At any rate, as long as you’re OK with seeing your name attached to Apple on Facebook (and this is an official Apple account), you can get a free Jetpack Joyride code! Enjoy.

Get Jetpack Joyride for free from Apple via Facebook originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Lossless, also known as ALAC, is a lossless audio codec Apple developed some time ago for digital music. The codec compresses music files anywhere from 40-60 percent of their original size with no discernible loss in audio quality or fidelity. “A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical to the original uncompressed audio file,” according to its description. iTunes on the Mac and virtually all of Apple’s portable devices support the codec, and it’s been my personal format of choice when ripping songs from a CD source.

The big news today is that ALAC is now open source. “Apple Lossless Audio Codec sources are available under the Apache license,” according to Mac OS Forge, and the project “contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder.”

The project also includes alacconvert, a command line utility that can read and write audio data to and from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. “A description of a ‘magic cookie’ for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well,” Mac OS forge says.

Open sourcing ALAC may or may not lead to more widespread adoption of the codec, but for purely selfish reasons I hope it does. While FLAC fulfills many of the same functions as Apple’s in-house lossless codec, it has no support on iOS devices, and re-encoding FLAC files into something that iTunes won’t choke on has always been a pet peeve of mine. If more people begin adopting ALAC instead of FLAC, it’ll make life a lot easier for audiophiles.

[via Vincent Gable/twitter]

Apple’s ALAC codec is now open source originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over at the New York Times’ Bits blog, Nick Bilton has added his well-sourced voice to the rising chorus of yea-sayers on the rumor of an Apple-branded television set, arriving at some date yet uncertain. Bilton’s reporting, stretching back over a year, leads him to believe that while Apple isn’t yet manufacturing televisions, the company is within striking distance; it could announce a product by the end of next year and begin shipping in 2013. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Bilton says.

While rumors of an AppleTV-with-a-TV product have been percolating for years (Bilton pegs 2007 as the start of internal awareness at Apple that such a thing would someday happen), the recent resurgence of the concept is driven in part by a quote in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. The late CEO reportedly said “I finally cracked it” regarding the secret formula for simplifying and enhancing the TV interface.

Bilton believes that Siri’s intelligent assistant is the key for controlling a TV, giving the program guide a massive shot of search savvy and friendliness. Apple’s put some serious talent behind the project, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek; they report Apple’s lead engineer on the TV project is Jeff Robbin, who joined the company in 2000 as one of the original designers of SoundJam MP at Casady & Greene; that app eventually led to iTunes.

An Apple TV would presumably tackle the wide variance in TV sizes and capabilities with a MacBook Pro/iPhone approach of ‘fewer choices, less confusion,’ but it’s less clear how the company would meet its own expectations for profitability in a challenging market. Getting content and collaborating with other TV providers could be a sticking point, especially without the legendary negotiating skills of Steve Jobs, and Apple hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with its existing iOS-based TV product. We’ll have to wait and see.

NYT: Siri-powered Apple HDTV is definitely coming originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Cerulean Studio made an alpha version of its Trillian software available for the Mac in early 2010, I wasn’t very impressed. There were no buddy icons, the product didn’t resemble the images released for it, there was no group chat support, a good many of the options didn’t work, therer were no chat logs and more. At the time, I recommended sticking with Adium or Pidgin.

I’m very pleased to say that nearly two years later, Trillian has developed into a solid text-based instant messaging client for the Mac.

Trillian is available as a free download in the Mac App Store now, and it has gone through a vast number of improvements. While there’s still not as many features as Adium, it’s a solid client. Like Adium, it has integrated Facebook and Twitter, and I actually like these features better on Trillian than Adium.

It also syncs with the free Trillian for iPhone, which means you can start a conversation on your Mac and pick up where you left off on the iPhone if you need to run somewhere. The sync is the standout feature for Trillian, and for those of us who need to maintain IM sync on the go, that might be the feature that gets you to use this.

You still have to register for a Trillian account if you don’t have one, but since you gain syncing ability for chats and settings, it’s not as nitpicky of an issue as it was for me last year.

Some of the cons I found last year still exist. There is still no group chat ability, which prevents Trillian from adding IRC. It’s light on customization, for that you’ll need Adium. There’s no audio/video/Skype integration, but that’s something I’ve lived with regardless because I use Adium. Not all the buddy icons come through OK, the most success seems to be the ones associated with AIM and Yahoo accounts. You can log chats now, which that alone makes it worth considering for me as a Mac client. I like the way the chat logs are handled. Right click on each user, and you can access the history, including a calendar for easy access to certain dates.

Trillian Pro is available for $12 a year, which allows chat logs to be stored in the cloud and no ads, though there are currently no ads in the Mac version anyhow.

If you need a solid text-based IM client with updates handled through the Mac App Store and syncing, Trillian is a good way to go. If you want more features and customization, stick with Adium. If you want audio, video or Skype, you’ll be stuck juggling multiple clients regardless.

Daily Mac App: Trillian originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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