Author: Blancer

Bad news: the Girl Scouts have discovered an easier way to sell you those dangerously delicious cookies, and it’s through an iPhone. Starting this year, the Girl Scouts of America will be taking payments for their annual cookie sales through Intuit’s GoPayment app, available on iOS. That means that if you fall apart and give in to that Samoa craving at the grocery store when the little girls keep bugging you, you could see your credit card information punched straight into Apple’s handheld. The organization is getting a break from Intuit on the credit card fees, and interested troops are getting a free reader to use during the cookie drive.

We’ve been seeing the iPhone used as a payment system in quite a few places, but outside of the Apple Store this will likely be one of the biggest tests of the solution so far. Just remember: while it might sound nice to have a Thin Mint box or two right now, those things disappear fast once you actually start eating them. Use and consume at your own risk.

[via 9to5Mac]

Girl Scouts using iPhones to sell cookies now originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s online store is currently offline. This isn’t entirely unexpected; rumors have swirled around for weeks suggesting that the MacBook Pro is due to get a big upgrade, including faster CPUs and a new high-speed connection technology based on Intel’s “Light Peak.” Supposedly, Apple will call this new technology “Thunderbolt,” and it will deliver connection speeds far faster than USB or FireWire.

We’ll keep an eye on the store and let you know what we find when it comes back up.

The Apple Store is down, new MacBook Pros inbound? originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve covered RedEye’s IR dongle for the iPhone a few times. Originally, it was introduced as a complete add-on for the iPhone that allowed you to control any entertainment center reached by infrared. Over time RedEye has pushed to simplify the unit more and more, instead providing a cheaper and smaller experience.

Now the company has done that again. While the original iOS app offered a lot of different customization and functionality, the new RedEye mini app offers a straightforward TV remote experience. It’s free, like the full app, but instead of having to customize everything exactly the way you want it, you can get a simple channel changer and volume control to use on your iPhone.

It’s been interesting to watch companies like this learning what Apple already knows: while power and customization definitely drives part of your audience, the real way to sell a product is to make it easy to use for anybody who picks it up. I’m sure some people prefer the more complex, self-designed system (myself included), but if you want to aim for a larger market, simple and easy is often best.

RedEye launches mini app for IR plugin originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve had an iPhone app for DirecTV for quite a while now. It allows you to program your DVR directly from your smartphone, and it works well enough. Now, the satellite giant has announced an iPad app that will do the DVR programming, but also allow you to control your TV, customize the program guide, check sports scores and easily find programs you want to see.

With the extra real estate on the iPad screen, DirecTV can offer a much richer experience than the iPhone app, and from the preview on the DirecTV site, it looks like a great option for customers. Using the standard DirecTV remote to find programs is pretty painful, because navigating the onscreen keyboard involves lots of clicks and easy frustration.

There’s no delivery date for the app, which will be free. DirecTV says it will be “soon.” One catch: DirecTV says you’ll need a certain receiver and remote to use some of the services, and it sounds like the connection will be made on a local Wi-Fi network. The fine print also suggests that “in rare instances, scheduled recordings may not be recognized,” so the system may not be quite ready to completely depend on. Still, when you just want to make a few changes using a little better UI, the iPad app should serve. We’ll keep an eye out for it.

DirecTV announces remote control app coming soon to iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Halftone (currently US$0.99), a new iOS photo app from Juicy Bits Software, wants to be the app that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a photographic time machine. Juicy Bits is the company that created the cool 3D Camera Studio for iPad ($3.99) and 3D Camera ($1.99) apps that provide a way to create 3D anaglyph, stereogram and “wigglegram” images.

A Short History of Halftones

Back in the ancient, pre-digital days, there used to be a way of consuming news, entertainment and sports content called “reading the newspaper.” Whenever there was a major news event — the Kennedy assassination, the Apollo moon landings, and so forth — many people would grab the newspapers to stash them away for posterity.

Looking at old newspapers now, it’s amazing how crude the photos look. The halftones used to print pictures, coupled with the sepia tone that the papers have taken on through aging, have a distinctive look that is associated with an era that began to disappear in the late 1970s and early 80s when digital imagesetters made their entrance. Click “Read More” to read the review of Halftone.

Continue reading Halftone iPhone app gives your photos that old-time newspaper look

Halftone iPhone app gives your photos that old-time newspaper look originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week saw low-cost airline Jetstar offering in-flight iPads to customers, and now 9to5 Mac is reporting on a Variety magazine story which says that Southwest Airlines is about to start selling media content through Apple’s iTunes Store. Called InAirtainment, the program offers fliers a playlist of 20 free songs from new artists to entice customers to shop the iTunes store, and Southwest will be receiving a small percentage of sales like any typical iTunes affiliate.

Speaking with Variety, Southwest spokesperson Whitney Eichinger said that “we want our customers to be able to find all their travel needs at Southwest.com and a big part of traveling is loading up on songs, movies, and all the television you’ve missed during the week.” That should be a big selling point for passengers of the airline, which doesn’t provide seat-back entertainment in their fleet of Boeing 737 jets.

We have seen a lot of cross-promotion of late between different airlines and Apple media devices, including the approval of the use of iPads in the cockpit for flight planning and iPad check-ins in Malaysia. Seems Apple’s products aren’t just showing up in TV and film; they are also taking over the in-flight entertainment world.

[via 9to5 Mac]

Southwest Airlines now selling iTunes content originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MobileMe users were notified today that all users will be upgraded to the new calendar service on May 5. The new MobileMe calendar includes calendar sharing, invitations and an upgraded web app. Those who want to upgrade right away are urged to have the latest software updates and back up their existing calendars before performing the upgrade, which can be done on MobileMe’s calendar page. Those looking for more help can check out the support page.

The new calendar web app entered beta on July 7, 2010 and exited beta on October 14.

MobileMe’s new calendar mandatory for all users by May 5 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patently Apple uncovered a new patent that describes an iOS variant of the Photo Booth app that may be under development for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The patent describes an image capture and effects system that can be triggered by external cues such as shaking your phone.

A new setting for “Image Effects” is presented under the Wallpaper option that lets you turn on special effects for select camera applications. In addition to toggles for iPod video, the camera and the photo app, there are control options for audio, motion, location and camera data. There are several familiar Photo Booth settings, such as X-Ray, Glow and Thermal Effects, in these various sub-menus.

The patent also describes a variety of audio, video and imaging effects that range from the complex waves and reflections down to the simple brush stroke and rotation. Taken as a whole, the patent seems to describe an image capturing application that automatically applies a variety of effects to your photos similar to the desktop Photo Booth application.

Earlier this year, several circulating rumors suggested Photo Booth was coming to iOS. An unknown source of BGR claimed to have knowledge of a Photo Booth application for the iPad as well as an iPad version of the iLife suite. Adding some credibility to this rumor was the discovery of several references to PhotoBooth and PhotoBoothEffects within the codebase of iOS 4.3.

Apple patent suggests Photo Booth for iOS originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe it’s because I am both a fan and a loyal customer, but I do tend to notice how often Apple products pop up everywhere as the de facto computers on TV and on the big screen. According to a report by AppleInsider, Apple doesn’t even pay for that product placement, yet 30 percent of the top movies in 2010 prominently featured Apple products.

This figure is down from 46 percent in 2009 and 50 percent in 2008, but that 30 percent is still higher than any other brand — even with other computer brands trying to mimic Apple’s placement strategy. Back in 2006 we discussed an article at The Washington Post about all the “free” product placement Apple received in TV shows and movies, so we know this has been going on for quite some time.

We’ve recently talked about the iPad being the star of Modern Family and iPod product placement on The Office, and now CrunchGear has found a video of Apple’s Greatest Cinematic Achievements over on Vimeo. At 7:24 long and including everything from 30 Rock, War Games and The Sopranos, it’s a fun look at how Apple’s products have been placed in film and TV over the years.

Click Read More to check out the video of Apple’s Greatest Cinematic Achievements.

[via CrunchGear and AppleInsider]

Continue reading Apple TV / film product placement down, but still ahead of competition

Apple TV / film product placement down, but still ahead of competition originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple held its latest shareholder meeting in Cupertino today, and while Jobs was apparently in attendance (and re-approved as a board member, along with William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Albert Gore, Andrea Jung, Arthur Levinson and Ronald Sugar), Tim Cook was the one overseeing the proceedings. The shareholders also voted to keep Ernst & Young LLC as the accountants of record, and a vote about executive compensation was also approved. One proposal brought up by the shareholders suggested that Apple should publish a detailed succession plan for the CEO position, but that vote didn’t pass.

In the just over an hour meeting, shareholders also wished Steve Jobs well in dealing with his health issues (to a round of applause), and they also brought up the recently announced subscription plan, suggesting that if Apple lowered its 30 percent cut on content purchased through the iTunes store, newspapers would have an easier go of it. The board reportedly didn’t have a response for that, but for those developers and content publishers who feel the deal is unfair, it’ll be good to know the shareholders are representing those concerns at least.

All in all, it sounds like business as usual in Cupertino. Apple holds one of these every year, and it’s rare that major decisions get made or announced during a meeting open to shareholders.

Apple holds shareholder meeting, Tim Cook presides originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, whatever it was that knocked TUAW Talkcast Host Kelly Guimont for a loop on Sunday night has apparently crawled through the Interwebs and infected me. After a rough night with a fever, I can barely speak, never mind get through a one-hour show without coughing every few seconds. I’m blaming the Android flu for this — it’s your fault, Google!

As a result, there will be no TUAW TV Live today as I don’t want my good friends in the chat room to catch the Android flu. We’ll see you next week, when I’m pretty sure the show is going to be all about the new iPads.

In the meantime, be sure to go out to ustream.tv/tuaw and watch some of the golden oldie episodes.

Cool photo illustration by Halftone.

TUAW TV Live: The Android flu cancels today’s show originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s good to see that it’s not only the geeks here at TUAW who are in love with the MacBook Air. Photographer and blogger Derrick Story at Macworld also has a great fondness for the lightweight Mac, although he’s using it for more than just blogging.

Story today published the second of two posts about using the MacBook Air as a professional photographer’s tool. The first post answers the question “Is the MacBook Air powerful enough for a professional photographer to use everyday?,” while the second focuses on the workflow that Story uses with the MacBook Air.

In the initial post, Story notes that both the 11.6″ and 13″ models of the diminutive Mac not only fit in a camera backpack easily, but have the power to run iPhoto ’11, Aperture 3, Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Lightroom 3. He had earlier written a post about using the iPad as a professional photographer’s tool, but now feels after using the MacBook Air that the added power and storage make it the ultimate addition to the camera bag.

Today’s post features the workflow that Story is using. He basically uses the MacBook Air to offload photos to Aperture or Lightroom while in the field, and then “offloads cargo, namely photographs and video, to the mothership.”

If you’re a professional or skilled amateur photographer, check out the Macworld posts for more information.

The MacBook Air: A professional photographer’s best friend originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The cloud is the future, and the future appears to be arriving this spring, as Apple’s North Carolina data center is finally due to go live, according to reports from today’s Apple annual shareholder meeting. The phrase “in the cloud” refers to data hosted at off-site internet-accessible facilities rather than stored locally at a specific end-user machine, allowing you to do things like access photos, videos or music directly over the internet.

No one outside of Apple knows exactly how the North Carolina center will be used, but rumors abound. Apple Insider writes that the massive facility may support enhanced iTunes and MobileMe services, perhaps providing the long-awaited iTunes cloud-based streaming so many analysts have been hoping for.

Other speculated uses of the North Carolina data center include mobile iWork access and paid remote Time Machine hosting. Whatever it is, we’ll likely find out soon after they start flipping switches in a few months.

Apple’s North Carolina data center to go live this spring originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reiner Knizia’s Labyrinth [US$1.99, universal, trial version available] is one of a number of iOS-only games the prolific game designer has created (the others being Monumental — here’s our review — Roto, Yoku-Gami and Teocalli). It’s always been difficult to keep up with the board and card games that the mathematician has come up with, but now that he is working with a number of small iOS developers, it’s almost sisyphean. While some Knizia titles are much more worthwhile than others, this is one “brand” that I’m usually interested enough in to take a look. This counts double considering that his new app comes from Tribeflame, developers of the excellent Keltis: Oracle and Through The Desert. Like those other apps, Labyrinth is a puzzle game, but what’s it all about?

The impression I get is that If Knizia had designed Carcassonne as a solitaire game, this app is probably what it would have been. Tabletop gamers already know how Knizia’s two-player version of Carcassone works (it’s the variant called The Castle), but Labyrinth is a calmer affair and specifically designed for digital play. Keep reading for the details.

Continue reading App Review: Reiner Knizia’s Labyrinth leads us to a solid puzzle game

App Review: Reiner Knizia’s Labyrinth leads us to a solid puzzle game originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacRumors has what appear to be genuine images of the upcoming MacBook Pro refresh. A consensus in the TUAW newsroom says that this appears to be the real deal with the current box matching the previous MacBook Pro release other than the addition of Thunderbolt.

The specs as listed include:

• A 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with a 3MB shared level 3 cache
• 4 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
• 320 GB 5400-rpm hard drive
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 384MB SDRAM shared memory
• 1280×800 resolution
• A 8x slot-loading SuperDrive
• A Thunderbolt port supporting High-Speed VO and Mini DisplayPort devices

These, added to rumors posted earlier from MacGeneration, have us eager to see what will arrive in the near future for the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

Leaked photos show 13-inch MacBook Pro, some specs originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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