Author: Blancer

We’ve seen Apple app icon pillows before, but these are pretty excellent — TUAW reader Dan G’s girlfriend hand-sewed them for him for Christmas. That’s the brand new iTunes icon on the right there (though I expected it to be a little more blue), and on the left is the Firefox icon. We won’t tell her she got the fox backwards if you won’t, Dan.

And of course that’s the Finder in the middle. Great set of pillows — I definitely would have been thrilled to see them under the tree last Saturday.

Handmade icon pillows given as gifts for Christmas originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following up on my article about the best Mac apps I used in 2010, here are some of the best hybrid “Mac and iOS apps” I used in 2010. This wasn’t an attempt to come up with a specific number, just the results of some careful reflection.

You may wonder why some apps appear on this list instead of the Mac list. For example, Dropbox has an iOS app, why not add it here? Because my primary use of Dropbox is on the Mac. Yes I use it with iOS, but it’s usually through another app that is syncing back to my Mac. On the other hand, using OmniFocus for iPad (our review) led to me using OmniFocus for Mac more, so I put OmniFocus on this list.

All that is to say, these are my distinctions, and you are free to disagree with them.

1) myPhoneDesktop (or MPD) is a little-known gem of the iOS world. The US$5 universal iOS app pairs with desktop software on your Mac, Windows or Linux PC, and it allows you to send text, phone numbers and even images to your iOS device. While there are lots of pasteboard sharing apps (like Pastebot) that allow two-way sharing of pasteboard data, I find myself using MPD much more often because it is simpler and easier to use.

If I am on my Mac and want to download a new app on my iPad, I select the URL from Safari and press command (?) + C + C (just like regular “copy” except you press “C” twice). Instantly, I get a push notification from MPD on my iPad, which opens the link, hands it off to the App Store app, and I purchase and download the app right from my iPad.

Since I first reviewed it, MPD has been continually improved and updated, including support for iCab Mobile on iOS devices as well as GoodReader and even GV Connect, which means that you can place a call through Google Voice on your iPhone from a message sent from your computer!

Continue reading The best Mac and iOS apps I used in 2010

The best Mac and iOS apps I used in 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands full of gifts to return after Christmas but still need to make a call with your iPhone? Well don’t worry, as NoseDial is here to help you out. NoseDial is exactly what the name implies that it is — a visual dialer for your iPhone that lets you scroll through your contacts by tilting your phone and then call them by pecking at their picture with your nose. Sure, you still need to be able to somehow tilt the phone with your hand or some other way to move through your contacts, but if your fingers are otherwise occupied with bags and/or inside your winter mittens, at least you can still make a phone call using just your nose.

While you may get some rather odd looks from those around you, NoseDial is a pretty neat concept even if not a particularly smooth way to dial your phone. Available from the German iTunes App Store for a little bit over US $1.00, NoseDial could come in handy on those freezing cold walks to work — or if you were a super-secret spy whose hands were otherwise tied up.

We’ve seen some interesting visual dialers and custom dialers before for the iPhone, but this is definitely the first we’ve seen designed with nose dialing in mind.

[via Gizmodo and Lifehacker]

NoseDial lets you dial your iPhone with your nose originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As promised, the new Gorillaz album showed up online over Christmas, and it’s available for download right now. The album is called The Fall, and you can listen to one of the 15 tracks, called Phoner to Arizona, embedded after the break. The whole record was made completely with an iPad, and CNN has a list of apps used to make the album, including Amplitube, Mugician (written by a TUAW commenter), and Moog’s Filtatron, among quite a few others.

I just gave Phoner to Arizona a listen, and it’s … weird. Weirder than I thought — the Gorillaz are already pretty trippy, but this seems much more like an experiment than an actual album. Still, it’s worth a listen, and it’s an impressive feat to build a whole album using just Apple’s iPad. Again, you can hear it for free on the Gorillaz’ website, or join their fan club to download it yourself.

[via Engadget]

Continue reading Gorillaz iPad album, called The Fall, out now

Gorillaz iPad album, called The Fall, out now originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen an iOS device used to control a soda machine before, but here’s a setup with a more, ahem, practical application for New Year’s Eve: a beer cannon controlled by an iPhone. You can see a video of it in action after the break, and the creator even has it set up to post videos of fired beer cans straight to Twitter. The whole thing is controlled using what looks like a web app on the iPhone (or it might just be a normal app fitted with some web views), and allows you to select what kind of beer you’d like, as well as look through the cannon’s web cam, and then shoot your beer across the room to you.

The app can also control and monitor the temperature inside the mini-fridge, so this is quite a setup. Unfortunately, we don’t have much information on how it was all made (though we’re told that’s coming soon), but it’s all connected up using an IO-204, and the cannon itself is air-based. Pretty wild. I wouldn’t advocate using this on New Year’s Eve with a room full of people, though — someone’s going to end up with a concussion.

Thanks, Hans!

Continue reading Beer cannon fires beer out at your iPhone’s demand

Beer cannon fires beer out at your iPhone’s demand originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Auntie TUAW,

OK, so i got an iPad for Christmas. Very excited. Dig the idea.

I have a long and storied history of receiving/buying Apple products right before the update. i feel like a new iPad’s coming soon. So the dilemma: return the iPad for credit and wait on the new one, or will that leave me hanging for too long?

Help!

Your Nephew,

Mick

Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I return my iPad and wait for an iPad 2?

Dear Aunt TUAW: Should I return my iPad and wait for an iPad 2? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you are looking to grab a piece of Apple history, here is your chance. Spotted on eBay is a prototype Macintosh Portable computer, an early predecessor to the PowerBook. The Macintosh Portable debuted in September 1989 and was a semi-portable, battery-powered version of a desktop Macintosh. The variant available for sale is labeled as a demonstration unit and is in perfect cosmetic condition. Unfortunately, the Portable will not power on, as the lead-acid battery within the device is toast. Though the Macintosh Portable has an input for AC power, the AC power is used to charge the battery, not power the machine. The current owner is selling the laptop precursor with the hope that a collector with some restoration skills may be able to work around this battery issue.

This particular Macintosh Portable may look slightly different from the original retail model as it includes a trackball installed on the left side of the keyboard. This unusual configuration suggests the previous owner of this device may have been left-handed, as the trackball can be installed on either side keyboard according to the user’s preference. Currently, the eBay auction has four days left and is sitting at a cool US$1,750 with zero bids. Even if you are not interested in buying the Macintosh Portable, the auction has some quality pictures of this vintage device and is definitely worth a click-through to check them out.

[Via Gizmodo]

Macintosh Portable prototype hits eBay, unusual keyboard configuration intact originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As expected, we’re starting to see huge download numbers for iOS from over the weekend — as people unwrapped their new iOS devices, they also took to the App Store to pick up new games and apps as soon as they could. Facebook for iOS saw a gigantic jump in users — as you can see in the chart above, the app saw an increase of a million users just over the holiday weekend, and has gone up by almost five million users since Thanksgiving. That’s pretty phenomenal, even considering that we knew the App Store would be busy.

We probably haven’t see the last of the record numbers, either — Tapulous says that its new Tap Tap Revenge 4 app saw twice the downloads this year that the last version did last Christmas. The peak downloads for that app (which is number one on the free App Store chart during the current freeze) reached 45,000 per hour over the weekend, which is just huge. I have a feeling that a lot of devs saw some really high sales and download numbers over the Christmas holiday — we’ll keep an eye out for more as the next week goes on.

[via DF]

Facebook for iOS, Tapulous see big iOS downloads over the holiday originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of our readers, Adam, asked a very interesting question earlier today:

Do you think that FaceTime for Mac will come out of beta and be released on the Mac App Store on Jan. 6th? It would seem to be a given that Apple will release it through the App Store at some point, and January should have been plenty of time for beta testing. I’m ready to have a full-featured app, so I didn’t know if you knew anything.

Regretfully, we don’t have any more information than you do. But Adam brings up some good points. Apple is going to want some hot apps in the Mac App Store at launch on January 6, 2011. The consensus here (and we’ve been known to be dreadfully wrong in terms of prognostications) is that we’ll see iWork ’11 on January 6, along with a handful of other Apple apps and a lot of third-party goodies.

So, in the tradition of newspapers, we’re taking a reader poll to see how many of you think FaceTime for Mac is going to be one of the first apps in the Mac App Store. Vote, and be sure to leave a comment below if none of our answers makes you happy.

View Poll

Poll: Do you think FaceTime for Mac will be released next week? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At least that’s the word from Taiwan-based iPhone suppliers. In a report today from DigitTimes, sources are quoted as saying Apple has upped its global shipment goal for the first quarter of 2011 from 19 million units to more than 20 million.

Even more interesting, but hardly surprising, the same sources say Apple has ordered 5-6 million phones in that run to be CDMA models. Verizon anyone?

The iPhone’s 4th quarter global shipments are pegged at about 15.5 million phones, with a estimated 47 million phones shipped for all of 2010. Apple is estimated to have sold about 50 million iPhones in the previous 2 years, so if these estimates are close, and Apple sells all the iPhones it has ordered, 2011 is looking pretty good.

Apple said to increase Q1 order for iPhones to 20-21 million originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As a perpetual programmer wannabe, I’m always on the lookout for new tools that make the mysteries of coding a little more accessible. Much to my dismay, most programming tutorials that I’ve come across assume some prior knowledge or that you’re transitioning from some other language. So, I was delighted to discover Hackety Hack just now (thanks to Chris Amico for the tip). It’s a fun new Mac app that aims to teach Ruby programming basics to complete beginners.

Hackety Hack 1.0 just launched, and in the true spirit of of the holidays, it’s open source. From what I can see so far (after playing with it a bit), users can browse through some beginner level lessons, including basic Ruby and basic Shoes, or explore some of the sample programs listed. After making some progress, users who register on the Hackety Hack site can upload code to the website as well. There’s a handy “Ask a question” feature on the site, too.

Given how hard it can be for beginners to get their feet wet, I really appreciate efforts like this to make learning more accessible. For anyone looking for more beginner Ruby resources, there’s also Chris Pine’s online book Learn to Program (via Takaaki Kato). And if you’re looking for iOS help instead, be sure to check out our Holiday Guide of books for would-be iOS programmers.

Continue reading Hackety Hack: A gift to aspiring Ruby programmers

Hackety Hack: A gift to aspiring Ruby programmers originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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