Category: I-phone

If you’ve ever wanted to download Amazon MP3s via Terminal or over ssh, or ever found yourself unable to use the “Amazon MP3 Downloader.app” then I have good news for you: there is another way.

The problem

Amazon’s MP3 Store annoys me to no end. I love the deals that they occasionally offer, but in order to download the files, you have to download the Amazon MP3 Downloader. Inside that dmg file is an installer application that doesn’t use the normal .pkg format.

The special installer failed to install the application on my Mac. I managed to install it manually (as well as the plugin that needs to be installed to “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/”), but then the application kept crashing after each song.

So, to recap, Amazon doesn’t use the standard package installer, and their installer failed to work; and they don’t use normal downloads, and their non-standard downloader failed to work. This is why you should stick to standards — they’ve been better tested for a lot longer than your “roll your own” solution. Stop reinventing the wheel.

The “.amz” file that you download from Amazon is an XML file which includes a download URL, but you can’t access that URL to download the music directly. I was all ready to start sniffing TCP headers and try to figure out what special headers the Amazon MP3 Downloader.app uses, when the same thought occurred to me: “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”

The solution

I was able to find the solution on Google code, specifically at http://code.google.com/p/clamz/ which is described as “is a little command-line program to download MP3 files from Amazon.com’s music store.”

Side note: I needed to install ‘libgcrypt’ in order to get clamz to build, which I did using Homebrew simply by typing brew install libgcrypt (assuming you already have brew and Xcode installed). The clamz page also mentions libcurl and libexpat, but I those were already installed on my Mac.

Once I had the necessary libraries installed, installation of clamz was as simple as the instructions on its homepage:

 tar xfvz clamz-0.5.tar.gz  cd clamz-0.5  ./configure  make  sudo make install  

Then I just had to get a “fresh” .amz file from Amazon. To do that, I went to the Amazon Cloud Player, clicked the checkbox at the top to select all my music (see #1 below) and then clicked “Download” (see #2 below):

Note that if you have more songs than will fit on one page, you may have to do this repeatedly for each “page”. I only have 230 songs in my Amazon Cloud Player.

That downloaded new “.amz” file on my computer called “Amazon-MP3-1321140421.amz” (yours will be named something similar but different). Then I ran this command simple command:

 clamz --output-dir=~/Music/ ~/Downloads/Amazon-MP3-1321140421.amz 

and watched with sheer delight as clamz downloaded all of my Amazon music files. I accidentally closed my MacBook Air before it was finished, but was able to resume the download simply by adding the –resume flag:

 clamz --resume --output-dir=~/Music/ ~/Downloads/Amazon-MP3-1321140421.amz 

When it finishes, you can delete the .amz file, as the links it contains will expire anyway. You can always download another one later.

Thanks, Internet

This simply would not have been possible without the help of the open source community, both the developer behind clamz (Benjamin Moody) and the awesome folks behind Homebrew.

After I finished using clamz I also found pymazon, but I’m not sure if that works on Mac.

Since I criticized Amazon’s non-standard downloader, someone might say “Well, iTunes is a non-standard downloader, too!” That’s a valid point. If I had been trying to download from iTunes and it failed to work, I would not have been so fortunate to find an open source solution.

Download Amazon MP3s in Terminal with clamz originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has released a third beta of iTunes 10.5.1 to members of its developer program. According to Apple, “iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 includes a number of important stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match, and is a required update for all subscribers to iTunes Match beta.”

This beta update comes just after developers’ iTunes Match libraries were wiped “as we prepare for the launch of iTunes Match,” Apple said in an email to developers. This latest beta comes less than two weeks after the release of iTunes 10.5.1 beta 2, while 24 days passed between the release of the initial iTunes 10.5.1 beta and its successor.

Accelerating beta releases from Apple are usually indicative of an imminent public launch, but it remains to be seen whether 10.5.1 beta 3 has shaken out enough of the bugs to warrant more widespread release.

Once the service goes live to the public, users who pay US$24.99 per year will have access to virtually all of their music, anywhere, and anytime.

iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 released with more fixes for iTunes Match originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gumdrop Cases has been making cases for Apple devices since mid-2010, and now the company has created the Drop Tech Series of protective cases for iPhone and iPad. These cases are designed to serve in more severe conditions than the usual “pretty” cases that we see all the time, and with their “truck tread” silicone skin on the back, the Drop Tech Series cases look like they’re made to survive. Read along for a quick look at the Drop Tech Series cases for iPhone 4/4S and iPad 2.

Design

To provide the best protection for your device, the Drop Tech Series cases are designed with several layers. First, your device slides into a polycarbonate frame that provides rigidity to the case. Second, there’s a replaceable clear screen protector that is in its own frame. The screen protector keeps your iPad or iPhone safe from scratches or spills while it is in the case. Finally, a thick silicone skin covers the frame and back of the iPad, providing drop protection and a very grippy surface.

The silicone skin has sealing rubber plugs in all of the right places — where all of the buttons and major ports are. There are two exceptions to this protection, those being the camera / flash, microphone, and speaker areas. The lack of full protection in these areas makes the product splash resistant, but not fully waterproof. You’ll still need to take care to avoid getting your device soaked in water, as it could easily leak in through the microphone and speaker holes or camera port.

With all of the protection, you might think the Drop Tech Series cases are difficult to install. You’d be wrong — they’re actually one of the easiest protective cases for iPad and iPhone that I’ve had the pleasure to work with.

The cases do add some bulk and weight to your Apple devices; that’s a necessity in order to add the padding and protection that you get with the Drop Tech Series. The iPhone cases weigh 1.7 ounces, while the iPad case tips the scales at 11.6 ounces.

The cases for iPad are priced at US$59.95 and come in black, black with a red frame, white with a black frame, and pink with a white frame. The company also makes a “Military Edition” ($69.95) in Army Green-44 that adds a microfilm dust filter and extra protection for the cameras to the mix. If you really need that extra level of protection, the Military Edition Drop Tech Case for iPad 2 is probably the one you want to get (it also looks pretty cool, although I would have preferred camo instead of green). It’s the one getting shot by a paintball gun in the video at the end of this review.

The iPhone 4/4S cases are priced at $49.95 and come in the same color combos as the iPad Drop Tech Case. Sadly enough, Gumdrop does not make a Military Edition iPhone Drop Tech Case for the iPhone at this time (perhaps they’ll make ’em in camo and Army green if enough of us ask for them).

Functionality

While I didn’t offer up my body and iPad 2 or iPhone 4S as targets for paintball guns, I did carry around both of the cases for a day. The iPad 2 case is quite impressive in terms of how well it protects the device. I used it in the kitchen and felt no qualms about splashing a little bit of water on the screen and accidentally dusting the device with a bit of cornmeal. The Drop Tech Series Case did its job admirably, keeping the iPad 2 protected. I didn’t deliberately drop the iPad 2 to see how well the case did its job there, but I am impressed with the thickness of the silicone covering, especially in the corners.

The iPhone 4/4S case was equally protective. Note that if you’re the type who likes to slide your iPhone into a front pants pocket to carry it around, the Drop Tech Series case is going to keep you from doing that. In my opinion, it was just too bulky to carry in pants without looking awkward. On the other hand, if someone was going to toss the iPhone into a briefcase along with pens, pencils, paperclips, and other scratch-inducing materials, the Drop Tech Series case would be perfect.

I rate the Drop Tech Series cases as a value. The MSRP for the competing iPad 2 Defender case from OtterBox is $89.95; a full $30 more for (in my opinion) equivalent protection. Likewise, the MSRP for the iPhone 4S Defender is $49.95, $5 more than the Drop Tech Series case.

Conclusion

Gumdrop Cases has a winner on their hands with the Drop Tech Series. The cases are inexpensive when compared to the competition and offer protection that is equivalent or superior to other similar “construction site cases.” If you’re looking for a case that can offer ease of installation, great protection, and rugged good looks, the Drop Tech Series cases are what you want.

Gumdrop Drop Tech Series cases offer serious iPhone / iPad protection originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whether you want to hear it or not (and trust me, I don’t either), the holidays are just a couple of weeks away. Just a short 14 days from now, the holiday season will be upon us, and Black Friday and other holiday deals will be everywhere, encouraging us to buy gifts, sale items, and whatever else retailers can get moving off of the shelves. And so a stat like this is extremely interesting to those retailers: People who shop for products on an iPad are almost twice as likely as people who shop on other platforms (including Android or PC) to actually buy the item they’re looking for. According to IBM Coremetrics, not only do those users buy items, but they often buy more than other users would.

All of that makes sense when you think about it — to buy an iPad in the first place, you have to be a pretty savvy shopper, not to mention spend a premium price on what’s certainly a premium item. And you have to be pretty dedicated, given that you’re shopping for a certain item in any way other than just going to the store and picking it up.

I’m interested to see this year as well (though of course the iPad was around last year too), just how having more iPads around affects shopping habits. Browsing for prices on your iPhone is one thing, but pulling up prices inside an app on your iPad while in the store has to be a different experience than just comparing prices with what you see on the shelf. The iPad could be a very potent tool for shopping, and clearly people with iPads are people who are ready to shop. Enjoy these two quiet weeks, sure, but then we’ll see how this holiday shopping season plays out.

Study: Shopping on iPads increases spending originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at TUAW, we still hear plenty of complaints about AT&T’s service (many of them actually directed at AT&T, but sent to us for some reason). But the Better Business Bureau says we’re actually in a good spot — AT&T apparently has the lowest amount of complaints from major carriers coming through that agency out of all of the various cell phone service providers. Note that they are referring to major carriers: smaller regional carrier Metro PC actually had the lowest number, but of course they don’t service nearly as many people.

Verizon was second best among the major carriers in the US, then Sprint, and T-Mobile brought up the rear, with 26,387 complaints over the last few years. There’s good news, though — data from last year shows that 95% of the complaints to the BBB about wireless issues were actually resolved. So apparently the squeaky wheel does get the grease.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors here — just because a company does or doesn’t get a lot of BBB complaints doesn’t necessarily reflect 1:1 on its service. But clearly not many of the people supposedly disappointed with AT&T have gone off to the Better Business Bureau for help.

[via BGR]

Better Business Bureau lists AT&T as having lowest complaint rate among mobile carriers originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has sent out emails to registered owners of 1st generation iPod nanos stating that certain iPod nanos created between September 2005 and January 2006 might overheat and pose a safety risk. This is because of a manufacturing defect from a single supplier, and the likelihood of problems increases as the model ages. Apple then directs the owner to a replacement program.

There have been some cases of the iPod nano’s battery overheating in the past, and while a search on Apple’s support site turns up a document, the link is currently not active. The issue turned up previously in 2009, and the Japanese government said in 2008 that three fires were caused in Japan from faulty 1st-generation nano batteries, and that Apple had two other reported cases where people were burned by their iPod nanos.

For those wondering if the emails they received are legitimate, a link to the replacement program can be found directly from Apple’s support site for earlier models of the iPod nano and Apple’s exchange and repair extension program.

The full email text can be read below.

Apple launches 1st generation iPod nano replacement program originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today is indeed Veterans Day (and we do honor all of the men and women who have served for the United States of America — thank you!), but the sales on the App Store this weekend haven’t really been labeled as such. As far as I can tell, they’re on sale just because. Nothing wrong with that!

• First and foremost, Scribblenauts is just 99 cents for the weekend. This one’s a must buy — it’s an amazing game with a terrific iOS port that you should totally check out for that price. No question.
• EA’s having a big sale with up to 80% off titles like Need for Speed, Dead Space, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
• Gameloft’s sale is continuing, with lots of games, including Rainbow Six, HAWX, and the great Dungeon Hunter 2 down to just a buck.
• Little White Bear Studios’ puzzler Tanzen is free for a limited time.
• Spirits for both iPad and iPhone is on sale for just a dollar.
• Street Fighter IV Volt is on sale for just 99 cents for the first time.
• Digital board game New World Colony is free to download.
• Kairosoft’s Grand Prix Story is down to 99 cents as well.
• Contre Jour HD is just a buck — this one is a really amazing title as well, grab it if you haven’t yet.
• Peggle is also a dollar, as is Madfinger’s really impressive looking Shadowgun.
• Finally, the non-HD version of World of Goo is just a buck.

Holy moly, there are some great sales in there. Scribblenauts and Contre Jour are definitely two you should grab now if you haven’t, and some of those others are steals as well. Enjoy the weekend!

Weekend sale on lots of iOS games originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iomega introduced a new line of portable hard drives for the Mac yesterday. Called the Iomega eGo Mac Edition Portable Hard Drive, the drives come in two sizes — 500 GB and 1 TB — and are designed with a special case to withstand drops from up to seven feet.

The drives have two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 port and require no power supply, so they’re nice large backup drives to pack with you while traveling for work or pleasure. As with the previous new Iomega drives that TUAW has tested, the Helium Portable Hard Drive and Mac Companion Hard Drive, the eGo Mac Edition drives come complete with a USB 2.0 cable, a FireWire 800 cable, and a FireWire 800 – 400 adapter cable.

The 500 GB version has a suggested retail price of US$179.99, while the 1 TB version will be available soon for $229.99. For more information about all of Iomega’s newest Mac-only hard drives, be sure to read the press release below.

Iomega introduces new large capacity portable hard drives for Mac originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As first spotted by TheNextWeb, Phil Schiller has a new title at Apple. Previously he was the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, but now Apple’s Executive Profiles page and Schiller’s own bio state his title as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.

As TheNextWeb points out, the dropping of “Product” in the title could be be nothing other than semantics. However, it could also mean that Schiller’s role at Apple has shifted a little. It’s possible he is assuming some of the role left vacant by Ron Johnson, Apple’s former head of retail, who has yet to be replaced.

Or maybe Schiller just doesn’t like the word “product.” Other than the title change, his official bio hasn’t been altered to reflect any new duties at Apple. This means that if any changes to his duties did happen they are probably still relatively minor, especially since Apple didn’t issue any kind of press release or investors note about the title change.

Phil Schiller gets a new title at Apple originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jean-Louis Gassée now writes a weekly column about Apple, but back in the day he was head of the Macintosh division under Apple CEO John Sculley. After his removal by Sculley in 1990 following nine years of service, Gassée started Be, Inc which developed BeOS, a multithreaded, multi-CPU operating system.

Speaking at a Churchill Club event honoring Steve Jobs, Gassée told the audience he was thankful that Apple did not buy BeOS because he “hated Apple’s management.” Instead of BeOS, Apple decided to acquire NeXT and use its OS as the basis of Mac OS X. Gassée called this decision “Jobs’s acquisition of Apple” and paved the way for him to reclaim his company.

Besides Gassée’s comments, the almost two-hour-long presentation is filled with memories of Steve Jobs from his former colleagues including Jim Atkinson, Deb Stapleton, Andy Hertzfeld, Regis McKenna and Larry Tesler. There’s even an unexpected appearance by Chris Espinosa who was not on the panel, but in the audience as an attendee. The program is embedded below and well worth a listen.

[Via 9to5mac]

Jean-Louis Gassée glad Apple chose NeXTSTEP over his BeOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s better than controlling your iPhone 4S with Siri? How about just thinking about something and having it happen? That’s what a group of hackers have accomplished with Project Black Mirror.

They’ve connected an iPhone 4S up to a setup that uses a MacBook Pro and an Arduino open-source microcontroller along with electrocardiogram pads that are attached to the head of the “test subject.” The Arduino is set up with a program that recognizes Siri commands from the ECG pads and sends them to a voice synthesizer, which then feeds the commands into the iPhone’s microphone jack.

The guys who came up with Project Black Mirror want to create a product out of this; perhaps a hat that you could wear and a sleeve that would provide the necessary input to Siri. As such, they’re attempting a Kickstarter campaign to polish up the project and bring it to fruition. Check out their Kickstarter pitch below.

By the way, the guys are in need of help starting up a business in the US (and I’m busy and can’t help them), so if you want to volunteer to give them a hand, be sure to visit their website (link above) and let them know.

Control Siri with your mind and lots of hardware originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sent out the following emails to developers this afternoon:

iTunes Match Update

As we prepare for the launch of iTunes Match, we will be deleting all current iCloud libraries on Saturday, November 12th at 10 AM PST.

Please turn off iTunes Match on all of your computers and iOS devices. On your computer, choose Store > Turn off iTunes Match. On your iOS device, tap Settings > Music, then turn off iTunes Match. On your Apple TV, please choose Music > Turn off iTunes Match.

The songs on your computer should not be affected. As always, please backup regularly and do not delete the music you add to iCloud from your computer.
Best regards,

Apple Developer Program Support

Though Apple doesn’t overtly say that the iTunes Match launch is impending, the email differs from others Apple has sent to developers in the past by mentioning a specific time for the deletion of developer’s iCloud libraries and also states that it is “[preparing] for the launch of iTunes Match.”

On November 1st, Apple officially missed the release date for iTunes Match. They had previously said the service would be available “by the end of October.” When iTunes Match does officially launch, it will cost users US$24.99 per year. The service will scan your iTunes library for titles, match them with copies in the cloud, and then allow you to replace whatever copy you may currently have in your iTunes library with a non-DRM, high-quality 256-Kbps AAC copy.

Apple email suggests iTunes Match launch soon originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the jailbreakers among you, you’ll be happy to hear that iOS 5.0.1 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch can indeed be jailbroken with Redsn0w. RedmondPie has tested and confirmed that Apple’s latest version of iOS 5 can be tether-jailbreaked by using the latest version of Redsn0w. Redmond does note that the “SemiTether” patch continues to work, but iOS 5.0.1 “will not function to a satisfactory degree” on devices using SemiTether until users connect to Redsn0w on a Mac or PC.

Jailbreaking is best left to the more experienced, tech-savvy users, but if you’re feeling adventurous, RedmondPie has all the details on how to jailbreak your Apple device running the very latest iOS release.

iOS 5.0.1 For iPhone, iPad, iPod touch can be jailbroken with Redsn0w originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next week, Landmark Theaters in 19 US cities will screen a 70-minute “lost interview” featuring Steve Jobs. The interview was done in 1996 by Robert X. Cringely for his PBS series “Triumph of the Nerds” and is being released in unedited form as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview.

Philip Elmer-Dewitt, writing for Fortune, said that his favorite section of the interview is when Jobs answers the question “What’s important to you in the development of a product?”. His response features a scathing blow to John Sculley — “John Sculley got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work” — as well as a sweet parable about the process of designing a product.

In the interview, Jobs reminisces about an old man who lived down the street when he was a young boy. The man showed him a rock tumbler, and he and Jobs went out and got a handful of plain old rocks, then put them into the can with liquid and grit powder. They closed up the rock tumbler, turned it on, and then the man told Jobs to “come back tomorrow.”

The next day, the man opened the can and inside were these “amazingly beautiful polished rocks. The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other like this (clapping his hands), creating a little bit of friction, creating a little bit of noise, had come out these beautiful polished rocks.”

Jobs goes on to say how that is a “metaphor for a team that is working really hard on something they’re passionate about. It’s that through the team, through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas, and what comes out are these beautiful stones.”

The interview will only be shown for two days in the US, so be sure to get your pre-sale tickets now. The theatrical trailer for the interview can be viewed below.

Steve Jobs’s story of the stones originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for November 11, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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