Category: I-phone

If you haven’t made the upgrade to OS X Lion yet, Apple has a couple updates available for your Snow Leopard-running Mac. These updates come in two flavors, depending on whether you’ve updated to OS X 10.6.8 already or not.

For those running 10.6.7 or below, there’s Mac OS X 10.6.8 v.1.1. This 453 MB update bundles together the already-released Mac OS X 10.6.8 update with a supplemental update, also issued today. If you haven’t updated to 10.6.8, that’s the update you want.

If you’ve already updated to 10.6.8, you want the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update, which fixes a couple issues from the 10.6.8 update and also appears to bundle in the Migration Assistant Update that Apple released just before Lion’s launch. This update is just over 10 MB.

If you’re still confused about which update you want, the easiest route is to just run Software Update from the Apple Menu and let it figure things out for you.

Mac OS X 10.6.8 v.1.1 and Supplemental Update issued originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wasabi is another in a crowded market of “to do” apps, aiming to keep your to do lists handy across iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. There are a number of novel twists keeping Wasabi worth a look for your listmaking needs. The most unique feature are text files which become quicklists, a preset selection of list items which you could use to quickly template a project outline. You can also share tasks with others.

Although iOS 5 will have location-based notes and reminders, Wasabi has them now, with the ability to “pin” tasks to a location and have reminders trigger when you are at a location. If you can’t wait for iOS 5 or find the upcoming Apple solution too limited, Wasabi is worth a look. Check it out in the video below.

Video App Demo: Wasabi originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Did you know Adobe had its own app stores? There’s a good chance you didn’t, and that’s probably one factor in Adobe shutting down both InMarket and AIR Marketplace. Both stores will go offline after August 31, 2011.

“After reviewing our efforts and based on feedback from developers, we have decided that we will deliver the most value by helping developers author and publish their apps on multiple platforms,” Adobe says. “There are now several app stores on desktops, mobile devices and tablets that service AIR developers including Apple App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel AppUp center, Samsung Apps, and Toshiba App Place. We encourage you to use these newer popular app stores to distribute your applications.”

A lot of Adobe’s mobile focus lately has been on “write once, publish anywhere” software for app developers who want to push their products to multiple platforms simultaneously. Given that shift in focus and the fact that the huge popularity of competing stores has vastly overshadowed Adobe’s own online marketplaces, it’s not surprising Adobe has chosen to shutter these stores.

What is surprising (and refreshing) is Adobe’s not necessarily blaming these other stores for shutting down its own, and it’s instead positioning this move as what will be of greatest benefit to app developers. That’s a far more mature take on the situation than the “Go screw yourself, Apple” Adobe might have hoisted last year.

Meanwhile, developers who have published their apps to InMarket or AIR Marketplace should start looking for new online homes, if they haven’t already.

Adobe shuts down InMarket, AIR Marketplace originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

1Password version 3 was recently made available with Mac OS X Lion compatibility, enhanced keyboard shortcuts and, most notably for Safari users, a new Safari extension. The new extension borrows heavily from its Chrome counterpart and represents a departure from the older version. I spoke with Dave Chartier about what Safari users can expect from the current version of 1Password as well a few other goodies.

TUAW: Dave, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for me. Right off the bat I’ve got to ask you about the re-designed Safari extension, which is available to Lion users and Snow Leopard users running Safari 5.1. It’s quite a departure from its predecessor, at least in the looks department. What can you tell me about the new extension?

Dave: With the new extension we wanted to give users a bigger slice of 1Password right in the browser. The goal was to give you access to more of your data without having to open the 1Password app, and yet speed up the login and form-filling experience whether you’re a mouse cowboy or keyboard ninja. It is now much easier to flip through between your Logins, Identities, Credit Cards, and the Strong Password Generator, and new users should have a much easier time learning and exploring what 1Password can do for them.

TUAW: I see that the new Safari extension is similar to the Chrome extension, at least in appearance. What motivated the team to bring the Chrome extension’s look to Safari?

Dave: Why, it’s all just part of the plan! We released our Chrome extension early in 2010. We’ve been working for a some time towards unifying as much of our extension code and interface as possible, and with the increased pace of Chrome and now Firefox development, we grew more motivated to focus our efforts there in order to improve the update process for our users.

Last November we decided to try out this new interface and extension architecture with our Chrome users and it was a huge hit. We received fantastic feedback, and when Apple announced Lion earlier this year and a number of changes coming to Safari 5.1 for Snow Leopard users, we decided Safari should be the next step.

One of the great features of this new extension is that it will allow us to update it without having to update the 1Password application. Automatic extension updates is a big selling point of Chrome, and now Safari supports it too. In fact, this new version installs as an official Safari extension — you can open Safari 5.1’s preferences and see for yourself.

TUAW: Are there any other goodies that Lion users can expect from the latest version of 1Password?

My favorite goodies (which work for both Lion and Snow Leopard users in Safari 5.1) are all the new keyboard shortcuts, which we highlight on our blog and in a dedicated support document. You can now call the 1Password extension, find a login, tab between your Logins, Identities, Credit Cards, and Strong Password Generator, and view details on every item (including password history!) without touching your mouse.

The ability to view an item’s details comes in handy in a bunch of ways too, such as when you need to log into a Flash site. Instead of having to stop what you’re doing, open the 1Password app, and hunt for your login there, you can just stay in the browser and open the new 1Password extension, then hit the right arrow key to view your Login’s details and copy the password to paste into the form. It’s a huge time saver.

Thanks, Dave! 1Password has many fans on the TUAW staff, myself included. Here’s to future updates.

1Password, Lion and that new Safari extension originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Deleting unused programs to make some space for Lion? You need an app like recently updated TrashMe. It’s an app uninstaller with both drag-and-drop to uninstall and application listings that will handle any program you have installed, widgets, Preference panes and even plugins, moving them to the trash with their associated files.

TrashMe will also scan user configurable folders for applications, places like the Downloads folder, from which you might have fired up a program once, but never really used it and forgot about it. You can set certain apps as protected, with the Apple default apps protected as standard, just so you don’t accidentally delete something important.

Like AppCleaner and AppTrap, TrashMe also supports intelligent Trash monitoring (Smart Detection), allowing you to just delete an application the way Apple intended. It will then detect the trashing of an application and offer to find any files that might be associated with it.

With the help of a little add-on that can be downloaded from the developers site, TrashMe can also delete files and applications that you don’t have write access for. There are also some “hidden” OS X preferences TrashMe can change too, which include the suppression of .DS_Store files on network volumes, a setting to show or hide hidden files and folders and also the ability to disable the warning that OS X pops up when you launch downloaded applications for the first time.

TrashMe version 2 is a highly polished uninstaller app that is currently available for US$4.99 from the Mac App Store.

Thanks to topherrjames for the suggestion.

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: TrashMe originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Launchpad in Mac OS Lion shares a key behavior with its iOS counterpart: deleting an app from the launcher also uninstalls it from the computer, as long as the app was purchased from the Mac App Store. Of course, it’s quick and easy to redownload the MAS apps if they’re needed.

While this insta-delete, complete with jiggling icons, may be counterintuitive for longtime Mac users, it makes perfect sense to iPhone or iPad users where there’s a one-to-one mapping between apps on the launcher screen and apps installed on the device. On other mobile platforms, that’s not necessarily the case: both Android and Blackberry devices have the ability to hide or subset visible apps versus the full suite of installed programs.

The flip side of this strong linkage between installation/removal and visibility of MAS apps in Launchpad is that non-MAS/conventionally installed apps cannot be deleted from the Launchpad UI. If you don’t want all that app clutter, the only default options are to move the space-wasting apps into Launchpad folders (laborious) or move the apps themselves out of the Applications folder in the Finder (boneheaded, and actually won’t work, per commenters). Even resetting your Launchpad (as Erica noted last week) still includes all your apps in the launcher’s pages.

There is another way, however, to blank out your Launchpad and start clean. Web developer Loren Segal points out the ‘nuclear option’ of deleting all the app records from the Launchpad database, which lets you select individual apps to include by dragging their icons onto the Launchpad dock icon (command-click to select multiple apps before dragging). He suggests backing up the relevant database file beforehand, in case of issues, and I concur.

Here’s the process in the Terminal, line by line:

    mkdir ~/Desktop/DB_Backup 

[makes a folder on your desktop to back up the data files]

    cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db ~/Desktop/DB_Backup/

[copies the database]

    sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db 'DELETE FROM apps;' && killall Dock
sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db 'DELETE from apps;' \
  ' DELETE from groups WHERE title<>""; DELETE from items WHERE rowid>2;' \
  && killall Dock

[deletes the app records from Launchpad’s database, and restarts the Dock process; you’ll see your minimized windows pop back to the screen. Update: Loren posted a new version, as above, that fixes the folders issue.]

Blank Launchpad! You may notice that any folders previously in Launchpad will still be there, albeit vacant. To get rid of them, simply load at least one app into Launchpad, then drag the app into & out of the folder. It will ‘evaporate’ when it’s empty.

If you do decide that you prefer the full-list Launchpad, you can either restore the database to its original location, or follow the tip in Erica’s post to reset/rebuild and get all your apps back.

Lion: Deleting apps in Launchpad, and starting clean originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well, that didn’t take long. Just a few scant days after iOS 4.3.4 came out, a new version of the OS — iOS 4.3.5 — has been released that “fixes a security vulnerability with certificate validation.” The CDMA version of iOS has also been updated to 4.2.10.

The update is available through iTunes, or you can download the specific version for your iOS device directly from the links below.

iPad

iPad 2

iPad 2,2 / iPad 2,3

iPhone 4 (GSM)

iPhone 4 (CDMA)

iPhone 3GS

iPod touch (3rd generation)

iPod touch (4th generation)

As TUAW gets verification of any other added features or bug fixes, this post will be updated.

iOS 4.3.5 (GSM) and 4.2.10 (CDMA) released; adds more security patches originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Griffin has announced a new 4-button foot controller that works with iOS devices. The Griffin StompBox (US$99.99) was developed to work with the Frontier Design iShred LIVE iOS app (Free), making it easy for musicians to switch effects with the StompBox with a tap of a foot.

The StompBox is packaged with Griffin’s GuitarConnect cable so that the StompBox can be connected to instruments, headphones, and an iOS device. Any instrument that uses a 1/4-inch jack, like a guitar, bass, electric violin or keyboard, can be connected to the StompBox. Foot switches on the StompBox can be assigned to different functions, such as volume, expression, or wah-wah pedals.

Griffin also notes that StompBox works with the Qscript teleprompter app ($7.99), scrolling your speech or notes with a simple toe tap. The StompBox will be available through Apple Stores or GriffinTechnology.com.

Griffin StompBox multi-function foot controller for iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nuance has announced Dragon Dictate 2.5, a free upgrade to the company’s Mac voice control/input app for version 2.0 customers. The new version dramatically improves mouse and keyboard entry in Microsoft Word 2011, among other features. According to Nuance, Word 2011 is the most commonly used app for Dragon Dictate customers, so it makes sense that the company would put emphasis on adding more dictation functionality for the word processing market leader.

Earlier versions of Dictate would get confused about where the insertion point or document elements were located when users switched between voice and mouse input (except in the company’s own Notepad app or in TextEdit, where Dragon supported more complex behaviors). The recommendation against mixing dictation and keyboard/mouse editing has been so ingrained in the product’s DNA that Dragon refers to it informally as the Golden Rule. Meanwhile, users of the corresponding Dragon NaturallySpeaking app on the Windows platform had far fewer restrictions.

With 2.5 and Microsoft Word 2011, the Golden Rule is history; users can easily switch between voice and keyboard input at will, or between dictation and command mode within Dictate itself, all without disrupting Dictate’s internal model of the document. This lends itself to a far more natural and workflow-friendly way of using Dragon; instead of having to stop and start between dictation and editing phases, just keep on going.

Dragon SVP/general manager Peter Mahoney told TUAW that there’s nothing specific to announce about enhanced support for Apple’s Pages or other popular Mac productivity apps, but the company is looking at other integrations. “This is the first time that we’ve done this [on the Mac] for a meaningful application, and there was a lot of new invention in the way we created these integration models,” he said. “Some of the approach we used in Word 2011 will benefit the Windows product, too… It’s certainly something that we plan to expand to other applications over time.”

Version 2.5 adds the ability to dictate without distraction from the mouse and keyboard, and also adds a microphone option in the form of an iOS app — Dragon Remote Microphone (Free) — for those situations where you’d rather not be tied to a traditional headset, but where you do share a Wi-Fi network between your computer and your phone.

There are new capabilities for controlling how Dragon Dictate formats text, and new voice commands even allow posting to Facebook and Twitter. Even doing searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo! or with Spotlight on the Mac can be accomplished with a voice command. The microphone can now be set to automatically “sleep” after a preset amount of time so that it won’t recognize speech until you specifically wake it.

For new users, a digital download Dragon Dictate 2.5 for Mac is available for $179.99 through the Nuance website; owners of the Windows NaturallySpeaking product can cross-grade for $99. Check out the slideshow below for a demonstration of some of the Word commands that are available in the upgrade.

Dragon Dictate 2.5 offers support for Microsoft Word 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple is clearly enforcing its stated rules about not selling content through iOS devices unless Apple gets a cut in revenue. The latest companies to comply are e-book sellers Amazon and Kobo, and newspaper publisher The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal is reporting this morning that it will remove all purchasing options, which have included links to the WSJ website in its iPad app.

“We remain concerned that Apple’s own subscription [rules] would create a poor experience for our readers, who would not be able to directly manage their WSJ account or to easily access our content across multiple platforms,” a Journal spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, a Kobo spokesman says it has updated its app so no books can be purchased from it, and customers will have to use the Safari browser to go to the Kobo store.

Amazon has also caved. In a an update released today to the Kindle apps for iPad and iPhone, Amazon has removed the Kindle Store button from the app.

Apple had set a June 30 deadline for companies to comply with app store rules.

How do you feel about this latest chapter in this saga? Is Apple being greedy, or do content vendors owe Apple a toll for the privilege of selling in the app store?

Kobo, Wall Street Journal, Amazon to stop directly selling through iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The big bash for aviation fans, EAA AirVenture, has just started in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Among the static and flying displays of airplanes of all sizes, attendees can expect to see a lot of iPhones and iPads — in the cockpits of many aircraft. Virginia-based Hunter Research and Utah-based Aerovisions International will be demonstrating a preview of iHUD Remote for iOS, an app that works with onboard sensors to creates a glass cockpit display on an iOS device.

What’s a glass cockpit? Well, if you’ve peeked inside the cockpit of any modern aircraft you know how they’re dominated by a set of large screens displaying the aircraft attitude, navigation and status information. Light aircraft have had to stay with old-technology electromechanical gauges due to the high cost of the new systems.

What iHUD Remote does is display attitude and heading information wirelessly beamed from hardware created by Levil Aviation. Levil’s AHRS (attitude and heading reference system) weighs as little as 5 ounces and uses an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to send engine, attitude, heading, and pressure information to the iOS device, where it is displayed with a simulated horizon and vehicle reference symbol. Speed, altitude, and vertical velocity ribbons are also displayed along with a rotating compass card, a slip/skid ball, and an accelerometer.

For devices with a rear camera, there’s an augmented reality view that creates a true “heads up display.” The iHUD system is not intended as a primary cockpit instrument, as it lacks FAA certification, but can be used as an educational tool for pilots and even an auxiliary or backup system. The iHUD app that the system is built upon is available on the App Store for US$5.99.

If you’re at AirVenture in Oshkosh this week, drop by Hanger B, Booth #2125 to see the system in action at Levil Aviation’s venue.

iHUD Remote app brings glass cockpit to any pilot originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Boy Genius Report (BGR) suggests that AT&T is prepping retail employees for a September 5th iPhone launch. [In fact, the reports referenced today say between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15, but others have said Sept. 5. We doubt Apple would release a new iPhone on a Federal holiday and have adjusted the headline and copy to reflect this. – Ed.] According to BGR’s sources, supervisors are being told to wrap up training as soon as possible, so that floor staff will be available to handle the traffic in September.

Rumors of a September launch have been prevalent for several weeks now. Last month Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty suggested that production will begin in August, and Reuters claimed that the next iPhone will ship in September back in April of this year.

Of course, there’s only one way for us to know for sure. Wait and see.

AT&T reportedly preps for September iPhone launch originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

One thing that staggers the mind is the amount of money Apple has on hand. During last Tuesday’s 3Q earnings call, it was announced that the company has US$76.2 billion cash on hand — actually a combination of cash, short-term investments, and other items that would take an accountant to sort out. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs has publicly stated that “we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future” as the reason to have all that money on hand, I thought it would be more fun to think about ways to spend $76.2 billion on frivolous things.

Buy a fleet of 203 A-380 jumbo jets

At a price tag of $375.3 million each, the huge A-380 (top of post) can carry up to 525 people in a standard class configuration. Apple’s airline could simultaneously carry almost 107,000 people at a time, or over two times the number of employees the company has. This purchase would take a long time to happen, considering that only 53 of the monster jets have been built.

Give an iPad 2 (16 GB Wi-Fi) to every person in Japan and Taiwan

You could buy 152.7 million iPads with $76.2 billion, which means every man, woman, and child in the two Asian countries listed here could have an iPad 2 and there would still be some bucks left over. (Why those two countries? I needed two countries with a combined population of about 150 million.)

Treat every Apple employee to seven flights into space

That Genius at the local Apple Store is already the envy of many, but wouldn’t it be even more impressive if she was also an astronaut? Beginning next year, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is offering suborbital space flights on SpaceShip Two for $200,000 a pop. Apple has enough money to send every employee on seven SpaceShip Two flights each and still have money left over. Sir Richard might need to beef up his fleet a bit…

Buy HP

By a strange coincidence, HP’s market capitalization just happened to be around $76.1 billion on 7/22/11. Here’s a chance to put the TouchPad out to pasture, kill the Pre, and make printers that really work well with Apple devices.

Turn Cupertino into Fort Knox West

Gold prices were at an all-time high of $1,600 per ounce on Friday, but Apple could buy a lot of the stuff — 2,976,562.5 pounds (1,350,146.0 kilograms). That’s about a third of what’s stored in the United States Bullion Repository in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Buy every MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA franchise

Now this would be very frivolous, but Apple could buy every professional baseball ($15.7 billion), football ($22.8 billion), hockey ($4.9 billion) and basketball ($7.7 billion) team in the USA and still have about $25 billion in change.

The reality

The reality is that Apple isn’t going to do any of these things. The company is using its large cash reserves to expand in the midst of a worldwide recession, and that’s what it should be doing. Apple doesn’t pay shareholder dividends; if shareholders want to benefit from Apple’s good business acumen, they can sell shares and probably make a decent profit. And like it or not, the company is not in business for charity — they’re in business to create jobs for employees and value for shareholders.

Like I noted in the first paragraph of this post, Apple also has some strategic acquisitions in mind. Of course, we have no idea what those acquisitions could be, but whatever they do will most likely help the company in terms of achieving even more amazing financial feats in the future.

Apple’s $76.2 billion cash hoard: Six frivolous ways to spend it originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Two unofficial and unauthorized Apple retail stores have been ordered to close by Kunming, China officials. Not because of their less-than-official nature, but because neither had on official business permit.

Chinese law protects trademarks, of course, but also prevents one store from copying the “look and feel” of another. Exactly how “look and feel” is legally defined in this context is unclear. All in all, five stores were found to be selling products without authorization and two were closed.

The stores’ appearance was convincing at first glance. Blue-shirted employees even greet customers. A blog post on BirdAbroad drew attention to the shops, resulting in at least one outraged customer who didn’t now she bought a counterfeit product (not all stores were selling faked goods), not to mention cranky shop owners who had been happily operating under the radar. Reuters notes that one of the shops mentioned by BirdAborad has not been closed, and is in talks with Apple about becoming an official retailer.

Fake Apple retail stores ordered to close originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hero Teams is a turn-based action strategy title for the iPhone, but you will probably recognize what all of that means a little better if I just say it’s a lot like Worms. Basically, you put together a team of characters who get placed on a 2D map, and then you can throw, fire, and generally toss a bunch of different weapons at each other, blowing up the environment and your enemies until the best man wins.

Unfortunately for Hero Teams, Worms already exists on the App Store, and since both games are just US99 cents, I don’t have a lot to recommend this one over that one. But the look of the game is definitely different (it’s sort of a hand-drawn thing, slightly above stick-figure level), and the levels are a little bit more close-quarters than Worms’ were. The game also offers 50 different levels to play through, and Bluetooth multiplayer as well, so if you’re full up on Worms but can’t get enough of this type of game, there you go.

Neither of these games has stepped up with Game Center integration or online gameplay, unfortunately. It’d be nice to see that added in the future — a game of turn-based combat like this, sent back and forth with push notifications, would be a lot of fun.

TUAW’s Daily iPhone App: Hero Teams originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments