Category: I-phone

If you try to open a file in the Finder and it doesn’t recognize the extension, it will now offer to search the Mac App Store for applications that can open that filetype. Before the Mac App Store’s launch, the alert panel you see above would simply say, “There is no default application specified to open the document ‘foo.bar’ ” and offered only “Cancel” or “Choose Application…” as choices.

Ideally I wish the Finder would tell you if you already have any applications installed which could open those files, but this is a nice addition for people who might receive an unknown file and not know what to do with it.

In December, 9to5Mac spotted this dialog in a prerelease seed of 10.6.6, so it’s nice to see it made it into the final product.

Finder now offers to search Mac App Store for unknown file types originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleInsider reports that Apple Retail has issued a freeze on employee vacations beginning the last week of this month. The freeze reportedly bars any Apple Retail employee without seniority from taking vacation during a three-week period. The vacation freeze is expected to expire by the beginning of the third week of February.

So what could this rumored vacation freeze mean? It’s possible there will soon be an announcement from Apple introducing a new product, and Apple wants its stores fully staffed to handle the flood of customers.

On the Mac front, Apple’s MacBook Pros are overdue for an update, last being revamped in April 2010. However, it’s unlikely that new MacBook Pros would cause a stampede of customers to the Apple Store. The most likely scenario is that Apple is planning on announcing the next generation iPad or a Verizon iPhone in the next few weeks, either of which could go on sale by the end of January. Lending further credibility to a major launch in the upcoming weeks is that Apple has reportedly retained its temporary holiday staff through mid-February.

[One point of clarification: Though AppleInsider’s report notes that “Apple is also said to have retained its overstaffed holiday personnel at many retail stores, even with the annual shopping season now concluded,” TUAW’s retail sources suggest that the company has not brought on seasonal/temporary staffers in several years. -Ed.]

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Apple puts the freeze on retail employee vacations originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several TUAW readers and our very own Mike Schramm pointed out something interesting today: on Apple’s web page about the Mac app store, one of the screenshots shows a link for the iWork ’11 apps.

iWork ’11? The suite made up of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote that didn’t make it into the Mac App Store on opening day? Yeah, that iWork ’11.

Earlier today we were all looking at this page, which showed a store screen with a link to iWork ’11:

If you happen to go to the same page now, you’ll notice it’s a bit different:

It could mean nothing, or it could be that the suite was pulled from the App Store at the last minute, resulting in some poor web designer getting screamed at by Steve Jobs for not removing the characters “’11” from a rather insignificant web page.

Time will tell. Any bets on when iWork ’11 will finally drop?

iWork ’11 hinted at on Apple web page, then disappears originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that Mac apps whose developers didn’t follow Apple’s advice on validating apps (link for registered Apple developers) can easily be copied by users. Gruber notes if Mac App Store developers are following Apple’s advice, the technique for using a copied app won’t work, but many apps aren’t following that advice. He suggests Apple test for this in their review process and reject apps that are vulnerable.

Sean Christmann explains on his blog, CraftyMind, how developers can better protect themselves against copying apps. He recommends hard-coding receipt bundle identifier and version identifier strings into applications rather than depending on strings in an app’s info.plist file, because that file is easy to find and duplicate. You may read that “the Mac App Store has been hacked,” but the instructions floating around out there aren’t how to “hack” the App Store; they’re how to steal certain apps if a developer didn’t follow the guidelines well.

Devs, check your code. Users, support developers. This is new for everyone. It’s certainly a very interesting time for software delivery model — putting indie developers on the same shelf space as Fortune 500 companies — and there are bound to be hiccups along the way.

Mac App Store devs need careful code validation, otherwise downloads can be copied originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We liked the idea of the iRadar when we first heard about it, and Cobra put the device front and center at its CES 2011 booth (well, right next to the girls in skimpy police uniforms). The iRadar is a radar detector that hooks right up to Cobra’s official iPhone app, and will not only alert you when you see speed radar units out on the road, but will also tune in to two different services. “Aura” is Cobra’s own service that keeps a “verified” database of red light cameras and speed traps, and the iRadar ThreatCenter is a database specific to the iRadar that tracks, in real time, when the iRadar goes off. In other words, if someone with an iRadar drives by a speed trap right before you do, you’ll be alerted ahead of time.

Cobra told us that it has seen over 30,000 downloads of the app, so there’s quite a bit of interest out there. The iRadar itself is designed to be a very simple radar detector — it’s just got a small button and a speaker, since most of the information is relayed through the iPhone. But Cobra confirmed that it is working on other radar detector models that will work with the app (as well as an Android version sooner rather than later), and it’s even considering bringing the ThreatCenter system to non-smartphone enabled models. Eventually your iPhone may be alerting other Cobra users, even those without phones, about the speedtraps you see. “That’s why the app is free,” the Cobra rep joked.

iRadar is $129, and comes with both the detector unit and the dock come with the purchase. You may not have a need for speed, but if you do, Cobra’s unit offers a nice integration with your iPhone.

Please note that radar detector use may not be legal in some jurisdictions. TUAW reminds all our readers to always avoid distractions, focus on the road and drive prudently and safely.

Be sure to check out the rest of our CES coverage on our CES page.

Cobra iRadar on the CES 2011 show floor originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Parents must be finding it easier than ever to keep kids in the backseat distracted — Disney Publishing has hit 1 million downloads of its Disney Book Apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Disney Publishing has nine book apps in the App Store, all of which have been seen in the top 10 paid book apps since the iPad debuted in April. Four of the apps are currently listed in the Top 10 in the iTunes App Store Books category, with Toy Story Read-Along in the Top 5 Book Apps in 35 countries.

Continue reading Disney has delivered 1 million iOS book apps

Disney has delivered 1 million iOS book apps originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NBC’s new superhero-themed show The Cape officially debuts its two-hour premiere on TV this coming Sunday night (9 PM EST), but there’s at least one way you can get a look at its first hour, legally.

The free DC Comics app on iPad now has a link that allows users to view the first hour of The Cape, or at least a late, unfinished cut of the episode. While the announcements about this new feature make one think you need the DC Comics app to view the video, the appearance of a “Safari” button at the top of the window allows you to send the video’s link directly to the browser, where you can copy the URL and view it in any other browser or even download the video entirely. Oops?

So, either make DC Comics and NBC happy and view the video within the official iPad app, or go view it here. Up to you (for now). (UPDATE: Looks like the video was taken down from the app due to “high traffic” issues.)

View NBC’s The Cape premiere via iPad app (or not) originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WOWee (not the robot company) launched in mid-2010 selling a rechargeable portable speaker slightly larger than the original iPod. The WOWee One features a 20-hour rechargeable battery which you charge via USB, a small speaker on the top and a pulsing bass driver which transmits your lower frequencies through their patented gel onto whatever surface you place it on. I was told it will reproduce bass two and possibly three octaves lower than competitors. The WOWee One retails for $79.99 and comes with a USB cable for charging, audio input cord and carrying case.

Some demo videos are after the break, but my microphone is a poor substitute to hearing this speaker in person. When the speaker was placed on a coffee table at their booth, I could feel the bass in my feet. It’s shocking to hear such bass from a small speaker, and the treble isn’t muddied by this, either. The higher frequencies are nicely balanced, providing a truly remarkable listening experience. With an additional wall attachment, called the WOWee Hug (pictured above with the One inside), you can securely stick the unit onto a wall for some incredible sound. Honestly, any surface that allows vibration or resonance (like wood or glass, but certainly not stone) will provide some astoundingly thumping bass. There are also gel pads available for a less secure stick, although the gel sticks to gel quite well.

Currently the WOWee One can be purchased online via places like Amazon, but they hope to pick up some physical distribution soon outside of a few small shops (Apple Stores would be ideal, in my opinion). They just announced the WOWee One Slim, which is about the size of a candybar cell phone and features a 10 hour battery and little LED light which changes color. It retails for $89.99. The WOWee One comes in four color combos, with black, black and chrome, white and chrome and white and pink.

Be sure to check out the rest of our CES coverage on our CES page.

Continue reading WOWee portable speaker brings the bass through gel and your table, window or wall

WOWee portable speaker brings the bass through gel and your table, window or wall originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first Mac app I downloaded this morning after finishing the update to Mac OS X 10.6.6 was Twitter for Mac 2.0. This is the app formerly named Tweetie, and it’s a free download from the Mac App Store.

If you have previously used another Twitter client on your Mac, or if you’re currently using the eponymous Twitter app on iOS, then you’re going to want to at least give Twitter for Mac a try. Here’s how to get Twitter from the App Store. Note that you must be running 10.6.6 on an Intel Mac to use this app.

For those who are using Twitter on iPad, the decision to install Twitter for Mac 2.0 should be a no-brainer. The user interface is remarkably similar to what you’re used to on iPad, with one notable exception — when you click on a link in the Mac app, your default browser is launched to view the content. In the iPad app, that content appears in a sliding pane within the app itself. Perhaps this will be a feature of a future Mac OS X 10.7 version of the app, since the future OS is destined to become more iOS-like. Photos do open in another little window created by the app.

Continue reading Twitter for Mac 2.0: A first look

Twitter for Mac 2.0: A first look originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may not be Microsoft Bob, but boy am I happy that I installed Clippy ($0.99 at the Mac App Store) on my Mac. No, Clippy isn’t that annoying “It looks like you are writing a letter” implementation from years past, but something far more helpful.

The new Clippy, the better Clippy, the Macintosh Clippy allows your Mac to remember previous pasteboard entries for those always awkward times when you have to copy not one but two or more separate items after another. You can pull items as you need them directly from the menu bar at the top of Finder.

That’s brilliant.

Clippy is, at the current time, text only — so you’re not going to be able to store images, sound snippets, and the like. Also, it doesn’t seem to store text formatting along with the core text, which is either a disappointment or the Best Thing Ever, depending on your use case and viewpoint.

I’m really happy with my US$0.99 purchase — and if you do a lot of copy and pasting you may be too. Clippy was created by Naheed Kausar of Faw_zz. Commenters also suggest the non-App Store (and free!) options of JumpCut or ClipMenu, both of which are listed as still under development. There’s another tool that’s both open source and for sale in the Mac App Store: Clyppan, which costs $10 in the store (version 1.1) but is also apparently downloadable to build yourself in Xcode (version 1.0).

It’s Clippy! Back as a Mac App Store utility originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the first things we did on the show floor here at CES today was stop by the Bluelounge booth. The company was showing off its latest product, called the Nest, an iPad stand due to sell for $14.95 when it arrives in stores later on this year. There are plenty of iPad stands here at CES (and you’ll hear about more of them this week), but the Nest’s difference is that it doesn’t even look like an iPad stand — it looks more like a little dish with a rubber grip around the outside lip. If you lay your iPad across the top, it will hold in place either horizontally or vertically, or there’s also a little tray that pulled out of the back that will hold up the device at a sharper angle.

Since it’s just a molded piece of plastic, there’s not a lot of customization — you can’t really adjust the angle of the display even if you want to. But the tray still looks good even when your iPad away, and you can keep keys, coins, or anything else in there, so it provides a little functionality rather than just taking up space even when you’re not using the stand. The price is right, too — you can buy nicer stands for more money, but for $15, the Nest seems like a good option.

I asked Bluelounge what the reasoning was behind releasing an iPad stand, and they said that they’d seen “a noticeable increase” in their Cool Feet laptop stand as the iPad came out last year, not to mention that everyone around their design offices was using iPads anyway. The Nest does a fine job of holding the iPad up with clean and simple design.

Bluelounge’s Nest iPad stand on display at CES 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of my favorite parts about the new Mac App Store is that it is “buy one, run everywhere” just like iOS apps on the iPad or iPhone/iPod touch. It has always been the case that you can buy an app at the iOS App Store and use it on all of your iOS devices.

“Desktop” software has often been frustratingly limited to one or two computers. I’m thinking especially of the new Microsoft Office suite, but there are many, many other apps (especially ones from Adobe) which ties a license to a single (or sometimes two) machine.

If you buy, say, The Incident for Mac for $3 from the Mac App Store, you can use it on all of your Macs.

Simply launch the Mac App Store on your second (or third or fourth, etc) computer and look under “Purchases” and you will see all of the apps that you have purchased. Apps which are already installed will be shown as “Installed” and greyed out. Apps you can install will be shown in a black box labeled “Install.” Click it and the app will automatically download and install to your /Applications/ folder.

If you want to go right to that app’s page, just tap-err, I mean click! the app icon and it will take you to the appropriate page.

I’d love to see the iOS App Store be updated to have a list of purchases that I have made so I know which apps I have purchased but not yet installed. The Mac App Store’s purchase history page is much better than the way iTunes manages your iOS purchases. Maybe Apple could call its next event “Back to the iOS!”

Buy once, install everywhere with Mac App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In our Mac 101 series, TUAW introduces basic OS X concepts to new Mac users. This is going to be a quick one, because there’s not too much to it — but it’s a critical note when talking to other people in your newly adopted community.

Editor’s Note: Please keep your comments civil and relevant. Remember that Mac 101 is aimed at novice users, not the grizzled Mac veterans who clearly are going to keep pronouncing things however the heck they want. Off-topic or abusive comments will be deleted; repeat offenders will be banned.

It’s pronounced “Oh. Ess. Ten,” not “Oh. Ess. Ex”. (Yes, Apple has a KB article on this point.)

Mac OS X is a Unix-based operating system with roots reaching back to the Mach project at Carnegie Mellon and the NeXTStep OS in the late 1980’s — NeXT was a spin-off corporation founded by Steve Jobs during his exodus from Apple. Mac OS X was the version following Mac OS 9, even though the two systems are entirely different under the hood. The “X” is the Roman Numeral for ten.

It may look a little redundant when written out, but when you see “OS X 10.6.6”, you can say “Oh. Ess. Ten. Point. Six. Point Six.” or even “Oh. Ess. Ten. Six. Six.” It’s perfectly okay to drop the second ten.

Continue reading Mac 101: Pronouncing Mac OS X

Mac 101: Pronouncing Mac OS X originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After the shock of seeing the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update and Mac App Store arrive early this morning, as opposed to the 12 PM ET launch we expected, many of the TUAW bloggers began browsing the virtual aisles to see what was for sale. While there were a few surprises, there were also some apps that were missing that we had really hoped for.

First and foremost, the absence of iWork ’11 from the Mac App Store was a shocker. I was particularly dismayed, as I’m scheduled to write a book about the productivity suite whenever it finally arrives. iWork ’11 isn’t the only Apple software that was a no-show — iWeb and iDVD are nowhere to be found. The Final Cut Studio suite? Nowhere. And even FaceTime, an app that we speculated might go from beta to production with the opening of the App Store, was untouched. Although Apple hasn’t said anything about availability of iBooks for Mac, this would have been a great time to launch that app.

Some of our favorite Mac utilities and apps were not in the store: No Scrivener, TextMate, Colloquy, Cyberduck (although my favorite FTP client Transmit is in the store), Bento, and Toast.

In the area of communication tools, Adium, AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger were missing. There was no sign of Postbox or Mailplane. Web browsers? No Firefox, Opera, or Chrome. And Reeder is nowhere to be found.

While Angry Birds for Mac is flying up the charts already (by the way, it’s awesome on a 27″ iMac), World of Warcraft and Starcraft, The Sims, and most other popular games aren’t in the store yet. Plants vs. Zombies for Mac? Not there. Adobe and Microsoft apps are completely missing. Want a financial app like Quicken, Cha-ching, Moneydance, or TurboTax? Sorry, you’ll have to order ’em somewhere else.

Some other free apps, Kindle for Mac, VLC, and HandBrake, were not here. What does this tell us? A lot of developers may have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, or simply didn’t get their apps ready in time to make the App Store launch. Ged Meheux from Icon Factory told us on last Sunday’s TUAW Talkcast that they just weren’t ready to release Twitterrific 4 on Day One.

As with the iOS App Store, it will take some time to see just how popular and widely-used the Mac App Store will be. Judging from the response we’re seeing already on Twitter, I think it’s going to be a success. Which missing apps do you want to see in the Mac App Store? Leave your comments below.

Missing Mac apps we hoped we’d see originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re live at the Skype press conference, where CEO Tony Bates is talking about a number of huge things for the calling service we all know and love. First they announced an IPO, which is huge news in itself. Read on for more news from the company.

Continue reading Live from Skype press conference at CES

Live from Skype press conference at CES originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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