Category: I-phone

Recently departed Apple Senior VP Mark Papermaster has landed a new gig, signing on with Cisco as vice president of the Silicon Switching Technology Group. Papermaster’s resume includes time working on chip design for IBM as well as his brief tenure running the hardware engineering group at Apple.

The Cisco job certainly won’t have the same kind of profile as the Apple position but it is certainly important. Papermaster will lead the development of chips for Cisco switching equipment. Cisco hardware runs a lot of the infrastructure that makes up the internet as well as corporate networks.

Papermaster’s relationship with Apple was marred by controversy before he even started working there. IBM sued Apple in an attempt to prevent Papermaster from joining the company. After only a year and a half in Cupertino, Papermaster left Apple in the wake of reception problems with the iPhone 4.

Ex-Apple, IBM exec Mark Papermaster lands at Cisco originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are Macs envious of Windows 7’s ability to play Blu-ray discs? Microsoft seems to think so, as seen in this stop-motion web video highlighting a Windows 7 laptop computer and a jealous MacBook. The MacBook is blown away by the PC’s ability to play a Blu-ray disc of Avatar, saying “it feels like we’re really in it,” and thoroughly enjoying the experience of such a life-like movie. After watching the video, one might think that Apple users cannot watch high-definition movies on their computers, but this is not exactly true.

Apple has avoided supporting Blu-ray so far. Apple instead offers 720p movie downloads as it tries to move us away from using any physical media. I can understand wanting Blu-ray for a home theater set-up — I have a separate Blu-ray player hooked up to my 47″ TV myself — but I don’t really see the need for it when flying on an airplane. A small laptop screen isn’t really the format that Blu-ray movies are made for.

Would I like to see Apple support Blu-ray? Absolutely. A friend who uses a Mac mini as his entire home entertainment system says, “It’s perfect, except for the fact that I cannot rent or watch Blu-ray discs”. Until the day physical media no longer exists, there will definitely be a market for Blu-ray players, especially for use at home — even if Microsoft has recently joined Apple in downplaying the future of Blu-ray.

Click “Read More” to check out the video.

Continue reading Mac has Blu-ray envy in Microsoft ad

Mac has Blu-ray envy in Microsoft ad originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Black Friday ads have slowly started to leak out, and the latest is Best Buy’s Black Friday ad. As usual, there aren’t any deals to be had on Apple hardware, but Best Buy is going to have quite a good deal on a $50 iTunes giftcard. During its Black Friday sale, Best Buy will offer the $50 gift cards for a whopping 20% off — so it’s only $40. If you do a lot of iTunes Store purchasing, that’s actually quite a good deal — you might want to stock up on the cards while they’re on sale.

Other Apple products featured in the Best Buy Black Friday ad:

— The entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro and 21.5-inch iMac (no discounts)

— All 8GB iPod nanos (no discount, but you can get a package with an iPod nano, Gumy Earbud Headphones, an Aerosport Case, and a PowerBlock Wall Charger for an added $10 over the price of a nano alone)

— An 8GB iPod touch with a free $30 Best Buy gift card

Apple Stores usually offer slight discounts on select Mac hardware on Black Friday. We’ll keep you updated on other Apple-related Black Friday deals as we hear about them, and we’ll feature a recap of all the deals a day or two before the shopping madness begins.

Best Buy to offer $50 iTunes gift card for $40 on Black Friday originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spirits for iPad, which I saw and played back at Indiecade this year, is out now on the App Store. The game is US$4.99, but as a premium iPad experience, it’s worth it. The whole thing is extremely relaxing, and the art style is quite well done. If you enjoy Lemmings-style puzzle gameplay where your goal is to get a set of autonomous creatures to a level exit using their various abilities, you’ll really enjoy finding your way through the 40 handmade levels in Spirits.

I was told a while back that an iPhone version is coming, but the iPad version was ready to go first, so here it is. Unfortunately, there’s still no Game Center achievements or any other extra modes or gameplay, but that’s ok. The point of the game is just to sit back and explore the world with these weird spirit creatures, so if you’re looking to spend some quality gaming time with the iPad this weekend, Spirits won’t let you down.

Lemmings-like Spirits for iPad out now originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like anyone, we always appreciate free stuff. While it’s important to be aware that sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you get more. Such is the case for a batch of Mac utilities from DEVONtechnologies. For anyone that makes a living sitting in front of a computer screen, little tools that help speed your way through various tasks are always welcome, and at least one of these apps might be just what you’ve been looking for.

When you have a bunch of windows open for various tasks and you need a file or application, using Exposé to get to a Finder window is one approach, but you might find Xmenu to be a more efficient path. Xmenu adds a menu extra to the right side of the Apple menu bar that provides quick access to files and folders on your drive. If you’re not sure where the item you want is located, EasyFind supplements Mac OS X’s built-in Spotlight with the ability to search for hidden files, search inside packages, and even allows the use of Boolean operators to narrow searches.

ThumbsUp enables batch operations on clusters of images to switch formats, resize, sharpen and more. It’s not quite like creating a Photoshop action, but for some quick and dirty operations it will do. PhotoStickies is less productivity oriented, but it allows you create an automatic collage of images that you select from your drive. The sticky images can even include live webcam feeds that automatically update.

You can grab all four utilities for free at DEVONtechnologies.

DEVONtechnologies offers four free Mac utility apps originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As if you needed yet another example of how there’s no limitation to the uses people will find for the iPad, here’s another one for you: 9to5 Mac points out this use of an iPad as a protest sign.

In a recent Lithuanian protest, observers noted and recorded a video of one industrious person who made his own app — or, possibly, just a video or web page — to display his own protests in animated form upon an iPad. There’s just never enough room on those giant poster boards to get your message across, so why not get their attention with flashing messages on an iPad taped to a piece of wood, right? Given, it’s an expensive sign to make, but at least it gets the word out.

Check out the full video after the break. This certainly deserves our Friday No Comment.

Continue reading No Comment: iPad used as protest sign

No Comment: iPad used as protest sign originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were enjoying using the Apollo News reader on your iPhone or iPad, you probably noticed that it stopped getting content for the last couple of days. In fact, the developers turned it off because they are in the middle of a conflict with some content providers.

These disputes are nothing new. The excellent newsreader Pulse had a tiff with the New York Times, but it was finally settled. The Apollo app was created by some former Bing and Google engineers, and it worked well and had an excellent presentation of content from various news sites.

I talked to company founder Evan Reas, who told TUAW the app has been shut down and pulled from the App Store while the disputes are being worked out. This morning, the data feeds reappeared with the feeds in contention stripped out, but I couldn’t tell what had changed and Reas didn’t want to elaborate. I hope the app comes back to the App Store soon — if you already have the app, the feeds work, but until then there’s no way to find or download it to your iPhone or iPad. We’ll keep an eye on what the outcome of the dispute turns out to be.

Apollo News reader shuts down and restarts with some RSS content missing originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whether you’ve always been a vegan, or are new to veganism, there are times when eating can be a challenge. Sure, you can plan your meals out and substitute this for that in a meal or recipe, but life happens, so here are the essential iPhone apps for vegans dealing with life happening.

When you don’t want to be “that person”

Rather than staring at the menu, and burning a hole through it in the process, or asking the waiter what things can be removed or substituted, you could come into a restaurant fully prepared knowing what is or isn’t vegan. This is what VeganXpress (USD $1.99) does.

The app has a list of popular restaurants and marries to it the vegan choices and substitutes available. For example, the app shows that the Fresco Bean Burrito (my personal fast food favorite) at Taco Bell, while the Seven Layer Burrito can be veganized sans cream and cheese.

In addition, the app provides an extensive listing of popular food items, beer and wine that fit the vegan bill. With it, I was able to comfortably buy a bag of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, Hot Tamales and a couple of bottles of Chimay.

When you don’t want to worry about being “that person”

But there’s no need for fakin’ a vegan meal when you can “facon” it instead (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself), and this is what VegOut (USD $2.99) does. Powered by happycow.net, a popular restaurant guide amongst vegans, VegOut uses your iPhone’s current location and gives you a list of vegan, vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants nearby along with user ratings. Alternatively, you can search for a restaurant, say “Italian” or “Thai,” and the app will return a list of restaurants nearby, from which you can get driving directions to via the Google maps app.

Continue reading Essential iPhone apps for vegans

Essential iPhone apps for vegans originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not entirely psyched about your iPad because of its lack of Adobe Flash support, or unhappy with the iOS operating system itself? How about installing Android on it instead? OpeniBoot, an open source implementation of iBoot for Apple iOS devices, is on a mission to bring the Android OS to the iPad and iPhone 4. While previous versions of OpeniBoot have appeared for the first-gen iPhone and iPhone 3G, this is the first we’ve seen of the implementation for more modern iOS devices. For jailbroken (obviously) iOS devices, the use of OpeniBoot allows the booting of unsigned code such as Linux, and thus Android, on Apple devices.

One of the reasons I have always used Apple computers is because the systems work fine for my needs as-is, but if you are an adventurous soul who can back their way out of a technological jam, this could be kind of a cool experiment.

[via macgasm and The Next Web]

iPad may soon run Android via OpeniBoot originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Support for Apple‘s new AirPlay is supposedly excluded from the iPhone 3G, reports 9to5Mac. Designed to let users stream their iTunes library anywhere in their house via WiFi or an Ethernet connection, AirPlay technology will be found in all manner of audio/video equipment in the coming months, including the AirPort Express and Apple TV. However, it looks like it’s only going to be for mobile users with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, not those still using 3Gs. While Apple’s own website states that “AirPlay is coming soon and will be available on all iOS 4 devices,” which one would imagine includes the 3G iPhone, it looks like it is not meant to be.

Even though Apple is currently dealing with a class-action lawsuit regarding the performance of 3G iPhones after installing iOS 4, seems that they have decided that the iPhone 3G just isn’t capable of working properly with AirPlay. Personally, I have been using the iTunes Remote app, multiple AirPort Express units, two Tivoli radio units, and Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil software to stream my music library, so I am looking forward to trying out AirPlay here at home to see how it compares.

That is, when I finally get around to downloading iTunes 10.1 with AirPlay support, which was made available earlier today.

iPhone 3G excluded from AirPlay support originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To address WiFi connectivity issues in the previous gold master build of iOS 4.2, Apple has released a second GM build of iOS 4.2 for the iPad. The previous build number was 8C134; the new build is 8C134b, probably indicating only very minor changes between the builds.

It’s unclear how this will affect the public release date for iOS 4.2. The Daily Telegraph reports iOS 4.2’s public release may be delayed until November 24, although it’s unclear why. If WiFi connectivity is the only issue this new GM build of iOS 4.2 addresses compared to the old build, it doesn’t seem like another 12 days of testing before public release is warranted.

Mac OS X 10.6.5 was released earlier this week, and iTunes 10.1 came out earlier today. According to earlier rumors, iOS 4.2 was supposed to have been publicly released today, but the last-minute bugs in the iPad GM build made that impossible. All the other pieces are in place for iOS 4.2’s public release, so now it’s just a waiting game.

iPad gets a new iOS 4.2 gold master build to address WiFi issues originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Once the gift-giving holidays arrive, the lucky among us will find new Macs among our haul. Part of the fun of owning a Mac is acquiring some goodies to go with it. In this post, we’ll focus on software. Specifically, the 10 apps you’ll absolutely want on your new machine. WIthout further delay, here’s our list (all prices are USD).

1. Quicksilver (free)

[The Quicksilver page appears to be down, here’s an alternate. – Ed]
This is absolutely, positively the first piece of software I install on every new Mac. In fact, I dislike using a Mac without it. Quicksilver is a utility which, at first, appears to be a launcher. That is the most popular way to use it. Assign a hotkey combination to elicit its minimal window (there are several designs to choose from), type the first few letters of your target app, hit return and presto! Your app launches. This also works with URLs, contact names and phone numbers…on and on. Plus, the more you use it, the smarter it becomes. Now I can just hit “Command-Space-T” to open TUAW, even if a browser isn’t running. It’s a huge time-saver.

Of course, that’s barely the beginning of what Quicksilver can do. A huge number of other apps offer Quicksilver support. For instance, you can upload files via FTP with Transmit, launch AppleScripts, move files, compose email messages and more, all with a few keystrokes that will get so finely sewn into your muscle memory that conscious thought will be removed from the process.

Not a bad start; our first gift suggestion is supremely useful and free! Now, on to number two.

Continue reading TUAW’s Holiday Gift Guide: 10 must-have apps for a new Mac

TUAW’s Holiday Gift Guide: 10 must-have apps for a new Mac originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today at the Monaco Media Forum, another nail was pounded into the coffin of that cornerstone of traditional media, the newspaper.

News Corp’s Asian/European operations lead, James Murdoch, noted that the switch to iPad and other mobile reading apps has had a direct effect on newspaper sales. Murdoch said that the apps were “much more directly cannibalistic” than web sites, as subscribers read the apps in a manner similar to how they read traditional newspapers. Web readers apparently consume their news somewhat differently. While he didn’t disclose sales numbers, Murdoch said that the newspapers affected include the Wall Street Journal, News of the World, and the Times of London.

News Corp isn’t making as much money on subscriptions through mobile apps, but is happy with selling news through the iTunes model. Apple’s 30% take isn’t that bad when the cost of printing and distribution of traditional newspapers is taken into account. Murdoch mentioned that “the guy on the newstand and the newsagent charge a percentage, and they don’t even merchandise it properly.”

While the iPad is the current leader in electronic news sales, News Corp just delivered an Android tablet version of the Wall Street Journal yesterday and also provides a version for the Amazon Kindle and other e-readers.

iPad affecting newspaper sales originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes 10.1 for Windows and Mac is now available for download. You can download iTunes 10.1 from the links below. iTunes 10.1 comes with support for iOS 4.2 and Airplay.

Checkout what’s new in iTunes 10.1 along with download link after the jump..

What’s new in iTunes 10.1

• Use AirPlay to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes to the all-new Apple TV.
• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2.
• Provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

iTunes 10 was released on September 1st loaded with features like iTunes Ping, TV Show rentals, Airplay, Apple TV support and improved syncing.

Download iTunes 10.1

• Download iTunes 10.1 for Windows
• Download iTunes 10.1 for Mac

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