Category: I-phone

If you saw the teaser post earlier today, you probably know that today’s topic on TUAW TV Live is writing tools. The Mac is a wonderful machine for writers, and there are many applications available to help you slide through a bad case of writer’s block and get that novel written. Since this is National Novel Writing Month and I’m hard at work on my third trashy novel, I thought it would be a perfect time to spotlight some of the writing tools for Mac.

How can you join in on the fun? From your Mac or PC, go to the next page by clicking the read more link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.

We haven’t neglected our iPad users, since you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool. And one final note — if the show has started and you’re seeing a previously recorded show instead of the livestream, you can always pop on over to ustream.tv/tuaw to join the show in progress.

Continue reading TUAW TV Live: Tools for writing the Great American Novel on your Mac

TUAW TV Live: Tools for writing the Great American Novel on your Mac originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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37Signals is well-known as the developer of some powerful collaboration tools for the Web like Campfire and Basecamp. It’s obvious that the employees of the company know how to use a chalkboard to sketch out flow charts, scrawl UI mockups, and so on.

In fact, the four team rooms in the company’s new offices have corkboard walls and large chalkboards to facilitate brainstorming, and 37Signals employees wondered if they could take those chalkboards with them everywhere. The result? Chalk, a free iPad-only web app.

To use the free Web app, just use Safari to point to chalk.37signals.com, and then tap the plus sign in the Safari toolbar to add the site to your home screen. Don’t worry — you needn’t be on the Internet to use the app. Once you’ve created the home screen icon, the app persists and will load whether or not you’re connected.

Chalk is simple: you have a piece of pink chalk, a piece of white chalk, and an eraser. There’s a chalkboard, and for some reason, there’s a light switch on the wall. I think it’s there just for fun and realism. To save a drawing, just tap the share button, then tap and hold to either save the image to the Photo Library or to copy it.

To learn more about Chalk, check out the video on the next page.

Continue reading 37Signals’ Chalk, iPad-only collaborative web app

37Signals’ Chalk, iPad-only collaborative web app originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 4.2 isn’t quite out yet, but 9to5Mac has already spotted some Game Center-enabled iPad games out on the App Store. Big Bad Sudoku Book is an iPad app that’s apparently good to go already, presenting the Game Center icon with its listing.

Of course, without the actual firmware, there’s not much to do with any leaderboards you top or achievements you earn — for those, you’ll have to wait until the actual iPad firmware to arrive (which it should soon, at some point this month). But given that Game Center is integrated with an iTunes account, achievements earned on your iPad should show up on your iPhone, and eventually vice versa.

It will be interesting to see, once the service is all rolled out across both platforms, if multiplayer works between the two devices as well, or if there are any other little quirks involved in using Game Center in both places. As long as there are Game Center-enabled titles showing up right now, there probably isn’t much longer to wait.

Some Game Center-enabled iPad games appearing on App Store already originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[via BGR]

AppleCare now transferable to new purchases within 30 days originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The new board game app that’s based on the 2006 tabletop game Neuroshima Hex is a lot of things. For a cardboard hex-based game that’s reproduced in your pocket, Neuroshima Hex is gorgeous. The artwork is wonderfully clear on a Retina Display, and the part-apocalyptic, part-1950s sci-fi style graphics are very fitting. The gameplay combines tricks from a miniatures-based war game with abstract strategy titles. The music and sound effects are also well done, adding to the tension and mood of the battles. Given that the tabletop version of the game runs about US$30, and the app sells for $2.99 [this review is for Version 1.01], there’s very little reason to not check out this app if you’re at all interested in the theme or board gaming on your iPhone. Need another reason? The developers say that a universal version of the app with a higher price tag ($4.99) will be coming soon. Want to know more? Read on for what you seek.

Continue reading App Review: Neuroshima Hex is good, about to get a lot better

App Review: Neuroshima Hex is good, about to get a lot better originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just over six months have passed since the launch of the iPad, and today, the iBookstore has now officially opened in Australia.

Quoting an Apple spokesperson, The Age reports that the good folks down under now have access to “thousands” of new titles from a wide array of publishers including Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, Hardie Grant, Murdoch Publishers and Wiley.

Previously, Australians using an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch were only able to view out-of-copyright books on the Australian iBookstore or use US-based apps like the Amazon Kindle and Kobo app. However, these apps have a meager offering of Australian books, reported The Age.

Managing director of Hachette, Malcolm Edwards, said that Australian readers “…now have a store perfectly tailored for their needs.” And HarperCollins announced that its “…full e-book catalogue of local and international titles would be available through the iBookstore.”

If you’re in Australia and have access to the new iBooksotre, let us know how it’s going in the comments below.

[via Macsimum News]

Apple iBookstore has opened in Australia originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re here at the MacTech conference, and as everyone checked in and got breakfast there was a demonstration of some clever Mac-based rover robots designed and built by a team at the University of Arizona. The brainchildren of Professor Wolfgang Fink, these robots are designed to be autonomous and use a Mac mini inside to provide a modicum of intelligence. For demonstration purposes, however, the robots were being controlled by iPod touches.

I spoke briefly with Professor Fink’s colleague Mark Tarbell about the robots. He told me the Mac minis in these models still use platter-based hard drives, although he expressed the intention to someday use SSDs for reliability. Currently the Macs are protected in a foam and air enclosure that protects them from shocks, although the movement of treads on pavement were causing more bumping around than occurs when the robots are moving over grass. The robotic machinery interfaces with the Mac mini via USB, but Mr. Tarbell pointed out that USB can freeze up unexpectedly. Since a human might not be in a position to unplug and re-plug the USB interfaces in the case of an freeze, the team is hoping to move to a WiFi-based control system in the future.

The power systems are kept separate for the Mac and the robotics. Macs like a nice, clean power signal and robotic systems can cause power spikes, so the engineers found two power supplies (battery-powered, of course) to be optimal. Top speed for the tread-based models being demonstrated was about a meter per second. The power these robots pack is so great that Mr. Tarbell stated if they were placed on the grass and I were to try to hold them back, I wouldn’t be able to restrain them.

The basic platform is ingenious, and it’s cool to see Macs being used to power our future robot overlords. In fact, Fink’s research suggests that teams of these robots could be sent on extraterrestrial missions, complete with boats, rovers and blimps all communicating together and making decisions independently given specific mission goals and overall mission objectives. In the meanwhile, they are still in a very early stage of research and development, but are progressing quickly thanks to the Mac hardware which powers their decision-making systems.

Check out the video of these robots in action on the next page.

Continue reading Mac-based autonomous rovers at MacTech Conference 2010

Mac-based autonomous rovers at MacTech Conference 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re a fan of jailbreaking your iOS device, here’s some good news for you. The iphone Dev-Team has released the latest version of redsn0w (0.9.6b2), allowing you to jailbreak your iOS 4.1 device (iPhone 4 / 3GS, iPad, 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch and 2nd generation Apple TV) into the land of the free.

For either Mac OS X or Windows, this build takes advantage of geohot’s recent limera1n exploit (the same used by greenpois0n and PwnageTool), leaving the SHAtter exploit to (hopefully) be saved for another day, according to the Dev-Team Blog.

The Dev-Team has also incorporated two additional extras to this build. Firstly, “…custom bootlogos for iPhone3G/iPhone3GS/iPod2G users (with qualifying bootroms).” And secondly, “an option that implements the ‘DFU’ button in PwnageTool. This button (which you can use from Windows) lets you prepare your device for a custom DFU. Even if you’re purely a Windows user, you can get a trusted friend to run PwnageTool over your IPSW to create a custom IPSW. You can now install that custom IPSW on your own Windows box, after you run this redsn0w version.”

For the download and further details, check out the Dev-Team’s announcement post.

If you’ve gone and done the deed, let us know how it’s working out for you in the comments below.

[via gigaOM]

Redsn0w Jailbreak for iOS 4.1 now available originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday was the start of NaNoWriMo, the annual writing fest in which authors from around the globe attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I’ve started on my third novel, and as usual I’m having a blast thinking up characters, situations, plot lines, and just how I’m going to wrap up this entire story.

There are a number of wonderful writing tools for the Mac, so on today’s episode of TUAW TV Live, I thought I’d introduce to you at least 10 of them. You don’t need to be a budding novelist or screenwriter to benefit from the power of some of these tools, so if you do any sort of writing I think you’ll enjoy this afternoon’s show.

We’ll start at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT) sharp. Just drop by TUAW about 5 minutes before the start of the show and you’ll find a post with a livestream viewer and chat box. You can also join us or watch old episodes of TUAW TV Live at ustream.tv/tuaw.

TUAW TV Live today at 5 PM ET: Writing tools for Mac originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Web developer Michael Hüneburg has been experimenting recently with the new capabilities enabled by the latest version of the cascading style sheets standard, CSS3. Among other things, CSS3 now offers the ability to create animations triggered by a mouse over or click. Hüneburg used those features to code a replica of the Mac OS X dock.

Hüneburg has posted his example on his site where you can see that it does the same sort of magnification and bouncing icons as the Apple original. The full animation capability requires HTML5 support so it works in Webkit browsers like Safari and Chrome. Firefox versions 3.6 and 4 still don’t fully support CSS3, so the magnifications work but not the icon bounce. While this is an interesting experiment, it also shows some of where browser-based applications might be able to go in the future.

In addition to the animations, Hüneburg has also created new icons for Dashboard, Mail, iCal and Address book in the same style as the new iTunes icon. While this adds some uniformity, it also makes it harder to distinguish the apps at a glance. What do you think?

[via Macstories]

OS X Dock built using CSS 3, new iTunes style app icons originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs has never been averse to exaggeration or verbal misdirection when discussing features publicly. However, Hewlett-Packard’s Ken Bosley has taken issue with Jobs’ recent comments on touchscreen PCs.

During the recent Back to the Mac press event, Steve had this to say: “…Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical. It gives great demo but after a short period of time, you start to fatigue and after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off. It doesn’t work; it’s ergonomically terrible.”

Bosley responded in an interview with DVICE. He admits that a touch interface probably wouldn’t be optimal if it were the only input mechanism for a vertical screen. However, he emphasizes that each of the TouchSmart machines offers users multiple inputs, including keyboard, mouse, and touch. Users are free to use whichever they like.

Bosley also notes that the orientation of the screens on its machines can be adjusted for use with touch. For example, its touch-enabled laptops are convertibles with screens that flip around and lay flat, essentially turning it into a tablet. Similarly, the desktop screens can be made more horizontal. Despite this, HP’s TouchSmarts are generally not considered to be huge sellers, especially the laptops.

Bosley’s arguments do lend credence to the idea of a touch-enabled iMac with an adjustable screen (like the one seen in a recent Apple patent). Such an arrangement would provide the horizontal surface that lends itself to touch. Would you want such a convertible desktop machine? Have your say in the comments.

HP responds to Jobs about touchscreen PCs originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple retail stores are typically very busy places. While the staff are very helpful, customers generally have to wait around a bit before being served. Fortunately, Apple has offered a reservation system for services like the Genius Bar and training sessions. Unfortunately, one previously available service, personal shopping now seems to be gone.

With personal shopping, customers could make an appointment up to two weeks in advance to have a staff member provide personalized assistance in picking out the right ways to spend money in the store. It’s not clear why the service has been discontinued but customers can still get help with selecting the right Apple products. The only difference is that they’ll now need to stand in line. Of course, good things are worth waiting for and who doesn’t want to hang around the Apple store playing with iPads and Macs for a couple of hours?

Personal shopping discontinued in Apple Stores originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an ad similar to Apple’s “Get A Mac” campaign, T-Mobile pokes fun at the iPhone’s FaceTime restriction and places the blame squarely on AT&T.

The ad begins (see a video after the break) with a woman saying, “Hi. I’m a T-Mobile MyTouch 4G.” The camera then pans back to reveal a man standing next to her who says, “And I’m an iPhone 4.” Hanging on the man’s back is yet another man, whom the “iPhone” introduces as “…the old A&T network.” She replies, “That will slow you down.”

The ad then points out that video calling is available “practically anywhere” with T-Mobile 4G. The actor playing AT&T then notes that the iPhone 4 can use FaceTime wherever there’s a Wi-Fi network, like “…in an airport.”

It’s a cute parody and an effective ad. What do you think?

Continue reading T-Mobile ad pokes fun at FaceTime

T-Mobile ad pokes fun at FaceTime originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lee Unkrich is one of the creative minds behind the Toy Story series, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. Those are, of course, just a few of his accomplishments. He’s obviously a fairly important part of the Pixar creative empire, and his movies have inspired millions of people. He’s also a self-proclaimed Mac addict.

In an interview with Cult of Mac, Unkrich fessed up to his undying love of Apple products. His first was the Apple II Plus, which is about as much Apple street cred as you can hope to get. Unkrich says he’s owned nearly every Apple product since that first machine, even the much-maligned Newton. He’s remained a devoted follower through the good times and the bad and is looking forward to even more Apple advances in the future.

To me, the most interesting bit came pretty early in the interview with Unkrich. When asked what he loved so much about Macs, Unkrich replied that it was Apple’s “unrelenting quest to make beautiful, functional devices. [Macs] practically drip with the care and attention that went into their creation.” Isn’t that really the thing that inspires us Mac users? That solid, remarkable design and careful consideration of every aspect of the Mac experience.

It’s good to see the appreciation for Mac poetry shared by such a creative director.

Edit: Edit to make Unkrich’s role a little more clear — MG

Toy Story director is a Mac addict originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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