Category: Tutorials

Return of the Revenge of the Yellow Sticky King Part 6. Yes, the Apple Store is down in the US and UK. We’ll update this post when it returns to let you know what has changed, if anything.

Update: Stores in Norway and the Netherlands are also down, according to Twitter. As Sebthedev points out below, it’s out all over the world.

The Apple Store is down (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The very popular Sonos whole house music system has announced a new wireless music player and lowered the price on its Zone Bridge device making the cost of getting into the Mac compatible system significantly cheaper.

Sonos is now offering the Play: 3, a US $299.00 compact stereo speaker system small enough for a kitchen counter-top or a nightstand. The Play: 3 consists of 3 integrated speakers and 3 digital amplifiers. An interesting feature of the speaker is what Sonos calls ‘smart directional design’, which means the equalization of the speaker changes depending on whether the unit is horizontal or vertical. Although the speaker is stereo, the unit is not very wide, and a second Play: 3 can be added to the system to provide a wide stereo pair.

If you are just starting with a Sonos music system, you will need what Sonos calls a Zone Bridge. The Zone Bridge has been cut 50% in price to $50.00. It plugs into your router, and connects to your iTunes library, and gives you access to more than 100,000 internet radio stations and music services like Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM and Spotify. Some music services require a subscription.

You can add more speakers to create a multi-room system, and Sonos offers other players that can be connected to existing audio setups. Once the system is up and running, everything can be controlled from a free iOS app for your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. You can also control the system with a free OS X app. An existing wireless network is required.

I think the only thing missing from the Sonos product mix is a battery powered wireless speaker for use outside or anywhere in the house where AC is not available.

Sonos is not the only way to get a whole house music system up and running, but it is one of the easiest to deploy and expand. The Play: 3 goes on sale today, and I’ll be testing one soon to hear the quality of the sound.

Sonos adds new hardware and lowers the entry cost to whole house music originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems several completely unauthorized “Apple Stores” have been spotted in Kunming, China by the author of the blog BirdAbroad. While Apple’s Q3 earnings call mentioned the exploding Asian market, Apple’s official Apple Stores are only found in Beijing and Shanghai — stores opened with much ballyhoo and attention to detail. These stores look almost identical to real Apple Stores, with blue-shirted employees wearing badges with Apple logos, and a spiral staircase. But they are not real, with a few tell-tale signs: the badges have no names and the stores have the words “Apple Store” on the signage, not just the glowing Apple logo. One is even labeled “Apple Stoer” — a typo seen more often on unofficial Apple blogs (not including ours!) than Apple’s retail establishments.

Check out the post on BirdAbroad to see the pictures of the stores and the staff, and shake your head in disbelief.

[via ifoAppleStore]

No comment: Faux Apple Stores in China originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix has released a new set of “trailers” for the upcoming Chaos Rings 2, but you’ll need to know Japanese to get anything out of them, unfortunately. They’re all about the voice actors for the game, and don’t really show any gameplay footage — it’s just the actors talking about the new title and how it works for them. There are some screenshots over at Famitsu, though, and if nothing else, we can at least take these as a sign that the game is closer to release than before.

In other Square Enix news, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is still coming to iOS, but Square says on Facebook that it obviously couldn’t get the game out this Spring as planned. Instead, they’re now targeting a release for later this month, and the date written on the wall (in dry-erase marker, not stone, of course) looks to me like July 27. That would be next Wednesday, so stay tuned. Final Fantasy Tactics is pretty much considered the best tactical strategy RPG around, so it’ll be great to have a game like that on iOS.

Square Enix releases new Chaos Rings 2 trailer, promises Final Fantasy Tactics soon originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite what people may think, here at TUAW we do try to be pretty objective about Apple and its many products and services. Yes, they’ve made a lot of awesome stuff (and sure, they’ve made some big mistakes), but that doesn’t mean that we can’t give props to other companies every so often. Like Microsoft, for example. Looking at this brand new Lion-compatible mouse the company from Seattle has just introduced, we can admit that it’s a pretty good-looking piece of hardware.

It sounds like a nice mouse, too, featuring a touch surface that allows you to scroll in any direction, and a touch scroll wheel that allows for three speeds. There are five programmable buttons total, though I can only see three on the sleek design above.

That said, there’s two little hitches here: It’s not clear from Microsoft’s release whether this mouse works with Lion’s multitouch features, and that might be a gamebreaker. Even worse, this isn’t a Bluetooth mouse — it’s an RF device that needs a separate USB receiver. Not cool, Microsoft. Still, if you need a mouse that works with a touch surface and want something that’s slightly cheaper than the Magic Mouse, the Explorer Touch Mouse will be on shelves in September for $49.95.

[via 9to5Mac]

Microsoft introduces Explorer Touch, a Lion-compatible mouse originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A former head programmer for mobile and iOS developer Gameloft has made some pretty damning accusations against the company in a complaint. Glenn Watson says that he was made to work over 100 hours a week sometimes, and that “it was after I worked four consecutive weeks of fourteen-hour days – including weekends – that I realised I needed to resign.” The issues didn’t stop there, either — after Watson resigned, he claims, he was asked to apologize for leaving others behind to do the work that he passed up. He says the best apology would be to make sure his fellow employees “never get put through the same rubbish conditions again.”

Other employees have backed up Watson’s claims, apparently, and even the company itself says there are some long hours being worked, though they’re all in line with regulations and employee contracts.

It’s also true, however, that Gameloft’s been releasing mobile and iOS titles at a quick rate, and the company’s CFO has admitted that it’s “an ugly scene” in mobile game development right now. And this definitely isn’t the first accusation of employee abuse in the gaming industry — a posting by an anonymous “EA Spouse” a few years ago laid bare the hours and problems game companies often have when they are pushing to get a game out by a certain time. We’ll have to see what comes of this complaint, both in terms of actions against Gameloft, and any changes the company makes in the future.

Gameloft accused of overworking employees originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Make has put together an enticing kit for those interested in doing a little Arduino programming alongside the iPhone. The Redpark Breakout Pack is basically a serial cable with a connector on it that will go from an iPhone to an Arduino and let you send signals back and forth, even without jailbreaking.

There’s a guide for setting up a simple project, but you’ll have to have some previous knowledge of how to connect and run an Arduino, as well as create and run code on the iPhone. Note also that as far as I can tell (I’m not a developer, unfortunately), you still can’t create apps for the App Store that work with this product — at this point, all you can do is program your own iPhone to work with a local Arduino.

Still, anyone interested in connecting up an iPhone to one of these great open source electronics boards will probably find this to be one of the easiest (if not the cheapest) solutions to implement. If you make something cool, be sure to let us know about it!

Cord from iPhone to Arduino now available originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I continue to be amazed at the functionality that photo apps are adding to the iPhone. FX Photo Studio for US$0.99 is a case in point. The app already had barrels of photo effects, almost 200, but now it has added masking to the feature set. It’s an easy way to highlight parts of a picture, and then apply an effect to only those areas. It’s easier to understand if you see a demo, so try this video to get the idea.

This latest version of FX Photo Studio has added new effects, performance improvements, and additional editing tools for gamma, saturation and hue. Images can be imported from Facebook, and images can now be shared via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Flickr, Tumblr or email.

Like any tool, adding effects to photos can really be overdone, but FX Photo Studio can provide filters that run the gamut from subtle to outrageous. The app also provides cropping and printing if you are so equipped.

I played with the masking feature and found it useful and powerful. In the gallery, you can see a landscape photo where I created a black and white background, but left Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelley in color. The masking process could be improved with the option of a smaller brush size. Although you can magnify the image for detailed work, the size chosen for the brush is just too large for some applications.

The app doesn’t have any detailed instructions. Some of the methods to invoke an operation, like masking, are not blatantly obvious. Alex Tsepko at developer MacPhun told me a Wiki should appear today with details on how things work. I’d like to see it built into the app. FX Photo Studio lets you add to the filters with in-app purchases of $0.99 per set, but the whole app is on sale for $0.99, so that makes the add-ons too pricey. I would rather see them included, even if the app goes up a buck or so.

This enhanced version of FX Photo Studio for the iPhone is a significant update that in some ways leaps ahead of the Mac OS and iPad versions. I expect all the MacPhun family of apps will quickly gain feature parity.

If I could only take one photo editing app into the field I’d likely choose FX Photo Studio, and urge iPhone photographers to take a look. It’s a lot of power to carry around in a pocket.

FX Photo Studio for iPhone adds masking and other goodies originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On the eve of the launch of OS X Lion, Apple has released a Migration Assistant update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The 714 KB update issues the following fix:

This update addresses an issue with the Migration Assistant application in Mac OS X Snow Leopard that prevents transfer of your personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion.

In other words, this sounds like a critical update for anyone running Snow Leopard on their current Mac but planning on moving their data over to a new Mac with Lion as its OS.

Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard released originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just confirmed from the earnings call: OS X Lion will launch tomorrow, July 20. This was an unusual way to announce the launch, but it confirms the week’s rumors.

Lion will be available exclusively via the Mac App Store. There’s no word yet whether it will be a rolling international launch across time zones (beginning in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii) or if the launch will occur simultaneously worldwide. Of note, it is already July 20 on half of Earth, but Lion is still not available.

We’ll update this post later if we get more information.

Mac OS X Lion launches July 20 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to TUAW’s liveblog of Apple’s 3rd Fiscal Quarter Results call. During the call, we’ll deliver a play-by-play of the details of the financial report for the quarter ending June 30, 2011. We will also be taking your questions and comments during the call.

If you’d like to listen in on this very important financial call, Apple is making it available via QuickTime streaming audio at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq311/ beginning at 5 PM ET sharp. The call will be available for your listening pleasure for two weeks after today’s event; the liveblog transcript is available on TUAW forever. iPhone and iPod touch users can join in on the fun using the free CoveritLive iPhone app.

TUAW staffers will be manning the liveblog starting at 4:50 PM EDT; the call will begin about 10 minutes later.

Apple Q3 2011 Results Call Liveblog originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple hit another home run in the third quarter of 2011. Total revenue for the quarter reached US$28.57 billion, as compared to $15.70 billion in the same quarter last year. Earnings per diluted share were $7.79, as compared to $3.51 last year. Net profit reached a staggering $7.31 B. All of these figures crushed the professional analyst estimates and even surpassed some of the more optimistic amateur AAPL watchers, as tracked by Phil Elmer-Dewitt.

Sales numbers for Apple’s lineup of products are as follows:

• 3.95 M Macs (14% year-over-year unit increase)
• 20.34 M iPhones (142% yoy increase)
• 7.54 M iPods (20% yoy decrease)
• 9.25 M iPads (183% yoy increase)

That earnings per share number is really quite amazing; it’s more than double the number from last year. Additional details will be available in the earnings conference call at 5 pm ET. We’ll be listening in to the conference call and liveblogging all the fun — join in!

Apple Q3 2011 earnings released: Impressive, most impressive. (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to The Wall Street Journal, some of Apple’s board members have been informally discussing an eventual successor to Steve Jobs since the CEO began his latest medical leave earlier this year. These board members “have discussed CEO succession with executive recruiters and at least one head of a high-profile technology company,” though the Journal says they’re not actively engaged in recruiting a new CEO.

The Journal notes that not all board members have been involved in the discussion (obviously Jobs himself wouldn’t have been), and it also says management succession plans are discussed at every board meeting, though such plans are “sworn to secrecy.”

Steve Jobs reportedly responded to the report via email, saying “I think it’s hogwash.” Either this means the Journal’s report is inaccurate in some way, or Jobs may have been kept out of the loop on the discussions. For his part, Jobs has given no indication that he will step down anytime soon, though many financial analysts have grown increasingly skittish following the CEO’s ongoing (and over-publicized) medical issues and Apple’s intense privacy surrounding the succession plan.

Apple’s board discussing eventual Steve Jobs successor originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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