Filed under: Apple, SecurityApple is warning that Learning Interchange account passwords have been compromised. Apple warns that members who commonly use the same credentials on multiple sites may be at risk. If you are an ALI account user, please consider updating any accounts that use identical credentials. Here is the Apple quote, which has been sent to us by a number of TUAW readers. We recently learned that the security of Apple Learning Interchange (ALI) members' names and passwords may have been compromised. These accounts are limited to accessing the ALI discussion board and do not contain sensitive information such as credit card or social security numbers.While ALI member names and passwords are not linked to your Apple ID, our records indicate that your ALI member name and Apple ID are the same. For this reason we strongly recommend that you change your Apple ID password as well as any others that might have the same name and password combination. At the time of posting, the ALI site (also linked to in the Source link) is unavailable.TUAWApple Learning Interchange: Security Compromise originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: iPhoneWhile most of us at TUAW (in the US, anyway) are staring out the window, running down the clock to hit the lake or ocean or pavement in some manner, the intrepid bloggers of Engadget never take a vacation. Here are three* iPhone stories they posted today:Apple patent applications offer glimpses of haptic screens, RFID readers, fingerprint IDOh man, haptics on the iPhone would be so sweet, and finally give us a little more than annoying clicks when typing. RFID and fingerprints? Well, that I'm not so keen on.Apple patching nasty iPhone SMS vulnerabilityGood ol' security maven Charlie Miller poked into the soft underbelly of the iPhone and discovered a pretty gnarly SMS hack that could potentially have your phone activating GPS, the phone's mic, and other nastiness. Perfect setup for a Tom Clancy novel or totally scary vulnerability? Read the HotHardware piece and see for yourself.iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China?Yeah, who'd have thunk there would be a trademark dispute over the name iPhone in China, right? Funny thing is, Apple has a trademark on iPhone in China... just not on mobile phones. Oops.[Thanks to the tipsters who sent these in a while ago, there's fresh beer in the fridge in the garage!]*OK, four stories. MG Siegler over at TechCrunch has a linkalicious report on Facebook's upcoming new iPhone app featuring... video uploads! (gasp, applause, nausea, use as directed)TUAWBecause you can never have enough iPhone news... three more stories originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Retail, iPhoneMac Daily News and other sources are reporting today on a leaked AT&T memo that states that the company retail stores had their best day ever with the launch of the iPhone 3GS."iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.Here's a look at some of the milestones we achieved:* Best-ever sales day in our retail stores* Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores* Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day* Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day* Largest order day in att.com history* Largest features sales day in att.com historyOn this year's launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008's iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 - all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008's launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours."If the numbers are accurate, the iPhone blew by most analyst predictions that the iPhone would not sell as well as the 3G iPhone released last summer.Even better news, numbers like these should give Apple some leverage to force the wireless giant to improve what for many is a mediocre experience using the AT&T network. The iPhone exclusive is up next year, and rumors persist that Apple is talking to other carriers, most notably Verizon. via Mac Daily News and TechCrunchTUAWiPhone is humongous for AT&T originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: WWDC, iPhone, iPod touch I can't count the number of hours I spent at the UT Music Library on a Performa or Quadra or Centris (I had a Centris 610 at the time) playing Daleks. Strangely addicting but incredibly simple, the game mechanic has been repeated often in the casual game universe, and Daleks was essentially a rip of Robots on UNIX. You try to get away from something, one step at a time, as those somethings inch ever closer, one step at a time. It's turn-based "tag." There's a terribly unsatisfying and buggy version called SuperDaleks for OS X here.Zombies is a bit of an update for the venerable classic, although there's also a classic game called Zombies using the very same mechanic -- nothing new under the sun, eh? But intead of dusting off that old IIsi, you can play Zombies on your iPhone or iPod touch. The developer added spells, allowing you to do something out of the norm each round. So, for example, you could teleport (sometimes seen in variations of this game). You can also destroy zombies with a spell, handy when you're in a no-win position.The preview you see here is the unfinished version, but it's shaping up to be a pleasant reimagining of a classic. We'll post on Twitter when it's available.TUAWWWDC Demo: Zombies, a modern update of Daleks (preview) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bad Apple, Apple, iPhone, iPod touchAs if the waters surrounding the App Store approval process weren't murky enough, one developer has just hit an unprecedented wall. Apple rejected his app, iKaraoke, citing that it duplicated functionality of the iPod application. Of course, the "duplicate functionality" reason is nothing new, but Apple's next step is: just a few weeks after rejecting the application, they have filed a patent for including karaoke functionality into the iPod app.A brief look at the demo iKaraoke's website will quickly tell you that, while the app does bear a light resemblance to some of the menus found in the iPod application, the actual interface that the user interacts with to select and download a song is far from duplicating the iPod's polished interface. Another key point is that the file format used by iKaraoke is known as the .kar format -- an unofficial extension of the MIDI specification that enables lyrics to appear in time with music. The lyrics are then displayed on the screen, and highlighted as the song is played. Does any of this sound like functionality found in the iPod app? We didn't think so.So what exactly was duplicated then? According to apple, iKaraoke "duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application, iPod, without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality." But they didn't just stop there. The reviewer went on to say that the application "downloads media files that are not managed by the iTunes application, which also manages media files, we believe this would be confusing to the user." Now, hold on a minute here... it's fine for several other apps to stream and download media files that are supported by the iPod without being managed by iTunes, but it's not OK for an app to download media that isn't natively supported, and provide functionality that isn't natively provided by the iPod? This wouldn't be much different from your typical app rejection if the story stopped there, but it doesn't. This morning, Apple filed a patent [application here] which details built-in Karaoke functionality being added as part of the iPod application, with some additional bells and whistles such as monitoring the pitch of the user's voice. So it seems the functionality that was duplicated is functionality that Apple has not yet released, and possibly not yet even begun to develop. Maybe the $99 iPhone Developer Program fee should include a crystal ball for testing apps before submitting them.As with the many other patents Apple has filed, this feature may never see the light of day. But is it really acceptable to reject an application, based solely on what appears to be a duplication of a feature that may or may not even be released in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.Update: As a few of you have pointed out in the comments, although the patent application was published today, it actually was originally filed back in April of 2008. While this does indicate that the patent was indeed filed long before the SDK was even released, questions still remain about whether or not Apple may choose to reject applications based on functionality found in unreleased features. Similar rejections have occurred with apps that offered podcast downloads prior to the inclusion of podcasting functionality in iTunes, for example. Essentially, what needs to happen is that Apple needs to clear the air on what exactly is considered a duplication of functionality, and to be clear with the developer on exactly what aspects of their application are in violation of this requirement, rather than sending a vague form letter and ignoring inquiries for additional information from the developer.TUAWApp Store Rejections: Apple rejects iKaraoke app, patent filed published for a karaoke player originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Humor, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touchJokes are relative. What's hysterically funny for one person may not even crack a smile on another person's face. iLaugh [App Store], a database of over 50,000 jokes for the iPhone and iPod touch from developer Azure Talon, uses sheer volume of bon mots to ensure that you'll be able to find a funny story for just about every taste.You can pick from a variety of genres from Animals to Yo Mama!, and turn on/off sex or rude jokes as well as important categories such as Chuck Norris Facts. Each joke or story can receive a thumbs up or down from you and other iLaugh users, and the app allows you to filter out jokes that don't meet a certain minimum score. Want to share a laugh with friends? iLaugh has Facebook and Twitter buttons that send the joke on to the rest of the world, and you can also use cut & paste on iPhone OS 3.0 devices to email the offending lines to your friends.All of the chuckles are available for US$0.99, and iLaugh would be a smart purchase to make before those 4th of July picnics.TUAWiLaugh, therefore I exist originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPhoneRemember that time you were on tour with The B-52's and had a great idea for a song, but there was no recording equipment to be found? Oh wait, that was The 88. Well anyway, The 88 recently recorded their latest single with nothing but an iPhone and the Sonoma Wire Works Four Track application, according to The Loop.The 88 recorded the song, Love is the Thing, with a few tricks: to make sure the drums didn't overpower the iPhone speaker, they covered the drums with a sheet and uses brushes instead of drumsticks to deaden the sound. Four Track records at 16 bits and 44.1 kHz and can make unlimited-length tracks. The band recorded 14 separate tracks, including various guitars, vocals, and effects, and combined them on a Mac for the final mix. The band documented the process in more detail on their website. The song sounds great quality-wise and is now available in the iTunes Store for $0.99, and Four Track is in the App Store for $9.99.TUAWThe 88 song recorded on iPhone and released in iTunes Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

WWDC 2009 LIVE Discussion iBeginShare.attachButton('share-tool-991944289', {title: 'WWDC 2009 LIVE Discussion!', link: 'http://www.applegazette.com/wwdc/wwdc-2009-live-discussion/', content: 'http://www.applegazette.com/?ibegin_share_action=get_content&id=4958'});

You know I love watching video on my iPhone, but I have often wished I could take a stand with me that wasn’t a complete pain to carry around. So, you can imagine, I was please to see this new stand, Crabble, from Seskimo. The stand fits in your wallet, but can hold an iPhone or iPod touch in either portrait or landscape mode, and has an adjutable angle to 45 degrees. That’s pretty cool. Here’s the best part…the thing only costs $4.99. That’s CHEAP…or in this case, INEXPENSIVE might be more appropriate. Because if it works as well as it does in that video, cheap would be an inaccurate word to describe it. Find out more here. iBeginShare.attachButton('share-tool-485296968', {title: 'Crabble - an iPhone/iPod touch stand for your Wallet', link: 'http://www.applegazette.com/iphone/crabble-an-iphoneipod-touch-stand-for-your-wallet/', content: 'http://www.applegazette.com/?ibegin_share_action=get_content&id=4956'});

Apple isn’t typically one to admit a mistake, but when it comes to their Form 10-Q, they don’t really have a choice. Apple issued a press release this morning stating that they have filed an amendment to correct the Form 10-Q they submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The filing last week incorrectly reported the voting percentage for shareholder-submitted proposals because abstentions were counted as “No” votes. I know, really riveting stuff. You can read the full press release after the jump. CUPERTINO, Calif., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today filed an amendment to correct the Form 10-Q it submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, April 23. Last week’s filing incorrectly reported the voting percentages for shareholder-submitted proposals because abstentions were counted as “No” votes. Very shortly after the original filing, the company learned that these votes had been incorrectly tallied and an internal investigation confirmed the mistake was due to human error, which Apple regrets. Today’s amendment correctly reports the voting results. As a result of the corrected vote count, Shareholder Proposal No. 5 Regarding Advisory Vote on Compensation, known as “Say on Pay,” was approved with a majority of votes cast. The Compensation Committee of Apple’s Board of Directors has been closely following the Say on Pay issue, and anticipates that new laws or regulations will require some form of Say on Pay vote at all public companies in the near future. Even if that does not occur, Apple is committed to implementing an advisory Say on Pay vote next year. Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone. © 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. iBeginShare.attachButton('share-tool-1097084327', {title: 'Apple Corrects their Form 10-Q', link: 'http://www.applegazette.com/apple-inc/apple-corrects-their-form-10-q/', content: 'http://www.applegazette.com/?ibegin_share_action=get_content&id=4954'});

It’s amazing that there have been 1 Billion iPhone App Downloads since the store launched last year. I’m proud that iVerse has contributed a million downloads to that 1 Billion total, and at the rate things seem to be growing with the App Store, I cannot wait see where they go from here. It’s a huge milestone, and thankfully, we’re starting to see some really great apps out there. Here’s the full press release… Apple’s Revolutionary App Store Downloads Top One Billion in Just Nine Months CUPERTINO, Calif., April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that customers have downloaded one billion applications from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. The one billionth app, Bump created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes® gift card, an iPod® touch, a Time Capsule® and a MacBook® Pro. “The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we’d like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry and this is only the beginning.” Today, the groundbreaking App Store has more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries, allowing developers to reach tens of millions of iPhone™ and iPod touch users around the world. This summer the iPhone OS 3.0 software update will provide developers with over 1,000 new developer APIs enabling In-App Purchases, Peer-to-Peer connections, App control of accessories, and Push Notifications. The iPhone OS 3.0 release will also add over 100 customer features including cut, copy and paste; Spotlight™ search; landscape keyboard and view for all key iPhone apps; MMS* support; and expanded parental controls for apps, TV shows, and movies from the App Store. *MMS messaging is available only on iPhone 3G; fees may apply. MMS may not be available in all areas. Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone. © 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iTunes, iPod, Time Capsule, MacBook, iPhone and Spotlight are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. iBeginShare.attachButton('share-tool-666496460', {title: 'Apple Tops 1 Billion iPhone App Downloads', link: 'http://www.applegazette.com/apple-inc/apple-tops-1-billion-iphone-app-downloads/', content: 'http://www.applegazette.com/?ibegin_share_action=get_content&id=4952'});

Apple has been quick to respond to the “Laptop Hunter” ads by Microsoft. The new series of ads (4 in all) mostly take shots at PCs. From their many viruses in “Biohazard Suit”, to how the only way to say that a PC works right is to include a full screen of legal jargon in “Legal Copy”. My favorite, though, is the one above. “Time Traveler” has PC making a voyage to the future to see if PCs will ever work right…of course…when he gets their the PC of the future freezes up before he can answer the question as to whether they will ever work like they’re supposed to. The final of the four ads reveals some of the new features of “iPhoto”. It looks like this campaign was already up and going, then stopped mid-stream to turn into attack ads…I say that only because of the balance of attack vs. non-attack ads in the mix. The back and forth advertising is amusing. Both companies are doing a bang-up job distorting the truth. It’s only going to get crazier from here. iBeginShare.attachButton('share-tool-362766450', {title: 'VIDEO: Apple airs “Laptop Hunter” Counter Ads', link: 'http://www.applegazette.com/get-a-mac/video-apple-airs-laptop-hunter-counter-ads/', content: 'http://www.applegazette.com/?ibegin_share_action=get_content&id=4950'});

Apple has tweaked and enhanced a number of the features in its MobileMe Web services, bringing, among other things, new capabilities for iPhone 3GS users.

Cooliris, the visually-compelling browser plug-in, now supports tabbed windows and sharable URLs.

The latest update to Mozilla's free Web browser, Firefox 3.5, was released on Tuesday, bringing much-improved performance and new features.

Apple senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing Bob Borchers has left the company to take a job with a venture capital firm.

Forget 2012, the iPhone is going to single-handedly destroy the world. Well, if netbooks don't get to it first. And Apple reiterates its stance on naughty, naughty iPhone app content.

In an interview, billionaire Warren Buffett said that he believed Steve Jobs's recent medical condition should have been disclosed to investors.

Evernote is a multi-platform service for storing and syncing notes, photos, and other files. Today, the company enabled sharing, allowing users to collaborate on everything from projects, to research, to family shopping--but with a catch.

Last week, Nowhere Else began receiving reports [Google translation] from owners of the white iPhone 3GS that had experience significant overheating, leading in some cases to distinct pink or brown discoloration on the iPhone's back case. A later re...

Wired reports on the latest high profile app removal from the App Store related to nudity. This time, a free app called BeautyMeter was removed due to an inappropriate image of a nude minor. The photo ... depicts a photo of a nude ...

Psystar, manufacturer of unauthorized Mac clones currently involved in a legal battle with Apple, reports that it has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is again prepared to take on Apple. Psystar filed for bankruptcy just over one month ago.

Apple has let loose a number of revealing new patent applications that cover some interesting technologies that could be used in future iPhones. Haptic Tactile Feedback Perhaps most interesting amongst the patent appli...

Apple has published a very interesting patent application in which they explore how to provide a Karaoke experience on the iPhone. Not only would users be able to sing along with their favorite songs, but Apple wants to give real-time feedba...

SemiAccurate claims that Apple will be dropping NVIDIA-based designs in their next iMacs and laptops for at least the next few years. They claim the reason is due to the recent NVIDIA manufacturing defects which affected a number of MacBook Pros.

Apple yesterday seeded iPhone OS 3.1 and iPhone SDK 3.1 betas to developers for testing, and users have been digging through the new releases to document new features. Among the changes found so far by readers in our forums, at Redmond Pie, and at M...

If you thought bankruptcy would keep the industrious folks at Psystar from making any more Mac clones, you were sorely mistaken. Like a zombie rising from the dead with an insatiable thirst for lawsuits, the little clone-maker that couldn’t is advertising a brand new model of its “Open” line of computers on its web site today. Not only that, but it’s also claiming that its bankruptcy filing was an unfortunate, but necessary, step toward ensuring its continued viability as a company. Maybe so, but how many of you out there are eager to order a new computer of questionable build quality from a bankrupt company engaged in an ongoing legal battle with Apple, especially with notebook price drops in place, and similar desktop discounts rumored to be on the horizon? If you’re willing to look past these minor superficial details, you can now order an Open(7) starting at $1,499. For as much as you’d spend on a real iMac, you’ll get a tower desktop PC with a 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Nehalem processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB 7,200RPM SATA2 HDD, and an NVIDIA 9500GT graphics card with 512MB of onboard memory. As is standard on Psystar computers, niceties like wireless Internet and Bluetooth will cost you extra. And they’re apparently in stock right now, if you’re feeling brave. The company’s re-emergence comes hot on the heels of news that Apple has been given the “OK” to proceed with its legal action against Psystar, which was granted last week by a Florida bankruptcy court judge. In the interim, Psystar’s Chapter 11 filing means that it has probably been able to temporarily escape its previous debts and acquired new ones through a different funding source, whose identity remains a mystery. Many hardware manufacturers would obviously benefit were OS X to be made available for any platform, so there’s probably no shortage of people interested in having a stake in Psystar’s legal case, though none would likely be very comfortable with that position being made public. News of the new Open(7) came via Pystar’s online mailing list, in a PDF newsletter (check it out at SlashGear) sent out to subscribers detailing it, its new DUBL (Darwin Universal Boot Loader), and, in a bright red box at the bottom of the document, a rather flippant take on its recent financial and legal turmoil. Also according to the newsletter, for a limited time only, you can get free shipping on the Open(7) within the continental U.S. using a special coupon code to “Celebrate Independence.” Cheeky, Psystar. Very cheeky. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

Greenpeace released the 12th edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics today (PDF), with Apple falling somewhere between tangerine and burnt orange. For those who take the rating seriously, Apple scored 4.7 out of 10, unchanged from last time, though the company slipped from 10th to 11th place in the ranking of 18 companies. The guide is based on three “demands” (their word) by Greenpeace: eliminating toxic substances, e-waste recycling and energy usage. Those demands are then broken down into four sub-demands, which are ranked: bad, partially bad, partially good, and good. Overall, Apple scores mostly in the middle, but with several bad grades. The single, wholly positive ranking Apple receives is for the timeline on phasing out nasty PVCs and BFRs from manufacturing. As Apple and the Environment notes, “Printed circuit boards, electrical components, mechanical parts, and internal cables are BFR-free and PVC-free.” However, Greenpeace even takes issue with that claim because Apple has “unreasonably high threshold limits for BFRs and PVC in products that are allegedly PVC-/BFR-free.” Greenpeace criticizes Apple strongly on e-waste recycling, while at the same time noting the company has extended coverage of its recycling program to Asia, and that Apple has set a goal of a 50 percent recycling rate by 2010. The main problem, according to Greenpeace, is a matter of disclosure on the part of Apple. On the issue of energy, Apple again scores poorly. First, because the company does not report on GHG (greenhouse gasses) emissions, Apple fails. Second, because the company does not report on renewable energy usage, Apple fails. If you don’t see a pattern here, what it comes down to is that Greenpeace grades companies on words as much as action. Apple is a secretive company by nature. Considering how confrontational Greenpeace has been with Apple in the past, it’s hardly a surprise that Apple makes no effort to meet the “demands” of Greenpeace. The real question here is why Greenpeace focuses so much on Apple. Both Dell and HP sell far more computers than Apple. Both have dropped in ranking, according to the latest guide, and both now score lower than Apple. Does this mean we will see protestors at the headquarters of HP? Will there be advertising campaigns about a “yellow” Dell? If Greenpeace followed its own guide, that’s what should happen. However, the difference between Apple and every company in the guide is brand. Apple is easily the most popular brand. By focusing on Apple negatively, Greenpeace can theoretically threaten Apple’s brand popularity. Further, any changes Apple makes because of pressure from Greenpeace could then be leveraged against companies that actually pollute more than Apple. Finally, attacking the most popular company raises awareness of Greenpeace itself, not that the environmental organization would ever be so self-serving. Keep going green, Apple, but keep going without Greenpeace. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

Apple's iTunes application is perhaps the most popular app ever installed on the Mac. It's also one of the least flexible, in terms of customization. There's little you can do to "make it your own," so to speak. However, all is not lost for habitual tweakers like myself; the iTunes Visualizer can satisfy your need to not leave well-enough alone. If you display your iTunes window on a second monitor, or just like to look at the iTunes Visualizer full screen on your 30″ LCD, you should know that you have some really nice options available for customizing the appearance of the Visualizer. iTunes default Visualizer Invoking the Visualizer by hitting Command + T (hit Command + F to make it full screen if you wish) then hitting the ? key brings up an overlay on the Visualizer screen containing a few keyboard shortcuts to control various aspects of whichever Visualizer you’re running at the time. But these customizations only go so far. To move beyond minor tweaks to Apple’s built-in Visualizers, you can install a number of truly cool third-party Visualizers which really enhance the iTunes experience. Download More Visualizers I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite Visualizers to get you started. This is by no means a complete list, so if you’re looking for even more, I suggest a quick Google search to quench your thirst. All the Visualizers listed below work perfectly with OS X Leopard, iTunes 8.2, and are free to download and use. Click the preview image to go directly to the download page of each Visualizer. Punkt Visualizer Punkt is a Quartz Composer Visualizer that is much cooler than it appears in this screenshot. Colors burst to the beat of your music. Circle Visualizer Circle places the track name, artist and album in a circular format, and floats in a 3D space. Fountain Music Visualizer Fountain Music is probably one of my favorite Visualizers. It reminds me of the drummers in The Blue Man Group, where water is blasting upwards from the drums, highlighted by bright neon lights as they play. Fountain Music also has a decent amount of customization options, such as particle size and color. Dragon Visualizer Dragon features a squishy, squirmy dragon dancing to your music. I almost feel like this one borders on being somewhat icky — but it’s truly awesome. WhiteCap Visualizer WhiteCap places dynamic wireframe mesh visuals on your screen, cycling through colors and traveling through space. Figure Visualizer Figure places the track title, album, artist and album art on a virtual wall, swiveling around in 3D space. Bugaboo Visualizer Bugaboo places colorful dancing lightning bugs on screen. This is another one of those that you have to see to appreciate. Cubism Visualizer Cubism brings a Tetris-like appearance to your Visualizer, bouncing blocks to the beat of your music. A 3D cube with the album art mingles among the blocks as well. Gaslight Visualizer Gaslight is a customizable frequency spectrum analyzer — kind of old-school, but still quite nice! Snow Visualizer Snow, another offering from WowLab, displays colorful snow blowing across your screen. This one is really nice for soothing music after a rough day at the office. LED Flow Visualizer LED Flow uses Apple’s Quartz technology to place a colorful level meter in 3D space. G-Force Visualizer G-Force, the original awesome third-party Visualizer for iTunes, still going strong with its fractal goodness! Sing Visualizer Sing places a friendly little creature in your iTunes window and sings. Sort of. Well, it’s cool to look at anyway. Jumping Steve Visualizer Jumping Steve pays homage to Steve Jobs with a cutout jumping jack that dances to the beat. Hit the P key for a special iPod commercial-like silhouette feature. Don’t forget that different Visualizers will offer disparate customization options, the level of which (if any) varies between minor, and fairly major stuff — it just depends on the developer, and how much time they bothered to put in. Don’t forget to hit the ? key to find out what options are available to you. If you've never installed a plugin or other add-on to iTunes, Visualizers are a great place to start. They’re simple, require little effort to get up and running, and typically they either work or they don't, with no ill side-effects. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

If you bought a MacBook Pro between May 2007 and September 2008, you might be painfully aware of NVIDIA’s major screw-up in providing fundamentally faulty 8600M GT graphics processors for Apple computers, as well as others. Apple no doubt still remembers that, too, since the warranty extension and repair refund policy is undoubtedly costing it large sums of money. That unpleasant memory may have partially led to a falling out between the two, according to recent reports. SemiAccurate is reporting that, according to multiple sources, at recent negotiations between the two companies, discussions became rather heated, in part due to NVIDIA’s apparently arrogant stance concerning its supplier relationship with Apple. Evidently, Apple was expecting more modesty from a company that has cost it so much cash, thanks to a problem it didn’t even acknowledge existed. The end result of the rift will basically see NVIDIA locked out of Apple for at least three to four years, according to SemiAccurate’s sources. Which means the sweetheart deal that saw the advent of the now ubiquitous 9400M graphics processor and NVIDIA chipset may be at an end. According to the same report that announced the split, Apple will be going back to Intel for its chipset needs in the immediate future. But why now? Apple has known about NVIDIA’s somewhat questionable dealings with it for a while now, and hasn’t yet stopped rolling out computers boasting graphics processors from the chipmaker. Part of the reason might be that NVIDIA has only now started to become unbearably arrogant in its dealings with Apple, following the success of the 9400M. A more likely reason we’ve yet to see the effect of the fallout on actual Apple products is that the company’s design cycle is so long that the current models were already irrevocably in the queue when news of the faulty 8600M GT processors broke. Apple’s own investigation only wrapped up in mid-2008, at which point its product plans for at least the next year are no doubt pretty much set in stone, especially regarding major internal components. Other companies affected by the NVIDIA screw-up are likewise only just beginning to show signs of the fallout, lending credence to this idea. While NVIDIA screwed up huge when it supplied Apple with a large number of faulty graphics cards and then refused to own up and take responsibility, does a lock-out really benefit current Apple customers? I spent most of last weekend playing Spore on my brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro, something which I never would’ve been able to do enjoyably (or at all) using a model sporting an integrated Intel chipset. To me, going back that way would feel like backsliding. Maybe Apple’s own chip design machinations will pan out when it comes time to show NVIDIA the door, in which case it could shock us all with a completely revamped platform. Let’s hope so, because I’m not so sure I want my next computer to bring back the Intel GMA headache I only just managed to get rid of. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

Do you have what it takes to create the next great iPhone app? Or have it featured on iPhone commercials and installed on the all iTouches at the Apple store? Maybe have a big ol’ icon flashing so fast at the next WWDC that you have to include a seizure warning? There’s an app for that! It’s called your checkbook. The folks at AdWhirl recently calculated (PDF) what it costs to get your app into Apple’s Top 100 rankings: $1,875 a day. They determined this by looking at so-called untargeted marketing, click-through rates on ads, and actual app sales. Since AdWhirl sells targeted ads, I wondered if their findings were accurate or merely a sales pitch of their own. Does popularity have a simple price tag? Fortunately, I know someone from the original Grocery iQ team. Grocery iQ was able to win the triple crown of apps: a Top 100 ranking, Apple Pick of the Week, and being featured under “What’s Hot.” What was its secret to success? When Apple released its Top Apps of 2008, Grocery iQ was in the top 50. I think that makes the Grocery iQ team qualified to talk about App Store success. Jason Boehle, co-founder of Free State Labs (developer of Grocery iQ) and now a software engineer at Coupons, Inc, was able to give me some insights on AdWhirl’s findings. In the interest of open disclosure, I helped test the Grocery iQ app at the beginning, which earned me some face time with Jason. Jason’s first response to the $1,875 per day price tag: “Yup, that’s about right!” The Grocery iQ team dabbled with paid ad networks and calculated that to make the top 100, they’d have to spend close to that amount for at least two weeks. “Small indie developers simply don’t have that kind of money,” Jason said. Jason also agreed with AdWhirl’s assertion that free or “lite” apps do lead to, rather than cannibalize away, sales of paid apps. Since the App Store doesn’t have any way to try apps before you buy, free versions seem to be a good way to get buzz about your paid app. Free versions sometimes have ads, so AdWhirl’s report may be biased towards this view. Finding the right mix of features and ads while maintaining quality is tricky. How did Grocery iQ get to be the pick of the week? “We did our best to build a great product and it got noticed,” according to Jason. During this time, Grocery iQ was ranked as high as eighth in the App Store and generated thousands of sales a day. The Grocery IQ team was told that the group at Apple that determined the picks meets weekly. Each member of the Apple team comes in with ideas of what he or she likes, and they vote. Grocery iQ didn’t know anyone or use a special formula. Paying for ads might get your app noticed by Apple, but it won't get it named as pick of the week. Though Jason couldn’t comment specifically, the Coupons.com purchase obviously helps Grocery iQ reach a target market of grocery purchasers, and is consistent with AdWhirl’s findings that one way to reduce the $1,875 price tag is by finding a target audience for your product. Shopping and coupons are a natural fit, and we should expect to see more web properties using the App Store to promote their products, and vice versa. What if you don’t have the cash for advertising, or you can’t find a target market? Jason thinks it’s become much harder to get your app noticed due to all the competition. He said that small developers “need to find features that differentiate them from the competition and then develop apps people really want.” Then you have to go viral with your marketing efforts, which unfortunately is often quite difficult. So, all you need is $1,875 a day. Either that, or develop a great app. Grocery IQ used the latter, while it appears some other apps have the pockets deep enough to do the former. A little luck probably doesn’t hurt, either. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

Over at OStatic yesterday, Sam Dean pointed to a study from Juniper Research that claims shipments of smartphones with open-source operating systems will double by 2014. According to Jupiter, operating systems and available applications are among the top concerns when customers shop for smartphones, and that may give the open-source community all the leverage it needs to get a foothold on the mobile device market. Until recently, Palm, Microsoft, Apple, and Research In Motion were the four main players in the smartphone market, each with their own proprietary OS. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each appeals to different segments of the smartphone market. When the first phone shipped with the open-source Android operating system, it was hard to ignore the impact a customizable OS could have on the market, since many smartphone owners like to tweak their devices for their own unique needs. Developers were intrigued, since designing third-party apps for an open-source platform is far less confining than Apple or RIM’s program requirements. Although T-Mobile is set to launch its second Android phone this month, Android phones aren’t exactly flying off the shelves. But holding 6.3 percent of a crowded market is pretty good for a device that’s so new to the market. Application development isn’t quite as prolific as hoped, but it’s continuing to gain ground on Apple. The clunky design of T-Mobile’s G1 has been significantly streamlined in the second-generation myTouch, however, so that may help sagging sales, as will as many as 18 additional open-source smartphones expected to hit the market this year. Juniper researchers say, “However, the real key is not whether the OS is open source but whether it's easy for a developer to design an application and make money from that effort. The combined changes of Apple's open route to the market and LiMo, OHA, and Symbian's open-source OS approach have generated a tidal wave-like effect which even the economic downturn has been unable to reverse.” That means app developers and end users may drive a sharp upturn in the sales of open-source smartphones. Developers may gravitate toward an easier application development environment, and consumers give a lot of weight to which devices have the best apps when making buying decisions. That said, I’m not entirely convinced the Android smartphone market will grow that explosively in the next five years. While Android may have the advantage of an open-source community behind app development, the operating system itself is still relatively young, as is its application environment. Furthermore, consumers are having a tough time accepting Linux as a viable desktop option, so I don’t see it as a deciding factor in whether consumers from outside the open-source community buy an Android phone over an iPhone. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

This is the third installment of our Dig Into Unix series, an ongoing look into the deep, geeky insides of the core of OS X. In the first part, we got to fire up the Terminal and take a look around the filesystem as the OS sees it, which is slightly different from how the rest of us see it through the Finder. In the second installment, we took a look at vi, the ancient text editor fit for kings. Today, I'd like to cover a very basic, but very powerful, aspect of Unix, the three standard streams: standard in, standard out, and standard error. These three are normally abbreviated as stdin, stdout and stderr. When interacting with an application on the command line, it's good to imagine that application with three pipes. One is a big funnel, right on top — this is stdin, accepting input from the keyboard. The second pipe is on the bottom, stdout, sending text to the Terminal. The third, stderr, sticks out the side, and normally also sends its output to the Terminal. I say “normally” because the standard streams can be redirected by certain key characters. For example, if you use "cat" to display a document, you are sending stdout to the Terminal. However, if you use "cat" like this, you actually send the output of the cat command to another file, redirecting stdout to a new text file. cat someFile 1> someCopy.txt The number one in the command above represents stdout. The right arrow is telling the shell that you'd like to redirect stdout to a new file. If that file already exists, this command will replace that file with the contents of "someFile". If you'd like to append the text to someCopy.txt, you could do this as well: cat someOtherFile 1>> someCopy.txt You'll notice that I used two right arrows that time. Using the double right arrows tells the shell to append the text to the end of the file. This works great for keeping a running log of regularly scheduled tasks. Sometimes you'll want to either keep error messages out of the way, or you'll like to keep a log of error messages. In this case, you can redirect stderr to a file like this: grep something somewhere 2> grep_error_log The grep command is another Unix power tool that we'll touch on later in the series. For now, just know that grep searches for strings of text in files. In the command above, I told grep to search for the string "something" in the file "somewhere" and then redirect stderr "2" to a file named "grep_error_log." Run this command without the redirect on it, then add the redirect and run it again. You can compare the contents of the error log to what you saw on the terminal and see that they are the same. Being able to redirect output is handy, but not really a "power tool." The real power is in the pipe, the key on the far right above the return key, that looks like this: “|”, and it's probably a key that you may have looked at and wondered…"why is that there?" The pipe takes the stdout from one command and feeds it to the stdin of another command. Think about the picture above; now imagine plugging lots of different commands into each other in a long string. The nature of Unix is that it is continually used in ways that its creators never imagined. It is truly a system limited only by your creativity and curiosity. During one of my early classes on Unix, after we had entered in a command very similar to the one below, the instructor stood up and said, “Congratulations, you are all programmers!” We weren’t, not by a long shot, but the idea was that by entering commands and stringing them together in the Terminal, we were programming the computer to perform a specific task. We were not using a traditional “programming” language like C or even Java, but we were programming directly to the shell. To put this idea into action, consider this command: cat someFile | grep someText 1> foundText First of all, yes, I'm aware that this is a useless use of cat. That's not the point. The point is that the above command connects cat’s stdout, which normally points to the Terminal, to stdin of grep, which then searches what it has been handed for the string "someText," and then, just for good measure, redirect the output of grep to a file named "foundText." The simple illustrations I've given here work in all kinds of situations. Personally, I use the pipe and stream redirection to parse the results of commands that search logs, retrieve information from the Internet, and reformat data into comma separated values for importing into Numbers, Excel or OpenOffice. There are very few limitations to what you can do with plain text and the tools lurking under the hood of your Mac. Market research you can use: Keep informed about Cloud Computing and IT Infrastructure. Learn more »

As we posted earlier, MacMinute cannot continue. That said, we've got a couple of paths that we're finalizing how your up to the minute news needs can be served, as well as what will happen to the forums...

I would like to make a clarification as, evidently, I was not crystal clear with my previous post...

Upon careful consideration and with deep sadness, I regret to inform Stan’s MacMinute readers that we are unable to continue operating the MacMinute website at this time...

On behalf of the Flack family, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for all the kind words of sympathy extended to our family, as we mourn the loss of our beloved Stan...

Apple has rereleased Pro Applications Update 2008-01 via its Software Update application or on the Web...

Burger Shop now available Macgamestore has published Burger Shop...

Adobe has posted he Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.4.1 update, which includes these enhancements: additional camera support for the Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi/EOS Kiss X2), Nikon D60, Sony A350 and more, updated printer driver compatibility for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), and several corrections for issues introduced by the Lightroom 1.4 release...