It’s been a while since we’ve seen a major update concerning iLife, which makes it that much easier to believe this new rumor that it’s coming in August. Not just that, but it’s also said to have a brand new application.

Here are the specific details that originated on Mac4Ever:

• iLife ‘11 will be sold for $79
• Release Date of 08/07/2010
• All applications will be 64-bit
• Improvements in iPhoto faces & places
• Improving the integration of social networks
• iWeb will be totally renewed
• New application (mystery!)
• Disappearance of iDVD
• MobileMe gallery in beta (with faces & places)

While I want to believe this rumor, the Saturday launch date sounds made up. The price point seems right, and most of the features listed are predictable, so I’d say it’s very possible that this list is just made up. If it isn’t, then the most (and possibly only) interesting aspect of the list is the new “mystery” application. What could it be?

Read [MacRumors]

Product [iLife]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Whether you're a seasoned Mac veteran or a brand new Mac user, chances are you use iPhoto to keep track of those precious memories. But regardless of your Mac user status, there's a good chance you're not using iPhoto to its full potential. We've gathered together 20 helpful tips and tricks to totally utilize iPhoto's features and become the ultimate power user. Your friends will never look at your photo albums the same way.

1. Full Screen Image Editing

Click images to embiggen

Use this feature to remove the clutter of the Desktop, Menu Bar, Dock and other photos by editing a photo in Full Screen mode.

To enter full screen editing mode, you have three options:

Option #1: Select a photo to edit. in the Menu Bar select View > Full Screen and your photo will grow to fill the screen. You have access to the photo slider when you mouse over the top of the screen, and when you mouse over the bottom of the screen you will gain access to the edit menu. Press the Escape key to return.

Option #2: Select a photo to edit. Right-click and select, "Edit Using Full Screen."

Option #3: You can set iPhoto to automatically open all photos you want to edit in Full Screen mode. To do this, in the Menu Bar select iPhoto > Preferences (or press Command + comma). Select the General tab and select “Using Full Screen” from the Edit Photo drop-down menu.

2. Creating and Using Multiple Libraries

When you’re dealing with large amounts of photos, it may be necessary to create multiple libraries to handle all of your photos. This can also be handy if you wanted to separate family photos from photos you might take for work.

To create a new library, hold down the Option key while opening iPhoto. A new dialog will popup asking if you want to choose another library, create a new library, or choose another library (including the default) that iPhoto already knows about. Click Create New and specify a name and save location in the box that drops down. iPhoto will now load and display the new library. To switch libraries, hold down the Option key on startup and click the Other Library button, navigate to the other library, then select Open.

3. Step Through Effects

When editing photos, iPhoto provides several effects that can spice up your collection. These effects include Black and White, Antique, Edge Blurs and others. You can apply the effects by selecting the Effects button at the bottom of the edit panel. To apply multiple effects, just click on the effects you want applied. But what if you want to step back through, or reduce the intensity of the effect, without losing the other effects.

Most effects will give you a number representing the level of the effect you have applied to your photo; to move backwards, hold down the option key while clicking the effect. The number will decrease, decreasing the effect level in your photo.

4. Edit Images side-by-side

Editing images can be improved when you can see multiple pictures side-by-side. iPhoto will greatly oblige, too. To open multiple pictures in edit mode, simply select two or more photos in an album and then select the edit button in the bottom toolbar.

The resulting edit window will display the three photos. The photo framed by the white box is the photo that you’re currently editing. You can move between the photos you’re editing by clicking the other photos. You are able to add up to eight images to the edit mode window.

5. Add Location Information Manually

Photos taken with your iPhone, a GPS-enabled camera or an Eye-Fi Card may contain location information about where your pictures were taken; however, if you have a camera without GPS functionality, this particular metadata will be missing from your photos.

There are three ways to add this information manually: by album/event, by photo, or by multiple photos. When you mouse over the lower-right corner of an event, album, or photo you’ll notice a small i. Clicking this will result in a popup panel that will allow you to specify metadata information like location. Type in a city in the location field and iPhoto will search to find your location. When you’re finished, select Done to save. You can select multiple photos, albums or events to change the location.

6. Use Time Machine to Bring Back Deleted Photos

Ever get that sinking feeling that you've deleted some important data on your computer? If you have Time Machine enabled, you can at least restore your important data, including photos, albums, events, and more from iPhoto.

To look for deleted items in iPhoto, simply open the iPhoto application and launch Time Machine from the menu bar or dock. When you do, iPhoto will open up in the Time Machine interface, letting you search for deleted items. Click an item and select Restore to restore it to your current iPhoto library.

7. Add Borders, Backgrounds, and Change Layout When Printing

You can instantly jazz up your photos when printing by adding borders and backgrounds when printing your photos.

To do this, select the photos you wish to print, and in the Menu Bar select File > Print, then in the resulting drop-down menu select Customize.

A new view will appear with your photo in the center. The new bottom toolbar will let you add a theme to the photos, enabling you to print a matte around your photo. You can also change the background color, border, and layout. When you’re done editing your photos for printing, select the Print button in the lower-right corner.

8. Confirm Multiple Faces at Once

Faces is a great way to instantly see every photo taken of a particular person in your iPhoto library, but it’s a pain to train the facial recognition engine. Luckily, there’s a way to confirm multiple Faces at once. To do this, simply navigate to the person in Faces you want to confirm pictures of, then in the area labeled “Person may also be the photos below,” drag a box around the photos you want to confirm. Then, select the Confirm Name button in the bottom toolbar.

9. Include Location Information in Exported Pictures

Want to put your photos on Flickr, Facebook, or just send them to firends or family, but want to include the location of where the photos were taken? This is easy to do in iPhoto with the export options. Just select the photos you wish to share, then select File > Export. In the resulting window, ensure File Export is selected, then check the box Location Information in the Include section. When you press the Export information, the exported file metadata will include location information.

10. Change Key Photo in Album

In iPhoto, you can change the photo that represents an event in the Events listing. This photo is called the key photo, and it's very easy to set. When mousing over events, you may notice a photo that represents the event more specificaly than the one iPhoto automatically picks. To change it to the one your mouse is hovered over, press the space bar. When you remove your cursor, you’ll notice that the key photo for the event has changed. Additionally, you can do this when inside of an Event by selecting a photo and navigating to Events > Make Key Photo in the Menu Bar, or right-clicking on a photo and selecting Make Key Photo.

11. Merge Events

Sometimes, event photos split up during import because of the date contained in the metadata. To merge two or more events in iPhoto, hold down shift and select the events that go together, then right-click and select "Merge Events." You can also drag one album into the other.

12. Set up an External Photo Editor

Sometimes you may want to edit your photos with more powerful editing tools than iPhoto can provide. iPhoto can oblige by letting you set up an external editor. This means that when you click the edit button in iPhoto, it will launch the photo in another application, like Adobe Photoshop for instance.

To do this, head to iPhoto > Preferences (or press Command + comma). In the General Tab, under Edit Photo, there are three options: Edit in Main Window, Edit Using Full Screen, and Edit in Another Application. We’ll choose Edit in Application. A dialog window willpop up to prompt you for the application of your choice; navigate to the application and select Open.

13. Share on Facebook, Flickr, and MobileMe

Sharing photos with iPhoto ’09 is a snap. The application lets you share photos with MobileMe, Facebook, or Flickr.

To share your album with MobileMe, select an album, event, or a group of pictures, then select MobileMe to the right of the bottom toolbar. If you are already signed into MobileMe, a window will prompt you to select your sharing options. You can choose who the album is viewable by, whether they can download a few photos or the entire album or upload their own photos through a web browser, and allow people to add photos to the album via email.

Optionally, you can show the photo titles. If you click the Show Advanced button you’ll get two new options: the ability to hide the album on your MobileMe gallery page, and the ability to adjust download quality (if you have downloading enabled). Once you select the settings you want, press Publish. When iPhoto is finished uploading the photos, you’ll get a notification with a link to view the photos in your MobileMe gallery.

Sharing with Facebook is similar. Select the photos you want, then select the Facebook button in the bottom toolbar. You may be prompted to sign in with Facebook and allow iPhoto to post pictures to your account. Once you do that, publishing is a snap. Simply select the security of your album and press the Publish button in the resulting window.

The best thing about using Facebook to share your photos is that if you have someone tagged in a photo, that information will get published, too. And if someone tags something on Facebook, the information will synced with your Mac when you fire up iPhoto again.

To publish your photos to Flickr, select your photos, then select the Flickr button in the bottom toolbar. Once you sign in, you can select the security of the photos (i.e. viewable by only you, your friends, your family, or anyone) and the photo size. When you press Publish, your photos will be whisked away to Flickr.

When you publish your photos to any of the services, you’ll get new albums in the sidebar with the service name. The albums contain the photos you’ve published and if you ever want to add more photos to a published album, all you have to do is simply drag more photos to the album under each service.

14. Using Photo Feeds

A Photo Feed is an RSS feed for your photos. Many services such as Flickr and MobileMe Gallery give you a Photo Feed. iPhoto allows you to subscribe to these photo feeds, and just like an RSS feed, will download the latest photos from your friends and family right to an iPhoto library.

You can manually enter a photo feed address by going to File > Subscribe to Photo Feed (or by pressing Command + U) in the Menu Bar. You can subscribe to a Photo Feed by also going to a MobileMe gallery, opening a album, and clicking the Subscribe button in the toolbar. The result will be a drop-down asking if you wish to subscribe by RSS or open in iPhoto. Selecting iPhoto will check and download the photos in a Subscriptions section.

15. Copy/Paste Locations Among Multiple Photos

Adding location information to photos can be a pain as described above. If you want to shorten the time it takes to add location information to photos, then why not copy and paste the location amongst multiple photos?

To do this, simply press Command + C (or right-click Copy) on any photo containing a location. Then, select multiple photos needing the same location information and right-click. You’ll notice a new option: Paste location. Selecting it will do just that. Simple, but powerful, eh?

16. Delete Photo from Album and Library Simultaneously

17. Export Slideshows to iTunes for Syncing to iPhone/iPod

iPhoto slideshows are a really great way to show off your photos. Too bad they live only in iPhoto. Well, they do until you export them. With iPhoto ’09, you can export any slideshow to iTunes for syncing to an iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV, complete with music and themes.

To create a slideshow, select an album, event, or multiple photos and click the Slideshow button in the bottom toolbar. Select the music options and theme by mousing over the bottom of the screen and selecting the settings button. Once you’ve configured the slideshow, exit by pressing the ESC key on your keyboard. Then, go to File > Export and select the Slideshow tab. Check the boxes next to the platforms you want the video to play on (iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Computer, etc.), then check the box labeled Automatically send slideshow to iTunes. When you’re ready to export, click the Export button.

18. Using Star Ratings with Smart Album

A great way to sort your photos in iPhoto is to use star ratings with Smart Albums. Every photo, album, or event can be given a star rating. To do this, right click on the photo and select Get Info. From the resulting view, give it a star rating by clicking the small bubbles below the photo date. When you’re finished, click Done.

To view photos with a certain star rating, in the Menu Bar select File > New Smart Album. In the resulting drop-down menu, select My Rating from the first drop-down list, then select "is" from the second drop down, then in the third box select how ever many stars you wish to view. Give your new album a name at the top, then click OK. Your new album will contain photos rated only with the rating you specified. As you rate more photos, the smart album will be updated automatically.

19. Using Keywords

Using keywords is another great way to sort your photos. Keywords allows you to narrow down searches in iPhoto and allows you to keep track of what's going on with your albums. To use keywords, point your cursor over to the Menu Bar, and select Window > Show Keywords. A new window will open with several predefined keywords such as “Birthday, Family, Favorite, etc.” To add a keyword, select a photo, or photos, in iPhoto, then click on any of the keywords. They will be added to the photo. You can also add your own by selecting Edit Keywords and even add shortcuts for adding certain keywords.

You can search through your photos by keyword by clicking the small search button next to the search field at the bottom of the iPhoto window. This will allow you to select keyword and consecutively narrow your search by keywords.

20. Hide Photos

Hiding photos is great when you want to show off your iPhoto collection to someone, but don’t want them to see certain photos (don’t worry, we won’t judge you). To hide a photo or group of photos, select them in your library and right-click to select “Hide Photo.”

When you want to show your photos again, in the Menu Bar select View > Hidden Photos at which point you can right-click the hidden photo and select “Unhide Photo.”

Got tip for iPhoto '09 we missed? Drop it in the comments below.

Apple has updated its browser Safari 5, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery.

Apple has updated its browser Safari 5, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, something which competing browsers Firefox and Chrome have offered for some time. Extensions allow developers to bring new features and functionality to Apple’s browser, and the company has teamed with some big name institutions including Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, The New York Times and Major League Baseball.

A number of iPad apps let you exchange files with your Mac, but getting those files onto and off of the iPad is a major hassle involving either sending files via e-mail or using the inconvenient iTunes File Sharing feature. (Some apps can access and edit files via Dropbox or MobileMe, but only particular types of files are supported.)

TUAWSafari extensions gallery, Safari 5.0.1 available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you thought Apple had exhausted its goody bag for the week with new hardware on Tuesday, think again. Wednesday morning, Apple made available a Safari 5.0.1 update, with the major new addition being a Safari Extensions Gallery and a whole lotta third-party extensions from major players like Twitter, Bing, eBay and more.

Apple has had a busy week, but Safari lovers haven’t been left out of the fun. Run (don’t walk!) to your Software Update and you’ll discover the yummy goodness of Safari 5.0.1 awaits you. A short restart of your computer later, and you’ll find the Cracker Jack “surprise inside” -- the Safari Extensions Gallery is now open for business, and its shelves are stocked with something for everyone.

“Extensions are a great way for you to add new features to Safari 5.0.1,” Apple’s Safari Extensions Gallery web page boasts. “Built by developers, Safari Extensions use the latest HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript web technologies. And they’re digitally signed and sandboxed for improved security. You can install extensions with one click -- no need to restart Safari.”

Among the first extensions out of the gate are Twitter for Safari, Bing Highlights, breaking news updates from The New York Times and Fox News (how’s that for bipartisan?), 1-Click Weather from The Weather Channel, eBay, Amazon Wish List and a whole lot more.

The full change log for Safari 5.0.1 reveals some other hidden gems and bug fixes as well:

• More accurate Top Hit results in the Address Field
• More accurate timing for CSS animations
• Better stability when using the Safari Reader keyboard shortcut
• Better stability when scrolling through MobileMe Mail
• Fixes display of multipage articles from www.rollingstone.com in Safari Reader
• Fixes an issue that prevented Google Wave and other websites using JavaScript encryption libraries from working correctly on 32-bit systems
• Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories
• Fixes an issue that could cause borders on YouTube thumbnails to disappear when hovering over the thumbnail image
• Fixes an issue that could cause Flash content to overlap with other content on www.facebook.com, www.crateandbarrel.com, and other sites when using Flash 10.1
• Fixes an issue that prevented boarding passes from www.aa.com from printing correctly
• Fixes an issue that could cause DNS prefetching requests to overburden certain routers
• Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver to misidentify elements of webpages

We don’t know about you, but we like seeing the words “more,” “better” and “fixes” so many times in our change logs. Safari 5.0.1 is available to download now from the Apple website or via Software Update and requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2 or later or Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or later. It’s also available for your Windows-loving friends, so go get it!

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

Gallery: The Mac and iPhone in Photography

TUAWThe iPhone 4 and a Mac on a photography trek originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Prior to 2007, Apple was releasing iLife updates annually at Macworld, but they seem to have pushed that back to every year and a half since then. That means it’s about time to cue those iLife ’11 rumors, which could be available in less than two weeks.

French website Mac4ever is claiming that Apple will unveil the next iLife ’11 software suite on August 7. A quick look at the calendar makes this a dubious rumor, since August 7 falls on a Saturday, which is not historically an Apple product launch day, but we’ll go with it for now and forge ahead with the rest of this tasty rumor.

On deck for iLife ’11 is 64-bit applications across the board (yay!), improvements to iPhoto Faces and Places (no word on what they are exactly), improved “integration of social networks” (read: Facebook and Twitter, probably), a completely revamped iWeb, the removal of iDVD (nooooo!), a new beta for the web-based MobileMe Gallery which adds Faces and Places and last but not least, a new “mystery” application.

So what could the mystery app be? 9to5Mac falls back on rumors from last December claiming that iDVD would gain new superpowers which allow it to create iTunes LP and iTunes Extras packages, “giving consumers a way to share detailed digital albums featuring all manner of multimedia assets.”

It sounds more likely that Apple plans to kill iDVD completely as it marches toward a future where optical media is considered antique, and replace the app with this new content creation tool, although it would likely make more sense to merge the two into one in some way. In any event, iDVD has been largely ignored over the last couple iLife versions except for updates to the app’s templates, so it doesn’t look good.

We don’t know what Mac4Ever’s rumor track record is, but we’d place bets on at least one of their rumors as fact -- the $79 price tag for iLife ’11, which is the same as it ever was.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for July 21, 2010:

• Macintosh
• iPod

Macintosh

• HungrySeacow Software has announced YummySoup! 2, a major update to their popular recipe management application for Mac OS X. YummySoup! 2 is a complete re-write over version 1, including the features that has made it popular like the visual browser and web importer, but also introduces brand new features such as Recipecasts, Keywords, Themes, and more. Recipecast is a brand new feature in YummySoup! 2, allowing you to publish whole groups of recipes to your MobileMe account.
• Zevrix Solutions has announced that its popular workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign, LinkOptimizer, is available at 50% off on MacZOT today, July 21. Awarded 4 out of 5 starts by Computer Arts magazine, LinkOptimizer allows users to reduce InDesign job cost through faster output, smaller job size, and automatic image processing. LinkOptimizer can automatically reduce link size, perform essential image adjustments, convert file formats, run Photoshop Actions and much more.
• Aspyr Media, Inc. and GameAgent.com have announced the launch of the European digital download store, customer support forums and the extension of the GameAgent Affiliate Program through OneNetworkDirect. Starting today customers in the United Kingdom can make purchases of PC and Mac game digital downloads in British pounds sterling (£) through www.gameagent.com/uk and customers in Euro Countries can make purchases in euros (€) through www.gameagent.com/eu. This marks the first time that Aspyr’s exclusive catalog of Mac games is available via digital download outside of North America. Aspyr’s PC and Mac boxed games will be available through the sites later this summer.

iPhone/iPod/iPad

• RadTech has announced ClearCal anti-glare and clear protective films for iPhone 4. Ultra-thin and super-tough Mylar protective films which protect and visually enhances your iPhone’s display screen, ClearCal is easy to apply or remove and can be cleaned and reapplied multiple times with no reduction in performance. ClearCal’s low surface tension adhesive features a blemish healing effect which effectively hides minor scratches, surface defects and abrasions.
• Available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Rhythm Spirit combines music and action to create a totally unique and innovative approach to the rhythm genre. The game features vibrant 2D graphics and a completely original soundtrack, both inspired by traditional Japanese folklore. This is a story-based, action-oriented rhythm game, unlike anything currently available in the App Store.
• Databright Management Systems has released EcoCense 1.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. EcoCense instantly calculates all the financial and ecological cost savings between two vehicles or for household efficiency upgrades. Time to recoup investment, tonnage of CO2 saved and monthly, annual and payback term savings are noted, so consumers can make informed green purchasing decisions. Users merely have to input the figures and tap the Calculate button for instant results.
• HotelsCombined Pty Ltd. has announced iFindHotels 1.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. This easy to use app combines hotel rates from 50 hotel travel websites and assures users the lowest rates on the very best hotels. With integrated mapping and smart filter features for search criteria, users can now quickly find hotels locally, by nearest airport, or at hundreds of destinations across the globe, and book their rooms right from the app.
• DoubleIP S.A. has released DoubleSMS 1.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. The application offers SMS messages with Delivery Reports for every message sent. Supports worldwide coverage and sending costs are typically much less expensive than normal. Users have access to a host of rich features, such as multiple recipient selection, easy message management, character counting and more. DoubleSMS gives users greater messaging freedom than standard SMS programs.
• 3dot5 has released World Flights 1.1, an update to its fully featured, user friendly flight tracking application for iPhone and iPod touch. World Flights offers a multitude of ways to access the required information based on one’s specific requirement at a given moment. Users can search by airline, route, airport, nearest airport and add airports and routes to Favorites for even faster access. Version 1.1 adds aggregated feedback from early adopters as well support for Apple iOS4 and more.
• Yed28 Officina Creativa has released Animals 360, an application to discover animals and their different habitats. All animals are accompanied by realistic sounds and stunning images. In addition to this fantastic series of illustrations are a quiz, three different tours to discover the best locations, and puzzles of different difficulty. This free application works both on ipad and iphone.
• Hawk Ridge Consulting has completed K12 Timed Reading Practice, another family-friendly iPhone app. K12 Timed Reading Practice lets readers in levels K to 4 practice fluency by reading short, timed stories. Improving fluency allows readers to read smoothly and quickly so they can focus on comprehension rather than on decoding words. The app includes 250 short, engaging stories for young readers, categorized by Flesh-Kincaid reading level.
• Reaction Software has released That Word 2.0, an update to their word-finding game for the iPhone and iPod touch. The goal of That Word is to accumulate as many points as possible by spelling as many words as you can from six randomly selected letters. Each set of six letters can spell at least one six-letter word, which must be found to continue to the next level. Version 2.0 includes many enhancements to the original, including new authentic sound effects and more.
• Design studio Elite Gudz has released Fart Spray Can 1.0, its new app for iPhone and iPod touch. Fart Spray Can is going to be a great application for all off-color humor fans. It features various combinations of the most disgusting sounds with a visually stunning and simple interface. Featuring realistic sounds, Fart Spray Can includes 9 different spray cans and 81 unique farts are included into the application to make the fart mixing experience even more enjoyable.
• Application creator Abhijeet Wable has announced a new iPhone/iPod touch application called Stress Fighter. Simply take a picture of the person who is giving you stress or grab a photo from your library, and put his/her head on one of eight pre-rendered 3D bodies. You can then beat up the person that is causing you stress, fighting him/her with 12 special weapons like a baseball bat, golf club and even a stapler. You can also take a photo and use it as a background for fighting.
• 288 Vroom LLC has released 7-11-21, a different and highly addictive iPhone/iPod touch game app. 7-11-21 is a new kind of Match-3 game, but instead of matching similar colors, players match 3 or more numbered tiles that add to 7, 11, or 21 before any tile reaches the top of the board. 7-11-21 is a fast-paced fun game that keeps players coming back for more to see if they can beat their personal best or top the leaderboards and earn achievements on OpenFeint. Are you fast enough?
• glimmerWave software has announced Sonic Slug Bricks 1.0.2, its groundbreaking new sound-driven arcade game for iPhone and iPod touch. With hot neon graphics, sound controlled weapons and fully customizable sound effects, Sonic Slug Bricks brings immersive sonic gaming to all iPhone and iPod touch platforms. The game is simple to learn but challenging to master. Players use voice input to energize projectiles and trigger power ups.
• Publisher Marc Schulman believes the enhanced visual and zooming technologies built into the Apple iPad are adding whole new interactive dimensions to the teaching of history and other subjects of interest. Civil War and Constitution are the latest releases from Multi-Educator’s History on the Go Series. Each is an application containing a diverse, comprehensive multimedia collection of the most important documents in the history of America.  More than just an eBook with links, each program gives users an enhanced visual, interactive audio and visual education experience, using the unique capabilities of the Apple iPad technology. They provide instant access to hundreds of original documents, photographs, maps, video, and presentations.
• Sinecure Industries has announced How Am I Feeling? 1.2, an update to their popular Mood Analyzer for iPhone and iPod touch. Using a patent pending algorithmic technology, How Am I Feeling? analyzes the user from a simple touch, with accuracy based on proximity to the face. Thousands of calculations are performed in seconds, and your true emotional state is revealed. Version 1.2 features improved results, a reanalyze button, crisper graphics and iOs4 support.
• mix.dj recently became the #1 mobile DJ streaming service with mix.dj Pro and mix.dj Lite for iPhone and iPod. Now, a new service has been added to mix.dj: your custom DJ mobile iPhone and iPad DJ App. A custom DJ App is a stand alone iPhone and iPad application powered by mix.dj, offering your own branding and your DJ mixes. The content in this application is updated directly from your mix.dj profile page, so you control everything.
• Griffin Technology, Inc., has unveiled an expansion in their partnership with Chilewich | Sultan LLC, with Elan Form Chilewich for iPod touch. The new case, based on the best-selling case for iPhone 3GS, is now available in three colors, including new Turquoise and Aluminum, at Apple Retail Stores.
• Twelve South has announced Compass, a compact folding stand made exclusively for Apple® iPad. Compass is a versatile stand designed to hold the iPad in two different modes. In the upright easel mode, Compass displays iPad in both portrait and landscape positions. The work mode positions iPad at a perfect angle for typing. Adding to the convenience, Compass folds down to the size of a candy bar, making it a very mobile stand that travels anywhere an iPad goes. Compass is available now and retails for $39.99.
• Digital Reality has announced the upcoming release of three games for iPhone and iPod touch developed by Catmoon Games: Scarabeus: Pearls of the Nile on July 22nd and Asteroid Miner and Liberty Wings on September 3rd, each priced at US$2.99 and to be available on the iTunes App Store. Digital Reality is becoming an online publisher, having previously had over 20 years experience developing releases such as the Imperium Galactica and Haegemonia series, Desert Rats vs Afrika Corps and Platoon.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

TUAWTUAW review: Email while driving with Text'nDrive Pro for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAWiPhone-grabbing thief picks wrong phone at wrong time originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Get extra mileage from your Mac using OS X's Terminal.

Terminal (in Applications/Utilities) gives you direct access to the UNIX system that underpins Mac OS X. By typing specific commands into your Terminal window, you can make changes, open settings, or access features that aren’t available by any other means.

After typing one of the commands listed here, press Return to activate it. Commands split over two or more lines should be typed in their entirety--don’t press Return halfway through. And bear in mind that some commands are case-sensitive, so be true to exactly what’s printed here. One final warning: All the tips in this feature have been thoroughly tested, but experimenting with the Terminal is not a task to be undertaken lightly. Don’t try to modify or adapt these commands unless you really know what you’re doing.

1. iRobot

Your Mac can talk to you. Using a robotic voice reminiscent of a 1950s sci-fi flick, it can ask after your health, tell you a joke, or say anything else you care to type. It’s a simple trick. Just open the Terminal application and enter: say Mac Life

And the Terminal robot utters the name of this magazine. Obviously it doesn’t have to be Mac|Life--type anything you like. Give it a go; it’s fun.

2. Back Up at Will

By default, Time Machine backups take place every hour, but you can change this through the Terminal. To make it back up every half hour instead, simply type: sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800

The 1800 at the end of this command is a half hour, expressed in seconds. You can change this figure to suit: For example, to back up once an hour again, replace it with 3600, and for two-hour backups, use 7200. Always remember to be especially careful with commands that begin with “sudo.” These are system-level commands that can cause huge problems if misused, which is why you’re asked for your administrator’s password the first time you try one.

3. Login Greetings

Another sudo (and therefore dangerous) command enables you to add a message to the login window. In the Terminal, type: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “Your Message”

Replace Your Message with whatever it is you want to display, of course, but leave the quotation marks around it intact, and be careful with your punctuation. Some characters (exclamation points, for instance) stop the command from working.

To remove the message, type: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “”

4. Play Games in the Terminal

A variety of simple games--like Pong--are accessible via the Terminal.

As you may know, OS X is UNIX-based. Emacs, a text editor, forms part of the UNIX system, and it contains some Easter egg games, including the ever-popular Tetris, Pong, and Snake. First you must find your Emacs version number. In the Terminal, type: cd /usr/share/emacs/

Press Return. Now type ls (lowercase LS) and press Return again. You’re given your Emacs version number (1.21, for instance). Write it down. Then enter the following: ls /usr/share/emacs/[VERSION]/lisp/play

Replace [VERSION] with the number obtained earlier (no parentheses). You get a directory of all the available games. Make a note, or take a screenshot. Now switch to Emacs through Terminal by simply typing emacs. To access the games, press Escape, then X, and type the name of the game you want to play before pressing Return. You can switch to the next game by pressing Escape, X, and the name of the next game. Have fun!

5. Fix Window Sizes in FFView

A. Resize Problem

FFView (www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html) is a great sequential image viewer, perfect for comics, but its Pagewidth Mode resizes its window every time you turn to the next image. This is very annoying if you want to set--and stick to--your own window size.

B. Resize Resolution

Terminal solves the problem. Type: defaults write com.feedface.ffview udn_dont_resize_img_win 1

The window now remains a constant size. To reverse this, enter the code again, replacing the 1 at the end with 0. Now restart the app.

C. Want Comics?

There’s a wealth of downloadable free comics available on the web. For example, mobile comic publisher Robot Comics offers a list of high-quality, free-to-download material suitable for reading on your Mac with FFView. Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/dk8ell.

6. Get a Massive Dock

If you want giant-sized magnified Dock icons, enable Magnification in System Preferences > Dock, and in the Terminal type: defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 512; killall Dock

This increases their maximum size to 512x512 pixels. You can substitute another figure if you wish, but don’t go any higher than 512. To switch this effect off, just return to the Dock’s preferences and move the Magnification slider back.

Next: Terminal Tips Continued >>

7. Hybrid Dock Folders

For a different version of a Dock folder or Stack’s List option, type: defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -boolean YES; killall Dock

This gives you an interesting hybrid of the List and Grid viewing options. Your List view icons are bigger, and if there are more items than fit the window, you can scroll through them in the same way as you would in Grid view. Also like Grid view, clicking a folder now opens it within the Stack. If you find you don’t like these changes, type the command again, replacing YES with NO.

8. Inspect the Web

Safari’s Web Inspector offers a great deal of detail about web pages, and it’s invaluable for serious web developers. You can activate it using Safari’s Debug Menu outlined in No. 11, but if you only want the Web Inspector, type: defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

After restarting Safari, you can now access the Web Inspector by right-clicking a web page and selecting it from the contextual menu. As you might guess, you can deactivate this feature by repeating the command, but replacing true with false and restarting Safari.

9. Debug iCal

Like many OS X applications, iCal has a Debug mode that can be activated through Terminal. Type: defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu YES

A new menu bar pull-down titled Debug appears. You can hide it again by repeating the code but replacing YES with NO. iCal must be restarted for changes to take effect.

10. Debug Address Book

Address Book also has a hidden Debug menu. To enable it, type: defaults write com.apple.addressbook ABShowDebugMenu -bool YES

The Debug pull-down appears in the menu bar. To disable it again, repeat the command and replace YES with NO at the end. The application must be closed and restarted for these commands to take effect.

11. Quick Tip

To enable a debug menu in Safari 4, type: defaults write com.apple.safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

Quit Safari and restart it for the hack to take effect, giving you an extra menu bar pull-down labeled Debug. To get rid of it again, repeat the command, replacing the 1 at the end with 0. A restart is again required.

12. Enable X-Ray Folders in Quick Look

A. Folders Can Look Dreary

If you highlight a file in the Finder and press the Space bar, you activate Quick Look, giving you information about the item in question and possibly a preview of the file. Folders look pretty dull in Quick Look, as you can see here.

B. See Through the Veil

Fortunately, you can spice up your folder-viewing experience, and Terminal is the way. To make Quick Look give you an X-ray image of a folder, simply type: defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders -boolean YES

C. X-Ray Vision is Yours

Quick Look now offers an X-ray view of a folder with an icon that shows you what’s inside it. To disable this feature, type the command again, replacing YES with NO. Quick Look folders are returned to their customary state.

13. Quick Tip

To turn the Dock icons translucent for applications that are open but hidden, type: defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES; killall Dock

Repeat the command, replacing YES with NO to disable this feature. Icons for applications that are already hidden when you activate this feature will not appear translucent unless you show and then hide them again.

Next: Terminal Tips Continued >>

14. Recently Used

This somewhat intimidating code introduces a new stack into your Dock, showing a list of your recently used applications: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{ “tile-data” = { “list-type” = 1; }; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”; }’; killall Dock

Type it carefully. It’s a really useful feature. When the new stack is in your Dock, you can right-click it and change it from showing Recent Applications to Recent Documents, Recent Servers, Favorite Volumes, or Favorite Items. It can be displayed in Fan, Grid, or List view, just like a regular stack. If you want to get rid of it again, just drag it out of the Dock.

15. Exposé Your Dock

By default, clicking and holding on the Dock icon for an active application in Snow Leopard activates Exposé, showing all of that application’s currently open windows. In Leopard, of course, this gave you a contextual menu; that’s something you can access in both operating systems by right-clicking on the icon in question. If you’re running Snow Leopard but prefer Leopard’s way of doing things, type the following Terminal command: defaults write com.apple.dock show-expose-menus -boolean NO; killall Dock

Repeating the command with YES instead of NO returns your Dock’s Exposé functions to normal.

16. Grid View Highlights

If you open a stack in Grid view, you can navigate through its enclosures using the arrow keys, and the currently selected icon is highlighted by a gray gradient box. However, if you drag your mouse pointer over the grid, no such highlighting appears unless you use this Terminal command: defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean YES; killall Dock

You now get the same gray background box during mouseovers as you do when navigating through the grid using the keyboard. Replace YES with NO to switch this off again, though we doubt you’ll want to.

17. Dock the Gloss

If you’re not too keen on the 3D Dock, with its shiny glass finish showing reflections of the application icons, use this tip to switch to something a little simpler: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock

Your Dock background is now a much plainer translucent black design with a thin white outline. Icons are no longer reflected in the Dock, and open applications are indicated by a white dot instead of a blue floodlight. If you decide you prefer the 3D look after all, you can repeat the command, substituting NO for YES, so you’ve nothing to lose by giving it a go.

18. Search Your Music

When you highlight a track in your iTunes library, you get a right-facing arrow in a circle. Clicking this searches the iTunes Store for similar material. However, using this Terminal input, you can get it to search your library instead: defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

Restart iTunes to activate it, and repeat the command with NO replacing YES to switch things back to their default behavior.

19. Drag Dashboard Widgets onto Your Desktop

Liberate your widgets from the Dashboard--place them on your desktop instead.

One of the most interesting Terminal tips enables you to drag your widgets out of the Dashboard and onto the desktop, where they float above open applications and Finder windows, akin to the Gadgets in Windows Vista’s sidebar. To activate it, type: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

You must then log out and log back in, or restart your machine. You can now capture a widget by clicking and holding it, and pressing F12 to dismiss the Dashboard and drop it on your desktop. By capturing a widget that’s on your desktop and pressing F12, you can return it to your Dashboard too. Widgets placed on the desktop function just like they do on the Dashboard.

To disable this feature, repeat the command, replacing YES with NO. Again, you must log out and log in again or restart your Mac for the change to take effect, after which widgets that are already on the desktop can be returned to the Dashboard, but there they must remain.

20. Expanded Save View

The Save command brings up a dialog where you choose a filename, save location, and sometimes the format in which it will be saved. Next to the title, there’s a blue button with a triangle pointing down. Pressing this expands the dialog, giving it a similar format to a Finder window. If you want this window to appear in its expanded form by default, type: defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

If needed, just replace TRUE with FALSE to revert to how things were.

21. Faster Screen Sharing

MobileMe’s Screen Sharing is an excellent feature, but depending on your internet connection, it can be very sluggish. Thankfully, you can speed it up by using a Terminal command to reduce the image quality of the shared screen: defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing controlObserveQuality 1

This reduces the screen to its lowest possible quality setting, giving you a black-and-white image. You can replace the 1 at the end of the command with the numbers 2 to 5, offering progressively higher-quality screens: 2 gives a grayscale image, 3 offers 8-bit color, 4 is 16-bit color, and 5 takes you back to full color, the default setting.

22. Screenshot Names

If you capture a screenshot in Snow Leopard, it’s automatically titled “Screen shot” followed by a date and time. You can change this using a Terminal command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “Anything you like”; killall SystemUIServer

Simply change Anything you like to whatever you wish to call the screens you capture--the date and time remain unchanged. To go back to the default, replace Anything you like with Screenshot.

23. Reveal Hidden Files

There are several applications that let you look at Mac OS X’s hidden files, such as resource forks, but there’s also a very simple command you can employ from the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

Be careful with this one. Those files are hidden for a reason, and while it’s interesting to see what’s there, don’t fiddle with them unless you know what you’re doing. To turn off this feature, repeat the command, replacing TRUE with FALSE.

24. Copy, Gold Leader!

"They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure! This is madness!"

This must be the strangest Terminal command ever. Go on, type: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

You’ll see the Star Wars movie, retold in ASCII art. Wait for the prefilm credits to end, and don’t resize the Terminal window, or the graphics won’t format properly.

25. Quick Tip

With this handy command, you can quit the Finder in the same way you would any other app: defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES; killall Finder

A Quit option now appears at the foot of the Finder menu. To remove it, type the command again, replacing YES with NO.

Now that AT&T has reveled its new pricing structure for iPhone data, we wondered just what we could do with our iPhones with the new data caps. While the new 2GB cap has increased anger directed towards AT&T, in reality most of us never even come close to the 2GB cap. Don't believe us? We have tips on how to check your data usage on AT&T's site and on the iPhone.

To help illustrate just how much data you need to use while on AT&T's 3G network in order to hit the 200MB and 2GB data caps, we made some semi-fancy infographs of our favorite iPhone network-using features.

In order to compile the data need for these graphs, we utilized the iPhones usage gauge and ran the tests three times. We then averaged out the data. Of course your data usage may differ especially if you download 12-minute dance tracks from iTunes.

Click to embiggen

Click to embiggen

For fun, why not try to count all the tiny iPhones in the Foursquare graph.

Did you know you can publish your iCal calendars online so you can share it with the world? Share your team’s pee-wee times with the rest of the parents without having to waste all of your printer ink to do it. Share your vacation plans with the rest of the family. Whatever your reason, if you need to share your schedule via the web, then this is way to do it.

1. Open iCal, and select the calender that you want to share.
2. Make sure that all of the events you want to publish are correct and up to date. Every even in the calendar will be published, so clean out anything that’s no longer accurate or relevant.
3. Click on “Calender” in the menu bar and select “Publish…”
4. Give your calender a name. Choose MobileMe if you have an account or select “A private server.” You’ll need the FTP information, which you can get from your service provider.

5. Click on “Publish,” then wait. When publishing is complete you will get a window with the URL where it can be found. You can send this to anyone who needs to see or subscribe to the calender.

Enjoy your newly shared calendar.

Full Story » | Written by Katie Gatto for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

TUAWSome further thoughts on the rumored next Apple TV originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 May 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After search giant Google hurled a barrage of not-so-subtle spears in Apple’s direction at the Google I/O developer conference, all eyes are now on the World Wide Developer Conference that Cupertino will be launching June 7 with a keynote from CEO Steve Jobs.

While a fourth-generation iPhone is a given at this point after an absurd number of leaks in recent weeks, Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself promised an inquisitive e-mailer only a few days ago: “You won’t be disappointed.” So we put our thinking cap on and came up with this list of cool stuff we might see when WWDC 2010 kicks off June 7 and wraps up on June 11.

Safari 5 (or maybe 4.5)

We think Safari is still pretty great, even against more recent challengs from Google Chrome and Firefox 3.6. But with the Chrome browser finally out of beta this week, Apple may have to work harder to pound out Safari’s remaining limitations.

Among them: No API for extensions, as noted this week by Daring Fireball’s own John Gruber after Google’s announcement that Chrome is now officially “stable.” That means that great third-party software like 1Password and Evernote has to resort to kludgy hacks to work intimately with Safari. Heck, even good ol’ Adobe Flash might work better with an API (stranger things have happened). Gruber also calls out Apple for not empowering Safari with a true ability to automatically reopen pages left open when the app was closed. Yes, please.

New Mac Pros -- Finally!

The poor Mac Pro has certainly gone neglected, with its last update more than a year ago. Worse yet, the desktop behemoth still carries a form factor borrowed from the Power Mac G5 before it -- and in computer years, that makes it a veritable dinosaur.

Although we’ve heard plenty of rumors about Intel’s new six-core Core i7-980X processor landing in a refreshed Mac Pro as far back as January and February of this year, the summer has arrived and there’s still nothing official on the radar. Creative professionals are likely worried about Apple’s silence with regard to such new hardware, but that could all change with one presentation.

Mac OS X 10.7

Many developers are also rightfully worried that this year’s WWDC is too focused on iPhone OS, and many questions remain as to when Apple might shed some light on their intentions for Mac OS X 10.7. Granted, Snow Leopard 10.6 was released only last September, but that update was more about optimizing Leopard 10.5 than adding hot new features to the Mac (unless you count getting back a bunch of hard drive space as a “hot” new feature).

Our prediction is that Mac OS X 10.7 will get at least a cursory mention at WWDC 2010, and we won’t get a real preview of a new desktop operating system until WWDC 2011. Thankfully, Snow Leopard 10.6 runs like smooth, creamy butter most of the time -- and Apple keeps the updates coming regular enough to squash anything that comes up, with a 10.6.4 patch already in beta testing.

iPhone OS 4.0 for iPad

We’ve already seen all of the cool stuff that’s presumably coming next month with iPhone OS 4.0, such as Folders, multitasking and threaded e-mail. But we were bummed to hear that the fresh new iPad won’t get the 4.0 love until sometime this fall, by which time Apple will likely be on 4.1 or so.

Here’s hoping that Apple will give us at least a peek at iPhone OS 4.x for the iPad at WWDC -- after all, developers will certainly appreciate a longer lead time to rework their apps for the tablet device after having to rush them together between late January and early April for the U.S. iPad launch. The rest of us will just have to wait… and weep.

The Real Apple TV Take 2

Remember back in January, 2008 when Apple took the wraps off “Take 2” of its “still a hobby” Apple TV? Despite a price drop, closer ties with iTunes and the ability to purchase content directly from the box itself, the Apple TV has continued to bore most everyone who sees it, except for the die-hard hackers who continue to squeeze as much as possible out of the device’s anemic processor and (gasp!) Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system by way of unsanctioned apps like nitoTV and Boxee.

We figure the time has come for a truly revolutionary overhaul of Apple TV, especially now that arch-nemesis Google is breathing down Apple’s neck with Google TV, slated for release this fall. Rumors abound that Apple TV may get iPhone OS-ified and will adopt the tiny A4 architecture that will come standard in the next iPhone. Additionally, the new Apple TV will have 1080p HD and 16GB of storage, as well as be a part of Apple's rumored new cloud storage network. The best part about these rumors is that the device is slated to sell for only $99, which will make die hard Apple fans with a tight budget extremely happy.

MobileMe: Now With More Free!

Recent rumors have speculated that Apple may take a cue from Google and start offering their cloud-based MobileMe service absolutely free to all users. While that would no doubt raise the ire of longtime .Mac users who have paid good money each year to stay with the often-questionable service, it’s really the only recourse Apple may have to keep up with Google now.

MobileMe itself isn’t spectacular as it exists now, save for its awesome push e-mail, Find My iPhone, contacts and calendars. The recent web-based Mail beta shows that Apple is taking baby steps toward improving the service, but they’ve got a long ways to go yet. Let’s see that acquisition of Lala start moving iTunes into the cloud, for instance, and speaking of that...

iTunes in the Cloud

Since Apple purchased Lala.com, pundits have been short-circuiting their craniums trying to guess exactly what Cupertino plans to do with the technology -- and equally as important, when that fateful day might arrive. We’re not so sold on the idea of having iTunes “in the cloud” -- call us old fashioned, but it’s kind of nice to actually feel like you own your music, especially now that it’s finally DRM-free.

Be that as it may, Apple now appears late to the cloud-based music game, with Google stepping up to the plate to make Android such a cloud-centric experience. We’re not sure that WWDC is the right forum to finally reveal what the company is doing with Lala’s brains, but surely Apple will have to play their hand soon enough.

NEXT: iPhones, iTunes and the MacBook Air>>

A Fourth-Generation iPhone No One is Expecting

What if Steve Jobs got on stage for his keynote on June 7 and presented an iPhone that was totally different from what Gizmodo and others have leaked? A new report this week from Digitimes has posed just such a possibility, and proposes that the project, codenamed “N91” -- the leaked iPhone we’ve already seen is “N90” -- may exist as “a parallel product to back up the N90 in case there are major delays due to significant modifications in casing, display resolution, digital camera support and so forth.” The report goes on to describe the backup product as more similar in style and form to the existing iPhone 3GS.

At this point, everyone is expecting the leaked iPhone (which has been dubbed “iPhone HD” by pundits) to allow some kind of video chatting thanks to the widely exposed leaks of the device with a front-facing camera. Would you be disappointed to see the equivalent of an “iPhone 3GS Plus” at this point? We would...

Final Cut Studio 4

Sure, we know that the third generation of Final Cut Studio was only released last year, but the update offered little in the way of new features and seemed to take away more than it gave (especially for PowerPC owners, who are now permanently relegated to Final Cut Studio 2, as the newest version requires an Intel processor). The biggest problem with Apple’s pro video suite is that, despite the big 64-bit push with Snow Leopard 10.6, none of Final Cut Studio is 64-bit native -- and those applications could use it.

It might be out of character for Apple to unveil a new Final Cut Studio at WWDC, but given the recent hysteria among video professionals upon hearing rumors that the high-end software might be “dumbed down” to make it more consumer-centric, any news on its future would be good news.

iTunes 10

Speaking of apps that could use a 64-bit kick in the pants -- Apple, what’s going on with iTunes? Despite being the center of the known universe for all iDevices, iTunes continues to be upgraded on top of molasses-like legacy code. It’s like living in a parallel universe, knowing that the Windows version of iTunes is actually faster than it is on the Mac -- that speaks volumes.

While cool new features would be welcome also, the reality is that iTunes hasn’t grown all that much over the last few major releases -- does anyone really use the Genius feature, for instance? Where is the built-in lyrics feature for music? (Apple added a section for such metadata several versions back, but you have to do the footwork yourself.) Or how about better media management capabilities, now that we’ve got ever-bigger video files to sync to our iPad but are running out of space on our internal hard drives?

iTunes 9.x feels pretty kludgy by this point, so anything is welcome here -- but keep in mind that most big iTunes updates tend to come later in the year, often coupled with the release of new iPods.

iLife ’11

Maybe we’re starting to sound like a broken record here, but iLife ’09 is another Apple package that’s getting long in the tooth, and could also use a much-needed 64-bit transfusion. We can’t be the only ones who notice that iPhoto, for example, starts to bog down the more we throw pictures at it, so… there’s that. And don’t get us started about iMovie, which for all of its simplicity is an absolute speed dog when you actually have to use it.

Hey, perhaps we’re just impatient -- but it seems to us that for all the advancements in the processor and graphics speed of our Macs, it doesn’t take long before all this great software starts to bog down. iLife ’11 might be a few more months in the oven, but it’s never too early to request that Apple slow down on the new features and pull a Snow Leopard here: Let’s see some performance tweaks!

iPhone OS + Jailbreak = Love

If Apple really wanted to make heads spin at WWDC, they’d put down their swords and start playing nice with the jailbreak community. You know, those guys (and gals?) who tirelessly work to free iPhone OS from Apple’s shackles so we can install stuff that Cupertino wishes didn’t exist in the first place, including a GSM unlock for our iPhone (which also frees us from AT&T’s heavy ball and chain at the same time).

Frankly, the “cat and mouse game” (as Steve Jobs himself has referred to it) has kind of landed in favor of the jailbreak community anyway of late, with even the latest iPhone OS 4.0 beta build being easy prey for the jailbreak geniuses. Maybe it’s time for Apple to stop worrying and love the jailbreak, officially opening up the device to other apps beyond their gated App Store walls. We can dream, can’t we…?

MacBook Air, Redux

Now that the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines have gotten a souped-up refresh and the iPad is on the scene, the MacBook Air is beginning to look a little more overpriced and underpowered than usual. Even though the device is barely two and a half years old, it may be time for Apple to either put it out of its misery or rework it as a touchscreen-enabled, lust-worthy member of Cupertino’s notebook lineup.

It’s not hard to imagine that one day soon, the MacBook Air might very well become the “iPad Extreme” -- think of an iPad with attached hardware keyboard, maybe even capable of dual-booting both Mac OS X and iPhone OS so you can get the best of both worlds. We might line up for that one!

iPhone Goes CDMA

Will they or won’t they? An iPhone compatible with the CDMA networks used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint here in the U.S. has been rumored and desired since the device took center stage at the Macworld 2007 keynote, and here we are more than three years later and AT&T continues to have an exclusive clamp on the GSM-only device.

Of course, rumors have run rampant in recent months that AT&T’s exclusive contract is about to end, and that possibly both Verizon and Sprint will finally get in the iPhone game -- to the detriment of AT&T, who is reported to lose possibly as much as 40 percent of its customer base as they defect to one of the CDMA carriers. No better time to announce such a device than at WWDC, where an annual refresh of the iPhone hardware is expected to be a lock.

All we ask is that Apple make it an “all in one” device -- meaning both GSM and CDMA, so we can sign in blood with Verizon, Sprint or AT&T here and then have the freedom to buy local GSM-based SIM cards for international travel. Is that asking too much?

Presenting… Something Totally New?

Apple has had a busy year refreshing its Mac hardware, announcing and subsequently launching the iPad and prepping for the rumored fourth-generation iPhone expected in June, but what if we’ve all overlooked something totally new? Cupertino would seem to have all of the bases covered, from laptop and desktop computers, portable media devices, mobile phones and peripherals -- but that doesn’t mean they can’t still sneak in a curve ball to “shock and awe” us.

The question is, what might that be? Only Steve Jobs and maybe a handful of others in Cupertino presumably know the answer to that question, but Apple has a way of dazzling us by reinventing something we’ve always taken for granted, such as the cell phone (with the original iPhone in 2007) or even our very definition of “portable” music (the original iPod in 2001).

Whatever it might be, you’re almost certainly guaranteed to have never needed it before, but you’ll surely have to have it once Steve Jobs whips it out. That’s just how Apple rolls.

*****

Of course, WWDC isn’t simply about hot new Apple products -- it’s about the company intimately working with third-party developers to create the next generation of software that we’ll all swoon over. One thing that the iPhone OS-based devices have shown us: The future is less about hardware and more about the software that runs it.

Viewed in that light, the developer conference isn’t simply a “gee-whiz” keynote with fancy new toys from Apple, but rather a plentiful seeding of developer talent that will grow over time and continue to harvest wonders for years to come. We can’t wait to see what Apple helps them create next!

Anyone that's worked with iWeb knows how simple it is to build a compelling, attractive website with relative ease. But if you've ever found the need to update your site from more than one computer, it can be a little frustrating. One option is to simply park your iWeb domain's files on a USB thumb drive or external hard drive and ferry the hardware with you where ever you go. Not a bad solution, but if the hardware, breaks down, what then? One could argue that signing up for a MobileMe account kills two web development birds with one $100 stone. True: You could park your working domain files on your MobileMe iDisk, and that $100 per year MobileMe access fee will also cover webspace for your site to reside upon. However, if you've already invested in a hosting solution for your website like GoDaddy.com or Backsun.ca, the cost of MobileMe membership might seem just a bit steep. Fortunately, the folks at Dropbox are here to help.

If you're not familiar with Dropbox, here's the low-down: It's a file hosting service that provides a cloud-based storage and synchronization solution for its users to access their files from multiple computers over the internet, making it perfect a perfect solution to our iWeb problem. What's more, you can snag a 2GB Dropbox account for free!

Let's get started...

Difficulty Level: Easy

What You Need:

>> iWeb '09 ($79.00, as part of iLife '09 apple.com/ilife/)

>> Dropbox for Mac (free, dropbox.com/)

>> A Dropbox account (available via dropbox.com: 2GB storage -- free; 50GB storage -- $9.99 per month; 100GB storage -- $19.99 per month)

Set Up A Dropbox Account

If you don't already have a Dropbox account, setting up one up is easy like pancakes. First thing's first -- you'll need to download their free software. Direct your browser of choice to www.dropbox.com and click the jolly blue button cleverly marked 'Download Dropbox.' Download and install the app.

Size Isn't Everything

Launch the app. If you don't already have an account, create one. The two free gigabytes of storage offered by Dropbox should be more than enough to meet the needs of most people looking to tackle this particular How-To. However, if your website is a huge, multimedia affair or you plan on using your Dropbox account to serve up more than your iWeb domain package you might need more space. Fortunately, Dropbox offers reasonably priced 50 and 100 gigabyte monthly pricing options. Pick your favorite flavor and click continue.

The Grand Tour

If you haven't used Dropbox before, you'll want to take the tour offered by the application. It'll give you the lowdown on a few important bits and pieces about what the software and what the service can do for you. In watching the tutorial, you'll discover that Dropbox has placed a new folder in your Home folder (unless you opted to place it elsewhere during the application setup process.) Open up your Home folder.

If a Dropbox folder icon isn't already in your Finder window's sidebar, click and grab the Dropbox folder, releasing it over the sidebar to create a shortcut that will be accessible from any window on your computer.

Direct your gaze to the top right hand of your screen you'll see that Dropbox has created an icon in your menu bar

Clicking on the menu bar icon will give you access to valuable information about your Dropbox account status, including the amount of information you've uploaded to it, recent file changes, and how much storage space you have left. The icon will also become animated whenever you upload or download files to or from your computer's Dropbox folder.

Master Of Your Domain

Now that you've set up your Dropbox account and know where your Dropbox folder is located, it's moving day for your Domain file. Go to your Home folder and navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/iWeb. This is the default location for your iWeb created Domain package.

Remember how we took care of placing a shortcut to your Dropbox folder in the sidebar of your Finder? It's time to reap the rewards. Grab your Domain file from the iWeb folder and drag it into into your Dropbox folder in the sidebar.

Teach iWeb to Find Your Domain.

Apple's iWeb is wonderfully intuitive to work with, but it's not a mind-reader -- you'll have to tell it where you've moved that Domain package to. Luckily, iWeb makes it easy. Simply open up your Dropbox folder and double-click your Domain package. In doing so, iWeb will launch, and reorientate itself to the location of the package.

Setting Up Additional Macs

Now that you're a certified Dropbox installation ninja, you should have no problem installing Dropbox on other Macs to tinker with your iWeb project. Simply repeat the process we went through to install the Dropbox software your first computer. This time around, however, there'll be no need to move your iWeb Domain package into your Dropbox folder.

Blue rotating circle means an item is still syncing. Green checks mean the item has completed syncing and is ready to go.

After signing into your the Dropbox account you created earlier, a Dropbox folder will appear on your second Mac. You'll soon have access to your Domain package, as well as any other goodies you felt like tossing into the folder along with it. Before working with the files, however, the Dropbox folder on your second computer will have to synchronize with the files from the your primary computer via Dropbox's servers way out there in the clouds. Syncing is an automatic, pain-free process. However, if you're working with larger website, or a site containing multimedia files, your initial sync could leave you waiting for some time. For example, a Domain package, that contains three expansive corporate websites and weighs in at close to 900MB in size, took us close to two hours to sync.

Once your second computer's Dropbox folder is synchronize, you'll be notified by a Growl notification. If you're not a fan of Growl, you can also verify that the files are ready for use by opening your DropBox folder, to take a peek at the files inside. If the files on the computer you're sitting in front of are synchronize and ready to work on, there will be a small green checkmark added to the file's icon.

Once the Sync is done, double click the Domain file to launch iWeb and reorientate it to the Dopbox folder.

And that friends, is how to keep your website updates poppin' fresh and on the cheap, no matter what Mac you're sitting in front of. Now get out there and build something beautiful from as many locations as possible!

Apple has posted a MobileMe Beta FAQ. According to a few readers, the beta is now live for those who initially signed up.  FAQ and signup below:

What is the MobileMe Mail beta?

What features are new?

How do I request an invitation to the beta?

I received an invitation. How do I join the beta?

What languages are supported?

What browsers are supporting the beta?

Do  I need to change any settings in Mac OS X Mail, or on my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?

Are there changes to how push email works on my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?

If I have a Family Pack account and my account is enrolled in the beta, will anything change for the other accounts set up on my Family Pack subscription?

I already have rules in Mac OS X Mail; will they work in the beta?

I'd like to stop using the beta, what do I need to do? 

How do I report issues and give feedback during the beta?

Are there keyboard shortcuts to use in the MobileMe Mail Beta? 

TUAWOf Stevemails and stevedores: Talkcast tonight, live at 10 pm ET originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 16 May 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Category: Business
Seller: QuickOffice
Requirements: iPhone OS 3.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch
File Size: 12.7MB
Version Reviewed: 3.0.1
Price: $9.99

If any of you are still doubting the iPhone’s capability to become a business phone due to the lack of a business application suite, doubt no more. If you have to judge the iPhone’s business capability through such kind of apps—iPhone has one, and it’s called QuickOffice. This great iPhone app has practically all the functionality of Microsoft Word and Excel, including some advanced Microsoft Office features as well. In fact, the only limitation of this app is that it doesn’t handle powerpoint creation and editing. But hey, I wouldn’t want to do that kind of stuff using the iPhone anyway.

The QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite lets you create, view and edit Word and Excel files. It also lets you share your files via email with attachments, as well as transfer files to your desktop through Wi-Fi. QuickOffice lets you sync files into the cloud via its own cloud server or with other cloud storage services such MobileMe, Dropbox, and even Google Docs. If you have existing accounts with any of these cloud storage services, you can easily store your QuickOffice files to these services. But if you’d rather use QuickOffice’s own cloud server, you can sign up fo an account.

So, how is the overall user experience when using QuickOffice Connect? Given the small screen real estate of these devices, you would normally expect a hard time using, creating or editing docs and spreadsheets. Quite surprisingly, this is not the case. You might find some difficulty when creating or editing files—especially with spreadsheets—but you’ll get by as you use the app more often.

When creating Word docs, you can use formatting tools such as bullets and indents, as well as font formatting tools: bold, italic, underline and so on. What I found difficult when editing docs was selecting specific parts. To type in a sentence with formatting effects, you need to select those effects before typing your sentence. If you don’t, you’ll find it hard to edit the text afterwards.

One of the major strengths of the app (and one which you will most likely use more often) is its ability to access files you’ve created on your desktop which you’ve saved in the cloud. When you need the file during a business meeting, you can easily pull it out from the cloud server, get it into your iPhone, do some edits and then send the edited version via email. So, you’ll no longer be able to say you forgot to submit a report because you were out of the office.

QuickOffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPhone is a $10 dollar app. Is it worth the bucks you’d spend for it? It’s both a yes and a no. If your need is just to access those Word docs and Excel spreadsheets to read them while on the go, you’d be better off with other free file sharing apps for iPhone. But, if you find yourself in situations where you need to do some minor editing of Word docs and spreadsheets to beat the deadline, and you happen to be out of the office, you’ll definitely find this app a “must have” for your iPhone and iPod touch.

Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

TUAWIs the Apple TV on life support? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 13 May 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Mail beta side-by-side

TUAWUI changes in Apple's Mail beta originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 13 May 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.