News - page 2344

If you can think it, it’s said, eventually technology will allow you to do it.

Something I’ve thought about several hundred, if not thousands of times, is capturing the audio from a particularly tasty video I’ve been pointed to or have happened to come across (mostly) on YouTube.

Turns out, you can do that.

There’s a super easy way of doing it completely online at VidToMp3, but if you’d like a handy, light app for handling the task on your Mac, savvy Japanese developers at iExtractMp3 (translated from the original Japanese) have developed a universal binary, now in its 4th iteration, to do just that.

I tested both the online method and the iExractMp3 app today and added a couple of Snooks Eaglin tunes to my iTunes collection in a matter of minutes.

If you want to use iExtractMp3, you’ll need to know how to first download .flv files to your hard drive, which is easy enough to do. Everything else about using iExtractMp3 or VidToMp3 is self-explanatory.

The genie is now so far out of the bottle, one almost wants to feel sorry for the powers that be in the music industry.

Almost.

Via MakeUseOf

More than one quarter of iPhone users today have two fine options available for implementing cut and paste on their mobile device, with more on the way.

Of course Apple thinks of these users as criminals, but, really, how long can the company deny the rest of its smartphone ecosystem the number three functionality its users believe is still missing?

Via MakeUseOf

I’m only on my second MacBook upper case (pictured above), and it’s currently held together with a piece of duct tape.

But that’s nothing. Over at MacInTouch, reader Derek C is on his eighth, and Apple are sending him a whole new MacBook.

The related Flickr group, My MacBook was cracked by itself is still going strong, too. I suspect many Cult readers have seen this problem.

The appeal of a unibody replacement grows ever stronger.

A new adjustable bed called the Prodigy claims it can end nocturnal snore wars, thanks to iPhone, iPod touch capabilities.

Prodigy debuted recently at the Las Vegas Furniture Market, though in the only image I was able to find (from the product sheet .pdf) it looks like geriatric central, makers Leggett & Platt say outright  it “is not your grandparent’s adjustable bed.”

Some of the new features aimed at stopping bedroom tiffs:

*One-touch, anti-snore technology allows annoyed awake user to change the position of a snoring partner by seven degrees to open nasal passages, which can alleviate mild to moderate snoring. After thirty minutes, the bed gently returns snoring perpetrator  to the original sleep position.

*A  gentle-wake alarm system that softly massages the sleeper awake. Because Prodigy can work on dual twin mattresses, each sleeper can be awakened individually, perfect for couples who can’t agree on a common wake time or a unified snooze-button strategy.

All this controlled from your iPhone or iPod touch. No word on pricing; makers are taking pre-orders up to May 2009.

Of course, it would mean having to give up on the liberating swift kick or annoyed shove, but perhaps one could get used to it.

Via sleepinformation

Apple has begun offering China refurbished iPods and iMacs, but at prices higher than U.S. retail prices, according to reports Monday.

In one example, a 2.8 GHz iMac discounted by 12 percent to $2,059 is still priced higher than the U.S. pre-sales tax $1,799.

While only 0.25 percent of the huge China market, the Asian giant helped Apple increase third-quarter sales by 49 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The iPhone 3G launched today in United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Some 25,000 people signed up in the first few hours, not bad considering you can’t send or recieve text messages in Arabic and the web browser does not yet render Arabic text properly.  (Mobile providers have promised that these services will be available within the next three months.)

The 8GB iPhone costs around $600, 16GB around $700, with a monthly fee of about $25. Mobile provider Etisalat also throws in a hundred texts a month, to thumb perhaps in French or English while you’re waiting for Arabic.

Via Arabian Business

Image courtesy ifone4arab

It appears lawyers for Apple and clone-maker Psystar will head back to the courtroom after failed mediation talks, according to reports Monday.

The court-ordered talks, held secretly February 18 between the two companies, “did not settle” the copyright-infringement case, according to the World of Apple Website, quoting an unnamed “contact.”

A federal court earlier this month agreed to allow Psystar to submit a modified counterclaim against Apple’s initial charges. The Mac clone maker now maintains Apple has misused its copyright protections of the OS X software to stifle hardware rivals.

Apple’s annual shareholders meeting will be marked by a number of changes, the largest being the absence of co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, according to a Monday report.

Despite his absence, Jobs will be at the center of a long-running debate over his health and importance to the company’s future.

In January, Jobs sent Wall Street mixed signals about his health, first declaring he suffered a simple hormonal imbalance and then a week later announcing a medical leave due to “more complex health” health issues.

More than a quarter of iPhones in the U.S. do not use AT&T, further clouding the importance of AT&T’s ‘exclusive’ distribution of Apple’s popular touchscreen cell phone, according to a Monday report.

Of 1.45 million iPhones has described as “missing in action,” around 480,000 are thought to be part of AT&T’s inventory. However, 1 million unaccounted iPhones — or 27 percent — are “unlocked” and being used on other mobile networks, Bernstein Research Toni Sacconaghi said.

Sacconoghi called the figure “stunning,” a step up from Apple’s previous talk of “significant” numbers of unlocked iPhones, according to a Reuters report.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wfv0OJ1oMQ

Another video doing the rounds of the blogs this morning, but little wonder because this is another thing that we – all of us – want.

Everyone knows what a pain it is to re-arrange and keep organized your iPhone apps, especially when you have pages and pages of the things. This neat concept video shows an iTunes-based system for keeping things sorted the way you want them, including the option to lock apps in place, or move several of them (or an entire screenful) at a time.

And when I say “everyone”, I mean it. The Apple team must share these frustrations along with the rest of us. So if Apple’s NOT working on something like this for a future iTunes/iPhone release, then I shall buy a packet of Refreshers for the seventh person who comments on this post.

In the words of a late, great, British Saturday morning kids TV show: THIS IS WHAT WE WANT. This is what I’ve wanted since I first got my grubby little fingers on an iPhone. This is how I used to use my Palm (with a GoType keyboard) to write articles on the road. It worked just fine. I really, really want this; not as a plaything for the jailbroken, but as a built-in, out-of-the-box, totally legitimate feature.

Some people are saying this is faked. They say the guy is either using VNC, with an accomplice doing the typing out of sight, or that the camera was paused after the keyboard typing to allow the text to be entered normally (and it’s fair to say that there is a slight camera shake at about 00:33).

But I don’t care if it’s a fake or not. This is a feature I want on my iPhone. In fact, I’m going to stop writing about it and just call my old friend Tim Cook right now. Me and him, you know. We’re buddies.

(Via TUAW.)

Oh, and in other news: people use Macs.

As the touchscreen smartphone market enters a more competitive landscape, Apple is likely to be forced to either lower its price on the iPhone or revise growth and margin expectations for the device, according to a comprehensive analysis of the growing sector released Friday by Royal Bank of Canada.

RBC analyst Mike Abramsky elaborated on research published earlier this month indicating Apple’s next version of the iPhone, expected by many to come to market later this year, will see much more robust competition from the likes of Google, Palm, Microsoft and HTC, none of whom had anything comparable to the iPhone until quite recently.

Among the options available to Apple aside from outright price cuts – which acting CEO Tim Cook has indicated the company is “looking into” – working with carriers such as AT&T on adjustments to the phone’s data plan offerings seems to be a likely strategy for increasing the value of iPhone as a choice.

Click on RBC’s handy chart above for a larger image and a comprehensive view of the current landscape.

Via AppleInsider

In a not-terribly-surprising report, the Wall Street Journal notes that Mac sales were down 6 percent year-over-year in January, the first time that’s happened in three years.

This shouldn’t be terribly surprising — Apple only introduced the 17″ MacBook Pro in January, which is a niche product that is only now shipping. Beyond which, Apple makes expensive computers, and all computer-makers are seeing sales drop, including those who make the cheap-o ones.

From what I can tell, the only category enjoyed sales increases at the moment are Netbook makers. Maybe it is time Apple looked into that, eh?

WSJ via BoingBoing Gadgets

Gridiron Software released Thursday the much anticipated free public beta version of Flow, software for the Mac the company calls a Visual Workflow Manager. In short, Flow brings order out of chaos and, if first impressions mean anything, is apt to be the most transformative productivity tool anyone has seen in quite a while.

Many talented and creative people are not wired for total top-down organization and don’t hard-code cross-referencing and version tracking into their work on projects. As a result, a lot of frustration and lost time can accompany efforts to complete work to its final delivery state.

Flow lets you get out of your own way, automagically tagging and tracking everything that goes into a project, from idea to end result. Users can see how all the pieces of a project fit together, in one interface, and access them instantly, even if they are offline.

The built-in, automatic time-tracking feature is bound to be received as a godsend by those responsible for budgeting and billing and Flow collaboration enhancements promise to increase productivity by helping you work smarter, not harder.

For the guided tour demo of Flow’s amazements go here.

The first version is for Intel Macs, with support for PowerPC and Windows coming soon. Download the free beta here and when you decide to buy the promotional price of $249 is good until May 1. After that, the price will be $299.

Via WebWorkerDaily Thanks to Greg Correll for the tip

“Wheels on the Bus” is an iPhone app in five languages, based on the nursery rhyme, with extras like instruments kids can play and a recording feature, hopefully providing hours of entertainment for kids and perhaps a bit of respite for parents.

My only reservation about the app, named “Staff Favorite” in iTunes and currently the number two paid education app, comes from the song itself, perhaps one of the most annoying kiddy tunes to ever hammer itself into the tired brains of parents. A friend of mine with a two-year-old daughter was so fed up with the ditty (the doors on the bus go open and shut, open and shut) that “Wheels on the Bus”  became shorthand for “Mommy needs a few cocktails or something bad will happen.”

A new study highlights what could be the iPhone version of attention-deficit disorder. A day after a free iPhone app is downloaded, there’s only a 20 percent chance it will used.

Possibly more disconcerting for Apple and iPhone developers: just 5 percent of free apps are used one month after downloaded – and nearly no free app is used after three months , according to data compiled by Pinch Media.

The tracking data was announced at an iPhone Developers Meetup in New York by Pinch Media CEO Greg Yardley.

A small study indicates that students who listened to podcasts remembered more than those who attended lectures.

The study, as reported in New Scientist, tested 64 students on information retention.

To see how much students can learn from podcast lectures alone, students were given a single lecture on visual perception from an intro psychology course.

Half sat through a live lecture and were given printouts of the slides used.  The other 32 downloaded a podcast that included audio from the same lecture synchronized with video of the slides. These students also received a printed handout of the material.

Another photo of a supposed Apple Mac Mini prototype has surfaced online. The image could give a glimpse into Cupertino’s as-yet unannounced refresh of the popular desktop computer.

The photo shows Apple may be considering beefing up the ports, including adding a fifth USB connection, retaining its mini DVI port as well as its recently-introduced Mini DisplayPort and swapping out a FireWire 400 port for the newer FireWire 400 connection.

“This is the second picture of a Mac mini seen by AppleInsider with such a port makeup, the first of which we were asked not to publish,” the news site told readers Friday. The first photo was described as a prototype from late 2008.

The folks at Omni got a mysterious gift via email the other day: a script that hunts through an iPhoto database for Faces, and relationships between them.

Then it takes what it’s found and spits out an OmniGraffle document showing which people appear in photos together. The result is this weird spidery diagram.

Judging by the comments, some people have had problems getting the script (created by Armin Briegel) working. An updated version has been posted, though, so it might still be worth a try if you have OmniGraffle installed.

This is a neat little trick, so I wonder how long it will be before we get something like this functionality inside iPhoto. After all, it’s already possible to use Places as a criterion for creating Smart Folders – with any luck, a future update will add Faces to that list. Then it would be possible to create Smart Folders that contain two or more particular people.

I’m not sure which this post is more in favor of: Camino (The World’s Best Browser) or Dropbox (The World’s Best Sync Thing), so let’s just say we love both of them and get on with it.

The marvellous Mac OS X Hints has a hint for Camino/Dropbox users everywhere: how to sync Camino via Dropbox. Which makes a great deal of sense if you use Camino on more than one machine.

Camino, like Firefox and other ‘zilla-based browsers, stores all its stuff in a profile folder on your hard disk. Normally that profile is buried in your Library/Application Support folder, but you can move it to your Dropbox folder and with a tiny bit of Terminal-fu, link the one place to t’other. Camino carries on its merry way, and any changes it makes to the newly-relocated profile are invisibly and promptly synced to your other machines thanks to the incredible magic of Dropbox.

I think this is the aspect of Dropbox that makes it so much more appealing than other sync services I’ve used in the past: Dropbox doesn’t act like an application, it acts like just another folder on your system. It works with and inside the Finder, no messing about, no having to remember to do anything (like click a button marked “Sync”).

It’s just a folder. But a MAGIC folder.

Have you ever tried reading in the car and gotten a headache, or even sick to your stomach? For just 99¢ you can get that feeling anywhere, any time with SkyCoaster 3D on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

SkyCoaster 3D makes effective use of panoramic photography by Gavin Farrell and iPhone’s 3D rendering engine to create a fully customizable rollercoaster experience right on your mobile device. Users can tweak parameters such as height, track length, and acceleration, as well as adjust the ride’s loop-the-loop, corkscrew and downward spiral effects.

The app comes with a built-in techno soundtrack to heighten (or, if you prefer, enhance) its vertiginous effects, or a track from the device’s iPod can be used. The precise map of every ride is randomly generated, so each ride is unique.

Barf bags sold separately.

UPDATE: v1.1 of SkyCoaster 3D released early Friday and v1.1 makes it even easier to induce barfing. The track is more detailed (with links that run perpendicularly to the rails), which gives a greater sensation of speed. Also, you can look around during the ride, and even ride the roller coaster with your back facing forward.

Image: Thomas Hawk

Teens are apt to disregard requests (and even orders) from their elders and will often turn the volume on their iPods louder when told to turn it down, according to a new study published by the Colorado Daily Thursday.

Shocking inferences of teen rebelliousness and even disregard for their own hearing health come from a University of Colorado study of 29 metro-area Denver teens who participated in a survey about their iPod use and attitudes toward music.

A 2006 study conducted in Boston by Cory Portnuff, now a CU audiologist and doctoral candidate, showed listening to iPods on maximum volume for more than 5 minutes a day increases one’s risk of hearing loss. Portuff’s new study confirmed long-held suspicions such as:

* teenagers who feel like they wouldn’t enjoy their music as much on low volume tended to listen loud

* teens turn up their iPods to drown out the soundtrack of the surrounding environment

* teens who indicated the most concern about hearing loss from iPods played their music louder than their peers.

While no one in the study preferred the highest volume, the evidence showed between 7 percent and 24 percent of the teens listened to their iPods and MP3 players at risky levels, and boys listened slightly louder than girls across the board.

The Cult team members are not famous for colorful desktops, but when I saw this little beauty I felt it deserved some link love. This gorgeous desktop picture (and its slightly spikier sibling) are now available for free from the generous hands of Wolfgang Bartelme, having recently made something of a splash of their own on Flickr.

Wolfgang is no stranger to design gorgeousness, having also created other desktop and iPhone wallpapers like Dashball, ColorFlow, and ColorFlow 2.

Download and enjoy.

A Spanish pickpocket may be among the first to beta test Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone and Google’s open-source Android mobile software. An Australian telecom chief reported the theft during the Mobile World Conference wrapping up today in Barcelona, Spain.

The prototype phone and a copy of the yet-unreleased Windows Mobile 6.5 was taken from the pocket of a Telstar executive. Microsoft lent the prototype to Telstar’s CEO soon after announcing Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Conference.

“One of our product executives was given the phone to test the system. He had it with him at an organized evening event and it was stolen from him,” a Telstar spokesperson told the London Telegraph.

Now there are two. Apple Thursday told service agents it will no longer support the 20-inch Cinema Display, leaving its new 24-inch LED Cinema Display and older 30-inch version as the only external display options.

In a bulletin, Apple said the 20-inch Cinema Display had reached its End of Life. As a result, the Cupertino, Calif. company would cancel any pending orders.

The news prompted speculation Apple may soon end support of the 30-inch display, leaving just the new 24-inch LED display designed for Apple laptops.