Cult of Mac

Since getting my iPhone, I’ve become a certified app junkie, justified somewhat by the fact I review apps for various publications on- and offline, and for my own website, iPhoneTiny.com. Despite regular clearouts, my home screens often end up full, not least because many games remain on the device, to avoid my losing my progress. (Apple, in its infinite wisdom, still doesn’t provide any means of backing-up progress and optionally reinstating it when you reinstall an app. It’s like Apple saw the cheapskate end of the DS market—carts without battery back-up—and went “we’d like a piece of that pie!”)

Having been commissioned to write some group reviews recently, I’m now at the stage where I have eleven full home screens and dozens of apps in ‘the void’—that place apps go when they aren’t allowed to sit on a home screen. Apple’s suggestion: use Spotlight, and that’s fine if you can remember every app you have installed. If not, tough. (And rearranging them in iTunes to get the most ‘important’ ones on the 11 visible home screens isn’t a great tip, given that iTunes appears prone to crashing in a nasty fashion when rearranging apps—usually after you’ve spent an irritating 15 minutes doing so.)

Various people have tried designing an improved springboard for non-jailbroken devices, most recently including Bruce Tognazzini, but these tend to lack the elegance of Apple’s existing solution. Tognazzini offers labels and vertical scrolling in pages, but Lukas Mathis argues that this is too complex, and I agree. (Hat tip for these links: Daring Fireball.) The springboard Exposé concept also appears awkward and fiddly.

I wonder whether a simpler solution would assist anyone with lots of apps installed. Along with upping the number of home screens to 14—the most that could be displayed using the current UI before things start looking iffy—Spotlight could have a separate apps list page. This could be accessed by a swipe on entering Spotlight (as in, it would spatially live to the left of the standard Spotlight screen). By default, this screen would display an alphabetised list of your apps, and typing in the Spotlight field would filter them, just like the Applications folder in Mac OS X’s Finder in combination with a Finder window Spotlight-driven search field.

The digital camera has been around for thirty years, and the brilliant scientists who came up with the idea were just awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month. That’s great, but I still like waving my photos around at parties and plastering them all over the walls of my bathroom.

Luckily, Hewlett-Packard’s petite new portable photo printer lets me print photos at any party or… any bathroom with a power outlet. It’s so simple to use, it’s practically idiot-proof. Plus it’s got Bluetooth, so I can even print from a BT-equipped cell phone. Just so long as that cell phone isn’t an iPhone.

More shenanigans after the jump.

Last week brought reports that Apple’s much-touted album format, iTunes LP, had serious challenges. Brian McKinney of Chocolate Lab Records claimed that he had been told that Apple was charging a $10,000 production fee for iTunes LP, but it didn’t matter anyway, because the product was only meant to extend to major record labels, anyway.

This set off quite a ruckus. I called iTunes LP a form of paid advertising instead of a legitimate offering, for one.

In a rare move, Apple has responded to the explosive rumor and denies all charges. Apple contacted UK blog Electric Pig, informing them it will be “releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own. There is no production fee charged by Apple.”

That’s very positive news, and if it means what it seems to, it’s well-worth celebrating. I should also note that Apple’s announcements need to be very carefully read. They typically mean just what they say and no more. Pledging to allow labels to “create their own” iTunes LPs does not mean that you will approve them, for example. Saying “There is no production fee charged by Apple” does not mean that some other intermediary won’t charge for production. Bear in mind, Apple still claims it hasn’t rejected the Google Voice app for iPhone, claiming it has yet to approve it months after submission and heated letters to the FCC later.

Honestly, this topic looks murkier all the time. Apple is a remarkably opaque organization. The truth is, we will never know if Apple previously intended to allow indie labels to participate in iTunes LP prior to this minor controversy, nor do we know if the rumored production fee once existed. Apple keeps its inner workings so locked down that we can only ever judge the company based on its external actions. If an iTunes LP SDK is released in the next month, that’s a positive sign. And if we see the selection of iTunes LPs grow from about 12 to 1,000 titles in the relatively near future (with abundant indie label participation at no extra charge), it will be clear that the format is a major push toward a true digital album.

I’m thrilled Apple is taking this seriously, and I hope iTunes LP lives up to its potential. Keep your eyes peeled.

(Thanks, Zor!)

The art of automata is all about making beautiful mechanical objects out of wood and other materials.

When Murtaza Lakdawala discovered automata, he also got inspiration for a neat project: a hand-cranked rotating stand for his iPhone. And this is the result.

Over 6 million songs in the iTunes Music Store. God knows how many albums that translates to, but we must be insane to try and pick 20 albums worth considering for their combination of music and artwork, right?

As long as we’ve got that straight on the front-end, then.

Herewith, a collection of 20 albums available on iTunes, loosely organized by release date (in reverse order) and presented with the thought they might make good additions to the much-ballyhooed iTunes LP upgrade hyped at Apple’s It’s Only Rock and Roll event in September.

No doubt readers may quibble with some (perhaps all!) of our selections; no doubt you’ll have suggestions of your own. Do let us know abut it in comments. All album links open in iTunes.

PwnageTool for Mac has been updated to version 3.1.4 by the DevTeam. This new update basically adds firmware 3.1.2 jailbreak support. It currently supports jailbreaking all the devices except iPod Touch 3G.

PwnageTool is currently compatible with Intel Mac only. The reason some would prefer it to blackra1n is that it allows you to ‘hacktivate’ the phone (use it without AT&T’s iPhone data plan) and the unlock is preserved even through firmware updates. However, to unlock an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, make sure that you have a firmware 3.0 (or 3.0.1) baseband on the phone.

We’ve all customized our iPhones to fit our personality, but how about the ultimate: your DNA? A French company is now offering to turn your DNA code into an iPhone wallpaper.

All it takes is a bit of genetic code via a mouth swab (provided by the company, Helys.) Pick the perfect hue among several choices and send the sample back. Within two weeks you get a 100 dpi image (320×480 pixels) emailed back to you. The cost: $146.

Whether you are looking for bargains on a MacBook Air, a Mac Pro Xeon Workstation or an iPod, there are many options today. ClubMac has a deal on MacBook Air laptops starting at $1,100, while the Apple Store offers Mac Pro Xeon workstations starting at $1,999 (with free shipping.) No matter if you want music, video or photos, there are deals on iPod Classics, iPod videos and iPod photo.

For details on these and more products (including an iPod armband), check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

iPhone users can now go keyless, if they want to spend $500 for the Viper SmartStart system.

The app is available, gratis, on iTunes. But you need a Viper receiver that costs half a grand to be able to say goodbye to your keys. (If you’ve already got a Viper system, you can add on the iPhone SmartStart module for $299.)

SmartStart lets you lock or unlock  your car, set the alarm, start it from remote, unlock the trunk and there’s a “panic or car finder” for those parking lot nightmares. You can also manage more than one car on it and assign more than one user per car — which the company says is great for families but somehow I imagine more “War of the Roses” shenanigans.

Cool idea, but I can’t imagine paying that for it. How much would you spend to control your car from your iPhone?

In a shameless rip off of the Burger King slogan, Dell wants customers to know you can have your computer, your way by personalizing it with some fugly case designs.

“You can have it Steve Jobs’ way or you can have it your way,”  Ed Boyd, VP of consumer experience design told journalists last week while promoting Dell’s Design Studio.

Launched in 2008, the customization program will boost its current offer up to 350 designs and patterns plus team logos and colors. The images are imprinted on the computer with a sub-surface image that penetrates the shell and wraps around the laptop — so the Dell logo is still visible.

Design Studio customization, which will go worldwide next summer, tacks $85 on to the cost of a Dell laptop.

Apparently, Boyd doesn’t think people who fancy a bit of customizing are smart enough to put some cool stickers on their Macs instead.

Via Technology Marketing

When it comes to gadget-hungry teens, Steve Jobs makes Oprah look like some cable-access talking head. At least that’s the findings of a telephone survey of 1,000 12 to 17-year olds. Jobs was deemed the ‘most admired celebrity entrepreneur’ by 35 percent polled versus 25 percent for TV magnate Winfrey.

By comparison, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk received 16 percent of the votes and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had 10 percent of the survey results.

Rather than hissing each time Microsoft introduces a new version of its Windows operating system, maybe Mac fans should cheer. That’s the opinion of one analyst who says Windows actually boosts Apple hardware sales. “No negative correlation exists on AAPL’s hardware sales when Microsoft launches a new OS,” according to financial analyst Brian Marshall of Broadpoint.AmTech.

Although Apple has parlayed Windows into a highly-publicized nemesis of Mac owners, sales of Cupertino’s computers actually rose when Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 98 were released. “Ironically, we believe new OS launches from MSFT may have acted as a ‘delayed accelerant’ to AAPL’s computing sales,” Marshall said.

Apple admits it is aware the Snow Leopard version of OS X can delete data when people log in (even accidentally) using the operating system’s “guest” account. “We are working on a fix,” the Cupertino, Calif. company said in a statement Monday.

No timeframe was given on when a fix would be released. Snow Leopard 10.6.2 reportedly is in the hands of developers.

Photo by Stephanie Diani for the New York Times

Very interesting news from the New York Times: Disney is completely overhauling its retail stores, with Steve Jobs at the helm.

Theaters will allow children to watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite. Computer chips embedded in packaging will activate hidden features. Walk by a “magic mirror” while holding a Princess tiara, for instance, and Cinderella might appear and say something to you.

It’s your birthday? With the push of a button, eight 13-foot-tall Lucite trees will crackle with video-projected fireworks and sound. There will be a scent component; if a clip from Disney’s coming “A Christmas Carol” is playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree.

It’s a great article, well worth the read. Most notable is Jobs’s insistence that Disney build a full-scale prototype of the entire store in order to figure out how to get the experience just right. I can think of few events more telling in the transformation of Apple from niche computer-maker to taste-maker to the world than that of Disney asking Apple retail specialists for help in defining great experience design.

I mean, eight years ago, Apple didn’t even have stores. Disney created Disneyland. How’s that for turnabout?

Disney Plans Extensive Overhaul of Mall Stores New York Times

Now that Apple has updated the iPod shuffle, giving it a new look (sort of like a Bic lighter), as well as more colors, what’s one to do with the tiny tie-clasp-like older MP3 players? One option: swap out the music for a mini MP3 DV camera.

Xiangyun Industries Co., Ltd. turns the old shuffles into a 1.3 megapixel 20 fps video camera capable of 640×480 or 1,280×960 pixel JPG photos.

The price is between $15-$30 but only order of 1,000 video shuffles, please. The little gadget sounds like a perfect stocking-stuffer or maybe even a spy cam.

[Via Engadget]

We start the week off with deals for both lovers of hardware and software. The Apple Store offers a 15 percent discount on aluminum iMacs with 24-inch screens (2.66 GHz to 3.06 GHz). For those seeking to wedge just one more app on their iPhone or iPod touch, there are many choice, ranging from the serious to pure gaming.

For details on these and other bargains (such as the Peephole, a Twitter image viewer for the iPhone/iPod touch), check out the full “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

There’s a new twist on the “Guest Account” bug with Snow Leopard updates. Along with all /user files vanishing if you have the “Guest” account active when upgrading, if you accidently use the guest account mass file deletions could happen, reports said Monday.

“So I restarted my computer and logged on again, it was exactly the same, everything gone. At which point I looked in the Users folder to find that my User profile had been removed and replaced with a fresh one with the same name,” a user calling himself dbferrari wrote Sunday on the Apple Discussion board. The person said he had accidently selected the “guest” account rather than his personal account at the login screen of OS X 10.6.1.

Friday we wrote about similar reports of data deleted after being logged into the “guest” after an upgrade.

The cure until Apple addresses the bug: disable your Guest account.

[Via Apple Discussions and Engadget]

With its simple tap-to-jump gameplay, high-speed scrolling and gritty dystopian atmospherics, Canabalt proved a hit Flash-based sensation when recently unleashed online. The game has now been released for iPhone and iPod touch—one of the first truly successful Flash-based games on the platform. We spoke to Adam Saltsman and Eric Johnson of Semi Secret Software about how the game came to be.

We’ve written a lot about the iPod Touch becoming a near-requirement at US universities, but iPod use may be on the uptick in North American grade schools, too.

One Florida elementary school has 80 iPods that some kids use to listen to audio books (instead of reading them, it seems) others do comprehension exercises and the wee ones watch videos teaching them about the five senses and then answer questions.

“It’s cool,” 11-year-old Devyn Cabral said, taking a break from Science Fair by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. “When you’re sitting at your desk and reading a book, it’s harder. It’s easier for me to comprehend by listening to it.”

Julianne Audino, 8, said she liked the iPods “better than reading, because we actually get to listen.”

Seven-year-old Dejah Staton wasn’t so thrilled.
“I’d rather read the book,” she said. “You can imagine it on your own. This is telling you.”

Continue reading

Dr. Arthur Levinson has resigned as a member of Google’s board of directors, cutting the final tie between the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant and Apple. Google CEO Eric Schmidt left Apple’s board of directors in August.

Levinson, who served as a member of Google’s board of directors since 2004, remains on Apple’s board. Although no reason was given for Levinson leaving, reports suggested the departure may be tied to a Federal Trade Commission anti-competition investigation of Google and Apple.

Schmidt said Levinson, a former CEO of Genentech, had provided “unvarnished advice and vital counsel” while at Google and would always “have a special place at Google.”

The first in a series of five t-shirt giveaways, correctly name this mystery Apple item and you could win a T-shirt.

Not just any T-shirt: choose from the Apple-inspired designs at might tees, which include the I Love Lisa we wrote about, a retro-style logo and Steve Jobs in typeface.

The tees are made with water-based eco inks screen printed on high quality tri-blend shirts (part organic cotton, part recycled rayon and polyester) and a $28-$36 value.

We’ll chose a winner at random from correct answers — please name object and model in the comments.
Contest ends midnight, October 14.

“Red skies in morning; Sailors take warning.” Maybe that old seafaring wisdom should include users of the Microsoft-owned Danger Sidekick. In something akin to an “all is lost” warning, Redmond has told Sidekick owners data stored on the first smartphone “has almost certainly been lost.”

What’s to be done? Not much, except sit tight and hold onto your rebates. “Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power,” urged Sidekick carrier T-Mobile, halting sales of the device. In the meantime, T-Mobile reportedly will offer Sidekick owners a free month of data services (not voice), valued at $20. How much is your data worth?

Blackra1n, iPhone hacker George Hotz’s software for 1-click jailbreaking, has been released for all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.

Blackra1n is currently compatible with Windows only — or “all Windows that matter,” in GeoHot’s words. I am supposing that means Windows XP, Windows Vista and hopefully Windows 7 RC. Currently, there is no word on a Mac version — but it should be released soon as well.

What blackra1n does is…

In the world of iPhone apps, there are generally three categories of quality:

• Crapware that you throw away a few minutes after downloading
• Moderately useful software that you keep around but use a few times a week
• Daily tools that become a key part of your iPhone experience

With the release of Loren Brichter’s much-anticipated Tweetie 2 for iPhone, however, I think it’s time to establish a new category: “iPhone software better than anything Apple.” In fact, I’m willing to go so far as to claim it is the single-best app ever written for the platform. It’s incredibly useful, smooth as butter, innovative in design and features, and just works as you expect that it would. It’s as if it sprung, fully formed, from the skull of the iPhone, as if to say, “This is how it should work.” Not only has Tweetie 2 raised the bar for mobile Twitter clients, it’s raised the bar for mobile software.

I’ve been playing with it non-stop since its release yesterday, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. I’m going to break this review into three major categories: Interface, Features, and Magic. Hit the jump to see it all. There’s so much to talk about!

On my blog a couple of weeks back, I wrote the article More proof the iPhone App Store destroys people’s understanding of good value, highlighting rampant idiotic reactions to Loren Brichter having the audacity to charge three whole dollars for a complete rewrite of his stunning Twitter app Tweetie. Patrick Jordan referred to Tweetie 2’s price-point as a “very,very,very Bad Call,” (his emphasis), suggesting it was “spitting in the face of existing Tweetie users”. My thinking: You’d pay more than three bucks for a crappy sandwich or a luke-warm beer in the pub. But, apparently, three bucks is too much of a ‘reward’ for the hard work a dedicated indie dev has put into a leading and brilliant product.

The dev of Alchemize has clearly had enough of this kind of attitude. On the TouchArcade forum, he reveals that his company has received an astonishing 3400 emails in one month moaning about the price of his three-dollar game. Although its Puyo Puyo-style mechanics won’t win too many awards for originality, Alchemize is a fairly good game, and one that would set you back considerably more on competing platforms. To that end, the dev’s now upped his app’s price to an eye-watering $39.99 in protest at people constantly complaining about paying a few bucks for a videogame.

It’s pretty clear that something needs to be done regarding App Store pricing and value perception, because the race to the bottom is hurting many developers. Apple’s recent ‘top grossing’ chart doesn’t really help. Personally, I like Eucalyptus dev Jamie Montgomerie’s suggestion that the App Store should split its chart in two, along the lines of British 8-bit videogames during the 1980s and early 1990s, offering separate ‘budget’ and ‘full price’ charts.

Alchemize is available on the App Store, and really isn’t worth 40 bucks; but it’s probably worth a shot at three, after the 12th.