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

Apple lost its bid to trademark the word “pod” in Australia, due to an objection from a guitar company that also makes a product called “POD.”

Guitar accessories company Line 6 makes a line of  multi-effects processors, like the pocket version aimed at giving your guitar sound a boost sans amp pictured above, called POD.  Line 6 blocked Apple’s trademark claim, arguing it has a pre-existing trademark in the same category related to musical devices.

Although Line 6 has sold far fewer PODs than Apple’s range of iPod devices, the Australian Trade Marks Office hearing officer Iain Thompson declared that the POD device was still an established product.

“While the evidence does not show particularly strong sales [for Line 6’s POD], the marketplace is not particularly large and the participants in the musical industry are generally well informed about the products available to them to enable them to perform.”

Apple’s lawyers maintained the POD was “digital signal processing hardware,” and therefore did not qualify for the  “portable electronic devices” class of trademark. Thompson rejected the claim, arguing the iPod’s sound equalizer features used digital signal manipulation.

Apple was ordered to pay Line 6’s legal costs.

Via Smart Company

Image courtesy Line 6

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.

If  you’re the type who might forget your keys but not your iPhone, Swiss car design maker Rinspeed is rolling out a concept car for you.

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.

This post at The Next Web made me stop and think for a moment. I’ve been one of the many people who’ll cheerfully spend a dollar or two on an app that looks enticing and has generally good reviews.

After all, a dollar or two is nothing, right? Less than a cup of coffee, less than a pint of beer in my local pub.

But what’s the cumulative effect? Let’s see now… Open iTunes, click iTunes Store, click on my account ID, enter my password, click “Purchase History”, do some adding up, and the total is:

£68.60, or US$99.70 at the current exchange rate.

One hundred bucks, near as dammit, on iPhone apps. Wow. I had no idea was going to be that much. I was expecting about half that.

It also highlights just what an excellent idea the App Store is, and how well it has been designed. Shopping there is so simple, so instantaneous, and often so cheap per-app, that it almost becomes a thoughtless act. “This app looks cool. I’ll try it.” A dollar here, a few dollars there.

I’m not complaining, I’m just noticing my own App Store spending habits for the first time. This information is available to anyone who goes digging around inside iTunes to see it, but perhaps Apple could make it a little easier to keep track of spending.

How about a small box on the iTunes Store front page, which says “So far this month/year/to date, you have spent $X on iTunes.”?

Something small and unobtrusive; but visible.

Confession time: how much have you spent? And is it more or less than you expected?

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.

Not content to diddle around on the iPod touch screen, David Lasnier made a stylus that he uses to draw with the Brushes app, producing results like his cat skull sketch above.

His first attempt involved an Allen key with a sponge tip (far left) but Lasnier hit on using the knife blade holder (center) sans knife, stuffed with a sponge. The resulting brush is very precise because the head is clean and firm. He dubbed it the “Free Capacitive Stylus, ” for  instructions, see Flickr.

As Lasnier told Cult of Mac: “I loaded a painting app for my iPod touch because I draw a lot. It was more out of curiosity than with a real project in mind. One day I made a little stylus while at my day job, and eventually, one small object at time, began to do it seriously. In a month I made 40 little paintings.”

Lasnier has taken inspiration from what surrounds him at said day job, including staple removers, an iPod jack and pencils.

All images copyright David Lasnier, used with permission.

Hat tip to Studio Tota

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp2s7nydo6w

Look, it’s Rogue for iPhone, otherwise known as Rogue Touch.

Those of you of a certain age will have fond memories of Rogue, which became very popular in the early 80s. Its co-creator Glenn Wichman has written an entertaining history (sadly, his link to Rogue-related stories he’s been sent is broken) and of course, these days you can play it in a browser window.

Chronosoft’s colorful update is a world away from Rogue’s ASCII origins, and the gameplay is very different because the keyboard controls have been replaced with (somewhat hard to fathom) swipes, touches and gestures. So if you want something more authentic (and you’d rather not pay for your dungeon-exploring), you should try Gandreas Software’s version of the original, which is much more “Roguelike”. It includes a plain ASCII mode and a graphics mode, and lets you enter commands with letter-shaped finger gestures. It’s still very different, but it’s as close to the original as a keyboard-less device is going to get.

And if you still want to play the original game on your computer, you can download it from Sourceforge. See you in the dungeons.

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.