If there’s one thing you can admire in software developers who rip off other people’s ideas, it’s honesty about what they’re doing.
In building WrongRoom, Joseph Lyman has created something modeled on the longstanding best-in-class full screen editor, WriteRoom. It’s his first OS X app, so we should be gentle: but at least he’s up front about why he made something that’s been made before:
“WrongRoom: A shoddy freeware clone of a perfectly good program”
He even encourages anyone who downloads WrongRoom to go and buy a license for WriteRoom. And he’s right. WriteRoom is a much better app with many more features. WrongRoom offers vaguely similar functionality, but it’s just … well, wrong. Even the icon’s a little wonky.
Top marks to Joseph for being so upfront about it, though.
A while back, I compared BBEdit 9 and Coda 1.5, testing the old warhorse against its young competition. However, while quick overviews are all very well, the only way to find out whether applications are any good is under real-world conditions, so I spent 30 days working with BBEdit, to see if it still doesn’t suck. Find out more after the break…
Paramount Digital Entertainment has revived the School of Rock brand with an application that teaches you principles of music education on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
The 2003 movie starring Jack Black tells the story of a struggling musician who scams a job teaching at an upper-crust private high school and ends up teaching the kids how to form a band and play rock music. The app gives users the opportunity to experiment with a variety of authentic virtual instruments ranging from guitar and bass to piano and drums. Users can also learn to play tracks from legendary artists including Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Scorpions and Royal.
The $6.99 app is organized as a game that incorporates features allowing players to explore the history and diversity of music and instruments through a series of quizzes and challenges. Players are challenged to identify brand-name guitars and keyboards using “axes” from well known musicians, receive instruction in the areas of melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo and beats, and have the ability to record and play back jam sessions.
As the game progresses, the songs and variations become more challenging, allowing players to master instruments, advance to different levels and accumulate points that eventually result in graduation from The School of Rock. Groupies and backup singers not included.
This is one of those ideas that hits you like a bucket of wallpaper paste, and you think “Why on earth did no-one think of that before?”
Choosy is a utility for anyone who uses multiple browsers and wants to open certain links in certain browsers under certain circumstances. Web developers will know what I mean, but there’s something in this for normal people, too.
For example, if you’ve created any stand-alone webapps using Fluid, you might want to open some links in one or more of those apps. Say you’ve got a Fluid app for your Google Docs. When an email arrives with a link to a shared document, Choosy will let you open it in the right Fluid-created app, not in your default browser.
I suspect developer George Brocklehurst might be a name to keep an eye on in future. What’s the next smart idea up his sleeve? Watch out for more bucket-of-wallpaper-paste moments.
Supermodel and celebrity Mac spokesperson Gisele tools around Paris with an iPod for company. She stays in touch with her current flame, Tom Brady, however, via Blackberry.
Last Friday we issued the call for our designer savvy readers to create Sheppard Fairey-style posters of your favorite Apple luminaries.
unravel stepped up. A graphic designer from the San Fernando Valley, unravel told us, “I admire [Ive’s] work. Besides, I figured people would be doing Jobs first, so why not create one for somebody who deserves recognition too.”
AppLoop released a program today that turns any web content into a native iPhone app in under two minutes.
Because many websites are produced by people with few to no developers’ skills and because the iPhone does not store web content locally on the device, developers at AppLoop sensed the need for a way to let content providers do a better job of extending their material to mobile platform users.
Enter the Mobile Application Generator, which converts any RSS feed into a brandable mobile application in less than two minutes. It requires no programming, software downloads, or code maintenance – AppLoop does the nerdy stuff. For free.
Along with generating a fully brandable native app for you – you customize the appearance of the application and include your own logos and color schemes in the set-up process – AppLoop provides an end-to-end analytics library so you can track real-time usage, popular content, and application engagement across various platforms.
Native applications will eventually be deployed across multiple mobile platforms, though Apple’s is the only one operational at present. The company expects to be distributing to Android soon.
Creating a native app allows users to access content regardless of internet connection availability. Images, text, and other data are stored locally for access at any time. Users can also share and promote content on a variety of social services, including Digg, Twitter, FaceBook, and Email, as well as mark items as favorites for later access to read and share with friends. The company envisions support for multiple feeds within the same application in the near future, so larger websites can have different categories and a more customizable user experience.
Designers at FullSIX have a handy little website where you can post your recommended fixes to the iPhone, a resource the company created as “a technological ode to our favorite phone.”
At this writing, 99 total wishes have garnered almost 5000 votes and 1 wish has been granted by the Firmware Update gods.
You can add your own wish(es) to the list, at the top of which resides (not surprisingly) “cut and paste,” or simply add your vote to one of the wishes listed.
Boxee announced product upgrades today giving users of its Mac-Ubuntu-AppleTV media center application seamless integration with Hulu and CBS.com offerings through the Boxee interface.
Making a bid for wider recognition of its product at CEA i-Stage in Las Vegas, Boxee is preparing to move from the invitation-only Alpha stage into beta release of a service that aims “to bring all your entertainment into one place.” The company plans to send out 10,000 invitations to its final Alpha release today.
Be sure to watch the video embedded above for a good overview of what Boxee is all about, and check out the Techzilla Boxee Review we posted a few weeks ago.
On the eve of the release of Apple’s fourth quarter results, one analyst firm suggests the number to watch is how many Macs were sold during the period ended Sept. 30.
Piper Jaffray offered clients predictions that were slightly more optimistic than the Wall Street consensus. Mac sales are “key” to Cupertino’s financial picture, according to the analysts.
In a note to investors, the financial firm predicted 2.8 million Macs were sold during the fourth quarter. The estimate expands on a 2.7 million Wall Street projection.
Will Motorola’s Android handset pose a greater threat to the iPhone, improving on the G1, the first Google phone from HTC and T-Mobile? That’s the question on many minds as details of Moto’s open-source phone appeared Monday.
Motorola’s Android unit, not expected until late 2009, reportedly sports many features missing from the G1, offering improved specs, according to Monday’s BusinessWeek.
Citing information distributed to carriers, the financial news source said the Motorola device appears to be “a higher-end version” of the G1, produced by Taiwan’s HTC.
Given the title, there had to be some Apple action in this teen flick revolving around mix-CDs, break-up mix-ups and all-night quest in Manhattan for a band called Where’s Fluffy?
Norah (Kat Dennings) discovers something in common with Nick (Michael Cera) by scrolling through his iPod.
She declares: “You’re, literally, like, my musical soulmate.”
The line has sparked off a debate about whether personality is really defined by playlist.
The trouble with iBone, a plush squeaky toy for dogs modeled on the iPhone, just slightly larger than the real thing, is that it’s unlikely to discourage Fido from playing around with your iPhone, should it get within paw reach.
The iconic HOPE poster of Barack Obama by the artist Sheppard Fairey has inspired a slew of knockoffs and imitators, many of which have been collected at Rene Wanner’s poster page.
I took a shot at it using a widely known Steve Jobs portrait and the how-to tutorial from Vectortuts, and invite Cult of Mac readers to do the same.
Send us your Fairey treatments of Jobs, or Jony Ive, Phil Schiller, Tim Cook or any of your favorite Apple luminaries, and we’ll feature the best here on the site.
To kick start your inspiration, here’s a gallery of some we like from Wanner’s page:
Steve Jobs' health is a topic of concern for the Apple community -- and for Wall Street. Photo: Apple
In the Cold War era, a cottage industry was created around determining the geopolitical significance of Khrushchev or Brezhnev not appearing at the May Day reviewing stand. For silicon valley, it is Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Tuesday’s new product announcement.
Was Tuesday’s announcement of new MacBooks a cryptic message to investors worried about Jobs’ health? We all remember the dive Apple’s stock took when a rumor (which turned out to be false) spread that the Apple leader had been rushed to the hospital for heart trouble.
So, when Jobs shared the stage with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and Senior Vice-President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, speculation began that Apple was sending a message to Wall Street: don’t worry, we have a plan.
I walked into the Apple Store in San Francisco tonight fully expecting to walk out with a brand-new MacBook Pro — the 2.53 GHz model, if at all possible. After 30 minutes playing with all of Apple’s latest laptops, I was stunned to find myself instead walking out the door with a 2.4 GHz MacBook and a smile on my face.
The Top Line: The Aluminum MacBook is the perfect heir to the 12″ PowerBook G4. It’s light, rugged, and meant to be used as a true laptop — it actually runs cooler than my 12″ PowerBook from 2003. Apple hit it out of the park with this thing, and I couldn’t be more delighted. To learn why, click through.
Bubble Telescope, by Ciro Marchetti Epilogue, by Chet Phillips
Digital artists of all backgrounds are invited to submit original works of art created or enhanced using Mac hardware or software tools for a chance to be exhibited at the Macworld Conference & Expo January 5 – 9, 2009. Thirty selected images will be displayed to thousands of Macworld attendees at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center and will also be presented in the Digital Art Gallery section of the Macworld Conference & Expo website.
All submissions will be reviewed by a distinguished panel of industry luminaries including: Rudolf Frieling, Media Arts Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder; Pop artist icon Peter Max; and Nathan Moroney, Principal Scientist, HP Labs. Judges will determine the top thirty works to be showcased during the event.
Artists must be 18 years of age or older, and must reside in the United States. There is a $20.00 entry fee and a 3-image submission limit. Each winning image will be printed on the new HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer for exhibition in the conference hall. The deadline to enter is Friday, October 31, 2008.
Early reviews on Google’s Android smartphone indicate the Mountain View-based company may not knock Apple’s iPhone out of the ring, but Blackberry could soon look like an afterthought.
Walt Mossberg, the Dean of Technology writers, says Android is in the same class as iPhone, but allows the two devices will probably attract different types of users. For him, the physical keyboard is the notable differentiator, but he finds the T-Mobile G1 – Android’s lead-off batter, set to debut October 22nd – “only fair…with keys that are too flat and that can be hard to see in bright light.” Mossberg says the G1’s touch interface is “slick, clever…fast and smooth” and provides “much more flexibility in organizing your desktop than on the iPhone,” and he notes it includes some key features omitted on the Apple phone. The G1’s limited copy and paste functionality, and the ability to send photos via MMS may not convert the Apple faithful, but unlike AT&T, T-Mobile will allow users to legally unlock the phone after 90 days and start using it on another carrier, with a hefty early-termination fee.
Rachel Metz, writing for Associated Press, says the Android is “smart” but it needs work. She found the phone’s built-in support for YouTube “underwhelming” and complains that video and song playback is hampered by “a major hardware shortcoming”: no standard headphone jack. The G1’s earbud headset plugs into the same mini USB port used to charge the phone, which poses several problems for Metz, “as you can’t use your favorite headphones without an adapter and it’s impossible to charge the G1 while listening to music or watching videos, unless you want to use the included speaker.”
Tech Radar notes the G1 has a “kill switch” similar to the iPhone and is impressed that it is explained openly in the terms and conditions. They also like the fact that if you don’t like an app you’ve downloaded, “Google kindly lets you refund your money within 24 hours of purchase, which means you can try all the probably rubbish location based ‘find your friend’ apps without worry.”
T-Mobile has reportedly sold 1.5 million of the Android G1’s by pre-order, but buyers may be surprised that when they open up their boxes they will be getting what BusinessWeek writer Stephen H. Wildstrom calls “a developers’ release: a preliminary, unfinished version of a program that lets engineers kick the tires and gauge its potential.”
If you live where the weather behooves you to go out without gloves or freeze your pinkies off, you’ve probably been caught fumbling for speed dial with warm woolies on.
These black leather or stretch gloves with flick-back fingers called Freehands let you “stay warm and keep in touch.” The fingertips stay back with magnets, a handy feature.
Why are they for the iPhone, specifically?
Well, because the guy who designed them, Josh Rubin, father of CoolHunting, said they are.
Rubin also went to the trouble to photograph the gloves with an iPhone, which is more than Fox could do launching its iPhone-optimized service, so we’ll take his word.
$40 for the leather version, $20 for fleece. Bike messenger-techno-geek chic.
You can’t live without your iPhone, now you can live inside an iPhone.
That’s the idea behind The Pad in Dubai. Its designers are billing it as the “most technologically advanced building in the planet.”
One thing’s for sure: the 231 “smart apartments” on the 24-story building are meant to look like an iPhone.
Back in 2006, architects wanted it to look like an iPod. In keeping with the times, they’ve upgraded the theme to iPhone. The basic shape is still pretty much the same.
Not surprisingly, all the nifty doodads are called iFeatures.
Although the site’s a little fuzzy on the details (maybe they should call the iPhone hotel folks?) amenities include iArt, which lets homeowners to download artworks and update their collection.
An “iReality” feature projects the real-time skyline view of any city in the world on to the walls of your flat. So you can live in Dubai but be California Dreamin’.
There’s a health monitor to keep track of your weight in the bathroom and you can clickwheel your pad, moving rooms around to catch a better view.
To mark the one-month anniversary of launching HD sales at its iTunes Store, Apple announced it will offer more than 70 episodes of Fall prime-time hits from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and cable.
Among the HD episodes are ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Eli Stone.” CBS shows include “CSI,” CSI: New York, “CSI” Miami” and “Numb3rs.” NBC show in HD on iTunes include “30 Rock,” Heroes,” “The Office” and “Law and Order: SUV.”
Apple said it has also sold 200 million television episodes and 1 million HD episodes. The HD episodes from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox cost $2.99 a piece while each regular episode from the iTunes Store carry a $1.99 price tag.
In September, Apple kicked-off HD sales, offering 12 high-definition NBC episodes for free. The announcement coincided with the release of iTunes 8 and the return of NBC, which left the iTunes Store in August 2007, following a dispute over pricing of its television shows.
Now we’ve seen them, now we know. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are quite nice in some respects, and quite frustrating in others.
What amuses me about the whole thing, though, is how astoundingly far-out some of the pre-event speculation was. It’s always part of the fun, exploring the gamut of people’s expectations and imaginations as they dream up the kind of product they’d like Apple to create for them.
My favorite this year was the iMac-as-docking-station concept, which showed an iMac-like monitor with a huge hole in one side, into which a folded MacBook could be slotted. A nice fantasy indeed, but still a fantasy. And Apple’s not in the business of fulfilling every fanboy’s fantasy.
No, Apple’s in business to make profit, like every other computer manufacturer. As such, it’s product development decisions are, and will be, driven by the profit they can be reasonably expected to generate.
Reaction is still coming in from analysts on Apple’s decision to drop the price of its plastic entry-level MacBook. While ThinkPanure and others believe the sub-$1,000 notebook isn’t enough to attract worried consumers, some onlookers told Cult of Mac the move was a good beginning.
“They’ve never done cheap well – but the $999 MacBook is a good start,” Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Murphy e-mailed Wednesday.
Murphy said Apple is positioning Mac sales for a long economic slowdown. Wednesday, JPMorgan said Apple had “meaningful buffers” that could allow the company to ride out any initial impact. Analyst Mark Moskowitz pointed to the value of Cupertino’s brand and iPhone revenue expected later in 2009.
Although the price cut affects a legacy plastic MacBook, more than half of the consumers considering the $999 plastic MacBook will opt for the newly-unveiled $1,299 aluminum unibody design, Murphy wrote.
The upshot of Tuesday’s new products: a slight or no impact on Apple margins. The company is expected to announce third quarter numbers later this month.
Now we’ve seen them, now we know. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are quite nice in some respects, and quite frustrating in others. 
