Tarus Balog got in touch to tell us this fantastic story of an original Mac that got dumped. Tarus rescued it from certain doom, gave it a little TLC – and found a little software surprise waiting for him.
Get the full story, and some more great pics, after the clicky jumpy thing.
Mac Wind – The Apple Netbook from Sascha Pallenberg on Vimeo.
Here’s an informative video by Sascha Pallenberg, conducting a brief interview with a chap who’s got OS X Leopard running on his MSI Wind netbook.
I’ve heard a lot about OS X on the Wind, but this is the first chance I’ve had to actually see it in action. And I confess, I’m impressed. OK, it’s taken this guy a little bit of hacking around to get the machine working smoothly like this (with all the extras like wifi, webcam, and volume controls working properly) – but the end result looks worth the hassle.
I can’t decide if this is a delightful sign of the caring Mac community, or if it’s a sickening sign of people who can’t just leave a sick man alone.
Look, over here: it’s Prayers for Steve. Except most of them aren’t prayers, most are simply “Get well” messages. You can add yours. There are, of course, Google ads at the bottom. Could be worse: they could be plastered all over the top and sides too.
I don’t know, maybe I’m being too grumpy. Is this a good idea? You tell me.
Boxee released a new version of its free, open source social media software for Mac Thusday that includes support for ABC. Included, of course, in ABC support is access to one of the most popular network TV shows, “Lost,” which serendipitously had its season premier,…wait for it, Wednesday.
The Boxee peeps are duly excited because ABC also produces two other ragingly popular TV shows, “Desperate Housewives,” and “Gray’s Anatomy.”
News from torrentfreak indicating “Lost” was the most downloaded TV Show on Bittorrent in 2008 dovetails with Boxee’s plan, according to a spokesperson, who told Cult of Mac, ” we strongly believe that given the option, most users will opt for streaming a TV Show (with a reasonable amount of ads) rather than using a file-sharing service.”
Online streaming offered by ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc. has made progress over the past 12 months in terms of quality, breadth of selection and release windows (i.e. the time it takes for the show to be available online after it originally aired). In this respect, a service such as Boxee is a great alternative to the file-sharing networks.
Boxee hopes to release an Apple TV version within the next few days and is still working on making it available for Windows and Ubuntu.
iPhone application developer AppCubby has slashed prices on all its apps to 99¢ to combat what App Cubby founder David Barnard describes as, “the challenges of selling in the App Store.” Apps formerly priced up to $10 will now sell at a flat dollar fee, with satisfied users invited to make “donations” to the developer to fund future app development.
“The App Store [has] continued to frustrate me and foil my best efforts. So I’ve decided to try a little experiment,” Barnard says, echoing concerns he’s expressed before over the financial ecology of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch application marketplace.
Barnard’s frustration, that “artificial market forces are driving down the price of apps, which in turn drives down the perceived value of the products we have invested significant time and money to create,” has also been widely expressed by developer Craig Hockenberry, who published a wish list of changes he’d like to see made to the AppStore back in December.
AppCubby’s “experiment” will be interesting to follow insofar as it appears to push beyond Apple’s AppStore pricing guidelines, which prohibit “sales” of software outside the approved channel. If App Cubby can gain greater exposure for its products by pricing them at a buck and fund additional development operations through donations made outside the AppStore, it could look like a better deal for everyone – including Apple – than trying (and failing) to move the same apps for $5 – $10.
Via iLounge
Documentary film maker Gary Hustwit recently got to interview top Apple designer Jonny Ive for Objectified, a movie he’s making about industrial design.
The interview took place inside Ive’s ultra-secretive design studio near Apple’s campus, which is harder to get into than Fort Knox. This is the first interview I’ve ever heard of taking place inside the studio. Quite a coup for the film. I can’t wait to see it.
In the meantime, I’m dying to know what machines are in the background of this still. I knew the studio was filled with CNC mills and 3D fabricators. Does anyone know what machines are shown in this shot?
The makers of the Boxee media center are reportedly investigating whether to emded its television streaming software in a variety of hardware, including game consoles.
“During CES we were approached by several device makers that wanted to speak with us about embedding boxee into existing or future products,” Avner Ronen wrote Thursday at the company’s blog.
Choosing a hardware solution would avoid requiring consumers either stream video from a computer or modify an Apple TV, a process that could interfere with using the Apple device to stream Netflix videos to your television.
Although embedding Boxee software is not in the near future, Ronen offered a poll, asking customers what hardware (set-top box, TV tuner, blu-Ray DVD, etc.) they would prefer and at what price.
In 2008, Boxee fixed their software after an update to Apple TV disabled the media streaming service. Boxee has received $4 million in venture funding from CBS, Netflix, Hulu and others.
Developed by two anesthesiologists, this iPhone app helps log cases, keeping track of who has gone under for what in the operating room.
Some functions include:
— Record a new anesthesia case log on the fly, even if you don’t have a wireless connection (your iPhone will sync data to the CaseLogs server once it regains connectivity).
— Browse Case Log History to quickly find a patient record and open the entry for easy editing (your anesthesia records are organized chronologically).
Launched a couple of months ago, iAnesthesia:Case Logs reviews are generally favorable, it seems that the app (view demo here) helps get rid of manual methods like collecting stickers to log patient procedures but has been criticized for omitting a field for patient names over privacy concerns.
Costs $19.99, available on iTunes.
Via Med Gadget
I was going to save this one for a “WTF iPhone Apps Of The Week” post, but then I thought – No. This is Too Good. This needs a space of its own.
Ladies and gentlemen (but mostly, I suspect, gentlemen): I present iPropose. It is an app designed to help the tongue-tied ask for someone else’s hand in marriage.
I think the official blurb from the App Store says everything:
“Make sure the most important event of your lives happens inside your life’s most important gadget. And with iPropose, that special someone will know you really care. iPropose is 100% guaranteed to result with a “YES” or your money back!”
Stop and think, ladies (because I suspect it will be mostly ladies): do you really want to marry a guy who proposed to you on a phone? Do you?
Have you ever designed and ordered a book using Apple’s iPhoto book publishing tool? I have, and they are nice. The quality is quite good and the pricing seems fair value – they make great commemorative gifts and keepsakes. But Apple’s not really in the publishing business. Through iPhoto your options are somewhat limited and somewhat photo-centric, all of which is as it should be.
But say you’ve got a publishing idea that doesn’t fit one of Apple’s iPhoto templates and, well, gosh darn it, also doesn’t seem to be getting much interest from any of the few publishers remaining in the business of making and distributing books. There’s always the so-called “vanity press” – but what if you could just design it and print it on your own?
Well, you can. With free software from Blurb you can write, design and print your own books and sell them online. Books can be up to 440 pages long and come in a variety of sizes in both hardback and softcover, at prices that make you wonder why it’s so hard to make money in the publishing business.
Blurb’s BookSmart software for Mac (cross-platform compatible with Windows) features a ton of professionally designed layouts or lets you create from scratch, integrates seamlessly with iPhoto, lets you import from online sources such as Flickr and Picasa, and supports all of your own fonts in a variety of sizes and text styles.
When you’re done creating, you can sell your masterpiece online in the Blurb Bookstore and keep 100% of the markup.
Blurb may not save the publishing industry the way iTunes saved the music industry, but it’s nice to know you can be a Paperback Writer for just $4.95.