After all the eggnog is consumed and the gifts unwrapped, your new and old Macs may need a bit of holiday cheer themselves. Whether you’re trying to setup a new system or infuse energy into an old favorite, a few MacRx columns on such matters resonated with our readers this year.
Read on for refreshers about Fixing Startup Problems, Speeding up Slow Macs, Troubleshooting WiFi Issues, Making Hard Drive Clones, and Managing Your Safari Bookmarks. Some things to do over the holiday break!
Proving that home electronics are driving that gift-laden 2010 sleigh, the iPad is credited with a sales spike this holiday season.
Comscore reports that computer hardware is the top growing category for the 2010 holiday season to date with a 25-percent increase over last year. Shoppers snapping up handheld devices (such as Apple iPads and e-readers) and laptop computers account for much of the growth.
The one-size-fits-all ease of electronic gifts were also behind the record numbers for e-spending: $27.46 billion was spent online, a 12-percent increase over the same days last year. Free Shipping Day also proved appealing, merchants throwing that in increased sales by 61-percent over the same day last year.
Apple has just issued a press release saying that the Mac App Store will open for downloads on January 6 2011.
“The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.”
I have a feeling some developers aren’t going to get much rest over the Christmas break this year…
An update for iTunes has just hit Software Update, and although version 10.1.1 includes no new features, it does address a couple of issues and that may cause problems with syncing and quitting unexpectedly.
The release notes for 10.1.1 list the changes:
• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not play on Macs equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 9400 or 9600 graphics.
• Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when deleting a playlist that has the iTunes Sidebar showing.
• Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when connecting an iPod to a Mac equipped with a PowerPC processor.
• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not sync to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
Download the latest release via Software Update on your Mac, or from Apple’s website.
It’s no secret that Apple enjoys an unprecedented lead in the touch tablet market. The last major accounting put Apple at an incredible 95% market share.
Until the iPad’s first real competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which shipped late in the year, Apple pretty much had 2010 all to itself. Next year will be different.
The generally expected outcome for the market is that the coming flood of tablets will usher in a new range of choice for tablet buyers, and Apple will be forced to share the market with competitors who offer pretty much the same functionality at a lower price, or more and better features at pretty much the same price.
The market should settle, with Apple’s share declining to a low, two-digit number with the “open” and cheaper alternatives, especially Google Android devices, taking the lion’s share.
I don’t think that’s going to happen. I believe Apple will remain the dominant player indefinitely. Apple’s incredible lead, plus unexpected craziness in the rest of the market will favor Apple in the mind of consumers.
Here’s what I’m talking about.
The iPhone’s impressive GPU is supplied by Imagination Technologies, and it’s already powerful enough to run advanced 3D graphics engines like the Unreal 3 Engine. Unbelievably, though, it’s slated to get a lot better, after it was announced that Imagination has just acquired Caustic Graphics, a company with even more impressive 3D graphics technology to boast of.
Stuck for a gift for the Mac lover in your life? How about our brand new, limited-edition MILF T-shirt?
Just in time for the holidays, we’ve launched our first venture into fine geek apparel: a limited-edition shirt designed just for fans of the Mac. (If you don’t get it, hit the jump for a clue).
Just $22.99, the shirt is limited to 100 copies, so it’s super exclusive. Order it before the 19th you’ll get it in time for the big day.
We’ve teamed up with MightTees, the Seattle-based t-shirt empire famous for classics like His Steveness and Say Anything.
The CultofMac MILF shirt is totally custom branded. 100% designed, made, and printed in the USA. 100% sweatshop free. It’s awesome. A very fine tee indeed.
With only 11 days left till The Big Day (if you’re celebrating Christmas; if you’re Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or other, the Big Day/s are variously coming up shortly, already passed or don’t actually exist). And with free shipping on many items ending this week, we thought a subtle, timely reminder was order.
Why are you still reading this? Go go go!
Chair and Epic Games’ Infinity Blade ($5.99) may disappoint those who looked for a direct iOS analogue to the Unreal 3 Engine’s console offerings (where first-person combat by beefcakey “Tom of Finland” style space marines often spills over into rocket-turret-mounted monster truck driving sequences) but gamers who would so miss the point are a rare breed easily descried by the government-mandated “DERP” tattoos branded into their foreheads. For the rest of us, Infinity Blade is a perfect crystallization of the iPhone’s capabilities as a cutting-edge gaming device, a paradigm shift in the way AAA developers approach multitouch interfaces, and… lest we forget… the most visually impressive and polished game on the App Store.
This past week finally saw the unveiling of Google’s long-awaited Chrome OS. Surprising few to none, the big revelation is that Chrome the browser is actually the entire operating system. Using cloud web applications, it will be possible to run a bunch of desktop-ish apps on a Chrome-based netbook at home, then go to work, fire up Chrome on Mac or Windows on your work laptop, and have the same experience there. Pretty snazzy stuff.
It’s yet another take on what cloud-based consumer computing could be (insert “network computing” if you’d like to relive 1996), an heir to the promise of Java and so many others. And it looks to have some legs, even if we’re still quite some ways from seeing commercially available hardware ready to run on it. Many developers will create apps for the platform, and its write-once, read-anywhere (WOMA!) promise is mighty seductive. It would be very easy to imagine a world in which no one develops for traditional desktop operating systems anymore, except for professional applications like video editing and design work. Sounds like bad news for Apple, right?
Steve Jobs’ disdain for the 7-inch tablet form factor embraced by the likes of would-be iPad killers like the Samsung Galaxy Tab couldn’t be any more dripping even if it poured in bilious rivulets out of his open mouth. At the last earnings call, he flat out dismissed them as “DOA – Dead On Arrival.” He even fantasized about customers sanding the meat off of their fingers until only the skeletal bone was left, since “sand[ing] down their fingers to around one-quarter of their present size” is the only way to type comfortably on one.
This contempt seems pretty unequivocal to me, but someone apparently wasn’t paying attention: according to Reuters, Asian manufacturing sources are telling them that Apple is putting together a 7-inch “iPad Mini” for shipment in early 2011.
When a company with as fabled a name as Bowers & Wilkins proffers up an iPod dock, one expects nothing less than enough oomph to satisfy even the most discerning audiophile, and enough svelteness to elicit a smile from even the most ardent aesthete. B&W’s first shot at a dock, the Zeppelin, certainly turned heads when it debuted in 2007 (at least, once word got out about it). But its sprawling, bulbous shape — and sprawling, bulbous, $600 pricetag — limited its appeal. Two years later the company followed with the Zeppelin Mini, a much smaller, less expensive dock that nevertheless tried to maintain the aesthetic and sonic reputation the company was known for.
But at $400, the Mini was still significantly pricier than almost any other dock sitting on, say, an Apple Store’s dock table. Then earlier this year B&W brought the price down to $300, placing it on a level field with other upper-mid-end docks — a league that seems to be gaining players at an almost alarming rate — and allowing it to stand out among its peers as the compact, high-performance star it is.
Angry Birds Lite is the top downloaded free game on iTunes in 2010.
The pigs-vs-infuriated-fowls diversion beat out Tap Tap Revenge 3, PacMan Lite and Rockband in iTunes Rewind, which highlights the most popular games, music, apps and TV programs in the iTunes Store for 2010.
Angry Birds was also the second most popular free iPhone download overall, trailing Facebook but coming in ahead of Skype and The Weather Channel.
And it’s not just an addictive freebie, either: Rovio’s Angry Birds, the $0.99 version, is also one of the top grossing apps overall.
Its feathered fury is more popular than Call of Duty: Zombies, Tom Tom, Plants vs. Zombies, Tetris and Doodle Jump.
On the wings of this success, Rovio has just announced that they intend to launching Bad Piggy Bank, a new in-game payment system which will allow Angry Birds players to make in-app purchases without going through Apple.
Rovio’s goal is to divorce the game’s in-app purchase system from a reliance upon a credit card. Bad Piggy Bank, then, will launch in Finland (where Rovio is based) on Elisa, the country’s biggest telecom provider, and any in-app purchases will be added to their monthly bill, or even purchase other games, with other countries and telecoms to follow.
It will be interesting to see if this gets Rovio into trouble with kids making in-app purchases. Apple’s policy has been to allow kids’ games to have them, but generally refunds the money to parents if they complain about kids unwittingly buying stuff in apps.
Via iTunes
Something new and unexpected happened to me today. I, like many others including other staffers at Cult of Mac, found ourselves unable to log into mobileme.com. If you attempt to log in the MobileMe log in screen is absolutely no help whatsoever. There is no error message. No warnings — you just cannot log in.
I found out why this was happening by accident. I was attempting to arrange for a tech support call with AppleCare using the Express Lane service that you can access at support.apple.com this morning.
I attempted to log in with my Apple ID only to discover that Apple had expired the password and that I needed to reset it. Surprise! I’m okay with that, but the fact that MobileMe didn’t tell me why I could not log on is typical of that service. After all isn’t MobileMe generally rife with quality issues and just another hobby at Apple, Inc?
If you are in the same boat as the rest of us visit My Apple ID to reset your Apple ID password. I was able to log into mobileme.com after changing my password.
Update 12/10/2010 at 12:33 PM PST: According to some users via e-mail and other sources on the internet Apple has apparently rolled out new password rules starting with the fact that passwords for Apple IDs must be eight or more characters. Apple is also pushing users to use strong passwords that include a number and/or symbol. I don’t know about you folks, but all this is news to me and I’m a paying MobileMe member. I don’t recall receiving any notification from Apple about this. How completely lame is that? A simple warning or pop-up window on MobileMe’s website would have been enough to give me a heads up, but I got nothing. Just a mystery.
The storied Verizon iPhone remains as questionably and rumorous as a cryptozoological specimen: no matter how many times it is reported as a soon-to-be-imminent reality, it never quite seems to come about, no matter how assertive the Wall Street Journal or New York Times seem to be about the matter.
Still, even if it hasn’t come about yet, Apple’s clearly interested in the possibility of bringing the iPhone to Verizon when their exclusivity deal with AT&T ends, as evidenced by this most recent job posting looking to hire a new staff member who is experienced with Verizon’s CDMA network.
Steven P. Jobs was recently named (again) the awesomest CEO on the planet, but is it possible he could also be cast in the Scrooge role this Holiday Season?
On a day when 26 year-old It Boy Mark Zuckerberg is making headlines for pledging (along with Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz) to join the likes of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in giving the majority of his personal wealth to charity, a New York Times news piece recounts the difficulty non-profit organizations have encountered raising funds through in-app donations using iOS mobile apps.
It all leads one to ask: what does the 2nd largest company in the world have against charitable giving?
In-App Purchases are no joke. With the Freemium model becoming a mainstay for many popular apps, iOS users may get confused and can easily rack up a $100 tab in minutes. To prevent this from happening to you we’re going to show you how to disable all in-app purchases.
Much to the annoyance of parents who have to pay the credit card bills, in-app iPhone and iPad buys are popular with kids.
A typical scenario: your tot is playing with a game like “The Smurfs’ Village.” It’s free to download will keep the kid busy building a village where they can play with the famous blue cartoon characters.
The problem? To complete the Smurf village, your kid might want to add an extra, say, a wheelbarrow of Smurfberries.
That in-app purchase comes with a price tag of $59.99. Other extras are slightly cheaper – a bucket of Smurfberries costs $4.99, two bushels go for $11.99.
A mere half a minute just not enough time to figure out if you actually want to pluck down that hard earned buck on The Pipkins’ classic sonnet, “Gimme Dat Ding”? You now have thrice the time to sample, courtesy of iTunes.
Apple has released another software update for the new 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air models. This update, which is an EFI firmware upgrade, follows the previous update released shortly after the new MacBook Air went on sale and other alleged fixes in Mac OS X 10.6.5.
According to Apple, “This update resolves a rare issue where MacBook Air boots or wakes to a black screen or becomes unresponsive. This update is recommended for all 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010) models. ”
Until today, App Store promo codes were only redeemable in the U.S. iTunes Store, meaning those of us in other countries and without a U.S. iTunes account were unable to take advantage of promo code distributions and giveaways.
Apple has now made developers aware that promo codes are no longer limited to U.S. customers, and that they can now be redeemed in any App Store.
Your promo code distribution is no longer limited to U.S. customers. Promo codes in iTunes Connect can now be redeemed by all App Store customers worldwide. Your Team Agent can request 50 codes per version of your app in iTunes Connect and your customers can redeem these codes in any App Store. To learn more about requesting promo codes in iTunes Connect, see the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.
In an email to a frustrated user, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has confirmed that the company’s MobileMe subscription service will improve in 2011. Jobs’ reply was a signature short response, but it promises a better service for the many disgruntled users who sign up to Apple’s email, hosting, and syncing service each year.
One MacRumors reader became so dissatisfied with the MobileMe service, that he emailed Jobs to let him know.
I love my iPad and iPhone4 and am a huge fan of yours and all that Apple does. I desperately want to stay inside of Apple’e ecosystem as much as possible.
However, MobileMe is making it very difficult for me to do so. Unreliable/unpredictable syncing, creating duplicate entries (sometimes scores of them), etc. It’s almost unusable.
And I know from forums (including Apple’s own support boards) that I am not the only one experiencing these very real and frustrating problems.
Please tell me it will get better, and soon?
Jobs’ reply was simply, “Yes, it will get a lot better in 2011.”
Unsurprisingly, Steve’s response doesn’t give away much for us to get excited about, other than the reassurance of a significantly enhanced MobileMe service next year. Whether that means improvements to existing MobileMe services, or the introduction of new features is unclear at this time.
The $99 yearly subscription service from Apple providers users with email, file/photo hosting, and syncing across all of their devices, including Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.
A crazy gadget called the Looxcie LX1 sits on your ear like a Bluetooth headset. A built-in video camera records constantly, capturing everything you see.
The video recording and uploading takes place via a phone — until now an Android phone. But now, just in time for Christmas, the company has optimized their product for the iPhone.
The idea behind the $199 Looxcie LX1 is to capture every moment in order to capture any moment. What that means is that the device is constantly recording video, but dumps it continuously unless you choose to save it. In other words, unlike with a convention video camera where you choose to record video before you record it, the Looxie lets you choose to save video after an event occurs.
With the recorder going all the time, you won’t miss that alien abduction, sasquatch sighting or even being run over on the sidewalk by Steve Wozniak’s Segway – or any other sudden event.
To permanently retain footage, you have several options. The easiest is to simply press a button on the Looxcie, which grabs the previous 30 seconds and saves it on your iPhone. You use the app on your iPhone to upload a clip to YouTube, Facebook or send via e-mail. You can also connect to Mac or PC via USB.
The Looxcie LX1 talks to your iPhone via Bluetooth. It weighs 1 ounce, and records video at 480×320 resolution and 15 frames per second. You can get it at BestBuy.
Apple intends on using the 100 acres of land they purchased for $300 million from HP last month to build a partially domed, green-friendly campus with an intensive subterranean road and transportation network, according to a recent report by a Spanish paper… and they’ve already hired the visionary architect to make the futuristic, utopian campus city happen.
Could Apple be planning on signing a deal with legendary radio shock jock Howard Stern to exclusively host a new iTunes show? That’s the rumor amongst Sirius investors, and it’s food for thought, if not terribly likely.