Wednesday, February 27, 2008

iPhone/Touch SDK info coming Thursday March, 6th


Apple isn't slowing down anytime soon.  After announcing something every Tuesday since Macworld, including yesterday's announcement of the very impressive Macbook and Macbook Pro updates, Apple announced today that next Thursday, March 6th they will hold a special event shedding some light on the delayed SDK.  Exciting news for all iPhone and Touch owners. 

In addition to the SDK info, Apple is holding a "Key Customer Briefing" which will give an overview of some of the new hardware and software realesed over the past couple of month's.  Newton 3.0 and myself were privileged enough to sit through one of these briefings in January, although interesting, no information was given that any self proclaimed Apple geek wouldn't already know.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Coolest Mac hac of the week



So I found this over the weekend and found it too cool to keep to myself. Found on 9to5mac, and originally posted by Macworld, this little hack makes the screen sharing function in Leopard 10 times more useful.
First go into System>Library>CoreServices>Screen Sharing and put it someplace easily accessible, say the dock or Applications folder.


Next type this into terminal, no need to Sudo:


defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1


Now open Screen Sharing again and make sure the Bonjour list is available.
Next type this command in terminal, all one line:


defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing \
'NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar' -dict-add 'TB Item Identifiers' \
'(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,FullScreen,
GetClipboard,SendClipboard,Quality)'


Now you have a fully functional Screen Sharing program very comparable to Apple Remote Desktop, confirming this bloggers suspicion that Screen Sharing is using ARD's code.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

This February, get an iLife.


When buying a Mac at the Apple store there is a little known term for the items those Mac Specialists try to sell you. They try to get every customer a Mac with all the trimmings, by selling you what they call in the store the "Tri-Fecta." It usually consisted of Applecare for the respective Mac, One-to-One training and a reduced price on Apple's .Mac subscription. Now .Mac was never the most popular item that walked out the doors of every Apple store, but for those who use it, they tend to love it. 

Today, we are seeing something different though, for the first time .Mac is offering a discount on a suite of software, that it itself almost depends on to use the features of .Mac. On the homepage of .Mac an ad was placed giving the details on a $30 discount of iLife '08 for all .Mac members. So if you didn't rush and get it on it's release day, you didn't get a new Mac with it or you just haven't got around to iLife, nows the time. 

Go get an iLife.

Monday, February 11, 2008

10.5.2!!!


Just a quick note to spread the news.  I haven't had a chance to test it yet but wanted to let everyone know the much anticipated 10.5.2 is out.  Get your Apple Software Update clickers ready.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

That old time Apple feeling


I met a man the other day.  A fellow Apple enthusiast.  As we were talking and getting excited about our mutual interest I began to think.  Apple people unlike others are generally a very passionate people.  As the volume of our voices increased, and the speed at which we spoke increased, we fed off of each other.  We talked about how long we've "drank from the koolaid."  Times used to be different for Apple users. The world was a much more hostile place.  There used to be a place for the "creative" in the Apple universe.  Macintosh computers were very independent from the rest of the personal computing world.  Mac software was the only software that worked on Macs.  Internet explorer was an afterthought as well as pretty much any other Microsoft product.   To own a Mac one had to need it.  There had to be a purpose.  Because of this purpose, this niche space in the personal computing world was special.  You were hardcore if you owned a Mac.  When all your PC loving friends gave you a hard time, you held your ground.  It mattered not, keep them on the darkside.  Keep in mind this was before the iPod generation.  When Apple reimagined it's image, things slowly began to change.  Suddenly Apple and the Mac appealed to a much broader audience...Everyone.  So much so, that Apple dropped the computer from it's name.  We not only now have our creative tool in the Mac, but our Apple TV, and our iPhones, and our Airs.  It's cool to be a Mac user.(Justin Long)  No more stuffy cubicles with our nerdy, socially deficient distant cousin.(John Hodgman)  So from one Mac user to the next.  Keep that fire lit and burning bright.  The Mac is still ours, and at the rate things are going, I don't see things changing anytime soon.  Remember where we've been and peer through the looking glass, and if Apple drops the Mac from it's image, let's all go out and get NeXT box's.   

Friday, February 1, 2008

Macbook Nano?


     So I had some hands on time with the Macbook Air today.  One word, thin-lite.(hey I made it up but it's still one word.)  It's everything I expected.  Thin, light, and ultra quick.  I had the fortune of playing with the SSD drive model.  For the first time in recent memory I was able to contain my new product Apple lust and not immediately want to sell off everything I own just to purchase one.  I still have my complaints with the system and holding one in my hands didn't change this.  While holding it and playing with it I had an epiphany. 
 
     As Apple products evolve, they begin to pick up successful features of sister products.  Coverflow in Leopard Finder, iPod Touch and the iPhone, the included iSight camera.  This made me think about the next Macbook revision as well as possibly the Macbook Pro revision.  I expect to see a multi-touch track pad in both of the next Macbook revisions, and if we're lucky, a solid state option for at least the "Pro".  I am also predicting that we will see the Macbook condensed to a smaller size much closer to the Air.  Not too much however as Apple will be very careful not to cannibalize Air sales.  Now the only question which remains is what will it be called, the Macbook Take 2, or the Macbook Nano