Apple News

Daring Fireball Weighs in on Apple Tablet

December 31st, 2009 at 10:34pm Under Hot Apple News+ Iphone

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber often “guesses” what Apple will be releasing, and those guesses are sometimes dead-on-accurate, but when it comes to the iTablet/iSlate, Gruber says Apple’s invoked a full on pre-January 2007-like “cone-of-silence”. Still he’s written up an interesting estimate of what, in his opinion, and iTablet just might be:

I say they’re [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Daring Fireball Weighs in on Apple Tablet

By Rene Ritchie Continue Reading Daring Fireball Weighs in on Apple TabletAdd comment

Win a copy of the iPhone Developer’s Cookbook

December 31st, 2009 at 10:00pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Developer

The very first book I bought for programming the iPhone was none other than Erica Sadun’s iPhone Developer’s Cookbook. It wasn’t the first book of Erica’s I had purchased — years ago I bought her Desktop Video book — but it was an excellent introduction into the secret world of iPhone development. If you recall, Apple’s cloak of silence (aka the NDA all developers had to agree to) prohibited developers from even talking about how to write programs for the iPhone! Erica, as is her style, was rarin’ to go with a book detailing common practices all developers would find useful, especially n00bs like myself.

I should note that InformIT, the publishers, also have sample chapters for a bunch of Mac and iPhone developer books available here.

So I’m very happy to say we are giving away five copies of the second edition of The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook. To enter, you must be over 18, in the US or Canada, and leave a comment on this post. The rest of the rules are below. Good luck and get coding!

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment on this post.
• The comment must be left before Friday, January 8, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: one copy of iPhone Developer’s Cookbook, 2nd edition (Value: US$40.49)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

TUAWWin a copy of the iPhone Developer’s Cookbook originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – United States – TUAW – Canada

By Victor Agreda, Jr. Continue Reading Win a copy of the iPhone Developer’s CookbookAdd comment

Can’t find the apps you need? Of course there’s an app for that.

December 31st, 2009 at 09:30pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

If you’re like me, you find it impossible to keep up with the constant stream of apps being written for the iPhone and iPod touch. As a result, you wind up missing some useful or fun apps that you would buy if you just knew that they were in the App Store.

Searching the App Store using iTunes doesn’t work very well, and there are plenty of sites that review apps (including TUAW), but there are so many apps out there that finding what you want can be a matter of luck rather than skill.

That problem has largely been solved with Appsaurus [iTunes link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can quickly focus on what kinds of apps you like and make decent suggestions for new apps to try or buy.

Here’s how Appsaurus works. When you launch the app for the first time, it presents you with an explore mode. It displays a list of apps, and you tap the ones that are of interest to you. You may have some of the apps, but you probably won’t have all of them. When you select a favorite you’ll get a new list that includes apps that match the general description of the app you clicked on. Run through a few iterations of this process, and the app begins to learn your preferences.If you’re like me, you find it impossible to keep up with the constant stream of apps being written for the iPhone and iPod touch. As a result, you wind up missing some useful or fun apps that you would buy if you just knew that they were in the App Store.

Searching the App Store using iTunes doesn’t work very well, and there are plenty of sites that review apps (including TUAW), but there are so many apps out there that finding what you want can be a matter of luck rather than skill.

That problem has largely been solved with Appsaurus [iTunes link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can quickly focus on what kinds of apps you like and make decent suggestions for new apps to try or buy.

Here’s how Appsaurus works. When you launch the app for the first time, it presents you with an explore mode. It displays a list of apps, and you tap the ones that are of interest to you. You may have some of the apps, but you probably won’t have all of them. When you select a favorite you’ll get a new list that includes apps that match the general description of the app you clicked on. Run through a few iterations of this process, and the app begins to learn your preferences.

TUAWCan’t find the apps you need? Of course there’s an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – iPhone – IpodTouch – Apple – iTunes

By Mel Martin Continue Reading Can’t find the apps you need? Of course there’s an app for that.Add comment

Dozen Daily Deals for December 31, 2009

December 31st, 2009 at 09:00pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Deals

‘Tis the season to shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we’ll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won’t. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get ‘em while they’re hot. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: Falling Gems, Koala Dartz, Stop and Go, Pattrns Turbo, more
• Finish Line: [iPod Accessories] Nike + iPod Watch Remote for $20 + $8 s&h
• Apple Store: [iMac] Refurbished Apple iMac Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz 27″ Desktop for $1,449 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Home & Hobbies Software] Optimism 3.1 for Mac downloads for $20
• Dell Home: [Headphones] Dell Bluetooth Headphones for $19 + free shipping
• Shop4Tech: [Digital Camcorders] 4GB Pen DVR Digital Camcorder for $33 + free shipping
• OfficeMax: [Office Furniture] OfficeMax Divoga Task Chair for $50 + free shipping, padding
• Dell Small Business: [Computer Speakers] Dell AY511 Multimedia Soundbar with Virtual Surround for $63 + free shipping, more
• PC Micro Store: [Store Events] PC Micro Store coupon: $9 off $18 or more + free shipping
• PC Connection: [24" - 26" LCD TVs] Samsung 24″ 1080p Widescreen HDTV / Display for $240 + free shipping
• HandHeldItems: [iPod Accessories] HandHeldItems.com: Up to 80% off Apple iPod touch cases + 20% off coupon
• ExperCom: [MacBook Pro] Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz 17″ Laptop for $2,699 + $10 s&h

TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 31, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – IPhone – iTunes – IPod Touch – App Store

By Victor Agreda, Jr. Continue Reading Dozen Daily Deals for December 31, 2009Add comment

Mac 101: Making Text Replacement Work

December 31st, 2009 at 08:30pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: How-tos, Mac 101

Text replacement: it’s one of Snow Leopard’s really cool features. With it, you can type abbreviations and they’ll automatically expand into full text. You can convert your most common phrases into just a few keystrokes, and let Snow Leopard take care of the rest. Here’s a quick summary of what you need to do to make text replacement work for you.

Creating Macros in System Preferences.

Open System Preferences (it’s in the Apple menu at the top of your screen) and navigate to Language & Text > Text. There you’ll find a Symbol and Text Substitution list. Click the + button to add a new item. For this example, put (tuaw) into the Replace column and The Unofficial Apple Weblog into the With column. Leave the box to the left of these items checked.

So why use the parentheses? Strictly speaking, they’re not necessary. You can define text substitutions on any set of characters, as shown in the screen shot below. What these parentheses do for me, is that they distinguish between when I want to type TUAW and not have it expand, and when I want the abbreviation to transform into the full Weblog name.

Enabling Text Replacement

Text replacement works on a per-application basis. Many applications default to this feature being off. To make text replacement happen, right-click within any text entry area such as a composition window in Mail or the text entry field in Colloquy, etc. The contextual menu provides a Substitutions submenu. Make sure Text Replacement is checked. If it is not, select it to toggle the option from on to off or off to on.

Applying Text Replacment

The big secret to making text replacement happen, once you’ve defined the shortcuts and enabled Text Replacement in the contextual menu, is the space key. Snow Leopard does not apply the shortcut replacement until it detects you have finished typing a phrase. Only then does it perform its internal look up and substitution.

Also prepare to wait a second or so. The replacement text often lags behind your typing. So go ahead and keep entering text. The operating system will catch up and perform its substitution work without your oversight.

For Mike G., with TUAW affection

TUAWMac 101: Making Text Replacement Work originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snow Leopard – Apple – Text Replacement – TUAW – Operating system

By Erica Sadun Continue Reading Mac 101: Making Text Replacement WorkAdd comment

How-To: Replicating Coda’s Books Feature With Google Quick Search Box

December 31st, 2009 at 08:00pm Under Hot Apple News

I recently made the switch to the newest version of the web development application Espresso. After having used Coda for all my previous web development needs, I’m naturally making some comparisons between the two. I’ll leave the blow by blow evaluation to others but thought it worth noting that the one feature I find myself [...]

By Bryan Schuetz Continue Reading How-To: Replicating Coda’s Books Feature With Google Quick Search BoxAdd comment

Apple Considering Google Latitude-like Service for iPhone… with Front Facing Camera? — Patent Watch

December 31st, 2009 at 07:56pm Under Hot Apple News+ Iphone

Did Apple reject Google Latitude from the App Store because they’re getting ready to launch a similar service of their own… that also uses a front-facing camera? Maybe, maybe not, but Patently Apple found this latest application, and 9to5mac seems to think it’s a possibility:

In Apple’s implementation, it looks like the location data [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Considering Google Latitude-like Service for iPhone… with Front Facing Camera? — Patent Watch

By Rene Ritchie Continue Reading Apple Considering Google Latitude-like Service for iPhone… with Front Facing Camera? — Patent WatchAdd comment

Minisquadron Side Scrolling Shooter for iPhone

December 31st, 2009 at 07:45pm Under Hot Apple News+ Iphone

Minisquadron [$2.99 - itunes link] is a 2D sidescrolling shooter for the iPhone and iPod touch, and my new gaming passion. If you ever enjoyed games like 1942 then you will love this game. Freaking sharks and freaking laser beams! Yes the game has it all. If you have ever wondered what it [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Minisquadron Side Scrolling Shooter for iPhone

By Georgia Continue Reading Minisquadron Side Scrolling Shooter for iPhoneAdd comment

Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store

December 31st, 2009 at 07:30pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store

It’s being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps – Dalai Quotes [$.99, iTunes], Dalai Lama Quotes [$.99, iTunes], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel [$.99, iTunes] – contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama [free, iTunes] tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth app called Nobel Laureates [$.99, iTunes], details information about all the Nobel Peace Prize winners since the prize began in 1895. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

If you don’t know much about the Dalai Lama, there’s a great documentary you should check out called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama [iTunes]. The filmmaker poses some tough questions to the Dalai Lama about today’s world and the individual’s place in it, as well as presenting the viewer with an excellent biography of this remarkable man. In May of 2008 I had the honor of seeing the Dalai Lama speak in London. He’s a wonderful person with an infectious laugh (and he even sounds like Yoda – no joke, check out my videos here). If his laughter doesn’t win you over, perhaps the fact that he’s a spiritual leader who loves and embraces technology will.

It’s no secret that I’m very bullish on Apple [AAPL] stock. I’ve made money investing in it since 2003. But as a shareholder second and a human being first, Apple’s censorship sickens me. This is capitalism at its worst. It’s no mystery why Apple, along with many other tech companies, cave to China’s totalitarian demands: China has the largest population of consumers on the planet. Apple is gunning for many more than its existing 300,000-strong customer base of the 1.3 billion Chinese mobile handset market.

Now, I’m a realist. Apple’s move isn’t surprising. Though it’s publicly stood up for human rights in the past, Apple exists to sell products, and a billion people is a lot of cheddar. In Steve Jobs’ eyes, the goal of the company may be continued innovation (he may even be “the Dalai Lama of integration”), but there are plenty of money men at Apple and their number one concern is to grow the bottom line. China can add a lot to that bottom line. So it’s no surprise when Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shrugs off Apple’s censorship with a “We continue to comply with local laws” jibe. Just go ahead and read that as “Not our problem. Anyway, do you know how much cheese is over there?”

But here’s where the real problem lies. I’m a hypocrite. Things won’t change until we do and I can’t really convey to you just how hard that is. If you’re a shareholder, as I am, you’re complicit in Apple’s and others decisions to cave to China (and capitalism) at the expense of human rights. I mean, I know I was downright giddy when I heard the news that Apple had come to an agreement with the Chinese government to sell the iPhone there. All I could think was ka-ching!

We may read (or in my case, write) opinion pieces like this and lament “Gosh, that censorship is just horrible” but then we look at the ten-, fifty-, one hundred-thousand, or even millions of dollars of Apple stock sitting in our brokerage accounts and think, “But, that’s my nest egg and I want to see that puppy grow. What’s the harm in five little apps being censored?”

The harm is this: that line of thinking doesn’t change the status quo. It doesn’t move the world forward. Our inaction is a form of complicity with Apple’s deliberate censorship. But, as long as we don’t experience the oppression first hand, what the shareholder wants will always outweigh the good of the individual – even if it’s 1.3 billion individuals. I’d like to believe that I think mindfully; that I’m strong enough morally to sell my Apple stock as a show of solidarity for the greater good… but am I? Are you?

We are all cogs in the wheel.

Still, it’s the end of the year, and I don’t want my last post of the first decade of the twenty-first century stopping on a depressing note. So, I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year now and leave you with this quote by the Dalai Lama (a quote which could easily apply to our conundrum):

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

TUAWApple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Apple – IPhone – Steve Jobs – Dalai Lama

By Michael Grothaus Continue Reading Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App StoreAdd comment

The 12-hour iPhone app

December 31st, 2009 at 06:15pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Developer, iPhone, App Store

Gizmodo has an interesting story from David Quinlan, a coder who decided to sit down over a weekend with a few friends to crank out an iPhone app. It’s an excellent read, not only for the little quirks and tips about organizing a collaborative project very quickly (they sketch out features and then prioritize them, and use Dropbox to keep all the files in the right places), but for the sheer push of how you actually go from idea to concept to code and finally to released iPhone app.

I won’t say it sounds easy — these guys had a good amount of experience at development and releasing software even before they started work on this app, and if you sit down with Erica’s book [Amazon link to the 2nd edition, PDF downloadable version] and hope to release your very first piece of code after just a weekend of solo work, it’s not going to happen. But it definitely sounds possible — the iPhone’s development platform is relatively easy to pick up (especially if you’re already experienced with coding in other languages), and Apple’s release process is open to anyone willing to spend the $100 to become an official developer.

TUAWThe 12-hour iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – AppStore – Apple – TUAW – Unofficial Apple Weblog

By Mike Schramm Continue Reading The 12-hour iPhone appAdd comment