news

It’s not about money, OmniGraphSketcher, tutorials

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 07:16:57 +1200

What’s coming in OS 10.5.8: With each successive beta release of Mac OS X 10.5.8, it's becoming increasingly apparent that Apple is determined to give nearly every facet of its Leopard operating system a diligent once-over before turning its focus to Snow Leopard, writes AppleInsider.
A new seed of the Leopard update follows closely on the heels of build 9L20 this past Friday, yet sports an entirely distinct set of test areas emphasising in/out technologies and other low-level frameworks. It looks like Apple will leave those with PowerPC processors the best Leopard possible, in other words.
Apple ace Ive says it’s not about the money: Jonathan Ive made a rare public appearance in the UK last night to pick up an honorary degree from the Royal College of Art.
Apple’s head of industrial design sat down for a Q&A at the college, but avoided specifics and talked instead of the culture that allows him to design and Apple to produce groundbreaking products.
The key, he said, is that the company’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, ensures that Apple is remains focused on the products, not on making money.
OmniGraphSketcher: The Omni Group’s OmniGraphSketcher is a new tool for creating graphs. It imports data from spreadsheets or text files, or lets you input information by hand. You can then generate a graph, add annotations, edit the content and export into PNG, JPEG, and PDF formats, says Macworld.
Streaming tutorial videos: MacProVideo.com will soon be launching a new, subscription-based online tutorial system that lets users stream tutorials through your web browser. This system is designed to augment MacProVideo’s existing download model. The Canadian company will be providing both systems to give customers more choice in how they view our educational content.
Catalogue Mail with smart mailboxes: Macworld’s helpful how to tells you ... how to.
Twitter improves: The latest changes to Twitter means that Flickr now supports the social messaging site. The Flickr2Twitter function lets users tweet their photos directly from Flickr once they’ve authorised through Twitter, explains Macworld.

Nisus WP improvements, updates, Mac sales rebound

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 07:16:43 +1200

MobileMe service improved: Apple has announced it has recently updated the web applications at me.com. In Mail, you can now see the unread message count in your Inbox and in each of your Mail folders. Forwarding or replying to HTML (rich text) messages now maintains the messages' original formatting. In addition, there is a direct link to Help in the toolbar. See this support article for more details and a summary of other improvements.
Nisus Writer Pro update: my fave word processor, ‘nice-us’, has updated it’s pro application. Nisus Writer Pro 1.3 adds a completely new document manager that lets you manage any file on your drive, regardless of its location. You can create file groups or use the predefined smart groups. There is also a style library, plus advanced search that leverages Apple Spotlight.
There are other new features, additions to the Nisus Macro Language and a host of bug fixes and other enhancements – the full list is on the Pro release notes page.
Nisus Writer Pro is a Universal Binary and requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or above and it’s a free update to current license holders of Nisus Writer Pro. Download the new release from the Nisus Writer Pro product page.
Nisus Writer Pro Sale: from now until 6 July 2009, you can purchase Nisus Writer Pro for 20 per cent off the normal price. That includes upgrades and family packs.
Limited-time free FileMaker graphics library: give applications that polished, professional look without having to spend hours creating your own icons or searching for them on the web with more than 1,000 graphics that match FileMaker database functions.
Mac sales rebound: an aggressive back-to-school promotion and a more affordably-priced overhaul to Apple's MacBook Pro notebook line are boosting Apple's personal computer shipments to levels not seen since last October, shortly before the economic climate caught up with the Mac maker in earnest, reports AppleInsider.
Soundboard turns your Mac into a sample player: Ambrosia has announced Soundboard, a new audio playback tool for live performances, podcasts, broadcasts and more. It costs US$29, with a demo is available for download.

Harry Potter, Steve Jobs, Macs in Enterprise & more

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 07:20:37 +1200

New Harry Potter game: Electronic Arts (EA) has announced of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a video game based on the upcoming movie (screenshot above). It debuts simultaneously on multiple platforms – including the Mac. It costs US$30 (cND$47).
Mac system requirements: OS X 10.5.5 or later, 1.8GHz Intel (PowerPC not supported), 256MB RAM, 8x DVD-ROM or faster, 5GB hard disk space, ATI X1600 or Intel X3100 or better 3D graphics.
Macs in the enterprise – a first-hand tale: Mark Crump of TheAppleBlog has been working remotely with his Windows’ based company, but using his Mac. Although his Mac is unsupported, unsanctioned, and an unwelcome presence in his firm, this is an interesting read for anyone in the same boat. For example, he says “Getting connected to our HP color printer on Windows usually involves ritual sacrifice with two goats and a chicken; on OS X it showed up as a Bonjour printer and, boom, it worked.”
Maine Ed adding even more MacBooks: The Maine Department of Education plans to expand to high school students a program that has provided Apple notebook computers to all of the state's middle school students for the past seven years, creating "the world's largest educational technology program of its kind," reports AppleInsider.
Faster, smarter, safer FireFox: Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5, calling it the best performing version of its popular web browser ever released, offering better JavaScript performance, private browsing, native support for open video and audio, and location aware surfing.
Firefox 3.5 is said to be more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2 on complex websites thanks to a new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
MacBook Air update supports new batteries: Apple’s latest firmware update for its MacBook Air line of ultra-thin notebooks bundles support for a new series of replacement batteries.
The 623K update requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 and makes modifications to the notebook's micro-controller on the logic board that controls the power functions, thermal management, the sleep LED, and battery.
Apple hasn’t detailed how these batteries are different to the current ones.
NVIDIA releases CS4 plugins: owners of more recent Macs with fast video cards were given an extra speed advantage on Monday with a new set of Adobe Creative Suite 4 plugins.
Apple confirms Steve is back: "Steve is back to work," a company spokesman told Reuters. "He's currently at Apple a few days a week, and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back." Well, they should know.
AppStorm shows ultimate Mac setup for photographers: whether you’re a complete amateur or a seasoned pro, this roundup will have something new to show you, writes David Appleyard.

Jobs is back, 50% eBook sale, mini-USB, Snow Leopard

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:17:53 +1200

Steve back at work: Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs is back at work following nearly 6-months medical leave. He will work from home for a few days a week at first, the company said yesterday.
The official word of his return followed months of speculation about the health of Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, and his future with the company he co-founded more than 30 years ago, says Reuters.
Jobs, 54, underwent a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee, while on leave. He has remained involved in strategic decisions at Apple while away and has been seen at Apple's Cupertino, California headquarters in recent weeks.
TakeControl stages 50% sale: Take Control is having a 50%-off sale on all Take Control ebooks and Macworld Superguides until the end of July 2009, so you can expand your library with our highly practical ebooks about Macs, Mac OS X, iLife '09, AirPort networking, and much more. To take advantage of this limited-time sale, visit the TC catalogue using this coupon-loaded link, select the titles you want, and click the Buy Selected Ebooks button. You'll see the coupon code and the discount on the first screen of our shopping cart.
They were only US$10 (about NZD$16) each to start with – I just reviewed two new Take Control books yesterday.
New mini USB standard: Reuters reports Apple and many other phone companies have agreed to use the micro-USB standard for phone chargers in the EU.
Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonisation of phone chargers, the European Commission stated Monday, saying the pact is good news for consumers and the environment.
Other companies named by Reuters include Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
New seeds of Snow Leopard, 10.5.8: Apple has apparently issued new seeds of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and of Leopard 10.5.8 to developers that, at least in the former case, add functionality previously only shown at WWDC, reports AppleInsider.
Snow Leopard gets improved Activity Monitor: currently, you might see Safari is hammering your CPU. Snow Leopard has a more specific breakdown which shows the true culprit, writes 9to5 Mac.
Macworld reviews EVE Apocrypha: introduced to Mac gamers in late 2007, EVE Online is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game created by CCP Games of Iceland. Famous for being inhospitable to new players, EVE Online evolved in 2009 with the release of Apocrypha, a free expansion that tried to right past wrongs by creating a new player experience and expanding the scope of the game dramatically, writes reviewer Peter Cohen.

Futurology 99: pigeons, whales, green retrofits and bead washes

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:15:28 +1200

Kiwi scientists crack pigeon puzzle: pigeons can find their way home from distant and unfamiliar locations, even after being drugged – and this has finally been explained by two New Zealand scientists.
Researchers found that homing pigeons returned home by a sort of ingrained GPS system, responding to markers on the Earth's magnetic field, reported the NZ Herald last week.
[Comment: they drugged pigeons? What with, chick-weed?]
Wash your clothes in plastic beads: SmartPlanet reports that a start-up in Leeds, Britain last week demonstrated a washing machine that does just that and in the process promises to use 90% less water and 30% less electricity than conventional machines. The machine uses polymer beads made of Nylon 66 originally destined for rifle stocks and a fraction of the water conventional machines consume – there’s no rinse or spin cycle. Xeros’ prototype machine was shown in action at The Clean Show which ended last week in New Orleans.
[Comment: and iron them with what?]
Saturn moon may have ocean: Wired writes that plumes of gas and ice shooting from the south pole of the Saturnian moon Enceladus contain sodium salts, the best evidence so far that the satellite harbors a liquid water ocean.
NASA’s Cassini probe observed the salts in Saturn’s outermost ring, which is believed to be composed of material ejected from Enceladus. That news, published Wednesday in Nature, should excite life-hunters hoping to find extraterrestrial microbes within our system.
[Comment: Saturnian moon-fish, sir?]
Eat like Sophia Loren: the British Medical Journal has been taking a look at the diet that shaped (literally, according to the actress) Sophia Loren. The diet features a lot of vegetables, olive oil, pasta, red wine at dinner – that the journal gives it two thumbs up.
[Comment: whereas all those Italians who would like to look like the British should eat chips, pork pies, jellied eel and trifle.]
Dark Matter lab deep in Earth’s depths: the Sanford Lab has just dedicated an underground science fortress to research dark matter. The lab is one-and-a-half kilometres underground in the mountains of South Dakota, to be shielded from cosmic radiation.
The lab is on an an ex gold mine site and was formerly used to do physics research. IO9 reports that the current Sanford Lab (pictured above, in collaboration with the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), is the deepest underground lab in the world. It's divided into three levels: the shallow lab, the mid-level, and the deep campus.
[Comment: that’s truly deep thinking.]
Chemical ‘nose’ smells cancer: the next wave of cancer diagnosis techniques might rely on a newly-invented chemical nose which can sniff out different types of cancer by detecting abnormal cells developing in body tissue.
In the June 23rd issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, scientists described their cancer-detecting electric nose which can process sample cells and sniff out harmful ones, the same way a human nose uses selective receptors to detect certain smells.
[Comment: it can detect abnormalities but not what they are, so far]
Whale culture, intelligence: though it sounds at first like a marine biologist’s take on political correctness, respecting the cultural diversity of whales may be essential to saving them.
That whales could even have culture is a relatively new scientific proposition, but scientists think that cultural diversity may sustain the long-term health of Earth’s cetaceans, writes Wired.
Another Wired article talks about whales having the same kind of self awareness as apes.
[Comment: new research points to complicated societies.]
Tallest Western Hemisphere building to get green retrofit: a US$350 million green retrofit will make the 110-story office tower a beacon for environmentally sound space.
Plans call for the 442-metre Sears Tower to reduce electricity consumption by 80 per cent and water usage by 40 per cent. It will be renamed the Willis tower later this summer in a deal with new tenant global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings.
To achieve the savings, owner American Landmark Properties and its partners plan to replace the tinted glass to create a ‘thermal break’, install fuel-cell gas boilers, revamp the lifts and escalators and a lot more besides, reports Wired.
[Comment: sounds like a very worthy venture. I wonder what the savings will be?]

Apple Remote gets gestures, MacBook Air review

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:17:28 +1200

Apple Remote for Apple TV gets gesture support: AppleTV just got a somewhat significant update (2.4) allowing for new gesture support. Flick gestures can now be used to manipulate Apple TV's menu options. Also, Video and Audio have new flick gestures that can be used to advance, rewind and replay, says 9to5 Mac.
Securely wipe that drive: always a good idea before selling your Mac or passing it on to someone else – Macworld tells you how.
Latest MacBook Air reviewed: Apple’s slowest laptop lives on the margins in the Mac line. It omits many features standard on other Mac laptops, including multiple USB ports, FireWire ports, Ethernet port, and optical drive. But the MacBook Air (pictured above, courtesy Apple Inc) is still slim, light and slinky. How does it perform?
Nikon D5000 review: Nikon’s D5000 strikes a great balance between price and features, says Macworld. It deviates from the nomenclature of its closest siblings, the Nikon D60 and Nikon D90, but combines many of the best aspects of both while adding its own features.

MB Pro 13 reviewed, SATA speedup, 10.5.8 & Jobs report

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:19:10 +1200

MacBook Pro 13-inch reviewed: unveiled at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro has three new features that were not found in the aluminium MacBooks that have been replaced. The review is by James Galbraith of Macworld.
SATA speedup for new MacBook Pos: Apple has addressed this issue in a firmware update (direct link) released today.
New test build of 10.5.8: work is still at full throttle preparing Snow Leopard for September, but Apple has already released a third beta of Mac OS X 10.5.8 for testing.
The first two betas focused on components such as Bluetooth, Automator, graphics drivers, iDisk syncing, Spotlight, and Sync. The latest asks developers to focus on issues with AddressBook, AppKit, ColorSync, the CoreAVC HD video decoder, FileSync, Image IO, Mail, mass storage devices, MobileMe preferences, Safari, Security, and the Mac OS X kernel, reports Ars Technica.
Is Steve Jobs back? an eyewitness has claimed Apple's chief executive was back on campus the same day the company itself dropped a possible clue.
A Reuters journalist on the grounds of the the Cupertino, California-based firm says Jobs was exiting the building wearing his familiar turtleneck and jeans, conversing with an unknown person. He entered a black car – not the silver Mercedes SL he's known to often, but not always, drive to work. AppleInsider has more, if you’re interested.
Using iPhoto ’09’s Places without a GPS camera: if you carry an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S in addition to your digital camera, you can greatly ease the task of assigning places in iPhoto ’09. When you’re about to start taking a bunch of pictures on your digital camera, first take one on your iPhone 3G/3GS. The iPhone tags the photo with the GPS location ... and read the rest at Macworld.

Apple’s green cred is sound, Mellel, Mac Tech Support

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:11:27 +1200

Apple’s green credentials: Apple can justifiably claim to make the greenest portable computers, a US advertising regulator has concluded. MacUser UK reports that, following an investigation of a complaint by Dell, NAD, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Apple was “unique” in having chosen only to produce laptops that meet the highest EPEAT environmental standards. Ye-yah!
Alternative word processor Mellel reviewed: “there are three types of people in the word processing world”, says Macworld reviewer Willima Porter: “those who use Microsoft Word because they have to, a smaller group who use Microsoft Word because they actually like it, and a third group, who don't have to use Word and are interested in alternatives. He give sit a comprehensive run-through and 4 out of 5. The comments are interesting too.
Mellel is available online from RedleX.
When you are the Mac Tech Support: Macworld’s Christopher Breen has posted an article about when you are the person having to support other Mac users (for example, relatives) and the things you can do to be prepared and to make it easier to look after them, either on the spot or from a distance.