What it is: Daisy Disk is Mac utility software that, sadly works only on machines running OS 10.5 and later, because it’s the kind of thing that could make you want to investigate your hard disk daily.
Why it’s cool: The interface is just plain awesome. Daisy Disk scans any mounted disk and displays it on a beautiful sunburst map, where segments mean files and folders, and are displayed proportionally to their sizes.
The map is easy to read and navigate and lets you quickly preview any file and reveal it in Finder to delete.
It’s essentially like running the Mac’s built-in disk utility on your volume, but where’s the fun in that?
Where to get it: Download a free 15 day trial version or buy it outright for $19.95 from the secure online Daisy Disk store.
With new rumors about the much anticipated Apple tablet hitting Monday, it seems fair to ask how one is supposed to decode the storms of speculation that have long whirled around the company and its products.
Some thrive on rumor and innuendo about Apple – the largely well-regarded Macrumors attracts over 6 million unique visitors per month, AppleInsider nearly a million – and with Apple’s penchant for absolute secrecy over its design department and product development it’s no surprise whispers and baseless fantasy comprise much of what passes for “news” about Apple.
If Apple really is coming out with a tablet in October, or AT&T really is going to open tethering to the US iPhone market in September (a persistent rumor AT&T continues to deny with respect to both price and timing), does it benefit anyone to know about it now? And if it turns out there is (again) no tablet, or that tethering comes tomorrow for free (you wish), how does that affect the way one is supposed to receive the next rumored news item about what they’re up to in Cupertino?
These questions are one small aspect of the larger debate about the ways news and journalism are changing in the Internet age. Traditional news organizations have been cutting resources for true investigative journalism for years, in favor of selling ads and eyeballs with cheap sensationalism, in part because it often seems that’s what the public wants, but also because it’s easier to publish a rumor than it is to get at the truth or to take time to think about and craft a well-reasoned opinion piece.
Monday’s rumor about the Apple tablet originated with a report at the China Times, which is no tabloid sheet, and appears to be based on information about companies high up in the Apple supply chain that a respectable news organization would be able to source and confirm before printing as news. Do standards of journalistic ethics prevail at major news organizations in Asia? Have budgets for investigative journalism survived the impulse to feed the public’s insatiable desire for knowing what the future holds?
The answer to such questions holds the key to understanding how to receive a report about what Apple has up its sleeve. What you believe comes down to whatever you can know for yourself and who you can trust to tell you the truth. Ultimately, no one really knows until the lights come up at the next Apple “event” – and, after all, anticipation is more intoxicating than feeling you already know what’s coming.
When boy meets girl in comedy 500 Days of Summer, he’s wearing an iPod. She hears The Smith’s “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” emoting from his headphones and they’re off.
That’s nothing new: the iPod crops up in plenty of movies. But this may be the first time a director used one to coach actors.
Director Marc Webb, who comes to the big screen from the music video world, gave actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel iPod Minis to help them prep.
Webb packed the devices with songs that he listened to while breaking down the script. The actors also had a playlist designed to convey the mood he was going after on each day of shooting. Deschanel told the WSJ she particularly liked day 44, dominated by Regina Specktor.
UPDATE: According to today’s reports, Apple will not recall iPod Nanos in Korea, but exchange faulty batteries.
An Apple Korea spokesman denied the recall, telling Joong An Daily the problem iPod Nano products were sold between September 2005 and December 2006. These products are no longer being sold in any of Apple Korea’s stores.
Apple will recall first-generation iPod Nanos in Korea after complaints that faulty batteries cause the MP3 devices to overheat and explode.
Since December 2008, four users filed complaints with the the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards over bugged iPod Nanos — three of them were for battery meltdowns while recharging.
The agency prodded Apple to recall first-gen iPod Nanos; Apple agreed to accept the recall recommendation but refused further comment.
Reports of iPod Nano battery meltdown have cropped up before, Japanese government launched an investigation into battery snafus in 2008.
Ever had an iPod battery overheat and liquify? Any success in getting a replacement?
Word Flipper is an addictive, fast-paced word search game for iPhone and iPod Touch that just hit the iTunes App Store with update 1.1 and is bound to generate new buzz with some excellent feature updates.
One user describes it as “Sort of Boggle meets Dance Dance Revolution with a carnival twist!” but it really must be played to be appreciated.
Jamie Grove, Word Flipper’s developer, said, “I wanted to make a game that combined my love of word games with the fast-moving action available on the iPhone/iPod Touch,” which he’s done by incorporating innovative use of the iPhone OS accelerometer.
The new version also incorporates social media functionality, with achievement awards, global leaderboards, and integration with Facebook and Twitter.
Word Flipper (iTunes link) is available now on the App Store and sells for 99¢.
Josh Darrah, an Australian graphic designer, crafted this iPod Mini case entirely in wood — with a nifty matching charger dock.
Darrah told Stuff he spent about four weekends to craft the case out of just $12 USD in materials — Australian red cedar for the main shell and Camphor Laurel for the click wheel and base.
He used screws instead of glue, making it a little greener (he did employ some double sided tape to secure the clickwheel).
XMenu from the Devonthink people is one of those freeware apps that I recommend to every Mac user I meet. The latest update, version 1.9, is newly released and boasts visual refinements and a helpful new feature.
For the uninitiated, XMenu is a Menu Bar widget for getting to stuff quickly without leaving the app you’re in. What I like most about it is its flexibility. You can have six different shortcuts in your Menu Bar if you like, or just one if you prefer to keep things simple.
That’s what I do. I use the user-defined widget and throw aliases for useful files and folders into ~/Library/Application Support/XMenu – that way, I keep my Menu Bar uncluttered but XMenu still gives me quick click access to stuff like my todo.txt, my income and expenses records, and a handful of use-them-every-day folders.
If your Dock is overcrowded with folders or stacks that you don’t use because, well, because it’s overcrowded, then you should have a look at XMenu. This latest update adds a text snippets manager that works just the same as the user-defined widgets. Put some plain or rich text files in the right place, and XMenu will let you insert them into any app with two clicks.
People have been speculating about a Google OS for years, and finally it’s official. Chrome OS will be open source, free, and popping up on a netbook near you in about a year or so from now.
Two weeks after an iPhone 3GS was dropped in a swimming pool while recording video, the phone is still frickin’ working says its owner.
“I’m talking to you on it now,” says Khena Kara, the iPhone’s owner, speaking from his home in Nashville, TN. “It’s still going strong.”
Kara’s iPhone 3GS gained internet fame after Kara accidentally dropped it in a swimming pool while recording a video. The iPhone kept recording as it sank to the bottom, and as he fished it out. “It still frickin’ works!” he says in surprise as he pulls the iPhone from the pool. Kara posted the footage to YouTube, and it spread fast on blogs and Twitter. It has now been watched more that 500,000 times.
“Yes, it’s real,” says Kara of the video. “It was the pool in my subdivision.”
Above is a video still of Kara taken from the iPhone video right after it was fished from the pool. And below it is a new picture of Kara taken with the same iPhone.
The new picture’s metadata appears to back up Kara’s story.
In the unlikely event that you’ve been yearning for more browsers on your Mac, and in the even less likely event that you wish you could splash out money for one; well, sunshine, your prayers have been answered.
For iCab, the last Mac browser that still costs money, is still being updated and has just reached version 4.6.1. And it can be all yours for 20 bucks. (I’m wracking my brains, and I can’t think of any other browsers that cost money these days – not since OmniWeb went free. Shout if you know of another.)
The United States Department of Justice has taken the first baby steps that could eventually lead to an official investigation of the Telecom industry and the effects its exclusive carrier agreements have on consumer prices and choices, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday.
The initial review looks to determine whether large U.S. telecom companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have abused the market power they’ve amassed in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter.
Largely moribund and hamstrung by internal politics and inefficiency during the Bush administration, DOJ under President Barack Obama has seen renewed relevance as an arm of the Federal government and has lately signaled business as usual could soon be ending for an industry left to its own devices during the past decade or more.
Many people have long decried exclusive carrier agreements that make popular gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone available only to consumers willing to sign multi-year service agreements with AT&T and likewise Blackberry’s Storm to those who’d sign with Verizon.
The Wall Street Journal quoted the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, Christine Varney, saying she wants to “reassert the government’s role in policing monopolistic and anti-competitive practices by powerful companies.”
Apple’s iPhone has recently become the most popular camera on Flickr, one of the Internet’s most well-regarded photo sharing social media sites.
Expressed in “percent of members” terms, the iPhone has lately bested two models of Canon’s EOS Digital Rebel, of which the XTi had long been the clear favorite choice of Flickr members.
UPDATE: Since this post was originally published, the Flickr site’s graph has been changed, and now shows the iPhone is the #2 camera among Flickr members, resting just behind the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, which has apparently enjoyed a bump in popularity for which the previously published graph did not account.
[Thanks Rafael, for the heads-up on the graph change!]
Among popular camera phones, the iPhone has outdistanced its rivals since its release two years ago and recently widened the gap between its nearest competitor, the Nokia N95, by a huge margin.
The data is to be taken with a grain of salt as anecdotal and largely unscientific, but it is interesting to note such graphic evidence of popularity for a phone camera that had been denigrated by many as one of the most pitiable features of Apple’s popular smartphone.
Apple recently upgraded the specs on the iPhone camera, giving it a boost in pixel capacity and adding both variable focus and video capabilities, which should only increase its attractiveness going forward.
One of these iPhone headsets is from Apple; the other is a knockoff.
Spot the difference? One of these is a $30 iPhone Stereo Headset from Apple. The other is a $14 knockoff from the Philippines.
Thing is, the $14 copycat is as almost good as the original. It’s nearly physically indistinguishable. The sound is exceptionally good. And the microphone/remote works the same as it does on the genuine article.
Even the packaging is remarkably realistic.
Except there’s a few things that are off — a few minor details that give them away as fakes. Plus, they broke down after a week.
The audio manufacturer Shure has battled knockoffs for years. http://www.flickr.com/photos/digaderfox/
The audio manufacturer Shure is known for its excellent headphones, which makes it a favorite target of counterfeiters.
In May, Shure helped Chinese authorities bust knockoff shops run by two Shanghai companies that were making copycat Shure headphones. The raids uncovered large quantities of Shure E2c and E4c earphones, which sell for about $70 and $170 respectively, as well as headphones branded JVC and Audio-Technica.
Unlike copycats of yore, today’s counterfeiters are amazingly sophisticated and accomplished, turning out high-quality knockoffs that in some ways rival the originals. Flickr user digaderfox bought a pair of fake Shures on eBay last year, and documented the surprisingly high quality of the knockoffs on the photo site.
Apple is also is becoming a target of copycats, with amazingly good knockoffs of iPhones and headsets coming onto the market.
Paul Applebaum, Shure’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, said counterfeiters are increasingly sophisticated. Some are setting up convincing factory-direct websites, or hijacking U.S. eBay accounts to make it appear goods are shipped domestically.
In the security video, the employee is seen opening the back door to the store after the suspect rang the bell at about 10.15 AM. She is led back into the store at gunpoint, and was shot soon afterward. The suspect fled on foot.
Police describe the suspect as a thin black male, aged 35-45, wearing a dark baseball cap and light-colored shirt and pants.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Arlington County Police Department Tip Line at 703 228-4242.
Or call Detective Alan Lowrey at 703 228-4199 or Detective Michael Austin at 703 228-4241. Det. Lowrey can also be reached via email at Alowrey@arlingtonva.us and Det. Austin can be reached at Mausti@arlingtonva.us.
Full text of the police description of the crime and appeal for help after the jump.
Feel slightly bad for the folks at Marshall Aerospace out on the tarmac, using forklifts or putting planes together who got used to listening to ambient or Vegan-a-Go-Go podcasts while on the job.
Following the advice of a health and safety expert, the 1,500 employees of the Cambridge, UK company have been banned from using iPods at work.
“There have been no particular incidents,” said an unnamed spokesman in a press release. “But on our site there are aircraft, forklift trucks and so on moving around – and we are a precision engineering firm. We feel that people should always be concentrating fully.”
He added: “We don’t get middle-aged employees wearing iPods but we do see employees in their 20s who listen to music while working.”
Comforting to know the young ‘uns won’t be distracted on the job.
What other professions should be banned from using iPods at work?
Take note, readers: eReaders apparently offer frequent/intense mature/suggestive themes! Well, at least this one does.
On Twitter, Eucalyptus author Jamie Montgomerie says his app is now saddled with a 17+ rating, a change he made after Apple requested that he do so. (And, oddly, the app is referred to as a game on its App Store page warning section.) You may recall that the app caused controversy when Apple rejected it, primarily for it enabling you to download the text from Kamasutra. Apple later relented, but now the app has all sorts of warnings on the App Store, as shown above.
Again, the problem isn’t so much Apple’s decision—although it seems heavy-handed for a text-based eReader that only grabs content from Project Gutenberg—but a lack of consistency. At the time of writing, Free Books (App Store link) is rated 12+, while Stanza (App Store link) is rated 4+, despite it providing access to Project Gutenberg and a bunch more content.
Here’s hoping Apple soon starts levelling the playing field for all, because it’d be a huge shame for a great piece of indie software to lose sales due to having a rating none of its similar competition has.
Eucalyptus is available for $9.99 on the App Store and comes recommended if you can deal with the kind of mind-warping infrequent/mild alcohol references, infrequent/mild profanity, infrequent/mild horror themes, frequent/intense mature/suggestive themes and infrequent/mild sexual content that Apple argues you’ll find in the text of classic out-of-copyright novels.
For all of its public perception as a great censoring overlord, the Chinese government leaves plenty of wiggle room for computer manufacturers, including Apple, to avoid complying with recently mandated strict Internet filtering requirements.
While foreign and domestic makers of computers running Windows will eventually have to ship their machines with controversial Green Dam Youth Escort software, other machines running Mac OS X or Linux, for example, will be exempt from the mandate, according to a report at Yahoo Tech.
An Apple sales representative in Beijing indicated Green Dam is not being bundled with Macs sold at the Apple Store there because the software, which blocks pornography and “sensitive” political content, is not compatible with the Mac’s operating system.
In addition, a Lenovo spokesperson confirmed its computers running Linux are also being shipped without Green Dam and said the Ministry of Industry and Information and Technology is not requiring non-Windows machines to come with the program.
A source connected with Green Dam developers said they are testing the software on non-Windows platforms but did not indicate when or if an OS X compatible update might be released.
Police at the Apple Store Clarendon in Arlington, Virginia, where an employee was shot during an armed robbery. Picture by Fox 5.
Updated: Police have confirmed that a 26-year-old female Apple employee was shot in the shoulder and injured at the Apple Store Clarendon in Arlington, Virginia, during a “violent armed robbery” at about 10.15AM.
The suspect rang a doorbell at the back service entrance and shot a female employee as soon as she opened the door, the Washington Post reports. A police spokeswoman said it is unclear if the employee had words with the shooter or put up resistance to the robbery.
According to the Post, only two employees were in the store at the time, the shooting victim and another employee who was in the main showroom. The other employee called police as soon as they heard the gunshot. It’s unclear if there were customers in the store at the time, the police said. The shooting occurred about 15 minutes after the store opened.
The shooting victim was injured in the shoulder. The injuries are not considered life-threatening, police said.
The suspect is described as a medium build black male, aged between of 35 and 45, with facial hair. He was wearing a dark baseball cap, a light-colored shirt and pants. He fled on foot, carrying a handgun.
Security camera footage of the shooting may be released to the public to help the search, police said.
The store is located in the tony Market Common outdoor shopping district, which is considered a quiet, safe area.
“I think it’s a sign of the times, the economy, when you have someone desperate enough to rob an Apple store in an area like this,” said a shopper who was planning to buy a new MacBook.
Unfortunately this is bunk, but it’s worth posting anyway because, well, I guess a ton of other websites will publish it.
A new non-slip rubber case for the “Apple iPod Touch 3” on a junk accessory website hints that the soon-to-be-updated device will have a camera. The rubbery red case has two holes on the back, presumably for a camera.
The third-generation iPod touch is expected in September, and is rumored to include a camera, which would be an obvious upgrade for the device.
However, the tip came from a reader “Jenny,” who has also tipped off CrunchGear and I4U News. Best guess is that Jenny represents the accessory website, Uxsight.com, and is trying to drum up traffic and Google juice.
In her email to CoM, she makes sure to mention the case’s low, low price. “Can’t vouch for the
creditability of the source,” she writes, “but I guess $1.69 is not much of a risk.”
Plus, why are there two holes — one bigger than the other? And why two versions of the case, one with the camera on the left, the other with the camera on the right? UPDATE: As readers kindly point out, I’m as blind as a bat. That’s the inside and outside of the case.
Hotz’s application requires an iPhone 3GS running the 3.0 OS, and the latest version of iTunes — 8.2. Hotz warns that the unlock s beat and to back up the iPhone before running it.
The unlocking process seems straightforward. Writes Hotz on his blog: “Connect your iPhone normally. Click ‘make it ra1n.’ Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app. Hopefully you’ll figure out what to do from there.”
There is another jailbreaking application for the iPhone 3.0 from the iPhone Dev Team (The 19-year old Hotz was associated with the group, but split with it). The Dev Team’s app will not work on the iPhone 3GS.
Jailbreaking allows an iPhone and iPod touch to to run unapproved apps through unofficial installers like Cydia and Icy.
Jailbreaking is not unlocking, a different, distinct process that frees the iPhone from the current carrier and makes it available for use with other wireless networks.
Needless to say, Apple sanctions neither process. Both have their risks and have been known to “brick” devices.
Hotz gained fame in 2007 when he became the first person to unlock the original iPhone. Using a combination of software and hardware hacks, the then 17-year-old tried to sell the hacked iPhone on eBay, but pulled the auction when jokers raised the bid price to more than $100 million.
He shortly traded the unlocked iPhone for three locked iPhones and a Nissan 350Z with Terry Daidone, founder of Certicell, a phone repair company in Louisville, KY.
Up for sale is on eBay is a sketchy-looking, non-functioning white iPhone described as a prototype demo unit of the brand new GS model.
The auction has attracted two bids and is currently running at $305, even though the iPhone doesn’t work.
The seller says there’s a problem with restoring the software: “This device is not eligible for the requested build,” iTunes says when he tries to restore it.
The seller, vofffka, of Ocean City, New Jersey, says an Apple genius at his local retail store verified the iPhone as an Apple product, but can’t service it, “because it’s never been sold.”
WTF that means, who knows?
The seller has a very high rating. He is currently selling several unlocked iPhones.
Where did he get this prototype? Get this. In the QA section, a potential buyer asks the same question, and gets this reply:
“Hi! It is currently NOT WORKING, I got it on ebay a month ago and the guy I got it from told me he found it in the airport. Thanks!”
Yeah, that makes me feel real keen to bid on this item.
iPhone hosts nearly half the ads served on mobile platforms.
Apple now has overall market share leadership in the worldwide smartphone segment, having overtaken former frontrunner Nokia based on browser calls for mobile ads. A recent report at BNet Technology cites AdMob statistics that show Apple with 49 percent of mobile ad traffic in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 32 percent for Nokia.
The market shift may have less to do with customer preferences for Apple’s hardware, however, as a recent smartphone industry analysis from Gartner notes; services and applications have become the primary drivers of smartphone success.
The stats appear to vindicate Apple’s approach to application distribution via the iTunes App Store. William Volk, CEO of entertainment and business apps vendor PlayScreen, said on a professional forum posting that “other stores simply aren’t matching the ARPUs [average revenue per user] of the Apple App store.”
The iPhone OS also enjoys a comfortable lead over every other mobile operating system, including Symbian, Research in Motion (RIM), Palm and Windows, with May numbers showing iPhones had 68% of the browser requests in the survey.
Turn any surface into an iPod speaker with the $74 K-box.
If you’ve forgotten those sweet new iPod speakers, but still want to jam out to your favorite tunes, turn any available surface into an impromptu sound system. The K-box ($74.50, pictured) includes an audio input jack and patented technology to send sound waves through the floor, table or whatever is below the cell phone-size unit.
Apple has a support document called “Keeping iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS within acceptable operating temperatures” to which the company has directed those with concerns about alleged overheating problems with 3G and 3GS models of the device.
In addition to offering practical advice such as “Don’t leave the device in your car” (as car interiors can exceed the recommended operating range of -20º to 45º C [-4º to 113º F]), the document also warns that CPU-intensive applications, such playing music or using the GPS while in direct sunlight may also overheat the iPhone.
The OS has a temperature warning screen built in, that appears to indicate when the phone could be running into problems and may not work properly.
Using the iPhone in temperatures over 95 degrees can trigger the temperature warning, according to at least one report. “Low- or high-temperature conditions might temporarily shorten battery life or cause the device to temporarily stop working properly,” Apple warns in the support document, though it says when the temperature warning appears, the phone “may still be able to make emergency calls.”
Recent anecdotal reports of 3GS iPhones overheating, with some white models turning pink as a result, have led to speculation that Apple may have a recall situation on its hands, but the company so far is relying on the fact that “iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS comply with the safety standard for Safety of Information Technology Equipment, IEC 60950-1,” and has had no further comment on the overheating issue.
