The intrepid gang at iPhone Dev have made a downgrade routine
from Firmware Update 1.1.1 back to 1.0.2. It's a bit complicat
ed (they even recommend using a stopwatch at one point), but it works. They are
currently working on a reunlock, bless 'em. See the magic here.
(Hah. Knew they'd pull through!)
September 2007 Archives
The intrepid gang at iPhone Dev have made a downgrade routine
from Firmware Update 1.1.1 back to 1.0.2. It's a bit complicat
ed (they even recommend using a stopwatch at one point), but it works. They are
currently working on a reunlock, bless 'em. See the magic here.
(Hah. Knew they'd pull through!)
(Via 
A 13-minute short film by director Wes Anderson called The Hotel Chevalier is now up for free on the
In the aftermath of the new firmware upda
te for the iPhone, there's been a flood of other updates f
or iLife and iWeb that haven't been given muc
h attention. (Actually, these might be not too late-breaking; dunno if I've bee
n slacking on Software Update, but I haven't seen news of thes
e floating on the web. Whatever.)
Scared to update Keynote right now, since I have a big present
ation this afternoon, so I'll do it later. Did the others yesterday, details on
the changes later (iMovie's much better now). As usual, no de
tailed info about any of them from Apple at the moment.
Am too rushed now to type them out neatly, so just look at the pics for the det
ails of what they are and how big the downloads will be (check the relevant dat
es). The first batch (in the Installed Updates pic below) I in
stalled yesterday, but forgot to blog about them.
All in all, nine updates. Wowza.
Gizmodo's got a great piece on the unlockin
g timeline done Star Wars style. Hilarious post. Great for rel
ieving the tension while we all worry about the firmware update. Hey, I find it
funny! If you don't, TFSU!
The new iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 has been released, and reports a
re trickling in that it does disable third-party apps, and makes users undergo
a second reactivation procedure that requires a genuine AT&T SIM chip. Lots of folk are getting "Incorrect SIM" errors. Ayayay!
It looks like it's back to the drawing board!
It's a carrot-and-stick thing: the new features from the firmware update are te
mpting to get, but the price you have to pay is enormous. The only solution see
ms to be: don't update then. Sit and wait. More news when we get it.
(Via Engadget)
UPDATE: Detailed, updated, and dismaying testing reports on Gizmo
do. * bites nails *
One of the Doodler's most-favorite-of-all-time-extreme-to-
the-max apps is the SRS iWow Plug-in, which tweaks audio
from iTunes to create fantastic audal soundstages and environm
ents that make you disbelieve that all this goodness is actually coming from yo
ur two cheap, tinny, bargain speakers. The plug-in lets you adjust bass, focus,
stereo separation, and definition from your own preferences or the built-in pr
esets and make you feel like you owned Wharfdales.
It's certainly a plug-in I can't imagine being without. It's the best US$20 I e
ver spent.
Well, SRS has an update available for download as we speak. i<
strong>Wow 2 now lets you save your personal presets, and adds auto-
presets based on the material you're playing ("Cruise Control"), and more of it
s own. Best of all, it adds Movie Mode, which has the ability
to create. Virtual. Surround. Over. Headphones. (Granted, this is only with the
SRS 360 Headphones, but still...)
It usually sells for US$29.99, but the introductory promo gives it to you at US
$19.99, with upgrades for old users at US$11.99. There's even a Free Tr
ial, which I urge you to take so you can be a true believer.
Go get SRS iWow 2 here. iWow indeed.
The US retail chain Target
is selling a special edition pink iPod shuffle, complete with
a US$15 iTunes Store Gift Card for US$79, with a portion of t
he proceeds of up to US$25,000 going towards The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
It is yet unclear whether or not this is just a clever (and worthy) repackaging
, or if it's a partnership with Apple, but whatever the case m
ay be, we should have more of these.
(Via AppleInsider)
[Quick Aside: As a professional editor, I'm compelled to point out a typo in th
e product name. Target, "shuffle" is not supposed to be capitalized. The weird
Apple Capitalization Rules extends to its other products, which among others st
ates that the second letter is usually the one that should come in caps - iPod,
iMac, iTunes, or that words coming after iPod or Mac should never be capitaliz
ed - iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, Mac mini.]
It seems the fading 
Now call me silly, but doesn't that look like something we all know?
It seems the MacPic in the previous post is prophetic; I was even idl
y ruminating about it as I was posting it. I own a working Newton Messa
gepad, and know first-hand how great it was way back when, even if it
wasn't its time yet.
And lo and behold, on the same day, AppleInsider's
brought up the notion that next in line in the Jobs Saga is a new Newton, buil
t on what has been, and what's new. Given that, this Apple PDA rumor I sorta gi
ve a lot of credence to.
The hardware groundwork is there. The apps are there. The new OS is up to it. M
ulti-touch is begging for something meatier than a phone. They've done PDAs bef
ore. Steve has even hinted and clearly, and on record, alluded to it as somethi
ng they've made but not yet released. What's not to believe?
*cackle*
The hardware groundwork is there. The apps are there. The new OS is up to it. M
ulti-touch is begging for something meatier than a phone. They've done PDAs bef
ore. Steve has even hinted and clearly, and on record, alluded to it as somethi
ng they've made but not yet released. What's not to believe?
*cackle*
Th
e Google Calendar graphic interface has just been upgraded to
have an iPhone-specific look when using the popular phone.
Being tailored for the iPhone, it's now a perfect fit, and can show distinctive
colors based on your calendar preferences. iPhone users can just point their <
strong>Safari browsers to http://calendar.google.com.
For more info just head on over to the Official Gmail Blog here.
Apple's just issued MacBook/MacBook Pro Update 1.0 via Software Update.
This update enables file system journaling on MacBook and MacBook P ro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems were shipped with f ile system journaling turned off. Journaling is recommended on all Mac computer s as a preventative measure against file corruption.Eh? The 660KB download is explained further on the Apple Support Page here.
The com
ing firmware update strikes fear into the hearts of the thousands of users of u
nlocked iPhones, as Apple has declared a long
, drawn-out and protracted "cat-and-mouse" war with them and the firmware updat
es are likely to intentionally brick the iPhones and turn them into nice high-t
ech paperweights. Unlocks have been shown to be largely impervious to software
updates and upgrades, but firmware updates are another matter entirely - even w
ithout all this cat-and-mouse stuff it's a dicey proposition in the best of tim
es.
(Personally, if I had an unlocked unit that works, I wouldn't really have the u
rgent need to update it if there's a chance it could be bricked. Besides, it's
just a matter of time before the usual suspects find a way to get around that l
ittle roadblock. Just wait. Then again, I understand how having a firmware upda
te that you can't install can get under your skin.)
TUAW's wonderful Er
ica Sadun (who posted one of the first unlock procedures) has posted a
relocking hack that'll restore your iPhone's legit status so that you can upda
te the firmware, and then re-unlock it again (this is getting ridiculous, reall
y), assuming that the new firmware doesn't break the unlock procedure, which is
why the firmware is probably being issued in the first place, which makes you
wonder why you want to upgrade it in the first place.
All in all, a silly, self-imposed conundrum we find ourselves in. And all for a
phone.
Anyway, you can get Ms. Sadun's relock procedure from TUAW here
. Or from the iPhone FAQ
, from iphonegoboom.com (great name!) which has everything else you mi
ght need to know.
Once again, caveat hax0r. According to the feedback comments, this thi
ng is as risky as the first unlocks that came out. As Erica herself advises, if
you must, wait a day or two for the procedure to be debugged. And be aware tha
t there may be a hardware-based lock/unlock limit built into the iPhone, so thi
nk hard before doing this.
For the click-lazy, we reproduce Erica's procedure here, purely for educational
purposes:
- (Take out your SIM from your iPhone.)--Still checking on this step.
- Download the 1.0.2 firmware to your computer and unzip it. It uses a .ipsw extensio n but your unzip program should still work. Change the extension if you have to .
- Extract the ramdisk as such:
dd if=009-7698-4 .dmg of=ramdisk.dmg bs=512 skip=4 conv=sync - Mount the extracted ramdisk.
- From the ramdisk, copy /usr/local/bin/bbupdater, /usr/local/standal one/firmware/ICE03.14.08_G.eep, and /usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.14.08_ G.fls to your iPhone. Place these into a folder on the OS partition (such as /b bupdate) and not into a folder on /var/root. The /var/root partition is set noe xec and you cannot run programs from there.
- Disable com.apple.CommCenter.plist--either using UIctl or launchctl
:
launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.appl e.CommCenter.plist - On the iPhone, navigate to the folder where you stored bbupdater an d the eep and fls files.
- Run bbupdater as such:
./bbupdater -f *.fls - e *.eep - Reload comm center:
launchctl load /System/Li brary/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist - Reactivate with your favorite AT&T SIM. I personally like using iASign.
The pods in the Doodler's possession at the moment. (Yes, that
's my grubby hand.)
Roughly a quarter of a terabyte of storage right there. And six pairs of headse
ts. Somewhere.
Conspicuous by its absence is the original 5gb I bought when it first came out
in 2001 (yes, I am a shameless early adopter), when all this iPod mania wasn't even a gleam in Jobs' eye. In a moment of weakness I sold it,
as I eventually would a white, button-happy 4th Gen. Shoulda kept them. Hope to
add a Touch to this handful someday.
Another view:
A blogger posted a big thank you to Apple for making him switc
h from Vista to Mac, then back to Vista. Whil
e on the surface this sounds like a back-handed compliment, it actually makes s
ense - I think.
Aviv Eyal, co-founder and VP of Grouper Networks (which was eventually acquired by Sony), and co-founder o
f Friskit, wrote in his blog that Macs made him appreciate Win
dows Vista, which had previously confounded him no end:
I was getting very frustrated with Vista on several of my PCs and l aptops on a daily basis to a point that I stopped enjoying working on computers . On a clean Vista Pro install with just IE, Outlook and Office on strong Dell workstations and on a Vaio laptop, I kept getting hangs and crashes left and ri ght. I now run Vista using the excellent Parallels Desktop for Mac software. It is worth every penny.Eyal calls Windows the "light" side of the force, and Macs and OS X the "dark" side. He expounds further on this odd compliment:
With 4GB of RAM on a 2.4ghz Intel core 2 duo MacBook Pro laptop, I get very decent performance from Vista running virtually in Parallels, in full- screen mode it is easy to forget that you are not running Vista natively, so if I need to use word or powerpoint I just switch back to the dark side virtually on Parallels and if Vista hangs crashes I just quickly restore the virtual mac hine to a previous state while I keep working on my Mac apps.Uh ...ok. I think. At least this underscores that fact that there is no reason not to buy a Mac these days. Even if it's for the wrong reasons. Check out Eyal's post on his blog here.
From 
Several days ago users of Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger who used dotMac addresses to get their Windo
ws Live IDs found out that they were being blocked from using the onli
ne service. When trying to log in, it would return an error message that told t
hem they had now had to change their address in order to continue using the ser
vice.
Because of a recent system update, you must change the email addres s that you use to sign in to Windows Live Messenger. Until you change your emai l address, you wonât be able to use Windows Live Messenger.Eh? Ex-squeeze me? Baking powder? Other users who registered with other addresses like GMail wer e not affected, and only those with .Mac-related logins were specifically rejec ted from the Microsoft service. MacNN contacted Microsoft about this, and MS officials told MacNN that it had rece ntly become aware of an
...internal error during routine testing that resulted in customers using .Mac domains being asked to change their e-mail address in or der to access to their Windows Live IDs. Internal error. Surrrrre it was. Some code became wonky and spontaneou sly, independently and without human intervention, began mysteriously blocking their IM users, but somehow only those using dotMac addresses. Internal error. Creepy code, that. Microsoft immediately created a support page for affected users and further apologized in a stateme nt that read in part:Access to Live IDs has been restored to our customers who use .Mac domains. We regret any inconvenience this caused for our customers.Hmph. We regret it too. (This begs the question: why would some folk who obviously use Macs actually si gn up for a Microsoft online service? Does this imply that they deserve what th ey got? Hmm.)
The wonderful folk at the Embraceware blog thought up a way for you to stream v
ideos stored on your Mac straight to your iPhone so you can watch it there (and
ostensibly over the net as well).
You can head over to the site for the instructions, and f
or more info. In case you want to jump right in, we reproduce Embraceware's ste
p-by-step here:
Step 1 Open âSharingâ in System Preferences and enable âPersonal Web Sharingâ - this will turn on the built in web server installed with OS X. When enabled, it will display an address (your IP or computer network name) as the U RL for accessing the site on your network. Note this address - weâll be visitin g it on our iPhone via Safari later. Step 2 The root of the web site is located in /Library/WebServer/Documents. Open the Terminal and type the following: cd /Library/WebServer/Documents/ and press ENTER. Step 3 Still in the Terminal we will continue by creating a Symbolic link to your iTun es âMoviesâ directory and place this link in the root of your web server by typ ing the following: ln -s /[path t0 your iTunes Movies folder] Movies example: ln -s/Volumes/Machintosh HD/users/john/Music/iTunes/Movies Movies Step 4 Open Safari on your iPhone and visit the address provided when you enabled the Personal Web Sharing in your iPhone followed by /Movies Example: http://192.168.2.20/Movies/A little ingenuity goes a long long way. Thanks to Embraceware for the tip! (Crossposted from Mobile Philippines)
Not quite Mac-related news, but important just the same:
I'd like to just announce that MacADoodle is joining the 
We're currently exporting the archives and testing the waters at the moment, an
d we'll make a formal turnover soon. This is basically just a heads-up, so you
know what's happened if this site stops updating all of a sudden. Even with the
transfer, it'll largely be the same old site, maybe with a few new features an
d a slightly different look, so don't worry. Anyway, I'll make sure you guys kn
ow the new URL and feed for MacADoodle as soon as it firms up, but for now, mon
key business as usual.
I'd just like to say too that MacADoodle is proud that Inquirer.Net asked us to
join their network. I hope this is the start of something bigger and better.
A big MacADoodle Slobbering Thank You in advance to the site a
nd to Mr. JV Rufino and Mr. Joey Alarilla, bo
th rabid Mac users themselves (Joey's just got on the boat, actually, and he's
been scratching his head saying to himself, where has the Mac been all my l
ife?)
Anyway, yun lang po.
The first contender for the iPhone throne has been unveiled. O
r at least what it would look like it if had been.
At the Intel Developers Forum (Fall 07)'s ultramobility keynot
e today, Intel revealed a hybrid handheld PC/phone running on
their new low-cost, low-power Moorestown platform (the more hi
ghly integrated successor to the Silverthorne chipset they're
still developing), that looks suspiciously like a stretched-out something we al
l know.
Actually, this is a mock-up of something that the Moorestown chip might be usef
ul for (like iPhones), and the iPhone-ish-ness of the phony device is intention
al. But it does give us a clue to where all this stuff Apple s
tarted is going to go.
Hmm. Well, all's fair in love and tech development.
More pics and details from AnandTech.
Actually, this is a mock-up of something that the Moorestown chip might be usef
ul for (like iPhones), and the iPhone-ish-ness of the phony device is intention
al. But it does give us a clue to where all this stuff Apple s
tarted is going to go.
Hmm. Well, all's fair in love and tech development.
More pics and details from AnandTech.
What would happen if you simultaneously opened every single app on your Mac at once? Would it crash? Would it hang? Would it explode?
Someone named jeffseb tried it on a Macbook Pro that had a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3gb of DDR2 SDRAM by doing
a Command-A on his Applications folder. It took 12 w
hole minutes (it took a bit long because some of the apps were trying to update
from the web on startup), but the Macbook Pro managed it, and this it what it
looked like:
I think of my IBM Thinkpad on Windows XP and
the excruciating, molasses-slow agony it goes through just opening two
apps. If you want a high-res version so you can peruse the screen in detail, c
lick here. (Check out how many yellow triangles there are in the dock!
)
I think of my IBM Thinkpad on Windows XP and
the excruciating, molasses-slow agony it goes through just opening two
apps. If you want a high-res version so you can peruse the screen in detail, c
lick here. (Check out how many yellow triangles there are in the dock!
)
A ca
sualty of unlocking iPhones is Visual Voicemail, which is carrier-dependent, but the industrious folk at the iPhone
Dev Team have figured out a simple way to enable the Voicemail button
on the phone.
It ain't visual voicemail, but it works, and saves you folk the agony of having
a button on the menu that doesn't work (dunno about you guys, but that sorta t
hing drives me nuts).
Courtesy of Gizmodo, who've hel
pfully cut through the jargon, here are the summarized, simplified steps for th
e Average Joe With An Unlocked iPhone:
1. First, take note of what your voicemail number is with your curr
ent provider (for example, in Spain the Vodafone voicemail number is 177).
2. Click on the phone button in your iPhone.
3. Click on the keypad tab.
4. Tap the following code:
   *5005*86*xxx#
The xxx is the voicemail number, in our example it will read: *5005*86
*177#
5. Tap call.
6. After a second, the code will have been set.
7. Tap now on the voicemail button and it will automatically call your usual vo
icemail service.
As usual, try it at your own risk.
On the
heels of the release of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 update for most o
perating systems on the planet this week, the group has announced that they are
releasing a new native Mac version of OpenOffice, the FOSS al
ternative office suite, one that does not require X11 to run,
in September - of 2008.
I actually did a double-take when reading the original report from Computerworld, thinking they meant this September we're in now
- which made me wonder about the odd statement; why not just say this month th
en?
Macworld UK didn't even notice the year: writer Jonny
Evans, citing the exact same original report I linked to, wrote totall
y a off-the-mark and misleading report that headlined "Mac native OpenO
ffice this month?" It further says:
Popular and free Microsoft Office alternative OpenOffice seems set to ship in a native Mac OS X version later this month. A report on Computerworld claims that OpenOffice 3. 0 will ship later this month, citing a presentation to be made today by the lea d engineer working on the project, Eric Bachard.If you hurry, you can still read Macworld UK's big blooper (if they haven't yet pulled it by now) here. (If they have, I can still show you - I saved the page, heh heh.) They should read more closely, especially if they're just snagging a report. Macworld should be more careful. If you're just going to cri b (like me), at least get the dates right. Tsk tsk.
Ahem. Back to the story.
Development for the Mac platform has been lackluster and perfunctory of late, b
ut with the increasing popularity and acceptance of Macs and OS X as part of the halo effect of the various Apple "side" projects, apparently
the group has re-thought their commitment to the Mac community and redoubled e
fforts to develop the suite for the platform, and assigned a few more people to
the project. But - a year?
Version 3.0 is being designed for OS X 10.5, although by then 10.6 might be the
prevailing OS for the Mac.
A year might be too long for most people. Like me. This is one instance where I
literally can't wait. And I don't mean that in a good way.
Those of you with 
While users are reasonably
assured that the iPhone screen is relatively scratch-proof, a
pparently it isn't shatter-proof.
Some folk are finding their iPhones with shattered screens, for various reasons
, and Apple refuses to cover this in the warranty. The repair,
not surprisingly, costs more than the phone itself. According to Apple, a new
glass screen (just the glass screen, not the touch-sensitive surface) costs US$
250 plus tax and shipping. Doh!
A dude going by the name of Epic Proportions on The So
mething Awful Forums pulled out his week-old iPhone from his pocket an
d saw that the screen, for some reason, had shattered. Dismayed by Apple's resp
onse to his cry for help, he figured out a way to fix it for US$5 and some time
and elbow grease.
Read about the story of Epic Proportions and get a step-by-step of his ingeniou
s workable solution here.
The Apple Event in Regent Street's done, and we're basically u
nderwhelmed. Just the rollout announcement of the iPhone for t
he UK. No earthshakers, no surprises, no open-line 3G units. Here are the uh, h
igh points:
- O2 is the official
suckercarrier - Rollout will be on November 9
- 8GB iPhones will cost approx US$535
- You can transfer your existing number from other carriers
- Same banana - use iTunes to activate, update
- Nothing new - no 16gb, no 3g, no open lines, no nothin'
- No news on carriers for other European countries
Ten days
after the last update, iTunes goes through another one today -
motivated by the continuing struggle for and against ringtone usage and creati
on.
iTunes 7.4.2 for Mac and Windows is up, and claims to address an issue with creating ringtones using 
An LCD engineer from Taiwan posted on the Apple Discussions pa
ge on the Apple Support site today a possible explanation for the Negative Black Effect plaguing the n
ew iPod Touch as being poor quality control with the anti-reflective (
AR) coating on the screens. The engineer says:
The AR coating is essentially a clear layer that prevents light fro m reflecting off of that surface. What's happening here is the upper glass laye r is reflecting light from the LCD screen back down onto the said screen. Witho ut an AR coating you get exactly what you see - shimmering blacks. The problem isn't noticeable with vibrant colors on screen. Rotating the screen will change the way this light is reflected to your eyes and may minimize the problem, but since the LCD was engineered to give best color output when looking straight o n, you're left with a losing battle.No official response yet from Apple, but the AR coating theory seems as good an explanation as any. Let's hope it's this simple.
Apple's just released a software update for the 3G iPo
d nano, iPod Classic and iPod Touch.
The iPod_26.1.0.1.ipsw update "fixes bugs", and is available o
nly by syncing a new iPod on iTunes. The update cannot as yet
be downloaded directly from the Apple website nor through Software Upda
te. So those who can, please do.
iPod with an iPhone error message.
Amazing how Apple can tweak the software so that Linux
and other operating systems that don't natively run iTunes are SOL where the new iPods are concerned, or tweak an app or hardware f
or the iPod so that it doesn't compete with an iPhone and artificially and self
-servingly segment the market (such as pulling out the ability to enter new eve
nts in iCal, or pull the Bluetooth out) --- b
ut are so lazy they can't even seem to clean up the iPhone software code th
ey're recycling to use in the iPod.
Sheesh.
(That's my pet name for the ungainly and awkward "iPod Touch", by the way;
some folk call it the iTouch, but I think not. Besides, TouchPod has a nice ring to it, don't you agree?)
Something called the "negative black effect" (speak about inappropriate names)
is appearing in an increasing number of TouchPods.
Reports have surfaced earlier this weekend as the TouchPods began selling at Apple Stores that the new screens seem to be inferior to the iPh
one's, contrary to the Jobster's (stupid name; but Ste
vester seems worse) statement that screens are the same. Blacks aren't
as black, and colors seem washed out, as in this side-by-side pic from Gizmodo (iPhone on the bottom):
More units seem to have it worse: some TouchPods' black portions look like the
shimmery, odd blacks you get from film negatives (hence the "negative black eff
ect" name), and they seem to be a spotty and erratic phenomenon. Look at this c
omparison from Apple-Touch.com (iPhone on top):
Apple seems to be taking in defective units and replacing them without question
(which is a tacit admission that a problem exists), but sometimes the replacem
ents themselves have similar problems. No official statement yet.
Caveat emptor. Certainly a strong argument against early adoption, and
for waiting for the first revision. Or just waiting for the 16gb, 3G, open-lin
e iPhone that everyone seems to be expecting. Hmm.
Check out a sampling of reports from Apple-Touch, Tech.Blorge, Gizmodo and En
gadget.
Something called the "negative black effect" (speak about inappropriate names)
is appearing in an increasing number of TouchPods.
Reports have surfaced earlier this weekend as the TouchPods began selling at
More units seem to have it worse: some TouchPods' black portions look like the
shimmery, odd blacks you get from film negatives (hence the "negative black eff
ect" name), and they seem to be a spotty and erratic phenomenon. Look at this c
omparison from Apple-Touch.com (iPhone on top):
Apple seems to be taking in defective units and replacing them without question
(which is a tacit admission that a problem exists), but sometimes the replacem
ents themselves have similar problems. No official statement yet.
Caveat emptor. Certainly a strong argument against early adoption, and
for waiting for the first revision. Or just waiting for the 16gb, 3G, open-lin
e iPhone that everyone seems to be expecting. Hmm.
Check out a sampling of reports from Apple-Touch, Tech.Blorge, Gizmodo and En
gadget.
It's the one we've been waiting for: an iPod Touch autopsy, an
d the gang at Ifixit have obliged us once again, God bless the
m.
See the wonderful carnage here.
Apple's just issued iMac Software Update Ver. 1.1 for the new aluminum iMacs. The usually loquacious compan
y says
This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20- inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.Gee, thanks for that. Other sites say that the update fixes monitor concerns an d upgrades the the ATI Radeon HD cards that ship in the iMacs. Available through Software Update, or directly here. I haven't updated yet (requires a restart, and I wanted to post this first just in case it tanks the computer), but will do so after posting and tell you what improvements show up, if any. UPDATE: Didn't tank. No visible improvements either. Will keep looking.
Apparently the things are on Apple Store shelves already, and
our colleagues at AppleInsider have scored an early 16gb unit
and did an Unpack pictorial.
For those among us who immensely enjoyed the downloadable Features Guid
e we previously posted about, this is way better. Apparently the box i
s smaller than the iPhone's (as is the unit itself), and comes
with a picture of Corrine Bailey Rae on it (which is just fin
e where the Doodler is concerned - she's a favorite).
MacADoodle hopes to get its unit next week and do something si
milar, but you can see AppleInsider's first look
here.
Reports have come out that Apple has tweaked the new i
Pods (Classic, Touch, nano) so that iTunes breaks when you use the Linux operating system.
Some folk who like Linux a whole lot (or dislike Apple in general) have repurpo
sed the older iPods to run off Linux instead, but Apple seems to have inserted
new code into the iTunes DB file in the player in the hidden <
strong>i_PodControl/iTunes folder that disables the database and shows
exactly zero songs on the player.
Knowing the usual suspects, this qualifies as a minor nuisance. After the
Those of you itching to get your hands on an iPod Touch but ca
n't yet may well settle for the next best thing: an instruction manual.
A detailed, 85-page PDF file has been put online by Apple. Get
the 6.8mb Features Guide PDF here.
Shred heaven!
Aspyr and Activision have announced that Being developed and published exclusively by Aspyr, the PC and Mac versions will match their console counterparts with explosive new content and f eatures including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss batt les, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. With more than 70 songs in the set list, and more original master tracks than e ver before, players will be able to shred from many of the freshest and hottest artists today, along with many of the most popular rock songs ever recorded. E xpanded online multiplayer game modes will also allow PC and Mac enthusiasts to rip head-to-head against players around the world and across either platform, raising the level of competition for true legendary rock status.
A hundred bucks? iPhoneSIMFree be damned. Some guys from the iPhone Dev Team have created a free software unlocker, and the app and the sou
rce code are available on the net from their site and mirrored on Gizmo
do. Get the unlock file source code 
Found a coupla updates through Software Update this morning.
There's a Quicktime compatibility update for iLife (Version 1, 18.7mb), and a keyboard software update for users of the new
aluminum version (Version 1.2, 22.9mb). For seemingly simple things, they sure
are hefty.
I'm a bit interested in the last one, because it seems to promise more features
for the keyboard, but I'm holding off installing it first on the remote chance
it might hose the system (hey, it might happen; Apple's havin
g it too good lately, the streak might end), but mainly because it requires me
to restart the system and I'm in the middle of some serious torrenting. Will up
date you on exactly what this one does in a bit.
As usual, we are overwhelmed by the avalanche of details provided by Apple.
(No, silly. Segmentation. S-e-g-m-e-n-t-a-t-i-o-n. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
Once upon a time I worked pro-bono at a small computer store, a young
man selling software and generally being an early version of someone who might
work at an Apple Genius Bar, offering sage advice and tips (on
ly back then it was 1988, Macs didn't exist, and the A
pple II+ ruled). People, discovering what they could do with their App
le IIs, came in looking for software they could use, like for desktop publishin
g, spreadsheets and word processing. Trying like hell to be helpful, I would us
ually recommend the latest and the best.
One day, someone came in looking for Broderbund's Print Shop,
which was by then old and janky, and I told them to get the The New Pri
nt Shop instead, which was better, faster and had nicer graphics libra
ries.
My boss observed me doing this and pulled me aside. "What are you doing?" he as
ked.
"Selling software, boss."
"Don't sell them the new ones right off! These guys don't know any better. Get
them to buy the older stock, and when they come back complaining that it doesn'
t do much, then you tell them there's something newer and better, and would the
y like to buy that one too? So you get two sales instead of one!"
"But that's - "
"That's business."
I never forgot that lesson. And I also never stopped believing that that was wr
ong.
It was one thing if we didn't have The New Print Shop in stock yet, but still,
my instinct was full disclosure: tell them there was something better, we just
didn't have it in the store yet, but in the meantime would you settle for the o
lder version? It was entirely another to have to pretend otherwise or feign ign
orance just so you could make a sale.
Apple Inc. isn't doing this sort of thing exactly, but close e
nough to make me feel like they are a lot like my old boss in that old computer
store.
This
hullabaloo about them removing the ability
to add new events on the Calendar app directly on the iPod Touch smacks of selling old Print Shop. You can add events on yo
ur computer, which uploads to the iPod when you sync, but you can't add it on t
he fly. The fact that you can do this on an iPhone grates - th
ere's no reason why you shouldn't be able to on a Touch, except for the fact th
at Apple is deliberately segmenting the products just to make more bucks. Like
getting old Print Shop when we can get The New Print Shop anyway. Sure, they ar
e a business, they can do what they want - but still. It's not right.
Makes me wonder about that missing Bluetooth feature too. Shame o
n you, Apple.
The Doodler's favorite teardown authority and parts/upgrade si
te, iFixIt, is at it again. If you'd like
to see take-aparts of the new fat nano and the thin Cl
assic, look no further.
See the guts and glory by clicking on the relevant pod: iPod nano; iPod Classic.
Can't wait to see their iPod Touch feature.
As of Sept. 10, 74 days after the initial release.
Jobs says the iPod took two years to hit a mil.
Those a
mong us terminally obssessive-compulsive about getting album art for every
song on your iPod, your solution is here - and hi-res at
that!
Just visit Josh's iTunes Album Art G
rabber (...because album art is nice), a blog that ...grabs you album art.
It's all free, which means it's all good. And it's all 1425 x 1425 pixels (if
available). All you need do is type in the album and the artist name. So go ge
t grabbing before the site is shut down. Things this good often are.
...the fanboy who writes this: Writer. Editor. Ineffable ass who loves Macs and
is unapologetic about it. His favorite saying: "If the world had no fences or
walls, we wouldn't need Gates or Windows."
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start bl
ogging!
...the fanboy who writes this: Writer. Editor. Ineffable ass who loves Macs and
is unapologetic about it. His favorite saying: "If the world had no fences or
walls, we wouldn't need Gates or Windows."
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start bl
ogging!
A leaked print ad from T-Mobile in Germany seems to indicate t
hat the forthcoming iPhone release in Europe will be 3
G-enabled, using HSDPA and the European UMTS<
/strong>, and will have 16gb storage, like the new iPod Touch
. Makes sense. It'll sell for US$687 and be released on November 12, according
to the leaked ad, shown below. Let's all take this with a grain or two of salt,
as usual. Nothing confirmed, not even T-Mobile being the official carrier in G
ermany. (Picture snagged from Electronista.)
The new iPod Class
ics sport a ton of storage - 160 gigs to be exact; about 40,000 songs,
give or take a few grand. For a few people, that still might not be enough.
Here's the solution: ShrinkMyTunes.
This new commercial app compresses your songs even further, often twice as much
, with no appreciable loss in quality - so you can squeeze off roughly a third
of a terabyte from an iPod classic, and listen to 80,000 songs. That's roughly
7.5 months of continuous listening with no repeats, if my math is correct.
It's relatively tiny - a 2mb app, and has no frills to speak of: only two setti
ngs are available - Better Compression, and Better Quality. I
t uses a NASA-designed algorithm ("content sensitive heuristic
optimization algorithm") that trims off excess and redundant sound, and adjust
s sound quality downward so that it compresses better, without unduly compromis
ing the music. If you can live with it, it'll at least double your storage. Thi
s'll be great for the legions of 8gb and 4gb iPhone users, shufflers and for the coming horde of 8gb and 16gb iPod Touch users.
It works for most MP3 players, not just the iPods, and maintains all the tags a
nd info after conversion, which averages about 30 seconds per song. You get 2x
compression in most cases, 4x in others, like audiobooks and spoken word files.
There are gotchas, though: only works for MP3 and WAV
files, is audio-only, and worst, it's for Windows on
ly for now. AAC and Mac support coming within
the year, don't worry.
US$39.95. Here.
Breaking News: Boi
ng Boing confirms that there is no Bluetooth feature
in the new iPod Touch. Despite obvious "evidence" on A
pple's own sites (and reported everywhere on the net, even here), an App
le spokesman Boing Boing, uh, spoke to unequivocally says there is no Bluetooth of any kind in the new iPod.
We were all just imagining that little squiggle then. Hmph.
See the denial through Boing Boing here. Doink doink!
Been using a new alumin
um iMac for a couple of weeks now and been loving it.
I've been a Mac user for so long I've acquired the hard carapa
ce of a smug veteran who doesn't know half as much as he thinks he does, and as
such, regularly doesn't even deign to crack open a manual, thinking it's benea
th him. There are piles of immaculate, pristine, never-touched shrink-wrapped m
anuals from generations of Macs and iPods in a box somewhere in the house. This
iMac's is still in its big box, untouched.
I picked up a new Macworld issue the other day and was leafing
through it. I found a review of the new iMac, and wondering if the writer and
I had the same observations, read it. Also, I'm writing up one of my own, and
was curious to see if I'd missed anything. I haven't yet, so I was miffed to re
ad something I did - that the new iMac can continue to charge
iPods hooked up to the USB ports even if the iMac was asleep, somethin
g it couldn't do before.
Hah. Ok. Something I would've know if I regularly RTFM.
So moral of the story? Read the effing manual! And, that the new iMacs can char
ge iPods off the USB ports even if the iMac is asleep! So there.
If the Doodler
had bought an iPhone, he would've been mightily bumm
ed the other day when Apple dropped the prices by US$200 at the Apple i
Pod event. I have a gaggle of friends here who, encouraged by the rece
nt emergence of easy unlocking techniques in our neighborhood, all bought iPhon
es in the past couple of weeks. I understand they have all taken to wearing bas
eball caps to hide all the hair they have torn out after Jobs's announcement.
Well, they'd just be half-bummed now.
Due to the firestorm of complaints from recent customers, Jobs has relented. St
eve today released an open letter on the Apple site that says,
in part
... we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product a t an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being work ed out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned.Ok, that's better'n nothin'. Full text of the letter here.
Some eagle-eyed German Apple fans have divined a little detail
on their webpage for the iPod Touch that Steve Jobs seems to have forgotten to mention - Bluetooth on the
new player. This opens up a whole new Pringles can of worms (albeit good worms,
to be sure). See the upper right hand corner of the pic above, that tiny littl
e symbol beside the battery icon? Well, I'll be damned.
One wonders why the Jobster forgot to announce it. Or maybe it was a feature th
ey removed before the announcement, but someone forgot to tell the graphic arti
st setting up the website. Whatever. But like I keep saying, it's all good.
See the pic in context on the German Apple site here. Then if you got time to kill, go th
rough the other pics with a magnifying glass to see if there's anything else we
missed and tell us about it.
See yesterday's Apple Event for yourself through streaming vid
eo from the Apple site. Click here.
Fresh on the iTunes Store, minutes after the event:
Gotta sleep. It's 2:30am here, man.
Gotta sleep. It's 2:30am here, man.
Event's over. Whew. More words later. Pics first (cribbed from Engadget
, who defied orders to turn off electronic devices during the event an
d photoblogged everything as it happened - get their full story here, and from Macworld here), and some mon
osyllabic commentary on them.
New iTunes. Ringtones.
Anticlimactic: The [Product]Red shuffle and the (not-so-ugly-a
fter-all) fat nano were announced. No-brainers:
New iPod Classic - thinner; 80gb, 30 hours audio; 160 gb, 40 h
ours audio.
Aha! Knew it! iPod Touch!!! With wifi! Safari! YouTube! The Wifi iTunes Music Store! Shipping worldwide within the month!!!
8gb (US$299) and 16gb (US$399)!
And a ...Starbucks partnership? Uhhhh ...okay, if you say so,
Steve.
Crushing news for those who just bought an 8gb iPhone: effecti
ve immediately, it'll be priced at US$399 (as much as the new 16gb iPod Touch).
That's it! Hangover commentary later.
New iPod Classic - thinner; 80gb, 30 hours audio; 160 gb, 40 h
ours audio.
Aha! Knew it! iPod Touch!!! With wifi! Safari! YouTube! The
And a ...Starbucks partnership? Uhhhh ...okay, if you say so,
Steve.
Crushing news for those who just bought an 8gb iPhone: effecti
ve immediately, it'll be priced at US$399 (as much as the new 16gb iPod Touch).
That's it! Hangover commentary later.
The other thing we can't get enough of:
Am monitoring the Apple Event. Can't breathe. Updates later.
Lots and lots of windows open on the iMac, but one has the pre
ttiest sights ever seen on the internet, which we can never get enough of and s
hould see more often.
It's this one:
The Apple media event is today (from my end I'm roughly a hal
f-day ahead of where it'll happen) and once again, us Macheads feel a compulsio
n to predict what might be announced.
It's a damn silly thing to do, and we never learn and do it every single time.
But it's a major side-effect of the Kool Aid. We can't help it. In a little ove
r 12 hours it'll happen, and it'll be all over, and we will all be frantically
going over the new pages on the Apple Store website or firing
up Software Update, or go on our user forums and hyperbolize l
ike idiots. But hours before, we bite our nails and endlessly speculate.
So I'm just going to get it out of my system and be done with it. Here is what
I think.
It's not too bad this time, a lot of stuff from the usual "reliable" sources ar
e getting around. Nothing earthshaking, anyway. I feel that the fat nan
o is a no-brainer announcement, but what I hope for is the the 6G iPod, which seems to have more than a good chance of actually gett
ing launched, whatever new stuff it may incorporate. Also, the [Product
]Red shuffle, which seems a harmless guess. Maybe the official release
date for Leopard, or a new iTunes update. So
me folk (older than me, mostly) are hoping for a Beatles catal
og up on the iTunes Store, but I can live without that (and be
sides, it might even be a Madonna thing, God forbid). Less lik
ely is the iPhone nano nonsense, or a smaller MacBook<
/strong> or that tablet Mac everyone dreams about.
Or it could be absolutely none of these things, and, as Monty Python would put it, something completely different.
In a half-day from now, I'll likely look like an idiot for even putting up this
post, but I wouldn't be a Machead if I didn't.
I don't mind. Whatever happens, it's all good anyway. The beat does go
on.
See you on the other side.
I thought the wh
ole point of the shuffle was to make the most affordable, minimalist digital mu
sic player around, but apparently some folk think otherwise.
See the Heyerdahl special edition diamond-encrusted, pink and
white gold iPod shuffle called the iDiamond.
Currently on display in Oslo until October 1, the not-for-sale, one-of-a-kind d
igital music player's casing and earbuds are made of white and pink gold and
are studded with 430 diamonds (they'd have fitted it with more, I think, but it
was too small.) It's currently valued at US$41,000, or almost PHP1.9M.
Would be a mighty shame to load this up with pirated MP3.
More details he
re.
A developer with the handle "lg" has made a software that gets the iPho
ne's menu screen to scroll.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that lg has created an app
he calls Summerboard, a play on the name of the home screen application 
Photos snagged from 
Some dudes went and hacked an iPhone, only to have the thin g go up in smoke, and burn their fingers in the process.
Find out straight from the hoss's mouth on the Hacintosh forum.
Caveat hax0r.
I'm a big fan of instruction manuals, and I find a perverse sort of pleasure in
reading them - even though I never really do when I get the gadget first. I wi
ng it, trying to see if I could get it to run and at what point I'd actually ha
ve to RTFM.
I believe I once actually had a manual for the first Mac, but of course it's be
en filed away in the Twilight Zone. If you'd like a chance to see how user's ma
nuals for the first Macintosh looked like (yes, Virginia, ther
e were paper instruction books back in the day, made of real paper), check out
this Flickr album from a guy named Peter Merholz, who found an original manual
in a garage sale somewhere. He blogs about it here.
Dated, but still cool, and designed very nicely.
