Macgasm

While Tweetie 2 is still getting some OS X love according to Atebits, most have become annoyed with the application’s lack of support for new features. But Tweetie isn’t the only native OS X Twitter client that has begun to show its age. Twitterific is right up there with them.

When it comes to native OS X Twitter clients, there really isn’t much to choose from any more. The best options on the market seem to be AIR applications. Iconfactory is hoping to fix that finally by releasing a huge update to Twitterrific.  As an aside, it’s kind of funny how people really expect indie developers to act like major software companies with support and feature requests, but complain about the cost of their apps.  Iconfactory, much like the Tweetie team, had shifted their priority to iOS applications, so obviously OS X updates would be a little slower than normal.

Iconfactory has released a little tease on their blog today, complete with a screenshot of Twitterrific 4. There is no firm release date and no real details, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

The name Sylvester Cann may be destined its 15 minutes of fame.

Mr. Cann got President Barack Obama’s signature. That in itself is impressive and worth keeping in the ol’ scrapbook, but instead of pushing a piece of paper and a pen in front of the President, he presented him with his iPad. By the way, as a security precaution, the Secret Service prohibits spectators from bringing pens around the President anyway.

With that, at a Democratic support rally at the University of Washington for Senator Patty Murray, Sylvester Cann fired up his iPad and wrote a quick note using the Adobe Ideas app. The note said, “Mr. President, sign my iPad”

“I just wrote ‘Mr. president sign my iPad,’ and just something to show him very quickly, he could look down and understand and start signing,” Cann said. “I just ran my finger down it just to show him use your finger, just put your autograph on there, as soon as I did that he was on-board. He just took it from me and began signing his name.”

“I will put it up on the digital picture frame so I will always see I have the president’s signature,” Cann said.

Watch the whole thing unfold in this video now posted on Cann’s YouTube page. We’ve embedded the video at the end of the post.

Adobe Ideas

Now back to the app used. Interestingly enough, it’s from Adobe. Apple and Adobe aren’t actually seeing eye-to-eye these days.

At its foundation, Adobe Ideas is a digital sketchbook allowing you to capture and explore your ideas. You can sketch design ideas and take advantage of the following integrated capabilities:

• Simple vector-based drawing tools
• Zoom control without jaggies or big pixels
• Variable sized brushes using multitouch control
• Vector eraser
• Separate drawing and photo layers
• 50-level undo

Adobe Ideas is a free app and is available for both the iPhone and the iPad. Click here for the iPhone version and here for the iPad version.

Video of the Obama Signing

Article Via Hewreck

If you’re looking to jailbreak your iOS device, DevTeam has released the latest update to their Pwnage Tool for Mac OS X. Jalibreaking your iPhone or iPad allows you to install other software on the device that is not available on the official App Store, and can add functionality that otherwise might not be available.

However, Pwnage Tool 4.1.2 adds the ability to jailbreak the newly released Apple TV, which is a first. The jailbroken Apple TV currently only gives you the ability to get to the command line via ssh, but not much more than that. So while you might be able to move files around, there’s a long way to go before you can start installing apps on your Apple TV.

Remember folks, if you choose to jailbreak, you are voiding your warranty, but at least you’re not breaking the law.

Making a film can be tricky business. I’ve never made one personally, but know someone who has, and trust me when I say it’s a huge undertaking. While the iPad has had success in many circles around the world, it seems like Hollywood is the latest victim to the “tablet” computing craze that’s been ushered in by the iPad.

The iPad “is the must-carry accessory on sound stages this season, visible behind the scenes of television and film shoots and in business meetings,” according to the New York Times. The iPad is the multifunctional device that most people on set need. It limits paper consumption, and even lets actors and crew members relax a little during their down time.

The iPad is redefining a lot of industries, and it’s going to be exciting to see just how it’s incorporated into the working world around us. Everyone seems to have an idea on how the device could make life easier around the office. Clearly, Apple has a winner on their hands.

Article Via The New York Times

The 500,000 square-foot data center in North Carolina is almost ready to unleash the packets, and Data Center Knowledge is reporting that the the data center is fully operational. If that’s not enough, there’s a rumour floating around North Carolina that Apple plans on doubling the size of the center. The Charlotte Business Journal broke the story, which was later picked up by All Things Digital.

So, what’s the data center for?

It’s been rumoured that the data center could be for streaming services, such as iTunes, MobileMe, and television rentals. With the MacBook Air getting a mediocre sized solid-state drive, it could be possible that Apple’s planning on taking a lot of their services to the cloud. “Saving to disk is slowly becoming a fixture of the past and, as Apple’s recently rejiggered Apple TV business model demonstrates, streaming is the future.” If you’ve spent any time with Google Docs or SimpleNote on the iPad, you know exactly what we mean. Why worry about syncing your computers when you can just access your files in the cloud.

No one knows for sure what kind of packets will be pushed out of the center, but one thing’s for certain: the soon to be one million square-foot data center is expecting to move something huge.

Article Via Apple Insider

FolioBook calls itself a customizable portfolio for the iPad for all image professionals. It’s available on the App Store for $7.99. FolioBook is a great way to show off your photography work; however, you need to cut back on usability when creating your portfolio.

FolioBook uses your stored photos to create a portfolio. You can choose which photos go into one of your FolioBook galleries and are accessible through the portfolio cover. Creating such a gallery is simple, once you’ve mastered the little quirks that Foliobook’s user interface comes with. An example of one of these quirks is adding a picture to the gallery: FolioBook uses iPad’s Popover to display a photo picker. Once you’ve tapped a photo, it’s added to your gallery. If you have a rather large photo, it can take a couple of seconds.

Once you’ve created your gallery, you can configure it with pretty standard settings that you would expect from a photo application. There’s a slideshow feature with different timings and three different transitions. In manual mode, you can swipe through the gallery, as you know it from the Photos App of your iPad. Unfortunately, there are some minor annoyances with the user interface here as well: if you tap a presented picture, a configuration bar fades in, which in my opinion is rather small. It’s quite hard to hit the buttons, and most of the time I had to try a couple of times.

The home screen is customizable in terms of title, background and galleries. In editing mode, you can drag the various elements on the screen to position them, which works smoothly. The backgrounds can be configured to be one of the built-in textures or videos. You can even select one of your own photos.

Unfortunately, the user interface annoyances continue with this feature of FolioBook: if you edit the title of a gallery, you can’t leave the editing mode unless you dismiss the keyboard or go back. I would expect a tap outside the text field to dismiss the keyboard. However, this is only one example of quite a few.

It’s the little things that distinguish a good iPad app from a great iPad app. Although FolioBook is a great idea, it’s far from being a great App. The little annoyances prevail, especially considering the price. Keep in mind that most of the annoyances appear when editing your portfolio. In case this is a one time job for you, FolioBook could be what you were looking for.

iMovie ’11 gained a feature that didn’t get a mention during Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event, but is a pretty great addition to the software. It is listed on Apple’s “What’s new in iMovie?” webpage:

iMovie ’11 lets you publish your movies in more ways to more places. You can export movies to iTunes and watch them on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Apple TV. Share them with your friends on Facebook. Premiere them with a YouTube or Vimeo audience. Publish newsworthy content to CNN iReport. And you can create a video podcast in iMovie and send it directly to Apple Podcast Producer. When you export HD video at full 1920-by-1080p resolution, whatever you share will stun everyone.

While the addition of export options for CNN iReport and Vimeo are pretty cool — and overdue, in my opinion, at least in Vimeo’s case — the real news here is that iMovie will export full-blown 1080p.

While 1080p isn’t widely supported (even by Apple devices), it is the future of video content, even though 720p is far more common at this time.  YouTube added 1080p capabilities almost a full year ago, and of course, Blu-ray is 1080p. The additional data packed into 1080p files is simply stunning.

Blu-ray may be the most interesting possibility here. While it won the recent format war with HD DVD, it still has not shown up in many computers. Apple backed Blu-ray several years ago, but hasn’t added it to the Mac line yet. Maybe this is a step in that direction, even though two years ago, Steve Jobs called Blu-ray “A Bag of Hurt.”

Article Via 9 to 5 Mac

What is one thing that could be keeping people from migrating to eBooks from traditional paper books?  Some might say it’s barrier of entry due to cost, but I would have to say that it is the ability to lend books out to friends or family members.  When you buy an eBook, only the purchaser can read the eBook on their device.  It can’t be leant out.  The only way around this is if everyone in your household has the same account; then, they will be able to read the same book you’re reading.  Barnes and Noble was the first to introduce a fourteen day lending policy on their eBooks.  This is a great way for your friends and family to borrow your eBook, and see if they like it or not.  Possibly even finish reading it, if they are quick readers.  Well, Amazon has decided to be number two in this area, and has jumped on the eBook lending bandwagon.

According to Engadget.com, later this year Amazon “…will let folks lend books they’ve purchased to other Kindle users for a 14-day period, during which the person that actually purchased the book won’t be able to read it themselves.”  I would have preferred that the purchaser still be able to read their eBooks, but alas, it looks as though DRM is still in full effect.  I guess book publishers could not really control what a person did after they purchased a traditional paper book; however, in this digital age we live in, they seem to have that type of control.

Moreover, this is a positive for eBook publishers and makers of eBook devices.  This will further assist in the transition from a paper to a digital medium.  However, there are going to be those who would prefer a traditional book over an eBook.  So there’s no way that you can persuade them to switch.  But, for those that are on the fence or willing to switch, this will make the transition that much easier.  Would this make you switch from traditional books to eBooks?  Let us know by speaking your mind in our comments section below.

Photo Credit: Kindling

Article Via Engadget.com