I may be one of the odd people out when it comes to Mac OS X. While I don’t mind using the Mac OS X client version on my machines, I prefer running Mac OS X Server. I’ve purchased each version of OS X Server since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. When I purchased it, I bought the 10-client license for $499. I also spent another $499 on the unlimited client version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server. This time around I joined the Mac Developer program and was able to use it for the $99 entry price.

One of the biggest reasons for me to choose to go with Mac OS X Server over Mac OS X client is because I do development. Instead of trying to cobble together all of the pieces like MySQL, apache, and PHP on the client version, I can just as easily, and without much effort, use Mac OS X Server. Mac OS X Server has all of the pieces for my development environment already to go out of the box. Sure, I could use alternative options like MAMP, but they are just not as clean nor as easily configured.

One of the major appeals for using Mac OS X Server as a platform is the ease of configuration and the granularity of control when using OS X Server. Mac OS X Lion Server continues this feature set, for the most part.

What’s Macgasmic?

Price

The price of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server is a a mere $49.99. You must download client before converting your server to Server. This significant price drop makes it a 90 percent savings over the previous $499 price-tag for older versions of Mac OS X Server. At this price point it is easily within reach of many prosumers who may wish to dabble in Server administration but don’t wish to fork out a significant amount of money to enjoy their hobby.

Stability

Since Mac OS X 10.7 is an evolution of the Mac OS operating system, one expects stability. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server does not disappoint. Throughout the beta builds the entire operating system was quite stable. There were no kernel panics nor anything that really killed any connectivity. Even with new features, like Launchpad and Mission control, everything worked quite well.

Wiki Server

Mac OS X Server in general has offered a Wiki option since 10.5 Leopard Server. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server offers a significant improvement over Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server’s wiki.

Apple has completely redesigned the Wiki Software, not just externally, but also internally. Instead of being written in python, Apple’s Wiki Server 3 now entirely uses Rails for the infrastructure.

Some of the new Wiki Server 3 features include a new navigation bar, custom project-specific wikis, file sharing, massive search improvements, and email notifications.

Some novice wiki users may choose to look for help documents. These have been completely redesigned too. Under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the Wiki Help pages looked like a WordPress 1.6 page. There was just a blue bar across the top and you basically had to search to find any help documents. This has radically been changed in Wiki Server 3.

Wiki Server 3′s help pages now offer an iOS-like interface for finding items. There is a list of topics on the left, much like the iPad, with the contents on the right. You can even search to help find the specific item you are looking for.

The physical changes include a new navigation bar, which allows you to do creating right from the toolbar. The Login Page for Wiki Server 3 now includes a “Remember Me” function. Therefore users are not required to enter in their username and password every time they visit the page.

The Search within Wiki Server 3 has been noticeably improved. You are now able to search within certain file types. The list of file types includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and even PDFs. It should be no surprise that Pages, Numbers and Keynote are on the list, since these are Apple products. However, the ability to search Word, Excel and even PowerPoint is rather interesting. Obviously Apple recognizes that enterprises use Microsoft’s Productivity suite and may want to upload these files to their Wiki Server in order to make them searchable. This is a nice touch.

The most significant end-user improvement has to be email notifications. Many users find keeping up with comments and page edits to be a daunting task, particularly since you have to manually add the pages to a track list. Well this has changed in Wiki Server 3. Now a user can be notified via e-mail when new comments or page edits have occurred. One would think that this could fill up a user’s inbox rather quickly. Apple has taken this possible annoyance into account. If a number of updates or comments are added to a page rather quickly, a user will receive a single notification of the updates, instead of an individual email every time something is updated.

Wiki Server 3 offers some nice improvements over previous versions. If you rely heavily on Wiki Server, you may want to check out Mac OS X 10.7 Lion’s Wiki Server.

File Sharing with iOS

One of the most significant improvements for the integration of iOS devices in the enterprise is the addition of file sharing for iOS devices through the use of WebDav.

As a system administrator, you can choose which directories are available for iOS sharing through the Server.App File Sharing options.

When you create a Share Point, you can select which options are available on this folder as well. This includes whether or not to use the folder to save iOS files. This feature will go a long way towards allowing iOS devices into the enterprise.

What’s Not?

Apple has dumbed down OS X Server to be easily usable by almost any non-server user. This is great for OS X Server adoption. However, this does not bode well for those who have complex setups and need to manage even a small number of OS X devices.

Server.app

Server.app combines the power of Server Admin with the ease of Server Preferences. You can easily enable and disable individual services with the click of a mouse. This is great for those who may be novices when it comes to server administrator, but this can be rather troublesome for more advanced server administrators.

Server.app dumbs down the configuration options of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. This is done to such an extract that you have very few options for some services. Take Wiki Server for instance. This is the only option available:

Wow, you can either allow everybody or some users to create wikis. Granted, most of the administration is actually done via the Wiki Software, but it is still disappointing to see so few other options that are outside of a user’s control.

VPN Services

Many smaller businesses use Mac OS X Server to be their VPN endpoint for their Macs and iOS devices to connect to, in order to be able to access the corporate network.

With Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, an administrator had a bunch of options available in order for the system administrator to customize their setup. You had two different VPN technologies that you could use: Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) and Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). Now in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server you have only one option: L2TP with IPSec Authentication. You still have the ability to decide what IP address range to assign, but that is the extent of the configuration options.

Despite the lack of configuration options, there is no way to debug VPN connections to see if there is an issue. In addition, there is little information regarding the type of VPN that is configurable on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. Through trial and error I have determined that it is in fact an L2TP VPN, so you can save yourself the troubleshooting to determine exactly what type of VPN is available.

Server Admin Tools

With the change from Server Admin to Server.app as the primary mechanism for managing a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server, the question on how to administer the advanced functions comes into question. Thankfully, Apple has not eliminated Server Admin Tools.

Server Admin Tools does still exist, however you can only manage certain services through the application. In Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server there were a total of 26 different services that could be administered, but with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server there are only 11.

Some of Snow Leopard’s 26 have been combined, like AFP, SMB and NFS. These have been combined under the ‘File Sharing’ service, which is administered through Server.app. Advanced configurations like Open Directory, DNS, DHCP, Firewall, NAT, and Software Update are still present and administered through Server Admin Tools.

The rather disturbing part is that there are a few services that are completely missing from Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. The list is as follows: FTP, MYSQL, QuickTime Streaming, and Print Server. These are just not available in any way, shape or form under Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server, at least not natively. This is rather troublesome for those businesses that rely on any of these services.

The elimination of Print Server is not necessarily a deal breaker for many, but if you were hoping to use a slightly older Mac mini Server as a Lion print server, it isn’t going to happen. Apple has set a dangerous precedent with the removal of Print Services.

Install Time

According to the setup, it was supposed to take approximately 34 minutes to upgrade my install to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. This sure was not the case. It took nearly 90 minutes to do the full installation. The first 75 minutes were the physical install, plus reboot. And the last 15 minutes was the setup after the installation.

To be fair, I am running a 4-year old 2.16GHz MacBook. It is probably the oldest system that will support Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. Despite this, it should not take 90 minutes to install an operating system. So be warned, the timer may not accurately reflect the amount of time to upgrade.

Documentation

When there is a new operating system one would expect some sort of manual or maybe some helpful configuration guides to assist them with the new features of their operating system. Apple has failed to do this.

Sure, you can try to use the help screens but those do not explain a whole lot. For instance, there is no information regarding WebDav at all in the Help of Server.App. This makes it rather difficult to configure your Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server as a file repository for iOS devices.

As mentioned previously, there is no documentation for what type of VPN is configurable with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. If you upgrade your VPN Server, how are you supposed to know which VPN to configure on your clients?

The lack of documentation is quite frustrating when you have no idea what any feature or configuration option means. Flying blind is not a way to operate at all, particularly on a Server platform.

Wiki Server Requirements

I previously mentioned Wiki Server 3 for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server. One problem with Wiki Server 3 is that only certain browsers are supported. The supported browsers are listed here:

Since Safari on Leopard is 5.0, it is supported. However, older systems like Mac OS X 10.4 are not supported at all. If the devices are running a PowerPC processor, they could potentially be upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which does support Safari 5.0. However, it may be at some point in the future where even 10.5 Leopard is not supported for a feature, since Apple is no longer issuing security updates for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Internet Explorer 9 is a brand new release of Microsoft’s Internet browser that many enterprises will not or cannot adopt any time soon. Many enterprises are behind the curve when it comes to upgrading Internet browsers. This can be due to compatibility with their internal software or merely because new browsers can lead to potential security issues.

Web browsers are not the only item that takes a while to upgrade. New operating system adoption within enterprises is notoriously slow. This is mostly due to refresh cycles. Many older hardware systems cannot support the newest operating systems. There are many business still running Windows XP, which cannot support any Microsoft operating system past Internet Explorer 8.

You may be asking, what does Microsoft have to do with Macs? Quite simply, many enterprises are not wiling to put their mission-critical software on a platform that they have not supported previously. Some enterprises may be willing to take a chance on hosting a new item, like a Wiki, on a Mac because it can integrate with their Active-Directory Domains. Using a Mac as a Wiki Server is an excellent way to bring new technology to employees, and simultaneously test a new platform.

Combining the minimum requirement for Windows Vista, which does support Internet Explorer 9, and the inability to use their older clients could have some enterprises looking elsewhere for another solution. I know that this may be a very small percentage of enterprises, but with many C-level executives using Macs, adoption may ultimately be inevitable.

Web Hosting

The biggest disappointment in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server is the lack of granularity regarding website hosting, particularly for me since I develop almost solely by using Mac OS X Server as my web development platform.

With OS X Leopard Server and OS X Snow Leopard Server, an administrator had the option of deciding which modules were to be supported within their server. If they wanted to allow python scripts to be run, allow WebDav capabilities or even allow PHP to run, they could. Now with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server you do not have these options.

You can control whether PHP is enabled, but any advanced GUI controls are completely missing. If you really need advanced controls you can jump into Terminal and use your typing skills to make everything work the way you want. But be warned, your configurations may be overwritten if you change something via the GUI. This is a major disappointment for server administrators. Sure, you can compile Apache’s HTTP server from source-code, but then why not just use Mac OS X 10.7 Lion client and save some money.

Conclusion

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server is a solid upgrade for those who are already used to running Mac OS X Server. You cannot beat the low price tag of $49.99. Try finding a brand new retail copy of Windows Server for that price. The change from using Server Admin Tools to using Server.app can be a bit baffling for long-term Mac Server admins, but will make it quite simple for novice admins to learn Mac OS X Server. Sure, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server has its share of problems, but they can be fixed over time. If you feel like dipping your toes into Mac OS X Server, the $49.99 price tag will make it much more palatable. So, hop on in to the Mac OS X Server world.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Remember when AT&T was hacked back in June of 2010, and the hackers stole the information for 114,000 iPad users? Well, most people may not remember, but the United States judicial system definitely remembers because they charged a second man in the iPad data theft.

Back on June 6th, 2010, Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler found a way to hack into AT&T’s system and stole the e-mail addresses and the ICC-ID numbers of 114,000 Apple iPad 3G owners. The hack compromised emails of Fortune 500 CEOs, military officers, and politicians. Mr. Auernheimer has been charged by a US Grand Jury with one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers as well as one count of identify theft.

Both of the defendants were said to be associated with “Goatse Security.” Goatse Security is a hacking group that is focused on disrupting online content and services. Goatse Security has not been very active, but does have some information regarding their recent exploits on their website.

Source: Reuters
Via: Boy Genius Report
Image Credit: Reuters

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It looks like the rumors of Mac OS X Lion being closer to release are true. Boy Genius Report is reporting Apple has given developers access to a potential Gold Master seed of Mac OS Lion.

As expected it is being pushed out via the Mac App Store to developers. Rumors have been swirling around that Apple is set to release Mac OS X 10.7 Lion to the masses as early as next week.

The only issue I see with the release date of next week is that we have not yet heard that developers are submitting 10.7 Lion Applications to the Mac App Store. If this is not done relatively soon, like within hours, the release date could be pushed back.

Source: BoyGeniusReport
Image Credit: Apple

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Since the initial release of the iPhone back in 2007, many users have despised AT&T and wished to defect to T-Mobile. This could be accomplished in a number of different ways. Most of these have been through the use of Sim Unlock workarounds that are generally done through jailbreaking applications.

Well, Apple has changed the game. Instead of needing to go to the Jailbreak community, you can now go directly to Apple for an unlocked phone. Be prepared to pony up a significant amount of money should you wish to go this route. It will cost you $649 for a 16GB unlocked iPhone or $749 for a 32GB unlocked iPhone. This is significantly above the contract price of $199 and $299 respectively.

The latest tidbit is that Apple Stores are now able to unlock AT&T iPhones as well, in addition to selling unlocked iPhones. Apple appears to have their system set up so that if they sell an AT&T iPhone 4 as ‘Device Only,’ they will also be unlocked just as if they were an unlocked device.

This is a definite plus for Apple Stores, should they be low on the unlocked version and have a customer who wants to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4. Despite this ability, I wonder how often this will need to be done given the retail price for the phones. I wonder if this is a prelude to an unlocked iPhone 5 available right at, or very soon after, launch. It would be something I may look into instead of signing another contract with AT&T. It would be killer if it was available on T-mobile 3G frequencies as well.

Via: Business Insider
Source: 9to5Mac
Image Credit: Apple

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One of the most anticipated features of iOS 4 was its wireless printing feature, dubbed AirPrint. The service allows users to print directly from iOS devices. AirPrint was supposed to utilize any printers shared by Macs on the same local network as the iOS device. While this feature was cut before release, third party applications do exist to enable it. Despite AirPrint not being as powerful as it once was, HP has not stopped adding new AirPrint printers to the fray.

There are now eight additional printers that are AirPrint-enabled. The new list consists of seven black and white printers, as well as one color, five of which are multi-function printers.

The total number of Airport-enabled printers is now up to 27 printers. Of the 27, five of them are available to purchase directly from Apple’s website. If you are somebody who needs to print a lot of items but you don’t want to hassle with emailing items and then printing from your Mac, there should be a printer available from HP that suits your needs.

If you have any questions regarding AirPrint be sure to check out Apple’s support document for the technology.

Article via MacStories
Photo credit: Apple

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When Apple announced that they were going to kill off the Xserve, many enterprises clamored against the decision and wanted some sort of solution for running servers. Apple did offer the Mac Pro server. While this is an option, it is not truly mountable within a standard 19-inch rack, which is the standard within enterprise data centers.

The newest rumor is that Apple may be preparing the next refresh of Mac Pros. One of the models in this refresh, Mac Pro Server, may be coming a step closer to being the true replacement of now defunct Xserve by offering rack-mounting. M.I.C. Gadget is the one reporting this rumor. The addition of rack-mounting may finally satisfy the enterprise market . This update would only apply to the aforementioned Server version of the Mac Pro and not to the other Mac Pros in the line.

In addition to being rack-mountable, there is also a rumor that the new Mac Pros will contain a custom processor that has been developed specifically for the Mac that has not been seen in any PC. However, it does not rule out that it may potentially be produced for the PC at some point in the future.

The third tidbit regarding the Mac Pros is a bit more troublesome for enterprises. The rumor states that the ability to hot-swap hard drives may be disappearing from the Mac Pros. Hot-swapping, for those who may not know, is the ability to replace an entire hard drive without shutting down the computer to perform the replacement. This may not be a problem for most Mac Pro owners, but this can be a deal-breaker for those contemplating purchasing a Mac Pro Server. The Mac Pro Server market requires the ability to keep the server running with as little downtime as possible and eliminating the ability to hot-swap hard drives would significantly reduce the uptime.

The last potentially irksome rumor is that the power supplies are not going to be interchangeable. This means that you will have to buy an Apple power supply if yours decides to take a nose dive. This is the most problematic for users since Apple tends to add a bit to the price of their hardware to maintain their margins and buying only a replacement power supply from Apple is not going to be cheap.

Of course, we have no idea if any of these rumors will come to fruition. I would like to see a rack-mountable Mac Pro Server option. Many end-users may not be affected by the Mac Pro refresh, but many enterprises will be eagerly waiting to see what new features are offered, besides the requisite speed-bump, with the new Mac Pro line.

Article Via Apple Insider
Photo Credit: Glenn Batuyong

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Interestingly, there is one company that is opting out of iCloud and the iTunes Match service. Numero Group, a small Chicago-based music label, has decided it does not want to take any part in iTunes Match, and they have explained their reasoning in a blog post.

Basically, Numero Group has stated that they feel that the laws that are already in place to protect copyrights for songs are sufficient. By participating in iCloud, they would be being pushing aside the laws and hurting their constituents. Furthermore, Numero goes on to state that they believe that the big music labels are not going to receive any real monetary gain from the arrangement with Apple.

The Los Angeles Times reached out to Rick Sevier, head of the Numero Group, to get some clarification of The Numero Group’s stance regarding iCloud. Sevier offered the analogy to the Los Angeles Times that Apple is offering an original painting in place of the counterfeit copies.

I can agree that perhaps iCloud’s iTunes Match may be be a bit under-priced given what one could effectively get with the service. However, I am not sure how much Numero would have received. I was looking through its catalog and I could not find a single artist that I had actually heard a song from. Granted, I am not heavy into the Blues and Soul scene, which is primarily what the Numero Group publishes.

Only time will tell if any other smaller publishers decide to not partake in iCloud.

Article Via TUAW
Photo Credit: Numero Group

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MacRumors has reportedly received an email from Steve Jobs regarding the demise of another application that is currently supported on MobileMe. The application that has become this casualty: iWeb.

iWeb, for those who may not know, is an application that Apple created to allow the easy creation of websites that can publish to Apple’s MobileMe. Through iWeb, websites could be created simply by dragging and dropping photos, music and widgets.

The email that MacRumors reportedly received is from a user asking if they will be required to “find an alternative website builder and someone to host…” their site. The reported answer is “Yep.”

It should be no surprise that with the MobileMe to iCloud transition iWeb would be killed off. However, it does leave the non-website creators in a bit of a pickle. They will have to both find a new website host as well as redirect their website. This sounds like a killer feature for a web-hosting company to create, the “Transfer your entire MobilMe website to our site” feature.

Article Via MacRumors

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It looks like Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ) in the UK is changing its style when it comes to subscriptions. Subscribers to the magazine will get the iPad version free.

According to Pocket-lint, Conde Nast is currently negotiating with Apple to arrange this deal. There isn’t an exact date for when this transition will occur, nor when the deal will be sealed, but it is coming.

This is not the first time that a magazine-subscriber can get the iPad edition for free, and it certainly will not be the last. The interesting part with this deal is that if you are under 17, you will not be able to download the application from the iTunes App Store due to restrictions regarding language and references to substances.

Until the deal is finalized, potential subscribers can download the app for free and use the in-app purchase to purchase an individual issue for $3.99.

Article Via TUAW

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The Mac has 54 million users, and the growth of Mac industry has gone up 28% year over year while the PC industry has shrunk just under 1%. Most people — 73% to be exact — who own a Mac seem to own a Notebook, while the remaining 27% own a desktops.

Gestures

There are 250 new features within Lion, 10 of which were highlighted by Apple in the keynote. The first feature is mutli-touch gestures. If you swipe three fingers left or right, you can swap between spaces. If you swipe left, you’ll go to the Dashboard. Two-finger swipes will allow you to navigate within Safari so you no longer need to use the back and forward buttons, if you don’t want to.

Scrolls bars have been removed from the User Interface, until you need them, and then they re-appear. You can use multi-touch gestures in order to navigate throughout the operating system, and from one application to another.

Full Screen Apps

Full screen apps like Safari, Mail, and iTunes were also demonstrated. Apple’s productivity suite iWork as well as iLife will all have full-screen applications. Developers can also create full-screen applications that create a single-task look and feel. This may increase productivity for some users who prefer to focus on a single task as opposed to the myriad of tasks that are typically visible on a given computer screen.

For Safari you can go to View -> Enter Full Screen and you will be put entirely into full-screen view for that application. In order to access the menus while in full-screen, you only need to move the mouse towards the top of the screen and the Menu bar will appear automatically. It works by expanding your current application to the full resolution of your monitor.

Mission Control

The third feature is Mission control. Within Mission control you can view all of your applications in one view. This combines the two previous features of Expose and Spaces into one view. Mission control will make it easier for users to see exactly what is running so they can find the thing they are looking for much quicker than having to search individual space.

Mission Control is a separate application and once you open it you get a screen that shows all of your applications and you can click on whichever application you want to view. After clicking, it will bring that application forward. If you wish to move it into a new desktop you just need to click and drag the application to the top and it will automatically create a new desktop.

Photo Booth

Photo Booth can do facial tracking which allows real-time following of a user while creating or streaming video. This is a huge advancement that will allow better user-generated content. Prepare to see a bunch of videos from people in the Apple Store posted on YouTube.

Spaces

You can create new spaces, within Mission Control, by just previewing an application, and it will bring all of the windows with that application along to the new space. This will make it easier for users to keep items organized instead of having to drag 100 different text edit documents individually.

These are just a few of the new features within Mac OS X Lion. If you don’t have a trackpad or a Magic mouse, you may want to grab one in order to take full advantage of the Mac OS X Lion features.

Photo and Article Via This is my Next Live Blog

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There are a few Apple technologies —old, new and yet to be released — where I am left wondering what its true function is and Apple’s ultimate goal in developing it. I also have to wonder how each technology fits into Apple’s overall strategy to help them achieve their grand vision. I’m going to go through a bunch of these technologies and give you my thoughts and predictions.

FaceTime

One of Apple’s goals is to eventually have FaceTime become an industry standard. To date this has not happened, which can only be hindering the adoption of FaceTime. FaceTime has been able to work between iOS devices as well as on Macs. The integration between the two is essential to the ultimate success of FaceTime.

There is one aspect that has been lacking in communication mediums: iChat. iChat has not had any significant upgrade in quite a long time. This application has been left to flounder. Yes, it works for MobileMe as well as chatting with those on AIM and Google Talk but there has been no other integration with iChat and other messaging platforms like MSN, Skype, or Facebook. We know this integration is possible because clients like Adium have already implemented these services.

The last piece of this that is somewhat bothersome is the isolation of FaceTime and iChat. Why is FaceTime not integrated into iChat or vice versa? I would think that most people would like to use a single instant messaging/video conference software rather than needing multiples clients just to be able to talk to whomever they choose. If FaceTime were to become standard, its marketshare could grow significantly without Apple needing to do much in terms of actual implementation, outside of API and Frameworks.

MobileMe

As almost everybody knows by now, Apple has officially acknowledged the existence of iCloud by sending out a Press Release highlighting the topics that are going to be covered at their WWDC 2011 Keynote. We do not know for certain what iCloud will ultimately entail, but this is by no means Apple’s first cloud service.

Apple’s MobileMe, and its previous incarnation .Mac, have been around since July of 2002. To date, MobileMe has been very limited in scope. MobileMe consists of iDisk for storage, Calendars, Address Book, Photo Galleries, and Find my iOS device. These are all great services; however, they are limited in total scope for what MobileMe could house when it fully matures.

MobileMe allows easy website hosting through iWeb, and it currently offers a quick way to publish photos to Galleries via iPhoto and via your iOS device. These features all work well together, and there is great integration with other Apple products, so this is a definite positive.

Don’t get me wrong — MobileMe has come a LONG way since its initial launch problems. The addition of Find my iOS device in 2010 was a fantastic addition that allows a user to locate their device. But there has not been a whole lot added since the launch.

iWork and iWork.com

MobileMe hasn’t been the only Apple cloud service that has not received many updates. Apple’s iWork.com has been in beta since January 2009. Since the release there has been very few updates to iWork.com and it has remained in beta since its launch. Support for iWork for iPad has been added as well as some performance improvements, but not much else.

Similarly, there has been no update to iWork since January of 2009, the same time that the beta of iWork.com was unveiled. iWork ’09 is mostly file-compatible with the iOS version, and you can share items to iWork.com from both iOS and Mac but there has been no real strategy around iWork.com except the ability to view shared files.

I foresee iWork ’12 being released along with a major update to iWork.com. I also anticipate that iWork.com will come out of beta as a full-fledged product that offers the current sharing feature, as well as new editing capabilities for full creation and editing functionality from your iOS device or your Mac. I will even go so far as to say that I think we will see a full iWork suite available online, much like Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 offerings. Cloud-based productivity products are not likely to overtake locally installed productivity suites, but they could be an interesting offering by Apple. And of course, this will be available via the Mac App Store.

Time Capsule/Airport

We have recently heard the rumor that Apple’s Time Capsules and AirPort Express supplies are running low. We’re not sure why they’re low, but the rumor is that the new devices will cache iOS and Mac OS X updates locally instead of having to download the updates from Apple and update your devices from your Mac. This could be an interesting change should this rumor pan out because it could change the process of updates. I would like to see this, but I would also like to see a way to share iWork files locally much like iWork.com except in a more local context.

On the topic of caching and updating wirelessly, one of the most desired features for iOS is the ability to wirelessly sync your iOS device with your computer. Interestingly, there was an app rejected by Apple that would do just this. This app was rejected despite being fully within Apple’s guidelines and using only approved APIs. The rejected app proves that this functionality can exist, and I would hope to see this within iOS 5.

iOS 5

iOS 5 can potentially hold a lot of surprises within its bytes of software. There is a rumor that states that Twitter will have deep integration within iOS 5. This should come as no surprise given that Twitter is a popular communication service. Usage with Twitter could explode given the sheer number of iOS devices that are in existence now and the potential user base as new iOS devices are sold.

If this rumor is true, the implementation of Twitter is going to be the key to the success of iOS 5. If Twitter is just a slightly integrated experience, it may not work as well as one could expect. However, knowing Apple, they will go all out and Twitter will have its tentacles all over the place within iOS 5.

I have been pondering a question regarding this possible implementation, Why stop at just Twitter? Why not implement Facebook, AIM, and even Skype in this same manner? I think Apple, if it wants to jump even further ahead of other platforms, needs to create APIs that will allow developers to integrate their applications more intimately with iOS 5.

Imagine a developer integrating Skype notifications right into a global notification view or even being allowed to put a list of to-do items right on the lock screen. This would allow a user to just hit the power or home button and see what is next on their to-do list. This is not a new concept, but it has not yet been implemented by Apple.

OS X Lion

On the subject of iOS, as you may already know, Lion is going to get some new features that are directly from iOS. The first of these is Launchpad, which looks a lot like the iOS home screen. Launchpad even allows Folders, just like iOS does. The second feature is full-screen applications. As iOS implements, OS X Lion will allow developers to create apps that engulf the whole screen. This can be very useful if you want to stay on task with just one application at a time. The third feature is Mail, which allows you to view all of your email accounts with a single view. This can be very handy if you need to triage emails.

The last feature in Apple’s OS X Lion that I want to highlight is AirDrop. AirDrop is supposed to allow you to automatically find near-by AirDrop compatible clients and send them files without any cumbersome configurations. I could see this working quite well between iOS devices as well as between a Mac and an iOS device and vice versa.

Airport Devices

Let us take this a step further. Assuming that the refreshed Airport devices contain A4 or A5 chips, like all current iOS devices do, as rumored. Imagine that Airport Extreme is the medium used to transfer files between the two devices without having to configure anything, because it is already set to go merely by connecting to Airport.

AirDrop is something that we do not know much about at the moment. However, we do know quite a bit about a similar product, AirPrint. AirPrint was originally touted as a new feature of iOS 4.2 that was introduced back on September 15th, 2010. AirPrint was going to allow you to print either directly to an AirPrint-supported printer or through your Mac or PC using an intermediary application. As of now, the only AirPrint-enabled printers are from HP. The intermediary step of using your computer never came to fruition.

Instead of having to either replace your printer with one that supports AirPrint or having to use AirDrop to transfer a file to your Mac and then printing it, think of how sweet it would be to be able to print to a printer that is directly connected to your Airport Extreme or AirPort Express without needing an intermediary step. If the AirPort device were running iOS it would be simple to have the two devices communicate and automatically send the document you wish to print to a printer connected via Airport.

The last feature that an iOS-based Airport device could provide would be a way to get ‘Back to My Network.’ We all know about the “Back to My Mac” service that is part of MobileMe. It allows you to connect to your Mac from another Mac simply by signing in. The issue with this is that it requires another Mac to be able to use the feature. Many people do not have a secondary Mac, but they do have an iOS device like an iPad or iPhone that could be used to connect to a Mac, should an app exist.

I like the idea of Back to my Mac, but sometimes I want to be able to access my PC on my network. In order to accomplish this now, I would have to set up a VPN connection and then VNC or RDP into my PC. Short of doing this, I would have to pay for Logmein or GoToMyPC, which only cover one device, not an entire network. If a new Airport device were able to act as the VPN endpoint, I could then access any network resource that I have. Along with this, I could also sync up my iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with the latest podcasts or even send a print job from my iOS device outside of my network to be ready when I got back home. It may be a pipe-dream, but it is an idea that I would find useful.

iCloud

I touched on iCloud earlier, but now is a good time to delve deeper into the idea. iCloud is the official name of Apple’s upcoming Cloud Service. As mentioned previously, nothing official has been revealed regarding iCloud. Despite the lack of any official information, this has not stopped people from speculating about what iCloud could entail.

The first mention of iCloud occurred towards the end of April when it was rumored and then confirmed that Apple had purchased the iCloud.com domain name. Purchasing a domain name does not normally indicate anything, except when it comes to Apple. So, Apple has something in mind, but what could it be?

Apple likes to compete within a market where they can produce a better product than the competition. What would be a logical market? Music might be a good one. Apple already has iTunes, the most popular Music store in the world. Amazon has an MP3 store and a Cloud storage service that allows you to store all of your music in the cloud and play it back on your iOS device. Apple’s frienemy Google has also unveiled their beta Cloud storage and playback service dubbed Google Music. Both Amazon and Google’s offerings are only cloud-storage and playback mechanisms. Part of Amazon and Google’s cloud music offerings do include the ability to re-download the items you have uploaded. In Amazon’s case, you can re-download the items that have been purchased on their MP3 store and are stored in your Cloud Player. This makes it a nice feature in case your hard drive craps out and you are forced to re-install everything. Neither Amazon nor Google’s music offerings include a subscription music service, which could be part of Apple’s iCloud strategy. Apple’s iTunes Music Store does not currently offer the ability to re-download music that you have already purchased.

If Apple has been able to secure music streaming rights for iCloud, it could provide a significant jolt to the rather limited subscription music business. There are competitors like Zune, Rhapsody, Pandora and Rdio, but none of these comes close to the music-buying populace. I currently subscribe to Zune’s $14.95 a month plan, which includes 10 credits for converting my subscription music to permanent music. This is a nice perk since I do not purchase that much music on a monthly basis. Should Apple be able to offer a subscription music service, I would switch my Zune plan to just subscription-only, with no credits for purchasing music, were this to be offered by Microsoft. Furthermore, that may just be long enough for me to be able to download all of the songs I really want on the iTunes Subscription music service, depending on the price.

Speaking of the cost of subscription services, Apple’s iCloud streaming service has been rumored to have cost Apple upwards of $150 million in up-front payments, while it may cost end-users $25 per year. That would be just under $2.10 per month for a streaming service. At that price, it would be hard to justify paying $120 per year for a service like Rhapsody, let alone $180 for a Zune Pass subscription.

Conclusion

A myriad of topics have been covered throughout this lengthy thought piece: MobileMe, Time Capsules, Mobile Me, OS X Lion, iOS 5, iCloud, Music subscriptions, music streaming, VPN, FaceTime and even iChat. I certainly don’t have insight into Apple’s entire vision, privy to their thought processes, or knowledge of their ultimate goals. Despite not having the whole picture, we do have some glimpses into where Apple may be headed. I am not sure how much of the predictions will be proven accurate or how much of this is just purely wishful thinking. We will hopefully have some answers in due course following the WWDC keynote on Monday.

Photo Credit: Gizmosachin

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The San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com) is not the first and will not be the last, but it is the latest newspaper to release an iPad application.

The iPad app takes newspaper viewing to the next level. The app has a standard newspaper feel to it, yet it utilizes the iPad technology to give users live updates to articles in order to give them the most current information.

The app also gives you access to the last seven days worth of archives. This is good in case you aren’t able to read an edition in a single day. The app does have advertisements, but you would also get this in the physical newspapers too.

The app is available for free, but requires either a $5.99 monthly subscription or a $59.99 yearly subscription. If you’re unsure if you would use the application all the time, you’re able to try out the app for 30-days for free.

There is one thing that does bother me, and this may just be my own naiveté regarding how iOS subscriptions work, but you cannot cancel a subscription except within 24-hours of the automatic renewal date for your subscription. This is a pretty small window and could cause people some grief. This app could be good way to get information about San Francisco, particularly if you live somewhere where you can’t get the paper version.

Article Via iPad Insight

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There is a rumor swirling about that Apple may announce their Back to School specials at this year’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). WWDC is slated to run from June 6th through June 10th at Moscone West in San Francisco.

As far as my research shows, Apple has been doing their Back to School promotions since 2003, at least according to an article on iLounge from May 30th, 2003. So this announcement would not be unexpected since it now the end of the school year, and immediately following that is the “Back to School” season. This year is no different.

BGR is reporting that Apple will be announcing their Back to School promotion at WWDC. Much like last year’s offering of a free iPod touch or $229 towards the purchase of any iPod, with the purchase of a new Mac, this year should be no different. In addition to the iPod offering, there is a rumor that a student may get $200 off the purchase price of an iPad as an additional option, again with a qualifying Mac purchase.

The addition of the iPad would be a great catalyst for getting more iPads in the hands of students. The only potential issue is that Apple still has a 1-2 week lead time to get an iPad. So, this could put a damper on anybody wanting to purchase a Mac in the store and also walk out with a specific iPad model.

It seems a bit odd that Apple would make this announcement at WWDC given that the target audience of WWDC is developers. Although, since Apple has invited journalists to the Keynote, that may be a good time to make the announcement. I guess we will see what the Keynote on June 6th has in store for us.

Article Via BGR

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We reported earlier this month about Walt Disney Animation Studios releasing an open source OS X update server called Reposado. The idea behind the project is to give an open source alternative to update Mac OS X computers without going directly to Apple for each computer.

Apple already provides a way to create a Software Update server for use within your organization. The process requires you to have a server that is running the latest version of the Mac OS X Server software in order to have the server update the client machines over the network. In other words, you can’t use a server running Mac OS X Server Leopard (10.5) to update clients running Mac OS X 10.6 clients, at least not easily. The server running the Software Update software does not have to be top of the line, but it has to be able to run the latest version of the OS, so that ccould be problematic in some situations.

To eliminate the requirement to have an OS X machine, Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) has produced an alternative that works quite well. The setup is not nearly as easy as an OS X Software Update server, but it is not too difficult either.

There are a few requirements before you can actually download and install Reposado. You need to have a computer that runs a web server, curl, and python. If you meet these requirements and have some hard drive space, you can run Reposado.

Once you have downloaded the package — it’s hosted on GitHub — you unzip it and then you will need to run the setup.py file. This file will give you instructions on installation, which you should actually read and understand. Once you have completed that task, you can actually configure the server using the repotuil --configure command.

This command will ask for three items:

• The location of the catalogs
• The location of the content
• The name of the server

If you prefer to use IP addresses instead of a fully qualified domain name, you can do that as well. If you wanted to, you could even store the updates on a different server than the catalogs if you really wanted to set up your updates in this manner.

After you have set up the software, you can do the initial sync of the updates. The command you issue is ./repo_sync. This is the time where you go and do something else for several hours, since depending on your bandwidth, this could take upwards of 10 to 12 hours. This will sync EVERY update that Apple has released since 2005. If this is not what you were hoping to download, then creating a branch may be the best way to go.

By default Reposado will download all of the updates that have been released — as of this writing that is 29GB worth of downloads. To create a branch you can use the repoutil command. A branch is useful to allow the testing of the updates before they are deployed onto production systems. You can create as many branches as you would like, such as for developers, sales, and servers, etc.

Once you have configured your server and downloaded the updates, you now have to point your clients to the new software update server. There are instructions included with the download. I even wrote up a step-by-step on how to configure your OS X clients to point to an internal Software Update server, which is a requirement if you want to have your clients use the internal server. The same steps apply in this scenario.

For my testing I created a branch called “NoSafari” that would exclude the update for Safari 5.0.5. I did this the manual way by using TextEdit and commenting out the Safari updates. The first go-round I left the Safari 5.05 update for Leopard enabled. This is what showed:

The copy of Snow Leopard that I used for testing still found the update, so I disabled the Leopard copy of Safari 5.05, and this is what I got on the second go-round:

What’s Macgasmic?

The ability to run the server on any hardware you own is a great feature. I stated above that as long as you have a web server, python, curl, and hard drive space, you could run Reposado without any issues. I ran my test using a Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 11.04. If you had an old PC lying around, you could use that.

The second Macgasmic item is that you can do branching, something that Apple’s own Software Update server cannot do. With Apple you can only configure the Software Update server as a single entity. If you do not want a device to get a specific update, you have to forego the update for all devices. This is not the case with Reposado — you can manage devices based upon group or in whatever way makes sense in your organization.

The last Macgasmic thing is that Reposado is open-source and free. This means that you do not have to pay the “Apple Tax” by purchasing a copy of OS X Server just to run an Update Server.

What’s Not?

This is not the simplest setup for basic administrators. If you were looking for a GUI to manage updates, stick with Apple. If you do not mind using the Terminal and having to do some research and testing, then Reposado is the way to go.

Final Thought

Reposado emulates exactly what Apple’s own Software Update server can do, with the added benefit of allowing you to create branches and manage updates in a more controlled manner. Currently there is no GUI for Reposado, but I think this will change in the future. Either WDAS will release one or another 3rd-party will create a GUI. To me it wouldn’t matter if this was a simple PHP GUI that has to be run on a web server, much like PHPAdmin. Heck, maybe even PHPAdmin will slap something together.

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Back in February Apple told developers that in order to be able to sell subscriptions through the App Store, developers must use Apple’s in-app subscription model by June 30th. Some developers are probably going to wait until the last week of June before submitting their application updates in order to comply with Apple’s rules. There is one company that is not waiting until the last minute to submit their application update: Wired.

Wired has released an update to their application that falls within the guidelines set by Apple to use the in-app purchasing method. Wired follows all of the rules by allowing a user to share their personal information, if the user desires.

Users have an option for either a monthly subscription or a yearly subscription. This only applies if you are in the US or Canada. The cost of a monthly subscription is $1.99 in the US or $2.49 in Canada. The yearly subscriptions will cost $19.99 or $23.99 per year, respectively.

If you like Wired and you have an iPad, you should check out their application and even purchase a subscription. It costs the same as the physical copy does on Amazon, which is $19.99 per year, so the digital version can be a good choice if you like to not waste paper. Just remember, it will auto-renew at its next renewal period automatically unless you cancel.

Article Via Macstories

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Part of Apple’s terms of service for Apple Care is that Apple will not assist users with the removal of malware and viruses. Apple does this for two reasons: the first is perception, and the second is to limit responsibility.

Apple chooses not to allow their support personnel to remove malware and viruses they want to maintain the perception that Macs are not susceptible to infection. Whether the reason for this is better security or market share is up for debate.  

The second point is to indemnify themselves from telling a customer to do something and having the customer follow the instructions and force the computer into a non-bootable or irreparable state. This could lead the customer to accuse Apple of breaking their computer and force Apple to repair it. For those of us who have removed spyware and viruses from Windows computers, this is not an inconceivable result.

To combat this inevitability, Apple has created a Knowledge Base article to outline the steps needed for their customers to remove the latest and most rampant virus, MacDefender. Apple specifically calls out MacDefender as the intended target.

The removal is summed up as follows: first, close the browser to stop the virus from installing itself. Second, open Activity Monitor and kill ‘MacDefender’. Third, remove the login item from the user account. This is the simplified version. The detailed steps are in the article.

One item that is mentioned within the article is that Apple is going to release a security update that will automatically find and remove the MacDefender and other variants of the virus. This will be offered through Software Update, which is the safe way to download the security update.

There are a few things that are rather troublesome regarding the upcoming update. Will this be a one-time download? Will the presence of MacDefender be checked each time a user does a check via Software Update to see if an update is needed? If a user installs this once, will that be it? Meaning, if they get infected again, will they get the update again?

These are all questions that I do not know the answer to, nor do I feel the urge to find out by infecting my own machine to test it out. I may test out a new fresh install to see how the update mechanism will work. If you are infected with MacDefender, or know somebody who is infected, following the steps outlined by Apple will remove the virus. So, check those out. We will keep you updated as the story progresses.

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One of the most talked about missing features that Apple users are clamoring for is a way to access their entire iTunes library while they are away from their computers. One possible way for this to happen is for Apple to create an iTunes-streaming service that could allow iOS users to connect to a server in the cloud to listen to their music collection.

It has been rumored that Apple is working on a service that will do exactly as specified above. Bloomberg is reporting additional evidence by saying that Sony Music has joined EMI and Warner Music to allow licensing of their music to be used on Apple’s Cloud Music service.

If this is true it means that only Universal Music Group would be the remaining holdout for Apple’s cloud-music service. It has long been rumored that Apple’s North Carolina datacenter could be used for something massive, and this could be the last factor that Apple wanted or needed in order to announce their streaming service at WWDC 2011.

It is entirely possible that the discussion that Apple has been having with the record labels are just to renew the contracts with iTunes and they are trying to co-terminate the contract-end dates. If a cloud service is in the works, we may see some inkling or announcement soon.

Article Via SlashGear
Photo Credit: Klearchos Kapoutsis

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Other World Computing (OWC), supplier of many parts for new and old Macs, has gone in-depth into the reported restriction of Apple’s mid-2011 iMacs. The issue is that if a non-Apple hard drive is placed into the 2011 iMac, the fans will eventually spin at their maximum speed and the iMac will fail the Apple Hardware Test.

Apple is using custom firmware on their supplied hard drives to monitor the thermal properties of the hard drive while it is operating. In order to accomplish this task, Apple must use a special 7-pin SATA cable with the additional two pins being used for thermal monitoring.

What is the problem with failing an Apple Hardware Test? It’s quite simple. Failing an Apple hardware test means that you could be rejected for warranty service on your iMac should there be a hardware issue that is not related to the hard drive.

OWC has outlined some possible workarounds for those who do not care if their warranty is honored or not. The first is to short out the two pins used for thermal monitoring. At this point, your iMac will pass the Apple Hardware Test, but there is a consequence: the fans may not spin at the necessary speed should the drive-bay become heated. This can be fixed by using some software called SMCFanControl that will allow you to tweak the settings at which the fans will spin up to cool off the hard drive.

What does this mean for the majority of users? Nothing. Most users will not want to upgrade their hard drives in their iMacs and will not be affected. However, there is a segment who likes to have their hard drives replaced once their warranty is over. These users will either have to use the work-arounds described above or be forced to purchase an Apple-approved hard drive should they want to upgrade. We all know that Apple has a significant mark-up on their hard drives as well as their other hardware. Therefore, this upgrade path could limit the size of hard drive that is replaced.

We will have to watch and see what will happen regarding 3rd party hard drives installs on the 2011 iMacs.

Article Via Other World Computing blog

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Some Apple users who have updated to iOS 4.3.3 have begun reporting that they are experiencing issues regarding data connectivity over Wi-Fi.

The issue, at least from reports, is that the device is not retrieving the proper IP address settings when connected to a local network. There are some potential options for fixing the issue, including restoring the phone, resetting the network, and even doing a hard reset. None of these options worked reliably for any user. One user did contact Apple and they told him to bring his phone to the Apple store and get it swapped out.

I am not sure what is ultimately causing this issue. However, since this only began appearing after users upgraded to 4.3.3, it is most likely an issue that is caused by the recent software update. But it is hard to say, since as of this writing, Apple has not acknowledged this issue.

Article Via Cult of Mac
Photo Credit: Rego – d4u.hu

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In one of the largest purchases that the Microsoft has made, Skype was recently purchased for $8.5 billion. Many have speculated that with this purchase, Microsoft will kill the Mac OS X and Linux Clients. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has allayed the fear that non-Microsoft platforms will no longer receive Skype updates.

To support his point, Ballmer provided a couple of examples where Microsoft supports non-Microsoft platforms. These included Office for Mac, iOS applications and Android applications.

Ballmer also announced that Skype will be its own distinct division within Microsoft that will not be folded into other divisions, unlike the previous purchase of Sidekick’s company Danger. Danger was integrated in with the Windows Phone division.

I’m not sure why many have speculated that Microsoft would kill non-Microsoft platform support. If Microsoft were to do this, they would be throwing away a significant number of potential users, and it would generate significant ill-will towards current customers. Additionally, it would give more customers to Microsoft’s rivals like Google and Apple.

Article Via Electronista

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One of the biggest complaints regarding Amazon’s initial launch of their Cloud Player was that if a user wanted to listen to a song they would have to download the song and use Mobile Safari’s mp3 playing ability to listen to the song. Well, Amazon has changed this behavior and you can now play songs using the ‘Play’ button that is shown on the lower-left corner of the screen.

This is a small step towards complete iOS compatibility; however it is far from being completely usable on iOS devices. While it is technically possible to scroll down a list of songs using the two finger gestures, it is not as fluid as it could be and it is rather easy to accidentally select the wrong item.

Since you can scroll, you are also able to create and manage playlists but the performance is less than optimal compared to having this feature in a native application.

Amazon is definitely making headway towards making their Cloud Player 100% iOS Compatible. I am not sure if they are trying to do this in order to make sure that they get a good foothold in before Apple releases their rumored iCloud service. While I understand Amazon’s desire to primarily focus on Android, it would be quite nice to have a native Amazon Cloud Player application for iOS.

Article Via Electronista

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One of the things that anybody who has a dedicated, or virtual dedicated, webserver must do is upload some of their initial batch of data via FTP to their web host. There are many applications that can manage this daunting task, including Mac OS X’s own terminal. However, not many of these provide a user-friendly interface. It is for this reason that ForkLift stands out from the masses.

ForkLift, currently at version 2.0.8, mimics the OS X Finder look and feel. This mimicking allows user to easily find items and determine exactly where they are uploading them. The main window has a sidebar on the left hand side. Within this sidebar you are presented with Devices, which are your locally connected drives; Connections, which are the places that you have already connected; and Places, which are local locations that are the most likely to have files that you want to upload.

ForkLift also allows you to view the queue of items that you are transferring. Through this queue, you can specify how many items you want to transfer simultaneously. The default number for transfers is three.

ForkLift allows you to connect to a multitude of protocols: FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, iDisk, and Amazon S3.

ForkLift can also integrate with Growl to notify users when a transfer has completed. This can be handy if you want to go off and do something else on the computer, but don’t want to have to keep an eye on the transfer every second.

What’s Macgasmic?

ForkLift does offer a feature found in both iTunes and OS X’s Finder, CoverFlow. You can set your view to be within ForkLift. This feature is able to be viewed on both your local files as well as the files on the remote server. This may be quite helpful for those who may already be used to viewing all of their files using CoverFlow.

ForkLift also implements QuickLook. This is available for both your local files and remote files. This feature can make it very quick to determine if the file you want to upload is the correct one.

The best feature that ForkLift offers is the ability to create a Droplet. The Droplet will allow you to drag and drop files right onto the Droplet for quick uploading. The drop can be put into the sidebar of your finder so you can easily drag and drop files from anywhere in the OS. If you have a bunch of different places you need to upload to, you’ll need to create multiple Droplets, since the Droplets only work for a single directory.

What’s Not?

Within ForkLift, it’s not all that easy to initially find where to connect to servers. I instinctively go to the menus first in order to find the task I’m looking to accomplish. Of course, I should have realized that I can use Command-K option to get the dialog box.

The second issue is that there is no option within the Actions menu to view the queue of items to transfer. You can use the icon in the lower left corner or go to View -> Show Queue, but you can’t get there through the Actions menu.

The last issue is the price. BinaryNights is asking $29.99 for the application. Despite the close resemblance to the OS X Finder, the $29.99 price tag is not worth it. There is nothing that this application can truly offer that is not available in other applications. Don’t get me wrong – I believe that developers should get paid for their efforts. However, I also expect this to be fair market value.

Conclusion

Overall, ForkLift is a pretty good application, but it’s not worth the price of admission. You can find other applications, like Cyberduck, which have all of the same features, but may not have the snazziest user interface.

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Apple has acquired a patent that could allow a device to connect to different types of networks, all within a single device, specifically relating to paging. That’s paging, as in old-school pagers. You know, back in the mid-90′s when pagers were the hip thing to have. Pagers are still used in the medical industry and in non-cellular connected areas.

The patent that Apple has acquired could allow Apple to integrate an iOS device to be compatible with more than a single network infrastructure. Currently, pagers only connect to a single network, typically a cellular network. Apple’s patent could expand this to cover not just cellular, but also 3G, LTE, and even ad-hoc, or peer-to-peer, networks.

Within the medical industry it’s believed that cellular phones can disrupt sensitive medical equipment that could potentially have life-threatening consequences. For these types of areas, instead of carrying a cell phone, many doctors and medical personnel carry pagers so that they can to be notified when they are needed.

I have a couple of interesting theories about potential uses of this patent. The first is that it could be used to create an iPod touch that could receive Push Notifications, but not require a cellular data connection.

The second potential option is that Apple could make iOS specific devices for the medical industry that could allow them to charge subscriptions or premiums for hardware to be able to receive pages. This would be most useful in the medical community because then doctors could still receive pages on their iOS devices and potentially use Wi-Fi to be able to access any information that they might need to get off of the hospital network. In addition to the medical community, this could also be Apple’s shoehorn for providing devices for the US military.

The third possible use could just be for Apple only. Apple could build this into their test devices so that there could be no potential misappropriation of their physical hardware because the device would be entirely useless outside of Apple’s campus. I don’t mean devices that are for verification and testing, but early prototypes that Apple doesn’t want to leave their hands.

These are just some ideas. What are you ideas for how Apple could use a paging system?

Article Via MacDailyNews
Photo Credit: USPTO

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Sony is getting into the tablet market with the unveiling of the S1 and S2 Android-based tablets. More specifically, the tablets run Honeycomb, Android 3.0 which is optimized for tablet devices. The two tablets will be the first devices released by Sony to somewhat compete with the iPad.

The Sony S1 contains a 9.4-inch screen that has a similar design to the Macbook Air where one edge is thicker and it tapers to the other edge. The S1 also features a Tegra 2 chip, both front and rear cameras as well as a slightly off-center of gravity that is designed to provide a better grip.

The Sony S2 has a completely different form factor. It has a clamshell design that has two 5.5-inch screens, one on the top and one on the bottom, much like the Nintendo DS line. The two screens can be used in tandem or separately depending on your needs at the moment. For instance, you can view an entire webpage on both screens, or you can have a Macgasm Video podcast running on the top screen while you’re browsing the Macgasm site on the bottom. (Okay, we know you’re going to be playing Angry Birds on one and looking at your twitter feed on the other, but we can dream).

Both the S1 and S2 will come with Wi-Fi as well as a 3G/4G connection. The tablets can also be used as universal remotes through their infrared ports. The tablets are both DLNA compatible, so you can stream media content from your tablet to your TV or wireless speakers.

The biggest feature for gamers is that both the S1 and S2 will have access to the Playstation Suite. Playstation Suite is a service where you can play original Playstation titles right from your device. The first mobile device to have this functionality was the Xperia Play phone.

I think Sony is making the right move by not pumping out a tablet that will get lost in a mass of similar tablets. The addition of the Playstation Suite, and to a lesser extent DLNA, allows Sony to bring some unique value to any tablet that they will release. Many die-hard Playstation fans will be sure to give Sony’s S1 and S2 a long hard look if they are in the market for a tablet device. They may ultimately choose the iPad, but I’m sure a significant portion will choose a device by Sony, solely based on the Playstation Suite feature.

Article Via Joystiq

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One of the first spots many people turn to when they have questions regarding Apple and its products is the Apple Discussion Forums. Over the weekend, Apple has morphed the Discussion Forums into Support Communities. If you already have a discussions account, that account will be still be functional.

Communities are groups of similar products or technologies that share a common overall theme. Products like Desktops, iTunes, or even broader categories like the App Store.

Apple’s communities are a great place to get answers to questions that are not so easily answerable via a search engine. There are a significant number of users who have been contributing to Apple’s communities for several years now, and they can be a basin of knowledge.

With the change in name comes a few changes to the site as well. The screen is now divided into two sections. On the left hand side you see the individual communities, while on the right you can see the recent comments. One of the new additions is the ability to get the RSS feed of the new questions that have been asked.

With the communities, a user can now choose either a larger subcategory, like iTunes, or even a specific subcategory, like iTunes U, in order to filter down the exact community that best fits the question that a user needs to ask.

The categorizations have been significantly simplified. Instead of having six different sections for both iTunes for Windows and iTunes for Mac, they have simplified and created just one category for each. See the images below for a comparision

The new changes have vastly improved the way the discussion area looks. This improved look should make it easier for users to find what they are looking for and could potentially create more of a community feel instead of just a series of discussion on various topics.

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Jesse Jackson, a United States House of Representatives member from Illinois, has gone and flip-flopped his position regarding the iPad. In March, he stated that the United States Federal Government should provide an iPad to every student because “…[it] will fundamentally alter how we educate our children.” He’s certainly correct in this statement — the iPad is fundamentally changing how children interact with the world and how they learn.

However, more recently, Rep. Jackson has stated that the iPad “is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American Jobs.” How, you may wonder, is this possible?. According to Rep. Jackson, users no longer need to go to Borders or Barnes and Noble to purchase books — they can just download them instead.

Rep. Jackson also brings up Chicago State University, where they give incoming freshmen iPads to use for their textbooks instead of the physical books. Within four years, Chicago State University wants to go entirely e-textbook. Rep. Jackson is concerned with what will happen to the publishing jobs, bookstores, librarians, and all the other the jobs associated with paper.

Rep. Jackson also states:

“Steve Jobs is doing pretty well. He’s created the iPad. Certainly it has made life more efficient for Americans. But, it is produced in China. It’s not produced here in the United States. So the Chinese get to take advantage of our first amendment value. That is to provide freedom of speech through the iPad to the American People. There is no protection for jobs here in America to ensure that the american people are being put to work.”

What the heck is he thinking? True, he makes some valid statements. The iPad is a disruptive piece of technology and industries are going to have to adapt to this disruption or they will suffer by being eliminated. Yes, the iPad is manufactured in China. If the iPad were to be manufactured in the United States, the price of the iPad would jump significantly due to labor costs.

In regards to the Chicago State University information provided by Rep. Jackson, I don’t believe he fully understands how much publishers overcharge for textbooks. Having the ability to purchase, or rent, textbooks at a significant price reduction might make going to college more affordable, and possibly even more enjoyable for students, simply because they wouldn’t have to fret so much over how much school is going to cost them. Therefore, by reducing how much school costs, you can reduce the amount that must be borrowed, which reduces the burden on the government for funding.

The piece that I find the most interesting is that he thinks librarian jobs are going to be eliminated. Having worked in an Illinois library for 12 years, I can say that we don’t just sit back and read books all day. We are keenly aware of the impact that items like e-books, audiobooks, and even research databases have had on our collections. Guess what? We are still thriving. As a matter of fact, the circulation for our library has gone up, not down, and our primary product is still — wait for it — physical paper books. This may change over the next decade, but we’ll adapt and provide what our patrons are seeking.

I think Congress needs a good lesson in exactly how technology works, and more importantly, should verify their facts before making false claims and blaming technology for the loss of American jobs instead of other factors that may be at play. Sometimes we receive affirmation that the representative body of the United States is aptly named Congress.

Article Via Real Clear Politics

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Apple has released a minor update to its Xcode developer to bring the version up to 4.0.2. Apple, in its usual fashion, is very vague with what has been changed in this version.

There are only two release notes that indicate any changes. The first is “Fixed a bug with OpenGL apps running in the iOS Simulator on some Macs.” This is probably the change that will affect most users, since having an emulator that produces spurious issues while trying to build an application is not very conducive towards actually building an application.

The second release note is “Additional bug fixes and stability improvements.” This is just standard Apple release note information to let us know they fixed some security bugs with Xcode, but are not willing to disclose to the general public what these fixes actually entail.

This is a minor update that every developer should download. We can presume that Apple is working on a new version of Xcode to coincide with whenever the next version of iOS is released.

Article Via TUAW

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The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a part of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), has proposed rules that would impose certain limitations on shipments of lithium batteries by air. The affected items are those that could potentially heat up and explode — meaning any lithium battery. These regulations would affect not only manufacturers, like Apple, but also retailers and airlines as a result of new packaging, training, transportation and logistical requirements under these new rules.

The Portable Rechargeable Battery Association (PRBA) — who even knew there was a such an association? — has stated that the proposed rule changes by the PHMSA would require $1.13 billion during the first year to implement for the associated packaging, transportation and training costs. Don’t fret, though. The United States House of Representative has passed a bill that protects manufacturers from these proposed limitations and rule changes.

Battery safety should be of utmost importance; however $1.13 billion doesn’t seem like a significant amount of money to decrease the likelihood of a battery explosion on an airplane. The cost would be spread across several industries as well as numerous manufacturers, so the overall burden to a single company seems minimal. And the impact for Apple would probably be smaller than for most manufacturers since Apple’s is meticulous when it comes to designing packaging.

As regulated, an air carrier is required to declare whether or not they will carry hazardous materials. If the air carrier chooses not to handle hazardous materials, and this rule is enacted, the selection of which carrier will deliver your shiny Apple gadget may be severely limited and may ultimately delay the delivery. The delay wouldn’t be due to the local-carrier, like Fedex or UPS, delivering it to your door; the delay would come from the shipping from Shenzhen, China, to the United States.

Of the two big local-delivery carriers in the U.S., Fedex and UPS, Fedex is currently accepting lithium batteries under “Class 9, Miscellaneous Materials.” UPS only accepts “Passenger Aircraft Quantities” and hazardous materials must be from contracted shippers. Furthermore, “certain lithium batteries may not qualify for UPS service.”

I’m not sure if this push back from PRBA is warranted. Yes, it will cost some money to rethink packaging, train staff, and it will impact shipping requirements, but this could be worse. The PHMSA could have proposed that NO lithium batteries could be transported by air, and then they would all have to be by sea or ground. Now think of how long it would take for your item to reach the United States. I think the PRBA is blowing this way out of proportion.

Further Reading

• Minutes from the Federal Register regarding a meeting on the proposed lithium battery changes
• UPS’ Hazardous Materials Service definition
• UPS’ list of common items that may be hazardous
• The PRBA urging the PHMSA to reject the new rules

Article Via AppleInsider
Photo Credit: Chris Mountford

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When Apple released the Mac App Store, one of the categories that was most intriguing, and could potentially define the future of the Mac, was games. Many wondered which games would appear on the Mac App Store. There are well-known games like Call of Duty 4, Bejeweled, and, of course, Angry Birds. Despite having these well-known games, there are still some other gems that are not as well known, but in some ways, are better. There’s one particular game that falls into this category: Stupid Zombies.

How It Works

Stupid Zombies has some features that are quite similar to Angry Birds. Basically, you’re a single stationary man trying to kill all of the zombies in the area. There are currently two chapters in the game. The first chapter has four stages and the second chapter has another two. In each stage there are 60 levels, which means 360 levels of zombie killing fun. As you beat each level, the next one is unlocked, so no skipping those levels that you just can’t beat.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the scoring system. You get a given amount of points for each zombie killed, but the number of zombies differs from level to level. In addition, you have a limited number of bullets, typically about five or six, and if you manage to not use all of the bullets after killing all of the zombies, you’re rewarded with 3,000 additional points for each bullet. As a nice added bonus, you also get certain special bullets that will aid in your zombie killing adventures. If you get a certain number of points, you’re rewarded with stars, but the number of points required varies with each level. The more stars you have, the easier it is for you to unlock additional stages. You may have to play the same level a few, or in my case, 15 or more times in order to kill all the zombies and get three stars. Outside of of unlocking more stages, and therefore levels, the score doesn’t mean a whole lot. It just shows how much time you’ve spent, and how much you love achievements.

What’s Macgasmic

The game will provide hours of fun, regardless of of your skill level. The slowly increasing difficulty adds to the satisfaction of completing a level. The graphics are well done and even work on a mid-2007 MacBook, which many games do not. The inclusion of older MacBooks means that more people can find the game and enjoy it.

What’s not

The length of time between updates can be a bit long. It was a couple of months before the update for the second stage of Chapter II arrived. Making matters worse, there is little information available about when and what to expect from future updates.

Summary

Stupid Zombies will provide hours of entertainment and frustrated fun. Do keep in mind, it will suck some time away, but, man, is it worth it. If you have mastered Angry Birds, you might want to switch to Stupid Zombies to keep up your accuracy for future Angry Birds expansions.

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The Main Place Apple Store located at 120 West Jefferson, Naperville, Illinois was robbed again for the third time in seven months. The first robbery occurred on September 22nd, 2010, and the robbers got away with $24,000 worth of equipment. The second robbery occurred on January 16th, 2011, and that time the goods taken were worth $30,000.

The most recent robbery occurred this morning at 4:31 AM and netted the perpetrators $30,000 worth of equipment. The robbers were in and out of the store in just over a minute, using tote bags to tote off their haul of goodies. As with many Apple Store robberies, a rock was thrown through the front window and the robbers entered through the newly made hole.

This is my local Apple Store where I most recently purchased my iPad 2. It’s disheartening to think that robbers feel that stealing over $84,000 worth of equipment in seven months is a smart idea. I don’t think that the thieves understand that Apple knows EVERY single serial number of the equipment on display in their stores. While it’s not difficult to rename a Mac, it is somewhat more difficult to falsify a serial number. My guess is that we’ll soon see this loot turning up on eBay or craigslist.

I hate to say it, but Apple may need to ruin their aesthetic and put in a locked steel barrier that is pulled down at night and pushed out of the way in the morning in order to prevent more robberies. However, maybe Apple is willing to maintain their aesthetic at the cost of better security.

Article and Photo Via TribLocal

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CrunchGear is reporting that images have been circulating of a purported 5th generation iPod touch. Some of the supposed specifications for this model are a capacitive touch home button and 128GB of storage.

There are some aspects of the images that may point to this model being a fake. The first is that the model number is MC550LL. The iPod touch 4th generation have model numbers in the MC54XLL range, and the iPod touch 3rd generation are MC0XxLL models. So, the model number MC550LL doesn’t fit the series. That being said, it could be part of a numbering scheme used for test devices.

The second aspect is that the capacity of 128GB. I know that there are many users who wish to have 128GB of storage in both an iPhone and iPod touch. There were many last year who speculated that the 4th generation iPod touches would have a 128GB storage option, but this never happened.

The last aspect is something not mentioned in CrunchGear’s article. The picture of the front of the ‘new’ iPod touch seems to be photoshopped. Despite not being a photoshopper, in my opinion the home button has just been edited out and is still somewhat visible, or at least appears visible. That being said, I admit that the problem might just be a combination of the use of the iPod touch and the light angle.

If these are real pictures we will get confirmation at the next iPod event, which may be in September, assuming Apple follows their usual announcement schedule for iPods.

Article Via CrunchGear

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Mac Trojans are nothing new, albeit rare in the Mac Community at this time. SecureMac has identified a new trojan, dubbed BlackHole RAT 2.0 by the trojan’s author, that is a variant on one discovered in February called OSX/BlackHoleRAT.B.

This new trojan looks to be a rewrite of the original. The new changes include creating itself as a login item to be run automatically at startup, tying up CPU cycles by running a loop, executing shell commands (which can be dangerous) and in some cases attempting to erase the hard drive. This trojan is still a work in progress, but it is available to the Mac hacking community for testing.

I am not sure how many people will immediately be affected by this. One of the issues with Mac trojans is that they are rare, and even SecureMac has rated the Security Risk of this trojan  as low. It’s not necessarily something most Mac users need to worry about, but it is something to keep in the back of your mind.

Article Via SFGate.com
Photo Credit: djc1982 on Flickr

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Today Amazon unveiled its most ambitious project yet, Cloud Drive. Cloud Drive, in case you’re not aware, is a way to save your music, documents, photos, and even videos to Amazon’s storage to be playable from any web browser or Android device that runs Amazon’s Cloud Player application.

Part of this new strategy includes 5GB of free space to store your media.

When you sign up for Amazon Cloud Drive, you’re presented with a blank screen that has no data in it. At this point you might be asking, what do I do next? Well, you upload your music or other files. This is done using the Amazon MP3 Uploader.

You can download the Amazon MP3 Uploader by clicking on ‘Upload to your Cloud Drive’ in the upper left corner. You’ll be prompted to either browse for files or use the upload utility. I recommend the upload utility.

Once you download the Amazon MP3 upload utility, you can search for music automatically, which is the default option. Alternatively, if you only want to upload a specific set of music, you can do so by click on “Browse for more music.”

If you opt for the automatic search, the uploader will find all of the qualified MP3 or M4A files that it can store and play.

Once this process has completed, you’ll see something similar to the screen below.

If you went through the automatic search, you should be okay in terms of removing duplicates. However, if you chose to select the music to upload, this is the point where you want to go and determine which files you wish to upload. If you have not already, I recommend going through all of your files and making sure you select only the files that you want to upload.

Once you’ve finalized your selection, click on “Start Upload.” This is the longest part— waiting while it uploads. As you can see below, I started uploading 3,401 files, and it indicated that this would take just over 24 hours to complete. This is the point in the game where you wish you had a ton of upload bandwidth so you can get through this process faster.

After the uploading has finished you can go to the Cloud Player and begin playing your songs.

After you login, you will see something similar to this screen:

This is all of your uploaded files. As the MP3 Uploader uploaded your files, it pulled all of the information from the metadata from the ID3 tags in the MP3 song to populate the Artist, Album, and Title fields, as well as the Genre tag. You can navigate using any of these fields on the left hand side to browse any of this information.

You can create playlists as well. This is done by selecting the songs that you want from your list and clicking on “Add To Playlist” in the upper right corner. After you click on text, it’ll present a drop down asking if you want to add it to a new playlist or an existing playlist.

If you create a new playlist, your list will appear on the left side under “Playlists.”

There are a few downsides to the service. The first is that duplicates are not handled very well. If you have the same song by the same artist but in different folders, it will upload every copy. If each copy is 5MB, and the song is on three different albums, that’s 15MB for a single song. Yes, 15MB is not a lot; however, what if you multiply that times 10 or even 50 duplicates at 5MB each? That’s 250MB that could be used to store other files. You can delete the files from your cloud storage and free up storage space, so that is an option in these cases. But, it would be better if the file was checked and found to be a duplicate and just not uploaded to begin with. The application could even ask if you want to upload it again.

The second issue is that past purchases from Amazon are not automatically stored in your cloud drive. This is probably the most problematic for me. I have close to 150 songs that I’ve purchased previously on Amazon. These songs will be stored on Amazon because I’ll upload them to the service, but these shouldn’t count against my total. Any new purchases I make will not count against it. Amazon has the list of items I’ve purchased from them, so there is no technical reason why they couldn’t accommodate this feature at some point in the near future.

The third issue is lack of iOS support. Amazon’s Cloud Drive does have an Android application that allows you to access every aspect of your Cloud Drive including playback. You can do some playback on an iOS device, but this is on a song by song basis. You cannot play an entire playlist on iOS currently. This may change in the future, and I hope it does.

The last issue, or maybe just feature request, is the inclusion of an automatic picture upload application. Or, this feature could be incorporated with the MP3 Uploader, and the entire application could be called the “Amazon Cloud Drive Uploader.”  It would be nice if it could search through iPhoto and find all picture files and upload them.

If you don’t have a ton of music, this can be a great addition to your media management system, not to mention that it provides off-site storage of your MP3 files. The costs can become rather exorbitant beyond 50GB of storage. That being said, if you really want to be able to stream and download your MP3s from anywhere, then this may currently be the best option available. This is a great first step towards allowing thin-clients and cloud streaming to become a reality for everybody. You might as well give it a try—you get 5GB for free.

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Want to make your WordPress site work on an iPad without needing to spend a ton on coding a dedicated iPad application? How about not needing to create a custom theme just for iPad users? How much would you pay for a WordPress plugin that takes only 5 minutes to install and configure (depending on connection speed)? $50? $100? How about free? Free, you say? Yes, free. All of this can be done with a new plugin called Onswipe.

Onswipe is a WordPress Plugin that takes your WordPress website and makes it into an iPad-compatible site that mimics many of the iPad features aand stylistic elements. The elements used include the sharing icon and the popover window used on the iPad, and it recognizes the accelerometer for posts as needed.

The Plugin allows you to change the colors and the display font, upload a Splash screen logo, and even offers you the choice of nine different skin colors, as shown below.

The plugin basically takes your WordPress website and makes it act like Flipboard. It makes the layout look great, allows swiping just like in Flipboard so you can flip left and right to go between the pages of posts.

If you click on an individual item, it presents a modal window that gives you the option to share the article and view the comments that have been left on a given post.

There are two problems I’ve come across so far. The first is that when you share something, the plugin doesn’t take into account your permalink structure. This is the structure that makes URLs a bit easier to read. So, all shared items comes out as, for example, http://blogaddress.com/pathtoblog/?p=1 , where p is the actual post ID. This is not an end of the world scenario, but it is something that should be easily fixed in an update.

The second, and more of a personal irritation than anything else, is the use of the #! (Hashbang). The Hashbang makes it more difficult for search engines to truly index a website. However, given that this is a plugin that is only activated when the plugin sees the proper user-agent string from the browser, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern. I just don’t like the idea of it not being easily indexed and breaking the Internet.

In case you don’t have an iPad, or you’re waiting for yours to arrive, but you want to see what it looks like, you can use Safari’s developer mode to change your User-Agent to Safari iOS 3.2.2, and you can see exactly what it looks like and use your mouse to navigate.

Overall it’s a pretty good start to what will, I hope, eventually amount to a great plugin. I don’t know if they’re going to charge at all in the future, but it would definitely seem like something some people would be willing pay for, particularly if it included significant customizability. If you run a WordPress site, this is a plugin that you should install for your iPad users, and as a great bonus, it’s free.

Article Via Onswipe

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According to paidContent, the Washington Journal will begin selling individual issues of its paper for $1.99 per issue. This’ll be done through its current application.

If an iPad user opts to download a single issue, they’ll only be getting what was available in that day’s print edition. They won’t get the ‘Now’ edition of the paper, which includes regular updates to the daily edition.

Current subscribers can login and still get full access, same as before. If Apple gets the user to subscribe entirely through the Wall Street Journal application then Apple will take their 30% cut. The Wall Street Journal does offer a digital only subscription for roughly $17 a month, which is much cheaper than receiving the full suite of Wall Street Journal items, including the paper edition.

The method that the Wall Street Journal has implemented is providing a digital-only subscription. This method is cheaper, and may retain more customers because there are some customers who do not wish to hassle with needlessly disposing of a physical copy when they only wish to subscribe to the digital edition.

This method of enticing and retaining customers differs significantly from the New York Times, who is charging more for a digital-only subscription than the physical subscription. There are those who are willing to pay for the news that they want; however, there are also those who refuse to pay for news at all. I guess you can’t win them all over.

Article Via Mashable

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Apple has released a software update for the Apple TV 2. This is a bug fix release and does not include any new features.

The software update fixes four issues. The first is flickering that some users reported when watching Apple TV. The second was when the Apple TV would not wake up from sleep all the time. The third issue fixed is where audio may not be recognized if a user just switched from another input, like cable or DVD player. The final fix is ‘stability and performance’ fixes.

Apple TV 4.2.1 is a recommended update for all Apple TV 2 owners.

To update your Apple TV 2, go to Settings -> General -> Update Software. The update may take a few minutes to download and install.

Let us know of any new bugs you may encounter.

Article Via Apple
Image Credit: Luke Tech Tips

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Physical Characteristics

The iPad 2 is much easier to hold in your hands. It doesn’t feel as though you are holding a slightly bowing brick. I don’t say this just because I now have an iPad 2 to compare it to. The original iPad is a bit awkward to hold when you’re trying to watch it in bed.

The screen for the iPad 2 is the same as the original iPad. Despite being the same, the iPad 2 has a bigger range of brightness settings. The iPad 2 can go dimmer and a tad brighter than the original iPad. This can work to your advantage in situations like watching Netflix in bed while your significant other is sleeping.

Cameras

One of the new features of the iPad 2 is the cameras. Let me just start off by saying Apple screwed up with the rear camera. This camera is so sub-par it’s not even funny. This is the same camera specs as the iPod touch 4th generation. If you were looking to use your iPad 2 as a movie camera, do not attempt it. You would be better off with an iPhone 3GS as a video camera as it’ll be better than the iPad 2. If you wanted to take still pictures, avoid this camera as well. Yes, it will work, but the original iPhone had a 2.0 megapixel camera and can take better photos than the iPad 2. I realize that this was a cost choice, but it was a poor choice on Apple’s part.

The front facing camera is the same as the iPhone and is not really meant as a video-camera per-se. The camera is a 640×480 resolution camera that is meant for FaceTime or Skype video, if Skype Video ever arrives for the iPad. It would have been nice to have a higher-resolution camera, however, since FaceTime is the intended purpose, it is perfect.

FaceTime

Now that there are cameras on the iPad 2, Apple has added three applications: FaceTime, Photo Booth and Camera. FaceTime works just as advertised and as one would expect. The rear-camera for FaceTime is not bad, as it will most likely get the job done if you need to show somebody something using the rear-facing camera. There are not many options within FaceTime other than swapping cameras. I would have expected there to be some PhotoBooth options built-in, but maybe that’s in a future update.

Photo Booth

Photo Booth, just like it’s Mac-based cousin, allows you you to use your camera to change the way the picture looks. There are only 9 available options with the current release of Photo Booth for the iPad: X-ray, Light Tunnel, Stretch, Mirror, Normal, Twirl, Thermal Camerca, Kaleidoscope, and Squeeze. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the one effect that most people like is Pop Art, and it isn’t available on the iPad 2 version of Photo Booth. There are 18 different effects on the Mac version of Photo Booth. It would be nicer to see more, but again, like FaceTime, this may come in a future update.

Camera.app

The third application, Camera, is the same camera application that is available on the iPhone. It has the ability to take pictures or video and browse items in your Camera Roll. The only difference is that it’s on the iPad so the screen elements are bigger.

The only issue I have with the Camera application is that Apple didn’t change anything about it. Don’t get me wrong, the camera application does what it is supposed to do. With that, it can be rather awkward to hold the iPad and take a picture. If you are holding the iPad 2 in landscape mode you can only use your left hand to actually hold the iPad because your right hand will get in the way of the photo. Yes, you can rotate the orientation on the iPad 2 and that will correct the issue, but given the way that the Smart Cover works, this is counter-productive.

Processor and Graphics

The iPad 2 contains dual 1GHz Processors. At first I didn’t really notice a huge difference, but now that I have put both of them side by side, I can definitely see the difference. I loaded up Monopoly HD on both the iPad and iPad 2 simultaneously and noticed that the iPad 2 was at the start screen a full 6 seconds less than the original iPad. So this increased hardware specification will allow developers to take better advantage of the processors.

During the introduction of the iPad 2, Apple touted a 9x graphics performance increase. I don’t have a way to accurately test this, although I wonder if some of the improvement on speed while loading Monopoly HD is due to graphics performance.

Headphone and Dock connectors

There are a few hardware design issues that I seem to have with the iPad 2. The much thinner design is not one of them. The issues I have are with the headphone connector and the dock connector. When you plug the headphones into the headphone jack, not all of the headphone plug is covered. This may not make any major difference, but it does look tacky. The dock connector has the exact same issue.

HDMI connectivity

The biggest feature, for me anyway, is the ability to mirror the screen using the HDMI connector that is purchased separately. The HDMI connector works much like the VGA adapter did for the original iPad, except instead of having the output to the adapter be application specific, this happens across the entire operating system regardless of whether the application supports video out.

If an application does support video out, that takes precedence over mirroring. Netflix is a prime example of this because the application will show the video on the external device if you plug in the HDMI adapter.

One thing for developers to be aware of is that if you have an incomplete implementation of video out, your application may cause unexpected results. I know this from first hand experience so verify that your application works with the iPad 2.

Audio

The next area to comment on is audio, more specifically, the speaker. The area for the speaker in the iPad 2 is significantly larger than the original iPad. Despite it being bigger, the iPad 2 sounds a bit tinnier than the original iPad. The bass is not as deep as the original, which could, in limited circumstances, be problematic for some.

Smart Cover

The last aspect I thought I would review is the Smart Cover. Apple’s Smart Cover is meant to pull double-duty. The first is to act as a cover for the screen to protect the glass, as well as clean it. The second is to have the Smart Cover act as a stand for typing as well as viewing.

The Smart Cover is comprised of four sections of magnets, as well as a connecting mechanism to adhere to the iPad 2. The Smart Cover folds over to create the stand, and only attaches to the iPad 2 one way. To orient the iPad 2, you need to have the Home Button on the left and the Smart Cover attached to the top. If you’re holding the iPad in portrait mode, the Smart Cover would go on the left side.

This can be somewhat problematic given that the Smart Cover can only go on in one direction. I prefer to have the headphone jack on the right side while watching movies. If I use the stand to have the iPad 2 almost directly in front of me, instead of at a an angle, the headphone will be on the left side. This orientation makes sense since the controls will all be on the top, and it’s not the end of the world, but it does force me to change the way I do things.

There is one thing to keep in mind with the Smart Cover. The way I have the cover in the picture above is the proper way to fold the Smart Cover. This is a bit strange considering that the microfiber surface has the opportunity to get dirty, and it is supposed to clean the screen. So if the microfiber side gets dirty, then the screen surely will not be cleaned. Just something to keep in mind.

In case you were wondering, here is a photo of exactly how strong the magnets in the iPad and Smart Cover really are. There is no trickery in this photo whatsoever.

Overall, the iPad 2 is an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary change. The addition of the cameras as well as FaceTime and Photo Booth will allow users to give excellent demonstrations that may get others to buy an iPad 2. The change in the way the iPad 2 feels is noticeable and much appreciated, as is the addition of the video mirroring. If you have been holding out for an iPad until the second generation, now is the time to pounce. If you have an original iPad, the upgrade path is a bit mirkier. If you have somebody who you can hand down your original iPad to, then by all means upgrade.

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Apple has unveiled a new section to iTunes Connect to ease the resolution of issues when a submitted application is rejected by Apple’s App Review Team.

Previously, Apple’s App Review Team would send an email to developers explaining the issue(s) in writing as well as attach any related screenshots to clearly indicate what needed to be changed in order to approve the application. The previous email system would work for firms that consisted of a single developer, but the process made it difficult for multiple users to truly see what was problematic.

Apple has changed this behavior. Instead of the developer receiving an email explaining what is wrong, Apple will be sending a direct link to the Resolution Center on the iTunes Connect site. The Resolution Center will effectively be the same as an email, but will be shown on the web instead and be accessible by more than just the individual developer

In addition to the developer receiving an email regarding the issues with the application, the administrative contact and technical contact will also receive an email, so the entire development team can be kept abreast of the status of a particular application, as well as the issues preventing the version submitted from being published to the App Store.

As a developer, I find this to be a much better means of communication. It means that the developer, technical contact as well as the administrative contact can be kept informed of any issues surrounding an application.

I just hope that we’ll get more information from the App Review Team in terms of additional steps to take to improve applications. I contacted the App Review Team and was less than impressed with the lack of information. I don’t yet see a link to the Resolution Center within iTunes Connect.

Article Via Apple Developer Blog

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Today we can get upwards of 3TB of hard drive space in our Macs. While 3TB may seem like a ton of space, and it is, everything we do seems to be eating up more and more hard drive space. If you don’t have a Mac Pro, this additional space comes in the form of an external USB hard drive, or even a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box like a Drobo.

The beauty of a product like Drobo is that you can swap out smaller hard drives for larger ones when the smaller ones become full. This is great for those that don’t want to deal with RAID configurations. However, there have been some complaints that a Drobo is not as fast as a traditional RAID system would be. There was going to be a way to have the Mac natively support a Drobo-like file system. It was Sun’s ZFS.

ZFS was slated to be an option within Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server; however, during the Summer of 2009, before the launch of Snow Leopard in October, this was scrapped. Well, it may be able to make a comeback.

A startup, Ten’s Complement LLC, is looking to bring ZFS back to the Mac. This would allow a user to use ZFS as a storage repository that can dynamically add additional hard drives to a storage pool without the need to reboot.

The company has stated that their software is in limited beta, and if you are interested, you can go and sign up to be part of the beta.

I’m not sure if this will work since it’s their own version of ZFS, meaning it’s not the official Sun version, and it is definitely not supported by Apple. It’ll be interesting to see if this product takes off, and if it does, how reliable and stable it is. Any data loss could be catastrophic, so I would recommend making sure you have all of your data backed up before testing this, or if you are going to test it, do it on a machine that can be wiped and reloaded. I’ll keep an eye on this and report back with anything that may be of interest.

Article Via ZDNet

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Here is our unboxing video for the iPad 2. It will give you a glimpse of what to expect when you open it up for the first time.

Look for a full review of the iPad 2 within the next week.

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Apple has pushed an update for Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This update brings Java on the Mac inline with Windows by bringing Java up to version 1.6.0 update 24.

For those on Mac OS X 10.5 you are being updated to Java 1.5.0_28 or Java 1.6.0_24 depending on which version is installed. If you’re on a Power-PC or 32-bit Intel Machine, you’ll get 1.5.0_28.

The download comes in at 119.83MB, since both versions are packaged together.

If you’re running on a 64-bit Intel machine, you’ll receive version Java 1.6.0_24.

This update clocks in a 78.2 MB. This update fixes 21 security holes. If you want to read about all of those, you can do so by viewing the Oracle release notes.

You can download the update via Software Update or by going directly to the download page.

For OS X 10.5, the download is available at Apple’s Support page. You will need to be on Mac OS X 10.5.8 to download and install the update.

For those on OS X 10.6, your download is available from Apple. You will need to have OS X 10.6.4 or higher to be able to apply the download.

This is a definite recommend for all Mac OS X users. It should not require a reboot.

Article Via Macstories

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We here at Macgasm like to give our readers the best way to experience things on a Mac. So when a major shift in design comes from Apple, we like to be on top of that shift. The latest thing to get a redesign from Apple is Xcode.

Xcode, in case you’re not aware, is the software used to create any applications that are submitted to the iOS or Mac App Stores. In addition, Xcode is also used by many as a way to build their non-Mac App Store applications for distribution.

Xcode was introduced in 2003 with version 1.0. It’s been updated since then by introducing 2.0 with Mac OS X Tiger and Xcode 3.0 with Mac OS X Leopard. Finally, 4.0 was introduced today, between releases of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

With version 3.x and previous versions, Xcode was comprised of a few different applications: Xcode itself, Interface Builder and Organizer. Xcode is used to do the actual coding, create classes and even debug. Interface Builder, as the name implies, is for building the interfaces for iOS and Mac OS applications. The organizer is where you provision devices (for iOS development), archive code, and conduct performance tests.

Xcode 4 has made a significant change. Instead of three different applications, there is now just one single interface for the entire application. Organizer is still a separate window with Xcode 4.

The initial opening window of Xcode has remained generally the same. You can still create a new Xcode project, get to the developer portal and get an introduction to Xcode 4.

Within Xcode 4, you’ll notice that there’s a new option: “Connect to a repository.” This feature allows a user to connect to a GitHub or Subversion (SVN) repository and check-out or clone the project. With this being built in, it will make the process of code organization and collaboration significantly easier for teams of coders to work on the same project.

Once you do go and create a new application, you’ll be presented with the same options that you were before based upon which application type you’re creating.

Once you get ready to create your program, you’ll see an option for “Save A local git repository.”This option, as far as I can tell, will make it easier to archive your projects to quickly revert should you need to bring up an older version.

After creating your new application, Xcode 4 will present you with all of the options that you could need to set regarding your application. If you need to change the type of application from iPad to iPhone/iPod touch or universal, you can do so quickly by just changing the drop-down option. Once you do select the drop down, you’ll see new options pertaining to your change appear.

After you have set your options, you can choose any of the files from the left-side navigation tree. The code portion has not changed in any respect; it still looks the same.

There has been a minor change within the window. You’ll see a sub-navigation crumb-based menu. If you select some text, you’ll see that the crumb-navigation will show the type of text selected. In the screenshot below, you’ll see that the classname “TestSplitViewControllerAppDelegate” is chosen, and in the crumb-navigation, you’ll see the purple block that contains a “C,” meaning class. If you select a property, it’ll change to a slightly different shade of purple and show a ‘P’ in the little icon area.

The biggest change, and the most difficult for me to get used to, is the inclusion of the Interface Builder within the main window. This is instead of Interface Builder being a completely separate application that launches when you attempt to edit an XIB file.

Upon first glance, you’ll see very simple setup with almost no indication of where to find any of your normal objects. It took me a few minutes to figure out what to do. The key is the upper-right corner.

The upper-right corner is the spot that controls everything you see within the screen. If you hit both the “Utilities Pane” and “Debug Pane,” the screen will be similar to the one below.

This view will get you closer to actually being able to do something; however, your objects are still not visible. In order to bring these up, you have two options. You can click the icons directly above the Library to change between Files, Code Snippets, Objects, and Media libraries. The second method to bring up these items is to go to View -> Utilities -> and bring them up that way.

There was an allusion to a new feature: “Save” A local Git repository option. In order to use this option, you must go to File -> Source Control -> Commit. Once you do this, and if there are changes, you’ll be presented with a window that allows you to put in a “commit message.” This is the message used to indicate the changes for this commit. On the left side of this, you’ll see the files that have changed since the last revision. If you highlight one of these, you’ll see something similar to the image below.

On the left side, you’ll see your local revision of the file, and it will be compared to the one on the right, which is the git repository version. This view allows you to see what has changed and whether you truly want to commit the changes to the tree.

Once you’re ready to submit the changes, click on “Commit” and the changes will be saved. The Source control module allows you to either save locally, as mentioned earlier, or save to a remote repository should you have one setup somewhere.

Those are the highlights of XCode 4. It may take some time to fully get used to the new layout, if you’re used to Xcode 3. There are a significant number of changes, most notably the single window for editing and design and the repository option. The repository will definitely make it easier for developers to get a better handle on their code and archive versions for future reference.

If you’re a registered developer, go and grab it right now. If you’re not, you can get a free account which will give you access to Xcode 4. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

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Apple is giving another example of where it hopes to take the future of software. Xcode 4 is now available in the Mac App Store.

Xcode4 is Apple’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is used to develop iOS and Mac applications. The 4.24GB download includes the SDKs for iOS and Mac.

There are a couple of new features that truly improve the software tremendously: the addition of Git and Subversion for version control and the addition of full support for C++ in addition to C and Objective C.

Unlike previous versions, Xcode4 does cost $4.99 and is available in the Mac App Store now. Developers can still download Xcode via their developer account and install it manually.

Xcode4 is quite an improvement over previous versions. Additionally, I guess this means the NDA is no longer valid and we should expect walkthroughs and reviews quite soon.

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Google’s Instant Preview has been one of the more unique updates to Google search that has been implemented within the last year. Google Instant Preview allows a user to quickly see a snapshot of what a website looks like so you can see if it has the information you are looking for.

This innovative feature has been added to iOS devices. In order to use the feature, you’ll need to do a search on google (searching for macgasm would be much appreciated). Once you have done your search, there will be a little magnifying glass, and when you click on it, something like this will appear:

Along the top you’ll see nine different dots that indicate the possible previews you can see at the moment. If you swipe your finger across the dots, you’ll move left or right, depending on which way you swipe. Once you get to the ninth item, there will be an arrow that’ll allow you to see the next group of nine items.

As of right now, Instant Preview was only available on my iPhone 4 and not on my iPad. The only issue I have with Instant Preview is that it’s too easy to click on an item and go there instead of moving over to the next item. Otherwise, the implementation works quite well, even on the small iPhone screen. The preview works in both Portrait and Landscape modes.

Article Via Mashable

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Apple has been making white gadgets since 2001 with the initial introduction of the iPod, and the color has become synonymous with Apple. White has been on almost every Apple product, from the iPod, to MacBooks, to the white headphones, to the iPhone 3GS. But, we have yet to see a white iPhone 4 arrive for the masses. How is Apple able to sell a white iPad 2 but not a white iPhone 4?

I think I have the answer. Once the white iPhone 4 was delayed there was speculation that the white case interfered with the camera sensor and flash. I think this is totally a plausible, and most likely, the answer. The iPad 2 is going to be available in white on launch day. White is white, correct? Well, yes, white is white.  But, the main difference is that the iPad 2 has a metal back and not a white back like the iPhone 4 would have. The metal back would not interfere with the camera. And the iPad 2 does not have a flash, so this will not be an issue either.

I’m not one who likes white mobile gadgets. I’m not sure if I just don’t like the style or if I know it’ll get dirty and white will make the dirt show even easier than a black gadget. So, the lack of a white iPhone is not a problem for me in any respect. But  for those who may have wanted a white iPhone 4, the white iPad 2 may be the next best thing. This is only my speculation, but it does seem plausible. If you have any information regarding the white iPhone delay, feel free to pass it on to us here at Macgasm.

Photo Credit: Engadget

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AT&T, commonly referred to by many in the United States as the “Death Star,” may be feeling the competition from Verizon. They may be hoping to keep customers by giving them features and more options much sooner than originally planned.

AT&T has recently announced two new options for iOS users. The first is the availability of the iOS 4.3 Hotspot feature. At the Verizon event, Apple introduced the Hotspot feature, which allows an iPhone to act as a WiFi access point for up to 5 other devices.

In order to use this feature, users are required to give up their unlimited data plans and go with the 2GB per month plan for $25 and get the 2GB tethering plan for $20 for a total of 4GB for $45 per month.

This is outrageous. For those of us who have had unlimited data since the original iPhone, we have more than paid for our data usage. If you got the original iPhone and paid for unlimited data since the first day you have paid $1270, plus taxes where applicable, just for DATA on AT&T. Are you telling me that it costs AT&T $360 per iPhone user per year to maintain data towers and provide us data? I surely doubt it.

Ranting aside, the second new feature that AT&T has introduced is the ability to post-pay for their tablet data. Previously AT&T only offered pre-pay options for tablets (read iPad since that was the only tablet available on AT&T). Pre-pay means that you must pay for the data upfront whether you use it or not.

The addition of the post-paid model means that AT&T can add the tablet charges to their cell phone bills. This makes it very convenient for customers who already have a phone on AT&T and don’t want to have deal with more than one wireless bill. This will be extremely good for businesses who wish to provide their employees with a tablet.

The only difference between the pre-paid and post-paid options is the overage costs. For the pre-paid you will be charged $25 for an additional 2GB of data, while on the post-paid option you will be charged $10 per gigabyte of overage.

AT&T is also having a limited-time promotion. Any user who activates a new 2GB for $25 post-paid plan will get their first month of service free (up to 2GB). If you go over 2GB, you will be charged the $10 per gigabyte overage.

This subtle difference means that if you use 2.2 GB worth of data on the pre-paid plan, you will be charged $50 total, while on the post-paid plan you will be charged $35 for data. It’s not that big of a difference but it can add-up quickly.

I’m not sure why there is such a distinction, but my guess is that AT&T is looking to bolster their post-paid subscriber numbers and this will give some an incentive to go with the post-paid plan.

I have two entirely different ideas for AT&T. The first idea is to let me have “rollover data.”  Yes, just like rollover minutes, data would rollover for 12 months. So one month if I only use 300MB out of my 2GB, I would get the other 1.7GB in my rollover data stash. Therefore if need be I could use 3GB one month and not be charged for overages.

The second option is to allow me to have a “data bucket.”  This bucket would contain let’s say 4GB for ALL of my gadgets that use 3G. All that would be needed is to register the IMEI numbers and then I could use 4GB across all of my gadgets. So if I have two iPads and an iPhone that are 3G-enabled, I would not have to have two separate plans for them. Now if we only combine this with the data rollover, I don’t think people would complain so much.

Press Release from AT&T Wireless
Article Via Mac|Life

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The original iPad can charge over USB, but for some computers, only if the iPad is in sleep mode.

This limitation is outlined in a support document over on Apple’s site.
The tech specs do not spell out the specifics, but it may be that iPad 2 will be able to charge while turned on.

I am not sure how many people would use this, but I know I’d love to have the option of charging my iPad via USB while using it. Hopefully more info will come out in the coming days.

Photo Credit: Engadget

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Apple has released a new case for the iPad 2. It’s not just a case; it’s a “Smart Cover.” Essentially, the case is a flap that covers the front of the device. The cover is bendable to allow you to position the iPad as you see fit to create the best viewing angle.

The case also has magnets that auto-align it and will put the iPad to sleep once the cover is closed on the iPad—magnetically magical. There are two versions of the case, available in polyurethane or leather. The polyurethane model, costing $39, will be available in five colors, including charcoal, blue, green, orange, and pink. The leather will be available in white, brown, black, navy blue, and red and will sell for $69.

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Apple recently introduced new MacBook Pro models, but in addition to the expected new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, another new feature was included in the update—Thunderbolt.

What is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is the rebranded Intel technology formerly called Light Peak. Essentially, with Thunderbolt, a single cable allows high-speed connections between your Mac and peripherals. One cable to rule them all!

How fast you may ask? Well, currently there are several options for connecting devices to your Mac, but Thunderbolt is 10 gigabits per second (bi-directional), which means it can transfer about 62% of an iTunes HD movie in one second, should it reach its maximum speed.

The cable is not very big, it is made of copper, the same material that is used within networking cables. There are 10 gigabit per second networking modules available, but you won’t see them in many home products yet.

The cable used to connect from your MacBook Pro, and presumably other Macs in the future, to your peripherals looks identical to the MiniDisplay Port that has been on Macs since 2008. The difference is now, instead of only supporting displays, the port can also support external hard drives, video projectors, and other stuff not yet on themarket.

Daisy-chaining its way into hearts everywhere

Thunderbolt also allows you to daisy-chain devices, much like Firewire. This allows you to connect up to seven devices in a chain, and allows you to connect more than one Thunderbolt device simultaneously.

Originally Light Peak was supposed to be optical-based. This is still possible in the future. There are not any devices, outside DisplayPort monitors, that support Thunderbolt on the market just yet. A couple have been announced but they won’t be available until later this year. So it might be a while until your Thunderbolt port gets put through the paces.

Hopefully this takes off, unlike FireWire 400/800.

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One of the tools that Apple includes with OS X that provides a safety net for new Mac users is Boot Camp. This feature has been around since 2006 and has been included with OS X since 2007 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

The product has been upgraded to support new operating systems, like Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista 64-bit, and Windows 7. Usually users were able to decide which operating system they wanted to install. This is no longer the case with the new Mac Book Pros.

With the new MacBook Pros, the only operating system that works with Boot Camp is Windows 7, although you can still choose 32 or 64-bit versions. There are only three versions of Windows 7 that are supported: Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. This means that Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Enterprise are not supported.

The reason that Windows 7 is the only version supported is that Windows XP is no longer being developed, outside of security fixes, and Windows Vista is too much of a hog, at least in my experience. The second reason is that Apple doesn’t want to put development time into dead platforms.

If you’re planning on buying a new MacBook Pro and need Windows installed, you may want to leave a little extra room in your upgrade budget if you don’t already own a copy of Windows 7.

Article Via ZDNet

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