Adobe today announced a 64-bit version of its Flash player for Windows Linux and of course Mac called “Square”.
I’ve installed it and it still maxes out my CPU when watching video clips. Oh well.
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Apple has seeded the latest version of Mac OS X, Mac OS X 10.6.5 build 10H542 to its developer community, the new build replaces the previous edition which was itself introduced on September 2.
There’s multiple fixes included in this release:
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We like the look of Watts, a new application from Binary Tricks designed to keep your MacBook or MacBook Pro battery in good shape.
The application will calibrate your laptop battery for you, ensuring accurate battery power display in the indicator and maximizing the gathering and maintenance of battery charge.
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The Mac Virtual Machine market heats up today with the release of Parallels 6. The biggest Virtual machine maker for the Mac platform adds 80 new features (most of which we detailled a little early!). See below for a breakdown.
Battling back with price, VMWare today is dropping the price of a competitive update to $10. That is a pretty drastic measure.
Apple has introduced a new Express Lane service to its customer support system, an online engine that should help customers find the support they need.
Apple updated its iOS SDK today to build 10M2309.
I like Cyberduck (it is free) quite a bit, its a craftily-created FTP file transfer solution that in its latest incarnation adds Google Storage and Amazon S3 file versioning to its many talents, which now also includes the capacity to assign access permissions to different users (handy).
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A fairly undocumented feature in the new iPod touch is the ability for the device to vibrate like the iPhone. It seems this vibrate function was designed with the deaf in mind, as its primary use is vibrating when a FaceTime is received. Apple markets FaceTime as the perfect way to have a phone call using sign language, and vibrate helps hard-of-hearing users know when a call is incoming.
No word on whether this vibrate function can be used in games and such like on iPhones but hopefully we’ll find that out soon. Another change in this year’s iPod touch is the absence of the plastic WiFi antenna strip. It will be interesting to see if it has any affect on signal strength.
See internals below:
Apple has opened a Trailer Showtimes site today that uses browser location settings both on desktop and mobile devices to deliver showtimes. You’ll be prompted to let the browser access your GPS information, whether that is your geo-located IP or your device’s dedicated GPS.
Those new colorless iTunes icons sure do rub some people the wrong way. Not to worry, there is a ‘fix’ out there. You simply download a new iTunes.rsrc file and shut down iTunes and replace it with the one you’ve just downloaded. When you restart, its like you’ve never updated (except Ping is still there).
We haven’t tried this (we are in the ‘who cares’ camp) so use at your own risk. via OPM
PS. Bonus tip from the comments: If you want the normal stoplight buttons back, Close your iTunes, open Terminal and paste in this “defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1”, hit enter. Boom. Open you iTunes. Fixed.
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Hot on the heels of Apple’s 99 cent episode renting announcement, Amazon has matched Apple by offering those same episodes for the same price.
It isn’t immediately clear if these are for permanent download or just for streaming like AppleTV. (it says “Own Episodes” but I think only Windows and Tivo can download for offline viewing).
As was demonstrated earlier, Plex is now available for iOS devices and the Mac.
That September 1st surprise from Plex is a new iOS app that allows iPod touch, iPhone and iPad to be both media devices as well as remotes for the TV. CrunchGear got a hands on look before launch. For those who use a Mac as their mediacenter, this news may be as exciting as a $99 iTV.
Plex, if you aren’t aware, is a mediacenter built off of the original XBox MediaCenter Open Source code.
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Although the original patent appears to be focused on stolen phones and methods of finding the people who stole them (and getting the phone back), Slashdot opines (seriously?!) that Jailbreakers could fall into Apple’s net:
“Apple yesterday applied for patent to allow remotely disabling electronic devices when ‘unauthorized usage’ is detected. The patent application covers using the camera to take pictures of the unauthorized user and using GPS to determine location, and it involves ascertaining whether the phone has been hacked or jailbroken, using that as criteria for detecting ‘suspicious behavior.’ The patent would allow the carrier or any other ‘authorized’ party to disable or restrict the functionality of the device. Is this Apple’s latest tool to thwart jailbreaking?”
Maybe a little net can come out of the phone too? Or poison gas?
“But I wanted to FaceTime over 3G?!” Too bad punk!
Apple has seeded a second build of Mac OS X 10.6.5 to developers.
iPhoneinCanada.ca informs us that this new version fixes two outstanding issues noted within the last build and seemingly notes no new matters that need resolving.
The current build focuses on AFP, Mail, Printing, 3D Graphics, QuickTime, and X11. It weighs in as a 558MB download.
“Apple began the seeding OS X 10.6.5 project in July 2010. The first two builds were seeded in August 2010 with the build period expected to last into Fall 2010,” the report informs.
From the seed notes:
Known Issues
* None
Focus Areas
* 3D Graphics
* AFP
* Mail
* Printing
* QuickTime
* X11
C’mon all you performance junkies, come get yourselves hooked-up for eSATA connectivity on your new iMac, thanks to Other World Computing and its brand new OWC Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the Mid 2010 Apple iMac 27″.
The scheme makes it possible for iMac users to have an eSATA port professionally installed on their iMac. This lets them use an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro Solid State Drive up to 480GB, a larger capacity hard drive up to 2TB, and/or OWC Memory Upgrades up to 16GB.
The new professional installation service program offers multiple configuration options starting at $169 with a 48 business hours or less installation turnaround and includes complete shipping options along with OWC’s renowned warranty coverage.
OWC will begin taking orders for its Turnkey Upgrade Installation Program for the Mid 2010 Apple iMac 27″ beginning on Tuesday, August 3.
“We are quite pleased to record another innovation in the Mac industry by offering the first eSATA interface for an iMac,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “By offering this performance enhancement along with faster, bigger, and better options for memory and storage, an OWC upgraded iMac truly will be the best performing iMac a user can own.”
We figured we should probably let you know about the latest update to veteran Mac backup and recovery package, Retrospect, which today reached v. 8.2, the first release under new ownership.
Roxio says the software now delivers as much as three-times faster network backup performance, adds 64-bit addressing to enable the backup of volumes containing tens of millions of files, and includes user interface enhancements that simplify workflow and management tasks.
You can also now restore from backups created with Retrospect 6. This feature addresses a key request from users who wanted to upgrade to the Retrospect 8 platform, but didn
If you are looking for a way to display your love for the Google vs. Apple war, have a look at these Chis Bishop T-Shirts sent in by a faithful reader. They come in both mens and ladies T-Shirts or posters and sell for $19 plus a few more bucks for shipping.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4sXj4C2B04&w=640&h=385]
Today the planets aligned for a pretty amazing set of Unibody MacBook Pro updates. If you want to literally max out your MacBook Pro, both RAM and hard drive have sunk to great prices in the 9to5mac Toys section. Oh, this works in Mac Minis too but removing the HDD might not be your best move.
These upgrades are pretty trivial and even a novice can do them. There are lots of tutorials out on the net. But as always, no guarantees – if you don’t trust yourself, take it to someone who you do trust! Here are a bunch of YouTube videos on upgrading.
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Strange how he sort of blends in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM4V6Vqtpi4&w=700&h=400]
Sure, needing a piece of scotch tape on the World’s sexiest phone isn’t what Jony Ive intended, but here’s the cheapest way to solve the famous iPhone 4 signal loss problem: The honor belongs to Fast Company, who also point out that not every iPhone is necessarily affected by the widely reported snag and advises us all to calm down a bit.
What the fault is: We
