Folder ynchronizer v3.6 goes Universal

Folder ynchronizer, the backup and sync utility from softtoBe, has been updated to version 3.6, with the addition of Universal Binary status. This is one of the first backup utilities I ever found - I su equently bought a lice e way back in the day and it's always done the trick for me since.

I've never seen it a ear on any 'best utilities' lists, but its exte ive feature set seems to match most of the other similar a I've seen. Users can back up an entire Mac OS X volume and make it bootable. In addition, Folder ynchronizer has exte ive su ort for multiple backup se io and configuratio , synchronizing directories as well as backing up, setting backup timers, automounting volumes, filtering files and much more.

A demo of Folder ynchronizer is available, while a full lice e will cost $40.

Edit 8.5.1

Barebones has just updated the recently released Edit 8.5 (it is now 8.5.1). This is a maintenance release, but there are a few additio , mostly to i ets, so check it out. You can also be sure some bugs are squashed, and that stability has been increased.

Text hackers, get to downloading!

Texas, Rhode Island A le Stores on the way

According toA le Retail watchdog site ifoA leStore, Houston, Texas and Providence, Rhode Island may have brandnew A le Stores in their re ective futures. First, they suggest that Houston's second A le Store will a ear at theMemorial City Mall, bringing Texas' tally of A le Stores to seven.

In Rhode Island, it looks like A lehas finalized pla for a location in the Providence Mall. Good luck to locals of both locatio . We hope these pla come to fruition. For those of you in southern New England, don't pa up Ye Olde English Fish and Chi in Woo ocket, RI while on your wayto the Providence Mall. That place is fantastic.

QTAmateur does full-screen playback, batch exporting, more

QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little a .

QTAmateur is free, Universal and available from Mike Ash, a Rogue Amoeba programmer.

My Dream A launches

Phill Ryu's My Dream A has officially launched today. What is My Dream A ? Think American Idol for Mac software, think America's Got Talent with software developers and no Ha elhoff.

The idea is that non-programmers have ideas for a they would love to see, but they lack the skills to make them a reality. Enter My Dream A , people submit their a ideas to the contest. The entries are whittled down to 24 and then the visitors of the we ite vote until there are only 3 left. The remaining 3 will become be developed by a team of a designer and a developer and then become real life products for sale (the person who submitted the idea gets royalties).

Submi io are open until Friday, September 1st (extended from the original Aug. 25th).

Oh, and in the irit of full disclosure, I am serving on the panel of judges for My Dream A (along with Steve Wozniak, Leo Laporte, and Kevin Rose, just to name a few) though I have no vested interest in the contest.

Photoshop Universal Binary? Not so fast.

I have to admit, I was pretty excited when I saw the screencap of an Adobe order confirmation email above from TUAW reader Craig. De ite Adobe's repeated official refusal [pdf] to do anything for Intel Mac Photoshop users until CS3, it looked like there might be big news on the Photoshop front. A closer look, though, shows that the rumor mill has gotten ahead of itself on this one, and here at TUAW, we believe in quashing this sort of thing in the bud. It's "Macintosh, Universal English," not "Macintosh Universal, English." That one little comma is huge. It's the difference between a universal binary, and a product that i 't localized ecifically for British, American, or Canadian English.

Fraser eirs clears up FlickrExport lice ing confusion

It sounds like confusion has arisen over how FlickrExport's lice ing terms work; ecifically, how many lice es one needs to purchase, and for which machines. To help simplify things, Fraser has adopted terms like The Omni Group uses, which I personally a laud: a user can purchase one lice e and use it on two machine for example, a desktop and a notebook (though both lice es can't be in use simultaneously). On the other hand, a busine can't purchase ten lice es for twenty employees, even if no more than ten copies of FlickrExport are in use at any given time.

Read up on Fraser's blog post for an update and a more in-depth explanation of the simplified terms, and if you're one of the confused users who doe 't need an extra lice e or two that you purchased, Fraser will be personally contacting you to offer a refund.

Chinese iPod knockoffs

This i 't the first blatant and bad iPod knockoff, and it won't be the last. But I still get such a kick out of seeing these, I just had to share.

This "ipod" orts a badly fitted u co ector, a poor imitation of the iPod UI, says "Desig by A ls California" on the back, has 512MB of memory and plays "AMV," MP3 and MP4 files. The iPod nano-style box it comes in (1st gen, natch) is a arently a better fake than the "ipod" itself.

It can be yours for only 12 Euro if you find yourself wandering through an electronics store in China.

[via Powerpage]

iTunes/Coke promo coming

Abandoning Pe i, A le has extended the olive branch to Coca-Cola. According to Digital Bulletin, Coke and A le are currently wra ing up the details on a "...su tantial iTunes promotion." Word has it the deal will put Coke-generated content into the iTunes Music Store (much like the gig with Nike).

On a personal note, I'm sure glad I don't have to force myself to drink Pe i just to swing a deal with iTunes. Coke, here I come!

[Via MacDailyNews]

My Dream A Wi ers A ounced!

The votes are in folks, and the wi ers are Atmo here, Portal, and Cookbook, with Portal beating out Hijack by only 5 votes. It looked like Hijack had Portal beaten, that is before the filtering of fraudulent votes. Fraudulent votes were defined as more than 50 votes for the same a lication originating from the same IP addre . With a result this close, there are bound to be some sore feelings between wi ers and losers, but let's just try and remember it's not the end of the world, and life will go on. So did your preferred a make the cut? Let us know in the comments.

TUAW Tip: Initiate Bluetooth File Exchange with a keyboard shortcut

TUAW-lover Andrew accidentally discovered that if you select a file in the Finder and pre A le + Shift + B (aka Command+Shift+B), it brings up the Bluetooth File Exchange a lication and prompts you for which device you want to send the selected file(s) to.

I love keyboard shortcuts and I know an awful lot of them but this is one that I either never knew or once knew but quickly forgot. Incredibly handy!

Thanks, Andrew!

Audio Hijack Pro 2.7

Rogue Amoeba released Audio Hijack Pro 2.7 today making it a podcaster's dream. This already indi e able a lication has just gotten better with the addition of the 'MegaMix.' This feature (enabled by default if you are recording an iChat conversation) records incoming and outgoing audio from an a lication thereby making it very easy to record everyone in on an iChat conference call with one a (this also works in Skype and Gizmo).

Read all about the changes here, and take a visual tour at Rogue Amoeba's blog.

Audio Hijack Pro costs $32.

Small Dog Electronics eaks out on theft-in-tra it, credit card fraud and more

The other day we told you about the guy who had his (then) newly purchased iPod swa ed out for a bar or soap while in tra it from Small Dog, a Vermont A le Reseller. I was amazed at how many people mentioned that similar - and worse - things had ha ened to them so I decided to ask the reseller at the heart of this particular story just how much of a scourge this really is. Don Mayer, CEO of Small Dog Electronics, had a lot to say on the matter.

Q. Has Small Dog had this ha en before or since?
A. There is a growing trend of theft through delivery services. We receive hundreds of packages each day and send out hundreds, too. It used to be that we could trust shrink wra ed pallets of goods from the manufacturer, however, lately, we have had reams of paper su tituted for computers, batteries and old socks seem to be the choice for iPods. We've had bricks sent to us and old books and magazines, too. In just about every case the thefts a ear to be ha ening at one of the shi ing facilities. Sometimes the pallets are broken down and re-stacked with the tampered boxes on the bottom of the pallet.

[More after the jump...]
Q. Is the shi er generally cooperative when it ha e ?
A. In just about all of these cases we are succe ful in working with the shi ing company and/or the vendor to resolve the situation. The most frustrating part of the proce is the time that it takes to resolve the i ues.

< an style="font-weight: bold;">Q. Is the vendor reimbursed when a product goes MIA in tra it?
< an style="font-weight: bold;">A. Since we primarily ship with U , they tend to take good care of us and act quickly for our customers, too.

< an style="font-weight: bold;"> Q. Are there any new precautio being taken to i ure iPods and other high-value items arrive at their destination safely and un-tampered with, such as double-boxing or using security tape to indicate whether the package has been opened in tra it?
< an style="font-weight: bold;"> A. We do try to double box products that have obvious value but the more that Small Dog Electronics becomes known for selling A le products the harder it will be to hide the contents. One of the things we do to help eliminate the o ortunity for theft is to ship all of our packages U 3-day service (or faster) on the theory that the shorter the time the product is out of our hands (or the customers) the le chance of tampering.

We at TUAW don't want single out U , of course, as the lone culprit when it comes to the old switcheroo. FedEx, DHL, Airborne, U and other carriers all face the same problems and with the volume of packages sent and received every single day it's really astonishing that the whole shi ing and delivery system works as well as it does most of the time. E ecially co idering how many hands touch each package between Point A and Point B - many of those hands belonging to outside contractors and temporary workers. For every package you hear about that doe 't make it to its destination trouble-free, however, think of the countle packages that < an style="font-style: italic;">do make it without fail. As with most things, what you primarily hear about and read about are the problems and failures, not the succe es.

An even more alarming trend, Mayer says, is increased sophistication in credit card fraud. "The thieves are now stealing identities by calling the credit card i uers who have weak security and asking for an addre change. Thus when we verify addre it comes back clean but is not the real card holder. And of course, it is the merchant that holds the bag. We are involved in a few di utes with credit card i uers where they have charged back legitimate sales where < an style="font-style: italic;">their security was lax and identity theft was made easy by their proce es."

Mayer continued, "Our company is built upon the notion of making customers for life. Hapy [< an style="font-style: italic;">N.B. Hapy Mayer is Don's son and CFO and co-owner of Small Dog] and I train and empower our employees to treat our customers as if they were their mothers. The profit from the sale of a single product is i ignificant when compared to the life-value of a satisfied customer."

And it looks like that attitude has paid off since Don and Hapy were named one of America's Best Bo es by < an style="font-style: italic;">Fortune Small Busine magazine in 2004, as well as honored as one of Vermont's fastest growing busine es by < an style="font-style: italic;">Vermont Busine magazine's 5x5x5 Award.

In fact, you can witne their growth in person if you're in the Burlington, VT area this weekend when they open their new retail store at 100 Dorset Street in South Burlington. Grand Opening week kicks off at 10:00 am today and continues with uniquely-themed days throughout the week. Check out the event schedule for details. If you ha en to buy something while you're there, though, do yourself a favor and open the box before you leave the store, just in case...

iPod 101 su ort docs

A le just went nuts releasing a slew of iPod 101 su ort documents, most likely just in time for all the iPod-toting user who are about to unwillingly embark on a new side career this holiday season: su orting their family members and friends who just got their own little white (or black, or pink...) music player. I tead of forcing you to trudge through A le's Su ort docs, using their le -than-stellar search, I thought I'd link everything I found for your bookmarking pleasure. Don't forget the last doc about backing up one's library, as well as the backup overview our own Scott McNulty wrote about this rocking new feature when iTunes 7 launched:

• iPod 101: Beef Up My Battery
• iPod 101: View Videos
• iPod 101: Set Up a Slideshow
• iPod 101: Eyeball my Artwork
• iPod 101: Put Pictures on my iPod
• iPod 101: Give the Gift
• iPod 101: Browse and Buy Videos
• iPod 101: Tour the Store
• iPod 101: Set Up an iTunes Store Account
• iPod 101: Lay of the Land
• iPod 101: What's On the Menu?
• iPod 101: I talling and Updating Software
• iPod 101: Which Files Work With iPod and iTunes

and of course, the ever-pertinent:

• iPod 101: Backing Up Your Library

Newton "Video Guides" available as downloads

Oh, how I love the Newton community. When the various me age pads shi ed, they came with i tructive VHS tapes (yes, VHS) that described just how they should be used. Some enterprising Newton user has taken the time to encode several of the tapes ( ecifically the Original Me age Pad, the Me agePad 110 and Newton OS 2.0) to H.264, and made them available as a video podcast [iTunes link]. Nice! Also included is a video on using the Newton OS on 3rd party hardware.

Leopard Technology Overview

People have whi ed themselves into a froth thanks to this Leopard Technology Overview, which is the first in an ADC series called Leopard Technology Series for Developers. Why are people so excited? Mostly because of the glim es it gives us into Leopard. Here are some highlights:

• Interface Builder 3.0 dash; Core Animation su ort included and a new IB Kit < an cla ="ca ">API
• Xray dash; DTrace based < an cla ="ca ">GUI tool that allows you to visually see how your a is performing
• Dashcode dash; a Widget < an cla ="ca ">IDE which we have covered before
• Core Animation dash; create whizbang interfaces in no time flat!
• Objective-C 2.0 dash; lots of improvements to the language that Mac geeks love
• iChat integrated all over the place, including iChat Theatre, and an iChat < an cla ="ca ">API that will allow a to poll iChat for presence info (i.e. are you online or not) and get contacts
• Resolution Independence dash; this allows the OS and a scale without worrying about the resolution of the monitor
• Calendar Store dash; a central place that a can query for iCal info

Who is excited about Leopard?

Afloat - window floating and tra arency at the stroke of a key

Afloat is a killer System Preferences utility that adds a 'float on top' option and customizable tra arency settings to virtually any Cocoa a in Mac OS X. Once i talled (and you restart any Cocoa a that were ru ing), new keyboard shortcuts and a couple of optio under the Window menu will offer all sorts of handy wndow management and see-through goodne . Great for those times when you have windows layered on top of each other and just need to glance at something underneath, and when you're using a bittorrnet client to download a Quake 4 demo and you're sick of it falling underneath Adium every time you switch to chat - or just for those times when you want to show off with some sexy tra arency. Check out Afloat's ReadMe (PDF link) for more details.

Afloat is freeware, a Universal Binary, and available from Emanuele Vulcano's site.

Norway takes iTMS ToS gripes to court

A co umer advocacy group in Norway is a arently not too ha y with the iTMS ToS (Terms of Service) and has won a preliminary ruling in an attempt to force A le to make some edits. ecifically, the Norwegian group is attacking A le's liability for any security breaches their software might allow (think: "Sony rootkits"), as well as the company's 'we can edit these ToS anytime we want' policy that is outlined in said ToS. Also on the table, yet again, is the use of DRM and whether it violates fundamental co umer rights in Norway, and the proposition of a 'cooling off' period for iTMS purchases.

First France, now Norway. The iTMS and its practices are taking quite the beating lately. We should take bets as to how long it will take Norwegian pro-music industry lo yists to get these rulings fixed this time around.

[via Mac ]

MacBook Pro noises, LCD, touchpad, other problems

Fabie e postedsomething a little earlier updating you on the widely-reported hi ing noise affecting the MacBook Pro. I've beentrying to hold off updating you on my status, because it just kee changing.

But since it lookslike this is a bigger problem than even I anticipated, I'm going to post my experiences with the Pro, and things I'vefound that may benefit current or future M owners.

Click on, my friends.

Proce or whine

First, yes, as I outlined in my previous post on the matter,I am experiencing an odd hi ing/whiny noise coming from the machine. The noise is loud when the machine is idle, butwhen you run a proce or-inte ive a (ie, Photobooth), it goes away. I i talled A le's CHUD tools (found in theXcode i taller package on the Mac OS X i tall disk), loaded up the new Proce or preference pane, and disabled theproce or's second core. That eliminated the noise entirely.

Others who notice this have come up with varioussolutio of their own

-Run Photobooth and just leave it in the background. The noise goes away because theproce or is in use.

-I tall thisMirror widget. Run it, then remove it from the Dashboard. Blammo: The noise should be gone. Not sure why or how thisworks, but I su ect that when you remove it, it doe 't completely go away: there's probably some component in thebackground making use of the proce or, eliminating the noise from the second core.

Othernoises

Oddly enough, the proce or i 't the only thing waking me up at night. The first MacBook Pro Ireceived (I got a replacement, which I'll explain later) had several other hi ing noises, too:

-The hard drivesquealed. And when I say %26quot quealed," I mean "disillusioned teen girl seeing Brad Pitt walk into therestaurant" squeal: At one point, I was asked to turn the machine off at night so it would stop bothering thosewho were sleeping in the room. That's bad.

-The LCD did indeed hi . Turning the screen to maximum (or minimum)brightne eliminated the noise, but it was an eerie a oyance. MacInTouch claims that perha ma aging the LCD in thebottom-left corner or bending back-and-forth the di lay would %26quot reak it in," po ibly eradicating it, but Ihaven't tried that.

-The fan of my original machine would engage in random vacuum-like bursts. It was odd, andfor a minute I thought the A/C in my house was going crazy.

All of those noises are no longer an i ue on my newMacBook Pro.

Touchpad troubles

On both my old and new M machines, the touchpad willrandomly stop working for periods of 4-7 minutes. When that ha e , I'm unable to move the cursor, click the button,anything -- and all I can do is sit there waiting patiently for it to magically come back.

One hint says thatturning off the "Ignore accidental trackpad i ut" will eliminate the problem -- but as I've learned the pastfew days, it doe 't.

Some good does come from this, though: I'm now a pro at controlling the computer withnothing but the keyboard. (If you're ever stuck in a situation where you cursor just sto and you're stranded, hit FnCtrl F7. That will enable Full-Keyboard Acce , allowing you navigate OS X without needing themouse.)

Screen a oyances

My first (and now my second) MacBook Pro had an incrediblynoticeable white strip along the bottom of the LCD, making the bottom significantly brighter than the rest of thedi lay.

Every -- and I mean every -- MacBook Pro I've seen or dealt with has this i ue. Everyone Iknow who has a MacBook has this i ue. My new one has it, and I bet when I go to the store and demand Yet AnotherReplacement, that will have it, too.

I'm a little frustrated because the i ue on my newer machine is abit more pronounced -- plus, it seems the backlight on the right side of my di lay is shot: the right is noticeablydarker than the rest of the di lay. So the bottom is a oyingly bright and the right is a oyinglydark.

Combine that with the soul-killing whiny noises, and you've got yourself the type of problem historicallyre o ible for i anity and ma murder/suicides.

As I've mentioned above, I managed to get my MacBook Proreplaced by a gracious A le Store Genius (after frustratingly marching off from another A le Store that refused to).Unfortunately, the problems still exist, and so I've scheduled another Genius Bar reservation for tonight, to see whatother optio I have (repair? a second replacement? We'll see).

Unfortunately, this machine is my new Secretary,Bo , and Client -- so going without for An Undefined Amount of Time will have repercu io that could very wellthreaten the carefully-knit fabric of the Universe itself. I can only pray that such a disaster -- ie, me being withoutmy MacBook Pro for more than two days while it's off to Texas for repair -- will result in minimum lo oflife, and FEMA will have learned enough from the Katrina catastrophe to properly re ond with first aid, food,heavily-armed rescue cho ers, and a boatload of duct tape.

I know, I should have "anticipated"%26quot roblem quot; with my %26quot ew" MacBook Pro. That this should be "expected" and"usual" and "jeezus man, what were you thinking?" But I want to make one thing clear: A le ca otuse "well, it's a first Rev." as an excuse for slo y manufacturing and hiring a Quality Control team so highon hallucinoge it can't distinguish an inco istent backlight di lay from a colorful dragon strumming a guitar.

I love the machine. But I will love it even more when I get one that does what it's su osed to do withoutmaking me think I have a bad case of ti itus and a seriou eye problem.

And I hate to say this, becauseI'm a fan of A le and I think the faster the Mac Base moves to Intel the better off we'll all be: But if you can waiton a purchase of a MacBook Pro, then wait. The i ues are noticeable and co istent -- and until A le acknowledgesthem and fixes the manufacturing problems, I can't recommend anybody put themselves in this position, e ecially ifthey're easily a oyed (like me) by the Minor Things that define the experience.

Post your thoughts in thecomments, and I'll keep you up-to-date with my situation as it develo .

Google calendar

Today Googleunwra ed its latest web product: Google Calendar. gCalendar (as I shallnow refer to it) su orts the iCal standard, so you should be able to import your events and what have yous from iCalwithout much fu . That is, as long as you use a browser other than Safari. I'm sure Google is working on su ortingSafari, but as it customary with Google products, it i 't su orted out of the gate.

Overall gCalendar issomething of a yawner, but it is still in Beta, so there is still hope.

To read more about gCalendar checkout Download Squad and theUnofficialGoogle Weblog.

< an style="font-style: italic;">Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

CNET violates Mac Pro warranty, i talls eight cores in Mac Pro

Over at CNET la , they've done gone and stuck a couple of new Intel quad-core Xeon 5355 proce ors into an A le Mac Pro and ran copious benchmarks on their new baby. Surprisingly enough, a single 3.0 GHz quad core kicked the bejesus out of the 2.66 GHz oct cores in some of the tasks. Follow the link to see lots and lots of bar graphs.

And yes, that is 8 cores hard at work in the CPU monitor. How long will we have to wait until we can pick up this configuration from A le, i tead of having to hack our way to more cores?

MacBook Invi le Shield reviewed

Paul Stamatiou has a MacBook and he is concerned about the po ibility of discoloration. What's a geek to do? Why, a ly ShieldZone's Invisible Shield plastic protector, that's what.

Paul says that a lying the shield i 't easy, but it i 't hard either (how's that for a review?) though an extra set of hands is recommended. Overall, if you're worried about sullying your precious MacBook Paul says these are for you.

A ouncing the new TUAW Deskto Flickr group and series

Fire up your screen capture software and keyboard shortcuts TUAW readers, as we are a ouncing a new Flickr group and post series titled simply: TUAW Deskto . That's right ladies and gentlemen, in addition to immortalizing you in our archives with the Rig of the Day series, we want to dive a little deeper into just what makes your Mac, your Mac. Are you a wallpaper co oi eur, or perha you have the busiest Dock this side of Cupertino? Is your work ace decked out with utilities like iPulse, Konfabulator widgets and ShapeShifter themes, or do you want to share you mastery of clutter-free desktop feng shui? Join our new TUAW Deskto group on Flickr and upload your scree hots. On Saturdays, we'll pick out and round up the best of the deskto to share here on TUAW, complete with credit attribution and a link to your site, if you have one.

eaking of credit, we should probably lay down some rules here:

1. First rule about TUAW Deskto : you do not talk... If you can (or would like), please attribute any work like wallpapers or ico to their original authors, and we'll do our best to include those attributio in our posts. It's fine if you don't know who that is when you post your shots - trust us, we have hundreds of wallpapers and we don't remember where we found every single one - but at the very least, don't take credit for someone else's work. This is the internets, and the readers *will* call out stunts like that. On the other hand - if something *is* your original work, by all mea - let us know, and we'll be sure your creativity gets a mention in the otlight.
2. Try not to overload the pool with submi io that are too similar to your previous submi ion(s). We're looking for fresh desktop shot that little 'extra something' that really makes them leap off the di lay. Deskto that have that element which is difficult to describe, yet impo ible to mi .
3. Keep it clean. This is a family blog, and we like to keep our Flickr grou and other community endeavors family-friendly as well.
4. Last rule (for now): Unle you went all-out using products like Stardock's to make your Windows desktop look and act like Mac OS X (it's do-able - I used to, before I actually got my first Mac), we'd like to stick with Mac deskto only. After all, you are reading The Unofficial A le Weblog.

With that said, get on to showing off your deskto and let the submi io begin!

iMac 24-inch surprise: graphics card is upgradeable?

MacsimumNews broke down a MacGeneration post (a French publication) revealing that the new 24-inch iMac A le introduced this week could quite po ibly be the first iMac with a truly upgradeable graphics card. Thanks to a new Mobile PCI Expre Module (MXM - originally designed for high-end notebooks) standard in the biggest iMac of 'em all, owners might be able to upgrade their own graphics card and (finally) ditch that old just throw it out when you want to upgrade stigma - if this is true, of course. You can also thank NVIDIA and their partnership with some of the industry leading notebook manufacturers (we would imagine Alienware and even Dell, believe it or not) for this standard that was quite a long time coming.

Why this much-requested feature i 't getting any otlight time on the new iMac's graphics page, or why the 24-inch is the only model to receive the coveted upgrade-ability treatment, definitely doe 't help our skeptical side. We'll be investigating this further, as it could easily be that A le adopted the standard for one reason or another (like cheaper manufacturing costs), but still soldered the card (which will most surely cause an uproar, if true).

We'd also like to echo MacsimumNews' o ervation that it would be stellar if A le could work this standard into the next MacBook Pro revision, as the company kinda dro ed the ball with their current lineup.

Thanks Michael!

CNET Asia reviews Levi's RedWire DLX Jea

CNET Asia has taken Levi's iPod enabled RedWire DLX jea for a in, and surprisingly (to me, at least) they liked them. The jea get high marks for the integrated controller, redwire co ectivity, and comfort. The included Levi headphones, though, aren't very good and the ecial pocket for the iPod has no additional padding to keep your iPod safe.

SFGate reviews Mac impostors

I know Macs, sir, and you are no Mac. That's what I would say to the Gateway Profile 6 , which looks just plain awful, if I were ever to find myself debating one (which is unlikely at best).

However, that ha 't sto ed the SFGate.com from reviewing two Macs (the Mac mini and the iMac) along side two PC's that look Mac-esque (the Gateway and a AOpen MiniPC).

Not to ruin the end of the article for you, but the Macs win out.

[via MacDevCenter]

The Ski y on the new Powerbook motion se or

Amit Singh has posted afascinating article about the new Powerbook Sudden MotionSe or (SMS) that is now standard in all Powerbooks. This isthe little feature that se es is the Powerbook has been dro ed or moved suddenly and sto the hard drive in hopes ofpreventing damage to the drive. I am sure even if you have a Powerbook with this feature dro ing it is a terrifyingexperience.

The SMS might be too se itive for some users. Amit reports that loud thumping ba seems to trigger the SMS, and i down the disks. If you are using a Powerbook to pump out said techno beats, you might want to check out Amit%26#8217 tip on disabling this feature because nothing sto a rave faster than a ski ing track.

Amit has also built a few a licatio that take advantage of the information that the se or reports on, anddemo trates what can be done with the se ors.

HDTV on your Mac

Who needs a TV these days, what with mammoth iMac and giant monitors. Just watch TV on your Mac, but how? The MacDevCenter has the lowdown on how to turn your Mac into a HDTV over the air watching machine. With the right hardware, and software, you can cast aside that old TV (they are so last year) and gather the family around the Mac to enjoy 'Celebrity Duets.'

FreeRideCoding releases SmartBackup

From the faraway land of Austria and the people who brought you BurnAgain (which earned rave reviews from David Chartier) comes SmartBackup, a 2.0 reworking of the company's original SyncupX backup tool. The new version of the a is intended for simple and easy backu , but it has a few pro-level features too: it leverages otlight's Saved Searches as a selection mechanism for backing up, handles archiving of changed items, integrates with Automator and iCal, and you can run it from the command line for remote triggering or scripted backu .

I like the look and feel of SmartBackup, and the saved searches are a nice way of handling dynamic selectio (e.g. "Back up all the JPEGs that were modified in the last week") for repeat jo . It doe 't have the granular power of ChronoSync or the bootable mule-team-borax strength of SuperDuper, but if you are co idering A le Backup or Martian Lifeboat you may want to throw SmartBackup into the mix of po ibilities. $19.50 for a single-user lice e.

Dell to Open Two Full-Sized Stores

In what is surely a re o e to A le's succe with its retail stores, Dell a ounced that they would be opening two full-sized stores later this year. One will be located in Dallas, and the other in New York.

According to the Austin-Statesman, Dell will not be changing its tried-and-trusted policy of building every machine to order. Customers at the Dell stores will be able to touch and use the computers on di lay but not buy and carry them away.

Hey, stop laughing. C'mon, who wants to actually carry home the computer they just purchased? I know I like waiting a week for my purchases, don't you?

Not to be left out, eMachines has a ounced that they will be opening an island sales kiosk in the Cherryland Mall in Traverse City, MI. There won't actually be any computers on di lay, but there will be lots of glo y pictures.

[Via Digg]

Widget Watch: Check new releases by artists in your iTunes library with newTunes

Tired of browsing the (often late) New Release emails from the iTMS to find out whether an artist you actually care about has released a new album? Sick of adding an 'Artist Alert' for each of the hundreds of artists cataloged in your vast library? Well pound those keys no more, frustrated iTMS sho er, for the newTunes widget has arrived. This widget tells you when new music you actually care about has been released by watching for new and upcoming work from the artists already in your library.

Don't you love it when computers actually do the work for you, i tead of creating more work for you to do? newTunes is freeware and can be had from A le's Dashboard downloads section.

Wal-Mart bullying Hollywood over iTS movie downloads?

Today's edition of 'yes they did/no they didn't' is brought to you by Wal-Mart, the New York Post and Reuters. As we knew, Wal-Mart is the largest DVD retailer (at least in America), with 40% of the market. Obviously, a player with that large of a stake in the game might not be too ha y when a music download service with as much momentum as the iTunes Store a ounces movie downloads, and the New York Post printed a piece confirming just as much. According to the Post, Wal-Mart returned "cases and cases" of DVDs to Di ey after suffering a panic attack over word of the iTS. Never one to stop at throwing product back in just one client's face, Wal-Mart then went on to throw a temper tantrum at the Hollywood studios, "overtly threatened to retaliate" by ordering fewer movies if they shook hands with the iTS. One has to wonder what ha e when Wal-Mart doe 't get ice cream for desert.

On the other side of this coin, however, Reuters printed comments from a Wal-Mart okeswoman, saying "we are not di uading studios from conducting busine with other providers." Setting aside the discu ion of who competition truly benefits, a Di ey okeswoman also stated she was not familiar with the NYP claims, though Reuters failed to mention whether this okeswoman has anything to do with the shi ing department.

It's a twisted web these players are weaving, and we'll (do our best to) stay on top of who's saying what.

[via Engadget]

Video review of iPod games

I'm quite interested in the new games that are available for the iPod (and kicking myself for selling my 5G iPod a couple of months ago).We wrote up our own "first impre io " post earlier, and now there's a video mini-review available at Netscape by our very own (well, formerly) C.K. Sample. They really look good. The intro to MahJong, for example, was much more than I was expecting. Check it out.

Bryce 5 free until September 6th

DAZ Productio is the latest software company to have been struck by the 'let's give it away for free!' bug, as they have placed a $0 price tag on Bryce 5 for both Mac and PC - but only until Sept. 6th. For those who are scratching their heads over this 'Bryce' busine : it's a 3D design a which ecializes in modeling landscapes and animatio , and in the grand scheme of 3D a , it's pretty simple to use. A number of content packages that offer pre-built models of things like scenery and people are available, including a free starter set in tandem with this offer.

agging a free copy is fairly simple: head over to DAZ Production's page which offers download links for either the Mac or PC version. Now before you ask: yes, this page states that Bryce 5.0 won't run under Tiger, however: the actual version of the Mac download is 5.0.3. I've tested this out myself already, having gone through the registration proce , and it ru just fine. In fact, it's still a PowerPC a , but it zi along on my MacBook Pro (2.0 Ghz, 2GB RAM - YMMV); so much so that I had to use Scott's TUAW Tip to check whether it's Universal to be sure. Anyway, the first time you start Bryce 5 it will prompt you to log in and register (for free) the a at their site. You'll probably have to create a new, free account like I did, but once you're logged in, the registration link Bryce gives you will create your extra-lengthy registration code. After that, you're all set for having a grand ol' time in the world of 3D.

agging Bryce 5 is a $70 value, but if you're itching for the latest and greatest, Bryce 5.5 can be had for a mere $20 upgrade. Scroll down on the initial Bryce 5 for Free page, as there are details for signing up with their ArtZone community (which I believe is also free) and scoring the cheap upgrade. There may be a lot of signing up for free accounts and unchecking opt-in newsletter and ' ecial offer' emails, but these are small prices to pay for a free 3D a . Enjoy.

PodBuffet - an iTunes Kiosk on its way?

How many times have you found yourself out and about somewhere when 'the iTMS itch' strikes? You know, that catchy song playing over the mall eakers, or a kid's headphones at the airport blaring loud enough for you to jam along. But how are you su osed to scratch that itch if your computer and iTMS account are sitting at home?

Fortunately, 22Moo, an Australian hardware and software company, hopes to lend you a hand with the PodBuffet, an iTunes Kiosk they're developing that is powered by a Mac mini with a 15" touch-screen LCD and a "customised a lication for timed acce to iTunes". Their pre release doe 't reveal much more information, so we're a uming they're working out a method for allowing those itchin' for a fixin' to purchase music and load up their iPod on the go, without having to deal with any of that library-linking silline . 22Moo's site i 't very forthcoming either, so here's hoping these kiosks don't join the ranks of countle other vaporware.

[via MacMinute]

FileBanc - another online backup solution now su orts Mac OS X

We found UK-based online backup solution OnLine Pro back in August, and now FileBanc su orts Mac OS X as well. The concept is the same: i tall a software client (localized in a plethora of languages and written for Linux, NetWare and Solaris), chose a monthly storage plan ranging from 500MB/$4.95 to 10GB/$39.95 (larger pla are available for busine users) and set up a backup schedule. After the initial operation, FileBanc claims their backup software works with lightning-fast ninja precision, with 'in-file bit level delta backu ,' meaning: "if you only change a single word in a file, only that word is backed up." I sure hope I don't have to sift through all those words some day to restore my thesis paper, but hopefully I wouldn't have to: FileBanc offers email and/or phone su ort with their pla .

FileBanc sounds interesting, but I haven't tried it out myself. I'm pretty ha y with ChronoSync, my external hard drives and my 'plan B' .Mac backu for the little e entials. Feel free to enlighten the cla if you've had any experiences with this online backup solution.

A le offers two free online Aperture seminars

A le has a ounced two free online QuickTime seminars covering Aperture, their a for profe ional photographers. "Aperture: Streamline Your Workflow After the Shoot" is an introduction to the a from Product Marketing Manager Joe Schorr and Technical Marketing Manager Joseph Linaschke of A le, while "Aperture Advanced" offers "an in-depth look at the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers".

A le's registration page for these seminars states that they're only available for a limited time, but doe 't mention how limited that time may be. You might have to act now if you don't want to regret later.

Location X - automatically adjust settings on the go

If you're an iBook/PowerBook user who is co tantly fiddling with various settings depending on where you are,point your mouse towards Location X for the solutionto all your preference-changing woes. I only played with this for about 5 minutes before plunking down my $20 for it,as I am already in love. This a makes me cry out "why doe 't OS X do this already??" Then I realize I'malone in my apartment right now, which just makes me feel weird.

Anyway, Location X is e entially amanagement a for all the various settings you might have to co tantly set and reset, depending on which networksyour Mac co ects to throughout the day. For example: in between cla es, I use wifi at Starbucks since all of thenetworks on my campus have most of their ports restricted. Well, Starbucks' wifi treats SMTP servers that requireauthentication in an odd way, so I'm co tantly having to change my SMTP server when I sit down for a cup o' joe. ButLocation X, as you can see in my scree hot, can do so much more. Not only can this latest v2.5 do automatic networkdetection, it can set default printers, adjust energy settings, change browser homepages, run a lescripts, changesecurity preferences and so much more. It even has a plugin architecture, opening the doors for anyone elseto build in even more settings and functionality.

I highly recommend this a for any of you mobile warriorsout there who are tired of co tantly adjusting settings like these, simply because you're on the go during the day.Location X is shareware which costs $20 (a bargain, if you ask me), while a demo that allows for 8 location switches isavailable here.

Liquifile

Using the Finder to browse your files is so last year. The latest addition to the third party add-o that hope to replace the Finder in your heart (and on your Mac) is Liquifile. This program presents a fairly basis outline of your files, however, it also graphically represents the size of the files in a folder (but not the size of the folder itself) with grey 'bu les.' Liquifile also has built in filtering to help making that file you're looking for a breeze.

A 30 day demo is available and the full version will cost you $9.90.

Location of first A le store in Scotland

Survivingcinemas.org.uk has uncovered the future location of A le's first store in Scotland. 147 Buchanan Street, Glasgow will house Scotland's A le Store as well as a gla iral staircase and a Genius/iPod bar. This former theater will have an estimated ound;1,1,68,000 pumped into it to covert it into an A le store with stainle steel encased ceilings (signage will be a roved separately). Interestingly, it would seem that this store will not have a theater which is becoming a trend in new A le Stores.

[via Mac ]

Adobe DNG Converter and Camera Raw 3.6 for additional CS2 camera su ort

Adobe released Adobe DNG Converter and Camera Raw 3.6 update today, as well as a stand-alone Camera RAW 3.6 updater.

The DNG Converter is a free Digital Negative utility from Adobe that converts files from more than 130 cameras to DNG, enabling you to easily convert camera- ecific raw files to a more universal DNG raw file. It su ort Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x The Raw update adds su ort for the following cameras:

• Canon EOS 400D / Rebel Xti
• Fuji FinePix S6000fd
• Fuji FinePix S9100/9600
• Leica D-LUX3
• Leica Digilux 3
• Leica V-LUX 1
• Nikon D80
• Olympus E400
• Olympus -510 UZ
• Panasonic DMC-LX2
• Pentax K100D
• Pentax K110D
• Samsung GX 1L

Camera Raw 3.6 su orts Adobe's Creative Suite 2 software, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop Elements 3.0 or 4.0 for Mac.

Additional details and downloads can be found on Adobe's site.

Canada to outlaw iPods in the car for youngsters?

Grant Robertson at The Digital Music Weblog (a sister blog) has dug up details on a move from the Canadian Automobile A ociation to pre ure provincial governments in Canada to ban younger drivers from using electronic devices, such as mobile phones and MP3 players, in the car, eh. While some think they have their song switching skillz down pat while juggling a Big Gul trade; and steering with their knee, Grant also cites a study released in April 2006 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that states "the many forms of distractio are collectively re o ible for as many as eight out of every ten crashes" (do y'all even have 711's and 'Big Gul ' in Canada? If not, co ider yourselves lucky).

Check out Grant's post on the i ue covering more on this sudden iPod-hating from Canada (we kid). But if the thought of not being able to cart your tunes with you is too much to bear, you might also need to start checking up on those fancy iPod-integration kits that let you control your iPod from your steering wheel.

Martian SlingShot

I like my software from small independent Mac developers like I like my women: deceptively simple and easy to use.That's exactly what SlingShot from Martian Technology is. Thislittle gem of an a lication allows you to keep two folders on different Macs (on the same local network) in sync,using a schedule.

Why would you want to do this? Well, perha you have a folder full of documents that twopeople in your house need to use, set up one Mac as the 'publisher' of that folder using SlingShot and the second Macas a su criber and you're all done. If A le had developed this a lication they would have called it 'filecasting,'but luckily for us they didn't.

The software will set you back $29.99 but there is a demo that will allowyou to publish and su cribe to one folder. Oh, and I su ose that since we have entered a brave new world full ofIntel Macs I should mention that SlingShot is an Universal a lication so it will run natively on both PowerPC's andIntel Macs.

G3 iMac good enough for casual user?

The CRT iMacs will always hold a ecial place in my heart since my first Mac was a 'Blueberry' iMac (yes, I know the picture accompanying this post i 't a Blueberry iMac, it is an Indigo iMac) which is still being used today by my decidedly non-technical mother.

However, does a five year old 400mz G3 iMac, that orts a proce or that is three generatio behind current offerings (G4, G5, and Core Duo) still cut the mustard for a casual user of OS X? According to Eugenia Loli-Queru, of OS News, it sure does. Tiger i 't as slow as you might think it would be (though that sentence is as horrible as you think it is) and for surfing the web and checking email the G3 iMac is a solid machine.

So, dear TUAW readers, anyone out there have a G3 with OS X on it as their main machine? How is it holding up?

[via Digg]

Logic Expre 7.2.1 maintenance release

Logic Expre has been updated to version 7.2.1. This is mainly a maintenance release, tackling compatibility and reliability with the following i ues:

• Intel Macs: ReWire and ReCycle su ort, Standard MIDI file export, OMF import, VSL EXS i trument compatibility
• Blank Sample Editor window in some circumstances
• Unexpected halt of software i trument output
• Compatibility with Logic 7.1 songs
• Direct playback of MP3 files
• EuCon su ort for the Euphonix MC and CM408T control surfaces

The update should be available via Software Update, or you can grab it from A le's download page.

MacUpdate copies Woot clone MacZot

I heard somewhere that there are only something like 30 basic movie plots, and all films are just twists and forks of these original few. Some would say that the same is true for e-busine , and they would probably be right. MacUpdate.com has a ounced a new feature in which a featured piece of software will be heavily discounted and available for only 24 hours. If this concept sounds familiar, it's because it is. The ma ively succe ful MacZot got the idea from woot.com, and woot probably found the idea somewhere else.

Because Mac software is a relatively niche market, I see one of two things ha ening. Either the competition between sites leads to a bidding war to see who can bring in the most dough for the developers, or one of the sites becomes much more popular than the others. Either way, I think the new feature will benefit us end users in the end.

[via Chris Me ina]

Steve Jo a 'Top Living Influential'

The Atlantic Monthly has compiled a few lists of the most influential America , and his Stevene is on one of them. He is listed as number 5 on the 'Top Living Influentials,' which i 't too sha y. Sadly, he didn't make it into the big leagues of 'The Top 100,' which includes both living and dead American heavyweights. Bill Gates, to many the anti-Jo , is number one on the living list and number 54 on the top 100.

Sure, Steve changed they way we all use computers, but Mr. Gates has had a huge impact on both technology and society, thanks to his enormous amount of charitable giving. Don't worry, Steve, you're still number one on TUAW's list.

[via A lepeels]

First impre io : buying a game from the iTunes Store

Scott beat me to buying a movie from the store and posted his first impre io , so I thought I would move on to the new games section (iTS link) of the store. The games work with 5G iPods (of which I am an owner) as well as the newly a ounced 5.5G iPods. I can't decide whether I'm surprised you can't play the games right i ide iTunes, but this post i 't about my indecision, for I dro ed some cash and bought my first game: Cubis 2 (iTS link). The way iTunes handles games is interesting, largely in part because you can't really do anything with them in iTunes - you can't even rate them or modify any of their metadata; they're only usable and playable on an iPod.

Read on for all the details!


Take my money - please!
First thing's first, though: the purchase experience. I encountered some of the same sluggishne that Scott mentioned in his first movie impre io , though I imagine downloading a full movie, which is just slightly larger than a game (Cubis 2 is a paltry 20MB by comparison), might have helped slow things down for him - that and, of course, everyone was probably pounding the store yesterday. The purchase went well, and I was soon parted with my $4.99 in exchange for what looked like a clever little game (i tant game addicts will be ha y to find they can purchase all 9 in one fell swoop for $44.91). As a side note: you need the latest QuickTime 7.1.3 update released yesterday in order to be able to watch video previews in the store.

What is perha more impre ive than a turbulence-le iTS purchasing experience is how iTunes di lays games in the library, and what A le decided to do with the extra window ace since, again, they aren't in any way usable from within iTunes.

I know it's a small scree hot, but the game library, naturally, automatically a ears in the sources list on the left once a game is purchased (for now, we don't know of any other way of making, importing or otherwise getting ahold of iPod games for iTunes). This is where A le's creativity shines: in the media window, my one and only game is listed on the left (note the sexy 'wet floor' look), while information, scree hots, i tructio and ti are listed on the right. This is a great idea, as I would hate to try and root through all this information on the iPod itself. However, for those wondering: there is a conde ed section of 'quick help' included in the game on the iPod, complete with animated examples of how to play, but it doe 't seem nearly as exte ive as what you get in iTunes.

All work and no play...
If you've ever synced an iPod, then the rest of the proce involved doe 't really need to be examined. iTunes moved the game over without a hitch, and it a ears next to the other built in games under the Extras menu, with no discerning marks to help you find it in the list.

Now this is the part where I need to be honest: when A le first a ounced buying games for the iPod, I didn't exactly leap out of my seat. I've played the built in games, and I always thought the iPod's unique click wheel wouldn't lend itself to many other kinds of game playing. But, since our fearle leader Scott found out that I own a 5G iPod, he again threatened my well-being, and forced me to buy a game from the store (with my own money, might I add). At first I felt I was going to mi my $4.99.. but that frown quickly turned u ide down. Cubis 2 is fun, and being able to bring it anywhere with me on my iPod is icing on the cake. I use my iPod to play music when I go to sleep, and I was able to crank out a couple Cubis 2 rounds in bed before my wife drew the line. The graphics are surprisingly rich (cmon, it's an iPod, not a ), and game play is slick and re o ive. I haven't pushed it that far to see how many hours I can get out of playing yet, but it didn't seem like my battery was crying uncle when I was finished.

As a nice touch, it's po ible to listen to music while playing a game. This is outlined in those aforementioned i tructio in iTunes, but Cubis 2 uses nothing more than the wheel and the center/select button, so menu, pause/play and the previous/next butto are free to direct your music. Again, I haven't pushed this so I can't tell you how badly you'll be thrashing your battery, but I'm sure music + game addicts will a reciate this.

Conclusion (or: Thanks for ruining my productivity, A le)
Overall, I think the new games (ok, the one I've bought so far) are a great idea. One could even call me a born-again iPod game player, if such a thing exists. The games are a y, and game play is fun and visually impre ive. I really hope this iTS section takes off and they add more than the seemingly experimental 9 games currently available. Hard core handheld gaming fa probably aren't going to be to ing their in the garbage anytime soon but I can easily see these becoming a hit with a good portion of the iPod crowd. Just don't blame TUAW when your bo /profe or/teacher nails you chomping pellets in Pac-Man i tead of finishing that project.

Curio Basic offered for free until midnight, August 7th

Remember Curio from Zengobi, that unique brai torming and project management a we found a couple weeks ago? As a thanks to all the publicity they've been getting lately the company has decided to offer Curio Basic for free - but only until midnight, EDT on Tuesday, August 7th. All you need to do is enter some basic information at the promotion page, and a lice e (a $39 value) will be emailed to you. Definitely note, however, that one of Zengobi's terms is that they can cancel this offer at any time (probably in case they get slammed with too many requests), so I would recommend you run, don't walk, to ag your copy. After all: you can't beat 'free'.

iTude kee you from using up your iTunes playback authorization allotment

When you purchase a song on iTunes, you are authorized to play back that song (in the purchased AAC format, anyway) on no more than 5 computers. Once you've authorized playback on 5 computers, your only choice is to skirt the DRM by doing the burn/rip dance or de-authorize your previously authorized computers. But what if you don't have acce to those computers anymore to de-auth them? Well once a year (officially eaking), you can ask A le (via iTunes su ort email or from your account page in the iTunes Store) to de-authorize all of your systems and start from scratch, giving you 5 free auth slots back. In many cases, even if you've used your "once a year" allotment, emailing iTunes su ort will get you another reset anyway, but it's not a guarantee. This is a much more common i ue in school or work environments where users regularly get moved to new and/or different computers for a variety of reaso and the last thing on their mind when that ha e is de-authorizing their iTunes purchases on their old system. And trust me, it's the last thing on the IT department's mind as well.

On your Mac, the iTunes authorization info itself is stored in an invisible folder located in /Users/Shared/SC Info/ . It seems the key to unlimited auth and de-auths is to remove then restore that folder. If you have a need to do this regularly, Firblitz has whi ed up an a to make it easier. iTude is an A leScript a lication that backu us the SC Info folder while you de-authorize iTunes and then restores it, which theoretically mea you don't waste an authorization slot for that computer.

I haven't personally tried this out, since I really don't have a need for it, and the author himself war that you should use it at your own risk, but if you have a need for it, it's there for the taking - until A le rolls out the next iTunes update, which will probably break it :)

[via digg]