Several reports posted on Apple discussion forum (here and there) mention a problem encountered on the new Mac Pro. From time to time, without any reason nor relation to the computer status, the Mac Pro will reboot, making all unsaved data lost.
According to the first investigation, it could be a bug linked to Bluetooth appearing when peripherals are connected (such as keyboard or mouse). To prevent any problem, it is recommended ti deactivate BT or at least, not use it. However, this can not be considered as the final solution. Apple did not officially reacted to this bug, and many unfortunate Mac Pro owners are now hoping that the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5.7 update will fix the issue.
Best Buy rumored to take on iTunes with movie download store
Apple authorized reseller Best Buy will soon add its name to a growing list of firms bidding for a slice of the online movie download business, according to a new report.
Verizon says iPhone deal more likely with advent of 4G network
Although his company snubbed Apple on the first go-round, Verizon's chief executive Ivan Seidenberg now says the chances of an iPhone on his network will be greater once a 4G cellular network is in place.
Sims 3 Will Require Mac OS X 10.5.7
As a proof that Mac OS X 10.5.7 is just around the corner, the official Sims 3 website indicates the following information:
One can now expect that the future OS update will bring significant improvement for the graphic rendering, as this is usually the weak point of our OS.
iPhone 3.0 Beta Galleries Illustrate New Features
Over the past couple of days, users have been digging through the latest iPhone OS 3.0 beta for signs of new features, and World of Apple and AppleInsider have put together some nice screenshot galleries illustrating a number of the findings.
...
A really bad approach to Reversi on the iPhone
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
Reversi, sometimes known under the trade name Othello is a really terrific board game. The game goes back to at least 1888, and is said with some truth that it takes a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. Reversi has been very popular as a computer game for many years. In most versions you can play another human, or play against the computer. It seems popular among Mac enthusiasts, and Ted Landau, who created and oversees the venerable MacFixit web site is a one time National Champion of the game, and came in 3rd in the World Championships in 1984. Go Ted!
The iPhone/ iPod touch has had many Othello/Reversi games available. Some play OK, some do fairly well, but doing quality artificial intelligence on a phone is no small challenge.
That brings me to the app at hand, called ReversiSister [no App Store link yet], from Japanese game authors DigiDock. To call it a new approach to the game would be an understatement. As you play, music blares in the background, while an animated cheerleader shouts at you. As Reversi is a game that takes concentration, I can't imagine why on earth someone would think this is a smart approach to game design. On top of that, the game does not play very well, and in my first game the app crashed near the end so I don't know who won, but I was ahead when the game went south.
You can turn down the sound and the irritating cheerleader, but that really doesn't improve the game play, and even if the cheerleader is turned off you can still see her waving her arms around.
There are some pretty fair Reversi games at the app store, including Morocco, Reversi and Black and White, but Ted Landau, who plays far better than I has looked at most of them and thinks they are all pretty poor.
Well, good or bad there is nothing worse than ReversiSister. It's loud, irritating, plays badly and crashes every so often. I'd give you the link to the game, but it's not yet listed in the US App Store. That's probably a good thing, but watch for it if you are a masochist. Here's a link to a YouTube video of the game play. Consider yourself warned. The game is going to sell for $0.99US.
Here's a collection of screen grabs:
TUAWA really bad approach to Reversi on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Movies come to German iTunes Store
Filed under: iTS
After much time and negotiation, movies have finally come to the German iTunes Store. As of this writing, there are 500 films available to German customers (just about 100 are available in HD), including American hits like The Dark Knight (good movie, but the motorcycle is a bit over the top) and Die Fälscher from German cinema.Pricing breaks down like this:
- Older titles are sold for €7.99
- Newer titles sell for €9.99
- Brand-new releases are €13.99
[Via iPodNN]
TUAWMovies come to German iTunes Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Friday Favorite: TextEdit
Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Friday Favorite
What's free, flexible, easy-to-use but powerful and can handle a wide variety of file types? Our good friend, TextEdit, an app that ships with every Mac. TextEdit is, of course, a simple text editing tool like Notepad or WordPad on Windows. But there's a lot more to "simple text editing" that you might imagine, especially when TextEdit connects to services and other apps. I'm going to show you a few cool things you can do with TextEdit: create an inbox, use it as a development tool, or grab snippets of text on the go.First, you should know that TextEdit defaults to the .rtf format. If you're not familiar with it, RTF is "rich text" and, unlike the .txt files generated by something like NotePad, RTF includes formatting, like bold or italics or bullet lists. "Plain text" .txt files are pretty much just the basic ASCII characters and paragraph breaks. So what? Well, if you want things to look pretty, you'll stick with .rtf, a format which is easy to share across platforms. Side note: did you know TextEdit will open Word documents? It isn't perfect, but it works if you don't have Word on your machine. The older .txt format is better for coding or when you don't need or can't have formatting.
To create an inbox, I suggest the simpler .txt format. What I used to do was set up Quicksilver to easily append to an inbox.txt file, and I used GeekTool to pin that .txt file to my desktop. You could also use LaunchBar to append, and I'm sure there's a way to whip up an AppleScript, but I never bothered. Instead, when I ditched Quicksilver, I started keeping the text file in the Dock, and I just open it up to add items. All this is portable, indexed by Spotlight, and fully cross-platform compatible.
Next up: munging HTML with TextEdit, and grabbing snippets of text from any app and dropping them into a file.
Continue reading Friday Favorite: TextEdit
TUAWFriday Favorite: TextEdit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
First Photos of the Future MacBook Processors
The future big evolution in Intel Mobile platform will arrive in 2010. It will be feature 32 nm engraved Havendale CPU associated to the Nehalem architecture with its important advantages such as hyperthreading, integrated memory controller, etc...
One member from Xtremesystem forum has posted photos of the first samples of such CPU:
The Clarkdale CPU shown nearby is a the model dedicated to the desktop computer. It will offer higher performance level at the cost of higher power consumption. As you can notice it, there are much more pins than for previous CPUs. This is linked to the fact that several components are now included on the die. It should make life easier for motherboard manufacturers, and could also reduce their price, as one will need less components to be soldered on the PCB.
New discoveries turn up in betas of Apple's iPhone 3.0 software [u]
Developer sources familiarizing themselves with betas of Apple's iPhone 3.0 software have uncovered a handful of additional tweaks and improvements to the system in recent weeks, including changes to Safari's window handling, new battery status indicators and notification preferences, as well as the advent of data detectors in certain apps.
Problem with Bluetooth on New Mac Pro Models
Several reports posted on Apple discussion forum (here and there) mention a problem encountered on the new Mac Pro. From time to time, without any reason nor relation to the computer status, the Mac Pro will reboot, making all unsaved data lost.
According to the first investigation, it could be a bug linked to Bluetooth appearing when peripherals are connected (such as keyboard or mouse). To prevent any problem, it is recommended ti deactivate BT or at least, not use it. However, this can not be considered as the final solution. Apple did not officially reacted to this bug, and many unfortunate Mac Pro owners are now hoping that the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5.7 update will fix the issue.
Best Buy rumored to take on iTunes with movie download store
Apple authorized reseller Best Buy will soon add its name to a growing list of firms bidding for a slice of the online movie download business, according to a new report.
Verizon says iPhone deal more likely with advent of 4G network
Although his company snubbed Apple on the first go-round, Verizon's chief executive Ivan Seidenberg now says the chances of an iPhone on his network will be greater once a 4G cellular network is in place.
Sims 3 Will Require Mac OS X 10.5.7
As a proof that Mac OS X 10.5.7 is just around the corner, the official Sims 3 website indicates the following information:
One can now expect that the future OS update will bring significant improvement for the graphic rendering, as this is usually the weak point of our OS.
iPhone 3.0 Beta Galleries Illustrate New Features
Over the past couple of days, users have been digging through the latest iPhone OS 3.0 beta for signs of new features, and World of Apple and AppleInsider have put together some nice screenshot galleries illustrating a number of the findings.
...
A really bad approach to Reversi on the iPhone
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
Reversi, sometimes known under the trade name Othello is a really terrific board game. The game goes back to at least 1888, and is said with some truth that it takes a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. Reversi has been very popular as a computer game for many years. In most versions you can play another human, or play against the computer. It seems popular among Mac enthusiasts, and Ted Landau, who created and oversees the venerable MacFixit web site is a one time National Champion of the game, and came in 3rd in the World Championships in 1984. Go Ted!
The iPhone/ iPod touch has had many Othello/Reversi games available. Some play OK, some do fairly well, but doing quality artificial intelligence on a phone is no small challenge.
That brings me to the app at hand, called ReversiSister [no App Store link yet], from Japanese game authors DigiDock. To call it a new approach to the game would be an understatement. As you play, music blares in the background, while an animated cheerleader shouts at you. As Reversi is a game that takes concentration, I can't imagine why on earth someone would think this is a smart approach to game design. On top of that, the game does not play very well, and in my first game the app crashed near the end so I don't know who won, but I was ahead when the game went south.
You can turn down the sound and the irritating cheerleader, but that really doesn't improve the game play, and even if the cheerleader is turned off you can still see her waving her arms around.
There are some pretty fair Reversi games at the app store, including Morocco, Reversi and Black and White, but Ted Landau, who plays far better than I has looked at most of them and thinks they are all pretty poor.
Well, good or bad there is nothing worse than ReversiSister. It's loud, irritating, plays badly and crashes every so often. I'd give you the link to the game, but it's not yet listed in the US App Store. That's probably a good thing, but watch for it if you are a masochist. Here's a link to a YouTube video of the game play. Consider yourself warned. The game is going to sell for $0.99US.
Here's a collection of screen grabs:
TUAWA really bad approach to Reversi on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Movies come to German iTunes Store
Filed under: iTS
After much time and negotiation, movies have finally come to the German iTunes Store. As of this writing, there are 500 films available to German customers (just about 100 are available in HD), including American hits like The Dark Knight (good movie, but the motorcycle is a bit over the top) and Die Fälscher from German cinema.Pricing breaks down like this:
- Older titles are sold for €7.99
- Newer titles sell for €9.99
- Brand-new releases are €13.99
[Via iPodNN]
TUAWMovies come to German iTunes Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Friday Favorite: TextEdit
Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Friday Favorite
What's free, flexible, easy-to-use but powerful and can handle a wide variety of file types? Our good friend, TextEdit, an app that ships with every Mac. TextEdit is, of course, a simple text editing tool like Notepad or WordPad on Windows. But there's a lot more to "simple text editing" that you might imagine, especially when TextEdit connects to services and other apps. I'm going to show you a few cool things you can do with TextEdit: create an inbox, use it as a development tool, or grab snippets of text on the go.First, you should know that TextEdit defaults to the .rtf format. If you're not familiar with it, RTF is "rich text" and, unlike the .txt files generated by something like NotePad, RTF includes formatting, like bold or italics or bullet lists. "Plain text" .txt files are pretty much just the basic ASCII characters and paragraph breaks. So what? Well, if you want things to look pretty, you'll stick with .rtf, a format which is easy to share across platforms. Side note: did you know TextEdit will open Word documents? It isn't perfect, but it works if you don't have Word on your machine. The older .txt format is better for coding or when you don't need or can't have formatting.
To create an inbox, I suggest the simpler .txt format. What I used to do was set up Quicksilver to easily append to an inbox.txt file, and I used GeekTool to pin that .txt file to my desktop. You could also use LaunchBar to append, and I'm sure there's a way to whip up an AppleScript, but I never bothered. Instead, when I ditched Quicksilver, I started keeping the text file in the Dock, and I just open it up to add items. All this is portable, indexed by Spotlight, and fully cross-platform compatible.
Next up: munging HTML with TextEdit, and grabbing snippets of text from any app and dropping them into a file.
Continue reading Friday Favorite: TextEdit
TUAWFriday Favorite: TextEdit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
First Photos of the Future MacBook Processors
The future big evolution in Intel Mobile platform will arrive in 2010. It will be feature 32 nm engraved Havendale CPU associated to the Nehalem architecture with its important advantages such as hyperthreading, integrated memory controller, etc...
One member from Xtremesystem forum has posted photos of the first samples of such CPU:
The Clarkdale CPU shown nearby is a the model dedicated to the desktop computer. It will offer higher performance level at the cost of higher power consumption. As you can notice it, there are much more pins than for previous CPUs. This is linked to the fact that several components are now included on the die. It should make life easier for motherboard manufacturers, and could also reduce their price, as one will need less components to be soldered on the PCB.
New discoveries turn up in betas of Apple's iPhone 3.0 software [u]
Developer sources familiarizing themselves with betas of Apple's iPhone 3.0 software have uncovered a handful of additional tweaks and improvements to the system in recent weeks, including changes to Safari's window handling, new battery status indicators and notification preferences, as well as the advent of data detectors in certain apps.
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