Friday, April 3, 2009

Stanford to publish free iPhone course on iTunes U

Stanford to publish free iPhone course on iTunes U
Stanford University will be publishing a video podcasts and slides from its popular "iPhone Application Programming" course on iTunes U for free to the general public, beginning this week.


Radeon HD 4890: First Benchmarks Rather Disappointing

The NDA ended yesterday for the RAdeon HD 4890, and several dedicated websites have flooded the net with numerous tests, all aiming to demonstrate if the Radeon HD 4890 is the expected killer graphic card.

As a reminder, it features a higher clocked GPU (100 MHz) and memory (75 MHz) when compared to the Radeon HD 4870. Performance are globally in line the clock frequency difference or gain, however the card seems to be rather noisy. this might be the cost to pay for a card with a high potential to be overclocked (most card tested have reached 1 GHz for the GPU).

we are currently working on a procedure to flash such card to make it working in a Mac by using the ROM EFI from the Mac Radeon HD 4870. It was so far unsuccessful, we are still working on it.

It seems that the retailed version of the Radeon HD 4870 is still blocked to 4-5 weeks shipping delay on the Apple Store... problem with stocks or production?



Microsoft Still Hoping to Bring Office to iPhone?
TechCrunch reports on comments made by Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft's Business Division, at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco that suggest that Microsoft is still exploring ways to bring its Office suite of applications to the iPhone.<p class...

Apple Error Confirms Xserve Refresh Coming Soon

PC World reports that an error on Apple's Hong Kong online store reveals that an announcement of new Xserve models featuring Intel "Nehalem" processors should be occurring in the near future. The error involves a broken image on the main Xse...

Sling rains on its own parade

Filed under: , , ,

Last week we were pretty excited that the new Slingplayer app for iPhone had been submitted to Apple for approval. Now it seems, the folks at SlingMedia are determined to really get a large percentage of their customers angry about forcing them to have the latest Slingbox hardware in order to be compatible with the iPhone/ iPod touch app.

A page on the SlingMedia website suggests owners of older Sling hardware get an upgrade because the new iPhone software "and future services yet to be announced will only be supported for customers using Slingbox SOLO, Slingbox PRO and Slingbox PRO-HD products or forthcoming SlingLoaded products." That still leaves a lot of the older hardware a no-go, and that older hardware worked well with the SlingPlayer Mobile app on other cellphones, including those running on Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm and the Symbian OS.

Our sister site, Engadget, reports that they've been told that previous builds of the app worked just fine with the older hardware, so this may just be runaway greed and avarice at SlingMedia.

In my post last week I said that Sling users would be circling Apple HQ with torches and pitchforks if Apple did not approve the SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app. Now those people might want to gather in Foster City, California to let the execs at Sling know that they don't want to be forced into an upgrade that is likely not needed.

Our thanks to various readers who sent this in.

TUAWSling rains on its own parade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Texas bans Microsoft Vista from Government Use

Filed under: ,

We're not Microsoft Windows haters here at TUAW. In fact, Microsoft makes some very fine products for the Mac including some very useful ergonomic keyboards and some terrific mice. They also make a pretty decent suite of Office applications that many Mac owners use each and every day.

Heck, a guy even made a movie using Microsoft products, which we featured right here at TUAW. However, after seeing that the entire State of Texas has decided that Microsoft Windows Vista should not be used in any government agency, we might have to take a minute and reconsider our opinion on the giant from Redmond's flagship product.

According to Sen. Juan Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Finance Committee who proposed the ban, he did so because "of the many reports of problems with Vista." He goes on to say that:

"We are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with this particular [operating] system are known nationwide. And the XP operating system is working very well."

That's all well and good and for many of you Windows XP may, in fact, be working without problems. However, given the well-known issue with Vista, perhaps the Texas legislature is on to something? Who knows, given their current mindset, maybe they'd be interested in switching everyone in government to the Mac?

You hear that Apple, Texas needs you to give them a call.

(Thanks for the tip Melissa)

TUAWTexas bans Microsoft Vista from Government Use originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft optimistic about Office making its way to iPhone
Microsoft still holds aspirations of delivering a version of its leading Office suite capable of running on the iPhone but needs a bit more time to get it all sorted out.


Streaming iPhone via bluetooth in the car

Filed under: , , , , , ,

When all of those iPhone 3.0 features were first announced, one of the features that stuck out most to me was the incoming A2DP ability -- the new iPhone OS will let you stream out music to a Bluetooth source, like headphones... or your car. And over at Cars.com, the guys got their hands on a Toyota Venza with Bluetooth capability, and did just that, as you can see in the video above. It's pretty slick -- no wires, no annoying pairing, just hit the Bluetooth button on the iPod, choose the car's Bluetooth source, and press play. We're not sure about audio quality (it should be at least listenable), but it looks super cool.

There are, as usual, some catches. I for one was disappointed to hear that this A2DP ability won't work with first-gen iPhones like mine -- you'll need to have a 3G to do something like this. And of course, this will require the iPhone OS 3.0, which isn't technically out yet (though devs in Apple's development program are playing with it right now, which is why you can see it in the video above). And finally, you'll need a car with the Bluetooth capability, which (though I haven't owned or shopped for a car for a few years, so maybe things have changed a bit) is still kind of hard to find.

But hey, even if you're not there yet, here's a look at the future. Where we're going, you won't need wires to get your iPod playing music on the car stereo.

TUAWStreaming iPhone via bluetooth in the car originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Stanford to publish free iPhone course on iTunes U
Stanford University will be publishing a video podcasts and slides from its popular "iPhone Application Programming" course on iTunes U for free to the general public, beginning this week.


Radeon HD 4890: First Benchmarks Rather Disappointing

The NDA ended yesterday for the RAdeon HD 4890, and several dedicated websites have flooded the net with numerous tests, all aiming to demonstrate if the Radeon HD 4890 is the expected killer graphic card.

As a reminder, it features a higher clocked GPU (100 MHz) and memory (75 MHz) when compared to the Radeon HD 4870. Performance are globally in line the clock frequency difference or gain, however the card seems to be rather noisy. this might be the cost to pay for a card with a high potential to be overclocked (most card tested have reached 1 GHz for the GPU).

we are currently working on a procedure to flash such card to make it working in a Mac by using the ROM EFI from the Mac Radeon HD 4870. It was so far unsuccessful, we are still working on it.

It seems that the retailed version of the Radeon HD 4870 is still blocked to 4-5 weeks shipping delay on the Apple Store... problem with stocks or production?



Microsoft Still Hoping to Bring Office to iPhone?
TechCrunch reports on comments made by Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft's Business Division, at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco that suggest that Microsoft is still exploring ways to bring its Office suite of applications to the iPhone.<p class...

Apple Error Confirms Xserve Refresh Coming Soon

PC World reports that an error on Apple's Hong Kong online store reveals that an announcement of new Xserve models featuring Intel "Nehalem" processors should be occurring in the near future. The error involves a broken image on the main Xse...

Sling rains on its own parade

Filed under: , , ,

Last week we were pretty excited that the new Slingplayer app for iPhone had been submitted to Apple for approval. Now it seems, the folks at SlingMedia are determined to really get a large percentage of their customers angry about forcing them to have the latest Slingbox hardware in order to be compatible with the iPhone/ iPod touch app.

A page on the SlingMedia website suggests owners of older Sling hardware get an upgrade because the new iPhone software "and future services yet to be announced will only be supported for customers using Slingbox SOLO, Slingbox PRO and Slingbox PRO-HD products or forthcoming SlingLoaded products." That still leaves a lot of the older hardware a no-go, and that older hardware worked well with the SlingPlayer Mobile app on other cellphones, including those running on Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm and the Symbian OS.

Our sister site, Engadget, reports that they've been told that previous builds of the app worked just fine with the older hardware, so this may just be runaway greed and avarice at SlingMedia.

In my post last week I said that Sling users would be circling Apple HQ with torches and pitchforks if Apple did not approve the SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app. Now those people might want to gather in Foster City, California to let the execs at Sling know that they don't want to be forced into an upgrade that is likely not needed.

Our thanks to various readers who sent this in.

TUAWSling rains on its own parade originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Texas bans Microsoft Vista from Government Use

Filed under: ,

We're not Microsoft Windows haters here at TUAW. In fact, Microsoft makes some very fine products for the Mac including some very useful ergonomic keyboards and some terrific mice. They also make a pretty decent suite of Office applications that many Mac owners use each and every day.

Heck, a guy even made a movie using Microsoft products, which we featured right here at TUAW. However, after seeing that the entire State of Texas has decided that Microsoft Windows Vista should not be used in any government agency, we might have to take a minute and reconsider our opinion on the giant from Redmond's flagship product.

According to Sen. Juan Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Finance Committee who proposed the ban, he did so because "of the many reports of problems with Vista." He goes on to say that:

"We are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with this particular [operating] system are known nationwide. And the XP operating system is working very well."

That's all well and good and for many of you Windows XP may, in fact, be working without problems. However, given the well-known issue with Vista, perhaps the Texas legislature is on to something? Who knows, given their current mindset, maybe they'd be interested in switching everyone in government to the Mac?

You hear that Apple, Texas needs you to give them a call.

(Thanks for the tip Melissa)

TUAWTexas bans Microsoft Vista from Government Use originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Microsoft optimistic about Office making its way to iPhone
Microsoft still holds aspirations of delivering a version of its leading Office suite capable of running on the iPhone but needs a bit more time to get it all sorted out.


Streaming iPhone via bluetooth in the car

Filed under: , , , , , ,

When all of those iPhone 3.0 features were first announced, one of the features that stuck out most to me was the incoming A2DP ability -- the new iPhone OS will let you stream out music to a Bluetooth source, like headphones... or your car. And over at Cars.com, the guys got their hands on a Toyota Venza with Bluetooth capability, and did just that, as you can see in the video above. It's pretty slick -- no wires, no annoying pairing, just hit the Bluetooth button on the iPod, choose the car's Bluetooth source, and press play. We're not sure about audio quality (it should be at least listenable), but it looks super cool.

There are, as usual, some catches. I for one was disappointed to hear that this A2DP ability won't work with first-gen iPhones like mine -- you'll need to have a 3G to do something like this. And of course, this will require the iPhone OS 3.0, which isn't technically out yet (though devs in Apple's development program are playing with it right now, which is why you can see it in the video above). And finally, you'll need a car with the Bluetooth capability, which (though I haven't owned or shopped for a car for a few years, so maybe things have changed a bit) is still kind of hard to find.

But hey, even if you're not there yet, here's a look at the future. Where we're going, you won't need wires to get your iPod playing music on the car stereo.

TUAWStreaming iPhone via bluetooth in the car originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

No comments:

Post a Comment