October 2007
Review: Vudu
Ever since I first wrote about Vudu, a Santa Clara, CA based hardware company that had been in stealth mode for 2 years, I have been wanting to get my hands on their innovative set-top box. The Vudu is a $399 set-top box that lets you browse through a massive library of movies (5,000 at the moment), watch previews and then rent or purchase movies.
Vudu has several competitors such as TiVo...
September 2007
Graphic design prize draw winners
It’s finally arrived, the month of my one year blog birthday, and in celebration, I’ve given away some fantastic prizes, kindly donated by a host of excellent blog authors.
The winners listed below were drawn, using a random number generator, by Jamie (above right) of Terinea, an Edinburgh computer services company. Thanks for your help, Jamie.
Here are the lucky winners:
The big three prizes
...
Turns out Kanye has a pretty damn good sense of...
BusySync: Share your iCal easily via Bonjour on a...
How in the world do you share out your iCal to other people in your local network with full Read/Write privileges? For me this has been one of the biggest issues as a Mac-based Network/Systems Administrator. Up until today the workarounds have been spotty at best and haven’t always delivered the desired result. Now thanks to BusySync from BusyMac, all your problems have been solved - or at least...
iPhone Downgrade Baby! Go from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2!
Just what the title says. Looks like all that complaining might be for nothing! Take that Apple! (via News dugg by elifoner)
Breaking: Reports of 1.1.1-to-1.0.2 iPhone...
Filed under: Hacks, Software Update, iPhone Remember that bit where I said upgrading from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 was a one-way trip? Looks like I spoke prematurely. Tonight, reports are trickling in about successful 1.1.1-to-1.0.2 iPhone firmware downgrades using this method described at the “iPhone Devteam” wiki, which relies on a combination of firmware-fu and the INDependence software. TUAW...
Inman on Layer Tennis
Perceptive criticism and analysis from Shaun Inman on his Layer Tennis match against Kevin Cornell yesterday. ★
"Bridge To Nowhere" Senator Now Wants $84M Ferry...
Sen. Ted Stevens, who championed $452 million in federal funding for Alaska’s notorious “bridges to nowhere,” has directed the Navy to build an experimental ferry it once rejected to serve a little-used port in a remote area of his home state (via News dugg by elifoner)
Examples of High-ISO Photos Taken With Nikon D3
Stunning low-light performance. (Thanks to Raj Premkumar.) ★
The 34 funniest search queries so far
The guy from blogstorm has been looking at the phrases people are typing into Google to find his site, some of them are pretty strange for an internet marketing blog. (via News dugg by elifoner)
Mailplane pricing announced
Filed under: Software, Beta Beat We’ve discussed the excellent stand-alone Gmail client Mailplane several times. While there remain a few holes here and there, I consider it a must-have application for anybody who needs to manage multiple Gmail accounts. After about half a year in beta, the developer Ruben Bakker has declared the latest Mailplane beta as ready for Leopard. In addition, he...
Joost beta 1.0 released for Mac and Windows
Filed under: Internet, Video
Defying all conventional logic, Joost has upgraded its internet TV client to version 1.0 — and it’s still in beta. That means you can only download Joost 1.0 if you’re a current beta tester, or if you know someone kind enough to send you an invitation. There are a few new features and performance tweaks in Joost 1.0 beta, including a modified user...
BitClamp: Drag & Drop Encryption Coming for...
Here at MacApper there are more than a couple of independent software developers who willfully donate their time writing about their experiences working with Mac. Today one of our writers (and all around good guy) Daniel Greg from the UK, showed me an application he has been hard at work on and it really knocked my socks off. Daniel, who’s just 18, told me his security tool BitClamp would...
Get all your keyboard shortcuts at KeyXL
Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, OS Updates, Office, Productivity Cant figure out a faster way to get around your most used applications? Or maybe you are diving into a new application and want to learn some keyboard shortcuts, forget about user manuals and check out Keyxl.com KeyXL is one of the largest online databases of keyboard shortcuts around. Search by software,...
links for 2007-09-29
Grid Layout
This would have saved me so much time and effort had it existed a few years ago.
(tags: geek design)
What’s In Your Blog Box?
This post was guest blogged by Justin Consuegra of The Men’s Gift Guide, a shopping blog dedicated to finding and suggesting unique gifts for men.
How do you keep your blogging life organized? I have a blog box. You see, I write a shopping blog, so I am constantly on the look out for products to talk about. However, I don’t have the opportunity to blog everyday; I tend to write a weeks...
Wired's Easy-Peasy iPhone Lockdown Checklist
Filed under: Bad Apple, Developer, iPhone Apple’s hardly been on the charm offensive recently, what with the hard-hitting press release, clarifications from Phill Schiller, and the lockdown of the iPhone 1.1.1 update. So if you’re wondering what on earth all the fuss is within the iPhone hacking community, then the folks at Wired have put together a brilliant at-a-glance checklist...
MIT Entrance Exam
Think you’ve got what it takes to study with the big-geeks at MIT? Prove it. This entrance exam, circa 1869, was created to ensure that in addition to the requirement that entering students “be at least 16 years of age” and have a knowledge of the “rudiments of French,” that they could actually hold their own against the finest minds of their time. Even after over 100 years, the test...
BusySync for iCal
Filed under: Software, Leopard, Developer When it comes to calendar sharing, we’re certainly not short of options on the Mac. Do you use the (very excellent) Spanning Sync and use Google Calendar, or look for something a little more industrial and wait for iCal Server to ship with Leopard Server? Whilst both options may be tempting, for users on the same Local Area Network (LAN)...
The story about how drummer and web designer Mark...
The story about how drummer and web designer Mark Robohm completely renovated his Chelsea studio for only $11,600 is both inspirational and hilarious. Ms. Doucette found Mr. Robohm’s office chair on Park Avenue. Before taking it, she called him up to describe it. “I asked her what the name was and she said, ‘Herman Miller,’” Mr. Robohm said. “I was like,...
iPhone Update Tip: Plug Directly Into Your Mac’s...
MacJournals asks “Did the 1.1.1 update ‘brick’ your iPhone?”:
Even if, like ours, it wasn’t hacked in any way?
We promise nothing, but here’s a tip: make sure the iPhone dock is
plugged directly into the USB 2.0 port on your computer, not into a
hub or keyboard (even a USB 2.0 keyboard).
★
I'm loving the new 1.1.1 update to the iPhone....
I’m loving the new 1.1.1 update to the iPhone. Best new features for me: the double-tap of the Home button to go to your address book favorites (first suggested by Steven Johnson shortly after the phone’s introduction) and more alert ringtone choices for when a new text message comes in. I still wish I could set that alert volume independently from the main ringtone volume, but this is...
Novitec Tunero F430 - Car Tuning and Modified Cars
Novitec Tunero F430 is one of the many impressively tuned cars presented by Novitec at the Frankfurt Motor Show, this year. This Ferrari F430 in matte black color, they have named Tunero (what an inspired name) and it was made with some great changes. (via News dugg by elifoner)
Split-Brain Experiments
Anyone who took a psychology course in college (and that’s almost everyone) should remember the all important corpus callosum– that bundle of nerves in the middle of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres. Without getting to science geeky, suffice it to say that while one can live an almost perfectly normal life if this is severed (which is sometimes done surgically...
OS X Server: Ready for Primetime
So there I was in a chat with several Mac enthusiasts having a lively discussion when I commented about the coverage for the Mac OS X and OS X Server in the business community. I still to this day can not believe how lacking the coverage is. In the chat, I decided to provide a quick history lesson which I will repeat here. While we are used to one company dominating the business desktop/server...
How to Use Mini-Meditations to Relax and Find...
Photo by elle_rigby
This is a guest post from Brian Tanaka of DevYou. Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.
It’s often hard to be as focused as we’d like to be. Many things in our hectic lives interrupt our concentration and erode focus. Think: cell phones, instant messaging, email, and co-workers vying for our time and energy.
Fortunately, there are ways to counteract these forces and...
iPhone Central: Bricking my iPhone
Macworld’s Jonathan Seff:
I decided to try the 1.1.1 iPhone update on my unlocked and hacked phone. The process went along just fine until the iPhone restarted. Then I got a message on the screen that I had an incorrect SIM.
He went to an AT&T store, got a new SIM, and still no dice — his iPhone won’t work.
★
EFI Firmware Update for Mac Pro, Core Duo 2 Macs
Filed under: iMac, Software Update, Apple, Macbook Pro, MacBook, Mac Pro Apple is pumping out lots of firmware updates today. Here are the latest for Macs: iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.2
Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.2
MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.1
MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4
Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.0
Most of the firmwares are targeted at improving performance with...
The Craziest Fitness Gadgets and Weight Loss...
The picture of the fat lady lifting up the ‘Dumbbell Phone’ killed me… (via News dugg by elifoner)
Further Thoughts on Halo 3
That’s me on the left there, holding the pwnager, as I like to call it. You see, I had some time today to play through several, rather entertaining multiplayer matches, using the built-in matchmaker. It was overall, rather fun (have a look yourself, if you own Halo 3), though hectic and even in ‘team matches’, almost entirely one-on-one… Business as usual in other words. Strangely Valhalla seems...
Fritz Kahn's Man As Industrial Palace. Kahn's...
Fritz Kahn’s Man As Industrial Palace. Kahn’s modernist visualization of the digestive and respiratory system as “industrial palace,” really a chemical plant, was conceived in a period when the German chemical industry was the world’s most advanced. Be sure to check out the larger version. (link)
Anime GTA Mod
DIsturbing…simply disturbing…such wanton pikachu carnage.
As former Grand Theft Auto dabblers, the above mod has to be one of the most simultaneously entertaining and disturbing things we’ve ever seen. The unknown hacker has modified the game so you now control a pair of giggling, uzi-toting schoolgirl anime twins who blow away gleeful Pikachu’s and a bad-ass Doraemon cruising...
iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 Is Out, Now Testing
Just released, ready in your iTunes. If you have an unlocked iPhone, be aware that this firmware may make your iPhone unusable. We are testing it right now. Come back here for updates. (via News dugg by elifoner)
Rollerman
One of my all-time favorite video games is Kinetica for Playstation– a futuristic racer featuring sexy neo-humans in form-fitting jet-powered exoskeletons which enable them to essentially slide along the track on their stomachs. It appears I’m not the only one who liked this otherwise run-of-the-mill game, as Frenchman Jean-Yves Blondeau has created a real life version of the wheeled...
Yes, this Lizard is real, alive, and not stoned.
And - you guessed it - found in Hollywood, where everyone (and everything) is laid back. (via News dugg by elifoner)
I'm thoroughly enjoying Kanye West's new album,...
I’m thoroughly enjoying Kanye West’s new album, Graduation. Standout tracks so far: Stronger and Homecoming, although it took me much longer than it should have to recognize Chris Martin’s vocals on the latter. (link)
Post Shoot Workflow 2
More on my post shoot workflow from my recent assignment in Mozambique for Oxfam UK. I went through every image in each album, harnessing the editing power of Aperture, occasionally toggling from full screen to standard view to see where I was in the process (to see Projects and how many more albums there were to go), comparing, zooming, stacking and upgrading my keepers to three star from two. I...
I love the idea of conservation of concentration...
I love the idea of conservation of concentration conveyed in this piece about Roger Federer, that we’ve got only so much intense focus to go around and successful athletes like Federer are really good at saving it up for the big moments.
A couple of times during press conferences, I noticed something kind of interesting about Roger Federer. I’ll get to it in a minute, but let me...
You Won't Find an iCache in My Pocket
I would have a hard time consolidating all of my personal and/or business financial information through one website or product. Even if it is very secure, there is always a way for potential hackers to gain access and rather than losing, lets say one account, they now have access to everything. (via News dugg by elifoner)
Super Slick Dusky Lighting Effects: Photoshop...
One of the best sites around for desktops has to be Desktopography. Inspired by their amazing work today we are going to put together a sunset image mixing some vector shapes and dusky lighting effects to produce a slick image that would make a nice album cover for a chillout mix! (via News dugg by elifoner)
Mesmerizing video of basketball dribbling drills...
Mesmerizing video of basketball dribbling drills (with two balls at a time). Be sure to keep the volume on…the sound of 12 basketballs intensely bouncing is an odd one. (via truehoop) (link)
Possible Solution to the notMac Challenge
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools Late last year we mentioned the notMac Challenge. Basically they were offering a largish sum of money (now upwards of 8 grand) for anyone who could duplicate the functionality of .mac for free. Now finally Ben Spink of CrushFTP has stepped to the plate with a possible solution, and they’re calling for testers. The initial reports (including from one of...
Path Finder 4.8 to bring per-folder settings
Filed under: Software Over at the Cocoatech blog they’ve announced that the forthcoming version 4.8 of Path Finder will finally have one of the most long-requested features: per-folder settings. Basically what this means is that Path Finder will remember particular view settings (e.g. icon, list, column, etc.) for different folders. So you could keep your ~/Pictures folder in icon view, your...
MacJanitor: System Maintenance on Your Schedule
As a UNIX administrator, I appreciate the BSD underpinnings of OS X. Many of the tools I use in my every day work are included in the OS, and can be managed in the same way as any of my Production servers. The casual OS X user may not have intimate knowledge of the inner-workings of the terminal and may need to run any of a number of maintenance tasks or scripts that require access to the...
Make Money Online Selling Your Photos
There are many ways to make money online. While John talks a lot about affiliate marketing and blogging in this space, there is another area of expertise that can serve as a fairly substantial source of income: photography. If you’re a proficient shutterbug, then this ReviewMe review of Photopreneur.com will be right up your alley.
What or Who is a Photopreneur?
I could tell you what makes...
The Next Level
Over the last two weeks I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the future of PaulStamatiou.com. It has been around for over 2 years, served up over 4 million pages (1 million of those in the last 4 months), amassed over 15,000 comments over 850+ posts and grown a dedicated readership. PaulStamatiou.com has always just been a hobby as I’m passionate about everything technology related,...
Halo 3 Review
I finished Halo 3 in one sitting. It’s been years since I finished a game in one sitting. The first Halo, besides being a well polished experience from top to bottom, is definitely up there on my list of memorable gaming experiences. Not only for its whole aesthetic and presentation, but also for having been one of the few games I’ve played through backwards and forwards several times (mostly due...
Apple blocks access to 1425x1425 album art; breaks...
“It appears Apple has blocked this again :( Querying the store still works, but if you try to download the art (no matter jpg or TIF) you get an error. This for the same albums that worked an hour or two ago. Thanks a lot Apple!” Well, it was fun while it lasted. (via News dugg by elifoner)
Brief Acorn/Pixelmator/Photoshop/Graphic...
Jon Whipple:
Pixelmator has arrived, and just when I was processing cover art, scans and stuff to add to my iTunes collection. Here are some rushed first impressions, where I compare it to Acorn, the venerable Graphic Converter, iPhoto, and of course Photoshop.
★
More "New Newton" rumors
Filed under: Humor, Rumors What’s more annoying than Chocolate Rain and the pointless Kid Nation uproar? The incessant “Apple is coming out with a new Newton” rumors. Here’s one from 2003: “…There’s good reason to believe that a jazzy new Newton II will be forthcoming, perhaps in January” (Yup, that’s our good friend John Dvorak). Another from...