InternetTools
Latest
Apple collecting Safari extensions for gallery
A marquee feature of Safari 5 is its ability to use 3rd-party extensions. Apple is collecting examples of great ones from registered developers to be featured in a gallery. There's no word on Apple's judging criteria or when the gallery will be launched, but Apple is really pushing this technology so be assured that it's going to get a publicity push. It's also unclear just how Apple will distribute the extensions. A blurb inviting submissions reads "The Safari Extensions Gallery will feature a one-click installation process that allows users to seamlessly install extensions from your website without ever having to leave the Gallery." That sounds like developers will host the extensions while Apple provides the link. Some serious vetting will have to ensure quality. While we wait for Apple's gallery, check out the collection at Safari Extensions. It's a nice collection that's growing all the time. [Via Macworld]
Apple updates MobileMe
MobileMe emerged from its downtime this morning with a new app, improved navigation and significant changes to Mail. The app is MobileMe for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Now customers can locate, lock or even wipe their lost device from another iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Of course, that means you'll need access to two devices, but that's a minor technicality, right? The new version of Mail is out of beta and available to everyone. There are a lot of changes here, including some that have been added since the beta program started. New widescreen and compact views allow for more of your messages to be seen without scrolling. The older classic view is still available, but seems cluttered when compared to the other two. I'm using the compact view, which displays messages like the iPad does in landscape orientation. Rules are now in place for everyone (they need a few minutes to get working), and apply to messages received on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad as well. One-click archiving will send your messages to the archive folder for future reference. It is possible to select multiple messages at once, making archiving easier. Also new is faster performance (there's no need to click and load every message), SSL security and a formatting toolbar. You can even reformat long URLs into something more manageable. Changes that are new since the beta release include support for external addresses. Now you can read all of your mail in one place. Plus, if you reply to a message received from an external address, you can send it from that message, not your MobileMe account. Junk mail filtering has also been improved since the beta. Now, flagged messages go directly to the junk mail folder. You can always go in and rescue false positives, however. Aside from Mail and the new Find My iPhone app, MobileMe navigation has been changed. All of the services now feature a unified toolbar. The cloud icon remains constant, and clicking on it brings up an app switcher for moving between services. Have fun exploring the new MobileMe. Congratulations to Apple and the MobileMe team on a solid update.
Adobe posts Flash Player 10.1 for Mac
At long last, Adobe has released Flash Player 10.1 for Mac OS X. There's a huge list of changes with this update; hopefully one will address "...the number one reason Macs crash." The major changes are aimed at developers, and include GPU hardware acceleration, support for dynamic quality during video streaming, dynamic sound generators, and upload/download functions in web apps. The 7.44MB download requires Safari, Firefox or Opera and Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Linux and Windows versions are also available now. [Via Electronista]
Safari 5 extensions start to appear, 1Password updated for compatibility
Just 48 hours after Safari 5's release, the first extensions are appearing; safariextensions.tumblr.com is keeping track and listing new ones as they become available. As of this writing, there are 13 that are either available for download or listed as in progress. That's not a huge number to choose from, but a couple that caught our attention are Instafari, which replaces the Instapaper bookmarklet with a toolbar button, and Snapper, which converts the current page into a png for super easy screenshots. Of course, the folks at Panic showed off their super-cool Coda Notes the other day, which lets users add annotations to websites. For now, Coda Notes is still unreleased. Among the 'big dogs' in the browser extensions arena is Agile's 1Password utility; fans will be happy to know that version 3.2 of the tool is out now with full support for Safari 5. It seems that 1P is not actually using the new extensions mechanism for Safari, as it runs even if extensions are disabled. The question is whether or not Safari extensions will take off. At the very least, it gives other browsers like Firefox some serious competition. [Via MacUser]
What's new in Safari 5
Apple released Safari 5 for the Mac yesterday with with both obvious and not-so-obvious changes. Here's what we found while digging around. Reader The biggest change that you can actually play with is Reader. You'll notice that the "RSS" button in the address field changes to "Reader" when it's available. With a click, a new window slides up and displays the current article's reformatted text and images. It's printer-friendly, center-aligned and easy to read. From there, you can make the text larger or smaller, print the article or email it to a friend. It's similar to reading an article on the iPad with an app like Instapaper. Additional stuff on the page, like sidebar items, etc. is eliminated. Actually, the email option didn't work for me. Instead of creating my message, Safari displayed a dialog box stating that I need to install Mail (it's installed). It's also kind of tricky to figure out when the Reader option will be presented. It won't work at http://tuaw.com, for example, but does for individual posts. %Gallery-94714%
World of Warcraft streaming to an iPad
For years I've wanted a decent World of Warcraft (WoW) iPhone app from Blizzard. There's an armory app that lets you browse your gear and so forth, but that's not enough. I'd like to track auctions, access in-game email, visit the bank and so on. All of that went out the window when I saw this. It's a screenshot of WoW supposedly being streamed to an iPad via Gaikai. Gaikai is a new service, currently in beta, that hosts and streams any game to your computer via a browser. Basically, you play a game that lives on their servers while watching a streaming video of the action. Their website says that "...the latest Adobe Flash player" is required, so we're not sure how this is being pulled off. Perhaps they're using an unreleased app. More importantly is the question, how in the world are you going to play WoW without a mouse? We second Gizmodo's call for video on this one.
iPhone apps that bloggers will love
wpbeginner has posted a terrific list of 10 iPhone apps that every blogger will love. The first item on the list is, as you'd expect, WordPress for iPhone. Version 2.0 was released earlier this week and it's a huge improvement over its predecessor. It supports blogs powered by both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.org. WordPress 2.0 for iPhone is free. Add as many blogs as you like and manage comments, posts and pages all from the app. Adding new pages and posts is as easy as editing existing ones. Best of all, you can delete, edit approve/unapprove and spam comments with a few taps. Of course, not every blogger uses WordPress, and the other apps on the list acknowledge this. Shape Writer aims to make it easier to enter text by letting you trace the "shape" of a word rather than type its letters. Proper names and acronyms can be "taught" to the app by typing them once. They'll be traceable from that point on. Shape Writer costs $3.99US. Also on the list is Jott, a voice-to-text app that records your voice, converts it to text and lets you send the result nearly anywhere, including a WordPress or Blogger blog (as well as Twitter, Facebook and more). I haven't tested it, so I can't speak for how well it works. If it does what it claims (speak up if you've used it), Jott for iPhone will make it much easier to publish long posts from your iPhone (provided that it supports your preferred platform). Jott for iPhone is free and requires a Jott Assist Plan, which starts at $3.95/mo. Mel reviewed the similar Voice on the Go service last week. Visit wpbeginner for the rest of the list. As for me, I get a lot of use out of Instapaper (for reading reference articles when I'm away from my computer) and Evernote (pretty much the same reason) among others. If you want the simplest blog-from-your-iPhone solution, check out Posterous. All you need to do to set up and maintain a Posterous blog is send an email to post@posterous.com. It doesn't get simpler than that. [Via Wired]
What's happening with iWork.com?
Last January, Apple released iWork.com at Macworld Expo. For the unfamiliar, it's a collaborative site that allows a team to share and review any iWork document. I've used it with Keynote and found it quite handy. Invited participants can comment on a document, download it in multiple formats and upload revisions. There's even some integration with Google Docs. It was almost a year ago that Apple released the beta of iWork.com, and little has been mentioned since. It definitely needs work. It's slow with large documents which is a turn off for many users. Still, I think it has potential and hope it doesn't go the way of AppleWorks. Perhaps that new data center they're building in North Carolina (schedule to open sometime in 2010) will throw a little horsepower to this project. Have you used iWork.com or is there another neglected Apple app that needs some attention? Sound off below.
Syncplicity opens up its Mac beta
The Boy Genius Report has reported on the latest cloud storage solution to grace the Mac world. Syncplicity, which currently exists for Windows, has opened up its beta version for the Mac. Syncplicity, free for 2GB of storage and syncing between two computers and $9.99 a month ($99 a year) USD for syncing among an unlimited number of computers and 50GB of storage, mirrors any folder on your system with its online sibling in the "cloud." Unlike MobileMe, where items to be synced must be contained within your iDisk, any folder on your hard drive can be synced by right-clicking it and selecting it from a menu -- really nice if you need to get a subfolder of a subfolder online. As soon as that folder is updated, so is the remote one. Another touted feature is the ability to access those folders from a browser on any computer, including your cell phone. The Syncplicity beta is an Intel-only program and requires OSX 10.5. Syncplicity joins a crowded field that just doesn't include MobileMe: Zumodrive, Dropbox and SugarSync are out there as well, all willing to do battle for customers who are growing increasingly dissatisfied with Apple's offering to the point that they are considering alternatives. Have you tried out the private beta for Syncplicity? What other cloud storage solution do you use? Let us know in the comments! Meanwhile, we'll start looking at Syncplicity on our end and present you with a full look at the beta in the next few days.
Sandvox 1.2.8 adds MobileMe Compatibility
Karelia Software announced the availability of Sandvox 1.2.8 this week. If you're unfamiliar, Sandvox is a very nice and lightweight WYSIWYG web editor for Mac OS X (we've written about Sandvox before) that makes publishing easy. With iLife integration, attractive themes and more, you'll be happy to use it for that quick and easy site you want to publish with a minimum of fuss.Karelia has always offered .Mac integration, and version 1.2.8 offers compatibility with MobileMe. Other changes include an updated iMedia Browser which supports iPhoto Events and multiple Aperture libraries.Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is universal and comes in both pro ($79US) and standard ($49US) versions. Version 1.2.8 is a free upgrade for registered users.
