Chris Ward
Articles by Chris Ward
Alarm Dock gives your iPhone retro cred
There are plenty of alarm clock apps and plenty of docking stations available for iPhones, but the Alarm Dock from Jonas Damon is a cut above the rest -- it looks, quite simply, gorgeously retro. Reminiscent of those GE alarm clocks your parents had on their bedside table, your iPhone slides into a cutout in the front of the beechwood dock. Together with the (included) flip-clock app, it gives a great old-school look to your bedroom. It fits the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 and iPod touches, but note that the dock is effectively just a holder for your i-Device -- you thread your regular charging cable through the back to charge your phone and the speaker grill on the top is just that, it doesn't include a speaker. But for just $39.50, it might be just what you need to set off your waterbed. Cool, daddio. [Via Swiss Miss]
Patent shows concept for platform-independent word processor
Patently Apple has uncovered a new patent application from Apple that might give us a glimpse of part of Apple's future internet strategy. This approach looks beyond OS X and could bring apps like Pages to the PC and other platforms. The patent talks about a new word processing platform that allows documents to be edited across all platforms. It also allows them to be formatted and shown exactly the same way on various devices. Similar to Google Docs and Microsoft's 365, the system would work within a web browser. While the patent is centered on a word processor application, it isn't limited to such documents and could be applied to any document presenting text on a screen. Is this something you would use if Apple produced a device-independent word processor -- or even a suite of apps that you could use on any platform? Let us know in the comments.
Microsoft notes how Office 365 will benefit Apple customers
Business people are increasingly accessing files stored in the "cloud," and Microsoft wants in on the action. A new suite of online tools called Office 365, still in beta, is meant to appeal to those users. A recent post on the Office 365 Blog describes how the service will benefit Apple customers. "End users still get a phenomenal experience across the Mac, Safari or iPhone so they can easily work with co-workers on PC's," notes blogger Andrew_MSFT. "The IT department also benefits with access to Admin pages and can set up one set of policies for secure access." Apple customers can benefit in several ways. For example, Office for Mac 2011 users can share and co-author Word and PowerPoint documents via SharePoint Online. Those without Office installed can make "light edits" with SharePoint Portal, view PowerPoint broadcasts and check Exchange email with Outlook Web Access, all via Safari. iPhone users can set up Exchange Active Sync and use one of several third-party apps to view and edit MS Office documents (though there is still no official Office for iPhone app from Microsoft). Office 365 pricing is complicated. ZDnet has put together a slideshow of the options that will likely be available when it launches in mid-2011. ZDnet notes that pricing starts at US$72 per year for the basic service. The service could change a bit but with a rumored July launch, the feature set is probably fixed. Is Office 365 something you'd think of using, or would you prefer to go to Google or even roll your own solution using, say, Dropbox? Let us know in the comments. [Thanks Rich for the tip!]
BoxyTunes app streams music from your Dropbox music folder
There's a short but interesting analysis on Wired's Gadgetlab about Google's Music Beta service and how a simple US$2 app, BoxyTunes, does everything you hoped Google's service would do but doesn't. Music Beta was launched last week at Google's I/O Developer conference. It currently only works in web browsers and on Android devices. The web-based service does not work on iOS devices because it uses Flash. BoxyTunes, on the other hand, simply streams any music, podcasts or audiobooks it finds in your Dropbox folder to your iOS device. It allows you to set up playlists of tunes in your Dropbox, use your earbud controls as if you were listening to iTunes and listen to music in the background while performing other tasks. And if Music Beta does ever come to iOS devices, Wired author Charlie Sorrel points to a another potential advantage of BoxyTunes. Uploads may be faster as Dropbox creates an MD5 hash of every file you upload and won't upload a second copy if that file already exists on their servers.
Run your own Software Update Server with Reposado
Apple systems administrators can now use non-Apple hardware to host an internal Apple Software Update Service, thanks to Reposado, an open-source project developed by IT admins at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Running your own Software Update Server allows you to test updates for hardware and software conflicts before deploying them across all your machines. It also allows you to economize on bandwidth, downloading each update just once instead of having everyone in the company download it separately. Until now, you've needed to run such a server exclusively on Apple hardware running Mac OS X Server. Now, Disney Animation Studios' Reposado lets you run your Update Server on any hardware and software server you like. Reposado downloads Apple's Software Update catalogs and even the update packages from Apple's servers. Written in Python, the software hosts the updates using the 'curl' binary tool and a web server like Apache 2. You can setup custom branches to organize updates and keep track of those that passed testing. If you work in a mixed environment with some machines running 10.6.7 and others on an older version of OS x, you can also use Reposado to serve different updates to different machines. [via Managing OS X]
Big pharmaceutical companies stockpiling iPads for future sales apps
Big pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to attract the attention of doctors in order to get them to use their expensive new products. Doctors, it turns out, are busy people who give the sales reps about 30 seconds of their valuable time -- most of which is taken up signing receipts for the samples they're being given. So now big pharma is turning to the iPad as a way to grab doctors' attention -- even though they apparently don't, yet, have anything to actually show the doctors on those iPads. "During recent conversations with large pharmas, I have heard leadership at several companies make comments similar in nature to 'we have not yet purchased an iPad-based SFA (Sales Force Automation) software product, but we know we will eventually, so we're buying the devices now'," says Eric Newmark, an analyst at IDC Health Insights community. He says "more than one" big pharmaceutical company has told him that they're stockpiling iPads "in significant volume" for later use. The companies aren't even considering looking at alternative devices, believing that Apple's product gives them a better chance of keeping up with the latest technological developments. Apple products are already popular with medical staff, and it can't hurt to present new pharmaceutical products to them using iPads. "With big pharma already stocking up on the hardware, it seems likely that the apps they want will follow," says Newmark. Apple's absence in the pharma market is likely to rapidly change with Apple "likely to quickly become a dominant hardware vendor in the space." [Via The Mac Observer/MacOS Ken]
Oona smartphone stand, as seen on Kickstarter
Take an iChair, remove the case, add a suction cup and, voilà, the Oona smartphone stand. The Oona stand is a Kickstarter project, looking to raise US $10,000 to produce the first run of the neat, unobtrusive stands that look perfect for holding your iPhone steady on your desk or attaching it to your car windscreen. We liked the iChair a lot and there'll be a hands-on review tomorrow, May 11, on TUAW TV live. The Oona fills a slightly different need, particularly in places where you want to have your iPhone stuck to something rather than just resting it on a flat surface. Its developers have gone to some lengths to use just the right kind of material for the suction cup. "We spent a lot of time designing the right suction cup for The Oona," says Sam Gordon, one of the project founders. "The ones we prototyped early on were made of a thermoplastic elastomer so they could be easily injection molded. After testing we found that low shore durometer silicone produced the best results." The Oona is designed to be stuck and un-stuck many times a day, rather than rest in place for long periods of time. Its size lends itself to this usage as it is certainly small enough to be carried around easily. Check out the Kickstarter page and let us know what you think. a
Using an iPhone app to test for landmines
One of the big problems with using metal detectors to find unexploded landmines is that they detect all pieces of metal in the ground, often forcing operators to inspect every suspect item they find. This can be very dangerous, so researchers at Harvard have figured out how to use smartphones to find landmines. Trained and experienced operators can tell by the beeps coming from their detectors the size and shape of objects found. Harvard researchers take these beeps and map them onto a smartphone screen, such as an iPhone, to better visualise what's been found. The PETALS (Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Landmine Sensing) researchers have shown that inexperienced users are up to 80 percent more efficient using their technique, which could save a lot of lives. Using existing devices like iPhones makes the system potentially very cheap to deploy. Researchers hope that users already familiar with their smartphone interface should find it simple to use.
Want to write in LOGO? There's an app for that
Logo is a great introduction to programming for children, so a version for the iPad seems like a great idea. Emmanuel Crombez's implementation of Logo is very welcome indeed -- at least, it is if you speak decent French. French developer Crombez has a large suite of educational software apps covering reading, writing and math. Crombez produced the iPad version of Logo to introduce children to the world of computer programming. He's targeting his US$3.99 app at children over eight looking for an interesting introduction to computer programming. Since it was introduced in 1969, Logo has helped many thousands of future programmers get a taste of the joy of coding. If you can't wait for an English version of his Logo app, there is Logo Draw for the iPad available in the App Store, which provides an introduction to programming concepts, computer graphics and logical thinking. ** Update: Developer Emmanuel Crombez e-mails to tell us that he's just submitted an English-language version of his app, complete with English documentation, to Apple for approval and expects it to be in the store within 1 -- 2 weeks.
Rdio posts Mobile Playback API for iOS
Rdio, the on-demand social music service from the founders of Skype, has opened up its service to developers and published a mobile playback API for iOS, although the current terms of use prohibit the sale of any apps made using it. Instead, the company will make mobile apps work with its affiliate scheme. "We're working on providing a good affiliate program flow for mobile apps so that you can monetize that way. Getting that working well is one of my top priorities so you'll hear about that soon," says Ian McKellar, Lead Platform Engineer at Rdio. According to Rdio, the mobile API will allow you to make an app "that searches and plays all the artists, songs, albums, playlists, and top charts in Rdio's catalog of over 8.5 million songs. You can also build and edit playlists, show a user's network Heavy Rotation, follow other people, and view Collections." Is this something you'd see yourself building into an app? Let us know in comments.
Foxconn employees asked to sign 'no suicide' pledge
English tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail is reporting that employees working for Foxconn, assembler of many Apple products, are being forced to sign pledges not to commit suicide. The report from the tabloid paper points to an investigation conducted by the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom). Sacom claims it uncovered "appalling" working conditions at the Foxconn factory that include excessive overtime and public humiliation. While the Daily Mail cites the Sacom study as evidence of abysmal working conditions at Foxconn, the Sacom report investigates factory conditions across China -- not just Foxconn -- and, in fact, congratulates Foxconn as being the only employer to pledge to meet government limits on overtime. The anti-suicide letters seem to have been first published on the Shangaiist website, where there's some discussion on the exact translation of the supposed leaked Foxconn employee letter. The contentious, final paragraph states: "In the event of non-accidental injuries (including suicide, self mutilation, etc.), I agree that the company has acted properly in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and will not sue the company, bring excessive demands, take drastic actions that would damage the company's reputation or cause trouble that would hurt normal operations." But what Shangaiist author Elaine Chow translates as "will not sue the company," others translate as "will not make demands outside of law and regulation." In fact, this anti-suicide pact that new workers are asked to sign seems to point them towards sources of help should they have problems, including a trade union hotline -- not quite the dismal picture painted by the Daily Mail. [Via Slashdot]
9-year-old hangs with PopCap, creates iOS game via Make A Wish Foundation
When you're 9 years old you dream of plenty of things. Thanks to the Make A Wish Foundation, Owain Weinert's dream came true when he got to visit PopCap Games and design his very own video game. Owain's been diagnosed with pre-B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and has spent several weeks working with PopCap to design his game, Allied Star Police. "This is my dream and I finally get to see my dream come true," he says. "It's a real-time strategy game and I really had fun watching it take shape." Owain's mother Heather seemed bowled over by the kindness PopCap has shown her son. "Today is a real high point," she said during a visit to the company. "Being in the hospital for kids with cancer can be a real downer." PopCap presented Owain with an iPad with the development version of the game, which is due in the App Store in the coming months. Profits will go to the Make A Wish foundation. You can watch a video of Owain's visit to PopCap on the next page (sorry iOS users, no Flash-free version available).
RIM intends to extend device management options to iOS
BlackBerry manufacturer RIM is extending its Enterprise Server mobile device management services to iOS devices, allowing systems administrators to manage BlackBerry, Android and iOS devices from a single platform. The move follows in the wake of Microsoft's March announcement that it will allow administrators to control iOS devices with its SCCM management software. RIM's announcement could be a similar "Use other devices if you must, but stay within our corporate fold" tactic. It could also possibly account for the discredited rumors we heard a while ago about a BlackBerry app coming to iOS. Rather than develop its own solution, RIM is buying mobile device management company ubitexx. The company says it will provide "a simple and efficient way to distribute software and manage policies, inventory, security and services for BlackBerry devices, as well as other mobile devices." It won't provide BlackBerry-specific functions to iOS devices though, such as their push technology. That aside, the other features will be available later this year.
Fluid for Mac gets updated to 1.0, offers paid version
Fluid, the neat little application that turns websites into standalone native Mac apps, has finally grown up into version 1.0 after three and a half years of development. The application allows you to move frequently updating pages like Gmail or Facebook out of your browser tabs and onto your Dock where you can more clearly see 'unread' or 'New mail' notifications. It can also help with browser tab clutter (while at the same time adding to the clutter on your Dock...). As before, the app is free, but there's now a US$4.99 optional license that unlocks a few neat extras: the ability to create apps with separate cookie storage, pin Fluid apps to the Status Bar and use Userscripts or Userstyles in Fluid apps. If you've installed previous versions of Fluid, you'll need to remove them and start again with version 1.0, says developer Todd Ditchendorf. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is necessary to get Fluid on a solid foundation for future improvements and feature additions." And, he adds on the Fluid blog, "Fluid 1.0 is Intel-only and runs on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later. Sorry, but Fluid 1.0 will not run on Leopard or PowerPC Macs."
iTunes 101: Making the most of contextual menus
I love contextual menus. In Mac OS X, you find them when you right-click, two-finger-click (on a trackpad) or when you hold down the Control key and click. They're handy in scores of applications and in the Finder; if you're looking to supercharge your iTunes usage in particular, Macworld's Kirk McElhearn has published 10 ways to use contextual menus with iTunes. One particularly useful option is to "Start Genius" from any track. When selected, iTunes will instantly create a genius playlist from that track. The "Add to playlist" option is also useful. When selected, you get a hierarchical menu all available playlists (smart playlists are excluded). Simply click the one you're after and the track is added. Contextual menus also work on multiple tracks at once. Make your selections by either Command- or Shift-clicking, then right-click one of the highlighted songs to see the contextual menu. From there you can add that group to a playlist, adjust ratings, convert tracks to Apple Lossless format, and so on. There's an important iTunes contextual menu that didn't make Macworld's list. If you connect your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to your computer, you can right-click the device's icon in the iTunes sidebar to see a specific contextual menu for that iOS gadget. You can quickly eject, restore or back up your device; also, if you're about to update your version of iOS but iTunes is warning you that you need to transfer purchased items from your device back to iTunes pre-update... well, here's where you do it, via the Transfer Purchases command. For all ten Macworld tips, read Kirk's article. In the meantime, please share any favorites with us below.
Apple approves JavaScript iOS games that don't use a browser
Look Ma, no WebKit! Your inner geek and nerd should give each other a little hug this morning as you read about the latest rather cool accomplishment of Dominic Szablewski, creator of the Impact JavaScript HTML 5 game engine. He's just released two free games, Biolab Disaster and Drop, which are not, as Szablewski says, the first JavaScript games to be released in the App Store. "Tools like PhoneGap or Titanium make it easy to bundle some HTML pages and JavaScript together in an app and display them in a UIWebView, which is basically just a browser window," he says. However, his games are different because they don't use a browser window to display them. "They don't use PhoneGap or Titanium. They don't even use a UIWebView. Instead, they bypass the iPhone's browser altogether and use Apple's JavaScript interpreter (JavaScriptCore) directly. All graphics are rendered with OpenGL instead of in a browser window and all sound and music is played back with OpenAL," Szablewski says. What Szablewski has done wasn't particularly easy, and as games, his offerings aren't up there with Angry Birds. But his work could open the way for other developers to write more apps with a minimum of fuss. Read his blog for full details of the process.
iPhone apps that beat Apple's default apps
There's a nice little article over at Apple Matters about how, wonderful though Apple might be, there are still some things that others do better - in particular, certain apps for your iOS devices. Their list starts with the US$1.99 Instacast, which indeed does a better job of managing and finding new podcasts than you can do yourself by searching through the iTunes Music Store on your iPhone. Next comes PhotoSync, also $1.99, which adds wireless syncing for your photos between your iPhone and desktop. If it only synced everything else wirelessly, I'd be first in the queue to buy it. Finally, they list Stash Pro, the image management app for iOS devices, which seems a little expensive to me at $3.99, but it does allow you to download images directly on your iOS device from websites, and you can add keywords, titles and ratings to images. My personal list of apps that I use because they're better than any Apple offering starts with Dropbox. It simplifies my mobile life to the point where it's a pleasure to access files on the go. What apps do you use because they're better than anything Apple can offer? Let us know in comments.
Apple planning May event to celebrate its 10-year retail anniversary
Get your glad rags out, because it looks like Apple's preparing to celebrate the 10th birthday of its first retail stores at the end of next month. Employees have been told they can't request any vacation time in late May, possibly because Apple's planning some sort of event to mark the anniversary. The first Apple Retail Stores launched on May 19, 2001 in McLean, Virginia's Tyson's Corner Mall and at the Galleria in Glendale, California. The Glendale store has even achieved cult status now with the store number designation 001. It is possible that the holiday blackout is due to a new product launch; new Sandy Bridge iMacs are due, and there's always the iPhone 5. However, the iMac doesn't seem special enough to stop all staff going on holiday, and the iPhone 5 now seems more likely for September. The most recent holiday blackouts were for the Verizon iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. If Apple is planning a birthday party for its retail stores, will you be going along? How do you think Apple should mark the anniversary? Let us know in the comments. (Edited to fix store name.)
3D scanner app captures models using iPhone camera
Here's a cool addition to the "iOS-devices-can-do-just-about-anything" list: using a US$0.99 app to turn your iPhone 4, iPad 2 or latest-generation iPod touch into a 3D scanner, replacing hundreds of dollars worth of last year's technology. Trimensional was developed by Grant Schindler, a research scientist in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech's College of Computing. It uses the device's screen to light the object being scanned from four different directions, allowing a 3D model to be produced. Originally, users could only email their scans or send 3D animations, but now Schindler has added an in-app upgrade for a few dollars that allows you to export the data to CAD programs or 3D applications. "You can just have fun with it, or if you work with 3D models, you can use it professionally," Schindler said. You won't get the same precision results you'd expect from a professional 3D scanner, but then again, it is less than a dollar. Check out some of the images of creations that users have already produced. Cool. [Via Slashdot]
Does Thunderbolt fortell the end of the line for the Mac Pro as we know it?
Xsan integrator Meta Media has an interesting series of posts on its Empowering Creativity blog about what it sees as the future -- or rather the lack of a future -- for Apple's Mac Pro line. The arrival of the Thunderbolt interface, Meta Media says, will allow Apple to return to its beloved sealed-box model of computer production with no user-serviceable parts inside, just like the original Macintosh. No expansion cards, no hard disk upgrades, just Thunderbolt (aka Light Peak) interfaces to connect ... well, to connect anything you like really. "The new Mac Pro will probably look something akin to the current Mac Mini, except slightly taller, more powerful, and with Thunderbolt ports," the thinking goes. "In fact, all of us need to grapple with the prospect of a Mac product line without any capability of expansion beyond USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt." The latest MacBook Pros were the first to sport Thunderbolt connectors, and Meta Media argues that the rest of the Mac lineup will follow. The post points to the arrival of devices such as Promise's SANLink Thunderbolt to dual-port, 4 Gigabit Fiber Channel adapter as heralding this change; the post forecasts that this is just the start. "This means that at any time now, Apple can pull the plug on the current Mac Pro and not shock an entire industry. Add to that the near-production offerings of Thunderbolt-driven capture devices from AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox and MOTU, and we have our new-age video workstation clearly in sight," Meta Media says. You'll find the blog posts here, here, here and here -- have a read and let us know what you think. Would you be sad to see the Mac Pro range disappear into a giant Mac mini case? Will you be happy just plugging everything into Thunderbolt ports? Let us know in the comments.