Mat Lu

Professionally Mat Lu teaches and writes philosophy; unprofessionally, he writes about the Mac and related technology. He is one of those half-mythical iPod halo switchers, having come to the fairer platform after purchasing a first generation iPod. Technologically speaking, in addition to Apple gear, he maintains an avid interest in console and computer gaming as well as high-definition home theater. Philosophically speaking, he is a Thomistic Aristotelian in everything that matters.

Articles by Mat Lu

iTunes Plus upgrade available on a per track basis
Apple has apparently bowed to pressure because the iTunes Store is now allowing upgrades to iTunes Plus on a per track basis. Back when Apple first dropped DRM on some of their music they started allowing customers to upgrade their previously purchased tracks to the higher bit-rate and DRM-free iTunes Plus versions. Unfortunately, until recently Apple required you to purchase the upgrades for all of your qualifying music all at once, whether your wanted them all or not. Now it seems you can upgrade your previously purchased music to the iTunes Plus versions for 30 cents per track. The albums in my account seem to cost between $3 and $4 to upgrade. You can find all your qualifying music on the iTunes Store by following this link (iTunes link) or from the iTunes Store home page. It's nice to see that Apple has seen the light on this. Note that Macworld is reporting some kind of glitch with using the shopping cart and are saying you need to turn on the buy with 1-click option in the iTunes Store preferences to get the correct upgrade price (and not be charged the full album price again). [via Macworld]
EverSave adds universal autosaving
Auto-save has saved my bacon several times with Word and I really miss it in apps that don't offer the feature (Apple's Pages, for example). Now a third-party solution has popped up that supposedly offers autosaving in any application. EverSave runs in your menubar and allows you to save either at a particular interval or when you switch applications (or both). You can have it run for all applications or pick particular ones. In my testing with Pages '08 it worked just as advertised. I set the save interval for 45 seconds and as shortly after I opened a new Pages document it brought up the save dialog. I put in some text, waited a few seconds and then simulated a crash by force-quitting the application. When I reopened the document, my text was there. Unfortunately, I've found that EverSave does not work quite as well with all applications. With TextMate, for instance, it insists on bringing up the save dialog box every time it saves, making it too annoying to be useful. Nonetheless, if you use iWork and miss auto-save, EverSave is a must-have. EverSave is a free download (donations requested) from Tool Force Software. [via Macworld]
Ask TUAW: Boot Camp migration, Photo Booth sans flash, monitoring bandwidth and more
This week in Ask TUAW we've got questions on using Photo Booth without the flash, scheduling emails in Mail.app, monitoring bandwidth usage, migrating a Boot Camp partition and more. As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
Ask TUAW: iPhone Bluetooth, transferring applications, pasting without formating, selling a Mac, and more
With the hubbub of Macworld behind us it's time again for Ask TUAW! In this edition we'll be looking at questions about using an iPhone in the car, pasting without formatting, preparing a Mac for sale, transferring an application to a new install, and more. As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
Non-Apple iPhone Keynote controllers
One of the coolest features of the just announced Keynote '09 is the corresponding $0.99 iPhone / iPod touch controller application (iTunes link) which allows you to advance slides, see your notes, and even see your next slide on your mobile device's screen so long as it's connected to the same wifi network. Once I had a look at it, however, I was surprised to discover that there were already several similar applications available in the iTunes store which work with Keynote '08 and even have quite a few more functions.I haven't had a chance to test them all, but there are at least four applications out there including (all iTunes links): Pointer Remote (which also works with PowerPoint) ($0.99), jfControl ($3.99), AirMote ($4.99), and Stage Hand ($7.99). Three of the four require installing a small helper app on your Mac which then interfaces with the iPhone app (AirMote is the exception since it uses the Mac's built-in VNC protocols). Of these, Stage Hand seems to have the most features, including some nifty ones like advancing directly to a particular slide, on-device timers, a highlighter, and a blackout/whiteout function. (Stage Hand presently has limited Keynote '09 compatibility, but they say they're working on it.)Let us know in the comments what your favorite iPhone / iPod touch based Keynote remote control is.
Easy Wi-Fi for iPhone simplifies logging onto free AT&T wifi
Devicescape has released Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T (iTunes link) a new iPhone application designed to streamline logging onto the now free AT&T wifi hotspots. The old way required you to join the network, which would then bring up a page in mobile Safari to enter your AT&T phone number. A few seconds later you receive a (free) text message from AT&T containing a link. Click on the link and you're connected to the internet.With Easy Wi-Fi apparently all you have to do is launch the app and it will log you on without going through the text message rigmarole. They're offering it for free at the moment, though apparently it'll be jumping up to $1.99 on Friday. So if you make a habit of visiting places with AT&T wifi (e.g. Starbucks) grab it now at the iTunes Store.[via Gizmodo]
Apple finally offers in-ear headphones for sale
We were recently wondering what happened to the in-ear headphones that Apple promised way back in September. Today, we're happy to see that the online Apple Store is finally offering them for sale with free shipping and delivery listed as 7-10 days. These headphones promise to be of higher quality than the standard buds that ship with the iPhone. In addition to better drivers and sound isolation they include the new combo mic / remote that offers volume control on certain late model iPods (basically, the presently shipping models only). If you manage to grab a pair let us know what you think.[via Engadget]
Ask TUAW: Reinstalling, auto-saving, license keeping and more
This time in Ask TUAW we'll be looking at several different questions about reinstalling (OS X, Office for Mac, and printer drivers), as well as how to auto-save in iWork, store software licenses and more. As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
HandBrake 0.9.3 adds Universal Input
The well known, open-source DVD ripping and video transcoding application HandBrake has been updated to version 0.9.3. Among the changes, perhaps the most exciting is universal input -- now you can use HandBrake to convert any kind of video file it recognizes, not just DVDs. This is particularly exciting given the recent demise of the much loved VisualHub (although the open-source reworking of VisualHub via the TranscoderRedux project is underway). In fact, the new HandBrake incorporates some of the same ffmpeg libraries that did the heavy lifting in VisualHub. Among the many changes are an updated interface as well as improvements to both audio handling and video quality. Interestingly, the HandBrake developers have removed its internal DVD decryption which means you'll need to have the free VLC on your machine to utilize HandBrake's classic DVD ripping functionality (though as long as you have VLC they promise it will work as before).HandBrake 0.9.3 is a free download from HandBrake.Thanks Will!
MacBooks take performance nosedive on AC power alone
Here's a curious thing. Gearlog is reporting that in testing a MacBook Pro, they found substantially lower performance while running on AC power alone, with the battery removed. Apparently, Apple doesn't hide this quirk; there's a Support Document claiming that this is done to prevent "the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adapter alone can provide." On their new unibody MacBook Pro, Gearlog noted a 36% lower processor benchmark without the battery. The upshot is simple: leave the battery in, even if you use your MacBook (Pro) at your desk. Interestingly, at the same time Apple does recommend allowing the battery to discharge at least once per month.[via Engadget]
Ask TUAW: Safari, sorting iPhone favorites, finding HD space, battery care and more
In this edition of Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about Safari's autocomplete of URLs, sorting iPhone favorites entries, freeing up HD space, properly caring for a notebook battery, and more. As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
Apple releases iPhone 2.2 firmware
The long awaited iPhone firmware version 2.2 has appeared in iTunes and is ready for download. You can grab it now by clicking the "Check for Update" button in your iPhone Summary panel. Once you download and install it let us know how it goes.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Ask TUAW: iSync, migrating with Time Machine, hidden files and more
This time in Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about iSync, hidden files in the Finder, non-destructive disk partitioning, migrating to a new Mac and more. As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
Opt-in to get Netflix Watch Instantly Now
We noted a little while back that Netflix is finally bringing its Watch Instantly streaming TV and Movie service to the Mac. They began by rolling out the service slowly and it wasn't initially available to all Netflix subscribers. Now, however, it appears that there's a way for all Mac-using Netflix subscribers to get in on the action.The Netflix blog has instructions that will allow you to activate Watch Instantly on your Mac via Microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin. It is worth noting that if you switch over to the Silverlight player you must use that on any Windows machines you might have as well, which means that you'll have access to less streaming content (at least at the moment) than the old Windows Media option. Also, as VentureBeat notes, you're limited to a total of six devices for streaming content, which includes both computers and stand-alone set top boxes. Nonetheless, if all you want is to get Netflix's Watch Instantly on your Mac, there's pretty much no reason to wait.[via Engadget]
Dock Spaces: a different Dock for each Space
Dock Spaces is a nifty little utility that allows you to have up to ten different Docks. What makes it different, however, is its integration with OS X's built-in Spaces virtual desktops. Now you can have a different Dock in every Space that automatically switches when you move to the new Space.With Dock Spaces you can use different Docks to give different Spaces a kind of functional utility. For example, you could put all your office type applications in one Space and all your graphics editing applications in another, etc. It can also make it easier to tell exactly which Space you're presently in.Dock Spaces is a free download from Patrick Chamelo (donations requested) and naturally requires Leopard.[via MacBreak Weekly]
Cocotron: bringing Cocoa to Windows
Cocotron is a potentially exciting open-source project that "aims to implement a cross-platform Objective-C API similar to that described by Apple Inc.'s Cocoa documentation." What this means is that, in principle, Cocotron would allow an OS X Cocoa app written in Xcode to be easily cross-compiled for other OSes, particularly Windows.Of course that in principle still leaves open a bunch of practical difficulties. The guys over at Magnetism Studio (developer of FileMagnet for iPhone) have a great account of how they used Cocotron to port their Mac FileMagnet Uploader to Windows. Of course it wasn't as easy as pressing a button and having a Windows executable pop out of Xcode, but after suitable adjustments (particularly to get rid of Mac-specific code) it did make a Windows version possible. In any case, Cocotron seems poised to make cross-platform development a much less costly and time-consuming process for Mac developers.Cocotron itself is a free download and released under the MIT license.[via Daring Fireball]
Fission 1.6 makes iPhone ringtones even easier
Rogue Amoeba has released version 1.6 of the nifty lossless audio editor Fission with a handy new feature: built-in iPhone ringtone saving. Fission has always been a great application for making relatively simple edits to audio files: cropping, trimming, cutting and pasting, etc. Now it makes turning MP3, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or WAV files into iPhone ringtones a one-step process. Once you save a file as a ringtone it will automatically be passed to iTunes for syncing to your iPhone.Of course you can do it the old-fashioned way with GarageBand, but if your audio file just needs simple editing the Fission method will likely be easier and faster. In addition to the ringtone saving (and various bug fixes), version 1.6 allows you to insert periods of silence into a file and exactly set the location of the playhead.Fission 1.6 is a free upgrade to registered owners; it's $32 for new users and a demo is available.[via Macworld]
Netflix begins testing Watch Instantly on the Mac
Netflix has been talking about bringing its "Watch Instantly" movie streaming service to the Mac for a long time, and now Engadget is reporting that they're finally beginning to roll it out. The "Watch Instantly" service allows unlimited Netflix subscribers to stream about 12,000 TV shows and movies to their computers (or set-top devices), but has been limited to Windows PCs since the service first appeared. Ironically, this is being made possible thanks to Microsoft's Flash-wannabe Silverlight browser plugin. As we noted way back in 2007, the holdup was the need for Microsoft DRM on the streaming videos and the new Silverlight-based player incorporates Microsoft's Play Ready DRM. Unfortunately, the initial roll-out is limited, but Netflix expects to bring "the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year." Sadly for PPC owners, it will be limited to Intel Macs. Nonetheless, it's great to see Netflix finally coming through on the promise of Watch Instantly for Mac users.
Fieldrunners: DTD for iPhone
Yes, I am one of those people.: the bleary-eyed Desktop Tower Defense addicts. The game concept is simple, but remarkably addictive. A series of creatures is attempting to get from the left to the right side of the playing field. You get a limited budget to build various kinds of weapons towers to prevent them from getting across. The more you kill, the more money you get to build more towers. We've covered various implementations of the basic concepts, like Hordes of Orcs for the Mac. But now this sublime time-suck has an excellent iPhone version in Fieldrunner from Subatomic Studios (App Store link). Sticking to the tried and true gameplay, you have the option of placing four different types of towers (each of which can also be upgraded for additional cost). There are several different kind of enemies (some walking, some on wheels, some flying), each of which is more or less susceptible to the various towers.The game responds more or less exactly how you would expect. You can zoom in and out with standard iPhone gestures to place your towers with more detail. Towers are positioned by dragging them onto the field from slots below. Each tower already in play can be tapped to bring up a menu to either sell it or upgrade it (if you've got the cash). The graphics are attractive (especially when zoomed in) and responsive. The biggest thing missing is sound, but since I prefer my own music anyway that's not much of a loss. In any case, they promise sound effects are coming in a future version along with new enemies and new towers.Fieldrunner is $4.99 on the App Store, and worth every penny if you're a DTD fan. Check out some more images after the jump.[via Infinite Loop]
New NVIDIA hardware capable of more than Apple lets on
We've already seen some suggestions that more is hiding under the hood of the new unibody MacBooks than Apple has disclosed. Now Gizmodo is reporting that the NVIDIA folks have revealed to them that the graphics hardware in the new MacBooks is capable of quite a bit more than Apple has has chosen to use.In particular, the the dual GPUs in the MacBook Pros can apparently be run in a Hybrid SLI mode allowing them both to be active at once (and thus increasing graphics performance over the discrete chip alone). In addition, the hardware is apparently capable of on-the-fly switching between the two GPUs instead of the present implementation which requires logging out to switch between the integrated 9400M and the discrete 9600M GT. In principle, this would allow the machine to dynamically switch between using the discrete chip when plugged in and the integrated chip when running on battery power.So what's the upshot? In the short run, not much. Just because the features are supported in the silicon means squat unless Apple decides to implement them in software. In the best case scenario, however, the new MacBook Pros might see performance increases with only software and/or firmware updates. Of course, whether Apple will choose to do that (which would perhaps decrease the incentive to buy the next generation of machines) is another question altogether.

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