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I don't usually post about iPod holders (unless they are DIY, interactive, or just plain silly), but the new designer series from Muff caught my eye. Muff showed up on TUAW back in October, but lacked this designer series. Despite their lack of a window or access to controls, I find them stylish and graphically pleasing. I have a weakness for skulls like the design shown here by Aussie designer Drunk Park, aka Seb Godfrey.[via iLounge]
Read MoreIf you are interested in getting the most out of your iPod and you enjoy the DIY culture, Will O'Brien has posted How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 2). In this part of his ongoing series, he takes you step by step through designing a schematic for the "Super Dock" in EAGLE. You can grab EAGLE Light Edition for OS X here (note: requires command line installation). I also posted about Part 1 of the series on TUAW.The upside of this series by Will is that you can freely expand upon what he has started. Use your imagination! Do you need to have an iPod dock that is integrated into your home brewed robotic kitchen? Will your car benefit from custom iPod controls on the steering wheel? Can your pet have its own playlist control functions at home with interactive carpeting? Will lays the groundwork for you and lets you be your own Griffin or Belkin engineer.
Read MoreWill O'Brien from our sister blog Engadget has posted up How-To: Design your own iPod super dock (Part 1). This thorough, in-depth tutorial will enumerate the steps required in building your own iPod dock (or cable), whether for your car, your futuristic molded bedside table, or simply to take advantage of all those dock pins you never knew you had. If you are a do-it-yourselfer with an iPod, you will surely enjoy this series from Will. Check it out and we'll let you know when Part 2 arrives.
Read MoreFirst off, I would like to note that this post is an opinion piece, and though it contains facts, the opinions contained therein are definitely biased towards open source, open standards, the freedom of software programmers, and technological innovation.France's Assemblé Nationale voted in yesterday evening the DADVSI, a rather hideous proposal which will most likely become law when France's Sénat deems it constitutional and President Chirac signs it. Both of the latter are likely as the president is of the same majority right party (UMP) as the Assemblé Nationale. The New York Times (and Slashdot) have noted incorrectly that the law will contain clauses for interoperability required of iTunes and iPods, but those amendments did not make it into the final proposal voted on Thursday night. Read on for a breakdown of the law as it currently awaits, almost certain, approval.
Read MoreSome people may think I am pro-*nix, but actually I really just like getting information out there for all our readers. Today I came across a great tip on Switch about Windows-like key bindings. If you don't dig the way Apple has the start and end key combos mapped in OS X, you can change them by creating the file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the following contents: /* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict - Home/End keys more like Windows */{"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* home */ "\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /* end */"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift home */"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift end */"^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:"; /* control home */"^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";/* control end */} I personally tested this key binding hack in 10.4.4 and it does work. To test it be sure to quit out of your text application first. Also note that you will have to create a KeyBindings/ directory in your ~/Library/ because it is not there by default. To reverse the key bindings back to normal, just delete the DefaultKeyBinding.dict file you created and restart your text application. If there is a simpler GUI way to create these modifications please post about it in the comments for our readers.If on the other hand you live in Terminal like me, the start of line and end of line key bindings are Control-A and Control-E respectively. This should feel comfortable to people accustomed to the normal Emacs mode in a shell in other *nix based operating systems.[via Switch and comments on Ask Slashdot]
Read MoreWhile I certainly can't vouch for this problem myself as I don't own a MacBook Pro, there seem to be quite a few owners of the new laptop with complaints over a high pitched noise emanating from their machines. Our own Dan Pourhadi had a whine on his new MacBook Pro, even though it may not be the whine being heavily discussed on Digg today. Dan seems to have solved his whine by disabling the second core of his processor (described in Update 3 on his post). I no longer see this thread Digg links to on the Apple Forums, however I did find another active thread about the high pitched squeal/noise/whining. Some Apple users on the Digg thread and the Apple Discussions thread seem to think this may be repairable in firmware by Apple at a later date. I am by no means dissing Apple (or the Digg crowd) with this post, but simply would like to remind everyone about early adopter syndrome. The first revision of a new hardware platform or change in manufacturing is bound to engender certain flaws or bugs. Please, let us reflect for a moment on the Mirrored Door G4 and the PowerBook 667MHz (aka The "666") computer lines. This current flare in comments on Digg and the Apple Forums doesn't mean that all MacBook Pros will be affected by this noise, and certainly does not mean that people shouldn't be entitled to a worry-free machine when purchasing a Mac. I hope this all gets cleared up quickly and with some sort of patch or replacement from Apple. We at TUAW are bound to keep you posted. Update: Please see Dan Pourhadi's new follow-up post about his MacBook Pro woes.
Read MoreWell I think I found one of the reasons why no one replied to my recent plea for help with my PowerLogix card. It seems that PowerLogix has just been acquired by OWC. Other World Computing is a company that sells a mix of its own gear and third party hardware (including PowerLogix and other manufacturers). OWC will acquire the "exclusive rights to all PowerLogix proprietary hardware designs and software code, as well as copyrights, logos, brand names, and web domains." I hope that this means older PowerLogix hardware will continue to be supported after the buy out, if not I am really out of luck.[via MacNN]
Read MoreIn my relentless pursuit for all that is stylish or feminine in the world of tech, I come across some interesting accessories. One such product that I'm not in the market for are Skyns' girly laptop covers. These glorified stickers (described as "durable plastic/adhesive laptop covers") are not exactly my cup of tea. It's not the lack of color or size choices for iBooks, PowerBooks or MacBook Pros that turn me off to the Skyn product line but rather the fact that it's nothing more than a large sticker. Yes, the adhesive may be specially formulated to remove cleanly without leaving residue, but the fact of the matter is I'd rather buy a Colorware laptop or have my laptop custom laser engraved. If I put a big sticker on my machine, it will be one that I've personally customized or designed.[via Gizmodo]
Read MoreEnterprise Mac's Tom Yager posted about his recent transition from a PowerBook to a MacBook Pro using Tiger's integrated Setup Assistant. Using Setup Assistant one can easily transfer old data, settings, applications and more to a new Mac over firewire. His migration took a little under two hours to transfer 60GB of data rather painlessly.What I found insightful with Tom Yager's post is that with Rosetta one can still use most old PowerPC applications without having to search for upgrades. This makes switching (or cloning) to a new machine a hopefully trivial experience. Have you had a breezy time of upgrading your Mac using Tiger's built in Setup Assistant? We're all ears.
Read MoreWhen I think of battery powered speakers for the iPod I usually picture a white plastic molded dock-type accessory, but apparently there is a market for cuddlier options. One such example is Brookstone's iPillow Portable MP3 Speakers (pictured here with a Creative MP3 player but compatible via mini jack with any MP3 player). This device takes six D batteries which probably means it can pump quite some volume in that huggable housing. Be careful not to use the iPillow in an iPillow fight because the mesh pocket doesn't offer much padding for that iPod of yours! The iPillow is only available in silver (but frankly in the picture here it looks blue to me).[via Popgadget] [*squishiness is not a real word]
Read MoreOver at TechEBlog they have posted a list of their picks for the top ten strangest iPod accessories, seven of which we have covered here at TUAW in the past. Their list is as follows: iBuzz iPod Toilet Paper Dispenser by ATech Play iPod Boxers Pause: iPod compatible bed iPod nano Wallet iPod nano Thong KNG's animated DJ Docking Station (pictured here) iPod Chair Man The Tunebuckle (which I find lovely and not strange) iPod Jukebox by Wurlitzer [via Gizmodo]
Read MoreHave you received your MacBook Pro? Are you saddened by OWC's lack of instructions on how to rip apart said new machine? Don't be sad, rejoice, for iFixit (the site formerly known as PBFixit) has released a screw-by-screw guide to Performing Complete Disassembly of a MacBook Pro. Each page of this guide to MacBook Pro destruction has pithy commentary on hardware you may find inside your new lappy using only iFixit's guide, a #0 Phillips screwdriver, a T6 Torx screwdriver and um, a Spudger. If this bare-circuit-board guide doesn't knock your mad scientist socks off, frankly, I really don't know what will. [via Slashdot] [pictured to the right is the MacBook Pro's nekid logic board via iFixit's guide]
Read MoreIf you are like me and enjoy a good clean fight, check out these benchmarks at Geek Patrol using their own pre-production software: Geekbench, a multi-platform benchmarking utility. These numbers reflect benchmarking on a 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 with 1.25GB RAM vs a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro with 1GB RAM (the latter benchmark running as a Universal Binary not in Rosetta). I took it upon myself to average their twenty benchmark results. Using Geek Patrol's benchmarking results, the MacBook Pro they used is 3.74 times faster than the PowerBook they tested. If I throw out the low results they received from Stdlib Allocate (which they note: "depends more on library performance than raw hardware performance"), the MacBook Pro is on average, 4.26 times faster than a PowerBook.We all know that real world testing is what will really determine whether or not the MacBook Pro can severely outperform the PowerBook, but we will have to wait for more pro apps to be released as Universal Binaries before anyone takes a crack at graphing those statistics. Until then, all of you who have a MacBook Pro, enjoy your zippy new laptop.[via Slashdot and reader Ernest Leitch]
Read MoreIf you just can't bear to put your nano in your pocket or man-bag, luckily there is a third choice: Thomas Pink's Commuter Tie. On the back side of the tie is a secret pocket to house your iPod nano complete with a flat mounted loop of fabric to hold your headphone wires out of sight. I'm guessing you then thread the headphone wires through the top of the tie and up to your ears.The Commuter Tie is available in what looks like hot pink in this image (cropped to show the secret pocket up close), or in a sort of salmon orange on another image on Thomas Pink's U.K.-based website. I imagine those of you crafty enough could bust out the thread and fabric scraps and add this to just about any tie.[via iLounge]
Read MoreIf you have upgraded your Mac using my semi-cracky How-To you may have also upgraded your Powerlogix CPU Director software as time went along. Recently I updated to CPU Director 2.3b2, and when the drop down menu in System Preferences > Energy Saver > Options > Processor Performance disappeared, I was worried. My CPU was no longer dynamically changing speed up and down from 1GHz to 2GHz and was staying solidly at 2GHz.I eventually did what my father always told me: "When all else fails, dig the manual out of the garbage." I went to the Trash and grabbed the READ ME FIRST.rtf.The readme for the newest CPU Director includes this pithy statement:Note: DFS and Power Management functions require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and require a PowerLogix 7447A CPU card. If you purchased a PowerLogix 7447A CPU card prior to July 27, 2005 your card requires CPU Compatibility Updater, which will be sent to existing customers. (If you have a PowerLogix 7447A CPU card and the thermal pane does not appear in CPU Director, or Processor Performance does not appear in the Energy Saver System Preference, you need the CPU Director Compatibility Updater.)I dutifully emailed Powerlogix support to ask for the CPU Director Compatibility Updater. They sent me the program, I ran it, and System Preferences > Energy Saver > Options > Processor Performance reappeared. The problem is, since this upgrade my machine systematically overheats when I tell it to choose Processor Performance: Automatic. My G4 has not had problems this bad (and subsequently caused kernel panics) since the update to 10.4.3. The ultimate solution to this problem would be dynamic CPU switching but also failsafe temperature monitoring that allowed CPU Director to force the computer down to the lower speed if overheating becomes imminent. Apparently this exists for some of the Powerlogix CPUs but it sure doesn't show up in my CPU Director software (I have the Powerlogix 7447A).There has been no word yet from Powerlogix about this issue and I'm going to have to step back in CPU Director versions. Hopefully the CPU Director Compatibility Updater won't make my setup incompatible with previous version of CPU Director. If anyone else has had similar issues and/or has a solution, feel free to post in the comments.
Read MoreToday's How-To shows that with a little ingenious wiring, a pair of headphones can become a pair of low-power rechargeable wireless speakers. For this mod you will need: One or more wireless headphone sets with rechargeable bases (we used inexpensive Sony RF headphones) A soldering iron Two channel socket and plug connectors for power A miniature slider switch Some thin cabling Plexiglas and hot glue or other material to build speaker housings A dremel or similar to make openings in the speaker housings If your artsy friends have been begging you to build them wireless speakers on the cheap for their Burning Man installation, read on. If not, it's still a helluva lot of fun, so read on anyway!
Read MoreSome noise around the blogosphere hints at the fact that even legacy Mac machines are faster since the 10.4.5 update this week. Users report a variety of speed boost including program loading, dock bouncing, and boot times. I haven't installed 10.4.5 (because I'm running some funky homebrew software that wouldn't be too happy with an upgrade at this point).So is your machine faster since you've installed the update to 10.4.5?[via Appleology]
Read MoreHello to all our new-to-OS X readers! I have a quick tip for those of you that are tired of the stock screensavers in OS X. Simply compile a group of photos into a folder. I like to grab stuff from flickr; one can find rather amazing topical compilations of hi-res photos there. Once you have your folder of photos, you can put it where you like, but I like putting the resulting folder in my Pictures directory.Next open up System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver and select "Choose Folder..." on the left. Navigate to the folder you just created with the images inside. You can click on the "Options" button to change the zooming / crossfading / centering of each image. That's it! Have fun watching all those great collections from flickr (or your favorite photo blog of choice) float by on your screen.If you're a little more advanced, you might want to check out a few more screensaver posts here on TUAW.[pictured in my example above is one shot from a stellar collection of photos from the Wooster Collective]
Read MoreWhen digging around on the net this week, I found more than one solution to TUAW reader/commenter Aaron Garn's need for Tetris in the Dashboard. First up is MiniTetris by Shock Widgets, a slightly laggy, really miniature tetris. Secondly I found LIFEwaves' fig-leaf-decorated over-priced, and apparently discontinued version. Lastly, I bring your attention to pakkman781's free and flash-based tetris (on which I couldn't make the audio stop: Must ... mute... sound!)I must say that neither of this options was as pleasant to me as playing gtetrinet (no, not by myself, sheesh!). Also, listen up, would-be future Tetris-on-a-mac creators, TUAW reader/commenter Chris wants Tetris to work with Mac laptops with built-in motion detectors. So get on that, mmkay?
Read MoreWhen it comes to toting around that new MacBook Pro, you want nothing but the best to hug and snuggle your new baby computer. For MacBook Pros (and 15" PowerBooks) I am going to have to point the ladies to alex grant bags. My favorite bag is the understated Skye in gunmetal gray (pictured here). The larger alex grant bags come with coordinating laptop sleeves (kind of like mini briefcases with handles) that fit inside. I love the styling on these bags and the carrying handles look long-commute-friendly, I just wish they came in a few more color choices. All of the agb collection is on sale until March 1st. In a past post I've rounded up some of my favorite iBook sleeves, some of which may also be appropriate for 12" PowerBooks. With this combination, you can put a smaller laptop in a larger bag. Incidentally, I rock a 10" Fujitsu subcompact (running FreeBSD 6), so I ended up modding an existing subcompact sleeve to my liking. Ladies, and guys with ladies in their lives, feel free to comment on your favorite sleeve/bag combo for your mac laptop in the comments.
Read MoreOccasionally strange iPod cases surface (no not that pink knit case your great-aunt made you last year). Take for example this wooden velvet-lined iPod nano case engraved on the cover with the To-fu Oyako character found by Popgadget today. I find a few things wrong with this case, beyond the fact that a cartoon tofu guy is on the front: there is no access to the iPod controls nor, from what I can see, access to the dock connector when the case is closed.I think we may have reached saturation on iPod cases folks. Feel free to post your favorite wacky character that should appear on an engraved iPod case in the comments. I vote for Trogdor (the Burninator) on a metal slip down iPod case.[via Popgadget]
Read MoreAdding more fuel to the rumor-fire that is the new video iPod ThinkSecret rumored yesterday, someone calling themselves "bud62" (probably not affiliated with Apple in any way) posted new mock-up images today.All I have to say is that this is a very sexy looking prototype! Even if this doesn't end up being a new iPod, it definitely should in my book.[via Engadget]
Read MoreHardware hacking is a fickle and strange beast. Because of the iPod's popularity, even old Pocket PCs want to be iPod-like. Wait no longer and convert your lowly Pocket PC into a heavenly iPod. To get you started, here is the materials list for the hack: Hammer Large-tip permanent marker, black 1 Steel-toed boot Lighter fluid 1 match Fire extinguisher 1 can spray paint, white [via hack a day]
Read MoreI don't know if I should be sharing this with you (because I kind of want it myself) but Joseph DeRuvo Jr.'s i-Tablet, built in 2004, is up for sale on eBay. If you don't remember, TUAW and Engadget covered the i-Tablet when it was released. Since 2004, the i-Tablet has become a sort of holy grail of mods for Apple fans. The i-Tablet is a modded iBook with a Troll Touch attached to the iBook screen which has been flipped and attached to the top surface. Extra firewire ports and a snazzy black leather cover have been added as well. Apparently Mr. DeRuvo is revving up for a new project and needs to fund his compulsion for hardware hacking (wait, so do I, my Eastern European hackable electronics collection keeps growing) and therefore is selling the coveted i-Tablet. I guess I'll be seeing you in the eBay auction. [thanks Joseph for emailing the hack a day tip line, posted here with Eliot's permission]
Read MoreUsually I love hardware hackery in all its glorious shapes and forms, but occasionally I stop and scratch my head. Why, for instance would you want to take a Mac mini, hide its sleek design inside a metal box, graft a black LCD screen on top with a tiny thumb keyboard and non-centered trackpad? Behold the MMP: MacMini Portable. Perhaps Peter Green's MMP will inspire you to build yourself a better portable Mac mini. The more likely scenario is that you'll opt for the lighter (albeit less hack-like) option of a discounted iBook. It's your choice. [via Engadget]
Read MoreIf you dread pulling out your earbuds (you use those?) when you get a phone call, dread no more. A new gadget by the name of Blueye will save you from earbud yanking by connecting your iPod headphones to your phone via Bluetooth. When you get a call, Blueye will allow you to mute your current music (but not pause it unfortunately). With the Blueye's built in microphone you can talk away without unplugging your headphones. Blueye is available in white, black and a sort of rusty red.Personally I use a Nokia 6230 with a gig of memory for my music listening on the go, even though I have a black nano, so the Blueye is not necessary. My Nokia 6230 sports a home-modified pop-port cable for any headphones and includes the original Nokia microphone to take calls.[via Engadget]
Read MoreOur own C.K. Sample III posted this morning on WOW Insider hinting at the fact that World of Warcraft as of today may be Intel Mac compatible and no longer require Rosetta. When he logged in this morning, WOW launched an updater to version 1.9.3.5059. Now the comment at the bottom of his login screen which used to mention Rosetta, now notes GCC Intel.This news comes a few days too late for Blizzard's end-of-January World of Warcraft Intel Mac compatibility predictions. Though I'm sure those of you who play WOW and own an Intel iMac are jumping for joy at this announcement.All realms of WOW are currently down for maintenance so we will have to wait with bated breath until 11AM PST for someone to actually test WOW on an Intel Mac.
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