Scott McNulty

Apple By Scott McNulty

Mac 101: organize Spotlight results

Welcome to another entry in our series for new Mac users: Mac 101. This installment brings us to the preference panel of Spotlight, OS X's integrated search that makes finding that needle in your hard drive's haystack as easy as pie (clearly, it doesn't protect against mixed metaphors).You're familiar with the way Spotlight returns results, but did you know that you can change the order in which those results are shown? Read on to find out how (and why you might want to do this).

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Apple By Scott McNulty

MobileMe update: mail restored to 1% of users, syncing issue resolved

Good old David G., the mysterious author of Apple's MobileMe Status blog, has good news for that unfortunate 1% of MobileMe users who couldn't use their email accounts. All email services, including 'historical messages,' have been restored (it is unclear if this means all messages are back in their right place).Apple has set up a special MobileMe Mail Dedicated Chat Support to help those folks who had email issues sort everything out. If you were one of the chosen few, head on over there to discuss what happened with a friendly, and helpful, Apple support tech.In addition to resolving the email issue, David G. says that nasty syncing issue (you remember, the one that was wiping people's iPhones of any and all contacts) has been corrected as well. Most MobileMe users didn't see this issue, and for the few that did it seems to have sorted itself out, however, if you're still having this issue check out Apple's KB article for the solution to your syncing woes.Hey, David G., since it looks like you have MobileMe under control can I report a bug about the MobileMe Status blog? Thanks! There is no way to link directly to a post, like the post I'm talking about right this second, which makes it hard to make sure people see the entry I'm talking about. I'm sure you just forgot to click a button in iWeb or something.

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Apple By Scott McNulty

Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nano

Beverly Hills, 90210 is a show that is near and dear to many people's hearts... at least I assume so, because how else do you explain this Beverly Hills, 90210 limited edition iPod nano? CBS is selling 2000 of these suckers for $269. For your money you get an 8 gig iPod nano engraved with a picture of the 90210 cast and a slogan of your choice (as long as it is 30 characters or less) and all the normal accessories that come with an iPod nano. If a 4 gig iPod nano is more your speed, you're in luck because you can get one of them for $219.I think I'll be passing on this iPod nano, but CBS has a whole line of iPods branded with various shows. They have everything from CSI iPods to Amazing Race iPods. I will pay good money for a Barney Miller iPod nano (which I have helpfully mocked up to the right. Oh, Wojciehowicz, you card!).[via Engadget]

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Adobe ships Lightroom 2

Adobe announced today that Lightroom 2, a major update to their photography workflow app, is now available. Lightroom 2 will cost you $299, with an upgrade price of $99, but it includes a host of new features, improvements, and general whizbangery.The biggest news for Mac users is that Lightroom 2 is Adobe's first native 64-bit app for OS X. Also new in Lightroom 2: Libraries can span harddrives Customizable print templates Smart Collections to automatically organize photos And much more. The Lightroom 2 Learning center has a nice list of new and improved features. And to help you Lightroom 1.0 users decide whether or not to upgrade Adobe has a comparison of Lightroom 1 vs. Lightrooom 2.Lightroom 2 requires OS X 10.4 or above, and a 1 GHz G4 processor or better.

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Apple By Scott McNulty

TUAW Tip: exclude your Time Machine disk from Spotlight indexing

Just the other day I noticed an odd thing: the Spotlight magnifying glass on my MacBook Pro had that little pulsating dot in it that means it is indexing something. That was odd, since I hadn't added any large files to my Mac, nor had I connected an external harddrive. Or did I?As you might be able to guess from the picture above, Spotlight was dutifully trying to index my Time Capsule's harddrive every time that drive was mounted by Time Machine (which is once an hour). This process was making my backups take a little longer than I wanted them to, so I simply excluded my Time Capsule from Spotlight's indexing.Here's how you do it: Launch System Preferences (or you can open the Spotlight preferences from the Spotlight dropdown menu). Click on the 'Privacy' tab. click the little plus icon () Choose your Time Machine disk (as you can see mine is cleverly named) That's it! Now Spotlight will ignore your Time Machine disk, your backups will run a little faster, and there will be a spring in your step.Update: As some commenters have noted, this tip does mean that you won't be able to use Spotlight to search your Time Machine backups. That's fine for me, since when I'm using Time Machine I'm restoring a file that I noticed is missing, or an entire folder. I don't need to search for something, however, if you find yourself routinely searching your Time Machine backups via Spotlight this tip isn't for you.

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Apple By Scott McNulty

Apple stores issue 'golden tickets' for iPhone 3G buyers

People are still lining up at Apple stores to pay iPhone 3G's. Clearly, people are crazy about Apple's new phone, but what is Apple doing to make it a little easier to get your hands on a shiny new iPhone? Our friends at iPhone Central note that Apple stores have new, extended hours to pack the people in. Apple stores are now opening at 8am, for you early rising iPhone seekers.Apple retail staffers will also be roaming the lines and prequalifing people for iPhone purchases. Once you've been prequalified you are issued a ticket that is good for an iPhone 3G. You can use the ticket right then and there (when it is your turn, of course) or return later in the day.Sounds like a pretty fair system to me. Have you stood in line for an iPhone lately? What do you think of Apple's new methods?

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Apple By Scott McNulty

MobileMe: the case of the vanishing iPhone contacts (Update)

Another day, another new way for MobileMe to anger folks. Today we are hearing lots of grumbling about people seeing their contacts and calendars disappearing from their iPhones after a sync with MobileMe. Luckily, it looks like it is only the iPhone that is wiped, the contacts/events are still on their Macs.Wyn called Apple support and they suggested disabling automatic syncing and manually syncing to clear up the problem. That gives a new definition to push.This seems like a good time to remind people to back up your data before you enable any sort of automatic syncing. Read on after the jump to see how to backup your Address Book and iCal events, just in case.Thanks to everyone who sent this in and thanks to FailMe for the graphic.Update: It is 8:30pm on the east coast of the US, and Apple has just posted this note on the MobileMe System Status: "Some MobileMe members may be unable to sync new, edited, or deleted contacts, calendars, and bookmarks over the air between computers and mobile devices (iPhone and iPod Touch). Service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."

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Apps By Scott McNulty

Aperture 2.1.1 now available

Apple has just released Aperture 2.1.1, the latest update to their photo workflow application aimed at pro photographers. The description, as usual, is terse. It would seem this update 'supports general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.' Sounds like it fixes some bugs and adds MobileMe support.The update is available via Software Update, though Apple hasn't posted it to their website as of yet.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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Mac 101: Safari tab tricks

I've found myself using Firefox 3 more and more as of late, though there is one feature of Safari that I miss dearly. Picture it: you have a bunch of tabs loaded up in one window of your browser. For some reason you decide that you would really like to see one tab in its very own window. In Safari all you have to do is click on that tab and drag. As you can see to the right, a little picture of the website you're viewing appears and you can drop that picture anywhere on your screen. Once you drop it, the picture expands into a Safari window displaying that website.This cool feature is a little tough to explain in words, so read on for a brief video demonstration.Please note that I'm using Leopard and Safari 3.

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Bricksmith 2.0

It has been awhile since I posted about Bricksmith, it looks like Allen Smith hasn't spent all his time pining for more TUAW coverage. Nay! He has been working on Bricksmith 2.0, which brings some new features to this open source Lego modeling app. The renderings have been improved, part search has been beefed up, and new addition to the Help file will aid those looking to create nifty models.My favorite part of this app has to be the Minifig generator (which I used to create the image that accompanies this post). You can use it to create more aesthetically pleasing minifigs, to be sure, but this guy has got character I tells ya.Bricksmith is free, but if you find yourself using it often a donation would be nice.

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Multiple iPhone household? Share your apps.

Let me start this post off by pointing out that I am not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV. I have, however, been called for jury duty a few times, so I know my way around a courthouse.Melvin Rivera isn't a lawyer either, but he and his wife own two iPhones. Melvin knew that iPhone apps are wrapped with Apple's delicious flavor of DRM called 'FairPlay' that has some fairly open terms of use. You can authorize up to five computers to access items purchased from the iTunes store (that aren't iTunes Plus tracks, since they don't have any DRM on them) and you can then play those tracks (and one assumes applications) on any unlimited number of iPods and iPhones.Melvin, being the clever man that he is, realized that he shouldn't have to purchase two copies of Super Monkey Ball: one for his wife's iPhone and another for his. FairPlay makes it clear that those apps should be able to run on multiple iPhones, so after some poking around Melvin got it to work. Check out his blog for the blow by blow account.Clearly, this approach is kosher as far as the DRM is concerned, but do iPhone apps have licenses that supersede the FairPlay wrapper? I haven't agreed to any per app licensing agreements when installing something on my iPhone (as of yet) though that doesn't mean they don't exist (as I pointed out above I'm no Perry Mason).

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Apple By Scott McNulty

Montreal Apple store grand opening today

The rumored Apple Store, Sainte Catherine in Montréal is opening today, in grand style. If you're in the area of 1321 Ste-Catherine st west besides the Ogilvy Department Store at the corner De la Montagne st (which I totally just grabbed from the store's website, I have no idea where any of that is) you should stop on by.It looks like the store will also have a number of musical guests for the next few days to keep interest up. Amongst the musical folks stopping by the store are: The Stills on July 26th Alex Cuba on July 27th Anik Jean on July 28th David Usher on July 29th Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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Smartphones

Smartphones By Scott McNulty

iPhone OS 2.1 and SDK 2.1

Attention iPhone developers: get ye to Apple's iPhone Dev Center. Apple released the image for the iPhone OS 2.1 and SDK 2.1 last night. You must be registered to get at these files, which means that you have to agree to an NDA (First rule of iPhone development: don't talk about iPhone development), though for those curious registering for Apple's dev center is free (as noted below, the free account won't get you access to these files).According to numerous tipsters this .1 release includes the beginnings of the iPhone notification services as well as some improvements in the location awareness area. iPhone users, this is an advanced release of the software so that devs and make sure their apps work, and start whipping up new apps. This won't be available for phone in the wild until some later date (that only Steve and his hairdresser know for sure).One thing to note: apps created using this SDK/OS combination cannot be sold on the App Store at this time, so I hope you have an extra iPhone or iPod touch laying around.Update: I was mistaken, this new files aren't available via the free Apple Dev accounts. You have to have a paid membership to get them (though I would imagine they will trickle down to the freebie accounts at some point in the near future), and be a registered iPhone developer.Update 2: Some folks in the comments are saying they are paid, registered developers and they can't see these files so your mileage may vary.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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Apps for Apple TV: sign me up

Saul Hansell, over at the New York Times Bits blog, takes Microsoft's recent announcement about Xbox LIVE Community Games as a jumping off point to some speculation about Apple TV (and who doesn't like speculation?). Hansell wonders what would happen if Apple were to open up an App Store for the Apple TV, and I have to admit that I think that's a brilliant idea.I've always thought that the Apple TV would greatly benefit from third party plugins (official ones, I mean, not hacks), if not full blown apps. Take, for example, the YouTube functionality. Wouldn't it be cool if you could watch videos from Viddler, Vimeo, or any of the other countless video sharing sites, in addition to those on YouTube? And let's not forget Netflix. Microsoft and Netflix have teamed up to offer the 'Watch it now' library of videos to XBox Live Gold members. Being able to watch those videos from Netflix on my Apple TV would make me one happy panda.Hansell notes that to make apps on the Apple TV viable something has to be done about that horrible onscreen keyboard. He thinks that Apple might tie the iPhone into the Apple TV as a way to control it. Luckily, Apple has already done this. As John Gruber points out, when you have Apple's Remote app on your iPhone you are able to use the iPhone to enter text into your Apple TV.Let's hope Apple stops thinking about Apple TV as a hobby and starts making an aggressive push for the living room. I like my Apple TV, but my XBox 360 offers up more functionality (and more heat!).

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Apple By Scott McNulty

Pogue and Macworld chime in on MobileMe

David Pogue, the New York Times tech columnist, posted his review of MobileMe last week and despite its problems he thought the service itself showed promise. It looks like a little of that promise is wearing off. The latest post to David's New York Times blog, titled 'MobileMess,' isn't exactly the kind of press coverage Apple is used to as of late. In his post Pogue dings Apple for marketing MobileMe in the wrong way, and for failing to be up front with MobileMe users during all the 'rough patches.' Apple declined to comment for the story.Macworld has also taken MobileMe for a spin, and they give it 3.5 mice out of 5. The good include push to the iPhone, the web interface, and lots of storage. The bad points should look familiar by now: push doesn't work for everything and the service isn't reliable.

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Smartphones

Smartphones By Scott McNulty

Flickr Find: Pinewood derby iPhone

The words pinewood derby may be meaningless to you, that is unless you were a boy scout. Then, no doubt, the pinewood derby will conjure up many happy memories (I lost miserably at my boy scout troop's pinewood derby, though I only worked on my car for 15 minutes). Now, imagine if a bunch of talented grownups got together and had a pinewood derby. You would get something like the event that the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts just held. Above you see one participant's pinewood derby car all decked out as an iPhone. I hope it is an iPhone 3G, since those are twice as fast (see what I did there?). Check out the full Flickr set that Jaime Santillan posted, or see the iPhone car here, here and here. And I think you'll recognize some Apple products in this picture as well. [via MAKE]

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WordPress for iPhone source now available

When I first heard that the iPhone WordPress app was open source I thought that was cool, but what about the SDK NDA (that's nondisclosure agreement, which means you won't share any information you're told with anyone)? It would seem that the fine folks at WordPress aren't too worried about that bothersome NDA because they are now sharing the source code of the app via their SVN server. It'll be interesting to see if Apple releases the legal hounds upon WordPress or not. If they do it means that Apple is still considering the iPhone SDK NDA serious business, but if they just let WordPress distribute the code I wage we'll see plenty of other devs posting iPhone code of their own.

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Smartphones

Smartphones By Scott McNulty

AT&T and O2 have few iPhone 3Gs

The iPhone 3G is a hot commodity, as you may have noticed by reading every other post here at TUAW. These things are selling like hot cakes, which I assume sell very well, and are hard to keep in stock. AT&T has posted a note letting people know that they are plum out of iPhones at their retail stores. You can snag one from AT&T by using their 'direct fulfilment' option which means you order the iPhone and AT&T will ship it to the store when it is ready (and then you can just stroll in to pay for it). If you go that route be prepared to wait 14 days or so, depending on the model, to get your iPhone. At least you don't have to stand in line!O2 has all been moving iPhones like nobody's business. The iPhone is in short supply in the O2 shops, though this website will be updated with stores that have them in stock. If you like to shop online, you're out of luck as the O2 online store is out of iPhones. O2 expects a shipment of iPhones on Friday, so if you're in the UK you just have to hold out a little longer.[via Engadget]

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Apple By Scott McNulty

Uncle Walt on MobileMe: Pass on it for now

MobileMe has been off to a rough start. The mail outages aren't good and giving people free time to use a service that doesn't work is a cold comfort. Sadly, the bad news just keeps coming for MobileMe.Walt Mossberg, Personal Technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is generally an Apple fan but he isn't gaga for MobileMe. Even discounting the amount of trouble Apple has been having keeping MobileMe up, Mossberg points out that even when fully functional the service doesn't work well.He points out the push that isn't really push, the sluggishness of the web interface, and a host of issues with syncing data with Outlook on a PC. Walt suggests you wait before buying MobileMe.How has MobileMe been treating you? Let us know in the comments.

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News

News By Scott McNulty

RiftVault 1.0

RiftVault, which we covered when it was in a pre-release state, is now a full 1.0 release. $39.95 will get you this snazzy app which stores your important information the way it should be stored: using encryption. RiftVault is designed to hold credit card information, passwords, banking info, and even files that you want secured (using the very clever 'Safe Deposit Box' feature).Everything that RiftVault stores for you is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption. When you open an item it is unencrypted and cached for fast access only to be flushed from RAM when you close the item. Check out our gallery to get a glimpse of what this app has to offer.RiftVault is available now for $39.95 and there is a free 30 day demo.%Gallery-28475%

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Ulysses 1.6

Call me crazy but I bet there are a few would-be, and some actual, novelists out there who read TUAW. Am I right? Thought so. If you are amongst that august group then you might be tickled by the Blue Technologies Group's text editor: Ulysses. It was built from the ground up with writers in mind with features that include: Grouping of files Semantic Text editing (this allows you to create your own markup language. You can mark up your document in a way that makes sense to you and then export it and see those words that you marked as bold show up as bold in the resulting document. Trust me, this is cool stuff) A single window for all your documents Powerful search And that is just scratching the surface. Read the full feature run down to find out all the details. Ulysses now comes in two flavors: Ulysses is the full featured application which costs 79.99 € (half off for EDU buyers) and Ulysses Core which has a subset of features (check out this chart to see what the Core version leaves out) and will set you back 39.99 € ( 25.99 € for education buyers).

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Apple releases iLife '08 update

Lots of folks are writing in to let us know about the iLife '08 update waiting in Software Update. The iLife Support 8.3 update, 'provides system software components shared by all iLife '08 applications. This update improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. It is recommended for all users for iLife '08.'At the moment this update is only available via Software Update, but we'll update this post when Apple posts the update on their site.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Update: You can grab the installer here.

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First Look: WordPress

It seems like only yesterday that I was posting about the soon to be released WordPress app for the iPhone. Ah, right, it was only yesterday. A lot can happen when I'm sleeping, it would appear, because sometime last night the WordPress app went live on the App Store.This free app, which works with WordPress.com blogs as well as any self hosted sites running version 2.5.1 or higher, let's you post to your blog easily. As you can see in our gallery, the application is straightforward and pretty easy to use.At the moment this app is all about posting to your WordPress blog, not managing it. You won't be able to access comments from this app, nor can you add users, activate plugins, or anything along those lines.That being said, this is a must have app for all you iPhone toting WordPress bloggers out there.You can find out more about this app on the WordPress for iPhone website.%Gallery-28318%

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Big Tech

Big Tech By Scott McNulty

First Look: Bloomberg

I'm the first to admit that I am no financial whiz. I know very little about stocks, bonds, and money in general (I'm a blogger after all), however, I do know a thing or two about iPhone apps. Imagine my surprise that one of my favorite iPhone apps is the Bloomberg app (shocking, I know!).Bloomberg, in case you aren't aware, is one of the leading sources of financial news. The company's reputation was built upon the Bloomberg Terminal, which is leased to traders, libraries, and the like for a high monthly fee. The thinking is that by having a wealth of knowledge about the market at your fingertips the terminal will pay for itself.The Bloomberg app, in stark contrast, is free but does still offer you a deep look into your stocks. You can keep track of your portfolio, see news related to the companies you invest in, and get lots of performance data at a glance.Take a look at our gallery to see what this app has to offer (keep in mind that I took these screenshots last week, so the stock info is out of date).%Gallery-27917%

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WordPress: our iPhone app is coming soon

Just a little while ago I wrote about Typepad's native iPhone app, which I quite liked. Many folks thought it looked neat, but they were either running their own WordPress blogs, or using Wordpress.com's hosted service neither of which are compatible with the Typepad app (for obvious reasons). Luckily for them, the good folks at WordPress have posted some information about the forthcoming WordPress iPhone application.The app is ready, and pending addition to the App Store. It will work with both self hosted WordPress installs and blogs hosted on WordPress.com. You can do all the things you would expect: upload pictures, write blog posts, and edit existing posts.The app should be available soon on the App Store for free. Once it is available I'll be taking it for a spin and posting my thoughts.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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