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Amazon reportedly lists some toys before confirming they're safe
Some toys may appear on Amazon without being vetted for safety. According to a CNBC report, multiple third-party sellers say they were only asked for proof of safety compliance weeks after their products were listed for sale. While the practice might help speed up the listing process, it could also lead to unsafe products being sold on Amazon.
Google Glass API documentation now live, Glassware sample code provided
Google painted the broad strokes of its Mirror API for Glass at SXSW in March, and now it's released comprehensive documentation, replete with example code. Despite the fact that the application programming interface is still in a limited developer preview, you can dig in and read up on everything from location features to timeline cards. The cheeky devs in Mountain View also announced that they've named services for the spectacles "Glassware." In case you missed the presentation in Austin, you can catch a handful of videos with Glass developer evangelist Timothy Jordan condensing the API basics. Hit the source link below to dive into the docs, and to download client libraries for the eyewear written in Dart, Go, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby and .NET.
NVIDIA to offer up documentation for Tegra graphics core to prove its commitment to open-source (video)
There's nothing like a little smack talk to light the fire under certain derrieres. It's been a few months since Linus Torvalds got verbal about NVIDIA's support for the semi-eponymous OS, prompting the chip-maker to say "supporting Linux is important to us." Proving that its word is good, NVIDIA will be releasing programming documentation for its Tegra architecture graphics core. The news comes from a talk given by Lucas Stach of the Nouveau project (who develop free drivers for the NVIDIA platform) at the XDC2012 conference. The focus will initially be on Tegra's 2D rendering engine, but it's hopes the 3D will soon follow. So, while Torvalds' approach might have been a little bit brusque, you can't fault its effectiveness. Video of the XDC talk after the break.
Airbus creates electronic flight bag apps for pilots with iPads
We've heard about iPads being given to airline pilots before. Because airline pilots usually need quick access to all sorts of information and documentation, an iPad often ends up being cheaper and easier than handling and updating all of the usual paper documents that used to go into any given airplane's cockpit storage, from various manuals about plane controls to all of the logs and information that pilots need to keep while flying. And now, another aerospace company has taken the leap into Apple's tablet. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is now using iPads in its "electronic flight bags." The company is creating custom apps, delivered through the App Store, to help pilots look at operations manuals and figure out airplane performance while in the air. The iPad, according to Airbus, is going to be a standard operating tool going forward. [via The Verge]
VoodooPad 5: wiki magic
For those of us who nerd out about things like desktop wikis, VoodooPad 5 (from the creator of Acorn) is an exciting release. It brings new capabilities so powerful that they should come with a "for good, not evil" warning. If you're not familiar with VoodooPad, it's a desktop wiki with media embedding capabilities, a scriptable interface and a lot of power under the hood. Whether you want to use it for note-taking, project management or even maintaining documentation and live websites, it's a powerhouse. We may have mentioned it once or twice before. What's so great about version 5? First, Dropbox sync is greatly improved. You can even share docs with multiple people and see who edited what, when. For those of us of the Markdown persuasion, there's a new page type specifically for Markdown, with editing features and syntax highlighting. If you build large documents -- say, a documentation project for your software -- you can publish the entire document as a PDF or ePub book. There's a new feature called "Collections" that lets you create tables of contents and determine page order, which makes the export features much more useful for more linear output formats. We've always been able to do fun things like write event scripts that search for certain @tags and compile them, but the new To-Dos palette offers a faster, customizable solution for this. There are more flexible event scripts, new scripting language support (including the ability to write scripts in JavaScript). There are even "scriptlets," your own small scripts that can be embedded directly within a page. There's plenty more, as you can see in the release notes. VoodooPad 5 is available in the Mac App Store for US$24.99 (limited time price), or directly from Flying Meat's store (same price).
Clarify brings focus to your screen-based documentation
Clarify -- now in Public Beta -- is Mango Learning System's new product for communicating screen-based instructions quickly and easily. It's something like a successor to ScreenSteps (which history will show I'm a big fan of), but in the words of developer Greg Devore, "while ScreenSteps was aimed at documentation, Clarify is aimed at communication." Clarify provides a simple set of tools for taking screenshots, adding annotations, writing descriptions and then sharing the final step-by-step instructions you create using the free screensteps.me service or by email. The tools are an evolution of what was found in ScreenSteps, and are both better looking and easier to use. You can take delayed screenshots (for setting up a dropdown menu before snapping, for example) and you can repeat prior screenshot location and dimensions, which is great for documenting things like navigating web pages where the only changes are within the browser window. The annotation tools are robust but not overwhelming, and the text editing tools are more Cocoa-like and familiar than ScreenSteps'. Sharing via ScreenSteps.me is free and provides a dead-simple way to get your communication to its destination. You can also deliver it by email, but using the service allows easy updates and export to plain HTML, styled HTML or just images as well. If all of this sounds useful for you, grab the free public beta and give it a whirl. Final pricing is undetermined at the moment but will be less than ScreenSteps. While Clarify is in beta it's a great time to offer new suggestions and help out with the development of the final release!
NASA's Space Shuttle launch videos are spectacularly incredible, incredibly spectacular
Did you know that it takes nearly seven and a half million pounds of thrust to get a Space Shuttle off the ground and into the final frontier? NASA opts to generate that power by burning through 1,000 gallons of liquid propellants and 20,000 pounds of solid fuel every second, which as you might surmise, makes for some arresting visuals. Thankfully, there are plenty of practical reasons why NASA would want to film its launches (in slow motion!), and today we get to witness some of that awe-inspiring footage, replete with a silky voiceover explaining the focal lengths of cameras used and other photographic minutiae. It's the definition of an epic video, clocking in at over 45 minutes, but if you haven't got all that time, just do it like us and skip around -- your brain will be splattered on the wall behind you either way.
ScreenSteps 2.8.7, documentation gets social
ScreenSteps, an app for creating screen-based documentation and a TUAW favorite, has just released a pretty big update and a brand-new social document service called ScreenSteps.me. The desktop update includes, among other improvements, a totally-rewritten screen capture tool that makes the documentation process quite a bit simpler. The coolest part of the new screen capture tool is the ability to remember snapshot positions. If you're repeatedly taking screenshots of the same window or the same section of a web page, you can grab the exact same part of your screen each time. This not only saves time, it gives your documentation more uniform images, improving clarity. Among the other new features is a blur tool in the image editor, perfect for obscuring email addresses and personal information in screenshots. Also, ScreenSteps has added Zendesk as a service with which it can directly interface (the list already included WordPress, MindTouch, Confluence and others). ScreenSteps.me, in beta right now, is a social document service, similar to Skitch.com or Jing, but for documentation. Send a lesson directly from the desktop application and get back a short url and/or styled or unstyled HTML, ready for pasting on the web. It's simple, and it's great for everything from sharing on Twitter to posting to Basecamp or HTML newsletters. You can sign up for the ScreenSteps.me beta right now for free, and you can download a 14-day trial of ScreenSteps Desktop at Blue Mango. A license for the desktop version (good for both Mac and Windows) is US$39.95 for standard, US$79.95 for the Pro version (version comparison). Academic pricing is available.
TUAW's Daily App: Dimensions
Dimensions is a pretty interesting idea for an iPhone app. It's a set of 3D tools that you can actually use in real life, all put together by making use of the iPhone's hardware in various ways. There's a caliper, a ruler, a couple of tape measures for various sizes, a measuring wheel for even longer distances, and a pedometer. There are a few other surprises, too, including a lightning distance calculator, and a level, both likely included just for fun. Unfortunately, while the tools work well, the app doesn't actually provide any instruction on how to use them. If you don't know how to use a caliper or a level already, you're going to be on your own -- the app doesn't have a lot of polish or documentation, which is too bad. It'd be great to have a Tapbots-level version of an app like this, with as much thought given to the interface as to the functionality. Still, Dimensions will provide a serviceable ruler, measuring tape, or any of the other tools when called upon. It's available in the App Store right now for US $1.99.
Allods Online previews the next big patch
The next big patch for Allods Online is due to hit the live servers on July 7th, and it's bringing a slew of changes along with it. We've heard rumbles about several of them, including the removal of the Fear of Death effect (along with the associated cash shop awkwardness) and a few player-presented suggestions. Still, it's good to know the full extent of what's coming around the bend, which is why the team behind the game has published both a full list of the patch changes as well as an FAQ regarding some of the larger switches. A few of the changes are a bit baffling -- the game now supports addons, but the documentation being released is still in untranslated Russian. Several additions are also subtle but welcomed, such as changes to the patronage system to remove the option for accelerating the process via the cash shop. There seems to be a general path toward taking the absolute necessity out of the cash shop, so if you were still feeling burned by the original cash shop woes, it might be worth the time to take a look at the new patch notes for Allods Online and see if there's something to spark your interest. (Or you could just take a dip with the Massively team to get into the action again.)
Blue Mango delivers rapidfire documentation for iPad apps
We admit it, we have a soft spot for ScreenSteps. Ever since we first met the Blue Mango team three Macworld Expos ago (at the urging of TUAW veteran Laurie Duncan), we've been big fans of their intuitive, cross-platform, and dependable little documentation system. It's not so little anymore, either; the most recent updates have added direct support for blogging platforms like WordPress, Movable Type, and Squarespace, and publishing options for Confluence and Google Sites. Now the DeVore brothers have taken the power of ScreenSteps and applied it to a current documentation challenge: creating accessible, comprehensible guides for iPad applications. Their new site, ipad.screensteps.com, is a repository for step-by-step task guides for several of Apple's apps; they plan to add more guides in short order. The idea is to give users a handy resource, while demonstrating for iPad developers that there's an easy way to create and host this type of how-to material. It's a small collection now, but as it grows, perhaps you'll find something to supplement Apple's PDF and iPad-format documentation, and the help files of third-party developers.
Xcode Tip: Updating your documentation
It appears that the Dev Center at Apple just updated its documentation set today. If you're using Xcode 3.2 and you want to update your documentation, you might be looking in the wrong place. Before 3.2, you used to update your documentation in the Developer Documentation window (Help > Developer Documentation, or Command-Option-?). Now you'll find your documentation sets in the Xcode Preferences window (Xcode > Preferences... or Command-, and then choose the Documentation tab). Also, if checked, Xcode will automatically update your documentation when you launch it. This Documentation panel offers subscription options for installing a documentation set (such as, for example, Mac OS X Legacy Library or iPhone OS 2.2 Library) as well as a handy Check and Install Now button that lets you request the latest updates. Use this to keep on top of the latest documentation updates. Thanks, Scott Lawrence and @zadr
iPhone for Newbies: Honey, I shrunk the manual
Caveat Emptor: This is for newbies only. If you've been around, you probably don't need this. When I bought my last Verizon phone, it came with about three quarters of a pound of paper housed in three manuals allowing me to find just about anything through the index. Yeah, it was overkill -- but at least I knew where to go to learn about an option or feature. When I opened my iPhone 3GS, I quickly searched for the documentation to show me how use this puppy. All I found was an accordion-pleated piece of paper, titled Finger Tips, telling me all the wonderful things my new iPhone could do... but it was awfully skimpy on covering just how to do anything at all. On the last page of Finger Tips there were some links to get more information. Following the links would give you almost what you need. But I question how using a software-based paradigm of digital manual delivery relates to a hardware-based product like an iPhone 3GS. Perhaps that's why an industry has sprung up to print instructional books. David Pogue's massive 'Missing Manual' series speaks to my point. If a good manual were to be included in a hardware product, 'Missing Manuals' would be superfluous. Apple's manuals have been shrinking for many years; they have come a long way from that of the Apple ][+, in which Woz printed the entire ROM code of its 6502 processor. The Apple way is to compactly package hardware. This seems way more elegant than being handed a big honking box. But adding half an inch to the height of the iPhone box, to accommodate a concise manual, wouldn't damage the minimalist look. I don't feel quite right about having paid a goodly sum of money for the box and then having to download a 213-page manual using my own resources. My preference would be to have a manual the size of the iPhone 3GS right in the box, for immediate reference. With that, I could get started right away. After all, if you buy a new piece of technology, you don't want to be slowed down by needing to download and possibly print hundreds of pages along with reading a bunch of sites. You just want to push some buttons and play. For those who have either lost the brochure or want some more information, see below for links where you can get it. Of course, you can always start with the "iPhone Help" section under the Help menu in iTunes. The 213 page manual for the iPhone 3GS Quickstart guides for various iPhone 3GS features A video guided tour of major features of the iPhone 3GS And here are some other resources to get you started: Macworld's App Guide: Searchable by category 19 instructional books on how to manage your iPhone Apptism - catalog and reviews of over 53,000 apps Macworld's general listing of 3.0 features TUAW's iPhone 101 series I'm sure that many more resources are currently being written, but the links above are more than enough to get started. I wonder how many agree with me that leaving out a decent manual is a poor idea, and how many of you consider this a non-event. %Poll-31255%
iTunes 8.2 to include Blu-ray support?
Update: Our bad... the date on the MacRumors comment was in late April, and this recycled up into our queue due to an editing mixup. Apologies –Ed.There's a new iTunes beta version out in developers' hands straight from Apple, and a forum poster over at Mac Rumors found a little something fun in the About screen: a reference to Gracenote's ability to identify Blu-ray discs. Gracenote is the service that IDs your CDs when you import them into iTunes, so you don't have to sit there and type all the track names and artist information in. Apparently Apple is mentioning that not only CDs and DVDs, but also Blu-ray discs, will get information from Gracenote in the latest version of iTunes.This doesn't mean that Apple will adapt Blu-ray as a standard (though it would probably be about time, don't you think?). But it should mean that the future version of iTunes will include Blu-ray support, so if you happen to have a Blu-ray drive hooked up to your Mac, you'll be able to read or play the discs via iTunes.It could just mean that Apple has upgraded the Gracenote version in their app, however, and that they have no plans to actually use it -- the text in the About screen could just be a boilerplate cut-and-paste from some required Gracenote documentation that happens to include "Blu-ray." We'll have to wait and see just what shows up in 8.2 when it eventually releases to the public.
ScreenSteps 2.5 takes screen-based documentation a step forward
ScreenSteps, the invaluable tool (mentioned here many a time) for writing software documentation quickly and easily, has updated to version 2.5. Among the new features is improved annotation capabilities, including a text tool and keyboard shortcuts for speedy duplication and repositioning of annotations. You can set a status on lessons to remind yourself what's ready to publish, and what needs a little more work. Lesson steps can be more easily manipulated and reordered in the lesson inspector. Also, compiling lessons into full manuals is significantly easier, including the ability to quickly filter which lessons are included at the time of export. I use ScreenSteps extensively in training clients on the websites I work on. It's not expected of me in most circumstances, but a PDF instruction booklet or an HTML export embedded in the content manager does wonders for reducing support calls. If you write any kind of screen-based documentation and haven't taken a look at ScreenSteps, it would be worth its price in the time it could save you. The best part of the system is that you can easily re-use and update manuals without much hassle, allowing a skeleton manual to be quickly turned into a custom manual for a client, or making it easy to add a step you didn't think of until you were in the middle of a training session. You can try out ScreenSteps for free, and pick up one of two versions if you dig it: Pro for $59.95US, or Standard (lacking export of full manuals and support for MindTouch Deki and Confluence export) for $39.95US. There's a full feature comparison on the Blue Mango site.
Christmas gifts Apple could give me
It's the Holiday Season, and over the years I have happily spent a lot of my XMAS money with our favorite fruit named company. My love affair with Apple products goes back to the venerated Apple II. I do have a couple of PC laptops in the house, and of course I can also run Vista on VMWare Fusion, but I'm pretty much a Mac guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.Nevertheless, I'd like to find some gifts from Apple under my tree this year. They are not big deals, but would be greatly appreciated. So Kris Kringle, if you're listening, pass these on to Mr. Jobs and friends. How about some documentation? I know Steve thinks books are dead, but in the old days Apple documentation was really first rate. Remember that old MacWrite manual? Apple, I know you are in the electronics business, but reading help files on a laptop screen that covers up the application I am trying to learn is a bit of a pain. When you release an update to an iPod, iPhone or OS X how about telling me what the update really does. I know you have gotten better at this, but why should people have to guess all the features and fixes that you have put in? Just own up to it and trust your customers. Find another partner in addition to AT&T for the iPhone. My phone is a great product that is significantly damaged by an inferior, unreliable network. To me, "more bars in more places" means I'm looking for bars to find a stiff drink so I can recover from my frustration with dropped calls, poor signal strength, and sporadic 3G coverage. A lot of your products get really warm. My MacBook Pro can be a sizzler on my lap. My Mac Pro keeps my office pretty warm, and I don't need those high temperatures since I'm in Arizona. Don't get me started on the Apple TV. I do think it is a great product, but I'm thinking I could make a fondue on that top surface. There is no fan in the Apple TV and when I put it in standby to spin down the hard drive it wakes up by itself paying no attention to my command. If I want to be ignored, I can walk into any Home Depot. (Update: Some users say the Apple TV does have a fan. I regret the error. It's still too darned hot!) OK. it's not a big list, but it's a list just the same. What's on yours? And to all, a good night!
Wrath of the Lich King manual discovered in WoW patch
World of Warcraft forumite Maeglin made an interesting discovery: hidden deep within the files in the WoW game directory, you'll find the manual for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Presumably it was added in the latest patch. If you want to take a peek, head over to to the folder "World of Warcraft \ Data \ enUS \ Documentation" and open up "Manual_WLK.pdf."In it you'll find a bit of lore, some nice artwork, a map of Northrend, and basic info on many of Wrath's new features. The best part is probably the "Special Thanks" section of the credits at the end, in which many of the folks who worked on the game were given the opportunity to write in whatever they liked. There are some funny entries -- including the Shoegaze band Asobi Seksu, Mountain Dew, and Han Solo "for shooting first."WoW Insider notes that not all the info in the manual is up to date, so it stands to reason that the manual coming with the final game at retail will be slightly different.[Via WoW Insider] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
How Blizzard mishandled the BlizzCon ticket situation
As you may or may not know, we here at WoW Insider are not an official Blizzard fansite. There are a few different reasons for that, but one of them is that within the Fansite Program Code of Conduct, there is a clause that states, "fansites should present content that is supportive of World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment." We don't disagree with that clause -- fansites are run by fans, and they should support Blizzard. But our status as an unofficial site leaves us completely free to talk indepth about situations where Blizzard has messed up big time. And as many players already know, the BlizzCon ticket sales process that took place earlier this week is definitely one of those situations.Blizzard is, of course, a game company. No one expects them to put on events like WWI and BlizzCon -- they do so to serve the community that's grown up around their games (and, let's be fair, market and advertise their products to the core of their fanbase). And the community loves those events, both hearing about and attending them. Which is why it was a surprise to no one (except maybe Blizzard themselves) that when the ticket sales kicked off Monday morning, it was a nightmare -- the site was hammered by fans trying desperately to buy tickets, the Failoc was a familiar sight, and within a few hours, even Blizzard.com's main site was down.Everyone could have predicted that there'd be problems like that -- when a fanbase of 11 million tries to buy 12,000 tickets, of course you're going to have technical problems. But Blizzard's mishandling of the situation didn't happen on Monday morning -- anyone can suffer from server outages. It happened over the next two days, days full of frustration, endless page refreshing, and a lack of useful communication from Blizzard about just what was happening.
Show floor video: Screensteps makes documenting easier
Do you make documentation? Do you constantly find yourself having to explain step-by-step procedures to do things on the Mac? BlueMango Learning Systems has been doing this stuff for a while, and the tedium eventually drove them to create their own tool to make things faster. That's innovation for you-- if you can't find a tool, build one (that's how Plasq wound up creating Skitch). Screensteps is truly handy for anyone needing to illustrate steps, like bloggers doing how-to's, all the way up to professional manual-makers. Scott got a quick demo on an excursion to Moscone West. Video after the jump.
iPhone Coding: iPhone Developer Docs updated to 1.1.2
A few weeks ago, our Mike Rose posted about my 1.1.1 iPhone header documentation. I'm pleased to say that after a huge amount of work, I've updated those docs up to version 1.1.2. The new documents cover all the Objective-C headers for the iPhone and iPod touch 1.1.2 frameworks including updated keyboards and other system-level modifications. If you're wondering about "Oktoberfest", despite the November release date, that's the Apple internal name for the user bundle. Previous bundles included "Heavenly" (1.0.2) and "Snowbird" (1.1.1).
