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Appleology: Six things Apple needs to fix
Appleology has come up with a list of "Six things Apple needs to fix by 2008." Specifically, they're requesting some obvious upgrades to the Apple TV (cheaper, more storage space, etc.) and updates for iLife and iWork (we're pretty sure this will happen when Leopard is released in October).They also call for Apple to either upgrade .Mac significantly or ditch it all together (we've heard this request a million times by now), and an iPod that's basically an iPhone that doesn't do phone calls. It's probably safe to assume that future iPods will have a UI similar to the iPhone, but not in 2008. They want to sell iPhones, after all!Finally, Appleology requests UI improvements to OS X (which we've seen) and low-cost Macs. I think Macs will always be more expensive than most of their competitors, so that's something we have to get used to.Is there anything you'd like to see Apple do with the latter half of 2008? Call me easy to please, but I'd be happy with Leopard and an iPhone.
dotMac is down for maintenance
If you've had trouble accessing your iDisk or any other dotMac features today, it's because the dotMac service is currently down. Apple has posted a "temporarily unavailable" message on the dotMac site that says that the service is undergoing scheduled maintenance.Thanks everyone who tipped us about the down time.Update: dotMac is back online.
Do It
Do It is quite possibly the most feature-packed mini-todo widget app ever written. For a birds-eye view, it features integration with Quicksilver, Address Book and iCal, as well as .Mac syncing and AppleScript-ability. As Tim Gaden puts it: the only thing missing is a kitchen sink. Fundamentally, Do It is (surprise) a todo manager. But thanks to shaking hands with all these other apps, you can import/export todos from iCal, install an Address Book contextual menu item for easy contact reminder creation, add items from the most excellent Quicksilver or simply make it do nearly anything you want with the power of AppleScript. Despite all this impressive functionality, Do It remains freeware and available from Jim McGowan's site.[Update: my bad - Do It is an app, not a widget. I tried this app out a little while ago, and in finally getting around to writing it up, I mixed this up with another todo widget I just found. Sorry guys.]
Clear out 3rd party .Mac sync items with Syncrospector
.Mac Sync Services leave much to be desired in the management department - Apple provides no UI for removing them once you no longer use an application, and you don't have many options for troubleshooting when things go south. Until now. A user named kohlmannj at the indispensable macosxhints figured out how to use an app at the ADC site that can actually remove 3rd party sync items and reset your .Mac syncing to a 'never synced before' status. The hint is actually very simple to implement, but be sure to read the entire post to understand exactly what you're getting yourself into. In summary: this tool and hint will set your .Mac Sync Services back to square 1, meaning that 3rd party items will get removed (though your data in those apps will remain unscathed), and the next time you sync (I recommend performing one manually) you'll be asked all those 'brand new Mac' questions like "you are about to sync your calendars for the first time, do you want to merge, replace, etc." Soon after you perform this reset, your 3rd party .Mac-aware apps *should* ping Sync Services to get on the list again, and I can personally say this worked for Yojimbo, but not Trasmit - yet. Ultimately, this might be a bit like using a sledgehammer to strike a nail, but it works - which is better than Apple's former solution of 'nothing.'
Mark/Space releases SyncTogether 1.0, the alternative to .Mac syncing
Mark/Space's has at last released SyncTogether, the spawn of their acquisition of MySync. SyncTogether fills the much sought-after void of application syncing on the Mac, a niche which Apple's .Mac currently has cornered. A $50 one-time purchase which covers up to 3 Macs will allow you to sync everything Apple's SyncServices (which .Mac uses) can, with a few additional perks. For example, instead of syncing your entire Address Book between two Macs, you could keep most of your contacts private by syncing only a specific group with family members. In contrast to Apple's $100 yearly subscription .Mac service (which, to their credit also offers email, web hosting and more), SyncTogether looks to be a powerful alternative for many who are only interested in this specific feature. SyncTogether doesn't come without its disadvantages. First, if you own more than three Macs you want to sync, you'll need to purchase a second $50 license to cover those other machines. Also, SyncTogether uses a direct connection between Macs (even when you're out and about) to do the actual syncing, which is a double-edged sword: on one hand, the security nuts in the audience will likely have peace of mind knowing that their data isn't lying around on anyone's servers, but this also means that setting up SyncTogether isn't quite as "it just works" as Apple's .Mac. Lastly, and this is a major gripe many users have against Mark/Space's practices: SyncTogether doesn't have a demo. The company seems fond of forcing customers into paying up front to get their hands on the software, so all we can tell you is purchase at your own risk. Any readers care to share experiences in the comments? At the end of the day, this .Mac customer is definitely interested in what SyncTogether has to offer, especially since I'm only on board these days for app syncing and the iDisk. Still, I think I'm going to have to wait until comments roll in from those more adventurous (and financially mobile) than I before making any leaps of Mark/Space faith.
SyncTogether - a solid .Mac syncing alternative
One of the key features of .Mac is extensible application syncing. Sure, there have been roll-your-own-.Mac contests, plenty of solutions for individual apps and even a guide for switching from .Mac to Google, but none of these have offered a serious replacement for the entire syncing umbrella that .Mac offers. SyncTogether from the makers of Missing Sync, looks to change all of this. This new syncing app from Mark/Space works with many of the same fundamental apps, such as Address Book, iCal, Mail and Safari, but it employs some unique features. For example, you can chose specific groups in Address Book (instead of simply 'everyone'), and you can then share this information with other users on your home network. Want to let mom, dad and the kids all collaborate and add iCal events for Macworld 2008? SyncTogether has you covered, though it might be a little clunky to work with: local syncs sound easy, but the system requirements state that you must know a machine's physical IP if you're going to sync remotely while you're away from that machine. For now, SyncTogether is planned to drop Q1 of 2007, and until then, there is least one major question that I haven't been able to answer from Mark/Space's product page: Will it be open to 3rd parties like Apple's Sync Services? As far as pricing is concerned, users who are unhappy with .Mac's yearly subscription model will probably rejoice that SyncTogether's price is already set at a flat $49.95, but those are all the details we have for now.[Update: Our own Mat Lu clued me in (via email) on the fact that SyncTogether is very likely the product of Mark/Space's acquisition of MySync. MySync, for those who aren't familiar, *did* support any extra 3rd party apps that plugged into Apple's Sync Services, so in theory, apps like Yojimbo and Transmit should already be along for the ride, with no extra work on Mark/Space's part necessary. However, Mat also pointed out, and I agree, that it's kind of strange that SyncTogether's page makes no mention of this extensibility.]
Rumor: Apple to increase .Mac, iDisk storage to 30GB at Macworld
MacDailyNews uncovered a digg post that contains some interesting video 'proof' that Apple could soon update the storage size of their .Mac and iDisk storage space to a whopping 30GB. Granted, we all know how easily stuff like this can be faked these days, but the video demonstrates mounting a user's iDisk both through Mac OS X and then using the Apple's iDisk Utility on Windows (via Parallels). When the iDisk is mounted on Windows, its total capacity is reported as a surprising 30GB, significantly greater than the standard 1GB (upgradeable to 2 and 4GB for extra yearly fees) it currently includes. Considering the surmounting criticism .Mac is falling under these days, this massive boost in size - and of course the obvious speculation of the new features that would accompany it - could be a significant boon to .Mac membership and sales. At the least, you might want to make sure you print out a Keynote Bingo card with a .Mac slot, as I think *some* sort of update, per our predictions, is a shoe-in for Tuesday's Keynote.
Software Update: iChat Update 1.0 for Tiger
Apple just rolled out iChat Update 1.0 for Tiger on both Intel and PPC platforms.Apple says: "This update renews the .Mac certificate required by iChat for encrypting text, audio and video conferences. For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304899."Obvious enough, but I like to be thorough so I visited that website, as Apple suggested, to see if there was more to learn. Nope, nothing there yet. That page says "This update renews the .Mac certificate required by iChat for encrypting text, audio, and video conferences. This document will be updated as more information becomes available." Hmmm... Ok then. I can take a hint.UPDATE: I was remiss in not warning you all that a restart is required after this update. Why? I have no idea. I generally just force-quit Software Update and continue on with my business until it's convenient for me to restart...Thanks, nevrozel and everyone else who sent this in!
The notMac Challenge - make a free .Mac replacement, earn lots of cash
This is interesting. It's a challenge to produce a replacement for Apple's .Mac online services inspired by the contest earlier this year to boot Windows on the first Intel Macs (this was before Boot Camp for those of you who weren't around then). Apparently this guy Kent has decided that enough is enough; he wants a functional replica of .Mac and is willing to pay to get it. He's offering to match up to $10,000 in contributions to his site with the prize going to anyone who can:create a free replacement to dotMac's client-based services that's easy enough for a first-time Mac user to install and so fully and transparently integrated that a long-time dotMac user wouldn't notice the difference.Now there are several ways to get some of the .Mac services for free, from the geeky (and difficult) way, to the relatively easy way (MySync), to the Google-way. (The full rules to the challenge are here). Nonetheless, if this panned out it would be pretty cool for those of us with access to a WebDAV server (which would be necessary to duplicate the server-side functions). As someone who ditched his mac.com email address when Apple replaced the free iTools with the for-pay .mac I applaud this challenge. On the other hand, the $10,000 matching sounds a bit fishy to me. Kent claims that "to make it more interesting and give the prize a running start, [Kent's uncle agreed to] throw $10,000 into the prize pool." The fact that I can't even find Kent's last name on the site also sets my antennae twitching. What do you guys think?[Via MacDevCenter][Edit: HS provides a link to a Macworld article with a bit more info on the guy behind the challenge]
TUAW Tip: TextExpander can subscribe to text snippets
This isn't quite so much a killer trick or hack you can perform on TextExpander - an indispensable time-saving text abbreviation and expansion utility - as much as it's a neat feature that I just recently discovered. TextExpander can export a list of all your text snippets and corresponding abbreviations, and it can subscribe to such a list if you keep it somewhere, say, like your iDisk or an FTP/WebDAV space. If you have a desktop and lappy for working on the go like me, this can more or less enable rudimentary syncing for your snippets between Macs. Of course, it would rock if SmileOnMyMac would make this an official feature, with bonus points awarded for baking in both .Mac and FTP/WebDAV syncing (like Mr. Simmons did with NetNewsWire). For now though, this might be a decent solution for keeping your snippets n'sync.
Better Together at Amazon: Marmite yeast extract and .Mac?
Amazon must be testing some new accessory recommendation algorithms, as they have really branched out on this one: Reg Hardware in the UK has a story about Amazon UK's engine recommending Marmite, a popular sandwich-topping yeast extract in England, with a .Mac subscription. While I don't recommend spreading any Marmite on your .Mac anytime soon, I can see a connection between these two (im)perfect strangers via a former Marmite ad campaign slogan: "you'll love it or hate it." Nutrition facts aside, that seems to describe .Mac in a nutshell these days.No word on how soon this dynamic combo is shipping, nor how long this offer will last; "act now!"
SafariDepot: who needs .Mac to sync bookmarks?
Striking another blow to .Mac's usefulness, SafariDepot allows bookmark synchronization over FTP and FTPS (secure FTP). It's actually a clever little app that also includes a couple of scripts that are ripe for automation through Quicksilver, Login Items, cron jobs, and more. It's also smart about downloading and replacing Safari's local bookmarks: once a download is run, it will automatically restart Safari (if it's running) and backup your local copy before replacing it with the version from your server.SafariDepot might not have that "it just works" aura about it that .Mac Safari syncing does (since you have to roll your own automation or *gasp* run it manually), but it's certainly yet another alternative to one of .Mac's prized features.[via MacUser]
Apple testing new Backup update
We got word from a tipster that Apple is about to seed a software update for their Backup application to select users, who are being notified by invitation-only to participate in the super-exclusive AppleSeed program. No word yet on what improvements or enhancements are being tested, but we'll let you know as soon as our mole gets back to us. We're guessing it has something to do with making Backup's .Mac features not suck so much and having it work more than 40% of the time. At least that's what we're hoping for.
Review: new .Mac webmail delivers, mostly
Apple teased us with an announcement of a .Mac webmail upgrade at the end of September, and yesterday they delivered. The new webmail feels zippy (though it was understandably a little sluggish a couple times while I was testing it last night), and the innovative, refreshing new features raise the bar for competing services. Still, with all the slick new polish, a few long-standing gripes have yet to be addressed, and some of the web client's new abilities bring along irregularities and new complaints. But don't think I'm a hater - I just renewed my membership last week, and this is a most welcomed update to one of the most important components of Apple's hotly debated .Mac suite of web services. With this yin and yang balance in mind, let's dive into the review..Mac webmail goes web 2.0Of course, the most significant and obvious upgrade is the completely revamped UI, which now resembles and behaves (in some ways) like Apple's desktop Mail.app client. As you can see from the screenshot, a new 3 pane view offers a folder list on the left, a customizable (10-50) message list on top, and a message preview pane on the bottom, just like mom used to make. As an added UI bonus, the separation bar between the message list and preview panes is draggable. Nice.But the webmail update isn't just skin deep - plenty of keyboard shortcuts accompany the new polish for a great combination of beauty and brains (though I'm laying down a penalty of 10 points by not enabling the shortcuts by default, regardless of who .Mac's demographic is). A complete list of shortcuts is linked from the preferences, and there are keys for nearly every action including: sending messages, deleting, navigating up/down messages, back/forth between batches of messages (take that Gmail), searching and printing.Besides keyboard shortcuts, some clever features and UI tricks are peppered throughout. On the left is a shot of an Address Book search, which lives below the folder list. Results are displayed below the search box, and clicking on a name offers a popup with their information, and things like email addresses and public iDisks are linked for easy access. On the right is the Quick Reply window, accessible by clicking a button which appears next to selected messages (a quirky 'only when you clicked on it' UI element that first reared its head in iTunes 7). Opera's built-in email client has done this for a while, and Apple's implementation is nice and simple.
Backup not all it's cracked up to be?
I don't rely on .Mac's Backup, but I tinker with it from time to time. It's never seemed to be the killer app to fit all my needs, but others in the Mac web who are more passionate and knowledgeable about backup software seem to be quite upset with it. In particular, Jonathan 'Wolf' Rentzsch, Michael McCracken and Erik Barzeski more or less echo the same opinion: Backup needs help, and a lot of it.All three of these notable Mac personalities have penned horror stories and useful overviews of what is so wrong with the little .Mac app that (someday) could, and I found them with a recent Apple kbase article John Gruber linked concerning a silly restriction of working with Backup 3 files.After reading through these, I think I might leave my Backup tinkering as just that, and rely more on ChronoSync since it does machine syncing in addition to straight backup. Though the fact that I haven't seen ChronoSync written up as good or bad in any of the recent reviews makes me curious. Has anyone heard anything?
Apple should offer option of .Mac as separate services
Apple's .Mac service has been quite the coffee talk discussion topic throughout the Mac web since as long as I can remember. We've even covered the service's slow death, some ways it could really hit a home run and even some things .Mac gets right, just to be fair. However, as I was paying for a renewal at the Apple Store yesterday, I realized .Mac could benefit significantly if Apple were to offer the option of purchasing its three major components a la carte. Let's face it, there are a lot of users out there who would love certain components of .Mac, but don't want to pay the premium Apple is charging for the full package. Following is a summarized breakdown of where I believe Apple could separate or bundle their .Mac services to to make them much more appealing to a far wider audience.
TUAW Podcast #11
It is time once again boys and girls for the TUAW Podcast. On this latest episode #11, Laurie A. Duncan and I got down to business discussing Apple's recent stock options investigation results, Steve's confirmed keynote for Macworld 07 as well as the event's doubled size, the upcoming new .Mac webmail and whether it's important, the growing passion for RSS readers and what I like to call Adobe's Universal Blunder™.The podcast (or for all y'all Leo supporters out there: netcast) in MP3 format (I know: we're working on support for an enhanced version) weighs in at just under 35MB and 38:08, and it's available from our TUAW podcast feed in the iTS, or right here. Enjoy.Update: we also have a dedicated podcast RSS feed for the non-iTS users out there: http://podcasts.tuaw.com/rss.xml.
Apple offers $20 iLife '06 discount to .Mac customers
In their true spirit of integration, Apple has finally decided to offer .Mac customers a small kickback on the purchase of iLife '06 (just in time for that iLife '07 sting to really get ya in January). In Apple Stores or online, the .Mac blog has announced a $20 discount (it's a mail-in rebate if you purchase from anywhere else) on the purchase of either a single or family pack of iLife '06, bringing their respective prices down to $59 and $79. Not a bad deal considering these two services are joined at the hips. You can also walk - no need to run - as they've left the discount/rebate open for (most of) the holiday shopping season - it ends December 13th.
Apple emailing .Mac customers about new webmail
Sure, we knew about the upcoming .Mac webmail refresh, but that's because we're nerds for Apple news (yes, you too - don't deny it. You're reading TUAW, after all). To my surprise this morning, I had an email from .Mac, advertising the new webmail and promoting all the new features. While there isn't anything new in the email, I think the significance here is that they're telling their .Mac customers - who aren't typically the cutting edge, AJAX-slinging type - about this fancy upcoming webmail UI change. This could likely mean that it truly is 'coming soon' (as in, not the Microsoft Vista 'coming soon' kind of way), as they would probably need to give their customers at least some kind of a heads up that their webmail is about to facelift its way into looking almost exactly like their desktop email.
Keyword Assistant updated for iPhoto 6.0.5
Apple updated their apps for Aperture 1.5's arrival, and Ken Ferry stayed right in step and updated his fantastic Keyword Assistant plugin for iPhoto, which we've mentioned before. Version 1.9.3 also brings a Russian localization to the table, meaning it now works in English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.Ken offers Keyword Assistant for free from his .Mac homepage.
