feature request
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Why I'm skipping AirPlay
It's pretty simple: I want to stream music from my Mac to my iPad or iPhone. Why? Because I sometimes connect one of those iOS devices to a home stereo. Those devices do not contain my entire iTunes library. Unfortunately, AirPlay won't let me stream my iTunes library to my iOS devices. Thus, I'm not able to use AirPlay in my home. I don't own an Apple TV. The Airport Express I have is an older model that causes my Airport Extreme Base Station to freak out, requiring frequent reboots of either device, often randomly, never at a good moment. Yet, with all the awesomeness of AirPlay, I cannot do one simple thing: play music (or anything else) from my $2,000+ MacBook Pro to my iPad. Instead, Apple wants me to pony up another $99 for an Apple TV -- a device I simply don't need right now. I'm not sure why this is so. There is a 3rd party application on the store right now that will do this called AirVideo Stream to Me.* In fact, true to its name, it'll stream more than music. I used to use Airfoil to do this from Mac to Mac and from Mac to iPhone. Why this seemingly simple use case is hobbled by Apple's design is beyond me. It's such a puzzler that I wrote Steve Jobs an email about it. Naturally, I have yet to hear from him. So I'm throwing it open to the audience: would you also like to stream music or photos or movies from your Mac to your iDevice? %Poll-56139% *Update: To clarify, AirVideo streams video. Stream to Me, as noted by irate tipster Lee Wheeler, streams music, movies and photos from Mac to iOS device (not Apple TV, however). photo by flickr user niceness
The case for open orders on the auction house
There are changes afoot- PTR build 11599 had variables introduced that mention the mobile auction house. This means that we're probably due for a major AH redesign, and I am talking about more than just the nice "quality of life" changes which bring some popular addon functions into the default UI. I suspect Blizzard is going to have to redo some things from the ground up, so I figured I'd take this opportunity to pitch an idea. Selling on the auction house is a "fire and forget it" asynchronous activity. You choose how often you want to check back and relist, but many people make all the money they need by simply posting 48 hour auctions. This should be how buying works. I think that it would make sense to allow people to post an open order the same way we can post auctions, which would allow people who are selling to choose whether to sell to an existing open order or put the auction up.
Ask TUAW: What would you change about NetNewsWire?
I just realized it's been a while since we've done a "what would you change" post. In the past we've covered a lot of Apple's big hitters like Safari, Mail and iMovie, so I thought we'd delve into one of the more popular 3rd party apps out there: NetNewsWire.Since NNW can boast the largest newsreader app user base whether on Windows or OS X, I figured it would make great fodder for feature requests, changes, improvements and bug complaints. What's even better is the fact that I myself, and most of the other NNW users I know, practically live in the app; in fact I know that I now spend far less time in a browser than I do in NNW.With all that said, however, it certainly isn't without its issues. A new feature I'm dying for is a far more robust flagging and labelling system, like I think NewsMac Pro does. The ability to assign (and organize by) different kinds and colors of labels would be a thing sent from code-ninja-heaven in my book. I would also love more customizable icons of feeds and groups, much like how BlogBridge allows for group icons. This would help a lot with finding *that one* feed or group in lists of 250 feeds and groups, like I have.But enough about me and my NetNewsWire wishes - what about you, valiant TUAW (news) readers? What are your feature requests, fixes and bug complaints for the web's most popular newsreader?
