Win a trip for 2 to L.A. for the So You Think You Can Dance dance-off

Mat Lu
- http://www.tuaw.com

Professionally Mat Lu teaches and writes philosophy; unprofessionally, he writes about the Mac and related technology. He is one of those half-mythical iPod halo switchers, having come to the fairer platform after purchasing a first generation iPod. Technologically speaking, in addition to Apple gear, he maintains an avid interest in console and computer gaming as well as high-definition home theater. Philosophically speaking, he is a Thomistic Aristotelian in everything that matters.

Kensington battery packs for iPhone

Posted May 7th 2008 10:15AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Accessories, iPhone

As someone who regularly runs his iPhone battery all the way down I was interested when Kensington announced two new external batteries for the iPhone. The standard battery pack and charger is a larger stand-alone battery that connects to the iPhone via a dock cable and offers "playing time up to 100 hours of music; 21 hours of video; 6 hours of talk." Personally, however, I find the smaller mini battery pack (pictured right) more intriguing since it simply plugs into the dock connector and offers up to 3 hours extra talk time.

The standard battery pack is available for $69.99 while the mini battery pack is $49.99.

[via Engadget]
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SyncMan handles Address Book to Gmail syncing

Posted May 2nd 2008 2:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools

SyncMan is a simple application for syncing your Mac's Address Book with your Gmail contacts, a feature long desired by Gmail and Google Calendar users who may have other sync tools already in place. While we have noted that a similar feature is forthcoming in the more broad-based iCal syncing tool Spanning Sync 2, SyncMan concentrates just on contacts and is available now.

SyncMan is €9.95 (~$15.32) and a demo is available.

[via Macintouch / Daring Fireball]
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Times makes your RSS feeds into a newspaper

Posted May 2nd 2008 1:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools


Times is a new RSS reader with a snazzy interface designed to look like a newspaper. You can choose different RSS feeds to supply the content to the different columns. In the screenshot above I've got TUAW in the top, an Apple feed on the right, and I've left the space below TUAW clear where another feed would go. When you want to read a story the top page folds down and the story appears on a separate page behind it. At the top are buttons to go different sections, each with a different set of feeds. Finally there's a "shelf" where you can "save and sort articles for later reading."

While I couldn't possibily use Times in place of NetNewsWire for the hundreds of feeds I read, nonetheless it is a very slick piece of work. Times is $30 and a demo is available.

[via The Apple Blog]
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AppMenuBoy: all your apps in your Dock

Posted May 2nd 2008 11:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Freeware, Open Source

Over on the Office Google Mac Blog they're calling attention to simple little application from Google Mac Team member David Phillip Oster called AppMenuBoy. Basically, it will allow you to get one click access to all your applications by clicking on its Dock icon.

David designed it to function like folders on the Dock did back in the good old Tiger days, when you could simply drag your Applications folder to the Dock to get a basic launcher. Though the 10.5.2 update improved things to some degree from the original Stacks behavior in Leopard, AppMenuBoy "shows only applications, follows aliases, and if a folder contains only an application, it silently 'hoists' that application in the menu so you don't have hierarchical menus that contain only a single icon."

AppMenuBoy is a free download from Google Code.
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Ask TUAW: Permissions problems, html email, Quick Look and Illustrator, RDC, SugarSync and more

Posted May 2nd 2008 8:30AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

In this round of Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about permissions problems after an upgrade to Leopard, html email in Mail.app. using Quick Look with Adobe Illustrator files, Remote Desktop Connection for controlling PCs from OS X, syncing files across platforms, and much more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Continue reading Ask TUAW: Permissions problems, html email, Quick Look and Illustrator, RDC, SugarSync and more

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Remote Buddy 1.10 offers iTunes streaming to iPhone / iPod touch

Posted Apr 30th 2008 1:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, iPhone

I've long been a fan of Remote Buddy, which originally started as an Apple remote utility. Over time, however, it's developed considerably and some time back added support for controlling your Mac with the iPhone / iPod touch via a built-in web server. Version 1.10 takes this to the next level and offers iTunes streaming to your iPhone or iPod touch via wifi (among the changes).

While there have been several ways to accomplish remote playback on the iPhone, Remote Buddy works particularly well with playlists and albums. In addition, the new version improves support for controlling playback to multiple Airport Expresses.

Remote Buddy is €19.99 (~$31) and a demo is available.

[via iPhone Atlas]
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AT&T offers iPhone plan for the hearing-impaired

Posted Apr 30th 2008 12:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: iPhone

It's not surprising that the hearing impaired also want to share in the iPhone experience, but until recently they had to sign up for the same voice plans as everyone else. Now, however, AT&T is introducing the $40/month Text Accessibility Plan which offers:
  • Unlimited SMS messages
  • Unlimited data usage (email and web)
  • $.40 per minute pay-per-use voice
  • Visual VoiceMail
To qualify you have to complete "the disability certification forms" found here (download link). New users activate their iPhones in the normal way through iTunes and then have to contact AT&T's National Center for Customers with Disabilities to change over the Text Accessibility Plan.

[via iPhone Atlas]
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Apple TV linux bootloader

Posted Apr 30th 2008 11:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Hacks, Apple TV

If the native hackability of the version of OS X on the Apple TV isn't enough for you, there's now a convenient boot loader that allows you to install linux. This also opens up the possibility of running linux based video software, particularly MPlayer, Myth TV, and XMBC. Further, since there are linux drivers for the NVIDIA hardware decoder in the Apple TV there's also the possibility of higher resolution 1080i output as opposed to the 720p it's normally limited to.

Unfortunately, this is project is still in the early stages and none of this is working perfectly yet. Nonetheless, it's a interesting development on the Apple TV hacking front.

[via Apple TV Hacks]
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Afloat 2.0 returns window floating to Leopard

Posted Apr 30th 2008 10:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Productivity, Open Source, Leopard



Afloat from Infinite Labs was one of my favorite SIMBL plugins, until it was broken by Leopard. It adds some clever features to windows in Cocoa applications, including a mode where the window remains always visible, "floating" above all other windows, an overlay mode where the window floats but clicks fall through to the windows below, and adjustable transparency (including a very nifty mode in which a window will be translucent until you mouse over it and then it pops into an opaque mode).

Thankfully, Afloat 2.0 now works with Leopard. In fact, it works so well with Leopard that OS X 10.5 is now required to run Afloat. The free download includes the Infinite Labs PlugSuit SIMBL plugin manager, but it is not necessary to run Afloat if you already have SIMBL installed.

[via Infinite Loop]
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Apple TV offers limited internet radio support

Posted Apr 30th 2008 9:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Internet Tools, Apple TV



Apple TV Source notes that the latest 2.0.2 update makes internet radio work a little better with the Apple TV. Basically you can play internet radio streams on the Apple TV if you have it synced to an iTunes computer with a playlist containing the streams. Before the update the source computer had to be on for this to work. Now, however, the Apple TV will retain the playlist even without the iTunes computer until it is restarted (it will retain the playlists even if put to sleep). The original post has complete instructions.
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MacBook Air modded with internal 3G EVDO

Posted Apr 29th 2008 4:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Hacks, MacBook Air


A brave MacBook Air owner (capitalizing on the Air's internal USB onnections we posted on previously) has embraced the wireless promise of Apple's ultra-thin notebook by installing a USB727 Verizon Aircard inside the Air. The hack involved disassembling both the Air and the USB EVDO modem and soldering it to one of the Air's internal USB connections.

Unfortunately, the hack also required removing the internal Airport and Bluetooth card (both to get the space and to use the Airport antennas), so I doubt most Air owners would be interested. Nonetheless, the end result is quite impressive and looks great. He has also started a forum thread to discuss the hack.

Thanks Amy!

Update: The hacker who put the EVDO card into the Air is not the same as the one who previously discovered the USB connections.
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Two numbers on your iPhone

Posted Apr 28th 2008 12:00PM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Hacks, iPhone

Over at UNEASYsilence that have quick tutorial on hacking your iPhone to support two different numbers by using two SIM cards. Basically this involves using a dual SIM card holder and manually trimming down the cards to fit into the adapter. With one kind of adapter the active SIM card automatically switches each time you turn the phone off and back on. If you have two AT&T SIM cards you don't have to do anything else to get two number support.

On the other hand, if you want to use non-AT&T SIM cards you'll want a different adapter and then you'll need to jailbreak, unlock and activate your phone with ZiPhone. The neat thing about this method, however, is that Apple has apparently built dual SIM support into the iPhone OS. So once that's done you'll be able to switch between the SIM cards in the Phone submenu of the Settings.

As Dan notes this is not for the faint of heart since it involves actually cutting the SIM cards and the hacking the iPhone with ZiPhone. Nonetheless, if you want to use your iPhone with two different numbers and you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty, head over to UNEASYsilence for the step by step.

Update: I'm neither endorsing nor not endorsing the use of ZiPhone. I'm reporting the methodology Dan used. Also the support for two SIM cards is apparently built in to the adapter, not directly in the iPhone OS which rather has support for SIM applications.
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Mac Pilot 3.0 adds 200 new features

Posted Apr 28th 2008 11:00AM by Mat Lu

We last covered Mac Pilot when version 2 dropped several years ago and now Koingo Software is back with a Mac Pilot 3 which adds hundreds of new features bringing the total to over 600. Fully compatible with Leopard, Mac Pilot provides a convenient GUI interface for modifying tons of hidden settings that are generally only available through the terminal.

Mac Pilot is $19.95 ($9.95 upgrade) and demo is available.
[via MacNN]
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Mac 101: uninstalling applications

Posted Apr 28th 2008 10:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: Switchers, Mac 101

This time around in Mac 101 I thought it would be good to talk about uninstalling applications on the Mac, especially for the recent switchers out there. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X does not have a native utility for uninstalling applications. Most (though not all) applications are installed just by dragging and dropping them into the Applications folder, and most are similarly got rid of by dragging them to the trash. However, when you do that you often leave behind preference and support files, especially in your user Library folder hierarchy (/Users/yourname/Library, as distinct from /Library which is "owned" by Mac OS X).

While you can root these files out yourself, it's sometimes far from obvious where they are. To resolve this, a new class of uninstallers have appeared on the scene to address the problem. One of the first was AppZapper ($12.95), but many more have arisen like AppDelete (donations requested), SuperPop ($15), and CleanApp ($10). With most of these you choose the application you want deleted by dropping it on the uninstaller (or choosing it from a list); hit a button and the application plus its support files are sent to the trash. Taking a slightly different approach, Yank ($19.95) actually monitors your system while you are installing applications and creates a "Yank File" that records the location of everything created by the application. You then uninstall by running the Yank File.

Finally, there are uninstallers that integrate with the Trash itself, requiring no separate interface. Into this class fall Hazel ($21.95), which also does other automatic file management tasks, and AppTrap (donations requested). What's great about these last two is that you can just drag an application to the trash and they will automatically look for and offer to delete the support files. Indeed, this seems to me to be the most Mac-like and elegant approach. For my own part I mostly just use Hazel, though I still throw things at AppZapper now and again.
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Apple celebrates 5 years of iTunes Store

Posted Apr 28th 2008 9:00AM by Mat Lu
Filed under: iTS, iTunes

On the iTunes Store (iTunes link), Apple is celebrating 5 years since the original iTunes Music Store launched on April 28, 2003. Each of the last five years (2003-7) is marked with bestsellers and staff favorites (conveniently arranged for you to add them to your own collection). Clearly in a glowing mood at recently becoming the largest music retailer in the US, they note cheerfully how the store has grown from a little "more than 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks" to a library of over 10 million today. It's just too bad they couldn't have coughed up some special pricing to help us celebrate, too.
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