Megan Lavey
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Filed under: MobileMe
A (slightly) new look for MobileMe
When I logged into MobileMe this morning, I noticed that my iDisk icon looked a bit different ... it now resembles the one representing the forthcoming iDisk app for the iPhone. It's not the only visual tweak to MobileMe. The Settings icon has received a refresh, and Mail has been changed to look more like its desktop counterpart, showing the count of unread items next to their respective folders.
A look at the status history for MobileMe shows that maintenance was performed late last night on the web apps, resulting in the new look throughout the site. Other changes to MobileMe include:
- The Help menu is now accessible from the toolbar.
- Mail forwarding and replies now retain original formatting.
- All messages on MobileMe can now be searched from the iPhone or iPod Touch.
- Automatic album creation from the iPhone or iPod Touch with version 3.0 software.
- iPhone 3GS users can publish video to MobileMe.
- iPhone contacts maintain ringtone associations after syncing with MobileMe.
- Option to merge contacts and calendars on first sync.
- Turning off sync will enable users to still keep a copy of their data on their device rather than wiping it.
Filed under: Software, Friday Favorite
Friday Favorite: Scrivener
Not long after I bought my first personal Mac in late 2004, I stumbled across an article that mentioned Ulysses, a text editor geared toward creative writers -- essentially the marriage between a word processor and project management software. It allows you to have all documents within a writing project at your grasp. As a journalist and author, Ulysses was a dream come true, but expensive. Costing more than $100 at the time, it didn't fit into a journalist's salary.
I wound up using CopyWrite for a time and was fairly satisfied with it until I read in a forum that people were having luck with a program which, at the time, was called Scrivener Gold. I gave the free beta a try and was blown away by the program's potential. When the full-fledged release of Scrivener came out in early 2007, I bought a license as a birthday gift for myself.
Scrivener pulls all the things needed for a complete writing project -- be it writing a script, novel, research paper or newspaper/blog articles -- together in one location and has so many features that even after nearly three years of use, I don't think I've fully explored all that it has to offer. I recently started work on writing my first graphic novel, and have really gotten the chance to flex Scrivener's muscles.
Find My iPhone: If only I could find myself so easily ...
Mel gave you the instructions for how to set it up... but dear reader, we're going to go in-depth into the features of using MobileMe's Find My iPhone to see how well it works in locating and securing your phone from a remote location -- including performing a voluntary wipe.
Locating where your phone is via map
When you bring up the Find My iPhone page in MobileMe, the first thing you will see is a map giving the approximate location of your phone. As indicated above, my phone is somewhere inside of my apartment. Because the map is powered by Google, you can toggle it among plain map, satellite, and hybrid views of the location. However, the feature won't give off an exact address. So, if you happened to leave your phone inside of a shopping center complex, you'll still have to visit each store to track down the phone.
Read on for more into Find My iPhone's features ...
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Apple
Safari updates to 4.0.1
Among the flurry of iPhone 3.0 downloads, Apple has pushed out an update to Safari. Safari 4.0.1 addresses incompatibilities between the newly upgraded browser and certain features in iPhoto '09, including Places and publishing to Facebook. The download clocks in at 43.8MB and is available now through Software Update. The version on Apple's site does not reflect the update as of yet.
Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
Steampunk Tales: A monthly magazine for your iPhone
When I was in high school, I learned about "penny dreadfuls" and their American counterpart, "dime novels." Steampunk Publishing is re-creating these popular publications by releasing what they bill as the first on-going magazine for the iPhone featuring pulp fiction -- in this case, stories set in the steampunk genre that is a take on our modern world through the eyes of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. These stories are a great fit for this type of experimental publication, and doing this magazine through the iPhone is a great way to reap the rewards of a pulp fiction magazine without having to worry about the costs associated with a print run.
The initial volume of Steampunk Tales #1 [link opens iTunes] contains 10 stories between 4,500 and 11,000 words. The included reader strives to recreate a Victorian-era feel as much as a possible, with a paper-like background and lavish fonts -- but one of the nicest features about this magazine is that you can customize it to the way that you want. You can chose from among a number of different fonts types and sizes, plus different background wallpapers. The one thing that I think that the magazine is lacking is a bookmark feature a la Classics. With as long as some of these stories are, if you go back and forth between them, you will lose your place unless you remember what page you were on. The stories themselves are highly enjoyable -- my personal favorite to date is "The Anachronist's Cookbook" -- and you can also see the basis for ongoing serials with a couple of the pieces, another hallmark of a bygone era.
If you're a fan of the sort of pulp fiction that came out a century ago, or of the steampunk genre in general, Steampunk Tales is an excellent app to purchase. Each issue costs $1.99USD, and that's a lot of content for less than a quarter of the cost of a single paperback novel. Hopefully, Steampunk Tales will inspire other publishing companies to migrate periodicals to an iPhone-native format.
The initial volume of Steampunk Tales #1 [link opens iTunes] contains 10 stories between 4,500 and 11,000 words. The included reader strives to recreate a Victorian-era feel as much as a possible, with a paper-like background and lavish fonts -- but one of the nicest features about this magazine is that you can customize it to the way that you want. You can chose from among a number of different fonts types and sizes, plus different background wallpapers. The one thing that I think that the magazine is lacking is a bookmark feature a la Classics. With as long as some of these stories are, if you go back and forth between them, you will lose your place unless you remember what page you were on. The stories themselves are highly enjoyable -- my personal favorite to date is "The Anachronist's Cookbook" -- and you can also see the basis for ongoing serials with a couple of the pieces, another hallmark of a bygone era.
If you're a fan of the sort of pulp fiction that came out a century ago, or of the steampunk genre in general, Steampunk Tales is an excellent app to purchase. Each issue costs $1.99USD, and that's a lot of content for less than a quarter of the cost of a single paperback novel. Hopefully, Steampunk Tales will inspire other publishing companies to migrate periodicals to an iPhone-native format.
Filed under: iPhone
iPhone 3G S update: UPS places hold on shipments
Edit (12:30 a.m. PT): Just to note that the delay on this is most likely U.S. Customs-related and not Apple. If you do get your phone in hand before the 19th, be sure to let us know!
Thanks to all who submitted this!
Filed under: iPhone, First Look, App Review
First Look: Documents to Go for iPhone
Documents to Go from DataViz has been known for years to the Palm and Blackberry community, and it finally comes to the iPhone -- filling in the need for a built-in Word (and soon Excel) editor that truly turns the iPhone into a mini computer.
There are currently two versions of Document To Go. The $4.99USD version [App Store link] features Microsoft Word editing alone and the $9.99 version adds Microsoft Exchange support. You can also view and synchronize Excel and PowerPoint documents, PDFs, HTML pages and iWork '08 documents ('05, '06 and '09 are not supported at this time, though I do imagine that iWork '09 support will be added later). A free upgrade is part of the deai; when purchasing Documents to Go now, you net the ability to create and edit Excel documents when that feature becomes available.
For an in-depth look of the app itself, click through. Please note that this review covers the $4.99US version of the app sans Microsoft Exchange.
Apple invites iPhone devs to test AIM/push notification
We're getting tips from multiple sources that Apple has invited a group of iPhone developers to test drive AOL's updated Instant Messenger app for the iPhone -- complete with push notification -- in an effort to see how Apple's servers will handle the traffic. The invitation included the following:"As a developer actively working with iPhone OS, we would like your help in a private test of the Apple Push Notification service. For this test, we have selected AOL's AIM Developer Preview for iPhone OS 3.0 to create a high-volume test environment for our servers."
The test run of the new AIM app is only available on iPhone 3.0 Gold Master releases. Final release date is unknown at this point.
Edit (6:30 PT): Additional word from developers chosen for the test shows that this beta version of AIM will cease to function after seven days.
Edit (6:30 PT): Additional word from developers chosen for the test shows that this beta version of AIM will cease to function after seven days.
Thanks to all who submitted this!
Filed under: iPhone
We know the iPhone isn't cheap, but Billshrink shows the numbers
It's no secret that in addition to the initial price for the iPhone, that there's also months upon months of service plans to pay as well. BillShrink.com gave us some perspective yesterday, showing just how much of an Apple tax we really do pay for the iPhone. In a very easy-to-read infographic, the site pits the entry level iPhone 3G S against the Palm Pre and Android G1 to see what you exactly get and how much you're paying for it when you sign up with the exclusive US carrier for each device (AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile respectively).
The winner, when it comes to storage space and features, is the iPhone 3G S. But, it's also showing that the Android G1 isn't that bad of a deal either. Its 3.2MP camera just squeaks by the iPhone and it has both a lower subsidized cost and price without contract.
But where Apple really loses is the overall cost of ownership. By far, the cheapest phone to own over a two-year period is the Palm Pre, which clocks in at $2,400. The cost calculated is based off of a service plan with two years of unlimited voice, data, and messaging services. The Android G1 follows with $3,240 and finally the iPhone 3G S at $3,600 -- not including tax for any of them.
Edit: There was some confusion on the back-end of TUAW about whether or not those numbers are for the service plans alone, or if they include the initial cost of the handset. As originally stated, the final totals in the graphic DO NOT include the cost of the headset. For example, the iPhone plan is $99.99+$30+$20 x 24 months = $3599.96 -- rounds to $3600, that matches what's in the graphic. The same holds true for the Android G1 and Palm Pre as well.
Filed under: Desktops, Software, Apple, Snow Leopard
OS 10.6: PowerPC officially left behind
It's not news. It was just less than a year ago that we initially announced that Snow Leopard would likely be Intel-only. Still, it was a report based off an initial developer's release of the software, and PowerPC users prayed that maybe it was a mistake. Maybe Apple would change its mind and toss a bone at these faithful users of Macs-gone-by. But, the emerging reality showed that Apple has left its PowerPC days behind. In February, we reported on how GarageBand's new Learn to Play feature was Intel-only. In addition to that, not every feature in iPhoto was available to PowerPC users. During that same month, we reported that even more G4 systems were being added to Apple's vintage and obsolete lists.
Now the writing is fully on the wall for PowerPC users. The official release of tech specs for Snow Leopard indicates that it is an Intel-only release, meaning that if you do want to go past Leopard, you'll have to upgrade. There are still a lot of PowerPC users out there, and they're still very good machines... but are owners of older Macs going to be satisfied without the latest OS?
Answer our poll or let us know in the comments: what does Snow Leopard mean to PPC owners?
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