While it's been in the App Store for the last few days, Pantone is officially launching its color discovery and management app for iPhone today, called myPANTONE.

The Pantone Matching System, among other Pantone products, is the indispensable color system for printers and graphic designers, and it offers a wider gamut of color than traditional process color printing. myPANTONE lets iPhone and iPod touch users discover new and interesting Pantone color combinations, share them, and create palette files suitable for importing in desktop applications.

You can start one of two ways: You can scrub through one of Pantone's color sets, including PMS coated, uncoated and matte colors, Goe, Pastels, and Fashion + Home. You can then drag individual chips into an area below the fanbook display, and build a palette of five colors. You can view each color full-screen, and add tags to colors, too.

Alternatively, you can take a picture with your iPhone (or select an image from Pictures on your iPod touch) and build a palette from the colors in that image.

myPANTONE exports HTML colors and .ase files (suitable for importing in Adobe CS products). You can also share palettes directly with other myPANTONE users nearby, and also upload them to the mypantone.com website (annoying sound warning), which is very similar to Adobe's Kuler (though it uses Pantone swatches, naturally).

This is all well and good, of course, but for the technical color professional? Meh.

Continue reading Pantone offers color libraries for iPhone, mostly

TUAWPantone offers color libraries for iPhone, mostly originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

EMC announced today an update to its popular Retrospect network backup software; version 8.1 brings back support for PowerPC-based workstations and improves performance for Intel-based Macs.

Eric Ullman, director of project management for Retrospect, said that while older G4-based Macs will run significantly slower than their Intel-based counterparts, Retrospect 8.1 can at least back them up (a capability that was lost in the move from the legacy 6.1 version). G5s with multiple processors, however, can see performance gains of 10 to 15 percent compared to Retrospect 6.1.

Intel-based workstations will also see performance increases of 10 to 15 percent compared to 8.0, and 30 to 35 percent compared to Retrospect 6.1. Other improvements, including updates to the user interface based on feedback from early adopters, are also included in the update.

Ullman said that with Retrospect 8, EMC had "recommitted itself to the Mac market" and this update was the second part of a three-phase deployment of the completely-rebuilt Retrospect 8. Phase one was the initial release, supporting Intel processors; phase two now supports PowerPC processors. Phase three, according to Ullman, is slated for release "in the Snow Leopard timeframe," and is expected to include support for importing Retrospect 6.1 sets and configurations, among other improvements to performance and the client software.

As Steve Sande mentioned, Retrospect's update comes on the heels of BRU Server 2.0, which added a new user interface and performance improvements. Ullman noted that BRU Server and Retrospect are fundamentally different, with Retrospect scanning more closely to prevent file duplication and save time copying files. Retrospect is generally less expensive than BRU Server, though their pricing structures and trim levels are a little different.

The update is available now on the Retrospect website. It's free for Retrospect 8 users and Retrospect 6.1 users who purchased the product after January 14, 2008. For new users, Retrospect 8 comes in a variety of flavors ranging in price from $129 to $1,669, depending on the size of the network.

TUAWRetrospect 8.1 brings back PowerPC support, improves performance originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For those of you that haven't heard me tell the beginning of this story on the TUAW talkcast, you might recall that my dad the switcher upgraded his Mac mini to a sweet new Mac Pro. So what could I do with an extra Mac mini? Maybe a server? Maybe a doorstop?

I know! A media center!

I had cable service, a DVD player, and a TiVo Series 2. My goal was to combine all of those things into one set-top-box -- the Mac mini -- and maybe even unsubscribe from some of the monthly services.

After I bought the Mac mini from my dad (the switcher), I hooked it up to my old, standard-definition TV. The Mac mini Media Center -- M³C for short -- was born.

The video experience was sub-optimal, owing mostly to my 10-year-old CRT that occasionally turned black-and-white (or lost video altogether). I knew it was time for a new TV. I promised myself that as a reward for finishing a series of challenging home improvement projects (replacing a bathroom sink and installing new floors, to name two) I would get myself the high-definition TV I always wanted.

That TV arrived on Wednesday. Now, I can share with you how to set up the easiest, most awesome M³C of your own -- for less money than you think.

Continue reading Behold! My Mac mini media center

TUAWBehold! My Mac mini media center originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wade Cosgrove, code ninja over at Panic, has released a freeware Developer Color Picker that helps developers of all stripes pick and paste color declarations for a variety of languages.

Any color picker will let you choose a color from anywhere on your screen, but Developer Color Picker turns that into usable code for your Xcode and web development projects. Developer Color Picker generates code suitable for NSColor, UIColor, CGColorRef, CSS and HTML declarations.

Depending on what you want, you can copy just the value for the color itself, or an entire declaration including the color. Imagine the time you save not having to type UIColor *aColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.282 green:0.569 blue:0.894 alpha:1.000]; again!

Developer Color Picker is available on Panic's website.

TUAWDeveloper Color Picker: For your pickiest developer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple announced today in a short press release that it had sold distributed 1.5 billion iPhone and iPod touch applications during the App Store's first year of existence.

Despite the slow economy, App Store sales downloads appear to have accelerated since last year, showing a fairly positive polynomial trend. Apple is selling offering (via a packet-switched network) apps roughly five times faster than it did when the store opened.

The App Store now features 65,000 apps available to users in 77 countries. The iPhone Developer Program includes 100,000 members, too.

(Chart sources: 1, 2, 3, 4.)

TUAWApple distributes 1.5B apps in App Store's first year originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! One day only! You may buy the whole app -- but you'll only need the edge.

Sorry about that. Nevertheless, Byline -- Phantom Fish's flagship Google Reader app and offline browser -- is on sale Saturday only for $1.99. (It goes back to its regular price, $4.99, on July 12.) Not only that, but the first 40 people to forward their sale-price receipt to birthday@phantomfish.com will receive a promo code that entitles them to a free second copy of Byline for a friend.

We've covered Byline before here at TUAW, and version 2.5 includes speed and caching improvements, a spiffy new dark interface, and matching new icon.

In celebration of the App Store's anniversary, Sophiestication Software is also offering 75 percent discounts to their two apps: Groceries (a shopping list app) and Tipulator (a tip calculator) at 99 cents apiece. Both apps are available in the App Store.

Edovia is also offering its six products (Rocket Taxi, Linguo, NumPad, Steps, Find Me!, and Currencies) for 99 cents apiece, down from $1.99. All these are also available in the App Store, as you might imagine.

Have you found more sweet deals today? Let us know by leaving a comment!

TUAWByline, others offering anniversary sale prices on Saturday originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here's something I know affects plenty of users out there. Have you ever pasted text in a document or email message, only to have it formatted differently than all the text around it? Irritating, right?

One note: Panic designer Neven Mrgan found that using this tip means you won't be able to paste images into iChat using Command + V. Dragging and dropping (or choosing Paste from the Edit menu) still works, though. Update: If you explicitly add ⌘-V in as a shortcut for Paste that's specific to iChat, you can restore the image paste capability without breaking the global shortcut.

Apps that don't have either of those menu items will still default to regular old "Paste" for the same key command. Paste away!

[Via @robotspacer, @chockenberry, and thaweesak.com.]

TUAWTUAW Tip: Paste without formatting by default originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While being a useful tool for several years now, VLC has finally reached that first pinnacle of software development: 1.0.

VLC is an alternative media player for Mac, Windows and Linux that handles a wide variety of media file formats without requiring additional software (like Perian) to be installed on your system. It can also be used as a server to stream video on higher-bandwidth networks.

Personally, I think it's handy for things like making still frame images of DVDs, or capturing video from your EyeTV tuner. Anytime I have to send QuickTime or MP4 video to PC or Linux users, I recommend they download and install VLC to watch it.

The software isn't for everyone: If you're already familiar with VLC, the upgrade is a solid one. Performance is good, and the feature list is tough to beat. If you've never used VLC and you're happy with QuickTime Player (thank you very much), then feel free to pass this one by.

Binaries for VLC 1.0 are available for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Leopard (and developer previews of Snow Leopard). Source code and other, older packages for PowerPC and earlier versions of Mac OS X are also available.

Thanks, Chris!

TUAWVLC 1.0.0 released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I realize I may not be your average browser user. As a web developer, a browser to me is two parts daily use, two parts testing, and one part challenge. Since 2005, I've been using Firefox in some form or fashion as both my primary browser and as a testing vehicle.

I had recently started a JavaScript-intensive project, and I appreciated Safari 4's lightning-fast JavaScript execution speeds. In Firefox, I rely mostly on add-ons like Web Developer and Firebug to help me analyze and test for mistakes in websites I build in Firefox. They work great, but enabling them slows the browser down.

That's why I was excited for the updated Web Inspector that comes as part of Safari 4. (Yes, Safari 3 first came with Web Inspector, it couldn't hold a candle to Firebug's Swiss Army knife of an add-on for Firefox.) Testing was easy, and Safari 4's Web Inspector's many improvements made me think I could migrate to Safari full-time.

Read on to see how it went.

Continue reading From Firefox to Safari (and back again)

TUAWFrom Firefox to Safari (and back again) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For your early-afternoon entertainment, I have the story of Mike Giepert, who happened one day to spell something clever with the icons in his dock.

His website, in fact, has a whole raft of these sets, including those submitted by his readers, to spell everything from "vamp" to "agoraphobic."

What can you come up with? Feel free to take your own screenshots, add them to our TUAW Flickr Pool and leave a comment!

TUAWSpell it out with your Dock originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Do you remember the teaser ads for the iPhone 3G? Two uniformed guards carried a locked metal crate through a labyrinth of secure tunnels, keycard points at every door, and monitored by security cameras? Turns out the real Apple isn't too far from that, according to Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance at the New York Times.

They cite former employees and analysts who all agree that Apple, as Gene Munster put it, "a total black box." Apple, in an effort to guard their company's secrets until the day they're launched have instituted a culture of fear among employees: Loose lips sink ships.

Apple's campus is, according to the article, "a maze of security doors" where employees must swipe their badges and enter codes on numeric keypads -- presumably not only to restrict access, but to serve as a record of who was where if any information does leak out. Many work areas are monitored by closed-circuit TV. According to one unnamed employee, "workers in the most critical product-testing rooms must cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them, and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful."

I've worked in high-security areas before for the U.S. military, and the big difference between the military and Apple is fear. Lots of fear. A secure military workspace is comfortable, but formal: If you catch a glimpse of something you shouldn't, it's not a big deal, just forget what you saw. Apple employees on the other hand, according to the article, are petrified of losing their job, being sued, or both.

In Apple's quiver is another piercing arrow: Misinformation. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster relates a story of how a high-ranking Apple executive lied to his face about having "no interest in developing a cheap iPod with no screen." Cut to a few weeks later, and Apple releases the iPod shuffle. Lying business executives are nothing new, and shouldn't be surprising in the least. But while many companies cultivate productive relationships with the media, Apple's is mostly antagonistic. "They don't communicate," Munster said.

Why bother? The thrill. Sure, they're protecting their intellectual property, but it's all about the thrill. They can create these spectacles where they literally unveil a new product in front of a salivating audience -- including Apple employees -- who have never seen anything like it before. It's thrilling. Apple's business hinges on creating products that excite and creating that excitement surrounding them.

They've found a secret formula that works. In the words of Steve Jobs, "there is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets."

"The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets."

TUAWApple: Paranoid originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW reader Jim Carroll is worried: "It is crunch time for your site," he warned ominously in an email yesterday.

Jim is worried that security updates made available via the iPhone OS 3.0 updates last week will only be available to iPod touch users through the obligatory $10 upgrade. "Please use your power as an Apple site to raise the issue." Please, Jim. We're blushing.

"As a long time computer user I am unaware of a similar incident where a company would charge for security updates," he writes. Companies charge money for updates all the time -- operating systems and anti-virus software take time and energy to make, and companies want to get their investment back. Apple has been kind with free updates to Safari, but only because they gain revenue from it via the Search bar.

Apple has always charged iPod touch users for major updates, of course, but security updates have most often come free. 1.0.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.5, 2.1, and 2.2 all included security fixes, but were free to iPod touch users. (The latter two cases were free for those who bought the 2.0 update.)

1.1.5 is an interesting case. It was released a few days after the 2.0 update, and included security updates that were wrapped into the 2.0 update.

My advice? Have patience. This coming week or next, I have confidence we'll see an update for 2.x (2.2.2 perhaps?) that leaves out the new features, but includes the same security updates found in 3.0 at about $9.95 less.

We're also beginning to hear whispers of a 3.0.1 update for the device to help resolve WiFi issues in the new release; a German iPod user reports being told by an AppleCare representative that an update is expected shortly. Take that with the appropriately sized grain of salt.

Thanks, Jim & Oboewan!

TUAW3.0 is here, but where's the free security update for iPod touch 2.x? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a display of environmental posturing on both sides, Dell lodged a complaint with the advertising industry's self-governing oversight board: The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD). The claim? When Apple says it has the "world's greenest family of notebooks," family could be taken to mean all models of MacBook past and present -- including models that weren't built with the environment in mind.

"Common industry usage of 'family' refers to a particular model or group of models, and not the entire notebook line," argued Dell, according to a post on the New York Times' "Green Inc." blog. Dell also complained about Apple's use of gold EPEAT ratings -- an award that many of Apple's competitors have also earned.

Standing behind their claim, Apple effectively said, "that's right, deal with it": Family, in the context of the ad "refers to its whole line of notebooks, taken in toto, [and] not a particular model or group."

The NAD said there was no problem with Apple communicating its EPEAT ratings to consumers, and commended the company for its commitment to creating an entire line of notebooks that meet the highest EPEAT ratings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Even so, the NAD suggested that consumers could believe that "family" means a line of products (and not all the products) that a company makes. They recommended that Apple use direct comparisons between MacBooks and competitor notebooks to clarify their claims of environmental friendliness. They also recommended that Apple avoid the use of world's greenest "given the potential for overstatement." Apple? Overstatement? That's unpossible.

Apple was happy with the conclusion, with PR spokesman Steve Dowling telling the New York Times that the NAD had confirmed that MacBooks are indeed the world's greenest notebooks when compared to other manufacturers' entire product lines. It appears that Apple has taken to using the word "lineup" instead of "family" on its website.

Dell issued a statement, saying they "commend the NAD for their part in helping ensure companies represent their products' environmental attributes accurately." Dell has previously lodged advertising complaints against Lenovo, and last year the company had to stop using the slogan "the world's most secure notebooks."

TUAWDell cites Apple's 'green' claims in Better Business Bureau complaint originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPod touch users are finally getting a taste of what iPhone users have had since iPhone OS 2.2: Google Street View. iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod touch includes an update to the Maps application that enables Google Street View, and it works just like it does on the iPhone.

Additionally, the "Find my iPhone" feature is implemented as "Find my iPod touch" for iPod touch users. It works exactly like Megan described yesterday, but is perhaps less accurate than using the iPhone's built-in GPS. It'll at least get you close, so long as it's connected to a Wi-Fi network. If it is, you can send messages to the iPod touch and wipe its memory.

If you do send a message to an iPod touch that's turned off or not connected to a Wi-Fi network, the message is queued until it's on and connected.

Both features appear to work on both first- and second-generation iPod touch devices. As Megan mentioned, since the first-generation iPod touch lacks a speaker, it won't make the "ping" noise associated with Find my iPhone unless you have speakers plugged in. Perhaps less useful for finding it in the house, but still helpful if you left it on a table at the park.

Have you found an undocumented feature that the iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod touch provides? Let us know by tipping us, or leaving a comment.

Thanks, Harold, Ben, Rocky, and everyone who sent this in!

TUAW3.0 update brings Street View, 'Find' functionality to iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For fans of Macromates' flagship text editor, TextMate, the current version may be all they need. For the last three years, TextMate has been stuck at version 1.5 (and change). In a blog post yesterday titled "Working on It," however, developer Allan Odgaard talked about what's coming in TextMate 2.0.

TextMate 2.0, according to Odgaard, is "taking shape" amid steady progress. It's not a small update, either: Odgaard says it's a "major undertaking with a long timeline" and he doesn't want to get people's hopes up about release dates or finished features just yet.

He says most of the modules for the application are nine-tenths complete, and he uses 2.0 day-to-day. The front end, he says, needs work, and an alpha release may be ready "before too long."

TUAWTextMate 2: He's working on it originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here I was, thinking our fine TUAW readership was pretty great at playing Flight Control. Yesterday, as part of a post about the new game Trains, I asked for everyone's high scores, and I thought we were doing well.

Commenter DJ won our informal competition (no prizes, sorry, beyond the satisfaction of a job well done) with a score of 1036. Dan came in second with 575. Rounding out the top three was Matthew with a high of 275.

Now, however, with the latest update, your high scores can be uploaded to cloudcell.com, home of high scores for not only Flight Control, but Real Racing and Fast & Furious. There, it's clear that TUAW readers have much better things to do than play Flight Control all day.

Just a few hours ago, a user named TommyRoissy landed 14,439 aircraft before two of them collided. Ridonkulous. Our own Mike Rose speculates that some are playing the game inside the iPhone SDK's simulator mode to gain higher scores. I agree -- pair simulator mode with a graphics tablet, and you've got yourself quite the landing machine. Update: Thanks to our commenters for correcting this; it's not technically possible to run purchased iPhone apps in the Xcode simulator, as it cannot emulate the iPhone's ARM processor.

Even so, that's a lot of time spent playing Flight Control. I mean, it's a good game, but let's say the average landing time is five seconds. 14,439 landings is over 72,000 seconds -- or 20 hours -- of playing time. I'm certain there's some pauses in there, but that's still a lot of landing.

TUAWThink you're good at Flight Control? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a minefield of failed "iPhone killers" one is making some headway on fulfilling that murderous promise: the Palm Pre.

Perhaps it's no surprise: the Palm Pre was conceived by a team that includes plenty of Apple alumni, including Jon Rubenstein, who was made Palm's CEO yesterday to replace Ed Colligan. (John Gruber reminds us of one of Colligan's more famous quotes.) Rubenstein used to be the general manager of Apple's iPod division.

Not only that, but Fred Anderson, Lynn Fox, and Mike Bell are all connected (if not employed by) the re-energized Palm. Valleywag's Ryan Tate says it's no wonder, then, that the Pre syncs with iTunes right out of the box.

Competition is good, though, right? We'll see improvements to both the iPhone and the Pre because of the products' competitive relationship with each other. Look at the rivalry between Canon and Nikon: The result? Awesome cameras both. In the end, the customer wins.

This is true with carriers, too, as exclusivity agreements begin to expire. There were rumblings that the Pre would be released on the Verizon network around Christmas, but blowback from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse pushed the rumor mill's schedule back a month to January 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Watercooler talk suggests that the iPhone's exclusivity agreement with AT&T expires around the same time for U.S. customers, but the Magic 8 Ball says that we might not see an iPhone for Verizon until both they and AT&T finish their LTE networks.

If you're using a Pre with your Mac, especially if you're taking advantage of the iTunes sync capability, let us know in the comments how it's going.

TUAWPalm and Verizon looking to take shine off Apple and AT&T originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I have a particular affinity for trains. My father and grandfather both worked on the railroad, presumably all the live-long day. When a train rolls by, I'll make a comment about the engine or trucks or what-have-you, and my girlfriend will madly clap her hands together and yell yay twains! in a dumb voice. I love her so much.

Anyway. ZAGG, the same people who make the unscratchable Invisible Shield films for various devices, released Trains, a game not unlike Flight Control, where you must route freight trains, drop off cargo, and avoid collisions.

Flight Control itself recently had an update, and now includes new tropical and aircraft carrier levels. Having lost hours of time to the original level, I was thrilled to have more places to land. (My high score is 103, by the way: Post yours in comments.)

Trains, on the other hand, takes the same approach, only with -- well -- trains. You must tap the switches to create a route for each train through the cargo depot of the appropriate color, and safely off the screen. You can let trains pass through without dropping their cargo, but you won't earn any points.

Of the two, I think I prefer Flight Control, only because there's more flexibility in determining where exactly the airplane goes by drawing a path with your finger. Switching train intersections accomplishes the same goal, but is somehow less satisfying than drawing a flight path freehand.

Trains, though, is good fun. It's on sale for 99 cents until June 15. After that it will be $1.99. Flight Control is also on sale for 99 cents "for a limited time." Both Trains and Flight Control are available from the App Store, and are well worth the money.

TUAWTrains for iPhone: For lovers of Flight Control, except with trains originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With all the fanfare this week surrounding the iPhone, let's not forget the famed handset's red-headed stepchild: the iPod touch.

Hardware updates to the line weren't exactly expected just now. Apple tends to save their iPod updates for special music events held every year since 2003. After Apple's education promo is done and dusted, we can probably expect a special event in September where we see updates for our favorite media device. What's in store for the new iPod touch? Setting aside for the moment rumors about a tablet-sized device, there are sure to be plenty of updates for the handheld iPod touch we've come to know and love.

As far as the operating system update is concerned, we'll gain all the features compatible with the iPod touch's hardware, like copy and paste, upgrades to the iTunes store, and the landscape keyboard. These updates, like those in the past, will come at a price: In an effort to adhere to strict accounting regulations, Apple charges iPod touch users about $10 to upgrade to the new operating system. iPhone users aren't charged similarly, because revenue from the handsets is accounted on a subscription basis, which has different rules about giving updates away for free. Like the iPhone, the update for iPod touch will be available June 17.

Compared to the iPhone, planned updates to the iPod touch's hardware remain largely unknown. iPod touch models have been generally close in specification to the iPhone, but each model is slightly different. In theory, if applications require the greater horsepower the iPhone 3G S provides, some high-performance games may be incompatible with existing iPod touch models, in addition to apps that take advantage of the iPhone's built-in GPS and camera.

Cameras, however, might be on the way: Mike noted rumors last month about iPod nanos with cameras built-in. If those are true, it stands to reason that iPod touch models could get the same functionality. I've opined before about a whispernet service for the iPod touch, but I don't see that happening anytime soon, especially with AT&T's lackluster feature delivery schedule revealed during the iPhone keynote.

What do you think the next iPod touch will be? Will it become "just like the iPhone but without the phone part?" Let us know by leaving a comment.

TUAWiPod touch: Always a bridesmaid ... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As with most keynote presentations, Apple released a lot of numbers about just how many people are adopting the Mac and iPhone platforms.

First, over the last three years, the active Mac OS X installed base has grown from 25 million users to 75 million users. This is great news for the platform and for the entire Mac ecosystem.

Also, over 5,200 developers from 54 countries around the world are attending WWDC. Over a million people have downloaded the free iPhone SDK, and created 50,000 applications for Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices.

Speaking of which, over 40 million iPhones and iPod touches have been sold to date. In April, Apple announced that those users had downloaded a cumulative total of one billion applications.

TUAWNumbers game: 75M Mac OS X users, 1M SDK downloads, 50,000 apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Well! Our tips line has certainly been a beehive of activity with WWDC just around the corner. We've gotten several purported iPhone images, which range in quality from meh to ludicrous. Particularly interesting: the iPhone Blog's 16x9 widescreen model.

As for availability of the rumored phone, GearLive is laying it on the line for an on-sale date of Monday, immediately after the announcement. Technologizer responds with four reasons we wouldn't see the new device in stores right after the keynote.

Interested to see what everyone else has cooked up for Apple to release on Monday? Check out the gallery for pictures galore.

Thanks to everyone who sent these in!

Gallery: iPhone Rumor Image Roundup

TUAWPhotoshop Phun: iPhone next-gen rumor pic roundup originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Digg's Kevin Rose, perennial purveyor of information that just "fell off the back of the truck" shared a link early this morning to Google's new, supercharged, Webkit-based browser -- for Mac.

The new browser, Chrome, is clearly marked as a developer preview, and not meant for general browsing. In fact, as a good Mac citizen, it will refuse to set itself as your default browser.

It scores a 100 on the Acid3 test straight out of the box, but doesn't pass: it fails something called the linktest, which involves interacting A tags and IFRAMEs. A little research suggests that it could be a bug with Webkit. If that's true, then it's a bug that Safari 4 beta has fixed.

Chrome appears to have Flash (and other plugin) support disabled as well. JavaScript support, however, is fully functional. While Chrome performed much better than Firefox on this cursory test, it still didn't beat Safari 4 by a long shot. While only a beta, its performance is respectable and sure to improve.

Again, Google Chrome isn't for everyone, but if you're a web developer who needs to keep up with the bleeding edge of browser development, then this preview should be stable and reliable enough for you to test what you need to.

Read through for the full JavaScript test details.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Continue reading Google Chrome developer preview (unofficially) released

TUAWGoogle Chrome developer preview (unofficially) released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple, Google, Yahoo! and Genentech are subjects of a fresh antitrust investigation surrounding hiring and recruiting practices among companies in the tech industry, according to Washington Post staff writer Cecilia Kang.

"By agreeing not to hire away top talent, the companies could be stifling competition and trying to maintain their market power unfairly," antitrust experts said in the article. Hiring and recruiting can sometimes be a touchy affair, as Apple found out late last year when trying to hire Mark Papermaster. The investigation may suggest some kind of written agreement among large tech firms to not hire away each other's top talent.

According to the New York Times, Justice has only requested documents for the ongoing investigation. Neither the Justice Department nor any of the companies mentioned in the story had any comment.

This comes in addition to another Justice investigation into ties between the boards of directors of Apple and Google, and whether or not having Google CEO Eric Schmidt on both (and Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson on all three) constitutes antitrust violations. Some consider Apple and Google to be competitors in certain areas such as phone handsets.

The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to investigate anti-competitive activity among high-tech companies, and is already investigating Google's deal with book authors to republish their work via Google Books.

[Via AppleInsider]

TUAWWaPo: DOJ preparing antitrust probe for Apple, among others originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday, Apple released MobileMe Control Panel for Windows 1.4, recommended for users on corporate networks that use proxy servers.

Some users were reporting errors when trying to sync contacts and calendars, or were unable to log into the MobileMe control panel at all. This update sorts that out.

According to Apple technical note on the subject, supported proxy server types include:

• Web proxy servers (HTTP)
• Secure Web proxy (HTTPS)
• SOCKS proxy servers (see note below)
• HTTP/HTTPS proxy servers that require authentication
• Proxy bypass lists
• Proxy auto-configuration (PAC) files

The update is available on the MobileMe website, and is also included with iTunes 8.2 for Windows.

TUAWMobileMe control panel for Windows helps with proxy servers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While still in beta, Evom (from The Little App Factory, makers of iPodRip) looks ready to pick up where iSquint left off. It easily and quickly converts videos to formats compatible with iTunes, YouTube, your iPod, and Apple TV.

It couldn't be a simpler drag-and-drop operation: drop the video on the Evom window, and select a destination. After that, Evom does the heavy lifting and (optionally) adds the finished video to iTunes. The output quality is good -- it uses the same technical foundation as ffmpegX. You get the same high quality without all the fiddly controls of ffmpegX.

Evom also includes a bookmarklet that lets you save off YouTube videos to your computer with a single click. The quality of the output there mostly depends on how good the source video is, but it couldn't be easier.

iSquint, my favorite "as if by magic" video conversion tool, was discontinued after Techspansion (also the makers of iSquint's bigger brother VisualHub) shut their doors last October. The VisualHub codebase is still being developed, however, in a new project called Video Monkey that Aron covered in March, which is also well worth a look.

Evom is in beta, but unlike iSquint, it appears like it may cost something when the final version is released. It also appears limited to converting 60 items until it's registered, and trying to register the app leads to a non-existent shopping cart area. Even so, the simple interface and easy installation will be worth a few bucks to me.

[Via Daring Fireball.]

TUAWEvom beta takes up iSquint's mantle, effortlessly converts video formats originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday, Megan noted a Fortune story saying that iTunes syncs flawlessly with the new Palm Pre. This, of course, got the water-cooler talk bubbling: "How did Palm pull it off? Will Apple allow this to happen?"

Turns out they already have. A tech note on Apple's website notes the two dozen or so third-party players that iTunes (for Mac OS X, at least) is compatible with, including Rio and Creative Labs Nomad MP3 players. True, many of the models listed predate the iPod, and the tech note itself was last updated a little less than a year ago. But third-party device compatibility with iTunes isn't without precedent.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber pointed to a story by Jon Lech Johansen that says Apple may block iTunes access to the Pre in a future update; Gruber himself said he "wouldn't be surprised if they did." I'm not so sure.

First, let's look at how it works. According to Johansen, a unique USB device ID allows iTunes to recognize MP3 players (including iPods) that it's compatible with. Johansen speculates that Palm is using one of these IDs when communicating with iTunes. If it's an iPod's unique ID, then it will work with iTunes for Windows, too; this is an important litmus test and we don't know the results yet.

I can understand Apple might not cotton to a Palm Pre specifically masquerading as an iPod USB device. Given that, allowing the Pre to freely communicate with iTunes isn't necessarily bad business sense, presuming Palm implements the functionality in a forthright manner (like other third-party MP3 players that iTunes already supports).

Why limit access to the Pre, aside from pure spite? If someone already uses iTunes, chances are they have some quantity of DRM-free iTunes Plus music on their computer. There's no technical reason why the music shouldn't be easily playable on the Pre. One of the upshots of removing DRM in the iTunes store is to facilitate device interoperability. Allow non-Apple devices to play iTunes music, and suddenly Apple has customers it didn't have before.

If Apple chooses to cut off just the Pre, and Palm is following the rules, Apple is unnecessarily cutting a stream of revenue. That's something I don't see Apple doing lightly.

TUAWFuture iTunes versions could block the Pre, but why? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After gathering in front of Apple's offices in Taiwan earlier this week, protesters are now demanding a substantive response from Apple by the end of the month regarding alleged workplace labor and safety violations at Wintek, one of Apple's display component suppliers.

Labor groups associated with the protesters claim that Wintek unlawfully fired 619 workers, cut salaries without negotiation, and forced employees to work overtime without pay to fulfill rush orders. The company has since re-hired 20 of those workers and says it is operating within the law. Wintek has also threatened legal action if "company and stakeholder interests" are jeopardized. Wintek further claims that labor groups are violating their agreements and encouraging workers to demand benefits illegally.

The protesters appear to be using the popularity of Apple's brand name to get attention to their cause. "We want to go through Apple to put pressure on Wintek," said Chu Wei-li, secretary-general of the Taipei-based National Federation of Independent Trade Unions.

Apple Asia released a tepid response after the protests. Spokeswoman Jill Tan said, "Apple conducts regular audits of suppliers to make sure they comply with Apple's code of conduct. We require corrective actions when we find violations."

An audit is exactly what aggrieved Wintek employees say they are demanding. MacNN says that rights groups associated with the protests are also asking the Electronics Industry Citizen Coalition to investigate Apple's delay in responding to the matter.

Wintek was recently rumored to be the winner of the display contract for Apple's "media pad" tablet device. Some analysts predict the tablet will go on sale next year.

Apple has previously found itself in the middle of other labor disputes. In 2006, Foxconn workers protested low pay and poor working conditions while assembling iPods. Apple conducted its own investigation and found that the company violated overtime rules and unreasonably punished workers. Since then, cute pictures of Foxconn employees have thawed the image of the supplier.

TUAWLabor dispute with Apple display supplier intensifies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday, IGG Software announced iBiz 4, an update to its flagship timekeeping and billing software that adds several new features for freelancers and small groups.

iBiz 4 includes an all-new library of invoice templates, payment reminder and expense tracking functionality, faster editing and entry, and a new way to back up and restore your iBiz data.

The software extends its Mac OS X integration to include creating billing events from items in iCal. Previous versions of iBiz were already integrated with Address Book, but iBiz 4 lets you further organize clients into groups. It also has a spiffy new charting engine based on Core Animation.

iBiz Professional has also been updated, and includes a server component and two client licenses. iBiz Professional allows small teams to coordinate their time and to-do items across a Bonjour network.

iBiz 4 is $40, iBiz 4 Professional is $100, and both are available for download at IGG Software's website. Both include a 10-day free trial. Users who purchased iBiz 3 after January 5 also qualify for a free upgrade.

TUAWiBiz 4 adds new invoice templates, iCal sync originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 May 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple announced the details of its back to school promotion today, and it looks almost the same as its deal last year: A free iPod touch with the purchase of a qualifying Mac.

Every Mac except the Mac mini qualifies for the deal. Parents now can qualify for the promotion when buying for their children, as well.

Education pricing can save you up to $200, depending on the model you choose, which you can use to fill that iPod with tunes or put toward AppleCare. According to MacNN, qualified students can opt for other iPods as well with varying rebate amounts for each.

Apple is also running a similar promotion in Canada, and will probably offer the program in other countries later in the year, according to MacRumors' Eric Slivka.

Last year's promotion was the "largest ever," and expectations were high for this year, too. One rumor claimed Apple would offer free iPhones with a qualifying Mac purchase. Yet again, the Internet made promises that Apple couldn't keep.

This also starts the rumor mill going about what Apple is trying to clear out of inventory before the end of the fiscal year. New products are always just over the horizon: What's coming next?

The promotion ends September 8.

Thanks, Nicholas!

TUAWApple's back to school promo about the same as last year's originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 27 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a research note to clients, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster suggested that Apple is developing a 7-to-10-inch tablet priced at $500 to $700, perhaps ready for the public in 2010.

According to AppleInsider, Munster's contacts in the supply chain haven't seen a prototype of the device, but are in discussions with Apple to supply components for something at that size and price point.

Munster believes that Apple could adjust the iPhone SDK to allow for multiple display resolutions. Apps like Safari and Mail, he says, would benefit from the additional screen real estate. He also mentions that with the larger screen, more than one traditional iPhone app could be run at once.

As for timing, Munster suggests that the device could be ready next year, and possibly be subsidized by a wireless carrier.

As with most analysis of this kind, this is two parts hearsay, one part "interpretation of conference call statements," and seven parts wishful thinking. In providing technical details about a product that may not exist, Munster is writing checks that Apple might not be able to cash.

Is this something you'd buy? Is it even going to happen? Sound off in comments.

TUAWMunster: Apple suppliers negotiating parts deals for sub-$700 tablet originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 21 May 2009 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Police say an inebriated man threw a brick at the front window of Chicago's Magnificent Mile Apple Store on Tuesday night. The man also broke another window a short distance away.

A Tribune photo shows a single broken panel of glass in front of one of Apple's "giant iPhone" displays. From the photo, it looks as if the brick did not go through the glass, and the display appears unharmed.

Robert Grilly, 61, of Chicago was booked on two misdemeanor counts of criminal property damage, Chicago PD said.

Thanks, Paul!

TUAWChicago Apple Store bricked Tuesday night originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 20 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a shot across the iPhone's bow, Palm is launching its new Palm Pre smartphone the weekend before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. This means any iPhone announcements at WWDC will be undoubtedly compared to Palm's new platform.

The Pre handset will cost $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you sign up for a two-year contract with Sprint. The monthly service costs roughly the same as AT&T's iPhone plan but offers unlimited text messaging -- a $20 option with Ma Bell.

Electronista points out that the Pre has some small technical advantages over the iPhone as well: a three megapixel camera, an optional inductive charger, and EVDO networking. Depending on the area, EVDO can be faster than both EDGE and GPRS, but not faster than HSDPA (the latter of which AT&T is rolling out across the U.S.). In any case, AT&T is already preparing its sales staff for the looming battle.

Also, Sprint claims that having a Pre will cost $1,430 less over the two-year contract period compared to owning an iPhone for the same period.

Meanwhile, for those of us on Verizon, we'll just have to make do with calculators connected by string. Which reminds me -- you all got the notice Verizon was upgrading us to nylon cord this week, right?

[Via IGM]

TUAWPalm Pre takes aim at iPhone, launches days before WWDC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Welcome to another edition of Mac 101, TUAW's series for beginners. Today, we show you how to get more bang for your desktop real-estate buck with Finder icon labels.

Have you ever wanted to know how large a picture on your Desktop was, but didn't want to open it (or even just hit ⌘I to get info)? Or instantly know how many items were in a folder? Mac OS X lets you display that information right under (or next to) the icon itself.

How? Easy! Click on your Desktop, and choose Show View Options from the View menu (or just hit ⌘J.) Then, click the radio button next to Show item info. Voíla! Instant metadata for your Desktop files and folders. For pictures, the Finder will show their width and height in pixels.

You can also adjust the position of the labels associated with the icons on your desktop. Instead of having the file and folder names beneath your icons, why not have a change and put them to the right? Just click either Right (or Bottom, if you prefer the default) under Label position.

For other awesome beginner tips, visit our Mac 101 category.

TUAWMac 101: Learn more about your files at a glance originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 18 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While Jason D. O'Grady considers anything more than ordinatrix inflagrante to be success when he's installing a new operating system, he and others are still reporting on the various and sundry issues that have cropped up since Tuesday's 10.5.7 update:

• I can't find my brain: Some users are reporting that their Buffalo (among other) external disks aren't mounting after installing the update. Solution: Nothing concrete, though many people are suggesting installing the combo update you can download from Apple's site, rather than using Software Update. You can participate in Apple's Support Discussion on the topic if you share this problem. [via MacNN.]

• Blue screen of death: No joke: since the update restarts your computer up to three times, some users are getting hung up on the first blue screen that appears after the gray Apple logo screen. Solution: Wait until disk activity stops, then shut down the computer hard by holding down the power button. [via PowerPage.]

• I was blind, but now I see: The update is causing some video cards to output non-native display resolutions. Instead of outputting 1920 x 1200, instead Mac OS X will try and output 1920 x 1080 (which works fine for HDMI, but not many widescreen displays). Solution: An oldie-but-goodie: Zap the PRAM by holding down command + option + P + R at startup until the computer restarts a few times, then letting go. [also via PowerPage.]

• Cold fusion: VMWare is suggesting people hold off on updating if their configuration includes an ATI graphics card and they use Fusion to run 3D Windows apps. (2D apps are just fine.) Slow and poor rendering and general crashiness are symptoms of the problem. Solution: None yet. Apple and ATI are working on an update. [via MacNN.]

TUAWTroubleshooting Roundup: Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 15 May 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In ye olde times, with "Mack OSe 9," many users chose to keep their personal files, work, and documents on a different physical disk from their startup disk. It was a safety measure: If one disk goes down, at least the other won't. There was no structural reason to keep files in a particular disk location, other than keeping them out of the System Folder.

I visited a client yesterday whose drive scheme was set up exactly like this, and he wanted to be (finally) upgraded to Leopard. I wasn't sure how Leopard would handle the fact that his Users folder had been moved to a different drive, so (knowing I had backups of his entire system) I cautiously proceeded with the installation.

After the installer finished, Leopard had created a fresh, blank Users folder on the startup disk with a home folder bearing the same username. This wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for. I had to link, somehow, the new Users/hisname folder with his existing user folder on the other volume.

Turns out, Leopard handles this much better than previous versions of Mac OS X. Read on to find out how.

Continue reading TUAW Tip: Moving your home folder to another disk (or moving it back)

TUAWTUAW Tip: Moving your home folder to another disk (or moving it back) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple issued a press release this morning, saying that Worldwide Marketing VP Phil Schiller would lead a "team of Apple executives" to deliver the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote June 8 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern).

According to the press release, attendees will receive a developer preview of Snow Leopard, the next major version of Mac OS X. The developer preview is designed to show off a new version of QuickTime, QuickTime X, multi-core and GPU processor support, and accessibility enhancements.

"At WWDC, we will be giving our developers a final Developer Preview release so they can see the incredible progress we've made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release," said Bertrand Serlet, senior VP of Software Engineering.

During the conference, iPhone developers can also attend over 100 technical sessions and meet with more than a thousand Apple engineers about iPhone OS 3.0, the release says.

WWDC runs from June 8 to June 12 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The conference is sold out.

TUAWSchiller and team to deliver WWDC keynote, Snow Leopard developer preview June 8 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 13 May 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've all had an "oh poopie" moment involving liquids: Time slows down, you watch as the glass tips over, its contents cascading (beautifully, in another context perhaps) over the rim and onto the table. The rivulets of beverage roll in a miniscule tidal wave across the surface, over the edge, and drip to the floor. All in the span of a few seconds.

The worst part is when there's a computer between the cup and the table. That's when an oops becomes a crisis.

What's the best thing to do when there's a spill on your laptop? Keep calm and carry on:

1. Don't panic.

First, know that your data is safe. Hard drives -- while not hermetically sealed -- are tightly put together. If you act quickly, you can prevent the liquid from getting to your hard disk, and damaging your valuable data. (I'll save the bad news for later.)

2. Turn off the computer.

Even before you run to get a towel, turn the computer off. If you can't shut it down normally (the keyboard won't respond for example), try pressing the power button for several seconds to force the computer to shut down. Unplug the laptop, and disconnect any cables and USB devices.

3. With the lid open, turn the computer upside down.

This prevents the liquid from getting too far into the computer. While the computer is upside down, remove the battery and set it aside.

4. Wipe up the liquid.

All joking aside: use toilet paper. Ounce for ounce, it's the most absorbent material you're likely to have handy. It's also thin, so it can reach down into crevices in and around your keyboard to soak up the liquid. This is especially important for sugary drinks like colas and juice: Sugars are sticky, and if they dry, you'll have a bigger problem.

Next: If you're prepared, you can take your computer apart to clean up any liquid inside.

Continue reading Don't panic: Liquid damage, and what to do about it

TUAWDon't panic: Liquid damage, and what to do about it originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 12 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Stutsman Software has released version 2 of DVR Remote, an app we covered a while back that lets you use your iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for your TiVo Series 3 via WiFi.

One user, however, is reporting an issue with a Now Playing list that never ends -- that is, its contents are repeated over and over again -- but Derek Stutsman, the developer, is working on it. On the product's page in iTunes (link opens iTunes), Stutsman suggests you may want to wait until he releases a fix before upgrading from 1.x.

New in this version is improved keyboard support, rewritten networking support to handle transfer interruptions, and a faster "Now Playing" list. Also included is support for skins. You can select from one of many attractive themes for your remote, or create one yourself. Pictured here is the "Starry Night" theme.

DVR Remote is available in the App Store for $2.99.

Thanks, Derek!

TUAWDVR Remote 2 available, but you may want to wait originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here's a frustrating problem: You have InDesign CS4, and your buddy needs your file, but has InDesign CS2. "Easy!" you think, "just save an InDesign Interchange (INX) file and send it to him."

Lo, wonder of wonders: InDesign saves an INX file that's compatible only with the immediately preceding version of InDesign. (As I found out the hard way today.) CS4 saves a file for CS3; CS3 saves a file for CS2. If you don't have both versions on your computer, you're out of luck. Way to Quark it up, Adobe.

An INX file is just a glorified XML file. And Adobe, clever lads and lasses they are, inserted a version number in the file. Adobe CS2 looks at the version number, sees that the INX file is targeted for CS3, and pops up an error message without even trying to open the file. Curses.

But Mike Rankin figured it out last November: Open the INX file with your favorite text editor (like TextMate or BBEdit) and change the version number. Replace line number 2 (which looks like this):

<?aid style="33" type="document" DOMVersion="6.0" readerVersion="5.0" featureSet="257" product="6.0(352)" ?>

with this:

<?aid style="33" type="document" DOMVersion="5.0" readerVersion="4.0" featureSet="257" product="5.0(662)" ?>

Easy peasy. Open the INX file in InDesign CS2, and you're good to go. Use caution, though: This works best for simple layouts. The more complex your layout, the more likely it will unexpectedly change when re-imported into a lesser version of InDesign.

[Via InDesignSecrets.]

TUAWTUAW Tip: Saving InDesign CS4 files for InDesign CS2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 08 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're looking for a significant performance boost for your middle-aged laptop, replacing your aging hard disk with a solid state disk (SSD) could give your computer a new lease on life.

Solid-state disks (pictured, bottom) differ from traditional hard disks (top) in that they're not constructed with platters and heads. Instead, they're more like giant thumb drives, containing memory chips designed to be written and re-written without wearing out. The upside to this is that SSDs are much, much faster to read and write to, making booting and starting applications lightning-quick.

I recently installed an Intel X25-M SSD, a 160GB drive, as a replacement for a 120GB Toshiba hard disk for my 2006-vintage black MacBook. Spendy, for sure, but for the performance increase and the extra life it adds to my MacBook, well worth it. Plus, I had my state tax refund burning a hole in my pocket.

The performance is phenomenal. The old disk booted in a respectable one minute, 49 seconds. The new disk booted in a blazing 31 seconds. Ridiculous. Windows also boots in less than half the time it took before. Photoshop CS3 launches in five seconds, Illustrator CS3 in nine seconds.

Getting the drive was simple: It's moving the data that takes time. Read on to see how you can migrate your data like I did -- including a Boot Camp partition -- with little fuss.

Continue reading TUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop's hard disk for a spiffy new SSD

TUAWTUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop's hard disk for a spiffy new SSD originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.