With apologies to Carole King: "Now it's too late, bayyybeee, now it's too late, though we really did try to make it..."
If you were waiting until the last minute to get your reservations in for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, aka WWDC 2008, you're out of luck. All available spaces at Apple's annual developer love-fest have been taken, so you'll have to wait until next year's event to get your fix of sessions and labs.
That also means you're going to miss out on the Steve Jobs keynote address, which you'll hear about within minutes of it happening anyway. Don't procrastinate for WWDC 2009!
Up until a few years ago, I had a 12" PowerBook G4 that I absolutely loved. It was truly portable (although the screen was a bit on the small side for me), relatively fast, and lightweight. Many of my consulting clients have asked if Apple had plans to replace the 12" PowerBook with a MacBook or MacBook Pro in the same form factor, but I've pointed them towards the 13" MacBook or MacBook Air instead.
There's still a vocal group of former PowerBook G4 users who would like to see Apple come out with a new MacBook Pro -- complete with SuperDrive, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and Multi-Touch trackpad -- in that tiny 12" PowerBook case. If you're in their camp, visit and participate in the MBP12.com forum and add your voice to the people clamoring for a small, powerful MacBook Pro.
Do you think a 12" MacBook Pro would be a winner in the market? Take our poll!
Second Gear, the same developers who bring you the PocketTweets Twitter client for the iPhone, have announced that Today 1.1 is now available.
Today is an app that works with your iCal database and provides easy browsing of your events and tasks in an attractive and unobtrusive window. Clicking the icons at the bottom of the window opens dialogs for entering new events and tasks in a way that is much easier than entering them into iCal directly.
What's new in Today 1.1?
Better performance for those of us with big calendaring needs
Filtering of the calendars that appear in the Today window
Locations can be assigned for new events
All day events have a new, more obvious appearance
New event and task due dates default to the day that you're viewing
Bugs have been squashed
Second Gear provides a 7-day test drive for download. The update is free for existing Today users, or you can purchase Today for $15.
TUAW recently featured an interview with Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote, who stated that the ultimate goal of the application is to be a "universal human memory extension." I've been using Evernote for over a month now and love it -- I've sucked all of my business cards into Evernote with my iSight or iPhone camera, and use the program instead of a card file. Evernote's text recognition simplifies tagging the cards, and I can use either the Mac app, the web client, or my iPhone to look through my database. Evernote's unique focus on images makes it quite different from other information managers like Together or Yojimbo.
The update has some great new features based on customer feedback:
PDF support -- Evernote can now store PDFs and you can print into Evernote from any Mac application. Image-recognition isn't working for PDFs at this time, but they're working on it.
Encryption -- Included in the last release, but not announced, encryption works with the Mac or Windows clients only, not with the web client.
Spotlight integration -- Evernote "memories" are now searchable, and you can create Finder "smart folders" that include Evernote content.
Mixed View Mode -- In addition to List and Thumbnail view, Evernote 1.1 has a Mixed view that shows small thumbnails with metadata for each note.
Vertical Preview Pane -- In Mixed and Thumbnail modes, provides a big preview pane with live search results.
Want to give Evernote a try? I have 19 Evernote invitations for the first 19 commenters who ask for one politely.
Update: All of the invitations were swallowed up quickly by a group of very polite readers! Thanks for your comments and have fun with Evernote!
Update 2: Thanks to Evernote, I have a huge number of invitations available for TUAW readers. Leave a comment and try out Evernote.
Update 3: Sorry, everyone! I can't send out any more invitations. But thanks for playing!
Look! Up in the air! It's a bird, it's Superman; no, it's Mailplane 2 Beta!
The wizards at uncomplex gmbh have posted a beta of an upgrade to Mailplane. In case you're not familiar with it, Mailplane is a "Mac-friendly" front-end to Gmail with a powerful feature set, and a quick fly-by of the upgrade revealed even more Gmail goodness:
Full support for Gmail 2
mailplane:// URLs for accessing and searching your Gmail database
A free OmniFocus clipping plugin for creating new tasks containing links to conversations in Mailplane
Better photo attachment customization
Assign different notification sounds and colors to specific Gmail accounts
The ability to post Google Spreadsheet forms
Integration with Mac OS X Address Book
A "Do Not Disturb" mode
and a few dozen more improvements!
Once the beta program is complete, Mailplane 2 will be free to registered users or $24.95 for single users.
Apple released two Pro App updates bright and early this Monday morning:
ProKit Update 4.5: "This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express."
Plugin Manager 1.7.3: "This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and related SDKs."
According the release notes for the Plugin Manager update, it addresses a backwards compatibility issue with Apple and third-party filters in the applications listed above. Users of any of these apps and Motion should fire up Software Update and install the recommended updates. No reboot is required (and there was much rejoicing!).
Update: These updates were new to me! Sorry for the false alarm all, I just installed FCP and jumped the gun. That being said, be sure to check out Apple's list of available updates. You never know what you'll find on there.
Thanks to everyone in the comments for setting me straight.
Photon, the speedy digital photo workflow app and labor of love from Mike Bernardo's Green Volcano Software, has been updated to v1.1.
Photon differs from Aperture, Photoshop, and the like by focusing on the front end of the photography workflow. Importing RAW images from DSLRs is fast, and Photon's stacking feature simplifies sorting and culling your photos. The update includes:
An overhauled caching engine to improve import speed and responsiveness
A "Discards" stack for unwanted image files that provides a direct route to Trash
A "File stack" feature for moving existing files to a new spot on your hard drive(s)
Improved memory card download performance
The ability to save and recall stacks when re-launching the app.
The update is free to registered Photon users, or you can buy Photon for $69 (Universal Binary). Thanks to Mike B. for the tip!
Planning some activities out on the town this weekend, or searching for a Mother's Day dining option? The fine folks at Schmap have a treat for you -- they'd like TUAW readers to have the first whack at their new iPhone City Guides and Local Search before the Mobile Safari-optimized site goes into official beta on Monday, May 12.
Point Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch to www.schmap.com, then enter the pre-launch preview access code: 724627. Once you're in the site, pull up a Schmap Guide for your favorite city for info, maps, and more. Some of the search features aren't wired in yet, but they should be done soon.
Schmap's website has several Flash demos of the features of the Schmap Guides for iPhone. Check it out!
Thanks to Donald at Schmap for the invitation, and Kyle for the tip.
Reader Alex Bratton over at Lextech let us know about a fun iPhone project they're working on. Most high-end surveillance systems use a joystick or mouse to control those cameras that we see all over the place. Lextech has done some work using the touchscreen of the iPhone to replace the old 70's UI tech.
To pan the surveillance camera, you scroll the screen left or right using the traditional iPhone finger drag; tilt is done by dragging a finger up and down. Want to zoom in for details on the bad guys? Use the iPhone "reverse pinch" gesture to get the close-up. And if you want to zoom back out to get the big picture, it's a simple pinch on the iPhone display.
Videos demonstrating the control system are on the Lextech site and on YouTube.
When I think about a computer, I usually don't think about a 5-ton assembly of brass gears, cams, and steel rods. Yet in 1847 - 1849, Charles Babbage first created his design for the Difference Engine No. 2, a large mechanical computer that used these non-electronic components.
Nathan Myrhvold, former Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft, commissioned the building of a Difference Engine No. 2 based on Babbage's design. It's on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and will soon grace the living room of Myrhvold's home.
What does this have to do with Apple? In this MarketWatch video, it's mentioned that Babbage had problems getting funding for a device that was considered to be ahead of its time. It kind of reminds me of Apple's Newton MessagePad. It was the progenitor of all PDAs and smartphones, but failed in the marketplace because of its price and the fact that few people understood what it was good for.
The video also highlights Daniel Janisch, PowerBook Guy, who upgrades and sells antique PowerBooks (8-year old "Pismo" PowerBooks, for example). You can run Tiger on the Pismos, but they're often abandoned for the new kids on the block.
Danger, Will Robinson! Adobe is warning that "critical vulnerabilities" have been found in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.1.1 and earlier. They are recommending that Acrobat 8 and Adobe Reader users install the 8.1.2 update as soon as possible. Those who are using Acrobat 7 are advised to install the 7.1.0 update quickly as well.
A full summary of the security concerns and links to the update files can be yours by visiting the Adobe security update site. Note that while Acrobat & Reader 8.1.2 have been out for some time, the 7.1 update is fresh this week and the security issue is newly disclosed.
If you've been cursing the big price tag and lack of VBA support in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, OpenOffice.org is coming to your rescue. Last September, the OpenOffice.org dev team announced that they would be porting the suite to run natively on the Mac. Previous versions ran under the X11 environment, which not only hogged resources, but didn't have the Aqua look and feel we all love.
OpenOffice.org 3.0 is still beta, but a quick test-drive of the application showed that it is almost ready for prime time. OOo is a full-featured office suite, complete with word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation package (Impress), drawing app (Draw), as well as database tools (Base) that are sadly lacking in other office suites.
The feature set of OpenOffice.org 3 is impressive:
Imports Microsoft Office binary (.doc, .ppt, .xls) and Office 2007/Office 2008 for Mac (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) files
A solver component for solving optimization problems, something lacking in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Spreadsheet workbook sharing
Display of multiple Writer pages while editing
MS Office-like comments in Writer
Limited VBA macro support -- which is still better than no support
Extensibility with Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning, Sun Wiki Publisher and Report Builder
The price of OpenOffice.org 3 is, as always, free! If you're up to test-driving beta ware that may not necessarily be as stable or fast as your other office suite(s), click here to be transported to the beta site.
Hot for Hindi? Up for learning Uyghur? Wild about Welsh? LifeClever tipped us off to the fact that there are 926 free language training podcasts currently available in the iTunes Store. A quick glance at the available podcasts shows that you can learn 39 languages from Arabic to Yiddish with the help of your iPod or iPhone.
To find this treasure trove of linguistic goodness, launch iTunes, pop into the iTunes Store, click on the Browse link, and navigate to Podcasts > Education > Language Courses.
What am I going to learn on my summer vacation? I'm waffling between Sexy Spanish and Latinum. This is a great way to get your kids to learn a language and keep them occupied during that long, hot road trip to Wally World this summer.
Do you spend part or all of your time creating resolution-independent graphics for the Web? If you do, then you're probably familiar with Opacity. It's a powerful tool for creating icons or other graphic elements that are designed for viewing on a screen rather than on paper.
The developer of Opacity, Like Thought, LLC, is now shipping version 1.1 of their app. Opacity 1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 and has a redesigned interface with a new grid and dynamically generated images in the toolbar. To make life easier for new users of Opacity, Like Thought also added a "How To" screencast and four new templates.
The biggest addition to Opacity 1.1 is support for SVG vector graphics for the Web. Opacity creates reusable workflows called factories, which now support such cool features as gamma stripping in PNG images, automatic uploading to Web sites using Cyberduck, and multi-page PDF images.
If you own Opacity 1.0, this is a free upgrade. A demo is available for download, and you can purchase Opacity for $89.
Howdy, TUAW-ites. My name is Steve Sande and I'm the new kid on the block here at TUAW. Saying that I'm the new kid is a bit misleading, since I'm over the half-century mark in the age column.
I've been writing online since 1986, when I started up a Mac/Apple IIGS Bulletin Board System called MAGIC. That BBS continued for 8 years until 1994, when I began publishing a blog-like website called PDAntic.com on the web, writing about the Apple Newton MessagePad. That site went through various incarnations, ending with the latest - MovableBeast.com. I also blog and podcast occasionally on TalkingWordpress.com, and I can be heard on the MacJury podcasts as a regular jury member.
My first Mac purchase was in December of 1984; a Mac 512K with an ImageWriter II printer. My latest? A MacBook Air! My next dream machine is going to be a 3.06 GHz 24" iMac with 4GB of RAM and a 1 TB HD. I'm not sure how many Macs I've owned since 1984...
So, what do I do when I'm not blogging? I'm currently an ACN (Apple Consultant Network) member, which means I'm a certified Apple consultant. I write documentation for several commercial Mac applications, I've written a couple of ebooks for Take Control Books, and I teach Business Analysis classes all over the country.
I'm thrilled to be part of the TUAW team, and I look forward to your comments and story tips.
With apologies to Carole King: "Now it's too late, bayyybeee, now it's too late, though we really did try to make it..."
Up until a few years ago, I had a 12" PowerBook G4 that I absolutely loved. It was truly portable (although the screen was a bit on the small side for me), relatively fast, and lightweight. Many of my consulting clients have asked if Apple had plans to replace the 12" PowerBook with a MacBook or MacBook Pro in the same form factor, but I've pointed them towards the 13" MacBook or MacBook Air instead.
The beta just got bettah!
PDF support -- Evernote can now store PDFs and you can print into Evernote from any Mac application. Image-recognition isn't working for PDFs at this time, but they're working on it.
Look! Up in the air! It's a bird, it's Superman; no, it's 
Apple released two Pro App updates bright and early this Monday morning:
Planning some activities out on the town this weekend, or searching for a Mother's Day dining option? The fine folks at 
Reader Alex Bratton over at 
When I think about a computer, I usually don't think about a 5-ton assembly of brass gears, cams, and steel rods. Yet in 1847 - 1849, Charles Babbage first created his design for the 
Danger, Will Robinson!
If you've been cursing the big price tag and lack of VBA support in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, 
Hot for Hindi? Up for learning Uyghur? Wild about Welsh? 
Do you spend part or all of your time creating resolution-independent graphics for the Web? If you do, then you're probably familiar with 
Howdy, TUAW-ites. My name is Steve Sande and I'm the new kid on the block here at TUAW. Saying that I'm the new kid is a bit misleading, since I'm over the half-century mark in the age column. 
