The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) http://www.tuaw.com The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) http://www.tuaw.com/media/feedlogo.gif The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) http://www.tuaw.com en-us Copyright 2008 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/SSHing via Apple Remote Desktop with AppleScripthttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/07/sshing-via-apple-remote-desktop-with-applescript/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/07/sshing-via-apple-remote-desktop-with-applescript/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/07/sshing-via-apple-remote-desktop-with-applescript/#commentsFiled under: ,

Scott posted yesterday on a new series about SSH coming to Apple Matters. If you want to skip the learning and go straight to the Secure Shell-ing, then why not take a look at this recent post by John Welch. In this post, he describes how to set up a simple AppleScript that uses Apple Remote Desktop to SSH into a set of Macs on your local network. The script takes the machines you have selected in ARD (or, if you've only got one selected, just that machine) then opens SSH sessions in Terminal, ready for you to type your UNIX commands to your networked computers.

If you want to get the script and start batch-connecting to your machines, visit his website.
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]]>AppleScriptBynkiiMacsnetworkSHHUNIX commandsUnixCommandsCory Bohon2008-05-07T08:00:00+00:00Vista beats OS X? Really?http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/vista-beats-os-x-really/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/vista-beats-os-x-really/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/vista-beats-os-x-really/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

ComputerWorld's Preston Gralla posted a blog entry titled, Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X. Clearly, this was link-bait, but you know what, I'll bite.
And although I vehemently disagree with the post's title and assertion, I want to make it clear that I'm not coming at this from the typical rabid Mac-fangirl stance. Until August of last year, I still used a PC as my primary computer (I used Macs at school and for creative work); I used to work as a PC technician. In our TUAW backchannel chat, I'm usually the first person to take the "don't knee-jerkingly attack the PC" stance.

Still, it was impossible to read the post and NOT respond. Let's take a look at Mr. Gralla's arguments and dissect them one-by-one.

Continue reading Vista beats OS X? Really?

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]]>mac vs pcMacVsPcos xOsXvistaChristina Warren2008-04-09T17:00:00+00:00Blanc interviews Gruberhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/19/blanc-interviews-gruber/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/19/blanc-interviews-gruber/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/19/blanc-interviews-gruber/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Shawn Blanc has wrapped up his series of great software reviews, and now dives into the scariest of waters: those of the major minds in Mac journalism. And he goes first after the biggest shark in the ocean (or at least the one with the sharpest teeth), everyone's favorite Daring Fireball, John Gruber.

The interview is first about interviews, and then goes on to cover Gruber's past (he worked with Bare Bones and Joyent before going on to write the blog full time). Gruber also gives out some great tips for writers, from things as practical as setting a goal the night before to guide your workday and always drinking coffee black, to ephemeral tips like how to become a better writer without actually writing anything (save about a dozen books' worth of message boards and blog posts).

Gruber also talks specifically about Daring Fireball, his favorite stuff on the site, and where he wants to take it, and how far. Definitely a great read -- as always, Shawn makes sure to hit on all the important notes and leave no stone unturned, and Gruber reveals lots of insight on what it's like to put his posts and the Linked List together every day.
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]]>bloggingdaring-fireballentertainmentinterviewjohn-grubermacshawn-blanctipsMike Schramm2008-02-19T15:00:00+00:00Stephen Fry on the iPhone and digital lifehttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/30/stephen-fry-on-the-iphone-and-digital-life/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/30/stephen-fry-on-the-iphone-and-digital-life/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/30/stephen-fry-on-the-iphone-and-digital-life/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Some of my posts written here on TUAW are specifically meant for you fans to enjoy, and are about things I can't say I care that much about. Some posts here are great for everyone to enjoy, both you and me alike. And some posts, dear readers, are just for me, and anyone who shares my weird collection of fanaticism. This post is of the third variety, so if you have no idea who Stephen Fry is, feel free to move on.

But those of you with a taste for great British comedy will know exactly who Mr. Fry is and why it's so exciting that he's now writing a weekly column about technology for the Guardian. They brag that he bought the second Mac ever sold in England (Douglas Adams, as you might know if you have the same tastes I do, bought the first), but what can't you brag about Stephen Fry-- he's hilarious, insightful, and one of those guys who's pretty much done everything and been entertaining the whole time. His new column won't be all about Apple, but, as he says, Apple can't be ignored in any discussion about computers: "Apple gets plenty of small things wrong, but one big thing it gets right: when you use a device every day, you cannot help, as a human being, but have an emotional relationship with it."

And for more Stephen Fry on Apple, reader Jack also points us to this long blog entry, in which Fry reviews a bunch of smart phones, including the iPhone. Sounds like he has the same problems with it as everyone else does, but in true Stephen Fry style, they're discussed more wittily and entertainingly than anywhere else. Looking forward to reading that column every week.

Thanks, Jack!
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]]>analysisapplebritishcolumndouglas-adamsiphoneipodmacstephen-frythe-guardianwitMike Schramm2007-10-30T09:00:00+00:00iWPhone: WordPress plugin renders for iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/12/iwphone-wordpress-plugin-renders-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/12/iwphone-wordpress-plugin-renders-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/12/iwphone-wordpress-plugin-renders-for-iphone/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

I run my personal site using WordPress, and one reason I like using it so much is that (although this is hardly exclusive to WordPress as a content manager) is all the great plugins available for it. On another site I ran under WordPress, I loved using the WP-Print plugin-- it automatically creates a "printable" version of each page on your site. All of the printer compatibility, none of the actual work.

And now, someone's cooked up an iPhone version of that same plugin, where you simply install the WP plugin on your blog (for WordPress 2.2.1), and instantly you can see all your posts formatted specifically for the iPhone. Instead of creating a whole other, "mobile" version of your site, you can simply put in this plugin, and you can get a link that will reformat your content for the iPhone or iPod touch. Very excellent.

If you run a WordPress blog or site and were thinking about creating a version of it for the iPhone or iPod touch, your work is done. Download the iWPhone plugin from Content.Robot, install it, and you're set.

Thanks, Philapple!
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]]>browsercontent-robotformattingiphoneipod-touchiWPhonepluginwordpressMike Schramm2007-10-12T20:00:00+00:00Zune on Woot for $20 less, Woot offers rebate (and parody)http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/21/zune-on-woot-for-20-less-woot-offers-rebate-and-parody/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/21/zune-on-woot-for-20-less-woot-offers-rebate-and-parody/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/21/zune-on-woot-for-20-less-woot-offers-rebate-and-parody/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Gosh, I love Woot.com. Not only are they based in my original hometown (St. Louis, MO, also home of Fried Ravioli and the Bowling Hall of Fame), and not only do they have some great deals on their site (they sell just one item per day, usually at lower-than-normal prices), but they are insightful and funny people. Take, for example, today's item-- it's a Zune (that non-Apple mp3 player that you may have heard of). When Woot offered the Zune a little while ago, not only did they make headlines, but Apple fans really enjoyed it-- it took Microsoft's mp3 player a full 23 hours to completely sell out, even at the low price of $150.

And now, as reader Jon points out, Woot is giving Apple fans another chuckle. Not only is today's Zune on sale for $130 ($20 less than before-- and it is sold out as of this writing), but their description text is a pitch-perfect parody of another mp3 seller who's had to announce falling prices on one of his products. And they've even offering a coupon back to their previous Zune customers-- as they say, "we want to convincingly pretend to do the right thing for our valued Zune customers."

It's Jobsian parody worthy of Fake Steve. Very nice job, Woot.

Thanks, Jon!
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]]>applehumorjobsparodywootzuneMike Schramm2007-09-21T21:00:00+00:00MarsEdit 2.0.2 fixes bugshttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/18/marsedit-2-0-2-fixes-bugs/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/18/marsedit-2-0-2-fixes-bugs/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/18/marsedit-2-0-2-fixes-bugs/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Scott's favorite blogging software has gotten another update, hot on the heels of the big 2.0 release. MarsEdit 2.0.2 patches up the big release with a few "slightly urgent" fixes involving using external editors and Evaluation mode (including a bug that caused you to be nagged a little more often than expected). There are also a few other typo and bug fixes (including a small fix to 2.0.1, which was only up for a little bit, so you didn't miss anything).

The update is available over on Red Sweater's site, and if you haven't started editing on Mars yet, the full program is available for $29.95.
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]]>bloggingbugsmarseditsoftwaretyposMike Schramm2007-09-18T12:00:00+00:00Vista SP1 to support EFI booting standard - what does this mean for Boot Camp?http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/30/vista-sp1-to-support-efi-booting-standard-what-does-this-mean/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/30/vista-sp1-to-support-efi-booting-standard-what-does-this-mean/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/30/vista-sp1-to-support-efi-booting-standard-what-does-this-mean/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Rounding up on 9 months of Vista being on the market, Microsoft is of course at work on Service Pack 1 which is slated for an early 2008 release. At the official Windows Vista blog, Brandon LeBlanc has offered extensive details on what the focus of Service Pack 1 is, and while much of it is targeted at businesses and independent software vendors, an interesting section outlining some of the fundamentals mentions that support for the EFI booting standard is on its way (under the Introducing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 section; there aren't any anchors I can link in this extensive post, so you'll have to search for that title or simply 'EFI').

In their hype and marketing for Boot Camp, Apple makes a pretty big deal about Intel-based Macs supporting EFI while "Windows XP, and even Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS" (check the sidebar of the Boot Camp page). So what could it mean if Vista catches up to the EFI bandwagon? I'm not quite sure yet. It could likely make the Boot Camp engineers' lives a lot easier, and while I know less about virtualization software like Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion, they might be able to sleep better at night as well. Ultimately, if EFI support in Vista makes it easier for Apple to support running Windows on a Mac, this could likely yield even more sales from swtichers - especially those who need Vista for things like work or gaming. As to speculation on whether this could bring some of the wilder stuff like running Windows apps in Mac OS X without the need for the Windows OS or virtualization tools, I'll leave that to the tin foil hat enthusiasts in the audience.

Thanks Adam
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]]>Boot CampBootCampEFIvirtualizationVistaWindowsWindows VistaWindows XPWindowsVistaWindowsXpXPDavid Chartier2007-08-30T19:30:00+00:00See a movie, get Mira for freehttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/29/see-a-movie-get-mira-for-free/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/29/see-a-movie-get-mira-for-free/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/29/see-a-movie-get-mira-for-free/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Bruno Fernandes of Twisted Melon software has an offer for you: get educated about the problems facing our world today, and get free software for it. He recently saw The 11th Hour, a film produced and narrated by Leonardo Dicaprio about global issues in 2007, and was so affected by it that, like the New York Times, he considers it "essential viewing."

And he wants to give his program, Mira, to the first 50 people who go see the movie and send him a scan of their tickets. Mira usually runs $15.95, so depending on the theater you go to, you'll probably be saving a few bucks on a pretty good Apple Remote application.
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]]>appleremotefreegiveawaymiramoviessoftwarethe11thhourMike Schramm2007-08-29T10:00:00+00:00Maybe iMovie '08 isn't such a bad change after allhttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/27/maybe-imovie-08-isnt-such-a-bad-change-after-all/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/27/maybe-imovie-08-isnt-such-a-bad-change-after-all/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/27/maybe-imovie-08-isnt-such-a-bad-change-after-all/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Many folks who were used to the array of features iMovie '06 offered were understandably upset when iMovie '08 uprooted just about everything they knew. After all, they had the figurative rug pulled out right from under them. Eric at no one sequel, however, doesn't see this as a bad thing. Eric's entire post is definitely worth a read, but to summarize: while iMovie '06 is a good product, it doesn't exactly live up to the Apple and iLife reputation of "just working." iMovie '06 users need to learn a little too much about video editing - time codes, time lines, "rendering", etc. - causing a significant portion of the public to avoid the practice altogether. I agree with Eric - perhaps it isn't Apple's job to bring pro features and workflows to the general user. Instead, maybe it's their job to to eliminate the need for those features to exist in the mind of said user, greatly simplifying the barrier to entry in video editing so that more can use these otherwise complicated tools.

By completely rethinking the practice of video editing and redesigning iMovie around the new paradigm, iMovie '08 could perhaps be the first product that really captures the attention of the larger mass that hasn't caught the bug yet (no pun intended). Sure iMovie is lacking a few features everyone can enjoy, such as a few effects and transitions, but users no longer need to learn what a 'timecode' is just to cut together the summer vacation or a cute puppy montage. It's just skim, click and drag and poof - a video.

Isn't that the way Apple products are supposed to work?

[via Daring Fireball]
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]]>iLifeiMovieusabilityvideo editingVideoEditingDavid Chartier2007-08-27T13:30:00+00:00Mint and iPhone: Two great tastes that taste great togetherhttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/21/mint-and-iphone-two-great-tastes-that-taste-great-together/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/21/mint-and-iphone-two-great-tastes-that-taste-great-together/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/21/mint-and-iphone-two-great-tastes-that-taste-great-together/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Mint is an excellent web stats tracking app from Shaun Inman with a powerful, extensible plug-in architecture. The iPhone is an excellent... well you know the rest of that one. While these two things might not have much to do with each other at first glance, a plug-in and a hack have brought us one step closer to having a more minty iPhone experience.

First up is a new iPhone Pepper (aka - plug-in) for Mint that formats your stat panes into a single column for better viewing on MobileSafari. Simply install it via the typical Mint procedure, activate it and *boom* - this new pepper stays out of your way when using a real desktop browser, but auto-detects MobileSafari and displays the proper single-column formatting when you're on the go. The drop-down pane atop Mint's admin panel even works, offering quick access to panes way down below with only two taps.



Next up on the list of iPhone Mint-ification steps you can take is adding a full-blown Home screen button for Mint, courtesy of iPhone Apper and what looks like the easiest way to get ssh/sftp installed on the iPhone yet.

Continue reading Mint and iPhone: Two great tastes that taste great together

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]]>iPhoneMintstatisticsvisitorsweb statsWebStatsDavid Chartier2007-08-21T15:00:00+00:00MoodSwing multi-status utility: Now in convenient menubar dosagehttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/20/moodswing-multi-status-utility-now-in-convenient-menubar-dosage/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/20/moodswing-multi-status-utility-now-in-convenient-menubar-dosage/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/20/moodswing-multi-status-utility-now-in-convenient-menubar-dosage/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



Attention all ye users of Adium, Skype, iChat, Twitter, Facebook and Jaiku - Brett Terpstra has struck again with MoodSwing, his excellent utility for updating your status across all these apps and services. Why do I call it a utility instead of just a Quicksilver action, you ask? Because Brett is now providing both the original action and a new full-blown menubar app - at the request of TUAW readers - called MoodBlast. Both now live on the same download page at Brett's Circle Six Design blog, and they both allow you to update your status across all the aforementioned services at once. While MoodSwing is an action you set-and-forget to work with Quicksilver (though you can reconfigure later), an advantage of the MoodBlast menubar app is that you're presented with the UI you see above every time you activate it, with any services you used previously already selected for updating. The other advantage of the MoodBlast app, of course, is that you don't need Quicksilver in order to minimize the effort spent for online socialization.

As with his other excellent projects, Brett Terpstra provides MoodSwing and MoodBlast as donationware.
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]]>AdiumFacebookiChatJaikuMoodBlastMoodSwingQuicksilverSkypesocial networkingSocialNetworkingTwitterDavid Chartier2007-08-20T16:17:00+00:00MoodSwing 4 multi-status Quicksilver script has come a long way, babyhttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/17/moodswing-4-multi-status-quicksilver-script-has-come-a-lo/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/17/moodswing-4-multi-status-quicksilver-script-has-come-a-lo/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/17/moodswing-4-multi-status-quicksilver-script-has-come-a-lo/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

If it seems like it was only last week that Brett Terpstra introduced his side project MoodSwing, a clever script that allows users to change their status message across multiple apps with Quicksilver - well, it was. People loved it, so Brett quickly began updating, tweaking and adding a slew of new features and services that MoodSwing could manipulate. The script is now up to v4 with a dedicated page at Brett's Circle Six Design blog, listing out all the features and supported services:
  • Supports Adium, iChat and Skype
  • Supports Twitter, Jaiku and Facebook
  • Automatic Qurling of long URLs
  • Word Count
  • Send current weather (international)
  • Send current iTunes track
  • Encryption of passwords stored in preferences
  • Easy-to-edit defaults, can be overridden by command syntax
In a surprisingly short time, MoodSwing has become an incredibly powerful Quicksilver action that can simplify the process of letting your friends across many services know what you're up to. The action is pretty easy to set up and configure to your bidding, but be sure to check out the MoodSwing page for instructions to get the ball rolling. As with so many of Brett's other excellent offerings, MoodSwing is provided as donationware, so scroll down on Brett's Downloads page and show him some appreciation.
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]]>AdiumBrett TerpstraBrettTerpstraFacebookiChatiTunesJaikuMoodSwingQurlSkypesocialDavid Chartier2007-08-17T17:15:00+00:00iPhone app requests - this time with screenshotshttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/16/iphone-app-requests-this-time-with-screenshots/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/16/iphone-app-requests-this-time-with-screenshots/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/16/iphone-app-requests-this-time-with-screenshots/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Everyone and their mother has requests for iPhone apps - heck, I had eight of them. But not everyone goes the extra mile like Phillip Ryu has to create detailed screenshots of how their apps should look (Update: Phill contacted me to clear up that Josh Pyles created the screenshots in collaboration). In addition to the screenshots, most of Phill's requests in 5 iPhone Apps I'd Like To See From Apple are also unique from similar posts I've seen across the blogosphere - he's asking for things like an Archive.org/Ebook reader, the iTunes Store for iPhone (of course, but a nice mockup nonetheless), a sketching app (Skitch for iPhone anyone?), a VoIP app and iMovie for iPhone that could offer basic editing and sharing with .Mac, YouTube and Mail. It's an interesting list of requests with pretty pictures that do a great job of mocking up the apps with the iPhone's new UI paradigms in full force. No tiny menus or tool palettes here; just large buttons, lists with large text and toolbars lining the bottom of each app. Here's hoping that the signs pointing towards true iPhone app development arriving with Leopard in October are more than empty speculation.
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]]>appsiPhonemockupsrequestsscreenshotsDavid Chartier2007-08-16T13:00:00+00:00Should Apple have used Cover Flow in iPhoto '08?http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/15/should-apple-have-used-cover-flow-in-iphoto-08/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/15/should-apple-have-used-cover-flow-in-iphoto-08/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/15/should-apple-have-used-cover-flow-in-iphoto-08/#commentsFiled under: , ,



TUAW reader o!ivier has posted a mockup to his Flickr account of how he believes the iPhoto '08 Events UI should have been designed. Seeing it as a more natural evolution of what Apple is doing with Mac OS X and their apps (iTunes, Finder in Leopard, etc.), o!ivier believes Apple should have built in Cover Flow for browsing events instead of the new 'skimming' UI, where users run their mouse over resizable thumbnails to see all the photos contained in the event scroll by. Instead, this Cover Flow mockup proposes the idea of scrolling left and right through Events just like you scroll through albums in iTunes. Clicking an event produces thumbnails of all the images laid out in the area below, which can then be resized independently from the Cover Flow area.

I rarely prefer design mockups like this over what Apple produces, but I have to admit: I think Apple dropped the ball here. O!ivier's mockup looks far more useful, as you can browse through Events and view resizable thumbnails of all the photos they contain without leaving the Events UI. Don't get me wrong, skimming is cute, but Cover Flow + iPhoto looks like it would look just as slick but provide a far more useful working environment.

Who knows - Maybe Apple just wants to wait for users to get used to Cover Flow in Leopard's Finder. After all, they need to give us at least a few reasons to upgrade to iLife '09, right?
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]]>Cover FlowCoverFlowiPhotoiPhoto 08Iphoto08mockupsUIuser interfaceUserInterfaceDavid Chartier2007-08-15T15:30:00+00:00A huge collection of Apple TV resourceshttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/14/a-huge-collection-of-apple-tv-resources/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/14/a-huge-collection-of-apple-tv-resources/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/14/a-huge-collection-of-apple-tv-resources/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Poor Apple TV - the iPhone has been outshining the handy little media hub, and Jobs arguably might not have helped matters by calling it a hobby (though, personally, that makes me optimistic for its future). Fortunately, last100 has compiled a very, very thorough list of Apple TV resources that spans reviews from various industry sites, dedicated books, blogs and wikis, how-to tutorials for converting video, podcasts and, of course, the burgeoning hacking industry that has surfaced. If you're looking for a useful springboard into the world of the Apple TV, this is by far the most comprehensive resource I've seen yet.

[via Apple TV Hacks]
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]]>Apple TVAppleTvblogshackslast 100Last100podcastsresourceswikisDavid Chartier2007-08-14T13:03:00+00:00ecto3 alpha releasedhttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/13/ecto3-alpha-released/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/13/ecto3-alpha-released/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/13/ecto3-alpha-released/#commentsFiled under: , ,



Adriaan Tijsseling has been tweeting about the development progress of ecto3, his powerful Mac blogging app, for some time now. After a sneak peek and more teaser screenshots, Adriaan has generously offered an alpha version for us to play with. In other words: it's pre-beta, which means stuff is very, very likely to go wrong; play with this at your own risk. Speaking of risk, however, there is certainly an upside to testing out this ecto3 alpha: it uses a completely different set of data and storage from the current ecto2, so you don't have to worry about blowing away your old settings or accounts.

That said, let's get on to the good stuff: what's new. First of all, ecto3 is apparently a complete rewrite from the bottom up. It has a new rich text editor based on Apple's own Editable WebKit, which offers a number of handy new writing abilities (such as the slick nested list in the ecto3 alpha announcement post). Another major new development which we had previously heard of is a new plug-in architecture for ecto3, allowing anyone to add support for more blogging systems, integrate media and even text formatting such as Markdown. It's a great step towards allowing ecto3 to become a blogging hub that can do just about anything for anyone.

Speaking of media, I also noticed that there is a new media browser that has access to all the typical stuff, such as iPhoto and Aperture photos, and even your movies. There are all sorts of new goodies in ecto3, so definitely poke around to see all the hard work Adriaan has put into this so far.

If you download the alpha, be sure to read through Adriaan's ecto3 alpha announcement post for a few tips and gotchas with getting the ball rolling. There are a few minor things he hasn't gotten to yet, such as adding all the sites to ping when you publish a post, but a simple 'add defaults' button will get you squared away easily. Once it's finished, ecto3 will surprisingly be a free upgrade for existing registered users (a single license is a mere $17.95). Until then, however, be sure to swing by the support forums to post bugs and discuss ecto3.
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]]>Adriaan TijsselingAdriaanTijsselingbloggingectoecto 3Ecto3WebKitDavid Chartier2007-08-13T10:46:00+00:00MoodSwing Quicksilver action simultaneously updates your iChat, Skype, Twitter and Adium statushttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/10/moodswing-quicksilver-action-simultaneously-updates-your-ichat/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/10/moodswing-quicksilver-action-simultaneously-updates-your-ichat/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/10/moodswing-quicksilver-action-simultaneously-updates-your-ichat/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

If you are a text, audio and video chatter, chances are you have some combination of iChat, Skype, Adium and a Twitter client running throughout the day. It's also possible that you're a Quicksilver junkie, which means you might appreciate Brett Terpstra's new Quicksilver script that will let you update your status across all these apps and services from the comforts of your Quicksilver window.

To get set up, download the MoodSwing script and then follow Brett's instructions at this page to install the script in the proper location for Quicksilver. There's a simple system for entering the proper status message so that it fits into all the apps you have running, but bear in mind that Brett isn't taking bug reports or offering support; this was more of a fun project that he tossed out there for the masses, so if you know some AppleScript and can improve upon what Brett has already designed, have at it.
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]]>AdiumBrett TerpstraBrettTerpstraiChatMood SwingMoodSwingQuicksilverscriptsSkypeTwitterDavid Chartier2007-08-10T14:00:00+00:00iPhone to gain Spotlight and true widget support?http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/iphone-to-gain-spotlight-and-true-widget-support/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/iphone-to-gain-spotlight-and-true-widget-support/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/iphone-to-gain-spotlight-and-true-widget-support/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Like so many others armed with iFuntastic's new iPhone file browser, Jimmie Geddes at iPhoneology has been going iPhone-spelunking. Apparently, Geddes has made some interesting discoveries in the form of images buried in the file system that have suggestive names. First is widget.png, found in: / System / Library / CoresServices / SpringBoard.app/. SpringBoard is the app that actually powers the iPhone's home screen and displays all those pretty little square icons, suggesting that this generic widget icon could be used for widgets that don't provide their own (hint hint, future iPhone widget developers).

Next up are pictures named spotlight-full.png and spotlight-keyboard.png, the former pictured in this post. Again, I agree with Geddes that these are very suggestive of Spotlight being included in a future iPhone update. With all the push Apple made with the search paradigm by releasing Spotlight in Tiger in 2005, I'm pretty surprised the iPhone lacks any kind of a search function, let alone at least the abilities to search certain things like contacts that other phones have been able to do for years.

As usual, there is no official word on these features or if they'll actually be coming at all. Here's hoping these images weren't simply left there by an engineer playing around with what could be, instead of what will be.
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]]>iPhonesoftwareSpotlightwidgetsDavid Chartier2007-08-09T13:30:00+00:00MacBreak Weekly has a Picks websitehttp://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/macbreak-weekly-has-a-picks-website/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/macbreak-weekly-has-a-picks-website/http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/09/macbreak-weekly-has-a-picks-website/#commentsFiled under: , ,

MacBreak Weekly is one of my favorite podcasts. Listening to that crew wax ecstatic about the Mac industry, delve into ratholes where no man has gone before, and sometimes even toss a shout out to TUAW helps me get through those long errand trips around town and actually enjoy cleaning the house. Something I missed until last night, however, is that someone has actually started up a MBW Picks site to help keep track of everyone's software and website picks from each show. Either a fan or a friend, Paul Mayson apparently runs the site and logs and links the picks from each show so you can easily check them out at your leisure. As of this writing, this new site goes back to MBW show number 45, and Mayson seems to be staying on top things after that.
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]]>MacBreak WeeklyMacbreakWeeklyMBWpickssoftwareDavid Chartier2007-08-09T12:30:00+00:00