Here's good news for users of 30 Boxes and Calgoo Hub. Earlier this week, Calgoo announced two-way iCal synchronization for 30 Boxes, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Calgoo account holders can get started by logging in to their account.
For the uninitiated, 30 Boxes is an online calendar that includes to-do lists, event management, people finder and more. Calgoo is a company whose mission in life is to simplify the calendars people use. It's their new Calgoo Connect service that lets iCal play nicely with these others.
I'm sure you've heard all the cool kids talking about SSH in the cafeteria during lunch, but you had no idea what it was. Be ignorant no more, because Devanshu Mehta is writing a series of posts about using SSH for Apple Matters.
The first in the series explains the basics of SSH and what you'll need to setup before you can start securely tunneling like a spy.
Here's the really short explanation of SSH: it allows you to create secure connections between two computers. The protocol is a standard, so you can SSH into almost any kind of computer, assuming it is running SSH and you have the proper credentials.
I'll be keeping my eye out for the upcoming parts in this series, because who can't use some more secure connections in their life?
Earlier today, the Associated Press launched an iPhone-optimized news site that really is pleasant to use. To check it out on your iPhone simply visit http://apnews.com. Once there you'll find AP articles, of course, but also local events (in fact, you can enter several zip codes and follow events from several locations) and more from many different outlets.
The preference pane looks like that of a native iPhone application (Save the orange sliders instead of blue) and the photos and videos render pretty quickly, even over EDGE. Plus, they've got a cute web clip icon. What more do you need?
It's nice to see the AP catering to mobile users. We say, "Well done."
Using the port of lighttpd on his jailbroken iPhone, Mark Hoekstra of GEEKtechnique offers real-world proof that an iPhone can, indeed, function as a web server. He put up a static page and served 411 unique visitors during the time his server was offline for maintenance. Obviously, that's not battle-testing for a busier server, and the lack of database queries certainly aided the capacity of the tiny server, but it's definitely a fun example of the capabilities of a (hacked) iPhone.
Apache has also been ported, along with Python, vim, curl and other tools web servers can make good use of. There's a good possibility we'll see similar scenarios as time progresses, especially as the hardware capabilities of the iPhone improve. So, is that a backup web server in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
We at TUAW HQ definitely have an obsession with Twitter. We use Twitterrific for the Mac, and Hahlo for iPhone. Hahlo provides great features in a beautiful, usable user interface. A couple weeks ago we got a sneak peek at the beta of Hahlo 3 (titled "the Legendary Edition"), but now you can try it out for yourself. That's because Hahlo 3 was released to the public today. In addition to a completely revamped UI, the new version integrates full searching capabilities via Summize.
To try out Hahlo 3 for yourself, just point Mobile Safari over to http://hahlo.com. It's free and easy to use. If you don't have an iPod touch or iPhone, you can get to Hahlo from any standards-compliant modern browser (Safari 3, Firefox, etc.).
SyncMan is a simple application for syncing your Mac's Address Book with your Gmail contacts, a feature long desired by Gmail and Google Calendar users who may have othersync tools already in place. While we have noted that a similar feature is forthcoming in the more broad-based iCal syncing tool Spanning Sync 2, SyncMan concentrates just on contacts and is available now.
SyncMan is €9.95 (~$15.32) and a demo is available.
Times is a new RSS reader with a snazzy interface designed to look like a newspaper. You can choose different RSS feeds to supply the content to the different columns. In the screenshot above I've got TUAW in the top, an Apple feed on the right, and I've left the space below TUAW clear where another feed would go. When you want to read a story the top page folds down and the story appears on a separate page behind it. At the top are buttons to go different sections, each with a different set of feeds. Finally there's a "shelf" where you can "save and sort articles for later reading."
While I couldn't possibily use Times in place of NetNewsWire for the hundreds of feeds I read, nonetheless it is a very slick piece of work. Times is $30 and a demo is available.
If you're anything like me (and I hope you aren't, for your own sake) then you have more logins for websites than you know what to do with. I run upwards of 14 billion personal websites, blogs, bulletin boards, and Gopher servers and I've forgotten my username and password for 95% of them. If only someone could help!
DomainBrain to the rescue. This simple app is designed to be a one stop depot for usernames, passwords, web admin URLs, content management system credentials, and database logins. You can even encrypt the contents of DomainBrain so that a ne'er-do-well can't pilfer your passwords in passing. You can also organize your various websites into folders to help keep track of what's what.
DomainBrain is free for tracking up to 4 domains, and $14 if you want to track more than 4.
Apple TV Source notes that the latest 2.0.2 update makes internet radio work a little better with the Apple TV. Basically you can play internet radio streams on the Apple TV if you have it synced to an iTunes computer with a playlist containing the streams. Before the update the source computer had to be on for this to work. Now, however, the Apple TV will retain the playlist even without the iTunes computer until it is restarted (it will retain the playlists even if put to sleep). The original post has complete instructions.
FarFinder is a file sharing tool from the maker of Webjimbo (our coverage). Like the latter, FarFinder basically turns your Mac into a web server, but instead of serving up your notes from Yojimbo it instead serves up web pages that look like Finder windows. Using any web browser (Mac, PC, iPhone, etc.) you can easily download files from your home computer. And since dynamic IP addresses are a problem for many home users the service includes an optional stable URL through Flying Mac's servers.
While Back to My Mac and various VNC screen sharing options are available, FarFinder's promised straightforward ease of use both on the Mac server and on the other end in the browser definitely has a certain appeal.
FarFinder is $35 and a demo is available from Flying Mac.
John Gruber's (and my) favorite Twitter web app for the iPhone is about to get better -- if you've been on the Hahlo for iPhone homepage lately, you'll have seen that Dean Robinson is working on version 3 of Hahlo (titled, hilariously for us gamers, the Legendary Edition).
TUAW got to take a look (along with all of the other beta users) at the new software, and here's a short preview running through what the new Hahlo will look like, as well as updates to the system, including a brand new Settings page, inline replies, hashtags and searching, and lots of other cool tweaks and updates.
TUAW reader Vinod tipped us off to GDocsUploader, a small application for drag-and-drop uploading of Office documents to Google Docs. It's a wrapper around a Python implementation of the Google Documents List Data API. The API, which is limited primarily to uploading and searching, has been around for a while now, but we haven't seen too many Mac applications make use of it.
This app is simple, open source and duly small. A notable drawback of GDocsUploader is its use of AppleScript keychain scripting, which is notoriously slow and not altogether reliable (might I suggest something more usable?). It also gets a little sketchy with reporting transfer results, but that could possibly be an issue on the Google side. Overall, once you get through the first round of Keychain-doesn't-like-AppleScript (or was it vice-versa?) problems, it's a great little drop-point for getting Google its docs. Grab it at Google Code.
Just last week we noted that BusySync 2, which adds Google calendar syncing to the iCal sync app, is now shipping. Another 2.0 would seem to be around the corner, as a post on the SpanningSync blog shows a video demo of Address Book -> Google contact synchronization coming in the next version of the utility.
While Plaxo and other tools are lining up to take on the contact sync challenge -- most sync only in one direction right now, although with the Google contacts API in play that's going to change -- it's nice to see SpanningSync picking up the torch on contacts as the competition on calendaring heats up.
Vidalia is a cross-platform GUI for the Tor network, which makes it very easy to anonymize your Mac's TCP activity. The Tor project (which we posted about a long time ago) is a volunteer network designed to foil traffic analysis and thus allow you to cover your tracks online. Basically it bounces your network requests across a number of Tor computers (and back again) so that nobody is able to figure out your actual destination.
This is obviously useful for keeping your identity secret, but it may also allow you to access IP addresses and services that your local network administrator blocks. Now you should think carefully about trying to circumvent such restrictions, as bad things may happen to you if it's discovered. The other big downside is speed. Needless to say if you're bouncing around computers all over the globe before you get to your destination there's going to be some lag. Nonetheless, if you need the anonymity (or if the people you're communicating with need it -- think journalists or whistleblowers) it may be worth it. You may also like to contribute your own computer as a node to help out the network.
Vidalia is open source and a free download. The latest package is marked for Tiger, but it seems to work on Leopard as well. If you're having trouble getting it from the Vidalia project page you can also download it from the Tor project download page. Once you download it, be sure to carefully follow the instructions in the Installation Guide for OS X.
The one feature that most of us iPhone owners want is native instant messaging. With the upcoming SDK release, instant messaging apps will most likely not be able to run in the background (in other words, they may not receive messages when the phone is sleeping or doing other things). However, AppleInsider is reporting on an Apple patent for instant messaging on the iPhone that was filed in August of last year, but just granted in March of this year.
The drawing included with the patent filing looks identical to the SMS application on the iPhone, with some key differences, one of which is word suggestions that appear as bubbles above the keyboard. AppleInsider also reports that this service could be used as a substitute for MMS (multi media messaging) which the current iPhone is lacking.
Here's good news for users of 30 Boxes and Calgoo Hub. Earlier this week, Calgoo announced two-way iCal synchronization for 30 Boxes, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Calgoo account holders can get started by logging in to their account.
I'm sure you've heard all the cool kids talking about 
Earlier today, the Associated Press launched an iPhone-optimized news site that really is pleasant to use. To check it out on your iPhone simply visit 
Using the 
We at TUAW HQ definitely have an obsession with 
If you're anything like me (and I hope you aren't, for your own sake) then you have more logins for websites than you know what to do with. I run upwards of 14 billion personal websites, blogs, bulletin boards, and Gopher servers and I've forgotten my username and password for 95% of them. If only someone could help!
TUAW reader 
The one feature that most of us iPhone owners want is native instant messaging. With the upcoming SDK release, instant messaging apps will most likely not be able to run in the background (in other words, they may not receive messages when the phone is sleeping or doing other things). However, 
