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/The OS X desktop as music videohttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/10/the-os-x-desktop-as-music-video/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/10/the-os-x-desktop-as-music-video/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/10/the-os-x-desktop-as-music-video/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

A digital filmmaker named Dennis Liu has made an amazing video for The Bird And The Bee's lovely song "Again & Again". The set? His Mac desktop. You sort of have to see it for yourself to understand; luckily, Dennis has dropped it on YouTube so that the world can see it in low-res glory:



Innovative, and definitely cool. It doesn't seem to be an "official" video for the song...but if it isn't, it oughtta be. (Hey, Bird! Bee! Y'all paying attention?)

Thanks, Ted Roddy!

[via MacRumors forums]
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]]>music videoMusicVideotweet-thisJoshua Ellis2008-05-10T10:00:00+00:00Back to My Mac saves a stolen laptophttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/back-to-my-mac-saves-a-stolen-laptop/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/back-to-my-mac-saves-a-stolen-laptop/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/back-to-my-mac-saves-a-stolen-laptop/#commentsFiled under: ,

A clever Mac user helped police recover a stolen laptop using Back to My Mac's screen-sharing feature.

After her apartment was burglarized, the victim received a call from a friend while she was at work (conveniently enough, at the Apple Store in Westchester, NY). The friend noticed her stolen computer was online. The victim then quickly used another Mac to connect to the stolen laptop.

The article doesn't mention the technical details, but I reckon she activated screen sharing, and started Photo Booth (or another app that activates the laptop's built-in iSight camera). After a while, the perps showed up, and the victim's roommate recognized one of them as an acquaintance who had attended a party at their apartment some weeks before.

Armed with names and photos of the alleged thieves, police quickly arrested two men, who were in possession of most of the property stolen in the burglary.

If that isn't worth her year's subscription to .Mac, I don't know what is.

(Update: The New York Times has a story with some more details. She used Photo Booth, too. Who called it, baby?)

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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]]>.Macb2mmisightstolentweet-thisRobert Palmer2008-05-09T15:00:00+00:00C64 emulator for iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/c64-emulator-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/c64-emulator-for-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/c64-emulator-for-iphone/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Unfortunately we don't have much more than a splash screen on this one, but Stuart Carnie sends word that he's used the Apple SDK to port a Commodore 64 emulator on to the iPhone. He has yet to put in a Save/Resume state mechanism, a way to browse for files and disks, or a virtual keyboard/joystiq to control it with, but the hard stuff is done, so by the time the App Store comes around, we may have a working C64 emu in there ready to go.

As long as it's ok with Apple. In point of fact, we have no idea how any emulators might work in the App Store -- actually, we have no idea how any apps will get in the App Store. Sure, it would be cool to play the original versions of Sim City or Maniac Mansion or Elite, but without Apple's OK to let any of those on the platform, we may not be able to do so without jailbreaking the thing anyway. We'll see -- if Carnie, once his work is done, can't get an official emulator in the App Store, maybe we'll be able to try it out and put it to use in some other, less official way.
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]]>app-storeapplec64commodore-64emuemulatorsgamesgatekeepermaniac-mansionsave-statessim-cityMike Schramm2008-05-09T11:00:00+00:00Gamers and the faster iMacshttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/gamers-and-the-faster-imacs/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/gamers-and-the-faster-imacs/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/09/gamers-and-the-faster-imacs/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Peter Cohen over at Macworld continues his sideline analysis of Apple's gaming chances with a post about how the brand new faster iMacs are indeed faster, but still not fast enough for gamers. And to a certain extent, he's right -- gaming on the Mac is like that old beat-up, "someday I'll fix it up" convertible your father's had in the garage covered with a tarp since you were a kid. Getting it out and putting a new engine in it might help it run better, but it's still not going to turn it into a car that anyone wants to drive around.

But (and we talked about this extensively on the Talkcast a few weeks ago with Brian Akaka from Freeverse) it's a step. A faster video card, even if it isn't blazing, will run games better than before, and it'll do a little to bring not only gaming customers but developers back to the Mac. Cohen is right -- that old convertible needs an actual mechanic to take a look at it, and it needs the seats to be reupholstered, and sooner or later it's going to need a new can of paint (not that, like your Dad's actual convertible, these things aren't ever going to happen -- we continue to hear rumblings that Apple is aiming for gamers).

But something is something -- the very fact that Apple is offering faster video cards is a sign that they're interested. And, other than simple profiles of games on their website and cameos by game execs at keynotes, that's more than we've had in a while.
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]]>analysisApplecloser-than-everfaster-imacsgamersimacmacworldnew-video-cardspeter-cohentalkcastMike Schramm2008-05-09T08:00:00+00:00Found Footage: Mac for Attorney Generalhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/08/found-footage-mac-for-attorney-general/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/08/found-footage-mac-for-attorney-general/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/08/found-footage-mac-for-attorney-general/#commentsFiled under: ,



Greg Macpherson is running for Attorney General in Oregon. Normally this isn't the stuff of TUAW posts, but normally political campaigns don't run an ad that is very reminiscent of a certain computer company's advertising.

It would seem that Mr. Macpherson's nickname is 'Mac,' and I think you can see where I'm going with this. Check out the ad here. Sure, it isn't a laugh a minute, but it is fairly clever.

Oh, and this post should in no way be considered an endorsement for any political candidate of any sort.

Thanks, Brant.
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]]>mac-vs-pcvote-macScott McNulty2008-05-08T09:00:00+00:00Flickr find: 1Password icon shows up in the strangest placeshttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/06/flickr-find-1password-icon-shows-up-in-the-strangest-places/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/06/flickr-find-1password-icon-shows-up-in-the-strangest-places/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/06/flickr-find-1password-icon-shows-up-in-the-strangest-places/#commentsFiled under: ,

If you're an independent Mac software developer, having a wicked cool icon for your application is both a blessing and a curse. Users will remember you for the sleek, Leopard-ready goodness of your icon ... and other unscrupulous marketers will rip you off shamelessly to promote their own products, rather than ponying up for an original design.

The all-time champion victim (self-reported) of icons ripped off is Panic's Transmit FTP tool; the little truck shows up just about everywhere you could possibly imagine. New to the underground icon market, however, is the 1Password browser-key logo -- it may make you think "Hey, I could drive Safari to the supermarket!" but apparently the makers of ProductKeyFinder, a Windows serial number app, found it too delicious to pass up. The purloined product identity is visible on PKF's eBay sales page and on Flickr. It looks like the packaging has been updated (and the product renamed to Product Key Explorer), so this tale of icon swiping has a happy ending.

Thanks Roustem!

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]]>1passwordiconsthefttweet-thisMichael Rose2008-05-06T15:30:00+00:00Found Footage: Thinkpad MacBook Air parodyhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-thinkpad-macbook-air-parody/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-thinkpad-macbook-air-parody/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-thinkpad-macbook-air-parody/#commentsFiled under: ,


There are two hot ultraportable computers on the scene now-a-days: the MacBook Air and the ThinkPad X300. Some clever Lenovo lover created this MacBook Air ad parody which points out the key differences between the Air and the X300: number of ports and an internal DVD drive (only available on some models).

Judging by pure aesthetics alone the Air wins, but ThinkPads are time tested workhorses so I wouldn't count out the X300. Either way, this parody is one of the better ones I've seen.

[via Fake Steve]
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]]>lenovolenovox300macbook-airmacbookairthinkpadx300Scott McNulty2008-04-29T18:00:00+00:00Found Footage: Leopard on an OQOhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-leopard-on-an-oqo/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-leopard-on-an-oqo/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/29/found-footage-leopard-on-an-oqo/#commentsFiled under: ,

An enterprising OQO user has gotten Leopard running on his tiny PC. If you aren't familiar with the OQO, it is billed as 'a full PC that fits in your pocket.' It has a slide out keyboard and runs a full version of Windows, and not Windows Mobile.

According to trf's forum posting Leopard is running pretty well except that video resolution is stuck at 800x480 and the WWAN card isn't working yet. Check out this YouTube video to watch the OQO boot up (it takes about 2 minutes to fully boot). Leopard seems to be running fairly well on the OQO, but don't whip out your wallet just yet. As with all non-Apple hardware that is running OS X, this isn't supported by Apple.

[via Engadget]
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]]>hackleopardoqoScott McNulty2008-04-29T09:30:00+00:00MBP vs. MBA benchmarking showdownhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/21/mbp-vs-mba-benchmarking-showdown/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/21/mbp-vs-mba-benchmarking-showdown/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/21/mbp-vs-mba-benchmarking-showdown/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Bare Feats continues to pit Macs against each other in a no-holds-barred, up-against-the-wall benchmarking breakdown, and this time around it's the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air in the octagon together. And things go about as planned -- while the solid state drive in the MBA has its advantages, the processor and GPU (what little there is of it) in the MBA don't even really compare to the MBP. Sure, it's a small, super thin, super portable computer, but not only are you paying in cash for the portability, you're paying in performance, too.

This doesn't mean the MBA is a bad computer at all -- for most tasks, it'll work just fine. But complicated 3D graphics (both Halo and Unreal Tournament 2004 were tested) will be almost unplayable in games, and there will be a substantial wait, sometimes up to minutes more, for certain processor intensive tasks. If speed is a high priority (at least higher than portability), the MBA isn't for you.

I would like to see how the MacBook compares, though. It's not surprising that the MBP is a fast machine, but where does the MBA line up compared to the cheaper model?

[Via IMG]
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]]>barefeatsbenchmarkscpugpugraphicsintensivemacbook-airmacbook-proteststimingMike Schramm2008-04-21T16:30:00+00:00Version control for writershttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/18/version-control-for-writers/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/18/version-control-for-writers/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/18/version-control-for-writers/#commentsFiled under: ,

Rachel Greenham has written a very good tutorial called 'Subversion for Writers.' If you aren't a coder, you probably aren't familiar with the popular version control system, Subversion. It allows you to work collaboratively with folks on the same files (in most cases code) without fear of overwriting the work of others. Subversion tracks all the changes made to those files, and who did them, and allows you to rollback changes or branch off into different directions with having to worry about mucking up the entire project.

Rachel, being a geeky writer, immediately saw the potential of using Subversion for writers. Her tutorial walks you through what Subversion is, how to install it on your Mac (if you're running Leopard it is already installed), some apps you can use to make interacting with Subversion easier, and how to track your changes. To be clear, this method is not for everyone. If you aren't comfortable with the Terminal you should steer clear of this, and if you don't revise the same document over and over again you'll have no need for it. That being said, it is a very clever idea.

[via the Hog Bay Software Forums]
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]]>cool-trickssubversionwriterScott McNulty2008-04-18T18:00:00+00:00Famed modder goes fruity with an Apple IIGShttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/famed-ps3-modder-goes-fruity-with-an-apple-iigs/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/famed-ps3-modder-goes-fruity-with-an-apple-iigs/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/famed-ps3-modder-goes-fruity-with-an-apple-iigs/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Ben Heck, known for his many mods (including the recent PS3 laptop mod), has outdone himself by creating an Apple IIGS laptop. He started with an original Apple IIGS motherboard and added a custom acrylic keyboard, 15" color screen, and a CompactFlash-based hard disk. Most notably, a glowing blue Apple II logo was added.

You can see the up close pictures on his website. He also has a video of the mod that will not disappoint.

[via Engadget]
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]]>AppleBen HeckBenHeckIIgs laptopIigsLaptopCory Bohon2008-04-14T22:00:00+00:00Sega producer talks about Super Monkey Ball for the iPhonehttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/sega-producer-talks-about-super-monkey-ball-for-the-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/sega-producer-talks-about-super-monkey-ball-for-the-iphone/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/14/sega-producer-talks-about-super-monkey-ball-for-the-iphone/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

You'll remember that one of the game demos on the iPhone SDK was Sega's Super Monkey Ball franchise -- Spore got all the headlines, but Sega did show up with a pretty nice port of a game that could do very well on the iPhone. And when producer Ethan Einhorn sat down to talk to GameCyte about the port, he said all the things I want to hear: casual, pick up and play gaming on the iPhone, with interface innovation akin to the Wii and gaming performance comparable to other handheld gaming devices, even with a team that had never touched Cocoa and Open GL before.

There are some nice promises from Sega here for at least one cool game in the App Store in June. We'll continue to hope Sega (and Apple, and all of the other companies stepping up to develop games for the iPhone) can deliver.
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]]>developmentgamingiphoneproducersegasuper-monkey-ballMike Schramm2008-04-14T17:00:00+00:00Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera raw 4.4.1 releasedhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/11/lightroom-1-4-1-and-camera-raw-4-4-1-released/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/11/lightroom-1-4-1-and-camera-raw-4-4-1-released/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/11/lightroom-1-4-1-and-camera-raw-4-4-1-released/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Adobe has dropped updates for both Lightroom and Camera Raw. According to the Lightroom team's blog, the updates include all the changes of the previous releases, but also correct a few issues. Lightroom 1.4.1 will keep the EXIF time date field of images from being incorrectly modified, and has fixes for Olympus JPEG files and also DNG conversion. And the Camera Raw plugin update also fixes the EXIF problem as well as the Olympus JPEG features.

But that's more than you wanted to know, right? All you really need to know is that you can grab the update either on Adobe's site, or by hitting "Check for updates" under the Help menu for the Lightroom update and using the Adobe Update Manager for the Raw plugin update. Happy updating!

[Via Ars]
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]]>adobecamera-rawlightroomolympuspatchesupdatesMike Schramm2008-04-11T14:30:00+00:00Found Footage: Conan on iChathttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/found-footage-conan-on-ichat/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/found-footage-conan-on-ichat/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/04/09/found-footage-conan-on-ichat/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

If you're a dedicated Conan watcher, you'll know that Conan O'Brien's normal bandleader, Max Weinberg, is often out on the road playing on tour with Bruce Springsteen, and away from the show for long periods of time. Conan misses Weinberg as much as we do, apparently, and so last night he decided to get back in touch with none other than Apple's own iChat video conferencing.

Sure enough, it's not a fake -- while there are lots of audio and video cables coming off of Conan's MacBook Pro, when they show the desktop (Leopard) and later on bring in a third person, you can see that it really is iChat, running as normal -- the cables are likely just to grab the audio and video for the broadcast.

Unfortunately, this also shows off iChat's limits -- while the technology is cool, it won't necessarily make the people you call any more interested in talking. Odds are that "drummerboymax08" isn't that interested in chatting with you either.

Thanks, Sabi! Video via Macenstein
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]]>appleconan-obriendrummerboymax08excitementfound-footageichatmax-weinbergMike Schramm2008-04-09T21:00:00+00:00TSA makes good: X-rays MacBook Air and posts videohttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/24/tsa-makes-good-x-rays-macbook-air-and-posts-video/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/24/tsa-makes-good-x-rays-macbook-air-and-posts-video/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/24/tsa-makes-good-x-rays-macbook-air-and-posts-video/#commentsFiled under: ,



As you'll recall the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) was hard at work, hoping to avoid making another MacBook Air owner miss their flight (the security people didn't know what to make of the x-ray images of the MacBook Air). The TSA got their hands on a MacBook Air for some testing, and ran it through one of their test x-rays machines. Lo and behold, the solid state drive made the MacBook Air look different than traditional notebooks (though in what way, the TSA can't say).

The long and the short of it is that the TSA is distributing printouts of the MacBook Air's x-ray to screeners across the country so they know what to look for. I feel more secure already.
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]]>macbook-airtsaScott McNulty2008-03-24T14:30:00+00:00iPhone Pic of the Dayhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/23/iphone-pic-of-the-day/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/23/iphone-pic-of-the-day/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/23/iphone-pic-of-the-day/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Happy Birthday to international iPhone hacker of mystery Nicholas "Drudge" Penree--but props to Drudge's girlfriend. She put together this iPhone-themed cake, complete with it's tell-tale jailbroken Installer.app icon. It looks too beautiful to eat but we're told the cake was delicious. The silvery bits on the side of the phone/cake were created from edible paint. Mmmm. iPhone.

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]]>cakemmmmmmErica Sadun2008-03-23T19:30:00+00:00Adobe backs off iPhone Flash statementhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/21/adobe-backs-off-iphone-flash-statement/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/21/adobe-backs-off-iphone-flash-statement/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/21/adobe-backs-off-iphone-flash-statement/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

If you were one of those people who were excited that Adobe was going to apparently fight to get Flash on the iPhone, get ready to be unexcited: Adobe has decided that despite what they thought earlier, they're not actually going to be able to get Flash on there using only the SDK from Apple. Nope, Adobe has admitted that they need Apple's help to get it working (not a big surprise there), and since Apple isn't really keen to help at all, odds are it's just not going to happen.

Adobe then announced that they didn't need your iPhone anyway, Apple, and that they hate you, Apple, and that you never let them have any fun, and that they wish you'd just die! And that they'd never been born! Then they ran to pout in the corner for a good 20 minutes, only to be seen a little while later playing with their trains like nothing had happened.

[Via Engadget]
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]]>adobeappleflashiphoneMike Schramm2008-03-21T09:30:00+00:00Our favorite Charlie Rose caption is...http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/19/our-favorite-charlie-rose-caption-is/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/19/our-favorite-charlie-rose-caption-is/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/19/our-favorite-charlie-rose-caption-is/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Yesterday, we pointed out the story of Charlie Rose and his MacBook Air. Just in case you missed it, Charlie was walking along the Manhattan streets with his MacBook Air. He tripped and instinctively saved the Air... and kissed the pavement.

That night, he did his show with one heck of a shiner. We asked you, dear readers, to fill Charlie's thought balloon. After combing through more than 100 entries, we've chosen our favorite, which you can see above. Congratulations, Spudnuts!

The runner-ups to "iAche" include
  1. ""My Sudden Motion Sensor didn't park my head soon enough." by Geoff
  2. "Boom!" by Michael L.
  3. "It's cheaper to fix my face." by x.
Thanks, everyone (and get well soon, Charlie).
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]]>charlie roseCharlieRosemacbook airMacbookAirDave Caolo2008-03-19T15:00:00+00:00Charlie Rose saves MacBook Air, sacrifices facehttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/charlie-rose-saves-macbook-air-sacrifices-face/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/charlie-rose-saves-macbook-air-sacrifices-face/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/charlie-rose-saves-macbook-air-sacrifices-face/#commentsFiled under: ,

Imagine walking down the street with The World's Thinnest Laptop. You stumble, and in an instant you're pavement-bound. Instinctively, you grab the laptop in an effort to keep it safe, and you do a graceless faceplant on the sidewalk. Ouch.

Now imagine you're a television personality in that same situation; a person who makes his living, in part, by inviting millions of people to stare at his face. Do you make the same sacrifice?

PBS interviewer Charlie Rose answers with a hearty "Hell, yes!" Yesterday, his show's producers report, he was tripped up while walking in Manhattan, MacBook Air in hand. He instinctively saved the Air ... and took one for the team, as it were. Later that night he could be seen on his show, bandaged and bruised like a pro boxer after a 12-round bout.

It reminds me of the time I nearly killed myself trying to save a falling iPod. We're glad you're OK, Charlie -- and we award you the Official TUAW Icepack for valiant defense of falling hardware.

Now for the fun part. You'll notice Chuck's thought balloon is empty. Suggest your quote in the comments, and we'll post our favorite tomorrow. Be nice, stay on topic and be funny. Now, show us what you got!

[via TechCrunch]
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]]>charlie rose showCharlieRoseShowmacbook airMacbookAirDave Caolo2008-03-18T11:30:00+00:00Next up for gaming: the MacBookhttp://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/next-up-for-gaming-macbook/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/next-up-for-gaming-macbook/http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/18/next-up-for-gaming-macbook/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Peter Cohen's got a good commentary up at Macworld about Apple's should-be next target for gaming, the Macbook. Finally, as of the iPhone SDK announcement, we've seen some serious movement on the gaming front from Apple -- they brought EA in and commissioned their own programmers to punch out some game software to show off the iPhone SDK implementation (and as I've said before, including on the talkcast a few weeks ago, we're only seeing the beginning of what's possible with gaming on the iPhone). So maybe they're finally seeing the light on gaming.

But as is, the Macbook isn't winning any awards as a gaming machine. As Cohen says, yes, the integrated graphics card puts the consumer Mac laptop hopelessly behind the times, but the problem isn't just upgrading the hardware -- the software itself needs to be optimized and redesigned. Apple has always been at the forefront of development, and Leopard especially, with Core Image functionality, looks great in the OS and in applications.

But when even mainstream sports titles, the kind that are on all platforms from day one, can't even play on your hardware, it's time to go back to square one. As Cohen says, we're not asking for much -- but games are a core part of the personal computing experience, and Apple shouldn't sideline that demographic any more than the others they serve.
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]]>analysisgamingmacbookmacworldpeter-cohenMike Schramm2008-03-18T01:00:00+00:00