Timer: a single-serving iPhone app for timing stuff
The guiding principle behind the Unix command line lurking underneath the GUI of every Mac you own is a collection of simple programs that co-operate to enable you to achieve complex tasks. That co-operation part is missing from iOS, due to tight app sandboxing, but the idea of simple, small apps ...
More MacBook Maintenance Malarky: examining the arguments that none of it matters
Last week I wrote a rather, shall we say, "robustly worded" post discussing the lack of upgradability in the new MacBook Pro with Retina display (MBPwRD). This contentious post turned into one of my highest-traffic articles for TUAW ever, and certainly my highest-commented one (possibly ...
Attention world: the MacBook Pro with Retina display does have optical audio out
Please stop saying it doesn't. Despite it not appearing on Apple's specs page, there is no conspiracy, and Apple hasn't dropped the feature. The MacBook Pro with Retina display has the same combination 3.5mm-analog-and-S/PDIF-digital output port all other Macs have used for several years ...
The contentious case against the MacBook Pro with Retina display
Here's a list of all the proprietary stuff Apple has shoehorned into the "best Mac it has ever made", the MacBook Pro with Retina display (henceforth referred to as "MBPwRD"), taken from the iFixit teardown: Irritating pentalobe screws, which don't stop anyone determined to disassemble ...
iOS 6: On partners and partings, sources and sinks, and the dreaded word "open" [Updated]
At yesterday's keynote to the 2012 WWDC conference, Apple made a number of simultaneous moves in its global chess game with partners and rivals. Let's try and unpack what we can of Apple's overall strategy by analyzing the tactical choices it has made. The biggest loser from yesterday's ...
Platter: novel photo-sharing social network for keen cooks
How do you launch a social networking site in this day and age, long after the likes of Facebook and Twitter seized the world? One answer is "micro-social networks": designed with a clear and specific purpose in mind, they can fulfill that purpose better than any of the generalists like ...
Instacast pricing raises hackles: are apps bought or rented? [Updated]
Update: I made a mistake about Instacast's support for notifications in the original draft of this article. Please read my corrections at the end. My apologies, readers. --Rich The release of Instacast v2.0 ruffled some feathers recently. Vemedio, publishers of the popular podcasting app, have ...
Faux G: New "4G" indicator on iPhone 4S is the tip of a standards iceberg (Updated)
Update: See discussion of the ITU's "sliding scale" of 4G below. Commenters have pointed out that since 2010 the standards organization has acknowledged that 3G evolutions can reasonably be called 4G. References to 4G vs. IMT-Advanced have been clarified. In a rare move of capitulation to a ...
Retina display Macs, iPads, and HiDPI: Doing the Math (updated)
Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW's Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software. The rumourmill has been busy lately with claims that we might get "Retina display" Macs soon -- and of course, a Retina display iPad 3 on March 7, probably, maybe, ...
Does Gatekeeper point the way to an App Store-only OS X?
Apple's announcement of Mountain Lion included many promised new features, including a stronger focus on the Mac App Store than ever before. Two significant new features, iCloud document syncing and Notification Center, are only accessible to App Store apps, and the new Gatekeeper security tool ...
