Here's a very cool tip we first saw at Lifehacker. Jeff Kelley is a MacBook Pro user who, like many others, connects it to several displays, depending on context and the task at hand.
If you've done this, you may be familiar with the same irritation that has bothered Jeff. Namely, application windows re-sizing themselves across displays. The difference between Jeff and the rest of us is that he did something about it.
Here is a great AppleScript that notices his screen resolution and sizes his application windows according to his likes. Now, Mail, iCal and so on will appear just where they ought to. Very cool!
A new Apple patent showing a head-mounted laser display surfaced today. The patent, which looks like a rather odd pair of sun glasses, would allow you to view video (or your Mac's screen) in a manner similar to the MyVu products. This patent also includes a geeky looking device that attaches to the belt, probably for image/video processing, and battery.
Just as you see white ear buds on many iPod owners, you may soon see Mac users with frickin' lasers mounted on their heads. This would bring a whole new meaning to the word "Machead."
Kensington today announced the sd200V Notebook Docking Station, which is apparently the first Mac compatible DisplayLink adapter. For a while now Windows users have been able to add a secondary display to their system via a USB device. This is the first time Mac users have been so lucky. The sd200V supports VGA monitors with a resolution up to 1440x1050 and also functions as a USB hub with audio, allowing you to connect a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers to your Mac with a single USB cable.
They will also be offering a display-only USB DisplayLink solution called the Dual Monitor Adapter later in the year with a DVI port. Although targeted at notebook users, I think this is particularly exciting for the Mac mini which gains genuine multi-display support for the first time (the Matrox DualHead not withstanding).
The sd200V Docking Station is available now for $139.99, while the Dual Monitor Adapter with ship in April for $99.99. Both devices will be Intel Mac only.
These guys didn't actually send these costumes in for our Halloween costume gallery, but if they had, we would definitely have put them in it. They actually have LCD TVs strapped to them (using PVC pipe and ratchet straps), and apparently those TVs are hooked up to real video iPods-- they edited the display video themselves. The suits also weigh about 60 pounds, which is about how much candy you'll probably be able to get if you really do go around the neighborhood in one of these.
And it's a pretty good representation of the iPhone, too, even if it is a little... bulkier than the real thing. These guys are award-winning, too-- one of their Myspace pages brags that they've won the "Guavaween costume contest," whatever that is. Congrats!
Apple released an EFI firmware update for MacBook Pro yesterday, so if you haven't grabbed it yet, it should be available in MacBook Software Update. The release isn't a big one, but is supposed to fix a display issue on the 15-inch MBP models.
Unfortunately, a few people are finding the update actually does exactly the opposite, and creates problems with the display. Word has it that resetting the PRAM (push CMD+Option+p+r at boot, and you have to do it a few times, so you have to push the PRAM a lot) helps, but even if it fixes the problem temporarily, but who knows what else is happening here-- Apple may have to release an update to fix the update that fixed the original problem.
Thanks Eddie, Jonathan, and all others who sent this in.
These days, there is absolutely no shortage of apps that let you control iTunes in one way or another. You can use your PSP, tiny menubar controllers, countless iTunes widgets and now - CoverSutra. Featuring a stylish bezel with loads of control feedback and album art display, CoverSutra aims to give you complete control over iTunes without invading your space. It can even work with the Apple Remote, offering visual feedback without the need to enter something like Front Row.
A 10-day demo of CoverSutra is available, and it sells for just under $13 USD (€9.95). While CoverSutra is a brand new 1.0 app, the developer is promising "plenty of new things in [the works] for you," and upgrades are free until version 2.0. If other controllers such as the über-everything Quicksilver don't quite float yer boat, CoverSutra looks like a great solution for controlling iTunes without interrupting your flow.
A number of observant TUAW readers have also noticed that Apple has (quietly) slashes Cinema display prices with the introduction of the Mac Pro. There were rumors of Cinema updates before WWDC, but it seems that Apple simply wanted to give our pocketbooks a break with the $500 increase in the Mac Pro's price. Cinema display prices now look a little something like this:
20-inch: $699
23-inch: $999
30-inch: $1999 (what a drop!)
Unfortunately, I can't even get into the EDU store so I'm not sure how much better prices are for students yet. Ultimately, these prices should look a bit more appealing amidst criticism of what some say are slightly overpriced LCDs.
Joystiq, a sister blog, has been following an odd story about an Apple logo and a Sony PS3 site. As you can see from the image, an Apple logo *blips* at the beginning of a PS3 Flash promo movie at Sony's site (it has since been 'fixed', but Joystiq links to a copy of the original movie here). Their investigation has more or less resulted in dead ends; at first the logo was thought to be a watermark left by creating the movie in a trial version of Shake. As it turns out, trial versions of Shake don't allow saving to begin with.
The issue has turned into a bit of a mystery, as Apple (of course) hasn't made any sort of comment, and Sony apparently promised a statement but has yet to deliver.
In the meantime, we'll forgo speculation and leave the rumoring up to you readers.
Here it is ladies and gentlemen: TUAW Podcast #10 for 6/7/06. In this edition I sat down for some coffee talk with Dan Pourhadi and Conrad Quilty-Harper on everything from Apple's new 5G iPod U2 Edition to Macs in Best Buy, as well as gaming on, the finish of, and that darn glossy screen in the MacBook. We also discuss that "Why 1st Generation Apple Products Suck" article and other various bits of Mac culture.
You can download the podcast in MP3 format here (42.2 MB), and it should appear in our TUAW iTMS Podcast feed soon, if it hasn't already. We recorded this via an iChat audio conference using GarageBand (which rocks by the way), and we're still working on our podcasting and audio editing skills, so there will be a little bit of noise. Also, Conrad was using his MacBook's internal mic, so let that be a testament to its quality. Nevertheless, it's a good podcast that we hope you'll enjoy.
Matt Thomas has a bug stuck in his 23" Apple Cinema Display. Amusingly, the little fella is still alive: check out the video above to see it wandering across his screen. He has absolutely no idea how to get the bug out (although one commentator suggests he should lure the bug out with morsels of food) so at the moment Matt's hoping for the bug to graciously die off screen.
The same thing happened to me with my 17" Samsung LCD, I believe it was even the same type of bug! I too waited for the bug to die off screen but instead, the bug decided to lay his grave in the dead centre, right at eye level. Now whenever friends use my screen they instictually attempt to swipe it away. What do I say to them when they ask about it? "Well, I was playing this game called Bugdom - it crashed really bad one day and left one of the bugs behind". Gets 'em every time.
iShowU is a versatile utility from shinywhitebox for recording video captures of your display (including any audio). Users have quite a bit of control over what exactly is recorded and how, including specifying a capture size and format, as well as 'mouse capture' and 'follow mouse' modes of recording. Check out iShowU's features page for the full rundown.
While iShowU is in its 1.x beta mode, it's free, as the dev has "no intention of releasing a half baked product that works only on Thursdays, and then, only if you are holding the mouse juuust right." Once it goes commercial, shinywhitebox is aiming for a $40-$80 price point, so why not grab a demo before they hit the big leagues?
Last week, Scott wrote about a poor Powerbook that had been badly damaged, but continued to work. Oddly enough, I found the
iMac pictured at right on my workbench this morning when I arrived at my day job. It seems that a student abruptly
introduced it to the floor, badly cracking the case around the display. The good news: it still works. You've got to
love these tough-as-nails Macs.
This
rant about Mac OS X, multitasking and usability is brought to you by the letter Q and a disgruntled design student:
I heard something snap in my head today as I sat down at the back of an art history lecture hall (where outlets
are, I follow) and got to peek over the shoulder of a girl using a 15" PowerBook in front of me.
This
girl was using Safari to browse MySpace and - arguments about that site's damage to civilization as we know it aside -
the browser window was 100% maximized across her 1280 x 960 display, obliterating what I would estimate is at least 1/3
of useful screen real estate. Then, she switched over to Word to keep working on a paper - again, Word had been manually
maximized across the entirety of her widescreen display which was throwing easily half of her usable screen space into
the garbage. Unfortunately, she is just one of many I have witnessed throwing away all sorts of useful screen space
while using Mac OS X.
Men and women, boys and girls, please: Mac OS X more or less offers only one way to
manually maximize windows across your entire display for a reason - because they don't have to be that large.
"Multitasking" is defined as "the simultaneous execution of more than one program or task by a
single computer processor." If we apply that definition to a person's ability to multitask, it means that you
too are able to work on and look at more than one thing at once - which is why Mac OS X intentionally makes it difficult
for one application to dominate the entirety of your display (Applications, such as Firefox, that don't obey the Mac OS
X windowing rules I'm referring to are exempt from this post).
While the various tricks and design ideals
that Mac OS X uses to accomplish this fantastic feat of productivity-inducing magic are outside the scope of my rant, I
just want the word to get out that it is actually safe to trust your operating system's judgments in these kinds of
matters. Tell your parents, inform you friends. I'm especially looking at you, switchers. I know the way Mac OS X
handles windows and changing their size is strange, but trust me - once you get used to it and wrap your head around
why it works this way on Apple's side of the fence, you'll be overjoyed with all the extra screen space you
just reclaimed.
So go ahead, live on the edge: use that green "best fit" button and the Window
> Zoom options, and be happy that you've taken a positive step towards getting just a little more done on your Mac.
The other day
I posted about a reader who had
removed the dead display from a Powerbook, and then connected it to an external display. While writing, I thought,
"Well I have an old 333mhz iMac in the basement with a dead display. I wonder..."
I
opened up the iMac and removed the display connector. I attached an Apple Multiple Scan 1705 Display, booted the iMac
and ta-da! It worked. When set to a resolution of 800x600, it looked perfect. See the picture to the right.
I've since put the iMac under my work bench like a PC tower (upside down, since the bottom is off), with the big,
17" CRT above. New life for an old Mac! Next I'm going to put a hole in the bottom plastic so I can sit that iMac
right side up. More pictures after the jump.
In the patent filing itself, Apple denotes various ways imaging sensors could be
embedded into a display, including the example I chose described as follows:
"Integrating image
capture devices into the displays can be done with varying degrees of intrusiveness, depending upon the type of
display. FIG. 3A depicts an exemplary "track" housing scheme of integrating image elements 305 into a deep
encased cell structure display 300 according to one embodiment of the invention. Each image element 305 is integrated
into black strips 310, so that the spaces in-between each color cell 315 and 320 are used for both contrast enhancement
and image capture."
This display looks as though its final function would be similar to a sort of
scanner or large CMOS or CCD, as well as be able to
display images. Imagine being able to stick the display of your PDA on a surface and have the image of said surface
(which then would be flipped from the mirror effect) displayed right on your screen. Why would this be more interesting
than just having a webcam integrated into a laptop? Well for one, you would have a larger sensing field. Secondly a
webcam is usually at the top of your screen, making it semi-annoying to carry on a video conversation with someone on
the screen.
Some other applications of arrays of cameras include after-the-fact virtual camera motion and time dilation
(think Wachowski brothers and technologies invented for the Matrix). I'm not sure this Apple patent will be of a high
enough resolution for these applications, but perhaps some inkling of virtual camera ability from the array will be
integrated.
I don't know if Apple will ever use this patented technology, but I sure hope they do. Feel free
to participate in rumor mongering in the comments.
Here's a very cool tip we first saw at Lifehacker. Jeff Kelley is a MacBook Pro user who, like many others, connects it to several displays, depending on context and the task at hand. 
Kensington today announced the 
Apple released 
A number of observant TUAW readers have also noticed that Apple has (quietly) slashes Cinema display prices with the introduction of the 
Here it is ladies and gentlemen: TUAW Podcast #10 for 6/7/06. In this edition I sat down for some coffee talk with Dan Pourhadi and Conrad Quilty-Harper on everything from Apple's new 5G iPod U2 Edition to Macs in Best Buy, as well as gaming on, the finish of, and that darn glossy screen in the MacBook. We also discuss that "
Last week, Scott wrote about a poor Powerbook that had been badly damaged, but 
The other day
