Yes folks, it looks like the online Apple Store is currently down. Given that it is 10:00 PM on a Saturday night over in Cupertino, I'd say chances are pretty good that it could just be some simple maintenance, but you never know.

We'll keep an eye out for any changes and post an update if anything exciting happens!

Time Machine made it easy for Leopard owners to back up their Macs on local external hard drives, and lately we've seen a number of online backup services such as Carbonite, BackBlaze, and MozyPro debut for the Mac platform. These online services are great (I personally use BackBlaze), but there's a monthly cost associated with them. What if you already have access to a large volume of server space?

App4Mac has just announced Twin 1.0 for Mac OS X (US$39.67, €29.00), an online backup solution that works with all sorts of servers: FTP (all varieties), WebDAV, Amazon S3, and even MobileMe. Unlike many of the other online solutions, Twin claims that it retains all the Mac OS X file metadata, ACLs, and privileges, and your data is kept safe with AES-256 "Jack Bauer quality" encryption. In addition to the online backups, you can use Twin for backing up your files to local drives and have the backups begin when the external drive it plugged in.

I'm impressed with the powerful scheduling capabilities of Twin, which include a way to use logical operators to determine exactly when backups should proceed or not. Having an offsite backup is that extra bit of security that every Mac user should have. Check out the gallery below for some screenshots of the app in action. You can also download a free, limited-capability trial of Twin if you're interested in kicking the tires.

For new customers wanting an iPhone 3G, you now have another way to buy it - ordering straight from Apple, an option that hasn't existed since the original iPhone was sold. Online purchasing was taken away with the introduction of the 3G. AT&T brought it back in December, and only now has Apple caught up.

New subscribers can activate their service online, then have their new iPhones shipped straight to their door. Current AT&T customers will need to reserve their iPhones online, then go pick them up at the Apple Store.

As I found out last month, having existing subscribers go in to pick up their iPhone can be a very good move, because things can certainly go wrong. When I went to the Apple Store to pick up my new iPhone 3G, it turns out that when I purchased my original iPhone in November 2007 that they didn't enter it into the system properly. I was nearly charged the full price of the iPhone rather than the subsidized price offered to those who wanted to upgrade from EDGE to 3G. A trip to the nearby AT&T store took care of that, but it was the sort of thing that was far easier to handle in person than over the phone. They were able to pull up my original receipt and override the system so I was recognized as a previous adopter rather than someone just trying to break my original contract.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

I had to do some extensive testing before I got too excited, but after a conversation with the developers I'm pleased to announce that ExpanDrive 2.0 is out. We've mentioned it before, but to recap: ExpanDrive allows you to mount remote servers as drives directly accessible in Finder. With a completely rewritten (again) SFTP layer, the existing FTP support and new Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Solution) support, it's even more useful than the last time we mentioned it. One of the developers, Jeff Mancuso, mentioned to me back at the last WWDC that the S3 support was in the works; it's great to see it come to fruition.

In my testing, I found that a previously-existing S3 option, JungleDisk, can cause conflicts with ExpanDrive's S3 support. JungleDisk users should note that there are some issues, but they seem to clear up if you create vanilla buckets in your account and use those with ExpanDrive. I personally found that I was willing to give up JungleDisk entirely at this point, preferring this direct-mount with all of the perks, including a contextual menu in Finder for quickly setting public read/write permissions.

I can attest to the fact that it's faster, and that the S3 support is working (wonderfully, without JungleDisk). ExpanDrive 2.0 is a $39.95 purchase (well worth it if you deal with remote UNIX systems or S3), and a $19.95 upgrade for existing users. There's a free trial available.

Zynga has released a new iPhone game called Scramble Live, and while the game itself isn't anything really new -- it's Boggle, basically -- the technology is pretty interesting. They've already got a Facebook version up and running with over a million users, and the new app will let you play against other users, on both the iPhone and Facebook, in real-time. That's a pretty impressive hook -- rather than building up a new social audience, you can just carry away your Facebook friends and play with them while you're on the iPhone.

Unfortunately, there's a catch (isn't there always?) -- the game's iTunes page says the live game is only available over 3G or Wifi, so us first-gen iPhone users are out of luck for that mode. But there's also a solo mode, as well as a "pass and play" version that you can use to play with people around you.

The game's "on sale" at $2.99 until March 9th, when it'll jump back up to $4.99. If you're a fan of the Facebook version and want to try out some cross-platform gameplay, give it a look.

With just under a week left before Macworld 2009, the rumor mill is turning out many rumors. One new rumor, proposed by 9to5 Mac, suggests that Apple may be taking their iWork suite of software online. iWork is Apple's answer to an office suite, and combines a word processor (Pages), presentation software (Keynote), and spreadsheet app (Numbers).

Just as Apple took mail, calendars, and contacts online with MobileMe, 9to5 believes they might do the same with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Apple definitely wouldn't be the first company to take office applications into the "cloud," but they might be the first to make web apps that tie into MobileMe.

Google Docs (formerly Writely), Zoho Office, and Microsoft are just a few of the companies currently offering web-based solutions for office products.

[via MacRumors]

Since the introduction of the iPhone 3G, neither Apple nor AT&T has sold the device online. That is, until now. AT&T is now allowing customers the option of ordering an iPhone 3G on their store website.

You can now pick up an iPhone 3G in either 8GB or 16GB black/white configurations. The 8GB iPhone is being sold for $199US, and the 16GB for $299. If new isn't your thing, AT&T is also offering refurbished iPhones starting at $149 for an 8GB model. You can visit the AT&T online store for more information.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

I kind of like the idea behind snOwned, a new wintry app on the App Store that claims to be a "multiuser, online snowball fight." I think there is some great multiplayer gaming to be had with the iPhone, and, if enough people are interested, there might be some in snOwned.

You download the app from the App Store (it's 99 cents, which is cheap but maybe not cheap enough for what it is), and then sign your email up along with a username. Once you've activated, you can then "throw snowballs" (which consists of three little fun minigame steps) at anyone else with the app installed on their iPhone or iPod touch around the world. And they can throw them back at you, you can play a short game to defend, stats are kept on the site, and so on. As with most social games, it all depends on who's in the game with you -- if you've got friends along to keep up rivalries with, it could be fun. But just throwing random snowballs at random people around the globe, as I did (my ingame name is "toucansamurai") isn't really worth the dollar's admission.

Still, it's a start -- the game can also track your location when you throw, so you can see where your snowballs are going on the globe, and who's throwing at you. I think there will eventually be a runaway game of this kind, where we're all playing with each other socially on our own phones in different places all over the world (Loot Wars is another game that's interesting in this vein, even if it's not quite there yet). And snOwned is another step closer to that. But as any MMO company will tell you, the only way to make a social game great is to have everyone playing it, and I'm not sure there's enough going on in this one to pull in a lot of really interested players.

TBWA/Media Arts Lab created a spiffy new online ad for the iPod touch: it plays around with objects on the Yahoo! Games page as the ad plays. It's not unlike the Nintendo "Wario Land" YouTube video that has the same effect.

AdAge notes that Apple has been clever about creating media-rich online advertising, including the New York Times ads that interact with each other, even though they're in different units.

[Via Macenstein.]

Today, the online retailer Amazon.com launched its first iPhone/iPod touch application. Previously, Amazon offered a version of its site that was optimized for MobileSafari. Amazon has added some pretty nifty features in the iPhone application that could make shopping online a lot easier.

When you first launch the application, you are presented with your wish list, and the phrase "Get Yourself a Little Something." From this home tab, you can also see your signed-in username. When you tap the search tab, you are able to type in a search string just as you can on the Amazon.com homepage. Search results are featured in a descending list, ordered by relevance. You can see the categories for the search results by tapping the "By Category" button in the top-right.

Once you're on a product page, you are able to see the same information that you would see on the Amazon.com page, except compacted a little more. Tap the item name/price link, and you get a full product description. Tap the customer reviews section, and you can see all of the reviews. When you're ready to purchase, select "Buy Now," or "Add to Cart" at the bottom of the product page. The picture of the product will then "fall" into the shopping cart tab with a nice animation. You can also see a running count of all the items in your cart. If you decide you don't want the item, just tap the edit button and remove it. When you are ready to complete your purchase, select the "Checkout" button in the top-right corner of the cart tab.

Probably the coolest feature of Amazon's application is located in the "Remembers" tab. In this section, you can take a picture with your iPhone's camera and have it sent to Amazon. In a few minutes, you get a link to the Amazon product page for that item (or the item that resembles it most closely). Note that Mike Schramm's favorite iPhone app, Snaptell [iTunes link], has offered the ability to do the exact same thing for multiple shopping sites. The Amazon "Remembers" feature seems nice, and your results are saved on the Amazon site for later reference. In my tests, after taking the picture I received a link to the product page within 1-2 minutes. This definitely could come in handy if you're in a store and want to find out how much an item sells for on Amazon.

Amazon has really created an all-around great shopping experience for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download this application from the iTunes App Store for free.

When I was faced with the decision of buying a MacBook Pro or waiting, I immediately took the leap of faith without knowing if Apple would be releasing a new unit within the next few weeks or not. As it turns out, I was wrong and Apple did release a new MacBook Pro. However, I did not suck it up and go on ... I went searching for some answers as to what you can do if you are in the same situation. In this post, I'm going to tell you what I found out.

When you purchase a new product from Apple (either through the online store, or though a brick-and-mortar store) you have 14 days to return the product. With this 14-day policy, Apple also gives you price protection. From my understanding this covers both pricing decreases as well as new products coming out.

When I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple Store, they immediately looked at my receipt and asked if I wanted a new one. I thought, "This can't be this easy, can it?" There is a caveat with replacing your old machine with a new model: the Apple Store might charge you a "re-stocking" fee. This is a 10% fee based on the initial purchase price. I questioned them about this and they told me that I would be getting an upgraded product. However, I was able to get my re-stocking fee waived after talking with the manager for a little while.

The Bottom Line
If you bought a MacBook/Pro/Air in the past 14 days and want to upgrade to one of the newer models, it definitely wouldn't hurt to call up your local store (or Apple online customer service at 1-800-MY-APPLE) and talk to them about returning. Don't be surprised if they tell you about the restocking fee, they told me the same story until I took it into the store. Unlike most computer companies, Apple does try to make the situation right, and most of the time, you come out on top of the matter.

Additional Resources

• Apple Retail Site
• Apple Return Policy

The Apple Store just went offline. The site has been updated to show the yellow sticky note that we've all come to love. What could it mean? Might it mean that MobileMe boxes will be available and ready for shipping? One could only hope.

If you notice anything new, be sure to send us a tip! Stay tuned here as we keep you updated.


Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Recently, Apple posted a new online seminar (linked from enterprise Apple Store pages) entitled "Best Practices for Integrating Mac OS X into Active Directory." This seminar will show registered participants how to deploy machines running OS X into existing Active Directory setups.

Apple lists several things that are shown in the online seminar, some of which include:

• Integrating an Active Directory environment into Mac OS X
• Using the Active Directory plug-in in Mac OS X
• Configuring home directories (includes how to do this with mobile users)

You can watch this free online seminar by going to Apple's seminar website and registering. You will then be able to stream the video using QuickTime Player, or download an iPod-compatible file.

The Growl website has been offline since last week due to the developers retiring their server for a new one. I am pleased to say that Growl.info is back online as of today. Growl is the indispensable Mac notification system which allows you to customize the way you see notifications, system-wide.

Tonight, I spoke with Chris Forsythe, one of the developers of Growl. He said that while the site is back up, the SVN and Trac are still down. However, you are now able to download the latest release of Growl on their site. Forsythe also mentioned that the new Growl website design will go live "soon-ish." On his blog, he has a picture of what the new design will look like.

QuickShareIt, which we covered a while back, has received an upgrade to 2.0, adding many of the originally promised features as well as a host of new ones.

QuickShareIt is a Mac app that provides online storage and file sharing with both Mac and PC users. It's growing up amongst a host of similar products, but differentiates itself by offering some unique features centered around the teaming of its dock icon drop-box, "recent uploads" floating panel and web-based file access. For example, if you drag multiple images onto the dock icon, it will ask you if you want to create a gallery. When the upload finishes (with Growl notifications), it will give you a url that you can share and provide options for handling that gallery in the floating panel. It also accepts text clippings and creates a line-numbered, online document for quick sharing of code samples or text snippets. Previews for other filetypes are available.

Right now uploading to QuickShareIt is anonymous and public access. The developers are rolling out registration options in the near future, as well as paid options with extra features. If you want to try QuickShareIt out, just download the application and run it. There's no configuration or sign-up necessary (despite the option being present), just drag files or text clippings onto the dock icon and watch it go.