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snow posts

Filed under: Humor, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

iPhone apps and tips for snowed-in TUAW readers

As I write this, snow is falling. That was the view out of my office this morning. Yes, I know it's only October 27th. Yes, I know that winter starts on December 21st. But sometimes in Colorado we get blizzards or major snowstorms in "non-standard" months. We're supposed to get two feet of the white stuff before this storm departs Thursday night.

An IM conversation with Mike R. got me thinking about what iPhone apps could be useful when you're snowed in. Here's my list, and be sure to use the comments section below to leave your ideas.

You're going to be getting a little cabin fever after being stuck in the house a few days, so why not go insane a bit faster? There are a number of snow globe apps for iPhone in the App Store [iTunes Link], so you can shake them up and watch those little virtual snowflakes falling, all while laughing nervously and sharpening that butcher knife.

On a much more positive, happy-thoughts note, how about thinking about where you can go skiing or snowboarding when the roads are cleared and you can actually get the car out of the garage? The first thing you'll want to know are the snow depths at all of your favorite resorts. The US$1.99 Snow Reports [iTunes Link] does exactly that for over 2,000 resorts worldwide. Ski Lodge - Snow Reports [US$4.99, iTunes Link] is similar, but also provides detailed trail maps, directions to the nearest resort, and more.

When you're on the mountain and riding your board, it's always fun to use iTrailMap 3D [US$4.99, iTunes Link] to trace your runs via GPS on a map, then send the map to those obnoxious virtual coworkers who keep sending you pictures of the palm trees swaying outside their San Diego offices.

Continue readingiPhone apps and tips for snowed-in TUAW readers

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPod classic

Frozen iPod returns from the grave


Andrew sent us this great story -- he found an iPod classic in the melting snow of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It had apparently been there "since early winter," and was frozen solid... as is the case, we'd imagine, with most things left outside there between September and April.

Incredibly, though, once taken home, cleaned up, and given a warm cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese, it started right back up again. Everything was completely intact -- he says it even displayed the correct date. Pretty impressive for Apple's little music player (and mine's even stuffed in a Vaja case, so I know it'll always run for me -- assuming I don't drop it in a pile of snow somewhere).

He says there is a name on the iPod, so if you've been around the Whitehorse area and have recently dropped your iPod near a place called Takhini School, leave him a note and he will probably be able to get it back to you. But do it quick -- he's giving things about a week, and then it's finder's keepers. We don't blame him: who wouldn't want an indestructible iPod?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Internet, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Smule's Zephyr sends snowy messages around the world

As much as I hate to do it, I'm always willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I was wrong about Ocarina. Not about the app itself, per se -- I still think it's one of the silliest, most pointless apps I've seen on the App Store. But it has been nothing but popular since its release, so apparently lots of people out there are into it. That's fine -- I'm willing to accept that there are best-selling apps out there that I think are dumb.

And maybe this will be another one: Smule, the company behind Ocarina, has decided to follow up with a new app called Zephyr (not to be confused with the MacBook cooling system) that seems just as silly to me. You can draw out messages with an airy sound-and-snowflake interface, and then send those messages blowing around the world (represented, in the official video above, by Las Vegas) to random people who, if they like your messages, will pass them on around the Internet. "What's the point?" you might say, and in that opinion, I'd agree with you. There are lots of ways to send messages around the world, and more than a few of them are quite free and will let you be clearer than drawing snow with wind sounds in the background.

But then again, I didn't see a point to Ocarina, and that made plenty of money. Zephyr is available on the App Store right now for 99 cents. And if you do jump in and buy it, make sure to tell us exactly why in the comments below.

Filed under: Macworld, Rumors, Snow Leopard

MacNN: Snow Leopard could ship 1Q 2009

Snow Leopard could ship as early as January, according to comments made by the director of Apple's Unix Technology Group.

Jordan Hubbard said at the Large Installation System Administration conference last week that Mac OS X 10.6 will ship in the first quarter of 2009, according to MacNN.

This primes the Macworld Expo rumor pump: Scheduled for January 5, Steve could debut new quad-core iMacs in addition to showing off this new version of the operating system.

This is not to be confused with Mac OS X 10.5.6, a minor update, which could be available as soon as Friday.

Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Let it snow: Snow Reports for iPhone

SnowReports for iPhoneIt's late October in ski country, and that means skiers and snowboarders are getting their gear ready, trying to get into shape, and starting to watch the skies for signs of snow.

Snow Reports, from Eddit Incorporated, provides the ability to create your own personalized lists of your favorite ski resorts, and then track the snow conditions and weather at those resorts. Snow Reports can access information for over 2,000 ski areas around the world through OnTheSnow.com's online service.

Ski areas are listed by region and state or province, and a tap on a state or province name provides a detailed list of all the resorts in that area. A red or green "Closed / Open" sign provides immediate feedback on whether a resort is ready for visitors, and an attractive interface provides base and new snow depths.

A quick tap on the resort page displays a full condition report for a ski area, or upcoming weather conditions. A video is available demonstrating highlights of Snow Reports, as well as a Flickr pool of screenshots.

Snow Reports (click opens iTunes) is available now for US$1.99.

Filed under: Airport, Software Update

AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow 4.2.5

Along with the Keynote update, today Apple posted an update for the Graphite and Snow AirPort Admin utility. You can read more information about this Admin Utility update on the Apple support website; in a nutshell, it adds Leopard compatibility -- a good thing.

If you want to download the update, you can either open Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or download the installer package from the Apple support downloads site.

Note that he newer AirPort Utility (v5.3.1 or later) should be used for Time Capsule, and for AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express Base Stations. The update here is for the older base stations' admin tool.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Universal Binary

Snjr



First it was Snowfall, then LotsaSnow came to my attention, and now Snjór is the current snow related OS X app that has my eye (thanks to Sveinn). Snjór creates little snow like globes that float down your Mac's screen while you are using it (that is to say that this is not a screensaver, but rather an application that draws these little guys on your screen). You can set how many snowflakes fall, how fast they fall, and if you want them to accumulate on top of the active window (seen above).

Snjór is free and Universal, and the developer (the awesomely named Ninja Kitten) promises that the source will be available on December 24th.

Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends, iMac

Lucky LEM writer finds a $25 iMac at a thrift store

Some people have all the luck. In this case, it's Adam Robert Guha over at LowEndMac who found a $25 Snow iMac at a thrift store. The store (obviously) didn't know much about it, so when he got the machine home he found that it had a 500 MHz PPC CPU, 30GB hard drive and 384 MB of RAM.

Adam went for the gold and found that it ran Mac OS X 10.4.7 surprisingly well, and he was able to get online with Safari. So what's a guy to do with a $25 iMac that can live and play in this modern Mac OS X world? Why, give it to his grandparents, of course! He installed Firefox, a couple of games and AOL in the hopes that this 'no cables needed' machine would inspire his grandparents to toss the Performa 630 and start blazing up the interwebs. Not a bad move for such a lucky find. Time for me to go see if my local thrift store mis-priced a PowerMac G5 as a broken air conditioner.

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.


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