MacDesperate - Product

Dilbert on lost iPhone prototype

Wouter — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:06:37 +0000

You may have all heard of the iPhone prototype: lost in a bar by an Apple engineer, found by someone who then sold it to Gizmodo. Of course, Gizmodo made a full report about what they've found. Including pictures and a dissection of the phone itself. Poor iPhone...

The affair made a lot of media attention, which even lead Scott Adams, creator of daily office life comic 'Dilbert', to draw some comics about this...

He also wrote a blog post about these comics, which you can read on his website.

Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.1

Tales — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:51:38 +0000

Apple just released "Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.1" adding RAW support to iPhoto and Aperture with the Following cameras

This update extends RAW image compatibility for Aperture 3 and iPhoto ’09 for the following cameras:

Hasselblad H3DII-50
Leica M9
Leica X1
Olympus E-P1
Olympus E-P2
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
Pentax K-7
Pentax K-x
Sony Alpha DSLR-A500
Sony Alpha DSLR-A550
Sony Alpha DSLR-A850

Besides this update Apple recently also released an update to Aperture 3 which is supposed to fix the slideshow issues.

This update addresses an issue affecting the playback of video clips used in Aperture 3 slideshows on Snow Leopard.

The update is recommended for all users of Aperture 3.

10 billion iTunes songs downloaded

Tales — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:42:55 +0000

Yesterday Apple announced that it had reached 10 billion music downloads from the iTunes store. During the countdown Apple was also running the contest "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs". The winner of this contest is Louie Sulcer of woodstock, Georgia. He downloaded the song "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. He will be receiving a $10.000 iTunes Gift Card.

Full press release after the break.

Source:

Macrumors

iPad

Rosana — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:18:07 +0000

The word's out. The buzz is all about the new Apple iPad, a tablet device. But why would I tell you all about it, when Apple has a great page about this online: http://www.apple.com/ipad

A revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more.

I won't be saving money to get one for myself. I don't see this being useful - for me. First I'd like that MacBook Pro. Then maybe some other gadgets. I already have a great tablet to draw and other than that I don't see the iPad fit in my life very well. It's too big to be a gadget I just carry around. I'd be too afraid to damage the thin device.

How about you? Are you excited about the iPad? Are you going to buy one? Or, if you can't, save for one? I'm pretty curious. Over at Plurk, my buddies seem to have many different opinions. Some say it's another device they are not going to buy, others say they need it asap! I'm very curious to hear if you are planning on buying one and why, what are you doing to use it for primarily?

iTunes Holiday Sampler

Tales — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:38:22 +0000

Apple released a Free Holiday album to promote the new iTunes LP format. The album comes with 20 Free holiday orientated songs and comes with allot of extras like a nice visualizer, lyrics and artist information. The 'iTunes Holiday Sampler' can be download for free here. Please note that you need a US iTunes Store account. If you are located in Europe check out the '12 Days. 12 Free Downloads.' promotion.

Google releases Chrome for Mac Beta

Tales — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:18:40 +0000

Google just released their Google Chrome browser for the Mac. After months of waiting the First stable (beta) release of Google Chrome for mac has been released. Development versions of Chrome have been available for around 6 months. Chrome includes a fast javascript engine, which you will notice with javascript intensive websites like Google Maps, Google Docs and Gmail. Besides this Chrome also runs Tabs in seperate processes meaning that if a Tab crashes (Java anyone?), only that tab will be terminated, the other tabs will keep on going like nothing ever happened.

The Chrome for Mac (Beta) download comes in at 17.6MB, Carries build number: 4.0.249.30 and will only work on Intel-based macs with OSX Leopard or higher.

iTunes Store gets 'Preview All' on albums.

Tales — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:58:43 +0000

iTunes has added a 'preview all' option to its store. This lets you listen to a 30 second clip of every song on the album. Although this feature isn't really new as you have been able to preview by double clicking a song, it makes it a whole lot easier to get a fast impression of an album. Click 'Preview All', sit back and enjoy the tunes.

Source:

TUAW

Apple silently updates Mac Pro

Tales — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:51:14 +0000

Apple updated the built to order parts on the Mac Pro. You can get upgrade the quad-core Mac Pro from 2.93Ghz to 3.33Ghz for a whopping $800. This option isn't yet available on the 8-core Mac Pro. Besides this Apple also updated its available drives. You can now get a 2TB drive for the low low price of $500. Or you could upgrade them yourself and be done for $200 per drive.

I personally wonder why you would want to get a Mac Pro though. The new Core i7 iMac is cheaper compared to the Mac Pro and it includes a 27" screen. The speed difference is near insignificant. The biggest difference is probably that you get to upgrade system parts with ease. But if I was a professional I'm quite sure what I would choose, and it ain't the big box with holes in the front.

Twitter updates iPhone webapp

Tales — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:14:04 +0000

Twitter is used a lot on the road, either from a laptop, cellphone or smart phone. Until today the smart phone web page was absolutely terrible. Very unorganized, hard to find content and not functional. The page was aimed specifically to phones with a browser and keypad. Browsing the page with something like an iPhone or an android touch based phone was near impossible. Luckily this wasn't a real problem as the appstore contains some really great twitter applications (Tweetie (paid), Echofon (free) warning: Links will open iTunes). It is however nice to see that Twitter isn't giving up.

You can reach the new mobile page by visiting mobile.twitter.com. You can still visit the old page by going to m.twitter.com. The first thing you will notice is the resemblance to the full browser version of Twitter. It feels more 2009 and less 1999. Little things are still missing, lists for example (a new Twitter feature) aren't yet implemented. I expect this to happen soon though. Check out a before/after gallery after the break.

Source:

TUAW

iTunes LP goes open, might be included in iDVD '10?

Tales — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:08:06 +0000

Apple released iTunes LP simultaneously with iTunes 9 back in September. It's Apples digital answer to the old Jewel cases. When you buy an iTunes LP album from the iTunes store you get an extra package besides the songs. This package contains a pretty menu and tons of extras like behind the scenes footage, exclusive interviews and music videos. You can view iTunes LP content on a Mac/PC with iTunes 9 or higher or on an Apple TV with the latest s/w update. Biggest problem which people were having was that it wasn't documented how to make that extra package. Apple has changed that by releasing the iTunes LP/extras SDK for developers. This will make it possible for indie/major artists to release their own iTunes LP content.

Besides this Boy Genius Report is reporting that Apple will revamp the current iDVD version with the release of iLife '10. Their 'pretty accurate' source reports that Apple will add iTunes LP to the next version. iDVD was one of the only apps in the iLife suite to not get an update with the iLife '08 to '09 changeover.

Source:

Boy Genius Report