Apple has released a new iPhone 4 ad for Christmas, featuring a kid hiding under his bed covers using FaceTime to video chat with Santa Claus. In the background the classic song “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)” by Nat King Cole is playing. The name of the TV ad is “Under The Covers” and looks like it’s airing everywhere now.
Gets you in the holiday spirit doesn’t it?
Have you broken your MacBook Pro screen? The cost to replace a cracked or dead screen of a MacBook or MacBook Pro can be very expensive, but instead of considering the broken MacBook Pro useless, just turn it into a desktop Mac!
Equipment necessary to use a broke screen MacBook Pro as a desktop Mac:
because it looks similar to the Apple Cinema Displays, and it’s a fraction of the price. Other great brands are LG, ViewSonic, and Samsung. Just be sure to get something with a resolution that your MacBook/MacBook pro supports.
and wireless Apple Magic Mouse
to get the full desktop experience.Once you have all the necessary hardware, do the following:
This will automatically boot your Mac to use the attached external screen. Your next step is to set as the primary display to the external display, so that the menubar will appear on the external display and not on the dead internal display. This is very important otherwise the broken screen will still hold your menubar and will be the default location of new windows if the lid is left open.
The picture above shows a MacBook Pro with the broken screen completely removed, but this isn’t necessary because you can use the MacBook Pro with the lid closed whether the screen works or not. Just be sure an external monitor is hooked to it.
Thanks to Andy for sending in this picture and the idea!
This is a unique iPad stand: set an iPad into an old clamshell iBook. It’d be even cooler if the keyboard worked! Thanks for the submission Dana.
Apple’s newly released iAd Producer aims to ease the iAd creation process with a set of powerful tools that allow Mac users to create compelling interactive advertisements fit for the iOS platform. iAd Producer features an easy to use visual editor that manages the creation of all HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript behind the iAd, greatly simplifying the development process. Advanced developers will be pleased to learn that they can also dig behind the easy interface and directly edit and debug the code on their own.
iAd Producer features include:
iAd Producer requires Mac OS X 10.6.5, Safari 5, and iOS SDK 4+, if you want to test iAds on an iOS device, that device requires iOS 4 or later.
You can read more about iAd Producer and download it for free if you’re in the iOS Developer program by visiting the iOS Developer Center.
I’ve always liked the way Cover Flow looked and I found it a pretty nice way to flip through albums in iTunes and files in Mac OS X. Well, Cover Flow’s days may be numbered, as a recently discovered Apple patent reveals a touch responsive spiral user interface to navigate through iTunes albums, and possibly, files in both Mac OS X Finder and iOS apps.
As you can see in the patent image above, the items in the file spiral will be touch responsive allowing someone to ‘grab’ one of the items in the spiral and manipulate it in a virtual 3D space. It looks like the patent is specific to iTunes playlists, but considering Cover Flow is included in iTunes, iOS, and Mac OS X, it’s quite possible this touch spiral could appear everywhere that Cover Flow currently exists.
The patent also details an alternative “V” style interface that may look and function similar to how the Time Machine interface works, with items moving back and forth in a virtual space. Here is the patent image of the “V” style UI:
Uncovered by PatentlyApple, they interpret the patents use as follows:
At the end of the day, I think that both the sprial and receding-v designs have their place. The receding-v design would appear to be a natural for replacing Cover Flow in Apple’s Finder. It’s not overly drastic and would provide us with a superior viewing angle, which is the purpose for the change to begin with. Apple’s proposed Spiral design is more geared for iTunes. Apple could simply make it another viewing option or replace Cover Flow. It appears to be geared for a touch display like the iPad where it’s better suited. It would provide more room to maneuver than an iPhone. So it’ll be interesting to see how Apple introduces these new UI elements in the future.
Assuming this spiral and V UI does appear in Mac OS X, I imagine it would respond to both multitouch input devices and a mouse by using the scrollwheel to navigate through the spiral, just like the existing Cover Flow interface does.
Sometimes you’ll run into a a song that plays a lot more quiet than others in iTunes. Instead of being frustrated or turning your speakers up for just one song, you can adjust a songs volume level directly in iTunes.
This works in nearly all versions of iTunes for both Mac OS X and Windows:
The volume adjustment works well and it does not seem to degrade the audio quality of the song by any noticeable amount. I have to do this somewhat often when I download songs from the web, or when I convert YouTube video to MP3 for playing in iTunes.
You can also set iTunes to play all songs at the same volume level, which lets iTunes automatically equalize all songs played.
How would you like a 5 in 1 connector kit for your iPad? It has USB, Micro-USB, SD, Micro-SD, and a TV connector. Discovered by GizChina, it looks like this is only available in China at the moment. Let’s hope someone brings it to the rest of the world, I bet this would sell quite well.
This is just one of many cool Apple add-ons and gadgets you can get in China but you can’t get here, including the elusive white iPhone 4.
Amazon is at it again, this time they’re offering the newest iPod touch 8 GB for $210 with free shipping
– includes free shipping
– free at checkoutAdd both items to your cart, and the $25 Amazon gift card becomes free at checkout.
Ordering today (12/19) guarantees delivery by December 24 with the free shipping, so if you’re shopping for last minute Christmas gifts, this is it.
If you have an iPhone you can turn it into a WiFi hotspot very easily. This lets you wirelessly connect any other computer or hardware to the iPhone and use its cellular connection as your primary internet access. Without a doubt this is the easiest way to tether your iPhone wirelessly, and use an iPhone as a wireless router.
This is easier to do than you might think. You’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone and then install a popular third party application, here are the steps:
Remember that this is going to use your iPhone’s data plan, so unless you have a grandfathered unlimited plan you will want to keep a close eye on data usage and consumption. The MyWi app keeps track of data use for both upload and download, but you’ll want to watch it through your carrier as well. Checking iPhone data usage is easy on AT&T and I’m sure it’s similar on other cell providers too.
Note that MyWi will drain your iPhone battery faster than usual, but you can also use the app to tether your iPhone via USB so that you can keep the iPhone powered or charging while still using its cell connection.
A few final notes on using MyWi and jailbreaking: You can download MyWi and use it in demo mode to get a free 3 day trial before buying the app, this lets you ensure that everything works before buying. Using an app like MyWi may violate your agreement with your wireless carrier, and although jailbreaking is not illegal, it may violate your warranty with Apple.
If you were wondering whether to get Parallels 6 or VMware for virtualization, then some recent tests by MacTech may have the answer for you. In a series of benchmarks pitting the new Parallels 6 vs VMware Fusion 3.1, Parallels is the hands-down winner. In 84% of the tests performed, Parallels 6 beat the competition in everything from general performance benchmarks to I/O, CPU footprint, Office performance, and 3D graphics and 3D games.
The scores in 3D graphics and games are even more in Parallels 6 favor, with Parallels beating VMware in 92% of the tests run. This doesn’t surprise me considering the amazing Parallels 6 gaming performance we saw earlier in the year.
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