The late Steve Jobs has always been unapologetic about his usage of LSD, openly proclaiming his experiences with the drug were some of the “most important things I have done in my life” and even criticizing Bill Gates for not indulging in the substance. Those statements didn’t go unnoticed by Albert Hofman, the man who created LSD in a Swiss lab in the 1930’s, who wrote Steve Jobs a letter in 2007 asking for help to promote the chemical for therapeutic studies. That letter was obtained by Yahoo News, and is repeated below:

Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,

Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple Computers and your personal spiritual quest. I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.

I’m writing now, shortly after my 101st birthday, to request that you support Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser’s proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. This will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years, and will be sponsored by MAPS.

I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into a wonder child.

Sincerely
Albert Hofmann

The last line of the letter relates to Albert Hofmann’s famous book “My Problem Child“, which discusses his accidental discovery of LSD and how its misuse drove it to become illegal and eventually fuel the 1960’s counterculture movement.

There’s no word on if Steve Jobs responded to the request. Albert Hofman passed away a year after sending the letter in 2008, and Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, 2011.

The Kindle Fire is out, but if you’re like me you’ve sat on the sidelines to wait for reviews and videos of performance before pulling the buy trigger. Those are starting to appear now, and while it’s obvious the iPad 2 blows the Kindle Fire away in speed and overall utility, the Fire holds up reasonably well considering it’s just $199.

How does it stack up to the iPad 2? The video below from iDo is a pretty fair comparison for some basic tests of booting, loading web pages, and streaming videos:

We also embedded The Verges video review of the Fire below, it’s not a comparison but it’s a good quick look at the device:
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Rather than rearranging all of the System Preferences to be sorted alphabetically, you can access a quick pull-down menu of all the panels that is sorted by name.

Try it yourself, access System Preferences from the  Apple menu, then click and hold on “Show All” to see the full list of preference panes available sorted by their name.

A large menu containing an alphabetically sorted list of preference panels will show up, and you can select any from here.

The same preference menu is also available from the “View” menu bar, so you can use whichever approach to finding system prefs is most convenient.

This trick is limited to somewhat new versions of Mac OS, from Mac OS X Lion and newer, including all the way up to MacOS Monterey.

Thanks for the tip and screenshot James

If you don’t have a spare Bluetooth keyboard to connect to an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch with, why not use a Mac? This seems like a no brainer of an idea, but until the Mac app Type2Phone came along, I haven’t heard of any such solution. The app works by pairing a Mac to the iOS device (technically it works with Androids too), which is fooled into thinking the Mac is a Bluetooth keyboard, then all you have to do is type in the Mac app and it appears in iOS. Smart huh?

• Type2Phone costs $4.99 on the Mac App Store (App Store link)

Requirements for using Type2Phone are fairly basic: you’ll obviously need a Bluetooth enabled Mac and iOS device that is set to discoverable, and Mac OS X 10.6.6 and iOS 3.2 or later. Then all you need to do is launch the app on the Mac, and from the iPhone/iPad tap on Settings > General > Bluetooth to enable and then select the visible Mac to pair the iOS device to.

Other than the ability to use a Mac keyboard as a way to type on the iPad or iPhone, you can also use the app to finally copy text from Mac OS X and paste it directly to an app on the iOS device. These two features are so useful that it makes you wish Apple had included them in iOS and Mac OS X directly, it just makes sense.
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Apple has seeded the first release of Mac OS X 10.7.3 to developers, the build is 11D16 and focuses on iCloud document storage, in addition to changes to Address Book, iCal, and Mail.

The update weighs in at 633MB and is downloadable through the Mac Developer Center to registered devs for both OS X Lion Client and Server. Apple recommends that users install the update only on Macs they don’t mind erasing, warning that downgrading back to the stable 10.7.2 build is impossible (although this is usually easy through Time Machine backups).

We’re hoping the vague “iCloud document storage” changes are to officially include native iCloud file syncing in Mac OS X, although there is no word on that yet. If you’re interested in reading the official release notes, you can check them out on 9to5mac.

For reference, Mac OS X 10.7.2 was released on October 12, 2011 and included iCloud support in addition to bringing a variety of fixes and adjustments to Lion.

In modern versions of Mac OS X, repairing permissions from the Disk Utility app doesn’t repair the users file permissions, oddly this has to be done separately on a per-user basis. If you’re running into problems with Spotlight not finding documents or folders, or if you’re having other issues that can usually be fixed with a permissions repair, this can often resolve those problems.

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If your iPad or iPhone is running slow after updating to iOS 5 you’re not alone, for many the update has made their device feel sluggish, with taps taking longer to register, stalls between swipes, and just a general noticeable decrease in performance. This seems to effect all iOS devices too, indicating it’s not necessarily a hardware issue but a software one.

There are two solutions that are both relatively simple, for best results you need to do both:

• Update to iOS 5.0.1 – if you haven’t done so already, do it manually or through OTA
• Back up and restore the iPad or iPhone after updating to iOS 5.0.1 – do this if you’re already running 5.0.1 and it feels slow, this works, we walk you through the process below

The iOS 5.0.1 update seems to make a difference in performance because whatever was constantly running in the background draining battery (location services?) was presumably causing the devices to run slow as well. This was partially resolved with some battery tips that involved turning off tons of features, but the 5.0.1 update helps for most users and is thus highly recommended in and of itself. Even after installing the update though, some users report sluggish behavior and in that case you’ll want to backup and restore.

Restoring the iOS Device to Resolve Speed Issues

How long this takes depends on how much media is on the iPhone or iPad and how large the backups are:

• Connect the iPad, iPhone, iPod to the computer and open iTunes
• Right-click on the device and choose “Back Up” and let the process finish, this may take a while
• When the backup is finished, click on “Restore” (you can also select to back up from here) and let the device be wiped clean
• Once the iOS device is completely restored and in it’s original state, go back to iTunes and right-click on the device name again, this time selecting “Restore from Backup” – this also may take a while but let it run

After the device is finished restoring from the newly created backup, it should be significantly faster than it was before running the latest version of iOS.

We’ve tried this on a variety of iOS devices and it seems to work wonders, did it work for you?

Stanford University’s School of Engineering has released full HD videos and slides of their Fall 2011 “Developing Apps for iOS” course. The lectures and lessons for CS193P are focused on iOS 5 and downloadable for free from iTunes University, offering a great look at beginning iOS development through the eyes of a world class engineering school.

• iTunes U & Stanford: iPad and iPhone Application Development (iTunes link)

If you haven’t downloaded any courses from iTunes before, a new section in the iTunes Library sidebar titled “iTunes U” will appear to contain the lessons.

Stanford’s description of the course is as follows:

Tools and APIs required to build applications for the iPhone platform using the iPhone SDK. User interface designs for mobile devices and unique user interactions using multitouch technologies. Object-oriented design using model-view-controller pattern, memory management, Objective-C programming language. iPhone APIs and tools including Xcode, Interface Builder and Instruments on Mac OS X. Other topics include: core animation, bonjour networking, mobile device power management and performance considerations.

Official prerequisites to the course are: C language and programming experience, and recommend experience with UNIX and object oriented programming. You’ll obviously need a Mac, Xcode, and the iOS SDK installed as well.

• Download Xcode 4.2 from iTunes – free
• Install the iOS SDK – free

Stanford University has made it a tradition to offer select courses for free online, including past iPhone development classes and the currently ongoing “Intro to Databases” course.

Component suppliers have informed DigiTimes that Apple is already gathering pieces to a 15″ ultra-thin notebook that is set to debut as early as the second quarter of 2012.

While DigiTimes cautions they don’t know if the new laptop is a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, Apple openly promotes the current MacBook Air lineup as “the future of the notebook”, and a MacBook Air 15″ would be an excellent compliment to the product lineup.

Assuming a MacBook Air 15″ followed the weight difference (0.58lbs) of the existing 11″ and 13″ models, a theoretical 15″ model may weigh in at 3.54lbs.

On our personal wish list for such a machine would be 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD standard with a 512 GB SSD option, 1680×1050 or higher resolution, a discrete GPU, and Core i7 processors at 2.5GHz or above, while still retaining the stellar battery life that all of Apple’s devices are known for. A built-in coffee maker and personal assistant would be nice too, with the former being unlikely but the latter a possibility through the rumored Siri integration in future versions of OS X.

If you want to quickly make a RAM disk for use on your Mac, you could create one manually through the command line, or you can make it even easier by downloading TmpDisk for Mac OS X.

The open source application uses a menu bar item to quickly make ram disks from anywhere and of any size, the only restraint is that the Mac have the physical memory to be able to accommodate the disks creation.

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Using AirDrop is the quickest way to transfer files between two Macs, even if they’re not on the same network or if there is no Wi-Fi network available to connect to. This is done by creating an instant Ad-Hoc network between the Macs, and there is practically no configuration required.

For those who have never used AirDrop before or who have ran into problems with it, here’s how to move files between Macs the easiest possible way with AirDrop.

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iTunes Match has been launched in the USA by Apple with the release of iTunes 10.5.1. The Match service costs $24.99 a year to store your entire music library within iCloud allowing you to stream it to any iOS 5+ iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or Windows PC, regardless of where your music has come from. This means music that you have ripped from your own CD’s, gathered over the course of time, downloaded from the web, or bought from iTunes, are all accessible to be streamed through the iTunes Match service.

To use iTunes Match, you’ll need to sign up for and set up iCloud if you haven’t already, then install the latest version of iTunes. After launching iTunes, you’ll see a new “iTunes Match” option under left sidebar where you can sign up for the service.

Download iTunes 10.5.1

You can get the latest version of iTunes through Software Update, iTunes Update, or by downloading it directly from Apple:

• Download from Apple.com/iTunes (no email address required just click big blue ‘Download’ button)
• (Direct download links for Mac OS X and Windows coming soon)

Apple describes how iTunes Match works as so:

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.

The last point of upping the quality of songs is rather substantial, since anyone carrying a music library around for quite some time undoubtedly has many 128kbps songs in their library.

There is a limit of 10 devices and 25,000 songs to the service, although songs purchased from iTunes Store do not count against that limit.

You can quickly add or remove any items from showing up in Notification Center in iOS on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch by modifying your allowed apps through the central system settings. This isn’t the same method as disabling an item like the stock ticker, but it’s faster if you want to adjust several apps at once, and quickly determine what apps can appear in the Notification Center screen on the iPad or iPhone, and also what apps don’t show up there.
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The entries into the 2011 National Geographic Photo Contest make for some spectacular wallpapers, one of which was shown in a recent tip screenshot and requested. You can find them split between TheAtlantic and National Geographic:

NationalGeographic: National Geographic Contest Entries Wallpapers

TheAtlantic: National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Most of the wallpapers are best on lower resolution displays of Macs and iOS because they almost all max out somewhere between 1247×831 and 1600×1200 resolution, with the higher res offerings coming from National Geographics wallpaper section. iOS, OS X, and Windows all do a decent job of scaling them up as long as you don’t push them too far. If you’re running a very high resolution, you may want to look elsewhere though.

Update: iTunes Match is now available along with iTunes 10.5.1, download it now to sign up for the music streaming and cloud storage service.

The public release of iTunes Match seems to be approaching quickly as a third beta of iTunes 10.5.1 is made available to developers. The new beta focuses on iTunes Match and includes stability and performance improvements directly related to the iCloud service. Despite Apple missing their originally planned “end of October” release date for Match, 9to5mac notes that the iTunes beta updates are coming out faster, further indicating a public release is soon.

When iTunes Match is released to the public, a subscription will cost $24.99 each year and allow for up to 10 personal computers or iOS devices to access up to 25,000 songs of an iTunes library from anywhere through iCloud. On the software side, iTunes Match requires Mac OS X or Windows, iOS 5, the newest version of iTunes, and iCloud. The yearly fee is separate from the iCloud storage upgrades, and music purchased from iTunes does not count against the 25,000 song limit.

Users can prepare for the iTunes Match service by signing up for and configuring iCloud to work on their desktops and iOS hardware. Once the Match service is made public, using the music service will then just be a matter of downloading the latest version of iTunes and paying the fee through iTunes, and then enabling the service through iOS settings.

Below are the brief attachment notes for the latest beta via 9to5mac:

iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 is now available. This update includes a number of important stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match. iTunes Match stores your music library in iCloud and allows you to enjoy your collection from anywhere, any time, on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, computer or Apple TV. In order to subscribe to iTunes Match, or continue using your existing subscription, please upgrade to iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3. Once upgraded, turn on iTunes Match on each of your computers and iOS devices. On your computer, choose Store > Turn on iTunes Match. On your iOS device, tap Settings > Music, then turn on iTunes Match. On your Apple TV, please turn off iTunes Match under Settings > General > iTunes Store. The songs on your computer should not be affected. As always, please backup regularly and do not delete the music you add to iCloud from your computer.

Like most of the other transition effects in Mac OS X, you can hold down the shift key to force the animation to render in slow motion. In the case with Launchpad, this will cause the app icons to slowly rise out of the background, or for the Launchpad screens to very slowly switch between one another.

Trying this out for yourself is simple enough, just hold down the Shift key and open Launchpad either by clicking the dock icon or using a four-fingered trackpad pinch, the slow motion effect is obvious enough that you can’t miss it when it’s working.

This is mostly an eye candy trick but it can be useful for taking screenshots of the transitions, and there’s probably some other purpose out there too.

If you were wondering, it doesn’t stack with the blur effect.

The unlocked iPhone 4S is now officially available for purchase through Apple through their website and in Apple Stores. An unlocked iPhone is sold at a high price due to the lack of a contract subsidy, but the major advantage is that the phone can be used on any compatible GSM network through the purchase of a microsim card. In the USA, this means an unlocked iPhone would work with T-Mobile, AT&T, and some pay-go plans. Additionally, anyone in possession of an unlocked phone can use the device in another country simply by picking up a local sim card, avoiding costly roaming fees.

Buying an Unlocked iPhone 4S Costs You…

• iPhone 4S 16 GB – $649
• iPhone 4S 32 GB – $749
• iPhone 4S 64 GB – $849

These prices are from Apple in the USA.

Buying one online is easy through the Apple Store, select the color of the phone you want and then select the “Or get iPhone unlocked and contract-free” link near the bottom of the page.

Apple cautions that you can’t use unlocked phones on CDMA networks like Verizon or Sprint. However, if you buy an iPhone 4S from Verizon or Sprint, you can request the SIM card slot be unlocked through them after you’ve had the iPhone within their contract for 90 days.

Unofficially, all off-contract iPhone 4S models have been sold unlocked anyway.

New versions of Mac OS X have an interesting and sometimes unusual change to Mission Control’s behavior, where desktops/spaces will automatically rearrange themselves based on how recently they’ve been used or accessed.

If you’ve set your spaces (virtual desktops) to be in a specific order, this is fairly annoying, but it’s also easy to stop those spaces from rearranging themselves.
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