Update: iOS 5 is out now! You can download iOS 5 here or through iTunes.

Finally a definitive release date for iOS 5: October 12. This was announced today at Apple’s media event by Scott Forstall, and finally puts an end to speculative dates.

Don’t forget to download iTunes 10.5 first, it is required to install and use iOS 5 and iCloud.

The free software update will be made available as a download from Apple’s servers and iTunes next Wednesday for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen users, and the launch will coincide with the release of iCloud.

This is a few days prior to the iPhone 4S release date, which was leaked before Apple’s media event by their Japan store.

An iOS 5 GM build for developers is already available, and the expected iCloud compatible Mac OS X 10.7.2 update is surely soon to follow.

Apple has announced that the iPhone 4S release date is October 14th, but pre-orders start on October 7. This was leaked earlier in the day by Apple Japan (see images below for that). Now if you haven’t seen them already, check out the tech specs, and new iPhone pricing which includes the 4S and reduced prices on 4 and 3GS.

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Barely an hour away from Apple’s new iPhone unveiling and media event today and a few reports out of traditional media outlets seem to be tempering expectations. Notable is the Wall Street Journal, who taps their sources near Apple to announce that there will not be 4G LTE or WiMAX connectivity on the next-generation iPhone, and instead the device will continue to operate on the existing 3G networks.

According to people familiar with the company’s plans, the hotly anticipated device won’t operate on long-term evolution or WiMAX fourth-generation networks.

On the other hand, the report does seem to confirm that Sprint will begin to carry the iPhone, and that T-Mobile remains in the dark.

The big remaining question is if the next phone will be called iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, with a number of signs pointing to iPhone 4S. Thankfully we’ll find out soon.

Follow us on Twitter for updates and more information.

President Obama revealed in an interview with ABC News that Steve Jobs himself gave the president an iPad 2, and likely before the public launch. The quote from the video is:

“Steve Jobs actually gave it to me, a little bit early… [Reporter: ‘Oh that’s pretty cool’] …Yeah, it was cool. I got it directly from him.”

Jobs and Obama sat next to each other last February at a dinner of Silicon Valley leaders, so maybe that’s when the iPad 2 was gifted ‘early’. I guess when you’re the POTUS you don’t have to wait in lines like the rest of us.

We know that Obama and the White House team use Macs, but using Apple products is hardly a partisan affair. Former US President George W Bush is also an iPad user, and has said in the past he is “addicted” to the device for reading the Wall Street Journal and playing Scrabble.
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Want to install a new font in Mac OS? Maybe you want to remove a font you no longer use? Managing fonts on the Mac is incredibly easy regardless of what system software version you are using.

We’ll cover the process of installing new fonts, deleting unwanted fonts, and also restoring your default system fonts to MacOS and Mac OS X in case you mess something up in the process (though that is fairly unlikely).

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If you want to customize the Terminals appearance a bit beyond the prompt and a custom background, you can make the Terminal much more readable by using this nice trick to add a separator and timestamp between each executed command. This also bolds the current command text and anything that is available from tab completion.

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Preview in Mac OS includes a helpful magnification tool that follows the mouse cursor, allowing you to zoom into details on whatever picture is on screen.

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Want to learn something new? Stanford’s world-renowned School of Engineering is offering a free “Introduction to Databases” online course, available to anyone worldwide. The class will cover relational databases, XML data, relational algebra, SQL, and database design with UML, here’s the full course description:

This course covers database design and the use of database management systems for applications. It includes extensive coverage of the relational model, relational algebra, and SQL. It also covers XML data including DTDs and XML Schema for validation, and the query and transformation languages XPath, XQuery, and XSLT. The course includes database design in UML, and relational design principles based on dependencies and normal forms. Many additional key database topics from the design and application-building perspective are also covered: indexes, views, transactions, authorization, integrity constraints, triggers, on-line analytical processing (OLAP), and emerging “NoSQL” systems.

Sign up for Stanford Universities free “Introduction to Databases” class here

The course assumes no prior knowledge in SQL or database structures, but obviously a fair amount of computer aptitude is recommended. The program runs from October 10 to December 12, and students have full access to lecture videos and are given assignments and exams. This isn’t a hands off course though, you’ll actually receive regular feedback on your progress, and there’s also a discussion forum for students to engage in. You won’t be getting any Stanford or college credit, but if you pass the class you will get a ‘statement of accomplishment’ from the Stanford instructor.

If databases aren’t your thing, don’t forget that Stanford also offers a variety of excellent free iOS development classes online too.

Web designers and developers are well aware that creating CSS gradients is somewhat of a painful process. Sure there are a variety of web-based generator tools that make it easier, but you’ll often be left to scout around for different versions to get different CSS & CSS3 code pieces which then require manual tweaks in order to achieve a uniform gradient across WebKit, IE, and Mozilla based browsers.

The Gradient app aims to solve that headache with easy color selector tools and all the possible gradient options, but more importantly, instant and precise CSS rendering.
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Get ready to drool. This multi-displayed Mac setup has an impressive five 23″ screens rotated into portrait mode, and a MacBook Pro 17″ sits atop them all.

What are they powered by? That wasn’t specified, but it’s possible that the MacBook Pro is driving all of the monitors with an ambitious USB display hub. Whatever is powering them, this is one awesome Mac setup, thanks for the sending this in Julien!

My MacBook Air 11″ has been creaking a lot lately when I pick it up, the noise has gradually increased and I finally discovered the reason why: loose screws. I’m not sure what caused the screws to become loose, but I do bring my MacBook Air almost everywhere with me so this could be a gradual loosening from constant use and movement.

The solution is obviously to tighten them up again, but Apple now uses a more unique screw type, the pentalobe, which prevents your average household screw driver from working. Luckily you can buy a Pentalobe screwdriver on Amazon for $5 to a buck and considering they work on the iPhone 4 and MacBook Air, it’s not a bad purchase. The expense is further justified by the fact that it’s very hard to replace a single screw, so if you lose one you’d have to have to spring $50 for a full set from a company like iFixIt, who also sells the Pentalobe screwdriver for about $13 (image up top is from them too).

Moral of the story here: if you hear creaky sounds and squeaks coming out of a MacBook Air when it’s picked up, check the screws.

Direct references to an iPhone 4S in name with corresponding images have been revealed in the newest iTunes beta, all but guaranteeing the next iPhones name. This also strongly suggests that a redesigned iPhone 5 will not launch at the October 4th Apple event.

The discovery was made today by 9to5Mac, who is “confident that the iPhone 4S will pack the CDMA iPhone design”. Shown in the screenshot are two separate references to “iPhone 4S”, each attached to an iPhone 4 CDMA model image, in black and white colors respectively.

This is yet another piece of evidence that mounts against a new looking iPhone being released anytime soon, despite a continuous supply of conflicting reports and imaginative rumors. Last week, an alleged iPhone 4S packaging label was discovered, and a week prior an ‘iPhone 4S’ labeled case was also found. With the exception of third party “iPhone 5” cases from China, there has been no evidence that a redesigned phone exists. Furthermore, the well-connected John Gruber of DaringFireball published a lengthy piece titled “Teardrop Skepticism” that dismantles many of the rumors of a so-called ‘teardrop’ iPhone 5 design.

The iPhone 4S is expected to have an A5 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 8MP camera, include iOS 5, and has a likely release date of October 14th.

If you want a simplified explanation of the ongoing Apple vs Samsung lawsuit, the giant image below sums it up fairly well. Basically, Apple feels that Samsung is infringing on a variety of iPhone and iPad patents, and Apple is fairly blunt in their accusations:

“Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple’s innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design, in violation of Apple’s valuable intellectual property rights.”

Several examples of these alleged violations can be seen in the image below, judge for yourself:

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Remote Login is a feature in Mac OS X’s Sharing preferences that allow remote users to connect to a Mac in a secure fashion by using the OpenSSH protocols. Essentially, Remote Login starts an SSH server on a Mac, which includes the ability to accept incoming SSH connections, and is the secure replacement for telnet. Additionally, this feature includes and enables the SFTP server, which is the secure replacement for FTP, and finally it also enables SCP, for secure remote copying of files. If this sounds complicated or confusing, it’s really not, and we’ll walk through exactly how to quickly enable and set up the SSH server on a Mac so that it can accept inbound secured ssh, sftp, and scp connections.

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Distraction-free writing apps are becoming increasingly popular and the appeal is easy to see, if you just want to write, why do you need to be surrounded by a gazillion buttons and toolbars? These apps are fairly simple and there’s a slew of choices, many charge unreasonably high prices on the app store, but that’s why FocusWriter is so great – it’s a quality distraction-free writing app and it’s completely free (and open source).

The appearance is highly customizable so you can set whatever font and background works best for you, do this by dropping from the “Settings” menu and selecting “Themes”. Outside of the eyecandy, there are also a variety of genuinely useful writing features, and it’ll keep track of word count, page count, paragraph count, character count, as well as the ability to set writing goals either by time or by words written. You see all these details by hovering over the bottom of the FocusWriter screen (see screenshot below), so they’re not always visible or in your way. Really the worst thing about FocusWriter is it’s ugly icon, but if that’s your only complaint about an app then you’ve got it pretty good.

Download FocusWriter for free

The app is cross-platform compatible, so you can run it in Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux.

Sidenote: For those that are interested, the top screenshot is using a slightly modified version of the wood floors wallpaper (JPG) that I also use as my custom Dashboard background image. The bottom two images are default themes.

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Want to hide some files in plain sight on a Mac? This walkthrough will detail how you can make an invisible folder on the Mac that features some unique properties; the invisible folder will be invisible to the eye when browsing in Finder, but the folder will not be invisible to the click. Instead, you’ll use a secret click in a specific location to access the invisible folder.

Sounds neat, right? It is, this is a really great trick that I first learned many years ago to obfuscate files in plain view, and it still works great in modern Mac OS releases too. It’s a multi-step process, here’s how it works:

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The iWork suite under Mac OS X 10.7 includes a rather peculiar default option that backs up every files prior version that you are working on, as a separate file in the same folder. Instead of the backups only being accessible from Versions, this spills out into the Finder, where a file called “Document.pages” will also have a “Backup of Document.pages” file stored in the same directory. This quickly turns into a giant cluttered mess for students or anyone else who works with a lot of Pages files, since essentially a duplicate of each one is stored in the same folder.

Here’s how to turn off these backups and stop them showing up in the Finder, this is the same for Pages and anything else in the iWork Suite:

• From Pages, pull down the Pages menu and select “Preferences”
• Choose the General tab and look next to “Saving” for “Back up previous version when saving” – uncheck this box

This will stop storing the backup files in the Finder, but unfortunately this also seems to disable the Versions feature for the app too, so keep that in mind before you turn this off and get used to hitting Command+S often again. Automatic backups and versioning are undoubtedly a useful feature, but this is rather bizarre and fairly un-Applelike to clutter folders with excess files, so maybe it’s just an oversight or a bug.

If you’ve visited the Sharing Preference panel in the newer versions of Mac OS X you may have noticed there is no longer the direct option to enable an FTP server to share files and folders. Well, at least there isn’t an obvious option, but the FTP and SFTP server function does still exist, the two have just been split into different functionalities, with the new versions of OS X preferring SFTP rather than FTP. Regardless of what you want to use, setting up a server for either of them is extremely simple, and we’ll walk through how to start either an FTP or SFTP server in OS X.

Each of these FTP/SFTP server tricks work in all new versions of OS X, be it OS X Yosemite 10.10.x, Mavericks 10.9, Mountain Lion 10.8, or 10.7 Lion.
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