Microsoft has released a 30 day demo of Office 2011 for Mac, the trial is free to download and includes the entire Office suite for use. The other nice feature about the trial is that you can enter a product key at any point directly into the app, this lets you download Office 2011 for use now and then purchase a full license at a discount through a reseller like Amazon.
The Mac just had it’s birthday, but don’t you long for the days before a GUI? Don’t you wish you were in the 70’s or 80’s banging away at a DOS prompt connecting to a local BBS? Do you get nostalgic for the days of typing commands into a noisy green on black terminal that would desync and flicker at random? Your dreams are about to come true, thanks to Cathode, the self-proclaimed vintage terminal emulator, and it perfectly captures that retro computing feel.
You can run Cathode in full screen (like the screenshot above) or in windowed mode (like the screenshot below). The app is an absolute riot and surprisingly customizable, letting you create picture perfect old school terminals that are full of wear and tear, curvature, flickering, jitters, burn-in, and even an adjustable bit rate that lets you emulate a 300bps modem. You can tweak the settings to make your Mac Terminal feel like something straight out of WarGames or The Matrix, or anything in between.
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3DBoard is a somewhat gimmicky jailbreak tweak that utilizes your iPhones accelerometer to create 3D looking icons. How does it work? The developer hasn’t specifically said, but it looks to me that 3DBoard adjusts the location of the wallpaper background and shadows in relation to the icons based on movement, which gives the appearance of the icons floating over the iPhone screen.
3DBoard will be on the Cydia store soon for $4.
The Verizon iPhone plan pricing has been revealed, these rates are monthly and in addition to the price of the Verizon iPhone 4 which starts at $199.99 with a two year contract.
This data is from the Verizon iPhone purchase section on Apple’s website, although the information and rates could change at any time.
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By default, anytime you take a screen capture in Mac OS X, the resulting screenshot file will save to the current users desktop. This makes retrieval very easy and is very appropriate for the average Mac user, but for those who take a lot of screen shots in Mac OS, they may find their desktop to be cluttered with the screenshot files rather quickly.
An excellent solution is to adjust the default location of where Mac OS X saves captured screen shot files to another location in the file system when Command + Shift + 3 is pressed, this walkthrough will show you how to do that with a defaults command.
You have probably heard by now that Verizon will charge an additional $20 per month to use the wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 on their iPhone 4. Is this fee worth it? I think that depends, but here’s my opinion on the matter…
If you’re too lazy or don’t want to deal with a jailbreak, or if you’re setting this plan up for your grandma, or if you want an absolutely hassle free nontechnical experience to use a wireless access point, just pay the Verizon hotspot fee. It’s another $20 per month and it’ll certainly be simple to use, just realize that what you’re really paying for is the convenience and super easy setup.
If you’re already familiar with jailbreaking or you’re one of the more technically inclined folks out there, I think you should jailbreak your iPhone and pay for a generous data plan instead.
My view is this, you already pay for data usage, why pay more to use it how you want? Let me remind you that anyone can setup an iPhone Wireless hotspot right now, you just need to jailbreak your phone, and then pay a one time fee to purchase the MyWi app from Cydia.
Let’s do some quick math comparing the two options:
Is the $220 difference over the course of a year worth the convenience to you? Not to me, but for some it definitely will be.
The only uncertainty here is that we don’t know when a CDMA iPhone jailbreak will be available, but let’s hope it comes quickly, then you’ll be able to use MyWi on the Verizon unlimited data plan (the unlimited plan is a good thing to get if you plan on using the iPhone hotspot).
We still don’t know what AT&T will charge for accessing the iOS 4.3 hotspot, or if they’ll even offer it, but hopefully they’ll just decide to include access to the wifi feature for free. Is this likely to happen? I doubt it, but including the hotspot in their standard data plans would be a strong reason to stay with or sign up for AT&T vs Verizon, what other competitive advantage are they going to have? Now, considering AT&T charges $20 a month right now to use your iPhone as a tethered modem, well, the outlook is bleak.
Did I mention that jailbreaking is not illegal? It’s your phone and your data, do what you want with it. For me, that’s MyWi.
The latest iPad commercial starts off with the turntable DJay app scratching the now widely known iPad commercial song “Never Stop” by Chilly Gonzales, followed by more apps and words: fresh, tickets, news, stories, 60,000+ apps, students, teachers, hollywood, iconic. Finally, the commercial ends with Marilyn Monroe on Vanity Fair magazine as seen on the iPad.
This fits nicely into the line-up of other iPad commercials, and it’s unmistakably Apple.
Remember that wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 that everyone was so excited about? In order to use it, you’ll have to shell out an additional $20/month on top of your standard data plan to Verizon. Bummer. Although as some consolation, you’ll also get an extra 2GB of data allowance for the fee (which is useless in the face of the $30 unlimited data plan).
The $20 monthly fee was confirmed by Verizon to MacWorld. Remember, you can also just setup a iPhone Wireless hotspot on any jailbroken iPhone.
If you thought last weeks news that you can now buy Starbucks coffee with an iPhone was cool, this is even cooler. According to Bloomberg, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 will both feature “Near-Field Communications” technology that allows the devices to become a digital wallet. Thanks to the built-in NFC chip, your iPhone will be able to access credit cards, bank accounts, and gift card balances already on file with Apple, allowing you to make any purchase directly from the phone.
In terms of the timeline, Bloomberg says the technology is “due to be embedded in the next iteration of the iPhone for AT&T Inc. and the iPad 2” and that “Both products are likely to be introduced this year… citing engineers who are working on hardware for the Apple project.”
Most rumors put the iPad 2 release in April and iPhone 5 in June, keeping in line with Apple’s past release schedules, but what about in-store infrastructure? According to the report, Apple has already created prototype NFC payment terminals that they may subsidize to encourage rapid nationwide adoption of the technology.
I’m wondering if the NFC data will be accessible for third party app developers, if so, this could completely change the face of mobile banking, transactions, gift cards, and so much more. Owe your friend $5? Imagine being able to send it directly to his bank account with a few taps on your phone. Consider this all a rumor for now, but hopefully Bloomberg is right about this one.
Hoping to further distance itself from rival AT&T, Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan for $30 to new iPhone 4 customers. This would make Verizon the only US carrier that offers unlimited data for the iPhone, since AT&T removed the unlimited plan in favor of a 2GB limit.
But there’s a catch; the unlimited data plan will only be available temporarily before all Verizon plans are moved onto a tiered data plan like AT&T’s, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pricing and data allowances of the tiered system are currently unknown.
It still remains to be seen what, if anything, Verizon and AT&T will charge to use the much desired wireless hotspot feature in iOS 4.3. Depending on the associated fees, it may be more cost effective to sign onto the unlimited data plan and then jailbreak the iPhone into a wireless hotspot.
If you’ve ever accidentally shut down your Mac, you’re not alone. That dreaded feeling when everything starts closing when you didn’t mean to reboot, ahh! But don’t freak out, there’s an incredibly simple way to stop the shut down process in OS X!
All you need to do to stop a Mac shutdown is immediately launch an OS X app. You have to act quick because a reboot happens fast, so move fast and just pick any app in your Dock and launch away.
This deal is hot. For a limited time, you can buy a Crucial 8GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 RAM upgrade kit for $75
from Amazon, the price includes free shipping.
Crucial is widely considered to be one of the better brands of RAM on the market. This is an extraordinary deal for an 8GB RAM upgrade and without a doubt the cheapest price I’ve seen for such a kit. Part of the reason it’s so cheap is that there’s a $15 instant rebate that is valid on Amazon until 1/27/2011… in other words you have three days to get the low price.
For comparison, I paid $115 for 8GB just a few months ago, you can read my MacBook Pro 8GB RAM upgrade review if you missed it. In short, if you’re a power user or intense multi-tasker, you’ll really appreciate the extra memory.
The upgrade kit should work with any of the newer MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac Mini, and iMac models, but you’ll want to double-check that your Mac supports it. If you aren’t sure whether you’d benefit from more memory, check out Does my Mac need more RAM?
The latest iPhone 4 commercial shows off two iPhones using AT&T and Verizon side by side, to the tune of the famous song “The Blue Danube” waltz by Johann Strauss II. The commercial appropriately ends with a “Two is better than one” message, and some fine print reminding us that some features vary per carrier.
Both AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4 cost $200 with a two year contract, although if you’re buying the phone outright it’ll cost you $50 more at Verizon for some reason.
Xcode has a lot of keyboard shortcuts available, wouldn’t it be nice to have a handy reference chart for them all?
You’re in luck if you have thought that same thing, because Colin Wheeler is a Cocoa Developer that has created a really handy XCode keyboard shortcut cheatsheet, it’s a great resource for anyone who is interested in improving their XCode workflow.
The file is way too large and detailed to give it an appropriate thumbnail here, so check it out directly by clicking the link below to open as a PDF file:
The cheatsheet is made available under the Creative Commons license, so you can do what you want with it as long as you include attribution to the creator (1729.us and what is visible on the PDF itself).
Unfortunately it’s not black text on white background so it’s not the most printer friendly, but save it to the Mac and enjoy!
Happy Birthday to the Mac! Apple introduced the very first Macintosh on January 24, 1984, beginning an era that is still going strong 27 years later.
Here are some fun facts about the first ever Mac, known as the Macintosh 128k:
These are the Macintosh teams signatures inside the Mac 128k case, Steve Jobs and Woz are included:
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Want a humorous consideration for the iPad camera?
With rumors swirling about iPad updates, nobody knows for sure what features the iPad 2 will have, although a camera is almost certain.
The rumormill is currently going both directions on this iPad camera possibility, some iPad 2 rumors suggest that it will have dual cameras, perhaps both HD, and others say it will be 1 megapixel like the latest generation iPod touch.
But while many want an HD camera on the iPad 2, this picture above shows why that might be impractical.
Can you imagine people holding up the relatively large iPad to take pictures?
Looks a little silly doesn’t it?
This is obviously a joke, but it does make a valid point in a goofy way… this will certainly be a change from regular camera use that are typically small and pocket size.
Thanks to Patrick for sending in the above image! Get ready for the day where tons of people are walking around with large tablets and snapping pictures with them!
As the saying goes, the best camera is the camera you have with you… right? Whether that is on an iPhone or iPad, as long as it has a camera, snap away and enjoy your photography!
Buying the iPhone 4 with a two year commitment agreement from Verizon is the same cost as AT&T’s, but Verizon’s option to pay the full price, presumably without contract, costs $50 more. Here is the pricing information from Verizon:
If you sign a 2-year contract, the price of the Verizon iPhone 4 is the same as AT&T’s offer:
Verizon is charging $50 more for the iPhone 4 than AT&T’s contract-free price:
These prices come directly from the Verizon iPhone 4 FAQ page. There may be a reason for the cost increase, but the only known difference thus far is the Verizon iPhone has CDMA network compatibility. As usual in the USA smartphone market, the CDMA iPhone will almost certainly be carrier locked to the Verizon network.
Is there really an advantage to paying more to buy the iPhone outright when it is carrier locked anyway? This depends, but in my view the only reason to buy an off-contract iPhone is to unlock it for use on other network carriers. With no CDMA compatible iPhone in the wild yet, it is unknown if there will be a carrier unlock that works with the device, so if you are hoping for an unlocked CDMA device you may need to shop outside of the USA.
If you’re thinking about releasing an iOS app, you probably already know that iOS development costs are quite high, so you want to be sure you get the most bang for your buck.
With that in mind there’s a detailed and extremely helpful iOS development and marketing checklist from the experienced developer MindJuice. It’s focused heavily on marketing and touches on the five major phases of the development and release process that is relevant to any app developer. These are:
You can read the full extensive list at MindJuice’s blog.
If you notice there’s one key element that underlines each phase, and that is engagement with users from initial design to product launch. Some of the more successful apps (Angry Birds, Instapaper, etc) also have some of the more active developers in social media, and this is not a coincidence – developers must cultivate their userbase and respond to user feedback.
While this list is specifically geared towards iOS and the iTunes App Store, there’s no reason you couldn’t apply the same principles to Mac software and the Mac App Store. Whether you’re an active developer or just inspiring to be, it’s worth a look.
