What do Star Wars Legos, an iPhone, and Steve Jobs have in common? Absolutely nothing outside of this picture. I have no idea where this is from or what the context is, but this is just one of many goofy things that end up in our inbox. Thanks for the submission Andy!
Want a world class education on iPhone and iOS development? Check out Stanford Universities iOS & iPhone Development course CS193p, the class has been taught several times now and each one has been uploaded to iTunes as a free video podcast. In addition to the free video lessons, you also get complete access to all class slides, tutorials, and assignments.
The classes assume you have some experience with development concepts and Object Oriented Programming, although the first lesson does a quick overview of object oriented principles and vocabulary. If you’re totally new to programming, you might want to grab a beginners book before jumping into the Stanford lessons.
The classes require you to have Xcode installed, which you can either install Xcode 3 from an existing Mac OS X 10.6 installation DVD and then install the iOS SDK, or you can get Xcode 4 from the Mac App Store for $5. Registered iOS developers can always download Xcode 4 for free as part of their membership.
FWIW, tuition at Stanford University starts at a whopping $38,000 a year, so being able to watch their courses online is a pretty great deal.
A MacBook Pro 15″ with an Apple Cinema 20″ Display is a classic setup where you can’t go wrong. The fisheye lens distorts things a bit, but it still looks great. Read more »
When was the last time an operating system update gave you more battery life? I can’t remember that ever happening, but here I am running the dev preview of Mac OS X Lion and I have longer battery life than I do running another OS.
I can’t vouch for all Macs, but on my MacBook Air 11.6″ base model with the screen brightness set to half and running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion it’s squeezing out 8 hours of battery life with 91% charge remaining. That is about an hour longer than Apples suggested max battery life on the 11.6″ Air, and nearly 3 hours longer than I get in 10.6 Snow Leopard under similar usage conditions.
It was just last week that I took a screenshot of battery life in this menubar tip. This is the same MacBook Air, same brightness settings, same apps open, the only difference is Mac OS X 10.6.6, where it shows 5 hours of battery remaining at a 95% charge:
Is this just a fluke? Maybe Lion calculates remaining battery life differently, or maybe there is a fundamental change in how Mac OS X Lion manages power? I don’t have an answer, but my anecdotal evidence shows that I get significantly more battery life out of Lion Developer Preview than I do in Snow Leopard. I’ve continued to test this and even after increasing machine activity, CPU load, and screen brightness, the MacBook Air continues to show the same results.
Mac OS X market share is growing nicely around the world with some pretty impressive numbers in North America, Oceania, and parts of Europe.
As a continent, North America takes the cake at 14.09%, which isn’t too surprising considering it is the home of Apple. Next up is Oceania (Australia & New Zealand) at 13.71%. Europe as a whole is at a somewhat low 6%, but looking at specific countries gives a very different picture; Switzerland tops off everywhere in the world with a 17.61% Mac market share, followed by Luxembourg with 15.79%, Iceland at 15.18%, Norway with 12.14%, and Denmark’s 11.71%. Read more »
Here’s one of the stranger tips I’ve seen to boost your iPhone reception; put it in a glass.
Yea, like a water glass. I can imagine a surge of funny pictures featuring people talking to water cups, but apparently for some people this actually works.
The tip was discovered by an author at TheNextWeb, who found that they had no reception in a dungeon-ish restaurant:
a few years ago one of the waitresses… discovered (how?) that if you put a phone in an empty glass it dramatically improves the reception. The Pasta e Basta restaurant is basically stuck in a concrete basement so reception has always been awful. But since they found out about this trick they at least have had enough reception to make and receive calls.
The waiter gave me glass, I put my iPhone in, reluctantly, and lo and behold: I got 3 bars and no 3G but some GPRS. Not perfect but a huge improvement from the ‘No signal’ message I got earlier.
Who would have guessed?
I decided to try it out myself. I have AT&T and live in one of those famous reception dark spots, so it’s pretty easy for me to find a place where the iPhone has no reception. I put the iPhone in a glass and… still no service. Just for fun I went to a place where I usually have a few bars and it did increase one bar of reception, but I get the same effect from setting the iPhone on a table and just not holding the iPhone at all. Not too impressive. The next step was to beat the dead horse, so naturally I took this a step further and tried to make a phone call with the iPhone in a glass. Big surprise, it’s a terrible experience. You can’t talk normally (hint: there’s a reason phones aren’t made to resemble a water glass) so I put the iPhone on speaker mode instead, this caused the calls recipient to hear themselves talk in a super annoying echo chamber.
No dice for me, but maybe it’ll work in a bind for you.
Oh, but it does make the iPhone speaker phone sound a lot louder, as the sound projects from the water glass. So I guess there’s that!
AT&T is beginning to crack down on unofficial iPhone tethering methods, including users of MyWi, the unofficial iPhone WiFi hotspot app that is popular among jailbreakers.
Customers are being notified that their service plans need updating to subscribe to a tethering plan, and that they will be automatically subscribed to a DataPro 4GB package that costs an additional $45 per month if they continue to tether. In the email, AT&T also notes that if customers discontinue the use of tethering, no changes will be made to their plan.
Here is the full letter that AT&T is sending to select iPhone customers who are suspected of using unofficial tethering methods: Read more »
If you plan on getting the iPad 2 (if you can find one in stock) and you’re a gamer, don’t forget to grab the video mirroring cable. But don’t take my word for it, check out this video that shows the huge potential of the iPad 2 to be a game console. Combining the Digital AV Adapter with iPad 2’s video mirroring capabilities outputted to an HDTV gives you a very playable gaming rig. Read more »
While investigating a story about the upcoming iPhone 5, I stumbled across several Chinese resellers who are selling what they refer to as “iPhone Nano” parts and accessories. Most compelling is an LCD screen labeled “for iphone NANO 5” but there are also several cases that are built for an iPhone that currently doesn’t exist.
I had a brief conversation with one of the resellers through online chat, they asked if we needed an LCD screen or digitizer, and confirmed to us that the “iPhone Nano 5” is an unreleased product:
I blocked out their full name from the screenshot for obvious reasons. When I asked about other parts, they said there is also a ribbon cable for the “iPhone Nano 5” available for purchase.
To make matters more interesting, the picture of the alleged iPhone Nano digitizer (screen) doesn’t have a home button, which corresponds with past rumors of an iPhone Mini with an ‘edge-to-edge’ screen. Here’s a larger picture of the ‘nano’ screen available: Read more »
I sense a new trend… iPad 2 Fridge Art! Yes you can stick your iPad to a refrigerator, if you are brave enough to trust the smart cover magnets, anyway.
Haven’t had a chance to play around with Mac OS X Lion yet? Check out this 16 minute video walkthrough, it provides a nice look at the current 10.7 developer preview. It goes through the major changes and features, and gives a good overview of the next Mac OS X.
It’s really easy to increase the size of the icons that appear on the Mac OS X desktop or anywhere in Finder by using an adjustable slider. This lets you select icon sizes as small as 16×16 pixels and as large as 512 x 512 pixels, which is really quite big, and of course, you can pick any size in between too.
We’ll cover both how to change the icon size of both Desktop items, and the icon size of files and folders shown within a Finder window of Mac OS X.
Here is how to increase the size of your Mac icons on the desktop or in a Finder file system window:
Want a super cheap vertical stand for your MacBook Pro? Try this $1.99 Ikea FANTASTIK napkin holder, apparently it’ll hold a MacBook Pro just fine (looks like a 13″ judging by the SuperDrive). Sure, it’s not the super sleak BookArc, but it’s also $48 cheaper. Read more »
There is no centralized way of checking iPad 2 stock online, the only way to consistently verify stock is to call your local Apple Stores and resellers. Yes, we update our iPad 2 availability section, but the demand is so high right now that stores sell out quickly after they get stock.
If you want iPad 2 as soon as possible, we’re going to advise you with what nearly every Apple Store told us: “check back first thing in the morning.”
Here’s a list of a iPad 2 resellers and store locators, pick your local stores and call them right when they open: Read more »
Want to erase and reformat an iPad? If you recently upgraded to a new iPad and you’re either selling or passing along your old iPad, you’ll want to reformat the iPad before sending it off to live with it’s new owner so that none of your personal stuff is on the device.
There are two ways to do this, one from iTunes and one from the iPad directly using iOS settings, and both methods remove all of your personal data, songs, media, content, and settings from the iPad.
We have independently confirmed with several Apple Stores that additional shipments of iPad 2 will be available to purchase tomorrow morning. Several representatives at different Apple Stores told us of the expected shipment, and two popular stores said they are planning to open an hour earlier than usual at 9AM to accommodate the sales.
Some Apple Stores to Open at 9AM, Not all Stores Getting Shipments?
It’s unknown if all Apple Stores plan to open an hour earlier tomorrow, and several refused to disclose any plans to open an hour early. Some Apple staff indicated uncertainty regarding additional iPad shipments tomorrow, with one Apple Store telling us they “don’t know yet” and instead to “check back in the morning.”
Expect Lines & Sell Outs… Again
One store representative told us that demand has been huge and they are getting a large number of store visits and phone calls inquiring about the new iPad, adding that they are expecting lines to form early in the morning. If long lines do form again, you can be sure this iPad 2 shipment will sell out rather quickly, so the earlier you can get to an Apple Store the better.
We will continue to update iPad 2 availability as we receive more information. If you want to check your local Apple Store, visit the retail store list and call them directly.
It’s really easy to increase the size of the icons that appear on the Mac OS X desktop or anywhere in Finder by using an adjustable slider. This lets you select icon sizes as small as 16×16 pixels and as large as 512 x 512 pixels, which is really quite big, and of course, you can pick any size in between too. 
