This snazzing looking retro Apple logo is made entirely out of a fruit salad, recreating the rainbow Apple logo from the companies early days. How cool is this? It’s probably the healthiest logo you’ve ever seen, and now I want to eat some fruit and find an Mac Classic to tinker around with, don’t you?
Now this is interesting. Remember those iPad 2 case design leaks that appeared last month? They gave rise to a slew of rumors about the next iPad, ranging from micro-USB inclusion, to revised speakers, SD card slots, cameras, and fire breathing dragon support (OK maybe not that).
Well, Engadget discovered a nice treat at the CES 2011 expo, it’s a physical iPad 2 hardware mockup based on iPad 2 case designs, and it gives us the best idea yet of what iPad 2 might look like. Notice the design is slimmer when compared to the current iPad (existing iPad model is on the top in the above picture), there’s room for dual cameras, the back panel is flatter with tapered edges much like the iPod touch or top lid to a MacBook Pro, and there’s indeed places for a front and rear camera as well as a larger speaker. Even if it’s just a slab of aluminum that works as a placeholder, it looks pretty sleek doesn’t it?
Apparently Engadget came across this iPad 2 hardware mockup when they scoped out a cool bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad… when they asked the exhibitor to try it out they discovered the mockup “It was so intriguing that we asked to put our own iPad inside, which is when we were told it wouldn’t fit, since the case was designed for the next iPad.”
Here’s a few of the more interesting pictures they took:
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Handbrake is famously known to allow you to rip DVD’s but the new version also works wonders as a video conversion tool to get your favorite videos and movies onto your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. If you’re new to video conversion, don’t worry, Handbrake is extremely easy to use and it’s free to download. So let’s find out how to convert a video to the iOS compatible format and optimize it for your hardware.
The preferred video format for iOS is m4v, using Handbrake you can convert just about any file into this m4v, here’s how:
Note: Conversion settings are different from the iPod (classic) and the iPod touch, so be sure to specifically select iPod touch if you plan on watching video on that rather than a classic iPod. Also, if you have a new iPod touch with retina display, be sure to select ‘iPhone 4’ instead. The videos will still play fine if you don’t do this, they just won’t look as good since they won’t be optimized for the hardwares native resolution.
When Handbrake is done converting the video, you’ll get a message and you can find the video in the destination source you set. The default is your desktop, so if all else fails just look there.
You can tweak a bunch of settings within Handbrake to further optimize and compress conversions, but for quickly converting videos it’s not really necessary since the default settings are spot-on. If you’re new to converting video, the only setting I would recommend adjusting is the output format from the side tray, just choose the iOS hardware that you are most likely to watch the video on and it will optimize it for that.
You’ll notice that the video settings adjust based on the iOS hardware selected, this is because the iPad and iPhone has a different video resolution than an iPod, which supports different resolutions than a new Apple TV or an iPod touch, and so on. Selecting “Universal” aims to go for universal compatibility, with a 720×448 resolution.
Remember, video always scales down to lower resolutions fine, but video scaling up is where you’ll notice the compression artifacts and screen pixelation, so if in doubt select a higher resolution to convert to and you’ll be able to enjoy it on a wider spectrum of hardware.
I tend to use my iPhone Favorites list for speed dial purposes, but what if you could just tap on a springboard icon to speed dial someone? Great idea huh? That’s exactly what LifeHacker John P thought too, so he created a nifty webapp that allows you to input some a name, phone number, and icon image to create a speed dial icon directly onto your iOS springboard. The result looks like the image to the right.
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Suddenly I want a fish. Is this the best looking aquarium an Apple lover could find or what? It’s an aquarium made out of an old hollowed out Power Mac Cube, and I think it looks pretty cool. Now you have a reason to get that ridiculous iPad game for your cat, keep them away from your Mac Cube fish!
More pictures and info below:
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If you want to customize your Mac OS X login screen but don’t feel like getting your hands dirty mucking around in system files the old fashioned way, check out a free app called Ravissant.
One of my complaints with the default Mac OS X Terminal app is that you can’t split the Terminal screen, instead you have to open two windows. Well, this must have annoyed some other developers too because iTerm2 aims to address this problem.
iTerm2 is a fork of the original iTerm project for Mac OS X that has some cool features that the default Mac Terminal doesn’t, but the ability to split Terminal windows both horizontally or vertically is the main reason I use the app.
The New Years iPhone alarm bug is still affecting some people despite it being January 3rd, which is the date when things were supposed to start working smoothly…
Until a software update is issued, you can fix your broken iOS alarm very quickly by setting a new recurring alarm. Here’s how to do this if you aren’t sure:
This will cause your iPhone (or iPod touch) alarm to activate as intended and recur every morning in iOS 4.2.1. After you create a new alarm, you might want to reboot your iPhone, this seems to help in some cases as well.
It looks like the New Years iPhone alarm bug is still causing a ruckus, as users from around the world complain their phone alarm failed to activate on Monday the 3rd of January. This date is significant because the 3rd is when the iOS alarm was supposed to start behaving as normal.
Well, not so much, as Reuters is reporting that some iPhone owners in Asia discovered their alarms continued to malfunction on Monday morning. This is in addition to a sizable number of vocal Twitter users from Asia, Australia, and Europe who report that despite the date, the iPhone alarm clock is continuing to malfunction:
If these reports are in fact true, this may suggest that all users who depend on the alarm app may need to delete and re-add a new alarm in order for it to function properly. A software fix from Apple would also remedy the glitch, but this may be too little too late for users who have already overslept.
In our past report on the bug, reader ‘tzs’ offered the following explanation as to why the bug is occurring, warning the problem may occur again next year if Apple does not issue an iOS fix:
The reason it resolves on the 3rd, I suspect, is that January 3rd this year is the first day of week 1 of 2011 on the ISO week-based calendar. January 1st and 2nd are in week 52 of 2010.
Weeks in the week calendar start on Mondays, and week 1 is the week that contains the first Thursday of the year.
Next year, January 1 is part of the last week of 2011. Week 1 of 2012 starts on Monday, January 2nd. Thus, if Apple doesn’t issue an update, I’d expect alarms will fail on January 1 next year, and the problem will resolve on January 2nd.
That may contribute to the cause, and I would venture a guess that many users who are reporting problems with their iOS alarms today are likely not using the recurring alarms. So while one-time alarms may still be causing problems, there is an easy solution of sorts…
If you are concerned about the alarm clock bug effecting you, the fix is remarkably simple:
Set up a new daily recurring alarm.
This should cause the alarm to activate as intended, and the fix works for all iOS hardware with iOS 4.2.1.
Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7 is now available to download for Mac and Windows, it offers an easier “one-click” boot option for those using the tethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1. By utilizing the command line, Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7 lets you pass arguments directly to the app including the location of the reference IPSW file, this can then be saved as a bash script which prevents you from having to manually select the IPSW via the redsn0w GUI.
These are the flags and their corresponding arguments that can be passed to Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7:
The example that the Dev Team provides is for the Mac OS X redsn0w app, using the command line to boot an iPod touch 4G with the tethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak:
open ~/Desktop/redsn0w.app —args -j -i ~/Desktop/iPod4,1_4.2.1_8C148_Restore.ipsw
Included in the download you will find a sample bash script that you can customize and execute directly (thus, the one-click tethered boot) which passes the arguments to redsn0w directly. This is what the Dev Team says about the above example and that bash script:
This assumes both redsn0w and the IPSW are on your OS X desktop, so modify as necessary! Included in the zip is an example script file that you can double click on to launch redsn0w like this (the Windows example assumes everything is in C:\). (Mac users: please remember to change the permissions of your custom *.command files to allow execution.)
This release is intended to ease the tethered jailbreak and boot annoyance until the final release of the redsn0w iOS 4.2.1 untethered jailbreak is made available. Redsn0w 0.9.7b4 is currently the most recent version of the untethered beta, however it does not include Bluetooth support, and is Mac only for now. We will update redsn0w releases when they are made available.
This easier tethered boot redsn0w release is available for Mac OS X and Windows:
As before, everyone should use iTunes 10.1 and a USB 2.0 port. Windows users should run the redsn0w exe in “XP Compatibility Mode” to ensure a trouble free tethered boot.
Update: Redsn0w 0.9.6rc8 is now available and includes a few minor bug fixes.
If you want a hard shell case for your iPad, well, look no further because this one is a buck. Sound too good to be true? It’s not, Amazon is offering the CaseCrown Hard Shell Case for iPad for $1 plus $4.99 shipping and handling, which is 95% off the retail price.
Various colors are offered at this price, including:
For a grand total of $6 shipped and with all 5 star reviews on Amazon, it’s hard to go wrong here. At the very least these would be fun to use with some velcro so you can stick your iPad anywhere.
Now if I had to guess, I’d say all these iPad cases are becoming deeply discounted to blow out existing stock in lieu of the upcoming iPad 2… just a hunch, but hey if you have an iPad take advantage of some of the crazy deals out there.
If one of your New Year resolutions is to get into better shape, don’t miss out on this great run tracking iPhone app that is free for a limited time. RunKeeper Pro uses your iPhone’s built in GPS to capture a whole slew of useful pedometer information about your runs and walks, including keeping track of your speed, the time spent running, calories burned, time per mile, and it’ll even automatically map your jogging routes on Google Maps and graph your progress so you can watch how your fitness is improving.
RunKeeper Pro is usually $9.99, but for the entire month of January you can download the app completely for free. You can get RunKeeper Pro from the iTunes App Store, it’s a lot like getting the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit
for free, well, minus the shoes of course.
Is this the corniest geek joke ever?
Thanks Terry!
Is this enough portability? A new MacBook Air 11″
rests on top of a unibody MacBook, on top of a MacBook Pro 15″, on top of a 17″ MacBook Pro.
The more I see the new MacBook Air’s the more I like them.
This picture also does a great job of demonstrating how Apple iterates on product design, and how thin design is pushed forward as the hardware and components allow for it. Pretty cool, I think.
Makes you want your own little stack of Mac laptops, doesn’t it?
If you rely on an iPhone alarm clock to wake up in the morning, pay attention: your alarm will not sound after New Years Eve. MacRumors says:
Apparently a bug in the iPhone clock app prevents non-recurring alarms from properly triggering on New Years day. I was able to confirm this after a couple of false starts. For the bug to show itself, your iOS device must actually tick over from 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2010 to 12:00 a.m. on January 1, 2011.
They also say the bug will resolve itself after January 3rd for no apparent reason. Presumably this bug effects all iOS devices and not just the iPhone, so if you use your iPod touch or iPad as an alarm clock this will likely effect you as well. So what are you to do? There’s a fix, sort of:
The fix is easy and similar to the iPhone daylight Savings Time bug that surfaced earlier in the year: simply set up a new alarm as a recurring event (ie: make sure the alarm is scheduled for every day), this is said to cause the alarm clock to active as intended.
Oh, and Happy New Year!
Update 1/1/11: MacWorld is reporting that Apple is aware of the problem and has offered the following information:
“We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.”
So, if you need an alarm tomorrow, set a recurring alarm or use a backup and apparently things will be normal in time to return to work on Monday.
You probably know by now that you can zoom into anything in Mac OS X by holding down the Control key and then using the scroll wheel or a two-fingered forward swipe on the trackpad. You’ve also probably noticed that the more you zoom in, the blurrier things get because you’re zooming into anti-aliased graphics and text.
You can disable and toggle the anti-aliasing within the Mac OS X Zoom feature by hitting Command+Option+\ after the zoom feature is activated. In other words, Control+Scroll to zoom, and then hit Command+Option+\ to toggle anti-aliasing.
Here’s before and after pictures of what text looks toggling the anti-aliasing:
And after, the text is much more crisp:
This effects all on-screen graphics, not just text.
Thanks to Marcus for sending this in!
Did you accidentally close a browser tab or window? The feeling isn’t great, right? You may have lost an important webpage before you were finished with it, or without bookmarking it. Well in Mac OS X you can quickly restore and reopen that last closed Safari window or tab by hitting a a simple undo keystroke.
Would you believe this isn’t a real iPhone 4? This freakishly accurate counterfeit is called the SoPhone, and the enclosure is so precise that it fits into all existing iPhone 4 cases. Not only does the outside look identical to the iPhone 4, it’s apparently running a customized version of Android that is themed to look and feel practically identical to iOS.
Perhaps the only thing that gives this away as a counterfeit is the screen resolution, which at 480×320 is the same resolution as the iPhone 3GS and not the real iPhone 4’s 960×640 retina display. Oh, and the price of course, which at $225 is about $500 cheaper than what a ‘real’ iPhone 4 will set you back on the Chinese grey market.
So remember those white iPhone 4’s for sale all over China? Yea, you might want to skip those since the chance of getting your hands on a real one is likely slim…
More pictures of the phone, UI, and a video of it in use next to a legit iPhone 4 below:
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