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Apple Planning January Media-Related Event in New York, But Not iPad 3 or iTV Rollout
Giving An Old MacBook Pro A New Lease On Life
Insync: 'It's OK To Cheat On Dropbox'
Free WLAN Site Survey Software for Mac
Dennis Sellers' Predictions for 2012: The Mac Laptop
Fully Use Your Apple Keyboard in Windows with Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper
Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper
Bean 3.0.3 Free Word Processor Update Released
OnyX 2.4.3 Free System Maintenance And Diagnostic Tool
Zoom It for OS X: View Screen Through a Magnifying Glass Whenever Needed
Xcode's Not The Only Option Anymore
The Commodore 64 Turns 30
Year of the Penguin - The Register's 2011 Linux-Land Roundup
Apple Planning January Media-Related Event in New York, But Not iPad 3 or iTV Rollout
AllThingsD reports that according to "sources close to the situation," Apple is planning an important but relatively low-key event to happen in New York toward the end of the month to focus on a media-related announcement.
However sources emphasized that the event will not be related to announcement of the widely anticipated iPad 3 or a likewise expected new interactive "iTV" Apple televison product about which there is much speculation.
As usual, Apple declined comment.
For the full report visit here:
http://dthin.gs/t7amgl
Giving An Old MacBook Pro A New Lease On Life
Wired.com's Brad Moon notes that while Apple trots out shiny new MacBook Pros every year, and each model refresh brings more performance and new features to the table, upgrading instead of replacing your old MacBook Pro may be a viable and cost-saving option, especially if your budget is tight or you can't rationally justify ditching your current unit because, technically, the it's still getting the job done; albeit perhaps just barely.
A case in point is the four year old 17-inch MacBook Pro that's the subject of this how-to - awesome back in in 2008, but totally outclassed today; still usable, but chugging along at times. However a current 17-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,799 and on up from there.
In this case, the author invested two or three hours of labor, a few minutes online and just under $600 to make his old MacBook Pro look and feel like a new machine, which arguably beats shelling out three grand or more after tax for a new 17-incher.
The five upgrades employed in this case toward squeezing a few more years out of any MacBook Pro are:
1 System Optimization
2 Max Out The RAM
3 Replace the Hard Drive With a Solid State Drive
4 Replace Worn Components
5 Buy A New Battery
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/xwCJu5
Insync: 'It's OK To Cheat On Dropbox'
ZNet's Charlie Osborne says that free Cloud storage and file sync service Insync's re-opening includes many improvements to its Google Doc storage locker, and the company is also using cheeky slogans to entice Dropbox users to switch.
Insync, a Google-oriented alternative to Dropbox, has been completely revamped. It has now re-opened for registration as a free storage facility.
Philippines based Insync uses your Google account as a storage locker and offers a desktop application so you can access your files in the same manner as you would with a local directory folder.
Insync's homepage displays insoucient slogans to entice users to defect from Dropbox. These include: Its OK to break up with Dropbox, Its OK to cheat on Dropbox, 10x 8x cheaper than Dropbox, and resistance is futile. In the updated Insync 2.0 version, synchronisation limits have been completely removed.
But is switching from Dropbox a sensible move?
Osborne thinks it could be if you rely heavily on Google Docs, but there are some limitations both on allowable file sizes (unlike Dropbox), and only 1 GB of free storage capacity (with Google) - while DropBox gives you 2 GB, plus you can boost your free Dropbox space via referrals.
For the full report visit here:
http://zd.net/y7VUE5
For more information about InSync, see:
https://www.insynchq.com/
Free WLAN Site Survey Software for Mac
Netspot is a new wireless survey software for Mac OS X. Find out what your Wi-Fi network is capable of right now, and it's free. All you need to run your wireless site survey is your MacBook with native Wi-Fi/AirPort adapter. No special knowledge required. Simplicity - only 2 steps to get your first reports: survey Wi-Fi network and apply sleek visualizations.
You can check it out at:
http://www.netspotapp.com/
Dennis Sellers' Predictions for 2012: The Mac Laptop
MacNews' Dennis Sellers thinks the rumored 15-inch MacBook Air is coming along with a 17-inch version and that in fact, the entire Mac laptop line will evolve into Airs, with the 11-inch and 13-inch units to be dubbed MacBook Airs, while the 15-inch and 17-inch versions will be called MacBook Pros, but all models incorporating the current Air's svelte design nuances.
Sellers says internal optical drives will be history with the US$79 SuperDrive available for those who can't get along without optical disk support, and the Mac notebook lines will come only with SSD storage across the board.
Power-wise, the next generation of Mac notebooks will all have Intels next-generation Ivy Bridge processor silicon, says Sellers, but don't expect USB 3, which he says we won't see on any Mac with Apple betting on ThunderBolt to become future of connectivity.
No MacBook Airs running iOS either in his estimation.
[Editor's note: I can't disagree with most of Dennis Sellers's forecast, although I think dropping HDD storage altogether even as an option would be a bold move - maybe a bit too bold, and I'm not ready to slam the door entirely on the possibility of an iOS machine in a clamshell laptop form factor, although the greater likelihood is continued convergence of OS X with the iOS features and functionality wise. Ed]
For the full commentary visit here:
http://bit.ly/wNOHnb
Fully Use Your Apple Keyboard in Windows with Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper
Lifehacker says if you use multiple OSes or just prefer using an Apple keyboard, you know that many keys such as print screen, volume control, and eject don't work in Windows. However, a little free executable program called Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper restores many of these key combinations, and despite its name also works on wired Apple keyboards. After running the program these combinations will be accessible in Windows:
F3: PrintScreen
F4: Task Manager
F7-F9: iTunes control
F10-F12: System volume Control
Eject button toggles Fkeys/Functions.
Fn + F key triggers function (useful when in F keys mode)
Fn + Backspace = Delete
Fn+ Eject: Eject CD
For the full report visit here:
http://lifehac.kr/uSCTV4
Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper
Apple Wireless Keyboard Helper allows people use the Apple Wireless Keyboard under Windows 7 without loosing the mac functionality. This project found a new home at uxsoft.cz
Recent Changes:
Tray Icon
First run speed improvements
Eject CD
For more information, visit:
http://applewirelesskbrd.codeplex.com/
Bean 3.0.3 Free Word Processor Update Released
Bean 3 is a small, easy-to-use and free rich text editor and lightweight word processor designed to make writing convenient, efficient and comfortable. A features tweak version 3.0.3 is now available.
Lean, fast and uncluttered, Bean starts up quickly, has a live word count, page layout mode, full-screen mode, regular expression search/replace, multi-column text, inline graphics, detailed statistics, and much more, and its user interface is easy on the eyes. While MS Word, OpenOffice, etc. try to be all things to all people, sometimes you just want the right tool for the job. That's Bean's niche. For example, Bean doesn't do footnotes or use stylesheets and is only partially compatible with Word's file formats. Also, it allows in-line graphics, but not floating graphics.
New in Version 3 are an optional single-window tabbed interface layout, template documents with boilerplate text, a split view, a two-up layout view, freeform headers and footers, plain text editing, and other improvements.
Bean features:
live word count
make template documents with boilerplate text
free-form headers and footers
page layout view (optional 2-up)
alternate colors option (e.g., white text on blue)
split-window editing
full screen editing
date-stamped backups
selection of text by text style, paragraph style, color, etc.
find panel allows regular expressions (pattern matching)
all of Cocoa's good stuff (dictionary, word completion, etc.)
Bean natively reads and writes these file formats:
.rtf format (rich text)
.rtfd format (rich text with graphics)
.bean format (identical to .rtfd)
plain text (Unicode and legacy)
.webarchive format (Apple's web archive format)
Bean transparently imports and exports these formats:
.doc format (MS Word '97, minus images, margins, and page size)...more info here
.docx format (Word 2007, minus images and some formatting)...more info here
.odt format (OpenDocument, minus images, margins, and page size)
Bean can export all of the above formats to these formats:
.html (web page format)
.doc compatible (with images intact)
New in Version 3.0.3:
• Replaced the toolbar icons with a more colorful set.
• Added Slovak localization
New in Version 3.0.2:
• Fixed a problem where text fields did not accept digits after ',' used as a decimal.
New in Version 3.0.1:
• Totally rewritten, with many new features. Requires OS X 10.5+
• Drag-resize of edit view in draft mode now works (oops).
• Tabbed editing
• Ability to resize the width of the draft edit view within its window
• Plain text editing
System requirements:
Bean requires a Mac with a PPC or Intel processor running OS X 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard, or 10.7 Lion
An older version (2.4.5) is still available compatible with OS X Tiger 10.4+
For more information, visit:
http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html
OnyX 2.4.3 Free System Maintenance And Diagnostic Tool
OnyX is a multifunction utility for Mac OS X that allows you to verify the Startup Disk and the structure of its System files, to run misc. tasks of system maintenance, to configure some hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, QuickTime, Safari, Mail, iTunes, Login window, Spotlight, and many of Apples applications, to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, and more.
New in Version 2.4.3:
• OnyX doesn't relaunch anymore after restart or shut down
• Deleting the Logs improved
• Enable/disable Text Selection in Quick Look
• Enable/disable iTunes notifications
• Choose search option by default in Safari
• Path Bar displayed from the Home folder or root
• Show/hide the path of background image on the Desktop
• Enable/disable Time Machine Local Backups
• Translations improved
• New version integrated 3.7.9 of sqlite3
• Info panel improved
• Bug corrected while rebuilding the Mail Envelope Index
• Bug corrected while emptying the trash
System requirements:
• Intel
• Mac OS X 10.7 or later
Also Available:
• OnyX 2.3.5 for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
• OnyX 2.0.6 for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
• OnyX 1.8.6 for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• OnyX 1.5.3 for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
• OnyX 1.3.1 for Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)
OnyX is freeware.
For more information, visit:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/index.php
Zoom It for OS X: View Screen Through a Magnifying Glass Whenever Needed
Appatit announces Zoom It 1.0 for OS X, their new Utility that allows users to easily view their Mac's screen through a virtual magnifying glass. Ideal for artists, designers, engineers, photographers, presenters, project collaborators, laptop users, and those who wear corrective lenses, Zoom It is a simple Menu Item, which for many Mac owners, can significantly enhance the usability of every one of their applications. Far superior in flexibility and convenience to the screen zoom built into OS X, the app's virtual loupe can magnify from 5-45% of the screen and up to a maximum of 5x.
The on-screen magnifier in Zoom It is always available to provide a closer look at whatever the user is doing on their Mac. The magnifier, with a circular or rectangular shape, can be effortlessly accessed through simple keyboard shortcuts that do not interfere with any shortcuts, commands, trackpad controls, or mouse buttons the user may be accustomed to. Alternatively, the app's magnifying glass icon in the Menu Bar can open to display a drop-down menu of commands and preferences. Users maintain the ability to click, type, or select inside the magnified area.
Applications with numerous palettes, tools, controls, and design elements, such as drawing, painting, CAD/CAM, 3D graphics & animation, and design & layout software will all benefit from the ability to Zoom It, anytime. Project collaborators will especially like the app's feature that allows saving and sharing detailed, close-up screen shots. And presenters will find Zoom It's realistic, on-screen magnifying glass the perfect means of highlighting any part of a screen viewed by an audience. With 5-Star ratings from MacUpdate and HotMacApps, this is one simple, inexpensive Utility that every Mac owner should consider acquiring.
Feature Highlights:
(*) Set the app to open when you start your Mac so that the magnifying loupe is always available but stays hidden until you want to use it
(*) Use all of your usual keyboard shortcuts, trackpad controls, and mouse clicks at the same time as the loupe
(*) Show the loupe temporarily with a simple keyboard shortcut
(*) Keep the temporary loupe on-screen just by holding the Z key, and make it disappear by simply releasing the key
(*) Use a simple shortcut to make the loupe stay on-screen permanently, without holding the Z key
(*) Click, type, and select inside the magnified area
(*) Choose between a round or rectangular loupe
(*) Quickly change the size of the loupe
(*) Easily adjust the amount of magnification, up to 500%
(*) Customize keyboard shortcuts for all Zoom It functions
(*) Take a screenshot of what the Zoom It loupe is showing (with or without the loupe border)
Appatit co-owners Joel Kraus and Moshe Samet recently commented, "We are a couple of artists, strong believers in the Mac platform. After doing graphic design for many years, we piled up ideas on how to make life easier on the computer, from the end user's point of view. Zoom It, a simple utility that does one thing very well, has become our flagship app."
System Requirements:
(*) Mac OS X 10.5 or later
(*) 1.5 MB
Zoom It 1.0 is $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Utilities category.
Zoom It 1.0:
http://www.zoomitapp.com/
Key Features:
http://zoomitapp.com/zoom-it.html
Purchase and Download:
http://bit.ly/xQUuNB
YouTube Video:
http://bit.ly/yaHXUT
Facebook Profile:
http://www.facebook.com/appatit
Twitter Profile:
http://twitter.com/Appatit
Xcode's Not The Only Option Anymore
SDTimes's Alex Handy notes that back in the 1990s, the only way to write a program for the Macintosh was to use Metrowerks' CodeWarrior, a third-party IDE designed to make software development graphically appealing. Now, 16 years after the release of CodeWarrior, there is a new bumper crop of IDEs that can build applications for the Mac OS, and they're not all made by Apple....
JetBrains recently introduced AppCode, a new IDE for developing Mac applications, and Embarcadero Technologies recently added Mac OS X as a target deployment platform for C++ and Delphi in its eponymous flagship IDE.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/vcMS7d
The Commodore 64 Turns 30
The Register's Tony Smith reminisces that:
"Commodore took the wraps off the Commodore 64, one of two immediate follow-ups to its popular Vic-20 home computer, 30 years ago this week.....
"....with its squat design taken from the 1981-launched Vic-20, its keys bedecked with graphics symbols - even playing card suits - as well as alphanumeric characters, and its right-hand row of four function keys, the 64 arguably looked much more how a computer should look than many of its rivals....
"As the computer's name suggested, it had 64KB of memory, though only 38KB of that was available to Basic, which was stored on a 20KB Rom chip and copied into the main memory when the 64 was booted. The remainder of the memory map was used by the system."
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/vYvlvX
Year of the Penguin - The Register's 2011 Linux-Land Roundup
The Register's Scott Gilbertson says:
It's been a tumultuous year for the Linux desktop. Anno domini 2011 saw the release of not one, but two major new desktops, the GNOME project's GNOME 3 shell and Ubuntu's rival Unity desktop. By the time most distros hit their stride in 2011, the GNOME 2.x line had been replaced with GNOME 3.
With change comes angst - especially in the open-source community - and the move away from GNOME 2 has certainly had some very vocal critics. To be fair it's never easy when something you rely on day in and day out suddenly changes, and the transition from the more traditional GNOME 2 desktop to the GNOME 3 shell or Unity has been a bumpy ride for many users.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/w00hzT
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