At first I didn’t get any EDGE data transfer at all (no email, no web, no weather) until I set Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network > APN to epc.tmobile.com. Yes, I use T-Mobile for my cell service. I think I might need the full-blown T-zones hack this guy talks about.
I suspect things will smooth out after enough people report back with this problem, and enough smarter people help solve it.
Jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone 3.0 is going to be a huge race between unlocking hackers. The beta has been cracked, but the final release isn’t out from Apple yet so we’ll see who crosses the line first.
I wirelessly synced my phone — a Sony Ericsson — via Bluetooth (BT) with Mac OS from 2003-2008.
Then in 2008 I got an iPhone and lost this capability because Apple saw fit to disable BT sync.
BT too slow for music/movies? Fine, give us the choice to sync contacts, which are typically thousands of times smaller. My Sony Ericsson would sync in usually 5-10 seconds.
It was so simple, so elegant. I’d get home, click the Sync Now icon in my menu bar, and everything would be done while the phone sat in my pocket.
If I had to guess, I’d say Apple disabled this to sell Mobile Me, a very “Microsoft” thing to do.
So with 20972 messages in my Mail.app inbox, things were getting kinda slow. I looked to the West in search of a speed fix and found this Hawkwings.net post. Super!
The Fix Fails
Big problem: instead of the sqlite vacuum command vacuuming away my troubles as I dusted my Web Development trophy shelf, it coughed, choked and spat this error: SQL error: constraint failed. Huh? I dropped my duster.
There are literally hundreds of comments in that Hawk Wings post about happy Mail.app users gong from slow to go! And only two responses mentioning my error, neither of which cast light on getting around it.
So sullenly I went around the web looking for answers, turning over rocks, and generally knowing that if there were a real-life desert analog to this, my carcass would be getting picked over by vultures about now, if there were even vultures in this desolate landscape.
AT&T Inc. said Thursday it will start selling iPhones without requiring a two-year contract, but they will cost $400 more.Spokesman Michael Coe said Dallas-based AT&T will sell the phones starting next Thursday for $599 or $699, depending on the storage capacity. The two models cost $199 or $299 under contract.
The phone company had said in July, when the latest version of the iPhone was launched, that it would sell contract-free phones in the United States. Such phones are sold in some other markets.
On demand Fetching of Album Artwork
Songbird can now fetch album artwork from the web at your command. Simply select or right-click a track and choose “Get Album Artwork”. You can also select your preferred source of artwork. By default, Songbird will retrieve album artwork from Last.fm but you can install other sources such as amazon.com via an add-on.
Watch Folders
You can choose to watch a folder hierarchy for changes and the content will auto-magically be imported in your library. If a file is removed from the watched folder, the corresponding track will be deleted from your Library.
Better Sorting
Library sorting supports unicode collation and better handling of leading definite and indefinite articles such as “The” and “a”.
Replay gain support (normalization)
If a track’s metadata contains replay gain (including iTunes-specific) information, Songbird will adjust the playback gain appropriately.
Improved Media Core & Better gapless playback
We rewrote the low level media core component for Windows to improve playback performance and lower cpu usage. Also, if an mp3 encoder places metadata information to indicate the exact beginning and end of the audio, Songbird is able to read it and use it to skip padding data that does not contain audio, leading to perfect gapless playback.
MTP Device Support
We fixed many bugs affecting MTP devices on Windows. We’ve also added the ability to synch authorized Windows Media DRM’ed content to your MTP device. To see if your MTP device is supported, or to report your findings, visit the MTP device page.
7digital MP3 Store (Beta)
Buy high quality MP3s (up to 320kbps) from the 7digital store in Songbird. The 7digital store in Songbird uses your most recently played tracks to recommend albums to you. Plus, 7digital contributes a portion of every purchase back to Songbird’s development. Every song you buy supports your favorite artist AND our development. Woot! The UK store is fully stocked, but the US and other European stores are still continuing to populate a complete catalog of music.
Performance Enhancements
We’ve continued to make the application more stable and zippier in all sorts of ways. Amongst other things, you should notice a smaller memory footprint and decreased CPU usage.
Ten years ago the best game ever released for the Mac, Myth II Soulblighter, came out of the award-winning Bungie game development house (birthers of such titles as Marathon and Halo). It also was released for PCs, and in fact I played Myth III on one, but never tried II on a PC for comparison.
Myth II kept me playing for well over a year, during which I’d sometimes be found dragging my 35-pound “Bondi” iMac 233 home from work to play at night. I’ve revisited the game several times, as it’s been updated (by an unpaid support community) to work on Mac OS X, and even the Linux operating system. If 3rd-party support is a measure of how much a game is liked, this game was loved. I’ve played it on five successive Macs now, installing it as the feeling strikes at some point on each of the Macs. It was that good.
The engine could be used to “skin” your own games, and a WWII Mod was released for the game. I played that back in 2000 and found it to be pretty damn good, though not as fun as regular Myth II.
Gameplay
It was a “real time strategy” game with a strong anime influence, really really outstanding small touches, and a surprising sense of humor. It was a joy to learn, to play, and to play (with and against) others over the (sadly, gone) Bungie Net Myth network. It was extremely “environmental”, meaning the sounds, characters, and graphic details made you feel like you were there. Rain, snow, semi-transparent fog, it was all there.
The gameplay was superb, the graphics were cutting edge… even the tutorial and cutscenes were enjoyable to the point I’d play them for folks who stopped by, with or without their consent. The view/camera was controlled by your left hand via the keyboard, and character actions were done with the mouse (and some keyboard). You could pan, zoom and orbit the camera, and the terrain was fully 3D, making high ground very tactically valuable.
Because the camera control was so granular and smooth, you could really take advantage of your terrain and characters’ abilities. Best of all was the fact that the developers infused a real sense of humor into the game, but one that didn’t get in the way of gaming.
Cinematic Video Compilation
Messing Around
It was — and I’m sorry if the term is overused — a work of art. If you’d like to get into it, I’m sure copies can’t be more than $5 on eBay. It might even be free… I have no idea. Use this to get your bearings because the game won’t install on OS X right out the box. But the install tool you’ll find on that site makes it simple.
For those wondering, I never played Myth I, and found Myth III “The Wolf Age” to have none of the charm of Soulblighter. It was too dark, visually, and lacked the sheer enjoyment that Soulblighter had.
I haven’t fired it up for a year now; it’s about ti…
I just re-downloaded an audio book I bought and listened to exactly five years and 16 days ago, otherwise known as “02/04/2004″, and now it’s syncing to my iPhone.
I’d lost The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy file sometime between then and now, so I went back in (after having discontinued, then started up again my Audible account, mind you) and went to My Library and there it was. It was the first Audible audio book I bought. And also there were the other 22 or so audio books I’d bought since February 2004, all with a friendly orange download link next to them.
Some of the books are available to be re-downloaded, for free, in a much better bitrate than they were originally offered.
I’m subscribed to Apple’s iTunes Store’s “My Alerts”. Cool, I’ll get emails letting me know of new releases by my favorite bands. The problem is, it’s never worked right. I have zero Elvis songs in my library and really don’t think I’ve ever bought any Elvis music, yet just now I got this in my “My Alerts for this week” email:
Elvis Presley
Sunrise
Release Date: Mar 15, 1999
Genre: Rock
Elvis Presley
Tiger Man (Live)
Release Date: Sep 14, 1998
Genre: Pop
Elvis Presley
Million Dollar Quartet
Release Date: Mar 13, 1990
Genre: Rock
Elvis Presley
A Touch of Platinum: Elvis Presley, Vol. 2
Release Date: Jul 14, 1998
Genre: Rock
I just found Aperture’s key-combination re-mapping setting. Why is this useful? Key combos save me time, but when they’re difficult to get to with my left hand, I tend not to use them. With this, I can easily remap Aperture commands to trigger them with left handed key combinations. That allows me to keep my right hand on my mouse.
^^^ click ^^^
If you’re a Mac key remapper, you’ll love this. If not, become more productive with your Mac and learn some key combos. You will do more in less time, I promise.
I turned it off. It didn’t come close to being a relevant feature that added to my enjoyment of music on my Mac.
First went the sidebar, then, after waiting several minutes for iTunes to stop “Sending Genius information to Apple”, went Genius altogether. At least my network will be less chatty.
Speculation about the Zune spiked after this Financial Times story, in which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that we “should not anticipate” a Zune phone (no, really?) and that Redmond (as the FT paraphrases) “would stick to its strategy of developing software to support a range of mobile devices.”
The Financial Times story then goes on, noting that Ballmer “seemed all but ready to throw in the towel on the Zune mobile device” during his CES keynote, and speculating that “if there is a future for Zune, it lies in planting the software and online service linked to the player in other devices.”
But Zune spokesman Adam Sohn insists that “a lot of people … took [Ballmer's comments] and ran in the wrong direction,” adding that “a lot of people jumped to an ‘either/or,’ when in fact it’s a ‘both/and’ situation.”
It wasn’t hard to predict the mediocrity of Zune. It’s Microsoft hardware, for goodness’ sake, running Microsoft software saddled withRIAA rules.
Maybe nobody’s said Zune is dead yet, but I’m saying now it was doomed from birth.
More of a pain in the ass initially than Mike’s method, but once you’re done setting it up, it’s just drag and drop. In addition, it is non-destructive to your images, unlike re-saving as a jpeg… read more
After writing a forum post about Time Machine and how it, well, simply worked for me when I needed it to, I’ve been noticing some downsides.
It’s slow at backing up over WiFi
I have a 500GB Time Capsule and a 2.2Ghz MacBook Pro. It takes forever to back up a couple gigs of data, and it slows my work down because it takes up processor and disk resources. I often do a Stop Backup from the menu. I tried a wired backup (ethernet) and found it to be perhaps 10x faster. But the layout of my home office these days is not conducive to a hardwired situation.
The interface is slow
And a little too dramatic… do we really need to fly through the Andromeda Galaxy when we need to get a document we accidentally deleted a week ago? I don’t know if that’s the speed crusher, but I can wait for a minute for the full complement of backup points to load. The interface is frozen while I wait.
It’s inflexible with backup frequency
You can choose any backup frequency you want, as long as it’s once every hour. This is too often for me (see my slowness complaint about backups over WiFi, above), but yet I’d still like an automatic backup. A week ago I switched it to manual, and I now go to the menu and select Back Up Now.
All in all I like it, but I’m crossing my fingers for fewer OS speed hits, better interface speed, and real choice with backup frequency. C’mon Apple, let’s do this.
- The optical drive appears to be on the right side (when facing the laptop)
- All the ports are on the left side (when facing the laptop)
- Case does not appear to be tapered like the MacBook Air
- Power button is in the far top right corner
- Large trackpad like the MacBook Air
- Appears to be “latchless”
- No Firewire port on MacBook?
Both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro will be aluminum. The aluminum MacBook has been rumored since forever, and if we take the leaked shots as real, Apple is finally going all-metal in its Mac lineup.
We can also be pretty certain that the MacBook Pro will gain the chiclet-style keyboard of the Air and the stock MacBook, most likely in backlit black. Ditto the magnetic latch which holds the MacBook Pro closed that little button is so 2001. The other advantage the current MacBook has over the MBP is the easy-to-swap hard drive. Along with the RAM, the HDD is a simple five-minute slot-in replacement. Expect to see this in the Pro.
Internally we can expect some more changes. Mac Cultist Leander Kahney hopes for 4GB RAM as standard in the MBP, and two in the MacBook. He also lists integrated NVIDIA graphics in the MacBook, something that rumor site Apple Insider corroborates, claiming to have confirmed the inclusion of NVIDIAs MCP79. While this still shares the system memory, it is apparently faster and probably more important for Apple smaller than the Intel GMA950 which is currently used.
User/Library/Application Support/Aperture/Plug-Ins/Export <- move contents of that to another location, and try creating a Vault. It worked for me. Now my Aperture library can be excluded from the dumber Time Machine backup, saving lots of time. Aperture Vault backups take only the new stuff, not my whole library.
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The interface is slow
This is too often for me (see my slowness complaint about backups over WiFi, above), but yet I’d still like an automatic backup. A week ago I switched it to manual, and I now go to the menu and select Back Up Now.