MacApper Video: Say Hello to iPhone
As a prequel to a full-on review of the iPhone, me and a friend in San Francisco put together this quick segment of an unboxing and activation of everyone’s favorite new phone. In the video you can see the dock, all of the accessories, and the activation process. Soon to follow will be a full review of the iPhone with first impressions, usability, and some real world examples of this beauty in actual use.
Watch for the first video right after the jump and don’t forget to subscribe to MacApper’s full page feeds so you don’t miss any of our premium free content.
Delicious Generation Party Video II
With all the iPhone hype I nearly forgot about the other portions of video I put together from the first ever Delicious Generation Party held June 13th in San Francisco. As I mentioned in the first segment the other offerings would have more interviews with developers. In today’s installment hear blurbs from Andrew Stone of Stone Design, Juan Alvarez of Cha Ching, one of the guys at Boinx Software, and more from Austin Sarner and John Casasanta. Some interesting comments and hints are dropped in this one and it’s really nice to see the people behind the apps and hear they’re take on things.
iPhone: Release Day Links Roundup
Well I suppose this post can serve as my obligatory iPhone release day links free-for-all. Since I am in Canada, I was not able to stand in line today but I did manage to talk managing editor Jordan Golson to grab me one when he got his in Boston. When I get back home to Bangkok in 2 weeks I should be one of the few guys in Asia to actually have one of these bad boys. Mind you it will be just a beautiful brick until someone back engineers the iPhone so it can be unlocked from Cingular. My money is on this being accomplished in under 2 weeks but I guess we’ll see!
In the mean time you can bet I will be watching the post-iPhone hype machine pretty damn closely. For now here are the most compelling iPhone related articles I found today. I will add to these if I find some more worthy meat and potatoes, but here’s how the iPhone’s US release is looking so far…
Switch Users and Save Space With WinSwitch
Since Mac OS X 10.3 we have had Fast User Switching, the feature which allows more than one use to be logged in to their accounts on a Mac at the same time. In case you’re unfamiliar with the idea, imagine the following: you are busy writing something on your iMac and your wife comes in to the room to check her email. Instead of saving your work and logging out so she can log in to her account to check her email, you just step aside and let her log in without killing your work session. OS X gives you a neat-o cube animation as you switch users and, lickity-split, everyone gets what they need.
MacFreeware Update: An Auto-Updater for Freeware
If you’re like me, you’re frequently bored, have obnoxious siblings, have a never-ending to-do list, and have more Mac Applications than the stars in the sky. My applications folder is an unorganized mess. This folder does not resemble my personality, as I like everything up to date and orderly. MacFreeware Update helps me keep my applications as updated as possible.
MacFreeware Update waits in your menubar for the chance to be used. There are two ways of updating with this program. 1) You can activate a daemon to check for updates every hour, day, week, or month. 2) You can select the “check for updates” button located on the main window.
iTrip Auto: iPod On The Radio
So for the past year or two I’ve been using a Griffin RoadTrip to send songs from my iPod to the car radio. I bought the RoadTrip after having a bad experience with an iTrip, one of the early models that hooked into the top of my 3G iPod. The iTrip had a weak signal, tons of interference, and always ended up playing my music with static mixed in. After a few years, I’ve decided to revisit the iTrip, using one of the latest and greatest versions, the iTrip Auto from Griffin Technology.
NewerTechnology’s miniStack V2 Hard Drive Enclosure and Hub
How many times have you looked in finder and scoured your hard drive for a little more storage space? Everyone at one time or another has run out of storage space or for that matter needed extra USB/1394 ports to plug in peripherals. That’s where NewerTechnology’s miniStack V2 External Hard Drive Enclosure and Hub come in. As referenced on NewerTech’s website the miniStack V2 will:
“Expand the abilities and storage capacity of your computer without cluttering your desk. The Newer Technology miniStack V2 is just the accessory you need to do it all for your computer.
Exclusive: Third Party Cocoa iPhone Apps Coming
In the midst of the excitement surrounding arguably one of Apple’s very largest product roll-outs, the iPhone, we still are left to wonder if and when we will see third parties able to develop native Cocoa apps for the hot little device. During one of the many evening parties which took place during WWDC I overheard something very interesting from a key member of the iPhone development team that answers at least part of our question.
The Man with the iPhone
Starting just before WWDC the entire Mac world was abuzz with talk of the iPhone. Would there be an iPhone SDK? Would there be demo units for developers to test on? Questions and curiosity permeated almost every Mac user. Developers attending WWDC and even San Francisco locals wondered if they’d see iPhones popping out of the pockets of proud Apple Engineers lucky enough to be using the pre-release units. At the peak of this fervor, on June 13, an image was posted to Flickr of a young man riding the Caltrain and using an iPhone. Seeing the man’s short, dark hair and characteristic five o’clock shadow many concluded this was Mike Matas, former Delicious Monster UI designer and current Apple UI guru, using the pre-release iPhone on his commute. Well, the “unofficial” details on the iPhone-Caltrain photo situation, from sources at Apple are as follows…
Delivery Status: Quickly Track Packages
Whenever I’m expecting a package, I always get tired of loading various web sites just to check the status of my delivery. The Delivery Status widget by Mike Piontek is designed to solve this problem by doing all the work for you. The widget keeps the updated tracking information for any trackable package on your dashboard for easy access. All you have to do is fill out the information on the back of the widget (which includes an option as to how often you want updates) and the rest is taken care of for you (including Growl notifications). You can even open a second copy, allowing you to track multiple packages.
