Not wanting to take two years to select the handful of apps I would probably use, I went a different route. I e-mailed my tech-savvy friend, also an iPod Touch user, asking for his recommendations. An iTunes screen shot and a few minutes later, I had his recommendations.

There is an easier way. AppsFire, launched just today, offers iPod Touch and iPhone users an easy way to share and recommend apps. According to the introductory video, “AppsFire is a new iPhone service that will allow you to share your favorite iPhone apps with your friends.” The way it works is simple.

First, you must download AppsFire onto your computer. Right now, the program is only available for Mac users. After installing the program, AppsFire will immediately take inventory of all the apps that you have installed on your device.

From there, you go to your own personal AppsFire page—the page where you can both see your applications (on a virtual iPhone), chose the applications that you want to tell your friends about (or select all of your apps), and notify them.

To notify friends, there are four share buttons. The buttons are “social networks,” “e-mail,” “widget,” and “links.” The process is simple. E-mailing is a mere matter of titling your selection, inserting your friend’s e-mail address, and sending the e-mail—right from the AppsFire page. Social network shares are just as easy. Virtually all it takes is one click—and instantly a link to your favorite iPhone apps is available for all your friends and followers to check out on Twitter, Facebook, or Delicious. If a simple link to e-mail or share is what you prefer, that is also possible within mere clicks.

When you send the AppsFire notification to your friends, they will see the same image of an iPhone, loaded with all of your recommended apps. Remember, that you can control which apps your friends see. Thus, any proprietary apps that you own and would like to keep confidential, need not be included in your initial selection. Friends browsing your apps can click on any of the apps to bring up the download page in iTunes, and download it right to their own device. (No, they don’t get them for free, just because you “shared” them.)

The process and idea behind AppsFire is much like social networking customized for your iPhone. This will prove to be a simple, fast, and convenient way to get the apps you need, as long as your friends jump on board, too.

CUPERTINO, California—June 12, 2009—Apple® today announced that more than 11 million copies of Safari® 4 have been downloaded in the first three days of its release, including more than six million downloads of Safari for Windows. Safari 4 is the world’s fastest, most innovative browser and is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript nearly eight times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages more than three times faster than IE 8 and three times faster than Firefox 3.*

“Safari 4 is an incredible success on Mac and Windows with more than 11 million downloads in the first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari users love the incredible speed and innovative features like Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow.”

Starting with the development of the open source WebKit browser engine, Apple has been leading the industry in defining and implementing innovative web standards. Safari 4 includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies and support for advanced CSS Effects, enabling an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.

Safari 4 includes Top Sites, for an incredible visual preview of frequently visited and favorite pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; and Cover Flow®, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks. Other innovative features include Smart Address Fields for automatically completing web addresses from an easy to read list of suggestions; Search Fields, to fine tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches; and Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text.

In Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, available later this year, Safari runs as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent.** Snow Leopard makes Safari more resistant to crashes by running plug-ins in a separate process, so even if a plug-in crashes, Safari continues to run and the user simply has to reload the affected page. Safari running on Snow Leopard also delivers HTTP streaming, making it easy to deliver high-quality audio and video in industry standard formats from any web server without the need for browser plug-ins.

According to Weintraub’s research, the new Unibody Macbooks have the exact same screen that the MacBook Air has. The screen provides better quality colors, black blacks, and better washout reduction. If you’re interested to see if you have one of the new screens, Weintraub has a walkthrough to check your screen’s model number.

AppleInsider’s sources state that this move comes in response to netbooks’ rising popularity, and is intended as a stopgap solution until the company can release its media tablet device a device that’s taking longer to develop than anticipated.

The company is planning to reduce prices on both its iMac and MacBook lines. The MacBook is currently the most popular Macintosh computer Apple sells, with the iMac is the most popular desktop model. Both computers are already strong sellers; lower prices will only encourage consumers to keep buying.

Apple indicated that it could reduce the price of the desktop iMac when it announcing special educational pricing earlier this month. According to AppleInsider, the $899 educational iMacs are so considerably cheaper than their consumer counterparts that the company could split the difference and still turn a profit.

Cheaper prices could hit as early as this spring, when Apple is expected to revamp its entire notebook line. Either way, this is an encouraging sign that Apple’s continued success will lead to cheaper consumer products and a further on down the line a the release of the upcoming tablet device.

Fragmentation occurs when the pieces data that make up a file are written to different locations on a disk, rather than all together. This can slow down disk read or write operations because the operating system must search different parts of the disk for information instead of finding it all in one place. Mac OS X ordinarily tries to minimize disk fragmentation as much as possible. Whenever a file under 20MB is opened, the OS checks to see if the file is significantly fragmented. If so, the computer attempts to consolidate all the pieces together in one place. As Bednars points out in his article, this helps minimize file fragmentation, but doesn’t help keep free space from being broken up.

Bednars shows a few terminal commands that can help you determine if your Mac’s files are fragmented or not. He then show what to do to help. Since the OS doesn’t come with a file defragmenting tool (unlike Windows, which features one many users run with ritualistic fervor), Bednarz examines three pieces of commercial software ranging in price from $30 to $99.

If you had the chance to check out the conference live, then congrats. If you’re reading this and wonder what went down then we’ll take a look at some of the key features mentioned at the conference. There will be some interesting additions coming our way when the 3.0 OS releases.

The major update that many app users can look forward is what Apple referred to as, ‘In-App Purchasing’. If you’re a gamer then think of DLC that you get through Xbox Live, or PSN. With In-App purchases, app creators will be able to sell additional content to its users. So, you could see magazine subscriptions offered through an app. Or game makers can add-on various levels to their creations. The possibilities could be limitless. You just have to make sure you’re willing to pay for it.

To go even further with the idea of gaming.  Apple will be allowing a feature that could greatly enhance gaming on the iPhone. P2P connectivity will be a feature you can expect to see with the iPhone 3.0 OS. What this means, is that two iPhones or iPod Touches can connect through WiFi or Bluetooth and share data. For games this is a big step forward, but can enhance other apps as well.

If you’re an avid user of the Notes app, or use another app where you’re writing a lot then this inclusion will be a god send. With the OS 3.0 update, you’ll be able to select text, then cut, copy, and paste it to other places. For frequent email writers, this is great news indeed.

There were a slew of other announcements, and if you’d like to check out more Apple has the video of their conference available here.

Here are some of the important takeaways from their unveiling…

- The box shows 9 vents on the back, but on the device there’s actually 10.

- This version of the Mac Mini comes with an install disc. Safari, Mail, Spaces, iChat and Time Machine are all on the disc.

- The new Mac Mini looks nearly identical to the older version.

If you wish to view their full unveiling, you can check out the site. They disassemble the Mini, and take a look at the inside. There are some differences between the innards compared to previous version. It’s quite an interesting read. Highly recommended if you’re research the Mac Mini.

Mac Mini Unboxing, and Disassembly

It seems the entire internet is in a buzz about Apple’s latest version of the web browser, Safari. If you browse around Apple related sites, I’m sure you’ve seen the ‘Safari runs javascript 30x faster than IE’. I’ve downloaded the browser, and given it a test run. Overall, I’m impressed so far, even if some of the javascript taglines have been taken to an extreme.

The major update that everyone is discussing, is the Nitro Engine. This is what’s powering Safari 4, and is the backbone behind what makes the browser load javascript so fast. I’ve been comparing load times between Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari. So far, I’ve noticed a huge improvement for Safari over Internet Explorer. Not so much when comparing it to Chrome, and Firefox. I’m not arguing that the results of the benchmark tests are wrong. I’m just letting you know that if you’re looking for a blazing quick load for heavy java sites, when compared to Firefox and Chrome, you might be disappointed.

Where Apple really hit it on the mark with Safari, is the new interface. After looking around I’m glad to see Apple took a page out of the Chrome handbook. I think developers are starting to realize that simplicity is key when making a browser. People don’t want extensive menus, and drop downs when using a web browser. They want their eyes focused on the window. The ‘top pages’ page is the default setting for when you first load up Safari. It’s pretty neat, as it lays out recently visited pages, along with your favs, in a graphical preview setting.

The tabs, and quick favorite menu is heavily reminiscent of Chrome which is a good thing. The quick favorite menu which is embedded into the browser provides a one click option for visiting your most frequented sites. The tab system works like a charm, although I’m a bit skeptical of the tabs system in the Windows version of the browser. They claim they’re trying to make the browser more ‘Windows looking’, which it does prove the claim. However, they make the tabs a part of the title bar. Which for long time Windows users could be a bit confusing. I’ll admit it took me a second or two to realize where the tabs were.

For a browser that’s in beta, Safari 4 is pretty far along. I’ve perused through the browser’s options, and preferences. It’s highly customizable, as you can change much of the browser’s settings to fit with how you surf the internet. Most of the standard settings like, private browsing, and hiding all of your bars are there.

After a day of use, I can easily recommend Safari 4. Going into though, just realize the hype about the Nitro Engine isn’t nearly as great as some are letting on. Of course, if you’re using Safari already then this just a nice upgrade for you. If you use another browser, then know that Apple hasn’t strayed too far from the proverbial path to turn you off from it.

The programs that come standard with your iPhone, or iPod Touch have the ability to run in the background. Like the alarm. Unfortunately, third party apps don’t have the option of running while the iPhone is inactive. Which, leaves some problems for certain apps, specifically those based around communication.

During the Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June 2008, Apple announced they would be bringing something called, Push notification system. This basically gives an app the option of receiving notices, and messages even if the app isn’t active. Steve Jobs stated that the service would be arriving by September 2008. Of course that update rolled by, and the Push notification was no where to be seen.

There has been quite a bit of speculation as to the reason for delaying the system. Many believe that Apple is trying to implement a better system, one in which the user can decide which apps can run in the background over others.  The really spicy rumor is that Apple is just waiting until the next generation iPhone, before bringing background processes.

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What are your thoughts on background processes for apps on the iPhone/iPod Touch? Would you benefit from them being implemented?

Today, I’m going to show you how to make your own custom icons for the Mac OS X. It’s not as complicated as you might expect, so lets dive into it and see what you can do.

There’s a couple of things you’ll need before being able to create your icons. Here’s a list of programs, you’ll need in order to successfully make an icon set:

Image Editor - Preferably Photoshop, because you can use scripts to create an icon set fairly quickly.

XCode - This is Apple’s free software development kit. If you don’t already have it on your Mac, then you can download it for free, here.

Instructions:

The first, and obvious step is to find an image in which you want to make an icon for. Be sure that you select something that can be shrunk, and expanded easily. PNG files are the best file types to use for creating icons, so keep an eye out for those.

There’s some things you want to remember when designing your icon. First, you’ll need to make images for four different sizes (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 128×128, and 512×512 if you have Leopard). Next, make sure you create good margin size for your 128×128 icon. The reason is because this will be in your dashboard, and will sit next to other widget icons, so you don’t want them hugging each other.

Next, you’ll want to take your image and load it up on your image editor. Then, clean out all of the background space so that all you have is your icon and a transparent background. Make sure your margins are right, then begin sizing your icons. A good rule of thumb is to make your larger ones first, and then work your way to the smallest. This keeps you from having to backtrack to expand the icon.

Once you’ve gotten your first icon sized right, you’ll need to export it. Click ‘Save As’ and then then select TIFF as the format to export it as. Don’t compress the image, and make sure you save the transparency.

The hard part is over now. Go under the Applications >> Utilities under the XCode folder. Open the ‘Icon Composer’, and then drag your various icon size to the appropriate location. Then save as a ICNS file type, and then VOILA, you’re finished.