I recently hooked up an Airport Express with speakers connected so that I could stream music to it from any of my computers. When I purchased it, I didn’t realize that by default OS X only lets you stream music from iTunes to it, not any application. I wanted to stream music over the internet through Firefox, and felt dead in the water until I found Airfoil.

With Airfoil you can take audio from any application and send to your AirPort Express units, as well as Apple TVs, and even other Macs and PCs running Airfoil Speakers! Transmit audio from RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, and other media players. Send audio from web-based applications like Pandora, Last.fm, and more. You can even stream audio from audio devices like RadioSHARK, XM and Sirius radios, all around your house.

The description on the website sounded very promising, so I downloaded it and gave it a whirl. After the install I fired up Airfoil, which found my Airport Express and its attached speakers immediately.

To stream music with any program to an Airport Express with Airfoil:

1. Click the speaker button next to the name of Airport express. The status word “Available” should now read “Active.”
2. Select the program from the drop down menu that you want to hear on your speakers.



3. Give it whirl! You should now hear audio from the program you selected over your wireless speakers

Make Quicktime full screen while on a secondary display:

1. Hook up external display
2. Launch Quicktime Pro and open the preferences section
3. In the “Full Screen” tab simply drag the Quicktime logo to the screen you want to be able to do full screen.

I watch a lot of videos on various sites including Youtube, Google video, etc., and one of my main gripes with the sites is that video does not make your mac think it is busy so it constantly falls asleep while playing a single clip.

In comes the freeware application Caffeine.

Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Hold down the Command key while clicking to show the menu.

Caffeine is one of my must have applications and can be downloaded here.

This is a limited collector’s item that can be personalized with your name and will include a series number as well. That price point is a little rich for my blood, but marrying two of the greatest creations in the world is sure to be a winning combination at almost any price.

If you take the plunge, let us know and we will praise your geekiness high above our own.

WordPress launched an iPhone app for posting blog entries right from your device. With my Mac out of commission yet-again, I thought a good test would be a TAB post using only the client.

I used my 1st gen iPhone and the EDGE network to grab the app from the mobile version of the app store. It downloaded and installed very quickly and I was set to go in less than 3 minutes. The app enabled you to setup multiple WP blogs and only needs your site URL and credentials. It then sucks down all your customized settings for posts (quickly, even over EDGE) and lets you start blogging right away. The “Write” screen makes quick work of title, keyword and category entries (very well done interface) and you have the option of saving to local drafts or posting to your site.

Typing a full blog post on the iPhone is no small feat (esp. if you have large fingers) and I was disappointed that there was no option to rotate the display to take advantage of the larger width keyboard.

It does let you embed photos/pictures from your iPhone library (and lets you take one right from the app) - we’ll see how the Seattle library photo looks that I just took and attached.

The app also lets you preview posts in your site template and gives you the option to password protect it.

The WordPress folks obviously spent a great deal of time and energy working on the interface and functionality. While the iPhone autocorrect can make some typing annoying, my overall first impressions are very good. It did crash once on me, but most developers are quick to blame OS 2.0 for bugs.

If you give the app a try, let TAB readers know how it worked for your configuration by dropping a note in the comments.

This whole post was created solely on the iPhone except for the WordPress logo and interface screenshot.

Golden % Braeburn is a company that has been setup to license the storefront used to sell Wil’s most excellent Delicious Library. He tried to find a usable storefront to license since there are many pitfalls to creating your own. Security concerns, state & federal tax nuances, international fees & taxes considerations, interfacing with banks and credit clearinghouses and management of product keys are just a few of the nightmares awaiting those DIY’ers. Mac developers could just use sites like Kagi, but you are then limited by what they provide and must fit into their box. Not being satisfied with any of those options, Wil rolled his own.

With Golden % Braeburn, Wil licenses the full source code to you to do with as you please (except for the removal of the code which calculates his “piece of the action”). If you make changes, Wil will evaluates the efficacy of the feature(s) and can choose to incorporate them into the main codebase to share with other Golden % Braeburn users.

Here’s everything you get:

• a 100% Cocoa app & app components
• store front-end
• store back-end (credit card processor / transaction keeper)
• remote client (to manage licenses and the store)
• expo store (allows on-floor credit swipe & receipt/license print)
• QuickBooks integration
• on-the fly localization (Wil talked about this library he wrote and it is pretty neat stuff …if you’re a developer)
• AppleScript integration

Users experience the store within your application as a sheet. The interface is completely customizable and has some advantages over web apps, like population of fields from the Address Book and a much more secure feel when the user clicks “buy”. Everything is automatic - you do not need to sit and respond to license e-mails or hand-generate keys. It is all handled between the front-end and back-end seamlessly.

A Mac Mini has enough horsepower to run the back-end, but you will need a static IP address and a bit of bandwidth. Will highly recommends a RAID configuration for your disks (hey, it is customer data)

There is no sign-up fee. There is no annual fee. There are no monthly fees. There are no fixed per-transaction fees. The only fee is 5% of the transactions that are fulfilled via the storefront. You are still free to sell your wares on any other site. There are other non-GB fees that are required, but you can read more about Golden % Braeburn on their site. The best part about it (in my opine) is that even if Will decides to disband Golden % Braeburn, you still have the source and can continue to use it (without the cut!). Think about what would happen if Kagi went out of business and it was your only means to sell your app.

The talk was highly interactive and it was great to see so many developers interested in this offering. They had double the usual attendance and folks were not afraid to ask questions and challenge assumptions.

When you are in the Seattle area, I highly recommend popping in on the Xcoders meetings. You can find out more about the group and subscribe to their various calendar and content feeds right on the main page.

If you have questions or experiences with about Golden % Braeburn, drop a note in the comments. I can consolidate them and shoot them Wil’s way for response (or encourage him to respond directly in the comments if he has time). Feel free to drop a note with your experiences with his storefront (if you are a Delicious Monster aficionado) or OS X software storefronts in general (the good, bad and ugly).

I was having a lot of trouble getting my iPhone applications to sync with iTunes. I tried doing backups and full syncs to no avail. Finally, in a moment of desperation, I righted clicked on my iPhone and chose the option “Transfer Purchases” and to my suprise and glee I successfully moved my applications onto to my computer.

To transfer applictions to iTunes from your iPhone:

1. Right click on your iPhone in the left hand explorer bar
2. Select “Transfer Purchases”



3. You should see a progress bar in iTunes and your phone should read “Sync in Progress”



4. If everything went as planned, all of your applications that were purchased on your iPhone should now appear in iTunes

After a few minutes it finished and I noticed I had no contacts. None. I went to Me.com and also had no contacts, but they were still in my address book on my Mac. I tried syncing again, and again, but nothing. I read all the knowledgebase articles on Apple.com but none of the suggestions worked. So I contacted MobileMe support at about 7 AM on July 16.

I got an automated reply that notified me that I would receive a response within 48 hours:

Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting MobileMe Support. This is an automated reply, but a MobileMe Support representative will be reviewing your request and will send you a personal response soon (generally within 48 hours). Meanwhile, you may find the following articles and resources helpful. They address several common questions from customers:

Email Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1146

Troubleshooting iDisk authentication or login errors
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1789

Updating your billing information
http://help.apple.com/mac/1/help/?nav=pgs/acct_49.html&content=pgs/acct16903.html

Please do not reply to this email. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,

MobileMe Support
http://www.apple.com/support/mobileme/ww
http://www.me.com/help
Message Subject: Syncing with MobileMe Push
Follow-Up: 51585825

Then, last night I received a response to my inquiry. Instead of a MobileMe support representative suggesting things that might help me sync my data, I got another automated email from Apple asking me to read knowledgebase articles (that I’ve already read).

Dear Customer,

We apologize that it took a little while to respond to you. As a result of the
overwhelming interest in MobileMe, the MobileMe Support team is receiving
higher volumes of email than normal.

We see that you classified your request as “Syncing with MobileMe Sync” and
“Troubleshooting MobileMe Sync issues”. We have some articles that address
those topics, and we hope you will find the articles helpful. If they don¹t
help you to resolve the issue you contacted us about, please don¹t hesitate to
reply to this email with additional details so that we can assist you further.

Here are the articles:

Troubleshooting Syncing from Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1679

Troubleshooting Windows Syncing
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1681

Troubleshooting iPhone or iPod touch sync issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1672

MobileMe: Changes on an iPhone/iPod touch made to your calendars, contacts, or
bookmarks while a sync is occuring may not sync to MobileMe
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1794

Mac OS X 10.5: MobileMe Sync menu icon spins constantly
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1182

We hope you enjoy using MobileMe.

Thank you,
The MobileMe Team
http://www.apple.com/support/mobileme/ww
http://www.me.com/help

The only reasoning for this type of support response is that the number of MobileMe support inquiries is overwhelming and they simply don’t have the resources to respond to all of them. So instead of actually responding to my inquiry they sent an email giving me links to the same articles I was reading when I submitted the ticket. If I don’t reply that I still have a problem, they’ll consider the matter resolved.

So Apple’s response to so many people’s problems with MobileMe is to simply ignore them. If they are really, really having problems, they’ll have to reply back (and probably wait another 48 business hours).

I’ve always been a huge fan of Apple’s support, but they’re going to have to step it up a notch here. I feel it’s just unacceptable behavior, even at a time when there are a significant number of support requests, to simply ignore support requests.

As I carefully unwrapped the iPod and synced it to my computer, I found out that I was gravely mistaken. Software update 2.0 was not installed. iTunes said that I needed to update it, and that I would have to pay. Believe me, I didn’t want to add even ten bucks to the $2000 I had already spent today. I called Apple to see if I needed to still pay for it, and three employees told me I did (well, actually, one person told me that it was absolutely a free upgrade, until I told her that I already had iTunes 7.7: she didn’t know the difference).

So, I resigned myself to purchase the upgrade. But there is a happy ending, for me. It turns out that by upgrading my wife’s iPod Touch this weekend using my account iTunes said that I had already purchased it and could download it for free. So, if you have two iPod Touches, then you can possibly get one updated for free, otherwise, add another $10 to your iPod Touch App budget.

The even better news out of this whole story is that I bought the Mac and iPod Touch on Monday, and the rebate showed up in the mail today! In just five business days Apple turned around a rebate and had the check at my house. Anyone who has used a rebate before knows that they usually come at a time when the money is a nice surprise. Way to go Apple.

Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced Bill C-61, which many have dubbed the Canadian DMCA, in June 2008. There was an immediate outcry from thousands of Canadians concerned that the bill would render illegal every day activities and harm both consumers and businesses.

Prentice is trying to put a stranglehold on Canadian’s fair use of copyrighted materials, much like we are already forced into compliance here in the US. Geist is trying to allow fair copyright laws that allow people to retain the “right to use their property - whether music, videos or other content - in a fair manner without the law painting them as infringers for personal uses.” You can go to his website to learn more about what problems arise with the bill, including the “triple-lock” that locks consumers into a contract with Rogers for their iPhones.

Geist is using the power of the internet to create a forum for voicing your opinions about the inane bill. He asks people to respond to his YouTube video to speak out against any aspect of the bill. The important issue is that people who are working hard to help maintain our digital lifestyles need to be supported by us. Take some time and at least check out his website and the video. You can also join the Facebook group that is over 80,000 strong. Let’s hope our brothers and sisters up north get spared from death sentence on digital content and devices.

Hat tip to Alec Couros.

Here’s the full text of a letter being sent out to all MobileMe customers:

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word “push” in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe “cloud,” changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word “push” until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.
We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,
The MobileMe Team

While I had hoped that Apple would acknowledge MobileMe’s issues, at no point did I expect them to offer a free month of service to all subscribers. For that all I have to say is thank you, Apple.

Apple sued Psystar on July 3rd (when everyone was too busy worrying about the iPhone launch) and asked that all the computers that Psystar has sold be recalled. It was not surprising to see Apple sue for damages from loss of sales, good name, etc., but it is surprising that they are requesting a recall of all computers sold.

Many people have pointed out that just because Apple’s EULA forbids putting OS X software on anything but an Apple, doesn’t mean that it is actually legally binding. This will be interesting to see if Apple’s EULA will stand up. They do lay out a pretty good claim in their filing. Apple claims that the success of their brand is largely due to the fact that they control everything. Yesterday Apple declined to have their case brought before a magistrate judge (a judge that helps and gets cases ready for a district judge) and requested that it be brought before a US District Judge.

Apple is intent on fighting their case. We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

Today, however, they released something that will benefit a lot of users: an RSS feed of new apps.

Whenever a new App is updated, this RSS feed tells you. It gives you the name of the app, the category, release date, price, and a link to the app’s page in the App Store. They are working on including the description as well.

Pinch media offers a similar feed for updated apps as well. In addition to those two feeds, you can also get a daily list of the top 100 paid and top 100 free apps. Be forewarned: the top 100 apps will show up as 100 different items, so your reader might explode.

Despite the issues Apple had with product launches this past week, the launch of the App Store has been an overwhelming success, with over 10 million downloads in the first weekend.

The App Store is home to a plethora of applications in over a dozen different categories. Some applications do make you wonder how Apple ever approved them, but for the most part the selection really is top notch. The most entertaining category (and certainly the one that has wasted most of my time and money) is the Games category.

With over 40 different games currently in the store, it can be a bit overwhelming to know what is worth your money and what is not. I took a go at quite a few of the games and have put together my top 10 favorite ones (some free, some not). Check out the list and then let me know what games you have been enjoying.
(more…)

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

The launch of the much hyped iPhone 3G wasn’t without problems. Apple servers, due to excessive traffic, had reached the breaking point and in some cases stopped working. People purchasing the iPhone 3G in Apple and AT&T stores were sent home to activate it at home via iTunes.  At home, some users still ran into problems activating their new phones.

I have to admit I was slightly surprised when I heard this news. Apple has had months to prepare for opening day. Based on the reaction to the first generation iPhone, Apple should have expected this type of reaction. Perhaps it exceeded Apple’s wildest expectations. It makes you wonder what type of sales Apple would have this past weekend if it hadn’t run into problems?

Another hot place to be while surfing the net was Apple’s App store. Over ten million applications were downloaded over the weekend. I joined the masses that flocked to the App store. I did experience a few delays on opening day however this past Monday when I purchased applications for my newly purchased 32GB iPod touch I didn’t experience any issues. IPod touch users have the option to download iPod touch software 2.0 for $9.95 which will enable them to gain access to the App store, and have access to MobileMe.

When the App store opened its virtual doors, it had just over 500 applications. Now there are over 800 applications to choose from. The majority of the apps are less than $10 and there are also 200 free applications available.

For those who purchased the iPhone 3G did you run into any problems?  Did any of you iPhone or iPod touch users download any apps? Let us know in the comments section.

Let’s take a quick look at three pages on the MobileMe promo site, and compare them to Google caches of the same pages.
(more…)

Contrast that to this year, when the much anticipated iPhone 3G was launched at 8 AM local time. I was in line (with a few hundred soon-to-be friends) at 8 AM when the “launch” started. After 2 hours we had barely moved 10 feet. Around 11 AM, we finally got reports that there were server issues. At first they said the issues were with iTunes software activating new iPhones, but then they quickly shifted the blame to AT&T’s servers.

The mood quickly went from upbeat and excited to tired and irritated. Standing in line, hour after hour, this year was a stark contrast from last year. At Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, security guards wouldn’t even let people sit down (on the floor, or in mall-provided seating) even though we were mall customers waiting to spend quite a bit of money in their stores.

The whole atmosphere of this year’s launch was of disappointment, disorganization, inconvenience and irritation. Very un-Apple.
(more…)