Apple Hot News

Open Yale Courses now available on iTunes U

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:15:27 PDT

Though you can already enjoy a significant number of Yale University lectures and interviews on iTunes U, now you can sign up for entire courses in Game Theory, Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering, Milton, and others by subscribing to the newly available Open Yale Courses. Yale offers free access to a variety of introductory courses in a variety of disciplines “to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.”

Coming Attractions: G-Force

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:06:34 PDT

Ready for some fun? Catch G-Force, a new Disney comedy — in Disney Digital 3-D — produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. In the film, Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Penélope Cruz, Tracy Morgan, Jon Favreau, and Steve Buscemi play a team of secret agents out to protect the world against billionaire Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy). Of course, these secret agents just happen to be guinea pigs, moles, and hamsters. Enjoy.

Franz Ferdinand: Better at Night with Logic Pro

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:29:31 PDT

“When it comes to recording, I don’t want to be a technical person,” says Alex Kapranos, lead singer/guitarist for Franz Ferdinand. “The studio should be a creative place. So I like a system that is really straightforward, visually appealing, and simple.” He found that system, writing most of the songs for Tonight: Franz Ferdinand on his MacBook Pro using GarageBand and Logic Pro. The result? A sound “different from everything we’ve ever done before.”

This Just In

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:11:14 PDT

To train the next generation of professional journalists, Arizona State University built a state-of-the-art facility for its prestigious Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. There, student journalists write, shoot, edit, and broadcast their own stories on Mac computers using Final Cut Pro. “Among the most critical decisions we made,” says News Director Mark Lodato, “was choosing Final Cut Pro as our editing tool, and I don’t think we could be more pleased.”

How to make “the iPhone icons speak”

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:59:27 PDT

While writing his new book on iPhone 3GS, David Pogue (nytimes.com) discovered some features he couldn’t wait to talk about, one of which is part of the accessibility features built-in to iPhone. “You’d never suspect,” Pogue remarks, “that the iPhone 3GS, which has no physical keys at all, is one of the easiest smartphones in the world for a blind person to use. But now it’s true, thanks to VoiceOver.”

App Store Pick of the Week: Documents To Go

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:11:19 PDT

Use Microsoft Word on your Mac or PC? Now you can take your documents with you on iPhone. Documents to Go from DavaViz offers a mobile productivity suite. Using it, you can view, edit, and create Word documents on the road. Documents to Go also supports iPhone OS 3.0, allowing you to cut, copy, and paste among documents, email files, work full screen, and much more. And Excel support is coming soon, too.

Great Food Group: Streamlining service with iPhone

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:25 PDT

For restauranteur Patrick Albrecht, the recipe for success includes an extra helping of iPhone. Using iPhone, his 15 managers “can instantly look up, enter, and revise information about menus, banquets, employee schedules, point-of-sale transactions, and daily reports — from anywhere.” iPhone even allows Albrecht to book reservations for customers he meets on the street. How else does iPhone help Albrecht offer unique customer service?

How did Apple achieve 1.5 billion downloads?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:25:51 PDT

“One of the factors feeding the App Store’s growth,” explains Philip Elmer-DeWitt (fortune.com) “is the size of the installed base.” That would be the 40 million iPhone and iPod touch customers with a healthy appetite for games and other applications. “The other is the variety and sheer quantity of applications,” now more than 65,000 strong, more than 58,000 of those in the U.S. App Store alone.

App Store downloads top 1.5 billion in first year

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:15:43 PDT

In just one year, customers have downloaded more than 1.5 billion apps from the App Store, Apple today announced. The largest application store in the world, the App Store now contains more than 65,000 apps. It provides the 100,000 developers in the iPhone Developer program an easy way to reach iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries around the world.

Mac OS X Tip: Open at Log In

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:13:19 PDT

Do you use Safari, Mail, iTunes, or other Mac applications every day? Did you know that Mac OS X Leopard can automatically open your favorite applications for you when you start up your Mac? To find out how, watch the latest Mac OS X Tip in the Business Theater.

ArtusLabs: Constant travel, customized apps

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:18:35 PDT

The sales executives at software startup ArtusLabs spend a lot of time traveling. And wherever they go, everyone of them carries an iPhone. “It’s one of the most useful pieces of technology we take” with us, says founder Robin Smith. He and his staff use iPhone to manage all their travel details: meetings, schedules, weather, rental cars, meals. keeping in touch, falling asleep, even books to read on the plane.

Saving the Grizzly on iTunes U

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:44:43 PDT

Travel to Montana’s Glacier National Park, and you’ll find the greatest Grizzly Bear refuge in North America. To better understand the species and its range, researcher Kate Kendall has collected more than 10,000 hair samples using barbed wire traps. The subsequent DNA analysis of the hair has allowed her to create the first ecosystem-wide survey of the population. And may help save the keystone species.

Coming Attractions: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:07:44 PDT

The eagerly awaited sixth film in the Harry Potter series opens in the US on July 15. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and Sir Michael Gambon reprise their roles as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, respectively. Watch the exclusive new film clip for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the movie trailer’s site. And check out the trailer for the new Harry Potter game, as well.

15-inch MacBook Pro “the best laptop money can buy”

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:20:25 PDT

Saying it’s “primped and primed for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and professionals of all stripes,” Tom Yager (inforworld.com) lavishes the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with praise. “A five-year machine, by design and track record,” the “newest, fastest 15-inch MacBook Pro is also the coolest (in temperature) and quietest notebook I’ve used.” It is, Yager concludes, “the best of the tier-one commercial notebooks, full stop.”

Digital Kitchen: Creativity in the Blood

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:11:34 PDT

Digital Kitchen has a history with vampires. The agency created the opening credits for HBO’s runaway hit True Blood. And as an encore, it produced “a series of fang-in-cheek” promotional ads. “The True Blood campaign is done on software and hardware that you can get at the Apple Store,” says Mark Bashore, Digital Kitchen’s creative head. “The tools are easily accessible and easy to learn, which allows us to focus on being creative. That’s why we use the Mac.”

App Store Pick of the Week: Postcard Express

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:26:30 PDT

We’ve been sending one another postcards for nearly 150 years, and thanks to frog design, we now have a thoroughly modern and eminently mobile way to send them. Using Postcard Express, you can snap a geo-tagged photo at your favorite vacation hotspot, add a personal note, then send your digital postcard to friends and family around the world. With no postage or MMS fees.

Turning an iPhone app into a brick-and-mortar business

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:12:30 PDT

City Slicker has four travel apps on the App Store, each offering step-by-step tours of popular tourist destinations. But to promote it’s very first app — Charleston City Slicker — the developer did something truly different. As Jim Dalrymple (loopinsight.com) explains, City Slicker just opened a brick-and-mortar location to promote the app to Charleston visitors.

“13-inch MacBook Pro packs a punch”

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:46:44 PDT

In his Computerworld review, Ken Mingis takes us through all the great features in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. That includes faster processors, “a major improvement in battery life, an SD card slot, a FireWire 800 port, a better LED screen and, debuting in the entry-level version, Apple’s highly regarded backlit keyboard.” For Mingis, its light weight and small size also makes it “perfect for toting around in a backpack on campus or at work.”

New “MacBook Pro lineup offers the best displays for photographers”

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:20:20 PDT

Praising the “superb colour-accurate displays” found on the new MacBook Pro computers, Rob Galbraith (robgalbraith.com) indicates that the revamped lineup “offers the best displays for photographers we’ve ever seen from Apple.” Singling out the 13-inch MacBook Pro, he adds it “could well be the more enticing option,” a great choice “for Mac-based photographers wanting to pay less and carry less.”

Enjoy films, webcasts, and podcasts from the Library of Congress

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:00:36 PDT

The largest library in the world, the Library of Congress has “millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps, and manuscripts in its collection.” And now you can enjoy part of that vast collection on iTunes U. Watch early films from Thomas Edison and Westinghouse. Hear the oral histories of African Americans who served as slaves. Enjoy lectures from researchers exploring the links between music and the brain.