News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
With the iPhone and iPods getting so much attention, I've turned my thinking for a moment to the things I would like to see most in the next generation of Apple hardware and software.
Keith White | Aug 28, 2008
This year must go down for me as "Conference Year". I've been doing some counting and I reckon that I've made at least six major conferences and workshops so far, and hey, it's only August! There's been the British Educational Technology and Trade show in London, Macworld Expo in San Francisco, NECC in San Antonio, the International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology in Singapore. the Cisco Directions in Enterprise Conference in Sydney and the The Association of Independent Schools IT Managers conference in Wollongong (can't forget the 'Gong).
Martin Levins | Aug 24, 2008
Owing to a total lack of vocal chords on my part, this week's podcast is not going to happen. The good news is, this spares you the agony of trying to understand the husky remains of my voice (I hate Spring colds). The bad news is, this week's podcast was when we were going to announce the winners of our iPone 3G competition. Instead, you get to read about them here. We posted fifteen of the best to Youtube, but there can be only two. Congratulations to our winners, and many thanks to all who entered.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 22, 2008
There's nothing wrong with protecting your intellectual property if you're a business. On the other hand, leaving consumers high and dry when licences fail to work as they're meant to really sucks, even if the property in question is just a relatively minor game title. Thankfully, Apple does this a lot better than its biggest competitor. The future of software delivery, as we've been promised for some time now, is in digital delivery. Certainly, it's a model that's proven wildly successful for a number of shareware-style operators with applications that are easy to download and install, but what about larger applications? Well, that market's being tested out right now in the games world, and Apple is right in the thick of it, thanks to the digital delivery of games via the iTunes Store.
Alex Kidman | Aug 20, 2008
OK, maybe not humanity so much as phonemanity. Or something. Our iPhone competition -- whereby you can win one of two unlocked iPhones and an Altec Lansing speaker system and dock -- closes tomorrow afternoon at 5pm AEST, and more entries are as we speak being uploaded to our channel on YouTube. Some of them are brilliant, some are hilarious, and some are deeply, deeply disturbing. Some of you really don't like your phones much. Have a look and see what you think.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 15, 2008
The CocoaHeads provide a forum for developers using Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on Mac OS X. In plain English this means they provide a place to discuss how to write programs for the Macintosh. Initially this was just for developing applications for the Macintosh, but now they also cover development for the iPhone (and iPod touch) as the tools used are very similar.
Nicholas Pyers | Aug 14, 2008
Want a free Apple t-shirt? Get down to Chatswood Chase, where an hour before opening time the queue is easily outnumbered by Security. The Apple Store staff are, as with the George Street opening in June, chanting and clapping and getting geared up, but actual customers don't seem to have wanted to brave the cold Chatswood morning.
Matthew JC. Powell | Aug 9, 2008
Many of you will have been counting down to this weekend's opening of the Beijing summer Olympiad using Apple's own Dashboard widget, made by the official Games timekeeper OMEGA (If you haven't, there isn't much time now but you can find it here for your anticipatory pleasure). If, like most of us, you won't be so lucky as to attend the games, you can still technologically slake your desire to follow the athletes in the sports of your choice from Australia — whether on your laptop or your mobile phone.
Fleur Doidge | Aug 6, 2008
What happens when people see Windows Vista without realising it's Windows Vista? This was the question Microsoft tried to answer with the "Mojave Experiment", where people who had negative opinions of Microsoft's latest and "greatest" operating system while never having used it were told they were getting a look at the "next" Microsoft operating system, Windows "Mojave". Lo and behold, it appears they all had Road to Damascus experiences, loved "Mojave" to death and were suitably shocked when they discovered that "Mojave" was, in fact, Vista.
Sean McNamara | Aug 3, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
