(Via Mac OS X Hints.)
Prior to the iPhone software version 1.1.4, you could listen to the iPod audio over a Bluetooth headset if you did the trick of switching to the voicemail screen and selecting the headset for audio. This still works, but you can’t leave this screen and you can’t sleep the phone, or the headset audio is disabled.
Full post here.
(Via MacNN.)
TomTom has in fact produced real-time navigation software for the iPhone, according to one of the company’s French representatives. Yann Lafargue denies allegations from other sources, which first said that Apple’s SDK license forbids real-time navigation, and then that TomTom itself had no internal prototypes. “Since the SDK became available,” L…
(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)
Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has considered plans to sell the iPhone 3G directly on US college campuses. Some campuses do already sell Apple products in their on-campus stores; however, this varies by university.
If Apple marketed the phone directly to the students, this could definitely move Apple closer to the 18 million goal for 2008. Ars Technica also notes that a recent AppleInsider post speculates that a Best Buy deal could be in the works after the “old” iPhone’s “grey-markets” put a hold on those plans. However, we know of one college that Apple probably won’t be waiting in line to market their iPhone 3G to.
(Via Infinite Loop.)
The University of Kansas has paired with Apple to try and get new faces into its concert hall. Free Philip Glass downloads for one and all!
(Via MacNN.)
An internal AT&T memo — circulated this week to store managers — has exposed a variety of details on the carrier’s planned treatment of the iPhone 3G, reports claim. Most crucial among these is the suggestion that should the mandatory in-store activation not go through for various reasons, buyers will be asked to use iTunes at home, which hints …
(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)
Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
You know that sudden motion sensor that’s buried in your Mac to protect your hard drive? Want to have a little fun with it? Then check out Liquid Mac, a neat little app that makes your laptop’s screen look like it’s filled with colored water.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, select the color and response sensitivity you want, then gently tilt your laptop and watch the fluid splash around the screen. It’s oddly soothing, actually, unless you slosh it around too fast and make yourself nauseous.
When you tire of making waves, adjust the settings to represent beads and watch it rain on your screen. To see Liquid Mac in action, check out this cool video.
(Via Technology Review.)
Flock is not the only attempt to unify multiple social networks. Last November, Google released its OpenSocial API, a set of developer’s tools for sharing information across a number of social-networking systems, including MySpace. Firefox users also have the option of adding user-created programs that have similar functionality to Flock, allowing for access to multiple social networks from within the browser. However, this is a piecemeal approach, as each addition is created independently.
Full review here.
(Via Macworld.)
Macworld Lab ran the three new standard iMacs through our customary suite of tests to gauge performance improvements on the previous generation. The new 2.8GHz 24-inch iMac showed a 30-point (13 percent) Speedmark improvement on the previous high-end model, a 24-inch 2.4GHz iMac. However, this new high-end iMac posted the same Speedmark score as the previous build-to-order model, a 2.8GHz 24-inch model. The new low-end iMac, a 2.4GHz 20-inch model, had a Speedmark score that was 26 points higher (13 percent faster) than the previous low-end model, a 2GHz 20-inch iMac. Also, the new 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac scored 9 points lower than the older midrange iMac, a 2.4GHz 20-inch model. But as we pointed out in our earlier Macworld Lab benchmark report of the new iMacs, the older 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac that we tested had a larger hard drive and a better graphics card than the new entry-level model, which explains the speed difference.
Full story here.
(Via Macworld.)
If you’re still spooked by the idea of viewing headers along with a preview of a message—even without HTML turned on—you can follow this little tip from Macworld’s Gemmeister, Dan Frakes: Give Limit Point Software’s MailCM a try. This is a contextual menu plugin/pref pane that, among other things, lets you copy a message’s headers without opening or previewing the message. Of course you’ll have to then paste that header into a text document or empty email message in order to examine its contents, which seems like an incredible pain in the neck to me. But then, I’m not easily spooked.
Full story here.
(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)
Engadget continues to do their part in fueling the fire of rumors that we’ll see a second edition of the iPhone this summer. First they supposedly touched it themselves, then they nabbed some shape and spec hints, and now they’ve got yet another set of “leaked” photos, from a Chinese phone forum.
As usual, we have no idea if this is the real thing, a prototype, or just a little Photoshop fakery. The most obvious difference between what Engadget saw first and what’s posted here is the color on the back, but then again, why wouldn’t Apple release iPhones in different colors? They’ve certainly done that with iPods.
None of this guarantees anything, but I will say that if I was shopping for an iPhone, the AT&T memo would be enough for me to hold off on a purchase until mid-June at least. There is an iPhone update storm coming, and the thunder and lightning seem to be getting closer together.
