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Ars Premier 2.0 is our new and improved subscriber program that offers some fantastic benefits for subscribers. So far we’ve had chats with Mac OS X reviewer John Siracusa and Ars cofounder Jon Stokes. We’re excited to announce our next live chat, with Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.

The chat will start at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT on Wednesday, November 11. Fred will be answering premier subscribers’ questions about copyright, Big Content, and the crowded, messy intersection of IP law and the Internet. All you need is a Web browser for this and all of our other Moderated Live Discussions.

Originally posted 2009-11-09 18:25:15. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Filed under: OS, Switchers

As the resident Mac expert for my family and friends, I often find myself fielding questions from the recent switchers in my life. A lot of those questions come in the form of “how do I <insert random Windows task here>?” Apparently Apple’s support folk have also encountered this phenomenon as Apple has created a knowledge base article to tackle many of these questions.

The article, entitled “Switch 101: On Windows I used to…” is part of Apple’s Switch 101 series which is directly aimed at getting recent switchers comfortable with using OS X. It covers such tasks as finding and opening files, quitting applications, and using shortcut key modifiers (such as , the Command key).

I have shown this article to many recent switchers both in my family and otherwise; it has always proved to be a valuable resource to those that are new the Mac platform. Another great resource for recent switchers is TUAW’s own Mac 101 series. Do you have any other tips for recent switchers? Post them in the comments and share the wealth of your experiential knowledge.

TUAWSwitch 101: A guide to using OS X originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

We were all pretty gobsmacked last night with the news that iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco had purchased longtime Mac game developer Freeverse, so we went hunting for answers. Fortunately, Freeverse CEO and founder Ian Lynch Smith was nice enough to sit down and take our questions this morning, and he provided a little more background and insight on the deal.

The first thing we wanted to do was what would happen to Freeverse’s extensive Mac catalog, and we were told conclusively that “it’s not going anywhere at all.” While Freeverse will still “sell and maintain” their Mac titles, Smith did tell us that they’ve “been pretty much exclusively focused on the iPhone for the last 18 months anyway,” so while they have a legacy in the Mac, the company believes that OS X is “on a collision course with the iPad,” and that the main opportunities and user bases for Mac software are now using the iPhone and, soon, Apple’s tablet. “It’s very hard,” we were told, “to get the volume that the iTunes App Store has” for purely Mac software.

The other big question we had was what Freeverse thinks of Ngmoco’s insistent support on the “freemium” model (where games are free-to-play, with extra content or add-ons to purchase later), something that has a lot of customers up in arms. Hit the “read more” link below to see what he said both about that and what he thinks about the iPad and the future of computing.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Smith and his company is behind the Ngmoco model one hundred percent. “Obviously,” he told us, “we didn’t and wouldn’t have gotten into this just for the sale. We didn’t need to do this. We’re profitable.” But in the same breath he admitted that the traditional paid model (which Freeverse has used for all of its games right now) just isn’t growing the company. “If Apple had a minimum price of 25 cents, the stuff on Top Paid Apps would be 25 cents right now. … We wouldn’t be having this conversation if iPhone apps were $20, but iPhone apps are basically free on the paid side.”

Which means that Freeverse is more than happy, with Ngmoco’s support, to go with a “freemium” model: “Flick Fishing has over 1.7 million paid users,” but when you go to look at the audience for free games, “we’re talking 17 to 35 million people.” Smith says that just doesn’t compare to the paid side or anything else. “On the Mac, we’d sell 10 or 20 thousand units and it was one of the best sellers of all time.” And so that gigantic free app audience is what the company needs to go after, and Ngmoco is a company that will help them do exactly that.

Not to mention, says Smith, that the freemium model is a better way to make money, despite what customers think about it. “On the free model,” he told us, “you can monetize even people who don’t buy anything ever.” Smith says that there are lots and lots of iPhone users who have nothing but free apps installed on their iPhones, who play hours and hours of games but have never paid a cent to the App Store. “Everyone’s cheap, I’m cheap,” he admits. But with this model, “there’s ways to generate revenue from the 90% of customers who never pay a dime but still want to play your game.”

We asked him what Freeverse titles would be going to the new model, and he said all of that would be determined going forward. He assured us that most of their popular iPhone titles would remain in their current form for the foreseeable future — “Flick Fishing will stay on the paid side” — but he admitted that some of their lower-selling titles might benefit from a change: “There are some titles that only sell through the visibility that free brings them at some point.”

We asked him about the iPad, and even he admitted he was about as “bullish” as a developer can get. “The iPhone OS is, for most users, better than the desktop metaphor. The iPad is the start of something big.” He says that Freeverse was one of the first companies on the scene with the iPhone, and they plan to do the same on the iPad. “We’re always pushing that envelope.”

Finally, he wants to thank all of Freeverse’s customers for their support in the past, and promises that the company is still committed to the platform as they have always been. Ngmoco is a good fit for them, he says, because they understand how to fit a good game on the App Store (“we could tell they got it”), and Freeverse plans to take advantage of their experience and resources. “I’m looking forward to using their lawyers and acccountants,” Smith joked. “But,” he says, “Freeverse will stay with its own office and people in the middle of Brooklyn. Ngmoco didn’t buy it to mess it up.” And he specifically wanted to thank all the Apple and Mac fans over the years for their support.

Sounds good — while the news of the purchase last night made us wonder what Freeverse thought of the “freemium” model, it turns out that model is the main reason, more or less, the purchase was made. Smith admits he’s “sold” on it — we’ll have to see if a partnership with Ngmoco can bring one of the more storied Mac game developer the growth they’ve been looking for.

TUAWTUAW Interview: Freeverse CEO Ian Lynch Smith on the Ngmoco purchase originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Switchers, Tips and tricks

Every now and then I’ll have an “I never knew about that” moment as I come across a setting or nuance in Mac OS X that I never realized existed. Take, for instance, character viewer, which allows you to display a variety of characters in your document. Whether you’re a switcher or seasoned Mac veteran, here are five tips that could help improve your Mac experience.

“I hate that noise my Mac makes when changing the volume”

By default, changing the volume on a Mac will result an audible chirp. If birds could burp, this is the sound they would make. While tolerable with your Mac’s built-in speakers as well as external speakers, the noise can be a bit startling when you have your headphones on. To disable, navigate to the “Sound” portion in System Preferences and uncheck “Play feedback when volume is changed.” Now that’s a sound decision.

“Why are the scroll arrows next to each other?”

Whether it’s a Finder or Safari window, Mac OS X places scroll arrows next to each other by default — in contrast to their top and bottom placement in Windows. If you find that your scroll arrows need some space from each other, head on over to System Preferences and click on “Appearance.” Within the “Place scroll arrows” section, select “At top and bottom.”

“Give me my translucent menu bar!”

When Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard first shipped, many cried foul at its menu bar: it was translucent. And whether you liked it or not, you couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t until the 10.5.2 update, a full three months after Leopard was released, that users could disable it. To toggle translucency in the menu bar, head on over to System Preferences and select “Desktop & Screen Saver,” where you’ll find the “Translucent menu bar” option at the bottom.

“I wish I could rearrange items in the menu bar”

After making your menu translucent (or not), you may want to tinker with the menu bar some more. Much like how you can rearrange icons in your dock, you can also arrange the icons in your menu bar. To do this, hold down the command key and then click on an icon to move it around. Similar to moving an icon out of your dock, moving an item out of your menu bar results in a cloud poof.

“I prefer right-clicking with two fingers”
The coming of the unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro brought a more conventional way of right-clicking: the bottom right corner (or left, if you’re left-handed) serves as a right-click. However, my fingers have grown accustomed to right-clicking using two fingers; I find myself constantly doing this on PC-based notebooks, obviously with no luck.

The only way to right-click on non-unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros (and on late model PowerBook G4’s) was to use two fingers. To enable two finger right-clicking on the unibody MacBook Pro, select Secondary Click under the Two Fingers option in Trackpad preferences. On non-unibody models, select “For secondary clicks, place two fingers on the trackpad then click the button.” And if you have an older model PowerBook or an iBook, some have found success with iScroll2.

TUAW5 tips for switchers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Tips and tricks

I have to admit that I don’t always use them, but I do always enjoy reading the hints over at Mac OS X Hints — there probably isn’t a more eclectic or helpful mix of random hints about how to use your Mac or iPhone available on the Internet. So I was saddened to read today that editor Rob Griffiths (who always adds in his confirmations and other testing on the various hints posted) is leaving the editor’s position. He’s moving on to join Peter Maurer at Many Tricks, where he’ll handle the business aspects of the company. He mentions that they’re working on “some good stuff in the pipeline, especially for the upcoming iPad.”

As for Mac OS X Hints, the site is owned by Macworld, so it will continue to run under the oversight of a new editor, who will have the benefit of Griffiths around for training as long as necessary. But it will be a little bit of a disappointment to not see the little “robg” notes on the hints in the future. Good luck to Rob on his next venture, and here’s hoping his successor keeps the site up as an endless fount of interesting tips and tidbits about all of these Apple products we use.

TUAWRob Griffiths leaves Mac OS X Hints originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in December, we discussed Google’s decision to shift focus away from Gears, its platform that allows web apps to work offline — instead the company would utilize HTML5.

In the Gears API Blog this week, Google has reinforced that decision, making it clear that the company “will not be investing resources in active development of new features.” Instead, the focus will continue to be on bringing all of the Gears capabilities into HTML5 and other web standards.

Gears Was the Past, HTML5 is the Future

When the Gears project launched in 2007, one of its big features was the ability to allow users to use certain web applications (like Gmail) offline. As time has progressed, however, implementing those features of Gears into a standard like HTML5 makes more sense, as it will ultimately work on more platforms and not require the operating system or browser specific workarounds that Gears currently employs.

Until it is feasible for developers to convert their Gears-enabled apps to something standards-based, Google will continue to support Gears, but that support will be constrained in scope.

Likewise, while Gears support will be added for Firefox 3.6 and will continue to work with Internet Explorer, Gears for Mac OS X Snow Leopard in Safari 4.0 is not going to happen. The necessary architectural changes that would be involved in supporting Gears in Safari would take too many resources which could better work with adding to the HTML5 spec.

Good Sign for the Future

Gears was a good first step in lots and lots of ways, but building those features into something standards-based has a lot more potential for Google. By and large, mobile browsers are adapting to support HTML5 and other web-standards faster than their desktop counterparts (in large part because the majority of the next-generation mobile web browsers use WebKit — including Google Chrome, Mobile Safari and the next version of BlackBerry web browser). Because mobile is an area that can benefit from some of Gears’ functionality like local storage and offline capabilities even more than traditional computers, there is great potential in having some of those features available on platforms for the future.

If you are a developer of an application that uses Gears, now would be a good time to start exploring options for migrating or rewriting in HTML5.

Tags: gears api, google gears, HTML5, webkit

Our top Apple news this week was dominated by news out of the 2010 Macworld Expo. It turns out that Apple’s absence didn’t really hold back a great conference and, in fact, might have helped it. In addition to the Expo, Steve Jobs kept railing on Flash, the App Store got a little cleaner, and we polled users on their 3G data usage. Read on for the roundup:

USB power outlet, iPhone Universal Remote impress at Macworld: Fastmac isn’t just a third-party battery company anymore. The accessory maker is about to come out with a USB wall outlet solution that we want to put all over our own houses, plus an improvement on its old iPhone battery extender that lets you control anything via a built-in infrared blaster. We checked out both during this year’s Macworld Expo.

Upcoming Outlook for Mac remains shrouded in mystery: Office 2011 will mark the first appearance of Outlook on Mac OS X. Ars spent some time with Microsoft’s Mac BU in an attempt to learn more about Mac Outlook’s feature parity with the Windows version.

Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we deal with some technical issues on our production Mac before turning to questions about Windows key remapping in Boot Camp, sharing files with a LaCie media extender, downloading images in Safari, recovering from a hard drive failure, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you’re using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we’ll assume you’re running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don’t specify), or if it’s an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.

As you may have noticed, Ask TUAW is running a bit late this week. Perhaps somewhat ironically in a troubleshooting column, the reason is that my 24″ iMac decided to go wonky right as I was preparing this week’s column. I’ve decided to make a little lemonade, however, and describe a bit of my troubleshooting strategy. For no apparent reason the spinning pinwheel of death began appearing randomly, which would eventually result in the computer freezing completely and requiring a hard restart (holding the power button). After experiencing this a couple of times (and losing an earlier version of this column) I decided to reboot with my Snow Leopard install DVD to run Disk Utility. I repaired the disk and permissions but it didn’t report any problems and the pinwheel continued to appear after a few minutes. At this point I figured the problem was not with the boot drive, but just to make sure I booted into single-user mode and ran the standard script with the AppleJack troubleshooting utility. Again, no problems were reported, but I continued to experience the freezing. At this point my suspicions turned to my third-party RAM. Of course, I had been running it for the last couple of years without problem, but I shut down the computer and removed one of my two 2GB SODIMMs. That appears to have done the trick and my iMac hasn’t frozen in the last few hours. This is the second Mac I’ve had problems develop with third-party RAM after running for more than a year. So now with half as much RAM we can get on with this week’s questions.

Feeney 22 asks

How would I reassign my control/command key in bootcamp, it’s increasingly hard to switch back and forth.

To do this you’ll need to remap your keys in Windows, using a Windows key remapping utility. There are a variety of Windows key remappers available, and this being a Mac site I don’t really have any concrete recommendations. However, I can point you in the direction of KeyTweak a donations-requested utility that should do what you need.

tyronescott55 asks

Will Apple allow iPhone tethering to the iPad?

Predicting what Apple (and, perhaps more to the point, AT&T) will do is a fool’s game. While a feature like this would be great, I’m not even sure if it makes financial sense. Of course we’re still waiting on AT&T to give us iPhone tethering, and once they do the pricing is likely to be in the range of $60/month. With the iPad’s unlimited service at $30/month it would only take about 4 months to make up the 3G radio surcharge versus the Wi-Fi only version.

Just for information sake, I’d note that it’s already possible to set up Wi-Fi tethering on a jailbroken iPhone with a utility like MyWi or PdaNet. These apps basically turns your jailbroken iPhone into the equivalent of a MiFi portable Wi-Fi hotspot. Presumably your iPad could connect to it like any other Wi-Fi source. Needless to say, this is all unauthorized and probably violates the AT&T contract.

pathumx asks

I’m running SL on a Unibody MacBook and am backing it up to a 1 tb FireWire drive that is partitioned for a time machine back up and a carbon copy clone backup. In the event my MacBook harddrive were to fail, what would be the best way to restore from backup?

The quickest thing you could do to get back running is to boot the MacBook from the FireWire drive (reboot and hold the option key to select the drive). You could then replace the internal drive on the MacBook and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone back to the internal drive. You could also use Time Machine to recover any changes made since the last time you cloned. While it is possible to recover directly from a Time Machine backup while booted from a Snow Leopard install DVD, the clone restore should be quicker.

Shears asks

Hi. I’d like to create an Automator service that would save me some clicking. Basically I’d like to have an extra option in the Safari Context menu that would save the selected image directly to the My Pictures folder.

It turns out that Safari will automatically change the contextual menu to save images to your defined download folder. So if you changed your default downloads folder in the Safari preferences to the Pictures folder, you wouldn’t have to add anything else.

Melissa asks

I bought a LaCie LaCinema PLAY drive to use as a sort of media server. It has wireless N connectivity and outputs HDMI to my TV. I have an Airport Extreme which is on the other side of the room. I’d like to be able to drag files from my computer (a MacBook 2.2Ghz, using 10.6.2) to the drive, but I can’t see it in the Finder. I have another LaCie drive connected via USB to the Airport Extreme which I can see since I guess it can use AirDisk. The PLAY drive can connect to the network via WiFi. I’m confused because if someone brings another laptop into my house, I can see it in the Finder under ’shared’. How come I can’t see the PLAY drive? Does it need to be formatted? I don’t think I can since it has software for the remote and wifi on it.

I had a look at the manual PDF for the LaCie LaCinema PLAY and it indicates that the only sharing option for Mac is via the TwonkyMedia Server (p. 38). In order for the drive to appear in your Finder sidebar it would have to support the AFP or SAMBA file sharing protocols, but as far as I can tell the LaCinema does not. So, unfortunately, you won’t be able to just copy to it from the Finder, but if you install TwonkyMedia Server, you will be able to copy files from the Mac to the LaCinema through its interface.

TUAWAsk TUAW: Key remapping in Boot Camp, iPad tethering, file-sharing with a media extender, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac OS X: If you want to be able to select your “default” browser on a link-by-link basis, directing some links to Firefox, others to Chrome, and so on, Choose Wisely allows you to do so.

After installing Choose Wisely you set the Choose Wisely application as your default web browser in your system preferences, instead of one of your already installed browsers. In Choose Wisely you can specify up to five browsers—here we’ve specified Safari, Chromium, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera—and you’ll be presented with that menu each time you open a link that would normally launch a new instance of your default browser. You won’t be presented with the menu while browsing from within a browser however, the selection process occurs only for the initial link.

Choose Wisely is freeware and requires Mac OS X 10.6. Have a handy OS X application to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Filed under: Software, Video, Internet Tools

Skype 2.8, with hot fixes for Mac OS X 10.6, is available for your downloading pleasure. It’s a micro update of the summertime release of Skype 2.8; the version number is now up to 2.8.0.722. The release date is listed as September 17.

Version 2.8, originally released in July, included features like screen sharing & improved audio codecs that had been around in the Mac beta and the PC version of Skype for awhile. Version 2.8 also included Skype Access, which is a pay as you go public Wi-Fi service based on the Boingo network.

This latest update adds a bunch of fixes for Snow Leopard. Skype has very detailed release notes if you are so inclined.

Skype is a very popular solution for free audio and video chatting and instant messaging. The app also provides many paid services to allow you to call cellular and wired phones anywhere in the world at low rates, and to forward calls to your chosen phone when you are offline.

Skype [iTunes link] also runs on the iPhone, but only works on Wi-Fi. (Thanks AT&T and Apple.)

You can download the update to Skype by using the ‘check for updates’ feature built into Skype, or go to the Skype Mac web page and grab it there. It’s a 44 MB download.

Thanks to Ben for the tip and additional information from Skype Journal

TUAWSkype 2.8 for Mac gets update for Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted 2009-10-01 18:25:37. Republished by Old Post Promoter