Filed under: Apple Corporate

What ride, eh? In what may have provided more blog fodder than a golfer hitting a tree, the end may have finally come for the storied life of Pystar's Mac clone business. AppleInsider, Gizmodo and The Loop are reporting U.S. District Judge William Alsup just put the smackdown on Psystar's selling of derivative works of OS X, doing anything to circumvent several things -- all of which wind up putting OS X on your non-Apple hardware. Still no ruling on the Rebel EFI software.

Bottom line: Psystar has until December 31, 2009 to stop selling Mac clones forever. Word is they have already started to comply.

TUAWSo long, Psystar - permanent injunction halts Mac clone biz originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals

'Tis the season shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we'll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won't. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get 'em while they're hot. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Price Drops: SketchBook Mobile, ReelDirector, Wolfram Alpha, more
• iTunes Music Store: [MP3 Downloads] Free at iTunes: Bob Dylan "Must Be Santa", more
• Apple Store: [iMac] 4 refurbished Apple iMac Desktops: 20" for $849 + free shipping, 24" from $1,099
• Apple Store: [MacBook Pro] Refurbished Apple MacBook Pro Laptops from $1,299 + free shipping
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] TomTom U.S.A. for iPhone downloads for $50
• GoDaddy: [Computer Services] GoDaddy.com coupon: New 1-year domain name registration for $1
• US Appliance: [40" - 42" LCD TVs] Sony XBR 240Hz LCD HDTV Bundles: 40" for $1,049, 46" for $1,449 + free shipping
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone downloads for $20
• US Appliance: [50" - 52" LCD TVs] Sony BRAVIA XBR 52" 240Hz 1080p LCD HDTV Bundle for $1,649 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Computer Software] MacUpdate Holiday Bundle: 14 Mac apps for $50
• Bargain Outfitters: [iPod Accessories] Eton Sound 100 AM/FM Clock Radio with iPod Dock for $35 + $8 s&h
• MidnightBox: [iPod Accessories] Griffin Technology BlueTrip Bluetooth Stereo Connection Kit for iPod for $11 + $4 s&h

TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 15, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals

'Tis the season shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we'll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won't. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get 'em while they're hot. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: GravBall, iWore, Cyclic Dial, JingleToe, TanSafe, more
• InvisibleShield: [iPhone] ZAGG.com coupon: 50% off sitewide, no minimum
• Google: [Store Events] Google Holiday Deals: Up to $20 off $120 at select merchants
• OfficeMax: [Office Furniture] Office Chair Roundup: Sofronio Manager Mid-Back Chair for $130 + free shipping, more
• Walmart: [46" - 47" LCD TVs] Sony BRAVIA 46" 120Hz 1080p LCD HDTV w/ Sony PS3 120GB for $958 + $1 s&h
• JR: [Digital Cameras] Panasonic DMC-LX3K 10MP 2.5x Zoom Digital Camera for $399 + free shipping
• Skinit: [Notebook Accessories] Skinit.com coupon: 50% off sitewide
• Walmart: [Electronics] Westport Small Charging Station for $19 + $1 s&h
• Meritline: [iPod Accessories] Crystal Hard Case for Apple iPod Touch 2nd Generation for 39 cents + free shipping
• Staples: [Office Furniture] Z-Line Gemini L-Desk for $50 + free shipping, padding
• Buy.com: [Headphones] Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 200 Stereo Earphones from $20 + free shipping
• Target: [32" LCD TVs] Sylvania 32" 720p Widescreen LCD HDTV for $270 + $20 s&h

TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 14, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

When Apple launched the App Store, there were no in-app purchases, but it quickly became apparent that some mechanism for buying stuff within an app itself would be needed. I remember thinking a store of virtual gifts seemed like a no-brainer, but the in-app purchase block was a show-stopper.

Kisky Netmedia isn't the first company to enable in-app purchases, of course, but Little World Gifts [iTunes Link] is precisely what you'd expect to evolve on the iPhone: a little store of 3D trinkets which you can purchase and share with friends. Little World Gifts (which we covered a few weeks ago) would be relegated to a "gee whiz" factor were it not for the Facebook component. My purchases appear in the Facebook LWG app (as seen in the gallery below) and from there I can share with my friends who also enable the Facebook app. No iPhone required. Uh oh.

The implementation is simple: you see a series of little shelves with little 3D items, and you can buy them. Some are simply 3D objects you can rotate and zoom in a little staging area, while some have associated animations (none that I tested had sound). You will need a network connection to browse this store, as new items may appear periodically. I found the store pretty easy to use, as most in-app purchases tend to be low friction. Viewing an item is a little tricky sometimes, and you have to intuit to double-tap to bring up a "close this view" button, but the models are quite wonderful to behold.

You can send gifts to people via the app or into Facebook, and there's even a tracker to see who has picked up their gift. As I said, this is the practical evolution of virtual gifting on the iPhone, and via Facebook, frankly. I can envision a raft of new, branded stores popping up, too. Perhaps someday your Sims could wear Abercrombie or your virtual villagers in Pocket God could get a dancing Elvis? I'd be happy to ship toxic waste to Farmville.

Currently the gifts on the store are rather limited and have a holiday theme. I'm sure there will be more items to buy as time goes on, but I'd love to see a "real" market a la Second Life, where users could build their own 3D trinkets and sell them on this store. Hey, maybe we could resurrect the 3DMF format? Who threw that virtual tomato?

The Little World Gifts app is free, of course. The gifts normally range from $.99 to $3.99 or more (or less), but for a short time all gifts are only $.99US to celebrate the app's debut.

TUAWSend virtual 3D gifts with Little World Gifts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals

Daily deals are back! Hope you enjoy the latest offerings and deals from around the web. These deals are time-sensitive, so check them out before they disappear. You can check out more deals here.

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Asian Painting for iPhone / iPod touch downloads for free
• Dell Small Business: [Laser Printers] Dell 1230c Color Laser Printer for $99 + free shipping
• MegaMacs: [Design & Multimedia Software] Apple iLife '09 for $39 + $6 s&h
• Meritline: [iPhone] Black Woodgrain Silicone Case for Apple iPhone 3G / 3GS for 49 cents + free shipping
• Seehere: [Photo Services] SeeHere custom 11-oz. photo mug for $6 + free shipping via overnight
• Chitek: [iPhone] ChiTek Slim Fit Case for Apple iPhone 3G or 3GS from $7 + free shipping
• Buy.com: [Surge Protectors] Philips Power Sentry 5-Outlet PowerSquid Surge Protector for $10 + free shipping
• Musician's Friend: [Microphones] MXL 993 Stereo Condenser Microphone 2-Pack for $130 + free shipping
• Verizon Broadband: [Computer Services] Verizon.com: $150 cash back, free DVR, $10 off/month with FiOS bundles
• Adorama: [Bluetooth Headsets] Samsung WEP450 Bluetooth Headset for $0 after rebate + free shipping
• HandHeldItems: [iPod Accessories] HandHeldItems.com: Up to 80% off Apple iPod touch cases + 20% off coupon
• Pennywise : [Rechargeable Batteries] Rayovac AAA I-C3 15-Minute Rechargeable Battery 12-Pack for $11 + 1 cent shipping

These deals are courtesy dealnews.com and are subject to change.

TUAWDaily Dozen Deals for December 11, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iTS, Music

Hard to believe anyone who does the Christmas thing would be lacking in basic music like Silent Night or We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but do you have Sarah McLachlan or Weezer singing your carols? Now's your chance to pick up those classics for the low, low price of nothing on the iTunes store now. Here's the link to the iTunes store and here's a nifty web-based page to peep the list. Go, download, drink some eggnog, warm your toes by the fire and try to have a happy holiday!

Update: yeah, US-only, it seems. Update 2: commenter below says UK also! The rest of you get a virtual lump of coal.

[via Holy Kaw!]

TUAWApple provides a Holiday Sampler for free originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: TUAW Tips

Nobody likes it when their shiny Apple gear breaks. About a week ago I walked in to the Apple Store here in Knoxville to meet with an Apple Genius about my iPhone 3GS. It seems my phone was crashing much more than normal -- I logged around 90 crashes in the five months or so that I had the device. I walked out of that Apple Store within about 30 minutes with a shiny-new iPhone 3GS. How did I do this without yelling? Read on.

TIP: Don't take something to the store upon first crash.
I had "put up" with the crashes for a long time. Patience is a virtue, although waiting until your warranty is up is not good. In this case, I had experienced enough crashes across enough updates to indicate the problem might not be the OS itself. Unless your Mac or iPhone is clearly broken, try searching for your issue on the Apple discussion boards and search the support docs for troubleshooting tips. Some basic troubleshooting tips usually include: rebooting, uninstalling/reinstalling, setting up a Guest user account (on Macs) or restoring your iPhone to factory settings.

TIP: See what conditions cause the issue to occur and document or explain those to the Genius.
In my case I "restored" my iPhone (a clever euphemism Apple uses to hide the true meaning: nuke your device back to factory settings) and tried starting from scratch. My frequent crashes and disconnects from iTunes while syncing indicated a hardware issue if the OS wasn't corrupted. So I had to eliminate the OS as a cause by re-installing it.

The problem was, as a factory-fresh install, the iPhone worked fine. So I started adding only content, not apps. Music and videos starting eating up the gigabytes and, sure enough, things started to go horribly wrong. I was able to reproduce the issue only when the device was filled with more than 2GB of data, it seemed. This indicated it was not the sync cable (I had tried several anyway), but possibly the memory in the unit itself.

TIP: Bring any supporting materials with you (error reports, logs, etc.) and explain each issue in detail.
I had the luxury of using Xcode to peep my iPhone's crash logs. You can find these for your Mac in Applications > Utilities > Console, but they are essentially hidden for users on the iPhone unless you are a developer. My crash logs indicated something very, very wrong: the backup tool that runs each time you sync with iTunes was bombing in a bad way, as though I had ripped out the iPhone in the middle of a sync. That again indicated (to me) that there was a bad block of memory somewhere. When the Mac tried to read or write from that block, the OS just freaked out and crashed.

TIP: Try it twice.
I tried restoring my iPhone twice just to make sure I didn't get another corrupted install. It amazes me how computers screw this up, given that they are supposed to be famous for doing the same thing given the same set of instructions, but "things happen" as they say -- give whatever you're doing two chances to make it right. Three strikes if you are generous and have the time. Personally, it was a huge enough pain losing all my preferences and settings and game data the first two times. I felt I had enough info at this point to march into the store with a Genius Bar appointment....

The Genius at my store was impressed with the level of detail I was able to go into, and as a result he was able to simply confirm my findings and provide me with a new phone. It took longer to charge the device (which had been sitting in a drawer for a while) than it did to diagnose.

Be patient, be aware, come prepared -- do those things and your unfortunate trip to the Genius Bar may not be in vain.

TUAWSome tips when visiting the Genius Bar originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone, App Store

As far as AR (augmented reality) Twitter apps go, Twitter 360 [iTunes Link] looks like the best of the bunch... so far. In what will no doubt become the top term of 2010, this augmented reality app allows you to track your friends via geolocation of their tweets. If you're into that sort of thing (or have an iPhone 3GS, since AR apps use the compass to position their markers). If the thought of strangers tracking you while you tweet creeps you out (and frankly, it should), rest assured that tracking is opt-in in that you can turn off geotagging for your tweets.

As Fast Company points out, a neat feature is setting your "limit" or range of detection for tracking tweets. You can set this to World and see just how far away everyone is from wherever you happen to be standing. So yeah, pretty soon we'll all be tracking each other all over the place. What could go wrong?

Twitter 360 is currently $2.99US and is from Presselite, the folks who snuck in the first AR app without Apple's detection. Thanks for opening the floodgates! Check out the video of the app in action, below.

TUAWTwitter 360 Augmented Reality app for Twitter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals

'Tis the season to start shopping until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few days we'll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won't. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get 'em while they're hot. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: World Surfer, HandWriting Mail, Sign Here, Writie Talkie, more
• Home Depot: [Black Friday] Home Depot Black Friday Preview Savings Sale now live + extra 10% off
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] 1Password Pro for iPhone downloads for free
• MacUpdate Promo: [Office Software Suites] Pages Templates 5 for Mac downloads for $20
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Electronic Arts iPhone / iPod touch Apps: Tetris, SimCity for $3, Madden 10 for $5, more
• [MP3 Downloads] The 99 Most Essential Tchaikovsky Masterpieces MP3 Album download for $5 ... or $2
• InvisibleShield: [Notebook Accessories] 50% off ZAGGskins Protectors at ZAGG.com
• Sony Style: [46" - 47" LCD TVs] Free PS3 or Blu-ray Player w/ Sony HDTVs: 46" 120Hz 1080p for $1,000 + free shipping, more
• Staples: [Media Receivers] Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD 500GB Media Player for $100 + free shipping
• Western Digital Store: [Media Receivers] Refurbished Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for $70 + free shipping
• Meritline: [iPod Accessories] USB Data Cable for iPhone / iPod touch for $2 + free shipping
• Seehere: [Photo Services] FujiFilm SeeHere: 50 free holiday cards + $3 s&h

TUAWA Dozen Daily Deals originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: TUAW Business, TUAW Tips

Job Description

Join an award-winning ex-Apple graphic designer as well as a respected computer vision/graphics researcher, with patents licensed by a number of well-known technology brands, to take a patent-pending technology and build it into a best-of-class Mac application.

We are looking for a talented developer with a passion for building creative solutions in the graphics space.

Candidate will be responsible for overseeing software development, testing and launch. The expectation is for this product to be a game-changer; we're looking for a talented developer who can help make that a reality.

For more info, and to apply, check out the full requirements and contact info on this job's page.

TUAWFeatured job of the week: Mac developer for graphics focused project originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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