A Penguin in the Orchard

Flocking Together on the Web

May 8th, 2008 - 7:30 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: flock, Reviews, sofware

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.

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Macworld | Review: 20- and 24-Inch Aluminum iMacs (2008 Edition)

May 8th, 2008 - 7:29 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: hardware, mac, Reviews

(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.

Posted in Apple | No Comments »

Mail and its hidden headers

May 8th, 2008 - 7:27 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: leopard, mail, osx, software

(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.

Posted in Apple | No Comments »

Even more supposed 3G iPhone shots

May 8th, 2008 - 7:26 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: 3g, iphone

(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.

Posted in Apple | No Comments »

The new rules for buying a Mac

May 8th, 2008 - 7:25 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: mac

(Via Macworld.)

The world has a lot of unwritten rules: In social etiquette. In baseball. And in buying computers. For years, we have unquestioningly followed numerous unwritten rules when buying a Mac. Like many customs, these rules were once based on a foundation of facts and reason. But in the past few years, many longstanding Mac truths have been upended. All Macs run on multiple-core Intel processors now. iMacs are no longer hobbled by crippling feature limitations. And speedy external peripherals have drastically lessened the need for add-on cards.

In other words, the old rules no longer apply. If you’re planning on buying a new Mac, you need facts about the modern lineup—so you can choose the computer that’s right for you.

In this article, we take a look at some common assumptions and explain whether they align with today’s realities.

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AT&T Blocking Out June 15-July 12 for 3G iPhone Launch?

May 7th, 2008 - 9:58 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: 3g, att, iphone

(Via Mac Rumors.)

Last year, AT&T limited employee vacation requests between June 15-July 15 in anticipation of the original iPhone launch which took place on June 29th, 2007.

Today, Boy Genius Report publishes another AT&T memo that is again restricting vacation requests, this time between June 15th and July 12th 2008. The reason for the restriction is “to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch.” AT&T expects “heavier than normal customer traffic” in their stores due to an “exciting Summer Promotional Launch”.

Of course, speculation points to Apple launching their new 3G iPhone during that time. The timeframe is consistent with a previous report that claimed that Apple was targeting “on or around June 27th” to approximately coincide with the one year anniversary of the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, the NYTimes believes that the European launch for the 3G iPhone will be “by the August summer holidays” according to a person close to the situation.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference takes place between June 9-13th in San Francisco, and could serve as the launching ground for the next generation iPhone.

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Flickr Find: Twitter in Mac OS X developer tools

May 7th, 2008 - 9:57 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: flickr, leopard, mac, osx, twitter

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

An avid reader of TUAW, Chris Thomson, sent us a link to a Flickr picture (being the nosy people we are, we clicked the link). What we found surprised us — a Twitter Quartz Composer composition was included as a part of the Mac OS X developer tools for Leopard. “Twitterverse,” when tweaked right, can be used as an OS X screen saver and display all of your friends tweets in a graphical way.

Full story here.

Posted in Apple | No Comments »

Apple releases fifth iPhone SDK beta

May 7th, 2008 - 9:55 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: iphone, sdk, xcode

(Via MacDailyNews.)

Apple has released the fifth beta version of the iPhone SDK which includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool.

During Apple’s Q2 08 conference call on April 23, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that the SDK has already been downloaded 200,000 times and is currently being used in one-third of the Fortune 500 companies to develop applications for the iPhone/iPod touch.

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Apple continues seeding test builds of Mac OS X 10.5.3

May 7th, 2008 - 9:54 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: leopard, osx

(Via Ars Technica.)

Another test build of 10.5.3, 9D27, was released last night to ADC members. This comes just one week after build 9D25, two weeks after build 9D23, and three weeks after build 9D20. The release notes included in the latest build indicate that the 10.5.3 update will include well over 200 fixes and improvements in total when it becomes available. The latest build adds nine additional fixes to the tally, the majority of which are network related.

The first testing build was released to developers in late March and has seen frequent updates since then. This breaks from Apple’s previous record of seeding a build to ADC members early on and then slowly increasing the frequency of test builds as the update nears completion. A weekly cadence like we’ve seen so far usually indicates imminent release. However, while the release notes indicate no known issues, Mac Rumors reports anecdotal evidence of stability issues.

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Steidler.Network addition

May 5th, 2008 - 10:58 am by Tony Steidler-Dennison
Tags: Baseball, Blogs, steidler.network, tumblr

A new site has found it’s way into the steidler.network. Play Ball is a tumblelog about the only game that really matters. It’s a true tumlelog - a river of news, photos, video, and original insight into baseball. It’s hosted with the Tumblr service and, as such, doesn’t (yet) allow for comments. If you visit and would like to comment on what you see, please feel free to contact me by email using the link on the front page.

Update: Given the “river of news” nature of Play Ball (more than 170 entries in the past four days), consuming the site in an RSS reader is well-advised. Subscribe here or from the RSS links on the site.