Switchblog

Remember that I've uninstalled Front Row? Well, I've decided to reinstall it after I've found some DVD Player files.

DVD Player now works except that the menu bar remains onscreen. The solution is an app called MenuShade which lets you configure shaded, unshaded, and transition settings. I set shaded brightness all the way to the right, fired up DVD Player in Front Row and admired the results.

It's not really a proper fix (you can actually see the shade menu bar cut the upper part of the DVD icon), but as Nullriver says it "dim that menubar, you'll sigh at the difference it makes!"

Grab MenuShade at Nullriver. It's free!

Now how about remote controlling DVD Player? Try Salling Clicker, it now connects your PDA or phone via WiFi and/or Bluetooth.

to bluetooth, dvd, frontrow, menushade, powerbook, wifi, salling

Posted by Joel at 08:04 PM | Permalink

He's chief executive of two of the most powerful technology brands in the world: Apple and Pixar. But what motivates Steve Jobs? And how does he choose a new washing machine? Charles Arthur investigates.

The Independent on Steve Jobs... It's a nice article that I've already copied into my Palm for later re-reading.

to apple, stevejobs

Posted by Joel at 05:38 PM | Permalink

I've been with flickr, moved to shutterbook and will now start a new gallery right here at Switchblog. The gallery's mostly done but still needs a few more photo sets.

The gallery is powered by MovableType. Images are resized and composed through Photoshop CS and iPhoto. Almost all of the pictures were taken by my first digital SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel.

to photo

Posted by Joel at 02:14 PM | Permalink

I've decided to put up a new links feed powered by del.icio.us. The feed is a growing list of Apple-related links that I find interesting and useful. So just scroll down and check the links. What you'll see is the last 10 links I've posted.

'hope you like it..

Posted by Joel at 12:04 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Looking for a great gift idea. Need to have a nagging question answered. You might try flipping through The Uncle Mark Gift Guide and Almanac! It's chock full of great ideas and useful tips!

It's the 2006 version, and it's free too.

to gift

Posted by Joel at 11:30 AM | Permalink

[MAKE: Blog]

You need to disassemble an iBook for this project.

to ibook

Posted by Joel at 11:40 PM | Permalink

Photo batch processing the easy way [TUAW]

to photo

Posted by Joel at 11:20 PM | Permalink

[MAKE: Blog]

Print your own origami paper.

to origami

Posted by Joel at 10:44 PM | Permalink

[MAKE: Blog]

Give WiFi access with your Powerbook, PC card slot and an EVDO card.

Technorati Tags: evdo, powerbook

Posted by Joel at 09:42 PM | Permalink

[Akihabara News]

The Elecom guys are fans of iPOD's it seems, they have just presented 3 pouches for the Nano.

I like the one with the black lanyard.

Technorati Tags: "ipod nano", ipod, nano

Posted by Joel at 08:11 PM | Permalink

The Open Library website was created by the Internet Archive to demonstrate a way that books can be represented online.

Reading through the scanned books is a different experience from reading "normal" ebooks in eReader. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: ebook

Posted by Joel at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Backup 3.0.1 addresses file restoration and other issues and is highly recommended for all users of Backup 3.0. Significant areas addressed are:

• Restoring files to alternate location
• Accuracy of iDisk progress bar when uploading files

For more information about Backup 3, visit the .Mac website.
You may also check Backup 3 support information.

Technorati Tags: backup

Posted by Joel at 11:25 AM | Permalink

Dashboard Starter is not a widget. With Dashboard Starter, you'll always have the Dashboard ready to use the first time you want.

There have been many times when I switch to the Dashboard only to wait for several seconds until the widgets get activated. Dashboard Started solves the problem flawlessly. It's free!

Technorati Tags: dashboard

Posted by Joel at 06:31 AM | Permalink

Apimac Slide Show is a slideshow and presentation tool for multimedia files, movies, sounds and images. It's for Mac and for Windows. It's always nice to see developers creating cross-platform applications.

Posted by Joel at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Disclaimer:

I will not be held responsible for whatever happens to your system if you attempt to do this. This copy of Front Row by itself is illegal so I won't be distributing this. I won't even say where I got it. My main purpose is just to share my experience.

Also, please note that even if you happen to find Front Row, please DO NOT use Switchblog as a place to distribute it.

Summary:

I was able to run Front Row on my 1.33GHz 1GB 17" Powerbook but there are problems.

Technorati Tags: puppy

Process:

Proceed at your own risk. It involves using a hacked copy of Front Row. This copy has been tweaked so that it won't try to look for the remote control. One of the steps involved replacing BezelServices but I did not see the need for it.

Running Front Row will reveal nothing, yet. You have to press ESC for a few seconds before the switch to Front Row occurs.

Once in Front Row, you can control the revolving icons by the left and right arrow keys. Pressing Return, will activate Music, Video, iPhoto, or DVD. Each icon has its associated audio feedback when activated.

Music links to iTunes. An iPod menu-like structure will appear. You can move through the different choices by using the up-down arrow keys and pressing the Return key to activate.

Video lets you play movie trailers, movies, video podcasts, and tv shows.

iPhoto scrolls through your photosets. Choosing a photoset will start a slideshow.

DVD does not work. Pressing the spacebar will run the movie but you can only hear the sound. Once you exit Front Row, you'll see that the movie has in fact been running but "behind" Front Row.

Conclusion:

I now understand why Apple did not make Front Row available. It is not ready for primetime because it needs a fast computer and a fast internet connection. Two examples: the movie trailers option requires a very fast internet connection because it downloads pictures of the movie "posters" from Apple's Quicktime site and of course, the H.264 trailers; also, Desperate Housewives ran full screen and so, it turned out to be blurry (I bought the pilot episode).

Front Row is nice to look at but not worth the problems you'll be experiencing. The DVD option will not work, and sometimes, the menus take a while to respond. I had to force quit several times, so that I can return to the Finder. The Powerbook's fan also kicked in many times.

*Everything* that Front Row does can already be done -- minus the eye candy. No doubt, Front Row will be marketed as a media center but if you know your way around your Mac, you can launch your applications faster than Front Row can.

It's great to know though, that *lots* of great things are in store for us in the future. I can't wait.

In the meantime, it's time to uninstall Front Row!

Options and Suggestions:

Centerstage - did you know there's already a media center project? Check it out. Maybe you can help out.

Romeo (free), Salling Clicker (shareware) - remote control your Mac with your SE/Nokia phones or Palms via Bluetooth

Posted by Joel at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Stanford on iTunes provides university-related audio content via the iTunes Music Store, Apple’s popular music jukebox and online music store. Stanford on iTunes gives alumni and the general public free access to a wide range of Stanford-specific digital audio content.

A great idea coming from Stanford, this method is actually the most convenient way to distribute and organize content. I wish other schools would also consider, if not implementing, this idea.

Technorati Tags: itunes

Posted by Joel at 06:50 AM | Permalink

I was testing Flock when I experienced this. I was able to setup a WordPress account, however whenever I clicked the Site Admin link within Wordpress, I get redirected to ringoo.org, a chinese site.

I don't think I have spyware since I'm doing all this in Tiger. Still, I've reported the bug to the Flock folks. Until I hear from them, I won't be using Flock at all.

UPDATE: In less than 10 minutes, the redirect has been squashed. Impressive.

Technorati Tags: flock, wordpress

Posted by Joel at 03:04 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Flock is a new collaborative browser built on top of open source Firefox code. It integrates with del.icio.us, with blogging, with RSS management and with Flickr. It's also very pretty.

I spent several hours yesterday exploring the new Flock beta release and mostly crashing it. Fortunately, Paul Stamatiou had more luck.

He has an extensive review of the browser, complete with tons of screen shots.

Flock: Under those Feathers [Paul Stamatiou]

I would have wanted to write a review but Paul Stamatiou is the best review yet. Nice job!

Now go check out Flock.

Technorati Tags: flock

Posted by Joel at 01:37 PM | Permalink

...just a list of what I think the new Mac mini would offer:

• Intel processor
• comes in white and in black
• iMac G5 - iPod nano/video case design
• Front Row with remote
• Airport Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
• Double-layer SuperDrive
• S-Video/composite video port
• 100 GB hard drive
• 1GB RAM
• Nvidia/ATI card with 128MB
• starting at $599

It's basically going to be marketed as a media center and would come with a variety of options. Imagine buying videos from iTunes and seeing them on your TV after the download! (iTunes could very well be redesigned to have a Front Row-like interface).

Technorati Tags: tag

Posted by Joel at 12:21 PM | Permalink

[TUAW]

• This thing's awesome. Seriously. ...
• Did I mention this thing is awesome?

I've pre-ordered mine together with my nano and it's good to know that it's shipping already. Mine should arrive within two weeks.

Technorati Tags: "ipod nano"

Posted by Joel at 09:32 AM | Permalink

We started Flock to build tools that empower people and smooth out some of the more hairy parts of living and working online. As it is, we live and breathe this stuff everyday and wanted better tools to do the things that we love doing online.

Flock

Blogging, flickr, del-ic-ious support... these are just some of the features of the new browser, Flock. I'm an Opera and Camino fan but I was suprised that I actually like what I see in Flock.

Flock is available for Linux, Mac OS X , and Windows. Try it out.

Technorati Tags: flock

Posted by Joel at 09:00 AM | Permalink

[TUAW]

Do you love your little nano so much that you imagine it to be a little spaceman in need of a rocket-powered backpack? If so, and you happen to be looking for a nice FM transmitter for your nano, you'll probably be overjoyed to hear that Griffin has just announced the new iTrip nano.

It's an impressive design. I wouldn't have thought the nano can be made to look and function like this.

Technorati Tags: "ipod nano"

Posted by Joel at 09:31 PM | Permalink

With iTunes 6.0.1, you can preview, buy, and download over 2,000 videos on the iTunes Music Store and sync your music and purchased videos with iPod to enjoy on the go. To watch purchased videos, you must have Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

iTunes 6.0.1 features several stability improvements over iTunes 6.

After purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store with iTunes 6 or later, you will also need to upgrade your other computers that purchase music from the iTunes Music Store to iTunes 6.0.1.

I haven't even encountered any instability. Nonetheless, it doesn't hurt to Software Update.

Technorati Tags: itunes

Posted by Joel at 05:52 PM | Permalink

We are still at an early stage in the development of Opera 9 (code-name Merlin), however, we are very excited about the next version of Opera and are releasing this Preview to the Community to give you a taste of the new technologies and improved standards support we have been working on lately.

It's the best Opera for Mac version so far!

Remember: This is a preview version of Opera. Use only on properly backed up computers and do not install over previous Opera versions.

Go get it.

Technorati Tags: opera

Posted by Joel at 06:57 AM | Permalink

[TUAW]

Good news for people who own a PSP and have been considering buying a new iPod: there's no need to fight between the two. The new iPod plays files converted into MPEG4 compatible with the PSP without any problems.

But what if you don't have a PSP or an iPod video to begin with? Which would you buy first? Or would you buy both?

Technorati Tags: ipod, psp

Posted by Joel at 10:31 AM | Permalink

Apple has updated it's Powerbook and PowerMac lines. A new photo editing application called Apperture was also unveiled.

As tempting as it is to update my Powerbook, I think I'll wait it out and see what the first Mac-Intel products have to offer.

Technorati Tags: apple, powerbook

Posted by Joel at 09:17 AM | Permalink

hackaday has details about converting TV shows for the iPod. It involves torrent files so it might not be for everyone.

Technorati Tags: ipod

Posted by Joel at 09:16 AM | Permalink

Datel presents a 4GB add-on for the PSP... but is it worth it at $199? Check Lik-Sang for the review (and the lively comments).

Technorati Tags: psp

Posted by Joel at 09:07 AM | Permalink

[TUAW]

Overall, this is a great iPod. Get one. Get one now. I'm actually revising my last month's proclamation of the iPod nano as the best iPod ever. The 5th generation is the best iPod ever now. I'm selling my 4G and my nano. I'll have another more detailed review after I've run this thing through the full gamut this week.

'nuff said.

Technorati Tags: ipod

Posted by Joel at 12:38 PM | Permalink

The iTMS is offering the following:

...two pre-order versions of the new Madonna album Confessions On a Dance Floor: a single-track continuous dance mix, and a traditional album divided into twelve tracks. And, for the first time on iTunes, you'll instantly get the radio edit of the single "Hung Up" when you pre-order either one. You'll also receive the music video for "Hung Up" and a digital booklet when the albums are released November 15th.

Nice package. I think this is the first time an artist is offering a continuous dance mix of an album. I'll probably order the dance mix and get a "normal" CD later on.

Technorati Tags: itunes

Posted by Joel at 07:00 AM | Permalink |

[Daring Fireball]

Jim Coudal has screenshots and a link to a couple-of-years-old 30-second spot from Psyop that bears a strong resemblance, especially color-wise, to Apple’s new Eminem iPod spot. #

Yep. They look uncannily similar. However, you wouldn't catch me using Lugz.

Psyop's works are fantastic though, and they would look great running in an iPod video.

Technorati Tags: ipod

Posted by Joel at 06:53 AM | Permalink

Two articles caught my attention this weekend (thanks to Daring Fireball and TUAW).

How Bob Iger Saved Network TV

and

320px Video Isn't Too Small

After reading these articles, I'm now fully supporting iTunes videos. Now which to get first? The full season of Desperate Housewives or Lost?

Technorati Tags: itunes

Posted by Joel at 08:11 PM | Permalink |

The cover reads "The man who always seems to know what's next." Go grab a copy.

Technorati Tags: apple

Posted by Joel at 04:04 PM | Permalink

With Avvenu, you can always have access to your files from any Internet-connected computer, PDA, or mobile phone.

Just remember that Avvenu needs to run on a PC (Mac support coming soon). Once Avvenu's installed, the PC's shared contents can then be accessed. We've tested it with a Palm LifeDrive, Sony Clie TH55, Sony PSP (all via WiFi) and with a Powerbook via Opera and Camino. (The Treo 650 must have an existing mobile service to allow it to use Blazer). All these devices can view what our PC was configured to share!

Signing up gives you a 10 year membership. Technically, it's free!

Posted by Joel at 08:19 PM | Permalink

[Daring Fireball Linked List]

Nifty new Photoshop action from the guys at Twinsparc to give you the reflected “shiny floor” treatment.
#

...resulting into a new site logo!

Posted by Joel at 07:25 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Google's "define" operator allows you to look up the meanings of words and phrases without having to jump to an online dictionary. Just enter define followed by a colon followed by a word or phrase. For example, define:giggle or define:"hat trick".

This becomes more useful in Opera where I can just type "g define:giggle" in the address bar to get the same results. Nice one Google!

By the way, I have a search string saved in Camino so that I can search for the definition of a word from Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=%s&x=0&y=0

In Bookmarks>Show Bookmarks, I then set "mw" as the keyword for that search string... so when I type "mw <word>", I get the definition of the word.

Posted by Joel at 06:22 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Remember The Milk is a free on-line to-do list management service. It has all the features you'd expect from this sort of site: multiple lists, priorities, due-dates, repeating tasks, etc. Then it adds the cool stuff.

My favorite feature is the built-in nagging system that reminds you to get the job done. You can request reminders by E-Mail, IM or SMS. In addition, you can share and publish your to-do lists and create new tasks by e-mail. And there's also Atom support. Nifty!

Remember the Milk

...for the times when iCal, iSync, and your Palm device refuse to work well together (or when you just want to try out other cool ways to get the job done.)

Posted by Joel at 05:27 PM | Permalink

Wow. Our site, 1src.com, was nominated for four categories in PalmAddict's 2005 Reader Award. The categories are Best Palm/PDA news site, Best Palm Podcast, Best Palm Forum Resource, and Favorite PDA Portal Site.

Thanks to PalmAddict for the nominations. It's an honor.

Technorati Tags: palm

Posted by Joel at 04:07 PM | Permalink

If you're a b2evoution user, you'll notice the constant stream of spam lately. Don't forget to report every spam comment you receive. Go to the b2evolution admin area and click Antispam. Do a search, delete, and stop spam dead on their tracks.

Technorati Tags: b2evolution, spam

Posted by Joel at 11:07 PM | Permalink

Since our Gmail storage changes every second, why not use this value for timestamping? For example, I can see when the screenshot above was made -- it was made on 2654 GST (Gmail Storage Time). If you want the exact "time," it can be seen in Gmail's login screen.

Technorati Tags: gmail

Posted by Joel at 11:05 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Self-explanatory. Simple. Cheap. (and how did I miss this?!)

Technorati Tags: "ipod nano"

Posted by Joel at 10:08 PM | Permalink

[TUAW]

gDisk is an application that allows you to transfer files to and from your Gmail account FTP-style. Login, create a "directory" and upload your file. The next time you log in to your Gmail account, you'll see that a new label has been created bearing the name of the "directory" you created, and that the file you uploaded is in your "Drafts" folder.

I'm glad to see this application for the Mac because PC users have had something like this for months. It's now convenient to drag-and-drop files to and from Gmail.

This gDisk method can be replicated locally in Gmail. Just compose new mail, attach the file/s you want to store and label it with the new gDisk labels.

Of course with gDisk, your Drafts folder will now be a counter for your saved files. I think that some people will be annoyed by this new Drafts folder function. I've also noticed that gDisk saves files and labels the subject with a prefix "FSV_0X" -- I don't know why this is so because they don't show in gDisk.

Still, gDisk is still the fastest way to up/download files. Try it out!

Posted by Joel at 09:44 PM | Permalink

Over the past few days, I tried two new web-based email services: 30gigs.com and mailnation.net. 30gigs features 30 GB of email space. Mailnation, on the other hand, offers 1 TB of space (that's 1,000 GB). I tried these two out of curiosity and out of wonder at how they can offer that amount of space.
Problems crept in almost immediately. At 30gigs.com, access became slow after a few days. At one point, I could not even log in. A few minutes later, I was able to log in but then the screen had all sorts of Fatal Error messages.

My mailnation experience was more interesting. I couldn't login the first few times. At first I thought it was Camino (Opera won't even load mailnation), so I switched to Safari -- still no luck. I switched back to Camino and was able to login. I admired the clean look (it's powered by a Merak Email Server) but then I saw a "forgotten password" email (along with other email -- more on that later) in my Inbox. Apparently, my new email address is either a recycled one -- or I have successfully hijacked another account. There were no personal email but the ones from the system admins were an interesting read. There was an email about a growth from 0 to 500,000 users then a later one now saying that the growth was actually 0 to 100,000. The deal-breaker for me is the way mailnation keeps accounts active -- that mailnation users have to click on a real estate site link that to complete their registration. I rolled my eyes in disappointment as I lost all interest.

Now, I might have misunderstood how 30gigs and Mailnation operate but the point is, to proceed with caution. Take a look at your email needs and stick with the tried and tested (and therefore stable) web-based email. I suggest going with Yahoo!Mail, Gmail, and .mac. .mac after all offers the cleanest interface -- but it only comes with a yearly paid subscription.

Technorati Tags: .mac, 30gigs, gmail, mailnation, yahoo

Posted by Joel at 01:51 PM | Permalink |

[Daring Fireball Linked List]

Mark Pilgrim shows us how to rip DVD movies for your new iPod video (or for your other movie player gadgets as well).

Technorati Tags: dvd, ipod, lifedrive, psp, handbrake

Posted by Joel at 06:14 PM | Permalink

Desperate Housewives, Lost, Nightstalker, That's So Raven, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody are available at the iTMS. After new episodes are aired on TV, they are going to be available the NEXT DAY.

That's good news for us here in Guam where we get episodes a week late. Not so good news for the cable company.

Technorati Tags: itunes

Posted by Joel at 01:32 PM | Permalink

[actual size]

So I've downloaded the Desperate Housewives Pilot. It took me about 30 minutes but had encountered some problems after that.

The movie won't play at all. It won't even show in iTunes' small preview window. I know my copy of Quicktime is updated but I downloaded it again anyway. After the restart (!), everything went smoothly. Of course, I would have wanted the video to be of a much higher resolution for full screen viewing -- but at the current resolution, it should be crystal clear when played in the iPod video's much smaller screen. (I don't have the Pro version but will going with the full version make a difference?) As expected, the audio is of good quality.

There are still problems with iTunes (primarily the lack of video previews) but expect these to be ironed out in the days to come.

Technorati Tags: itunes, quicktime

Posted by Joel at 08:14 AM | Permalink

I woke up at 2AM just so my eyes would be completely adjusted by the time the Apple announcements of their new products begin to roll in at 3AM.

iLounge was the first on the scene. Showing pictures of the new iPod posters, iLounge became my "home" page... but not for long. iLounge became sluggish after a few minutes and later on, they put up a note saying there's no reliable cellular connection. At this time, I discovered Engadget has been updating like crazy.

I fired up Opera so that I can have the Engadget site update every 30 seconds. Sure the Engadget site failed a few times but iLounge failed almost every time. iLounge was able to update but not as feverish as Engadget.

Here's a brief rundown of the new products:

• iMac featuring Front Row remote
• iPod video
• iTunes 6.0
• (if I missed anything it's only because it did not stand out)

Basically, it's just a normal Apple announcement. All the hype generated over the past few days was free market research for Apple -- it's not done in a controlled manner but Apple got more than a feel for what the technophiles want right now.

I'm sitting here without much info about the new products because most of the world is probably at apple.com now. However, I was able to download iTunes 6.0 and I'm now downloading the Desperate Housewives Pilot episode.

I woke up too early but I can't do anything about it right now... except perhaps to grind and brew myself some coffee and begin to try to keep awake.

And to those sites who wish to go "live" next time, please make sure you're prepared for what you're getting yourself into!

Technorati Tags: apple, imac, ipod, itunes, engadget, ilounge

Posted by Joel at 07:13 AM | Permalink |

[Camino Contributors’ Blogs]

Today I released a free and small 32px icon pack for those developers that would want to have icons of every iPod released. It's the first small icon pack in what should become a series. Most of them will be pay-ware but some will stay free like this first one.

Technorati Tags: ipod, icons

Posted by Joel at 04:16 AM | Permalink

[MAKE]

Here's a cool project to do with a (regular size) iPod box.

I'd like to do this with the box I have. The main improvement I can think of is using circular cardboard cutouts for rivets and adding more rust effect.

Technorati Tags: make

Posted by Joel at 11:54 AM | Permalink

[TUAW]

For those of you who play the numbers, here's where things stand. Apple reported revenues o