Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Apple

As a guy who still kind of winces at the iPhone’s touch surface sometimes (especially when playing games — you don’t realize how nice buttons are until you see a character die because your thumb’s in the way), this is extremely interesting news: Apple’s rumored tablet, which we’ve been hearing a lot about lately, may include a dynamic, tactile surface.

This one’s on a little shakier ground than the other rumors that we’ve heard before, but it makes sense. After that anonymous exec told the NYT that the interface on the new tablet would be “surprising,” AppleInsider pulled out an old patent from a few years ago that talks about a surface that changes its shape and feel based on how it’s being used. For viewing pictures with the multitouch, it stays smooth, but the second a keyboard or button pops up, it can push out dots or shapes and become slightly tactile.

Sounds like it’d be tough to get right (you’d have to figure out when users expect a tactile surface and when they don’t, among other interesting UI questions), but of course if anyone can pull it off, it’ll probably be Apple. Note that this isn’t the only futuristic idea Apple has had for larger multitouch surfaces, and there are lots of different options for interfaces that we’d find “surprising.” But the fact remains that though touchscreen devices are extremely popular, users want a little more feel and a little less look. It’d be great to see Apple pull this off, if they are planning on showing off a larger touchscreen next month.

TUAWRumored tablet could include dynamic tactile surface originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, App Review

Be sure to check out our iPhone game review roundup via Joystiq.

Ask any designer what their favorite font is and you’ll get one of several thousand possible answers. Fonts aren’t merely pretty characters on a display; they are an art form. Each font family conveys a particular aesthetic meaning that can make or break any design, if used properly or improperly. In fact, I’ve long suspected the ancient Egyptian civilization was brought down by the creation of Papyrus. The recent appearance of the faux-ancient typeface in the film Avatar as subtitles will surely doom us all — especially if viewed in 3D.

The folks at ILT share our font fixation, and they’ve developed a highly addictive text teaser iPhone game that puts your font knowledge to the test. The Font Game [$0.99, iTunes link] challenges you to identify a series of fonts presented onscreen; you then select one of four possible answers.Be sure to check out our iPhone game review roundup via Joystiq.

Ask any designer what their favorite font is and you’ll get one of several thousand possible answers. Fonts aren’t merely pretty characters on a display; they are an art form. Each font family conveys a particular aesthetic meaning that can make or break any design, if used properly or improperly. In fact, I’ve long suspected the ancient Egyptian civilization was brought down by the creation of Papyrus. The recent appearance of the faux-ancient typeface in the film Avatar as subtitles will surely doom us all — especially if viewed in 3D.

The folks at ILT share our font fixation, and they’ve developed a highly addictive text teaser iPhone game that puts your font knowledge to the test. The Font Game [$0.99, iTunes link] challenges you to identify a series of fonts presented onscreen; you then select one of four possible answers.

TUAWThe Font Game for iPhone is fontastic fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ursula K. Le Guin is a very famous author who many people insist is one of the best — though, I have to admit never having read her stuff. Yet, she is one of those who is rather aggressive in policing the copyrights on her work, and who does not tend to side with those who believe in concepts like “fair use.” Most certainly, she is not a fan of open culture. A few years ago, she got into a bit of a scrap with Cory Doctorow, because he dared to publish a single paragraph of hers in a blogpost as part of a larger (positive!) commentary.

Her latest scrap with the world of copyright is to publicly resign from the Authors Guild. I’m no fan of the Authors Guild myself, and find that it tends to take a rather antiquated view on things — from its absolutely ridiculous claim that a Kindle with text-to-speech software infringes on authors’ copyrights, to its equally backwards take on Google’s book scanning project, which helped index books and make them more findable which many authors have found helps increase sales.

While I am not a fan of the (still ongoing) settlement efforts between Google and the Authors Guild, it is this settlement that has upset Le Guin so much. In her resignation letter, she claims refers to Google as “the devil,” and claims that the Guild has abandoned “the whole concept of copyright.” Of course, nothing is further from the truth, as the Authors Guild notes in its reply (found via Michael Scott). As the Authors Guild points out, Google had a more than decent chance of winning the lawsuit because of something called fair use, which Le Guin still doesn’t appear to recognize as a key part of copyright law. In her own introduction to copyright law, fair use makes no appearance whatsoever.

It really is a shame. Many people tell me that Le Guin is a fantastic writer, but I have no desire to read works by someone who is afraid I might like it so much I might share that joy with someone else. I also have no interest in reading works by a science fiction author who seems to hate technology to the point of calling a tool like Google “the devil.”

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Qualcomm’s COO Len Lauer has resigned in favor of accepting a new position as CEO at an unnamed company, which is expected to be announced in the new year. Release.

In a document filed with the SEC, Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) said Lauer quit on Dec. 18, and that his resignation will be official Dec. 31. Lauer was promoted to the position of COO after Sanjay Jha left to become Motorola’s co-CEO and CEO of Motorola’s device’s division. Prior to Qualcomm, Lauer was Sprint’s COO. Lauer left Sprint (NYSE: S) a year after it merged with Nextel. Qualcomm said most of Lauer’s responsibilities have been reassigned to President Steven Altman.

Related

• Industry Moves: Len Lauer Replaces Sanjay Jha As Qualcomm’s COO

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If Santa were in charge, we all would have coal

Editor, The Times:

As a physician, I recognize the great importance of health care to people — my career has been devoted to providing the best possible care at the lowest possible price. But even though health-care reform is badly needed, it is not an emergency requiring overnight, radical changes that threaten to do more harm than good [“Now’s not the time for health-care reform,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 23].

Thus, I commend The Seattle Times editorial board for dropping support of the health-care-reform bills currently being rammed through Congress [“Put health care aside and fix the economy,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 20].

At the moment, the real national emergency is the economy, and I agree with the editorial that Congress needs to focus on the economy and set health care aside.

Congress should focus on revitalizing the economy and creating jobs, by controlling its insatiable urge to spend our hard-earned money, lowering tax rates, and paying off a national debt that is ruining our credit even with Santa Claus.

Once we are on stable financial footing, Congress will be better positioned to revisit health-care reform. Its first priority then should be to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, rather than restructuring the entire system.

If Congress passes this ill-conceived, massively expensive health-care bill, it will become the Grinch who stole Christmas.

— Arthur Coday, MD, Shoreline

Sen. Patty Murray must have added wrong

The editorial on Dec. 23 is right on — now is not the time for health-care reform. Certainly not reform that will add trillions to the deficit in these hard times of double-digit unemployment.

The editorial points out that much of the supposed payment for the Senate bill will come from cuts in the Medicare program.

In Sen. Patty Murray’s guest commentary “Delay won’t cure nation’s troubled health-care system” [Opinion, Dec. 23] responding to an earlier editorial “Put health care aside and fix the economy,” she stated that “Medicare will go bankrupt by 2017.”

Did she read the bill before voting? If she read the bill, she didn’t do the math. How can a program be funded from a source going bankrupt?

Murray cited the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that the deficit will be reduced by $132 billion, but she does not mention that CBO is instructed to assume that the funding from cuts in Medicare will be real, not imaginary.

Both the House and Senate bills will drive up the cost of health care and, at 2,000 plus pages, become an expensive bureaucratic morass too complicated to administer.

— Edward Wittmann, Seattle

Senator right on; Seattle Times dead wrong

Sen. Patty Murray is right in her call to action on health-care reform. The Seattle Times editorial board’s call for delay is dead wrong.

More delay — more American deaths.

The current health-care system rates an F. The Senate version of health-care reform rates a C+. Murray understands that a C+ is better than an F. It is easier to move from a C+ to a B or an A, than from an F to a B or an A.

Action, not delay, on health care will begin solving one of the many problems facing our country. Congress can then take action to solve the other problems facing our country.

— Tom Megow, Renton

Sure, it’s not a perfect bill, but

I couldn’t disagree with The Seattle Times more on the editorial “Now’s not the time for health-care reform.”

If not now, when?

Sure, it’s not a perfect bill, but when have we ever had a perfect law? If the Founding Fathers had waited for perfection, we would have never become a nation in the first place. Surely, the compromise over slavery was unconscionable, but without it the U.S. would not exist.

Health-care reform is long overdue. We don’t need more delays and more people dying or going bankrupt needlessly. We are stuck with the current political sausage machine for now.

The Democrats have done the best they can do at this point with nothing but roadblocks from Republicans. We have to strive for a more perfect union, not sit around and wait for perfection.

There’s a recession going on after all.

— Paul S. McDevitt, Seattle

Political fender bender

The U.S. Senate faces the choice between a train wreck and a fender bender.

Train wreck: If this bill passes, the American medical economy will be emasculated, the general economy will suffer, our descendants will be saddled with another out-of-control entitlement program cost, and Democrats will lose Congress in 2010.

Fender bender: If this bill fails, President Obama will lose a little political capital.

The choice hinges on one vote.

This may indeed be history, but it is also an example of corrupted partisan power of the highest degree.

— Jeffrey S. Howard, Redmond

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Crossover, Hatchback, BMW

BMW is rounding out its Detroit Auto Show premier lineup with the North American debut of the 535i Gran Turismo. The 550i GT that’s powered by the 4.4-liter twin turbo V8 is already on sale in the U.S., but we won’t get our shot at the six cylinder model until the spring of 2010. Like the recently-announced 5 Series sedan, the Gran Turismo is getting a new version of the 3.0-liter inline six cylinder turbo.

The current 535i and 335i both use a version of the six with two turbochargers. The version in the GT produces the same 300 hp and 300 pound-feet of torque with a single twin-scroll turbocharger. The engine also incorporates BMW’s Valvetronic valve control system to reduce fuel consumption by eliminating the throttle and reducing pumping losses. The six will be mated up with the same new ZF eight-speed automatic used in the 550i and the ActiveHybrid 7. Want more details? Click past the break for the press release.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading Detroit Preview: BMW 535i Gran Turismo also gets a six pack

Detroit Preview: BMW 535i Gran Turismo also gets a six pack originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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System is only as good as we make it

Predictably, The Times is calling for more gun-control laws as a knee-jerk response to the shooting of two Pierce County deputies on a domestic violence call-out [“Good enough for guns, not wheels,” NWWednesday, Danny Westneat column, Dec. 23].

If the family members David E. Crable had previously assaulted — or the prosecuting attorney —had charged the cop-shooter with the highest possible charges for his earlier crimes, he would have been barred from possessing firearms and those he already had would have been taken away.

The system is there to prevent such incidents, if it’s allowed to work.

— Joe Waldron, Pensacola, Fla.

Banning all handguns nationwide

Perhaps now is a good time to revisit our outdated gun-control laws, or more accurately, lack thereof.

The problem is handguns.

Anyone can own one, they are easy to conceal, they serve no useful purpose in a modern society other than to shoot people, and they are deadly.

It should be illegal to own, buy, sell, import, export or manufacture handguns, with the obvious exceptions of the military and law enforcement. The government should pay fair market value for all handguns, no questions asked, and melt them down to scrap, with serious penalties for holdouts.

In a generation or two, handguns would be gone or very rare. Private citizens not convicted of a felony or violent crime could legally own shotguns and rifles, thus honoring the intent of the Bill of Rights.

I think Canada got this one right, and the gun-death statistics back me up.

Over time, death by gunfire would be greatly reduced, and it would be a whole lot harder for a mentally-ill person to walk into a coffee shop and kill four police officers.

— Scott Davis, Bellingham

Enjoying an overly politically correct Christmas

Irv Sutley’s maneuvering to get stars removed from Christmas trees has gone too far [“Star that resident found offensive is removed,” News, Dec. 23].

Not only has he diminished Christmas for San Francisco residents by forcing them to consult with attorneys, Sutley has incurred California taxpayers an expense they cannot afford with their already insurmountable economic problems.

How long will it be until we all start receiving notices to remove Christmas ornaments from our windows because they are visible from public streets? How long will it be until these anti-Christmas and anti-Christian meddlers succeed in banning Christmas altogether?

It’s just a matter of their finding the right legal interpretation of the already misunderstood First Amendment to the Constitution.

This is the first time I have become disturbed enough over this issue to feel the need to push back. I haven’t decided yet what action is necessary or appropriate, but I will be giving the matter some thought.

— Scott Wall, Vashon

Hollywood films destroying U.S.? No, hypocrisy is

Thanks to Mark Miloscia for his astute analysis of the current U.S. predicament [“A brand of self-interest that is unsustainable,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 21].

I was under the impression that our problems stemmed largely from Reagan and Clinton-era deregulation, corporate-owned politicians, and a growing plutocracy due to an increasingly regressive tax system.

Who knew that it was actually due to not enough people being married and all of us watching too many Hollywood films.

Now, what a curious thing it is that Miloscia, who clearly recognizes the value of wedded couples, voted against the everything-but-marriage act, and is opposed to gay marriage.

When you sanctimoniously pontificate on how we, the people, are failing, and then you make that kind of hypocritical contradiction, you have lost the argument.

He then closes his missive with the phrase “With God’s help, we’ll do better!”

I have a different suggestion: With reasoned judgment, progressive public policy, and an active, educated voter base, we’ll do better.

— Coulter Leslie, Seattle

Stormwater sample resembles dark drip coffee

Randy Shuman’s quote, “Oil’s effect is much more toxic, by orders of magnitude” in the article “Big sewage spill, lesser impact” [NWSunday, Dec. 20] helps capture the bigger water-quality problem — stormwater pollution.

Millions of gallons of petroleum wash into our lakes, rivers and Puget Sound when it rains, releasing toxic substances that threaten our health and environment.

Just last week, during the first rains after a weeklong dry spell, I collected stormwater from an Alaskan Way Viaduct downspout. It was equivalent to drip coffee in color, containing grit and suspended particles.

Petroleum perhaps? Most likely, since petroleum products account for about half of all stormwater pollution.

City and county governments are required to complete stormwater projects, but don’t have the funds to complete them. That means higher property taxes, utility rates, and fees on developers.

— Rein Attemann, Seattle

Biking his way into the new year

As an avid bicyclist, I enjoyed reading “Making America’s largest cities safer for bike riders” [Seattletimes.com, Editorials / Opinion, Neal Peirce syndicated column, Dec. 20] and agree that we really need to improve our roads to properly and safely accommodate bikes.

In Europe and elsewhere, bicycle riding is ubiquitous and a stress-free method for cheap transportation that can dramatically reduce our demand for imported oil, greenhouse-gas emissions, noise and accidents — especially in the congested areas of our cities.

Bicycling also improves the general health of our population.

However, unlike in Europe, many members of the driving public are not respectful of or careful around bicyclists — and sometimes vice versa. Penalties need to be stiffened, and the laws enhanced to ensure better safety and mutual consideration as bicyclists and motorists share the roads.

We do need to construct wider bike lanes with a better margin of safety, and perhaps build more biking and walking trails to separate pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists altogether whenever possible.

All in all, this is an investment that will benefit our society greatly.

— Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nev.

»  It’s a bit more realistic that Sprint could be announcing a WiMax phone made by LG (SEO: 066570), running Windows Mobile, at CES this year, given that one was on display last year. [JkOnTheRun.]

»  GetJar, an independent mobile app store, said 10 of the top 20 downloads in November had to do with social networking or messaging. CEO Ilja Laurs said the company’s average consumer launches social network apps eight times a day and spends five to ten minutes each time. “So already today, Facebook apps have a greater mindshare than the Facebook website.” [VentureBeat.]

»  CEA and CTIA say they know how they can re-purpose broadcast spectrum for wireless services, but it’s complicated and messy. [broadcastingcable.com.]

»  No can get enough of those Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) tablet rumors—especially investors, who shot the company’s stock price to a new intraday high of $209.35 on Friday, three and half weeks after it was pulled down below $190. [Fortune] By early afternoon on Thursday, Apple’s stock was back down to $208.92, a 3.36 percent rise for the day.

»  With two BlackBerry outages in one week, the question is: Is RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) straining under the weight of more customers? [WSJ.]

There is some debate over just how commercially and critically successful Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain will be in the marketplace. The game seeks to emulate real life, sometimes to a fault, but the characters and interactions are some of the best we’ve seen in gaming. Now, with the recent holiday Steam sale, you can enjoy the company’s previous game, Indigo Prophecy, for only $3.40.

The game features a wonderful story, even with a final act that gets… weird, and you get to see just how well Quantic Dream can draw you into the life of normal people in extraordinary circumstances. You can read our review of the Xbox version of the game for an idea of what to expect. Many of these gameplay mechanics are being sharpened and updated for Heavy Rain, so in order to look forward, this is a good time to look backward.

One bit of contention involves the American version of the game. Originally called Farenheit in other territories, the game featured an interactive sex scene and a few other bits of content removed in the US to avoid an Adults Only rating. That rating would have kept the game out of stores, and it never would have been approved for consoles. Luckily, restoring the content is a simple process on the PC: simply dig into the game’s files, find Indigo_Prophecy.ini, and change USMode=1 to USMode=0.

It’s just that simple—you now have the international version of the game, with all the content, and one of the best adventure experiences of the past decade. Enjoy!

What is a “Brief” post?”

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The flood of Apple tablet rumors isn’t abating, especially now that the device is expected to be unveiled as soon as a month from now. Now, a source from inside Apple suggests that Steve Jobs himself may be as excited as anyone to see Apple finally unveil the long-rumored device.

It came out last summer that Jobs was intimately involved with every detail of bringing the tablet to market. It seems that the device has finally gotten Jobs’s seal of approval: when asked if the tablet rumors were true, a senior Apple executive gave The New York Times a rather coy reply. “I can’t really say anything,” he said, “but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

Such a statement is pretty uncharacteristic of Apple executives (even anonymous ones), but the tablet is arguably past the point of outright denial. One Apple employee who recently left the company also told the Times that the interface won’t be anything expected. “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet,” the former employee said.

Another former Apple employee named on a number of Apple’s multitouch patents, Joshua A. Strickon, told the Times earlier this year that Apple has been working on a tablet for several years. A PowerPC-based prototype existed as early as 2003, though those early attempts were underpowered and overpriced. However, the concepts and technology developed for those prototypes ended up in several Apple products. The iPhone, Strickon said, is essentially a mini version of some of the early prototypes.

If Apple’s top talent put six years or more into development, and it meets Steve Jobs’s legendary high expectations, we’re sure Apple’s tablet will be yet another game-changer in a long line of game-changing devices.

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It’s almost the night before Christmas, which means that many of you are doing something other than looking at the Web right now. And those of you that are on the Web probably aren’t looking for something terribly heavy to ingest.

Fair enough. We’ll start up again in a couple of days. In the meantime, please enjoy your holiday. And if you’re an Animal fan, you’ll want to keep your eyes open around the 3-minute mark here:

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Apparently General Motors still has some surprises in store when it comes to its highly-anticipated Chevy Volt. The company says it will be announcing something big on Jan. 7 during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

There are several things this could mean. First, the company could put a definite date on the car’s release next year. So far, we know that the hybrid-electric vehicle will launch first in California before the end of 2010, but nothing more specific. Second, GM might announce that the assumed price point has dropped.

Right now, the estimated pricetag is close to $40,000, still making it a stretch for middle-class families looking to buy a practical sedan. Most of that is due to the very expensive lithium ion batteries that will keep it going. Right now, these batteries cost about $900 per kilowatt hour produced. But, as Greentech Media reports, rumors have been swirling that this figure could fall to $500 per kilowatt hour. Even then, the full battery pack would cost $8,000.

With concerns brewing that the batteries will degrade quickly over time, limiting driving range and top speeds, its unclear how many people will be willing to shell out for the first iteration of the car. It’s predicted that many prospective consumers will wait for the battery technology to be more refined.

They won’t have to wait long for other competitors to release their EV and hybrid models either. Tesla is hoping to have its Model S sedan in showrooms by the end of 2011, and both Mitsubishi and Nissan are working on bringing theirs to market in the next two years. So far, the public seems to have the most interest in the Volt, but it will need to keep people excited to maintain its theoretical lead in the market.

It should be helped in this pursuit by $240 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. Compact Power, the company making batteries for the Volt, has also received $151.4 million to make the car a commercial success as soon as possible.

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This time around during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, do something more worthy rather than sitting at home and watching the games on TV. The non-profit group ‘United We Can’ is going to pay people $10 an hour to work for a four hour shift picking up cans and bottles from about 250 temporary recycling bins around downtown Vancouver. More than 70 residents of the Downtown Eastside are going to be engaged in the task ever since the city council has passed a grant of $50,000 to pay them for collecting the recyclables during the 2010 Winter Games. With so many visitors in the town during the time, it becomes an extra pressure to keep the city looking good, and also this way the non-profit organization can help provide work for those who make a living collecting cans and bottles on city streets.
[cbc.ca]

Ryan McBride wrote:

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) said yesterday that it has agreed to pay $22 million in a settlement related to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of surveys conducted by the Natick, MA-based medical device firm’s subsidiary, Guidant. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. Reuters reported that the DOJ was investigating Guidant for paying doctors between $1,000 and $1,500 to use the firm’s heart implants and to increase sales of the products.

Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we’ve got questions about Mac minis running as HTPCs, eliminating duplicate photos, using an iPhone to access MobileMe’s FInd My iPhone feature (for another iPhone), automatically mounting a network disk, 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.

Andy asks

I’ve got an early 2008 Mac Mini hooked up to my home theater… The Mac is configured to sleep after 30 minutes. Sometimes (but not always), switching to the running Mac will result in a blank screen. I can still control the Mac via VNC or screen sharing, and sleeping and then waking the Mac will usually solve the problem (as will switching the source on the receiver away from and back to the Mac sometimes). Is the problem with the order that the devices are powered on, or is there some setting or app I can use to correct this?

I suspect that your problem is actually not on the Mac side but on the home theater side. I think what’s happening is that the receiver thinks the video source is down (perhaps when the Mac goes to sleep), and that is what’s causing your blank screen. So I don’t think there’s really anything you can do on the Mac side to keep this from happening, perhaps other than preventing the mini from sleeping.

Peter asks

We wanted to use the “Find my Phone” feature of MobileMe… Trouble is, we only had my iPhone and could not figure out how to use my iPhone to find his iPhone. Is that possible?

Strangely, Apple has elected not to allow access to the “Find My iPhone” feature using Mobile Safari to load your MobileMe account; it’s designed for access from a computer’s browser. There is, however, a somewhat clunky work-around. If you use another iPhone app with a built-in web browser to access MobileMe it will allow you to view the “Find My iPhone” feature. Check out this hint from Mac OS X Hints for some suggestions. Unfortunately, this can be slow and the site is not optimized for the iPhone, but in a pinch it can get the job done.

Eric asks

I’m planning on buying an HP EX495 Mediasmart Home Server soon. I’d like to move my iTunes library from my MacBook Pro to to the EX495 to free up some space on my hard drive. Is there anything special I need to do to make it so that my MacBook constantly connects to the server whenever its on my LAN? I know in Windows you can map drives to servers that will stay in your “My Computer” upon reboot. Is there anything like that I need to do for my Mac?

You can add the network disk to your login items. To do this, first mount the disk. Next go to the Accounts Preference Pane, then to your account, and finally the Login Items tab. Now just drag the mounted disk from your desktop to the Login Items list. From now on when you login your Mac will automatically mount that disk.

Unfortunately, if you login while disconnected from your LAN you may see a pause while your MacBook Pro searches for the missing share. While Snow Leopard is supposed to improve performance of the Finder in those situations, you might want to consider a location manager that recognizes when you’re on your home LAN and mounts the share for you: perhaps the $29 Snow Leopard-friendly NetworkLocation, the $19 Locations, or the open source, not quite 10.6-ready MarcoPolo. The MarcoPolo page also includes a list of other location manager utilities to explore.

Josh asks

When my PC crashed and before I took the opportunity to move everything to a Mac, my efforts to recover pictures and other files led to me having multiple copies of each file. Of course, many now have names that are unrelated to the original. Is there any way to sort (and eliminate) duplicate picture files by their content and NOT their name? I’d appreciate any suggestions you have to help me eliminate the duplicates without having to manually go through tens of thousands of files.

Check out Tidy Up! ($30) from Hyperbolic Software. It will allow you to run various searches for duplicates and should allow you to find and eliminate the dupes among your photos.

Evan asks

Basically, I want to know if I remove a previously synced game from my iPhone today and load it back on my iPhone tomorrow, will I be met with a “Start New Game” screen?

Yes. When you delete an app from your iPhone it does eliminate ancillary data (like game saves) as well. So if you were to delete the game and then reinstall it from iTunes it will essentially reset the game, eliminating your saves. Just to make sure, I tried it on my own iPhone and can confirm this.

Diogo asks

I’ve a brand new mac mini that I use as my main computer, and across the wall I’ve got my living room where I’ve connected my LCD to the mini to use as a media center. I use a new Apple wireless keyboard that I want to use to control the mini, but the signal doesn’t cross the wall, and becomes useless in the living room. So, is it possible to add a second bluetooth receiver near the TV with an USB extension? will it work?

I suspect that what you actually need is a more powerful Class 1 Bluetooth transceiver. The built-in Bluetooth transceiver in your Mac is limited in range to about 30 feet. If you add a Class 1 transceiver by means of a USB dongle, you should get more power and better range. There are several different models available like the BTX Range Extender from ecamm. Incidentally, this would work with a USB cable through the wall, but I suspect it will work even without it, just plugged directly into the mini.

TUAWAsk TUAW: Mac mini HTPC, Find My iPhone with another iPhone, eliminate duplicate photos, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:45:00 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] Navy Patrol: Coastal Defense Zero for iPhone / iPod touch downloads for free
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Tap Tap Revenge 3 for iPhone / iPod touch downloads for free
• Meritline: [USB Flash Drives] USB 2.0 Flash Drive Roundup: Kingston 4GB for $10 + free shipping, more
• Walmart: [Cell Phones] Motorola TracFone W260 Cell Phones with double minutes for $10 + $2 s&h
• Circuit City: [50″ – 52″ LCD TVs] Samsung 52″ 1080p LCD HD Television for $1,049 + free shipping
• Buy.com: [USB Hard Drives] LaCie Grand 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $90 + free shipping
• HandHeldItems: [iPod Accessories] HandHeldItems.com: Up to 80% off Apple iPod touch cases + 20% off coupon
• Yugster: [Store Events] $10 Yugster.com Virtual Gift Card for $5
• Walmart: [Office Furniture] Sentry Fire- and Water-Resistant Combination Safe for $129 + $1 s&h
• US Appliance: [50″ – 52″ LCD TVs] Samsung 55″ 120Hz 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $1,849 + free shipping
• Pennywise : [Rechargeable Batteries] Rayovac AAA I-C3 15-Minute Rechargeable Battery 12-Pack for $11 + free shipping
• Buy.com: [Notebook Hard Drives] Kingston 40GB SATA 2.5″ SSD Hard Disk for $90 + free shipping

TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 24, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows/Mac/Linux/and more: XBMC is a killer open-source, cross-platform media center, and today they’ve released XBMC 9.11, introducing a whole new default look and feel, and it’s very friendly on the eyes.

Called Confluence, the new look blends some of the best features of XBMC’s previous default skin (PM3.HD) with several other popular skins for pretty impressive results. It’s definitely a different look from what we’ve seen in the Boxee beta, but the two media centers continue to deliver really impressive (and most importantly free) offerings.

(See all the images on one page here.)

You can read the condensed changelog on their blog, but some highlights include:

• Better support for multi-monitor setups
• High Definition, Surround Sound, and Subtitle Flagging and Filtering in Video Library
• Speed up RAW image loading and handle more file extensions
• Performance improvements to SQLite (database) queries (help is always wanted here)
• Ability to scrape and scan TV Shows into the video library by air-date via TheTVDB.com

If you’re an XBMC user, it’s an update well worth grabbing. XBMC is a free download for Windows, Mac, Linux, Apple TV, and pretty much anywhere else you want to put it. Also, good news for people who followed our guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap: The latest release of the Live version looks like it supports our machines out-of-the-box without custom third-party builds.

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