Apple, Mac, iPod and iPhone News

Macworld News

iPhone Central
Review: Baseball Slugger for iPhone
Thanks to some great networking features, Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D delivers a grand slam of fun for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Mac News Briefs: CheckUp adds compatibility with the latest Macs
System maintenance tool CheckUp updates its interface and adds compatibility with the latest Macs. Also on Thursday, an update to TopXNotes and new Pro Sleds from Trans International.
Playlist
Boxee: On beyond Hulu
Hulu Desktop is a fine application, but it doesn't replace all the goodness that is Boxee.
MacUser
Quicken Financial Life delayed until 2010
Intuit has delayed the long-awaited revamped Mac version of its Quicken financial software until early 2010, according to a blog post on the company's site.
iPhone Central
Review: Palm Pre
The Palm Pre is the latest in a line of supposed "iPhone killers," but underneath all the hype there's a surprisingly competent phone, if accompanied by uninspiring hardware.
Game Room
Avernum 6 'old school' RPG announced
Avernum 6, the final chapter in Spiderweb's adventure role playing game series, is coming this winter.
MacUser
Safari Tip: Open new windows with a tab folder
One of Safari 4’s unsung features is an option to open one of your bookmark folders as tabs in each new window. It’s a long-requested addition that can significantly speed up your browsing.
Mac Gems
BackupLoupe 1.4
BackupLoupe lets you browse your Time Machine backups, showing you exactly what was backed up, and how much data was copied, at each event.
Dangerous security flaw likely just a hoax
A claim of a software vulnerability in a program used to connect securely to servers across the Internet is likely a hoax, according to SANS.
iPhone Central
Review: Dig Dug Remix for iPhone
Namco has freshened up the look of the arcade classic (and retained the old-school version) in this game. It's fun enough if you're a die-hard Dig Dug fan, but the controls leave something to be desired.
iPhone Central
Postman iPhone "postcard" maker improves interface, themes
Postman 2.0 sports improved user interface and new themes, according to the developer.
Google lists HP, Acer among Chrome OS partners
Google listed HP and Acer among the companies already developing devices for the Chrome OS.
Sharp to increase LCD panel production on higher demand
Sharp plans to increase production of LCD panels by tens of thousands of screens per month due to increased demand from TV makers.
iPhone Central
Review: Instapaper 2 for iPhone
It wouldn't be quite right to say that Instapaper 2 improves upon perfection. Rather, this update to the app that saves Web articles on your iPhone or iPod touch to read later refines the simplicity, which is arguably Instapaper Pro's greatest appeal.
Playlist
Kindle 2 price plunge signals e-book reader competition
Could Amazon's $60 price reduction on the Kindle 2 signal trouble in digital reading paradise?
Google OS may force Microsoft to reinvent Windows
Google's Chrome OS won't be an immediate threat to Windows, but it may force Microsoft to reinvent its operating system more quickly into a product that takes...
Editors' Notes
Chrome OS's impact? It's too early to tell
Rob Griffiths reads online declarations about the impact of Google's planned Chrome operating system and has to chuckle. At this stage, it's far too early to make any definitive declarations. But it looks like Apple has little to fear from Google's new effort.
LaCie intros Rugged HD multimedia drive
Rugged HD is LaCie's latest portable multimedia hard drive, equipped with an HDMI interface.
Mac OS X Hints
Create a tab-switching gesture shortcut in Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 supports gestures on newer Apple laptops, including pinch and swipe. What's missing, apparently, is a way to switch tabs via gestures. This hint explains how to add just that functionality.
iPhone Central
iPhone 3GS limited to 384 Kbps upstream
Glenn Fleishman follows up on last month's report about High Speed Packet Access and the iPhone 3GS, with word that the new phone is more limited in upstream data speeds than he first realized.
From the Lab
Review: HP Photosmart C6380 multifunction device
The Photosmart C6380 printer is best designed for the photo enthusiast who also needs occasional plain paper output and document copying.
iPhone Central
Review: iNag for iPhone
If you are running Nagios on your network, have an iPhone or iPod touch, and need to be able to talk to Nagios from those devices, iNag is a no-brainer, even with some interface annoyances.
iPhone Central
T-Mobile launches myTouch 3G; no plans for HTC Hero
T-Mobile launched another Android-based smartphone, the myTouch 3G, with people ordering online now guaranteed delivery by August 5.
Analysis: With OS project, is Google over-extending itself?
Google's decision to build a PC operating system could be a master stroke or a colossal blunder, depending on whether the company has the resources that such an ambitious undertaking requires.
Mac News Briefs: QuickerTek battery extends MacBook life by five hours
QuickerTek releases a $250 external battery for MacBooks that adds five hours of computing time. SkypeCap, Flickery, XMenu, and EasyFind were also updated on Wednesday.
iPhone Central
Review: Todo+Cal+Sync for iPhone
This app will primarily appeal to users looking to take advantage of its support for the SyncML synchronization standard. Otherwise, Todo+Cal+Sync is a hard app to recommend, especially since there are more elegant to-do list managers available for download.
Safari 4.0.2 update fixes stability issues
Apple latest update to the Safari Web browser improves the stability of the Nitro JavaScript engine.
Playlist
Music pirate mom deserves a new trial
Attorneys for a Minnesota mother of four slapped with a $1.92 million fine by a federal jury last month have filed a request for a new trial.
Playlist
Cheaper music royalties pull Internet radio back from brink
A new long-term solution for music services, such as Pandora, includes the reduction of over 40 percent in the royalties formerly paid by such music-streaming sites to the record industry.
QNAP Turbo NAS Systems get new user interface, new features
QNAP has released a firmware upgrade for its Turbo NAS storage servers.
Mac 911
Archiving items via a keyboard shortcut
When Leopard appeared, the ability to assign a keyboard shortcut to the Archive command disappeared. Here's a workaround.
Topaz Photoshop plug-ins work with Aperture via free plug-in
Topaz Labs has released a free Aperture plug-in that supports their Photoshop plug-ins
Playlist
Apple, Sony, Nintendo sued over patent infringement claims
Three industry giants, Apple, Sony and Nintendo, are being sued in a new patent infringement lawsuit.
iPhone Central
Review: iPhone Twitter clients
The App Store offers a multitude of apps that allow you to post on Twitter and read the tweets of others. But which Twitter client is the best? Lex Friedman looks at five popular Twitter apps to assess which ones are worth your time.
PayPal to open platform to third-party developers
PayPal will soon open up its platform to third-party developers, allowing them to build applications with a range of money transfer options.
Playlist
Audio-Technica intros improved noise-canceling headphones
Audio-Technica has announced the ATH-ANC7b QuietPoint Active Noise-canceling Headphones, an update to the Macworld-favorite ATH-ANC7.
Working Mac
Remember your passwords
Want to use secure passwords, but fearful you'll get in a bind if you use ones too complicated to memorize? You'll always be able to access critical passwords if you take these steps.
Missing Sync for Pre 1.0 released
Mark/Space has released sync software to enable Mac users to exchange data with the Palm Pre.
Review: VoodooPad Pro 4.1
VoodooPad Pro is an excellent tool for collecting, storing, and linking information. The program's ability to intelligently create links to other pages in your document makes it easy to cross-reference information that you've already collected.
iPhone Central
Review: Mass Effect Galaxy for iPhone
Bioware's Mass Effect is a stellar (literally and figuratively) role-playing game. Mass Effect Galaxy for the iPhone doesn't translate very well, unfortunately.