TheAppleBlog

This article at CNN Money makes note of unnamed music labels planning to up the cost of digital music from the current 65 cents/song. As the article mentions, The Steve ain’t happy about this.
The Record Labels are said to be comparing the higher cost of cellular phone ring-tones to the lower offering of mainstream [...]

I talk to Adam about his latest book, the role of AppleScript in Mac OS X and how he came up with the example scripts used in the book.

Recently I posted about iCal and Address Book, and my suspicion that they were a couple of unsung heroes amongst the OS X-included apps. As a follow-up, I’ll start with iCal and my findings after using it daily for a few weeks.

My general conclusion is that iCal is a good calendar program as far as calendar programs go. I mean, what do you really do to make a calendar really stand out from another? On its own, I don’t think it shines the way I suspected it would. It’s helped me keep better track of my life and all the stuff that goes on around me. (My wife is especially appreciative of this aspect of my new iCal use.) At the end of the day, that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?

Apple’s earbuds hurt. Plain and simple. They just hurt. I have yet to talk to someone who thinks the stock iPod earbuds are comfortable or even stay in their ears good. Upon realizing within the first 5 minutes of wearing the Apple earbuds that they were not going to cut it, I began my search [...]

Someone finds a new workaround for the infamous Mac OS X dead-screen problem on G3 iMacs without the latest firmware.

A home-brew Mac mini dock ignites the mini-as-HTPC and mini-as-car-stereo ideas all over again.

Issue 2 of Free Software Magazine is out and among the stories is a very interesting read on iTunes, probably the better known of the free software tools to come out of Apple.

I talked to Chris Adamson, author of QuickTime for Java: A Developer’s Notebook, about the book, QTJ technology and his other projects and interests.

TiVo’s stock jumped about 17% after an article from Reuters started the rumor mill buzzing today that Apple is eyeing a takeover of TiVo. Despite Michael Ramsay, TiVo’s chief executive, saying that the company is not for sale, analysts figure the company might be an easy target, perhaps from consumer electronics makers to media companies [...]

You can no longer get an iPod mini to match your gold shoes, gold suit, and gold car. On the plus side, it’ll now cost you less for a non-matching version…

We all know the Mac Mini suffers from a distinct lack of both USB and FireWire ports. Hubs are not exactly difficult to come by, but who wants multiple boxes attached to your svelte Mini? The Compaq USB and FireWire hub might be one solution.

Last week we posted an introduction piece to Quicksilver, meant to walk the un-innitiated through the world of Quicksilver.
This week Dan Dickinson has a great mid-level piece on tweaking Quicksilver. It’s meant for the more Quicksilver-familiar crowd, and is a great next step for those who didn’t get enough from our piece last week.
Dan [...]

Software Update time- Security Update 2005-002 Released

There’s been lots of talk about the Mac Mini being a great PVR or media device, or how it could take the place of many an iMac and even a G4 desktop in businesses across the country. However, I see the Mac Mini as providing a different solution to the problem of computing power and flexibility.

A simple, but beautiful piece of plastic, the Griffin iCurve is the simplest, and yet one of the most effective methods of putting your Apple Powerbook (or any other laptop). But somehow this piece of plastic does so much more.

As a student, I am always taking notes in class. Normally, I just use Word or Pages, but after a few weeks of school, my documents folder begins to look like it was hit by a massive hurricane. Recently, while surfing around version tracker, I came across VoodooPad.
VoodooPad is essentially a desktop version of a [...]

According to AppleInsider, Apple is on track to rename its Rendezvous technology to “Bonjour” as part of a settlement with Tibco Software of Palo Alto, CA over the Redezvous trademark. Apple’s Rendezvous technology, also known in the industry as Zero Configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. It uses [...]

Barefeats.com recently put several uber high-end PC’s up against a Powermac G5 to see which system was the king of desktops. As you would expect, the G5 comes out on top in every CPU test they ran. However, when it came time to test 3D graphics power, the Mac was left in the dust. The [...]

UPDATE:
I’ve noticed this post getting a lot of play lately. Glad to see it’s viewed as useful to so many! Look for a Quicksilver & Tiger piece with new and exciting Quicksilver goodness in the coming days, here on The Apple Blog.

Quicksilver is one of the most innovative applications to be found on OS X. That may be my opinion, but there hasn’t been a person I’ve introduced to it that hasn’t said [in some form], “It’s changed the way I use my computer!” That’s awfully telling I’d say.
To be fair, LaunchBar and Butler are two more popular alternatives to Quicksilver – LaunchBar is $30 for a 5 computer license and Butler is Donation-ware. In contrast, the founding developer of Quicksilver (known as Alcor on his forums – look for an interview with Alcor in the coming weeks) seems to spend more of his time working on QS than getting around to creating a donation section on blacktree.com.

Why is it better? Alcor is one of the most responsive developers I’ve come across. Beta updates seem to come – on average – about every couple weeks. He is constantly answering questions and listening to the multitude of fans on his forums. I’ve not seen a similar, consistent practice by a developer…in my memory. So not only is Quicksilver fully featured and powerful as all get-out, but it’s always evolving.

OK, what does it do?!
Short answer: It’s a launcher. It allows you to open files from a keystroke instead of clicking through the Finder for them.
Long answer: What doesn’t it do? QS indexes your hard drive into a Catalog. That Catalog is available at a single keystroke and then allows you access to everything on your computer. Not only can you open applications, but using QS, you can move files around, append text to files, locate a file and attach it to an email…The list goes on and on and on and…

But to really appreciate Quicksilver, you’ve got to dive in. Nothing I could write would explain it nearly well enough (you’re probably saying to yourself, “Yeah, that’s painfully obvious…”). Seeing absolutely is believing. And as it says on the Quicksilver Preview page:

In the end, Quicksilver has one very important effect. , The effort associated with frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking. After an adaptation period, Quicksilver becomes an extension of yourself; the process fades away leaving only the results.

So let’s get started!

Some of you may be getting the opinion that I’m a bit of a moaner. I have gripes about things only when I know the company could do better, and I think, in many cases these companies know they could do better. Unfortunately a combination of the complexities of the software, backwards compatibility, future-proofing and [...]