Apple Japan offers free repairs for Earthquake/Tsunami damaged machines

The Apple, Inc. Japan website is offering free upgrades for all Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iTouches damaged in the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.   (http://www.apple.com/jp/support/information.html) According to the website, repairs must be requested before the end of June.  Keep in mind that their current policy is subject to be pulled at any time so be sure to get your machine in as soon as possible. For those who evacuated from Japan with damaged machines, no definitive word on what can…

The Northern Spy

By Rick Sutcliffe The Good, the Quick, and the BigMay 2011 Apple bids fair to take over the electronic worldas iSteve’s little Cupertino company doubles revenues year over year, pushes profits to heights not previously imagined, and bids to continue on this path indefinitely. As previously predicted in this space, many of the purchasers of iProducts are now buying Macs as well, ensuring a growing dominance in that space as more and more people come to realize that it’s better…

Bytes From The Apple — A Resurgence of the Apple-1

By Bill Martens When Steve Wozniak first created his Apple-1 computer, it was all hand wire wrapped and on breadboard.  No fancy automated electronic assembly was even thought of.  It was purely a labor and work of true love of the art form.  These hand built machines were mostly produced in early 1976 with the original production machines being produced in April 1976 by Steve Wozniak (http://www.woz.org) and Steve Jobs. The fact that only 175 of the original Apple-1 production…

Donut Games Rat on a Skateboard Upgraded

Donut Games has updated their Rat On A Skateboard app for the iPhone.  Version 1.10 is now available from Apple’s App Store at http://itunes.apple.com/app/rat-on-a-skateboard/id404095058?mt=8 For a limited time, Rat on a Skateboard is also available for Free from the Donut Games website.  For other Donut games for the iPhone, check out the Donut Games website at http://www.donutgames.com

Skyworks releases update for 3 Point Hoops Basketball for iPhone

Skyworks Interactive, Inc. has released an update for their 3 Point Hoops Basketball App for the iPhone.  Version 3.3 was released today to address a host of bugs in the App.  For information about the update and other Skyworks Apps,  check out the Skyworks website at http://www.skyworks.com/iphone/ The 3 Point Hoops Basketball application is available for .99 cents from the following page: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/3-point-hoops-basketball-the/id306597349?mt=8

IOS 4.3.3 Released by Apple, Inc.

Apple, Inc. this week took measures to curb the bruhaha caused by the iPhone tracking peoples locations with a new release of IOS.  Version 4.3.3 reduces the size of the tracking  cache, as well as totally eliminating the cache when tracking is turned off.   The cache also is no longer backed up to iTunes, thus eliminating the possibility of the iPhone tracking movements unless done so through the user controlled settings. For more information about the update, you can check…

Nuance updates Dragon Dictation for iPhone / iPad

Nuance Communications, Inc. , maker of dictation software products has updated their Dragon Dictation package for the iPhone and iPad.  Version 2.08 addresses some of the localization issues with the program. You can download the iPad / iPhone App for free from http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8 or check their website at http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/ for more information about their mobile applications.

Gear Head WC1100 Webcam on a Mac

Most of our readers know I volunteer for an educational charity on Fridays. I install software on computers which are then given out to students. We have a “special needs” married couple who came in about a year ago and took a Linux box. They wanted to get their webcam running on it. After a couple of weeks I managed to get it more or less working. I thought it might be a good idea to pick up one and…

Fodder for Virtual Machine users: Ubuntu 11.04 is out

There are a good portion of our readers who know what I’m talking about. At the same time there are more than a few who don’t. I’ll explain what I mean in the title… Modern Intel Macs can be used to run PC software. When I say PC, I do not necessarily refer only to Microsoft and Windows. In this case Ubuntu is an example of a non-Microsoft operating system. Typically this is done in three ways. The first is…

ADTPro 1.1.19 Released

ADTPro, Apple Apple II disk imaging software being maintained by David Schmidt, has been updated to version 1.1.19.  The latest release includes the following fixes and improvements: * [Client] Enabled DHCP auto-configuration from Jonno Downes’ latestip65 code.  Note – Saved configuration files for Ethernet won’t becompatible; so delete or re-save them with this release * [Client] Beep at the completion of a disk transfer that had reador write errors * [Client] Duplicate volume names caused incorrect/repeated volumesize display * [Client]…

Ryan Suenaga dies in fall on Olomana Trail

Ryan Suenaga, a driving force in the Apple ][ community and creator of the Apple IIgs Twitter client passed away today.  Ryan was an avid cyclist, runner and hiker and was hiking the Olomana trail on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.  He apparently became separated from his hiking party and fell.  Rescue helicopters were sent in to get him but upon his evacuation from the scene was declared dead.  He was 44 years old. Many in the Apple II and…

Free (legal) E-books from Project Gutenberg

I’ll admit this isn’t strictly a Mac oriented post. None the less it is still useful for the Apple//, Mac, and other communities. When people see something like the title of the post the reaction is pretty much the same as when a politician says “Trust me”. In this case the people operating this organisation have been at it for years. I remember getting books from then in the 80’s or 90’s. They have since updated their technology to support…

iTunes updated to 10.2.2

Apple, Inc. released another update for its iTunes program.  Version 10.2.2 addresses a security vulnerability known as the Man-in-the-middle attack.  For more information about the update, check the Apple iTunes Update page at: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4609

iPhone ActiveGS Version 1.22 now available in App Store

The iPhone / iPad version of the ActiveGS Application version 1.22 is now available in the Apple App Store.    Changes in Version 1.22 include: + 60FPS support for iPad & iPhone4 + CRT Emulation + B&W & Green Monitor The application is freely downloadable from the App Store.  Users can also add their own disk images to the emulator. To get the application go to the App Store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/activegs-best-of-fta/id405115025?mt=8  

ActiveGS Plugin Updated to 3.4.459

The FreeToolsAssociation has updated the ActiveGS plugin to 3.4.459.  The ActiveGS Plugin, used in a number of websites around the globe, is the centerpiece  of the Virtual Apple ][ website.  (http://www.virtualapple.org) This version of the plugin has the following changes / updates: + version upgraded to v3.4.x! + New SystemParam propery to set parameters that are only read when the emulator is launched/rebooted + Improved .ActiveGSXML error checking For more information about the plugin, check out the ActiveGS Website at:…

NeoOffice 3.2 is out

The new version of NeoOffice is out. The current version is 3.2. According to their web page at http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php there are updates to font support and support for Lion (OS X 10.7) when it comes out. Their download page insists on a donation to the cause. Considering the quality of this product and the cost of a fully commercial product, for most people a donation would be justified. Those who can not afford a donation can still download and use…

Live Game CD

By now folks realise I’m into free stuff. I was looking around some of the social networking sites I frequent when I found this little gem. It’s a live CD with old DOS games for the PC. So why am I writing about it here? Simple answer… It works better on Intel Macs than it does on PCs. Well, at least it does on the machines I use. 😉 The CD contains a whopping 40MB of games. Back in the…

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 SP1 to be Released next Week

According to the OfficeforMac blog (http://blog.officeformac.com/), SP1 for Office 2011 is to be released within the next week.   According to the blog, the biggest change in SP1 will be the ability for Outlook to sync between Outlook 2011 and Apple Sync Services. For more about the update, check out the Microsoft Office for Mac Blog at: http://blog.officeformac.com/

April 1st not Apple’s Incorporation Date? … So Says Woz

An interesting commentary this morning presents a real argument about April 1st being the 35th Anniversary of Apple, Inc.’s incorporation.   While it is known that the company incorporation was filed in April 1976 and that this month IS in fact  the 35th anniversary of the company, According to Steve “WOZ” Wozniak, April Fools Day (April 1st) is not the date of incorporation. Unfortuntely, this date has been presented by many sources and even several within the Apple community as the…

Macports: Running Linux/BSD software directly on a Mac

I can hear “Mac purists” complaining about “polluting their computer with foreign software”. Sorry to dissapoint, but no computer, Mac or otherwise, is the be-all and end-all of computers. There are some things which work better on other platforms and conversely there are some things which work better on a Mac. The objective here is to add to the basic functionality of an excellent machine and make it better. As the title suggest Macports is a way to add the…