Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
New iMac: a Dream for Users, a Nightmare for Repair Centers
Thursday, August 30th, 2007If you had the chance to touch and play with the new iMac, you must agree they are gorgeous, and the glass and metal mix is simply astonishing. The display looks great, and one would like to know how Apple could install a glass plate in front of the LCD panel, and keeping them together (no glue, no screws!).
Apple engineers designed a series of 14 magnets to hold the glass plate, allowing it to stand in front of the LCD while allowing the panel to be repair when faulty. However, they had to design a new tool to remove the glass plate, costing USD100 and necessary for all Apple certified repair centers. It includes 2 suction pads required to be able to counter-balance the tightening strength generated by the magnets.
But that’s only the beginning of the misery for repair tech support:
- The glass plate is made of normal glass, and not of ’securite’ type, so it is very fragile…
- You do not want to see finger prints on the glass, so the technician performing the operation is asked to wear gloves.
- Last but not least, you should not trap dust between the glass plate and the LCD panel, so silicone must be applied to avoid dust and water condensation to be sticking. Apple is even offering a UV lamp to check the surface of the glass plate before reassembling.
Knowing the ridiculous price paid by Apple to Repair Centers for changing a LCD panel, let’s hope the iMac is not facing a massive problem with its new gorgeous display. According to our sources, so far so good.
[translation by Linathael]
(Via HardMac.com.)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Timelapse of iSight wakeup captures
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
A few months back, we wrote about reader Dylan’s iSight autocapture project– he rigged up the code to have his iSight on his MacBook Pro snap a photo every time the lid was opened (and even released all of his work as open source). At the time, he mentioned eventually combining all of the photos together into a timelapse video, and seven months later, here it is.
Unfortunately, he says the Sleepwatcher daemon he was using doesn’t work as of 10.4.10, so the project is over until it gets updated, if ever. But he did share with us how he compiled the images together into a timelapse– he punched out a Perl script (which is reprinted after the jump) to rename all of the pictures into sequenced filenames, and then squished them together with Quicktime’s ‘image sequence’ feature. Very nice.
Continue reading Timelapse of iSight wakeup captures
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(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)
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3rd generation iPod Nano revealed in “spy shots”?
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007Son talmente in fotta di news che mi dò pure ai rumors 
Sure, we know that the photo up over there just looks like someone took a regular iPod, squashed it down, duplicated it, colorized it, and then pasted the copies in a playful circle. But what — just what — if you’re actually looking at the 3G Nano? According to 9to5Mac (and at this point only according to 9to5Mac), Apple’s next move on the iPod front will be short, squat, and muted-pastel colorful. The site previously reported that the new color scheme will come in a variety of shades not dissimilar to what their ’spy shot’ shows, so at least their own info lines up. Other than that? No corroborating evidence from Apple, and no leaks from other sources indicating this direction… let’s just say we wouldn’t make any bets on this particular piece of news.
Update - We’ve gotten our hands on a nice, large version of the picture, and as many of our astute readers have already noted, you can clearly see a window heading which reads ‘nano-flower.psd’ at the top of the shot, which should give further pause to anyone taking this at face value.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
(Via Engadget.)
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Use Quicksilver as Your Dictionary
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
Weblog MacApper details how to set up Quicksilver as a quick and universal dictionary lookup tool. The step-by-step covers everything from installing the Dictionary plug-in to assigning a universal trigger that can define the currently highlighted word. The trigger isn’t necessary, of course, since you can also get definitions by typing the word into Quicksilver and selecting the Dictionary action. In fact, when you install the Dictionary plug-in, you also get a Thesaurus plug-in to boot. I’ve been using Quicksilver as my primary dictionary ever since I got my Mac, and it’s definitely the quickest way I know to perform a fast lookup. To brush up on your Quicksilver chops, check out our beginner, intermediate and advanced guides to Quicksilver.
(Via Lifehacker.)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Wallpaper your desktop with Flickr
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
“Mac OS X only: Freeware application DeskLickr grabs new images from Flickr and automatically sets them as your desktop wallpaper. Similar to Windows-only Flickr Wallpaper Rotator and the Linux-only Webilder, you can specify photos you want to download by username, tags, groups (I’d recommend the wallpapers group), and more to ensure you’re getting exactly the kind of content you like on your desktop. DeskLickr is a free download, Mac OS X only.”
(Via Lifehacker.)
Popularity: 2% [?]
iPhoto 7: conflitti con plug-in di terze parti
Monday, August 13th, 2007Ho da poco installato iLife ‘08, iPhoto è parte integrante della suite e tra tutti i programmi che ne fanno parte è indubbiamente quello che uso di più. La nuova versione dell’applicativo presenta qualche incompatibilità con i plug-in di terze parti, la loro presenza inibisce qualsiasi tipologia di esportazione delle foto, fino ad ora quelli accertati sono:
- FlickrExport (AFAIK l’unico che è stato aggiornato per risolvere il problema di compatiblità)
- iPhoto2Gmail
- SSP export
- Facebook Exporter for iPhoto [aggiornato oggi 14/08/07]
Per ovviare a tutto questo è necessario rimuovere i plugin, ci sono diverse vie:
- right-click o ctrl-click sull’icona dell’applicazione > Show package content e da lì seguire il percorso Contents > Plugins, rimuovere poi a mano il plugin incriminato.
- selezionare l’icona dell’applicazione, richiamare la finestra di info (mela-I) e rimuovere i plugin tramite lista e relativo pulsante.
- a volte l’installer stesso del plugin mette a disposizione una funzione di uninstall da cui è possibile rimuovere agilmente il componente aggiuntivo.
Popularity: 2% [?]
My iTunes
Monday, August 13th, 2007Da oggi è possibile integrare nei propri siti/profili personali i widget di iTunes che riportano gli acquisti, le recensioni e i preferiti che fanno riferimento al proprio account sull’omonimo store.
Come potete notare non sono uno dei maggiori acquirenti
Popularity: 3% [?]
TimeDrawer: la Time Machine che gira su Tiger
Saturday, August 11th, 2007Per chi ha fotta di provare una delle nuove feature di Leopard sulla versione corrente del nostro amato OS può installare TimeDrawer. Non sarà proprio uguale al 100% a Time Machine ma dallo screenshot e dal video presenti sul sito dello sviluppatore le funzionalità sembrano molto simili. Suppongo che necessiti un bel pò di spazio libero su hd, quindi per il momento passo 
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