Apple news blog

Microsoft on Tuesday released an open Application Programming Interface (API) for its MSN Direct Send to GPS feature for personal navigation devices. With the new software, Microsoft allows users to any website to send street addresses, …

The BlackBerry Thunder now has a specific release date and over-the-air music downloads, if a leak is found to be accurate. Research in Motion’s first-ever touch BlackBerry is now purportedly due to launch with Verizon on October 8th …

It’s an eye opener full of PWN. More…

9to5mac points to a recent ARM announcement that the company has secured a major architectural licensing deal with an “unnamed OEM” (original equipment manufacturer). This broad architectural license allows the manufacturers to develop their own imp…

Apple is warning that some products will be in short supply in the near future, according to a bulletin allegedly sent to resellers. The memo indicates that Apple is ramping down the production of current-generation iPods, …

The Apple Store now has six factory-refurbished Apple Mac Pro Workstations. (They’re a little over half-way down the page.) That’s two more than our mention from last week. All are lower than the best we could find for a new one, …

In my iTunes library, I have a lot of oral exercises obeying the following scheme: question, pause, answer. I can now train on these exercises, and track my progress on my iPod, without a dedicated flashcard program simply by creating some iTunes smart playlists. My algorithm can’t compare to Leitner’s or SuperMemo, but it’s really better than nothing!
Here’s how I did it:

1. Place the desired exercises in an album named Flashcards.
2. Create six smart playlists:
   1. 0 stars:
      • Match all of the following rules
      • Album is “Flashcards”
      • Rating is …..
      • Limit to 50 items selected by most recently played
   2. 1 star:
      • Match all of the following rules
      • Album is “Flashcards”
      • Rating is *….
      • Last Played is no…
        
        

If you are slightly tech-savvy, Apple has introduced (on the Xcode Developer DVD that ships with Leopard) an application to help you create your own mobile phone plug-ins. If you have not already installed the Developer Tools, do so. If you have, go to /Developer » Applications » Utilities in the Finder.

The application you are looking for is named iSync Plug-in Maker, which is essentially a graphical wizard that assists you in rapidly putting together and then testing your own plug-in for any mobile phone device. After testing, the program helps you create a distribution/installation package.

A lot of people are using the tool and then making money selling their own plug-ins — but now you know where to find the same tools, so you can do this on your own. Apple even has …

One of the more annoying things about the iPhone is the process of rearranging application icons. When all you could add to your phone’s screen were a few web shortcuts, things weren’t so bad. But now that you may have 50 or more third-party programs on your iPhone, it can be a real pain to drag newly-installed programs to the proper position on the proper screen. (How about a Mac program to ease the process, Apple?)

This is especially true if each of your screens are completely filled with the maximum of 16 icons, as something will have to shuffle off to another page while you’re dragging — and if you drop the new program onto a full screen, you’ll then need to go find the application that got shuffled away, and move that one to its desired location, too.

To avoid this, just leave an empty spot on each screen, placing only 15 icons per screen. This solves the drag-arrange issue noted above. As you drag from screen to screen, no icons will jump off the page, as th…

Something that may be fairly overlooked, but useful is using the iPhone Remote Application when you don’t have access to a wireless network. I love taking my Macbook Pro on the go and have fallen in love with the Remote App, but there’s not always a wireless network availiable! A quick and simple fix for this is to create your own secure wireless network using your Mac.

A step by step process would look something like this:

1. Click on the wireless icon in the menu bar and select Create Network.
2. Choose a name. If you are around other locked or untrusted wireless signals, you will want to choose an unused channel. (I would say use the two channel rule, but you’re not transferring data here.) Make sure you put a password on it!
3. Open up the Network System Preferences panel. You’ll want to create a new location to make it easier for future use, and it’s easiest to stick with the default network settings. This step is optional, but if you’re on the go, it…