Apple news blog

This is a fairly obvious hint, but it may help some of the Mac-owning magicJack users out there who are frustrated by the fact that the magicJack window pops open whenever you make or receive a call. To fix this, open AppleScript Editor and make this simple script:

tell application "Finder" to set visible of process "magicJack" to false

Save it to your /Library/Scripts folder. Next, create a cron entry (mine is set to run every five minutes) to run the script:

*/5       *       *       *       *     /usr/bin/osascript /Library/Scripts/minimize_magicjack.scpt

The cron job launches the AppleScript, which then hides the magicJack window.

[robg adds: I haven’t tested this one. cron isn’t the officially-supported OS X solution, b…

My late 2006 iMac started to freeze and have graphics issues after about 18 months of use. It turned out that this was an overheating problem experienced by a lot of users. smcFanControl made the computer noisy, but didn’t stop the problem, especially in the summer. I’d had the iMac sitting (unused) on a desk for a while, and was going to throw it out…but instead, I tried making a few ventilation holes, as seen in this picture.

If you want to do this yourself, you’ll have to locate a service manual for the iMac (20-inch Late 2006); try a PDF search on Google. Follow the instructions in the manual, and take almost everything out of the computer. Next, drill some holes in the back with a hole saw — the important holes are marked in the above-linked picture. Finally, install smcFanControl, and crank up the fans.

This modification makes the computer…

Amazon today announced a revised royalty program for its e-book Kindle Store, significantly increasing the potential return to authors and publishers in exchange for commitments to meet certain feature requirements. The move, which takes effect on J…

Mac Bundle Box is proud to announce its seventh promotion. Mac Bundle Box will be donating 10% of its revenue to the Haiti Earthquake relief effort to help the more than 3 million people that have been injured or killed in the recent earthquake. The bundle consists of 6 premier Mac applications from a wide variety of categories. The aim of this Mac Bundle Box promotion is to raise money for the Haiti relief for two weeks whilst still being able to support independent Mac software development.

Innovative development studio Kitty Code is proud to announce their latest app Traveler’s Quest is now featured in the “What’s Hot” section of the iTunes Games category. This comes after Traveler’s Quest releases their latest update, adding a Facebook Connect brag feature, allowing players to show off their latest treasures and completed collections to their friends. Innovative and new Traveler’s Quest gets you off the couch and out of the house to play.

Hong Kong based bambooapps is pleased to announce Keep Your Word 2.0, an important update to their popular vocabulary and flashcard cataloger and trainer for Macintosh and iPhone devices. Keep Your Word lets language students and educators alike build their own dictionary by classifying and grouping terms exactly as they wish. Featuring a comfortable and simple user interface, users can collect, classify and then memorize as well as track their progress.

Vienna based Green & Slimy Software today released Thoughts, a new note taking application for Mac OS X. With Thoughts users can organize their notes using the familiar page, notebook and shelve metaphors. In addition, Thoughts provides advanced text formatting, including adding images, creating tables and exporting to common Word processor formats. Additionally, Thoughts allows exporting to common file formats, such as Microsoft Word, PDF and OpenOffice.

Happymagenta today announces Scany 1.5, an update to their popular network exploration tool for iPhone and iPod touch. Developed specifically to leverage the iPhone’s peerless capabilities, Scany will effortlessly scan individual hosts or network ranges on the Internet or LAN for running services as well as dig for other useful information. Scany recognizes names of networking capable devices such as game consoles, media servers, TVs, receivers, players, printers, web cameras, and many others.

Juicy Bits today released Nature Images 1.0 for iPhone, a free app that contains 108 high quality macro photos from a photographer whose work is included in major operating systems and whose photos are among the most popular wallpaper images in the world. With over 3 million downloads, these close-up images already grace the desktops of computer users everywhere, and they’re now available for the iPhone and iPod touch.

GPS navigation pioneer ALK Technologies today announces CoPilot Live Directions, their full turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for iPhone devices. CoPilot Live Directions takes a more flexible approach to map management. As with all CoPilot Live products, detailed street maps are stored on the phone, not downloaded per trip. Customers can choose how much or little of North America’s road network they wish to store on their iPhone.