Apple news blog

Apple today released Safari 4.0.5 for Mac and Windows, bringing a number of enhancements to Apple’s Internet browser application.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includ…

Arizona based Technical Made Easy today announces Easy Quilt 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch. Easy Quilt provides step-by-step instruction with video based lessons on every aspect of Quilt Making, with over 100 different block ideas and all the tools you need to get started right away. Easy Quilt ensures that the Art of Quilting can be taught and referenced from a mobile device. Included with the app are complete descriptions of Fabrics, Supplies, Tools, Charts, Formulas and Tips and Tricks.

Consumer Reports yesterday announced the release of new ratings of computer tech support ratings for both laptops and desktop, and while the full details are restricted to subscribers, CNET reveals that A…

Barnes & Noble today officially acknowledged that it is developing an iPad-specific application that will provide access to content available in the company’s eBookstore.

Designed specifically for the iPad, our new B&N eReader…

Forbes reports on information obtained by App Store research firm Busted Loop as part of its AppSlice project, revealing Apple’s plans for eBook categories to be rolled out for its iBookstore.<p class="qu…

Macgamestore.com today announces the digital download release of Warbirds: Dogfights for the Macintosh. The game is an action-air combat game that puts players in the cockpit of the greatest World War II air combat planes during the pivotal battles of the war. The game was developed and published by iEntertainment Network. The game features the ability to engage in dogfights as a member of either the Allies or Axis powers, more than 100 realistically modeled WWII aircraft.

Maintain today announced Cocktail 4.6.1 (Leopard Edition), the latest maintenance update of Cocktail for users running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. This version adds ability to stop Cocktail from logging out, restarting or shutting down the computer at the end of a scheduled programme. The update also features improvements on the clear Adobe Flash Player caches and cookies procedure as well as overall performance improvements.

If you have entire albums, artists, or playlists excluded from shuffling in iTunes (The ‘Skip when shuffling’ flag is set), your iPhone 3GS will fail to play these albums, artists, or playlists when you select them using Voice Control if it has shuffle play mode enabled.

The manner in which it fails makes it seem as if something is seriously amiss (hence this hint): It acknowledges your voice input, indicating that your selection is about to play (e.g., ‘Playing album Avatar’), but then returns to whatever had been playing before. If nothing had been playing before you gave the voice command, the iPhone will remain resolutely silent after acknowledging your input.

The solution to this ‘issue’ is, of course, to simply to turn off shuffle play mode. Unfortunately you can’t do this with a voice command (as far as I know).

I have a lot of people in my Mac OS X Address Book. I thought it would be a nice idea to have the system check the birthdays in Address Book, and inform me of any forthcoming birthdays via a Growl notification. So I’ve created an Apple Script to do that (with a lot of help from a few other peoples).

First, install Growl if it isn’t installed. Also install the Terminal growlnotify command, which you’ll find in the Extras folder on the Growl disk image. Next, copy and paste the following into AppleScript Editor:

delay 0.5

set isRunning to 0

set timer to the time of the (current date)

repeat while isRunning = 0

  tell application "System Events"

    set isRunning to ¬

      ((application processes whose (name is equal to "GrowlHelperApp")) count)
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