iPhone 3GS
It’s faster, comes with an updated camera, 3MP with video, voice control, a digital compass, remote wipe.
The hardware remains looking the same so that old case of yours will still fit.
Details
There was also a lot of iPhone software demoed.
Find My Phone allows you to find where you put your phone down even if it’s in mute.
TomTom are releasing an app taking advantage of the built in compass and GPS turning the iPhone into a proper turn by turn satnav.
iPhone OS 3.0
I’d think of version 3 as the first proper version with features you’d have thought would’ve been included at the start, but also adds a few things to move it forward.
Cut/Copy/Paste is finally here as is landscape in all the main apps. You can now finally search using Spotlight.
Peer to Peer gaming so you’ll be able to play along with friends with iPhones.
MMS which shall make some happy (never cared about it myself).
Finally your notes are now synced, it’s been so annoying that wasn’t there at the start.
You can now shake to shuffle like other iPods.
It also adds tethering, making it easy to connect your computer to the net when you’re not near any wifi.
Details
Mac OS X 10.6
Snow Leopard is more an improvement of what underpins the OS, making it faster and actually giving you back space on your HD with a few UI improvements.
Details
Safari 4
I am a little hesitant to re-install it. I removed it after finding problems when reopening pages from the last session, but that was a beta version.
Download
MacBook Updates
Updates include:
New 15” MacBook Pro with the controversial built in battery but now has a built in SD card slot which is no doubt a lot more useful than the PC card slot was.
So does the new 13” which now also brings back FireWire! Which puts me out of date. It happens.
The MacBook Air and MacBook (White) both got a speed bump. The 17” also got an update but kept its card slot.
You can look at the full specs here
Curious contractions
Five on your Mac
You can also watch with the ITV Player, but the site design is a disaster.
Still it’s nice to finally be getting some Mac recognition.
4oD on a Mac!
Quality isn’t too bad on new programmes, older programmes like Father Ted are a bit more iffy, but it’s nice no longer to have to open Windows.
Link
Mac Cottages
We often stay in cottages
throughout the UK. Some are better than others, but we
have noticed an odd correlation between cottages which
have websites Made on a Mac being better than ones that
haven’t.
Not to say the ones that haven’t are awful, just
the ones which have are often better presented, or have
gone that one bit further with presentation.
Three come to mind:
The Old Gardener’s
Cottage in Canterbury. We loved
the underfloor heating, had everything you would
need, including wifi!
Buttslade House in the Cotswolds, a
lovely little cottage with a beautiful garden. We
spied the owner using a Mac when we walked past one
afternoon.
Sadly one of our favourites, 31a Rivers Street in Bath
appears to have vanished. Perhaps it’s been sold?
It’s still to be found on Enjoy England. It was a very quirky
little building, we could’ve imagined living
there.
iPod Shuffle
Apple updated the iPod Shuffle, making it smaller, removing all the controls to the headphones.
It’s not going to win any design awards (well, it will of course), but it’s smaller, lighter and still has a little clip on it. It’ll all be in the headphones eventually.
I’d have to try the voice controls to see how well they work. I know at the moment it’s a pain to dig the iPhone out of my pocket to check what’s playing, so it might be a great feature (and perfect for anyone visually impaired). All the tapping does remind me of the MacTini.
At the moment you’re stuck with Apple’s headphones, but no doubt better ones will come and nobody is forcing anyone to run out and buy a new shuffle until they do.
Comes in Black or Silver - 4GB £59
Flash
Download
Free Omni
OmniDiskSweeper
OmniObjectMeter
OmniDazzle
OmniWeb.
I’ve used DiskSweeper before for rooting out why my hard disk had no space left.
Had OmniWeb been set free before Safari 4 launched I’m sure I would be using it now. It’s always seemed ahead of most browsers, but the price put me off when you could use Safari or Firefox for nada.
I’ll download it of course, but I’m not sure my head can cope with two new browsers in one day.
Safari 4
I’ve only had a quick play around but so far I like the tabs at the top giving a little more screen space and top sites, but it may take some getting used to. I think they need an easier way of adding sites to it unless I’m missing something?
I’m unsure how useful Cover Flow is going to be in Safari, but maybe it has finally found a use? I can’t say I use Cover Flow in anything else, it’s always been something you wow at then never use.
Windows users should be please that it’s now more a native app.
MacWorld US has a good review and Ars.
You can download Safari 4 here.
Mad Men
Function Flip
Function Flip is a Preference Pane
(i.e. it appears in System Preferences) which can
turn those special function keys back into normal F
keys one by one.
Long version:
When I first got my new MacBook, there were certain F
keys I had been using for other things; F8 for Spaces,
F5 for CoverSutra etc., which on the
MacBook keyboard now have special functions.
F1 = Lower Brightness
F2 = Increase Brightness
F3 = Exposé
...
F5 = Lower Keyboard backlight
F8 = Play/Pause
and so on...
These are their default functions. You can however flip
their functions the other way around by going to:
System Preferences>Keyboard & Mouse and ticking
the box “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard
function keys”.
You then use the Special Function by holding down the
fn key.
So, for example, to turn the volume up you would hold
down fn then F12. Slightly inconvenient, but it still
allowed me to use my own F keys. I was used to Exposé
using F9, 10 and 11.
Function Flip solves this problem of having to decide
between one or the other, allowing you to flip
individual F keys.
So now I can use the brightness keys etc., as well as
assigning some of the Special F keys I don’t
really use to other functions. I rarely use the
Backlight keyboard Special function keys, so now use F5
for Spaces, and F6 for CoverSutra.
Also, although I had been using F9 & F11 for
Exposé, those functions can be done using the
Multitouch trackpad, allowing me to use the volume up
& down keys as intended. I did change the standard
Exposé key F3 to show Application Windows, instead of
all windows. Perfect.
Hopefully all that won’t have been too confusing,
it’s definitely worth installing and is probably
explained a lot better on the developers site.
Ah, there is one other thing: To make it work, you must
go to System Preferences>Universal access and tick,
“Enable access for assistive
devices”.