The biggest Mac software bundle makers are offering a what appears to be prelude to their christmas bundle, for free. The list includes: Shovebox, Twitterrific, Writeroom ,TinyGrab, Hordes of Orcs, MarinerWrite. There is no catch, just register and download.

Filed under: Video, TUAW Business

Need a Mac or iPhone developer? TUAW job boards are here!
Notice anything new at TUAW? We've had our job boards up for a week now, making sure all the tape would stick when new jobs were posted, and I'm proud to say that the doors are wide open for job...
TUAW Video: a tour of Freeverse
Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many, many TUAW Videos to come. We've done lots of video on TUAW, from Macworld Expo coverage to WWDC interviews to fart apps and more. This time we're... Hands-on with the Magic Mouse
Well, I got my Magic Mouse a few days ago, and I've been using it for my everyday tasks for a few days (and I'm still using it), and here are my impressions. Packaging: This packaging is... Also of interest:

• TUAW Review: Kanex HDMI + audio adapter works fine but costs extra
• TUAW Gift Guides: Gifts for tech-savvy women
• Waveboard on the iPhone, Google Wave access slightly better than Mobile Safari

TUAWThe week in TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Rumors, Wireless, Apple, iPhone

If you're tired of dropped calls and dead zones, and pondering the merits of turning in your iPhone for a DROID... hold on there, champ. AppleInsider says it's received a copy of a report by OTR Global, claiming that Apple has signed contracts to produce a UMTS / CDMA hybrid iPhone to be released in the third quarter of 2010.

The hybrid handset, built around a dual-system chip from Qualcomm, would allow the iPhone to run on virtually any GSM/UTMS cellular network worldwide -- and also on the CDMA2000 networks of US carriers like Verizon and Sprint. In particular, Verizon is cited in the report as the target carrier for the new devices.

The report states that Foxconn, the Taiwan-based sole-source provider of iPhone hardware at this time, will not build the new device. Instead, a subsidiary of Asustek known as Pegatron has been selected to kick off manufacturing. It's also rumored that the hybrid device uses a 2.8" screen, making the handset smaller than the current model which uses a 3.5" display.

Photos of the smaller display were first featured on iLounge in June of 2008 (see photo at right), sparking widespread rumors at the time that an "iPhone nano" was on the way. Over a year later, neither the smaller iPhone nor a Verizon model are available. However, if the leaked report is any indication, 2010 could be yet another year of incredible growth for the iPhone economy.

TUAWRumor: Smaller iPhone on tap for Verizon in Q3 2010? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Video, TUAW Business

Need a Mac or iPhone developer? TUAW job boards are here!
Notice anything new at TUAW? We've had our job boards up for a week now, making sure all the tape would stick when new jobs were posted, and I'm proud to say that the doors are wide open for job...
TUAW Video: a tour of Freeverse
Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many, many TUAW Videos to come. We've done lots of video on TUAW, from Macworld Expo coverage to WWDC interviews to fart apps and more. This time we're... Hands-on with the Magic Mouse
Well, I got my Magic Mouse a few days ago, and I've been using it for my everyday tasks for a few days (and I'm still using it), and here are my impressions. Packaging: This packaging is... Also of interest:

• TUAW Review: Kanex HDMI + audio adapter works fine but costs extra
• TUAW Gift Guides: Gifts for tech-savvy women
• Waveboard on the iPhone, Google Wave access slightly better than Mobile Safari

TUAWThe week in TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although it has some quirks, the variety of features and the high customizability that the Hero smartphone offers is hard to beat.

Filed under: Software, Blogging, Internet Tools, iPhone, App Store

After a long wait, Squarespace customers finally have an iPhone app of their own. Squarespace is a hosted blogging/CMS service that competes with the likes of WordPress.com and Typepad. Having used all three, I can say that interacting with Squarespace (posting, changing your site's look and feel, etc.) is unlike the others. Instead of a separate control panel/dashboard, Squarespace previews changes in real time on the same screen. It's really nice.

The iPhone app [iTunes link] seems to be an extension of its browser-based sibling. For example, check out the live preview mode pictured at right. You can also manage multiple accounts, post, upload multiple images at once (awesome) view stats and more. The UI looks nice as well.

While bloggers on other platforms have had compatible apps in the App Store for a while now, this is Squarespace's first solution. We're eager to play around with it. Squarespace for iPhone is free and requires a paid Squarespace account.

TUAWSquarespace hosting/CMS service launches iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple today announced a Reserve and Pick Up program that allows customers to reserve products online and pick them up at a local retail store between December 15 and 24.

Filed under: Software, iPhone

We're seeing a lot of updates to navigation applications, and the latest is for the CoPilot Live app [iTunes link] for the iPhone. As promised, the company has updated the map data to fix mistakes or omissions that were reported by users. The latest update also adds iPod controls within the app, which many users were requesting.

The update fixes a reported address search issue, improves GPS reception and makes some improvements to the user interface.

The previous version of the U.S. $34.99 app added text to speech and a better method of text entry.

As we've mentioned before, the competition in nav apps is going to get very interesting if Apple allows the Google nav app into the app store. It will be free, and has a host of features that are not currently available in the paid apps that are shipping for the iPhone now.

With the FCC watching the relationship between Google and Apple, I'm thinking Apple will have to let the app in, but Apple has surprised me before, and not always in a positive way.

TUAWCoPilot Live for iPhone updates features and maps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OOO Gameprom returns with another pinball adventure, this one set in a watery underworld. It's a fun game, with the 1.1 update improving upon the original release.

Filed under: Software, Deals

How does a 20% discount sound? How about 20% off software from over 30 developers? This list has been growing since One Finger Discount started this week and continues to grow as developers jump on board with a pretty darn good deal if you're in the market for any one of these awesome applications. They run the gamut from productivity to games to blogging software.

Kudos to Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software for putting these deals together on one page, somewhat cheekily as a response to MacHeist, it would seem. The One Finger? Well, that comes from 1/5, 20% discount as opposed to a five-finger discount (free). 20% is still a steal, right? Very clever, Mr. Jalkut -- we'll leave the readers to consider which finger they should order with.

[via Macworld]

TUAWTons of software on sale thanks to One Finger Discount originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Macworld Lab has been hard at work tweaking Speedmark, our overall system performance testing tool, to better accommodate Snow Leopard and to test the Macs on which it runs.

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone

Photo courtesy of flickr: Thijs Jacobs Back in April 2009, TUAW's Dave Caolo posted a video showing off the potential (and some of the potential annoyances as well) and possibilities of an RFID-enabled iPhone world via an iPhone RFID prototype by Near Field. And, according to a Near Field Communications blog posting, Apple is said to have equipped prototypes of the next-generation iPhone with RFID readers.

How awesome would it be if, instead of using my Mobil Speedpass, I could turn to my iPhone and swipe that against the gas pumping station to pay for gas? And, because there may eventually be "an app for that," I may also be able to view my current balance and fuel economy statistics. Or, instead of needing to put a FasTrak transponder atop my windshield (which is annoying), I could simply put my iPhone on the dashboard as I cross the toll road. I could then view my balance, as well as fill up my credits on the fly. These are just some examples of RFID applications in use today.

TUAWRFID coming to iPhones? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A pair of irritating symptoms have made Ted Landau's experience with Apple's latest mouse less than magical.

Filed under: Accessories, Reviews

Like many of the others at TUAW who really wanted to see this remote, I got my new Apple Remote a few days ago, and here are some of my impressions.

Continue reading Hands-on with the new Apple Remote

TUAWHands-on with the new Apple Remote originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Serious craft from Japan’s Mobile Art Lab in transforming the iPhone into an amazing interactive image in a children’s story book from the future. I love it. All kids should get one for Christmas. You can read what it’s all about in this Google Translation of their page. Via dsonz

xGestures is a program that allows mouse movements to trigger menu items, keystrokes, and AppleScripts; it's recently been updated to work with Snow Leopard.

Indie Mac developer Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software has been highly critical of the now-perennial MacHeist promotion in the past. MacHeist relies on deep discounts and giveaways to drum up a wider audience for software. The deals are so good for consumers, in fact, that it's not too far from getting software with a "five-finger discount." So Jalkut enlisted other like-minded developers to offer "One Finger Discount," a 20 percent-off sale coinciding with MacHeist's latest nanoBundle promotion.

MacHeist's promotion is a selection of six Mac apps, including WriteRoom and Twitterrific, that have a combined retail value of $154. For one week only, these apps are available for free. While the promotion offers a lot of exposure for smaller, independent developers, developers end up with lots of customers and not much money. It also has a potential downside in that it could give users the notion that software should cost next to nothing.

Autodesk's app is one of the better painting and drawing apps on the iPhone. It's the rare app that appeals to both novices and professionals.

The Big Apple's newest Mac store is opening on the Upper West Side next Saturday

Source: Apple Inc.

Media invitations went out Friday for a press preview of the new Apple Store in Manhattan — the city's fourth — scheduled to be unveiled Saturday, Nov. 14.

The store, located on a nearly triangular site at Broadway and 67th Street, is well-positioned to get attention from the crowds and TV cameras heading for Central Park West to catch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade less than two weeks later.

New York City has been good to Apple (AAPL). The glass cube of its flagship store is believed to be the highest-grossing retail outlet on Fifth Avenue, bringing in an estimated $35,000 per square foot, nearly double the gross of Tiffany's sales floor and triple Harry Winston's, according to a New York real estate expert interviewed by Bloomberg reporters last summer.

Below the fold: Photographs showing the plastic faux curtain that's covering the building site and the curve of the store's unusual glass roof, courtesy of ifoAppleStore.com.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Photo: ifoAppleStore

Photo: ifoAppleStore

NOTE: An earlier version of this story had the Macy's parade route wrong. It's been changed. It will start this year at Central Park West and 77th St., pass through Columbus Circle and then head over to 7th Ave. See here.

This week’s picks from Mac Games and More is a collection of various games you might not have heard of, to take you into the weekend. Included in the selection: a road trip across the U.S. playing 9-Ball, swashbuckling musketeers duking it out in 17th century France, a county fair empire ruled by you [...]