Cody Fink

1547 posts on MacStories since January 2010

Former MacStories contributor.

[email protected]

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Impressive Hack Wirelessly Mirrors iPad 2 To Display

Cables suck, and if you want to kill a presentation you need to be untethered from that fifteen foot long VGA cable tethered to that overhead projector. When a client wanted to cut the cord, some ingenuity resulted in shell housing a minimum of two components and a simple usb cable. The idea revolves around the HP Wireless TV Connect and a Cooler Master Choiix Power Fort battery pack to power the transmitter used for the iPad, connected by a simple USB cable. The HP Wireless TV Connect consists of a transmitter and a receiver: the receiver is connected to the display, while the transmitter is fed power (up to two hours) using the battery. Using a wooden block for a mold, a shell was created to house the components and sit the iPad 2 on top, with enough space to connect the cord from the dock connector to the components inside. How does it work? Asides from the bulk and the two pounds added, the wireless iPad works just as you’d expect it to. We have a video after the break if you’re curious to see how it all goes down, and if you have the time and money you too could roll your own for around $275 according to the mastermind behind it all.

[Youtube (eg0voruhk) via Reddit, MacRumors Forums]

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Amazon Cloud Player Doesn’t Work On iOS — But It’s Not A Flash Issue→

Amazon Cloud Player Doesn’t Work On iOS — But It’s Not A Flash Issue

On Android devices, Cloud Player works by way of the Amazon MP3 app. This app does not exist on the iOS platform because it would compete with Apple’s iTunes Store. Presumably, Amazon could make another stand-alone app for Cloud Player or include it in one of their other Amazon iOS apps, but Apple new platform rules on subscriptions make this a bit murky (Amazon’s Cloud Drive is free for 5 GB but costs a yearly fee for more storage).

You’d think the alternative would be to simply launch an HTML based web-app at this point. @GlennF points out that Safari can support background audio with iPhone 3 software as well, though Siegler reminds us the audio player simply doesn’t work. I worry that the lack of support for iOS devices at launch is a huge missed opportunity, especially when you could have directly insulted Apple by playing on their own turf. Now, the talk won’t be about that Amazon launched cloud based storage and streaming, but that they aren’t on the most popular media devices at launch. I’m under the presumption that Amazon wants a native app in the App Store (but can’t), but then again we’re talking about the same company that requires Android owners to install the Amazon Appstore in eight steps. Thankfully for the Amazon MP3 app, it only takes one.

On the upside, 5 GB (then 20 GB for a year if you simply buy an album) of free cloud storage is incredibly generous, and I suspect John Gruber might be right about the development of a tablet or phone to coexist with a new media ecosystem (see the 8-Steps link above).

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Amazon Launches Cloud Player for Web, Android Devices

Monday night just got a lot more interesting. Amazon has just announced their own music streaming service for the web (for all you MacBook Pro and MacBook Air owners), and Android if you’re living on the edge like I am. Current (existing) Amazon customers can get 5 GB of cloud storage free, with an upgrade to a 20 GB (free for one year) upon the purchase of a hot new album. Appropriately called a Cloud Drive, Amazon enables you to upload 5GB of your music collection (non-DRM) to the digital shelf for playback on Amazon’s Cloud Player for the Web, or Cloud Player for Android. If you’re a loyal Amazon customer, those MP3 purchases can be saved right to your cloud space thus removing the need to download to your computer. As a bonus, storing purchased Amazon MP3s to the Cloud Drive doesn’t count against your total storage. Awesome stuff! To get music to the cloud, you can use Amazon’s MP3 Uploader tool, which will scan your iTunes library and playlists so you can decide what to upload. You can check out the new addition to the Amazon family via the source link below.

Might I add, “Game on?”

Update: There’s much more to cloud storage than just meager 5 GB and 20 GB plans. Past the break, we’ve got a handy chart with prices for up to 1000 GB of cloud storage. Sure it’ll cost you, but the fact that you can actually buy that much cloud storage is intriguing (and slightly frightening).

[Amazon via Engadget]

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Giveaway: Ten Copies of DoublePane for Mac Up for Grabs

DoublePane is an app for those maniacs who like to stay on the keyboard, but want complete control over window positions on their Mac. Similar to what you’d get on a Windows 7 machine, you can replicate the Snap functionality with a few keystrokes by snapping windows left or right, and make them fullscreen if you need to utilize the app’s full real-estate. The latest edition of DoublePane allows global shortcuts for every action, and will now restore the window’s original position before you activated the snap. It’s a great menubar utility (especially if you want to keep a web browser and a word processor open for research), and only costs $2.99 in the Mac App Store. The latest features in DoublePane vastly improve the whole snapping experience, and we want to give away ten copies so you have further control over the desktop space on your Mac. Giveaway info and rules can be had after the break.

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Fruit Ninja Recreated In Motion Tracking Simulator

What’s better than slicing fruit on your virtual touchscreen? How about slicing fruit with a virtual lightsaber? Four students at the FH Wedel University of Applied Sciences in Germany took it upon themselves to implement Fruit Ninja with a Wiimote, 5.1 sound, and something called CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). Haptic feedback can be felt through the floor (what the students call a “butt-kick”), and a total of four displays surround students as they stand within an enclosure and wave a Wiimote. Bombs explode, beam swords are raised, and it could be the next Dance Dance Revolution if you’re for a good cardio workout. It’s certainly more practical than real life Fruit Ninja. Check out the vid after the break.

[thegadgetsite via Crunchgear]

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Kalimat Takes On Words With Friends; Remix For Speed Play

If you haven’t had enough of word based tile games for your iPhone, Kalimat is ready to take on Scrabble and Words With Friends as your go to game of choice. While I’m personally not a fan of the OpenFeint ecosystem in general, I was able to anonymously create a new profile with a gamer name to play online. Kalimat is interesting not because of differentiation in run of the mill gameplay, but because of its additional remix mode. Remix mode is interesting because there’s a timer (no casual thinking / cheating here), and you can swap out one letter per turn. The speed based gameplay is pretty wicked, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. There is also an additional secret tile (kind of like landing on a bonus in Jeopardy… okay it’s nothing like that) that awards you an additional fifty points. The Ali Baba can change the game at any time, so you’ll always want to be thinking of high scoring words to stay ahead. Kalimat supports multiple users, and the game board itself is easy to use with simple drag and drop controls. If a player drops a word on the board you’re unfamiliar with, you can look it up in the dictionary or simply chat with your opponent. For $2.99 in the App Store, Kalimat is a refreshing alternative in the word-game genre.

Keep Your Files Safe! Two Copies Of Disk Drill Pro Up For Grabs

Your Mac can be kind of a jerk sometimes ya know? I mean, it’s totally not your fault that you accidentally dropped that school report in the bucket then emptied the trash the day before it was due. But not to fear: Disk Drill for the Mac knows right where’s it been marked for deletion, and yanks it right from our hard drive (without boring any holes). And if you’re just buying Disk Drill, a deep scan should uncover just what you’re looking for. You need Disk Drill as assurance against unfortunate mishaps, lost files, and damaging deletions. Not only will Disk Drill protect your home folder, but it’ll keep an eye on your hard drive’s health so you’ll never have to worry about a dying disk. And if all goes haywire: just back up your documents to a disk image! It’s that simple, and Disk Drill comes in free and pro versions so you can decide what’s right for you. Super easy to use, we’re giving away two licenses to a couple lucky readers.

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Samurai II For Mac: Good, Bloody Fun

For fans of the original Samurai: Way of the Warrior, we ended on quite the cliffhanger. Confronting your demons, things hadn’t turned out exactly as planned. In Samurai II: Vengeance (now on the Mac App Store), the quest for revenge will leave no prisoners. Cel-shaded environments mix with 3D combatants for a hack & slash adventure that takes you through the second chapter of the Samurai story line.

Heads up: there are some graphic screenshots behind the break (those swords can be pretty sharp), where we take a look at how well Samurai II fares with a keyboard or mouse.

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Instacast 1.1 Casts New Features, Updated Playback Controls

If you’ve been consuming podcasts with Instacast or have been waiting for some more features to trickle down the pipe, Vemedio has opened up the fire hose with their latest update. The interface plays a huge role in making Instacast incredibly user friendly, thus interface sounds have been added to provide the audible feedback element. That doesn’t seem like much, but the biggest improvements have been made to the playback controls. Shake your iPhone or iPod touch to rewind the podcast thirty seconds, and adjust the playback speed of your podcast (if you prefer 2x speed for example) with a simple tap on the artwork. Other interface tweaks include clearer button labeling and options to control how many unread feeds you want pouring in when you add new podcasts, and best of all there’s been lots of little bug fixes that make Instacast more pleasurable.

If you haven’t dove into to Instacast yet, now’s the time. It’s only $1.99 in the App Store, and you can supplement the recommendation with our original review.