Don Southard

56 posts on MacStories since September 2011

Former MacStories contributor.

[email protected]

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iTunes Match Hands On

 

It hardly seems like it has been almost 2 years since Apple acquired LaLa.com back in 2009. Since then there has been no shortage of rumors for how Lala would be utilized until Apple officially announced iTunes Match at this year’s WWDC Keynote. iTunes Match is the future for your iTunes Library. This is an exciting time for Apple fans and music lovers alike as iTunes Match aims to make it as simplistic as possible to move your music into the cloud with native applications you are already accustomed to using, all for a price that rivals every other music storage service currently available.

iTunes Match is just one feature of the new iCloud services currently rolling out. Think of it as an optional extension to your iCloud storage. The basic premise of iTunes Match is that iTunes will collect information about each song on your computer and send the data back to Apple through iTunes. Apple then checks each one of your songs to see if it can find a match between your song and one that is already on the iTunes store. If a match is found, you will be able to listen to the iTunes version. If your music is not matched then iTunes will automatically upload the music to your online music storage.

iTunes Match is available as an automatically renewing subscription of $24.99 per year and allows you to store up to 25,000 songs on Apple’s iCloud servers. On top of that, songs purchased from iTunes do not even count against your 25,000 song limitation. Your music library is accessible from an iOS 5 device, Apple TV, or any computer running the latest version of iTunes 10.5.1. The songs matched by iTunes will not need to be uploaded from your computer and will be accessible to you in 256 kbps AAC file format regardless of your songs’ previous formats. iTunes Match only deals with songs and excludes audiobooks, ringtones, iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras. Read more

Review: Galaxy on Fire 2 HD

Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is an excellent sci-fi game with an extensive storyline, massive amounts of side missions, and graphics that will render you speechless. The original version of this game has been around for almost a year but the developers have released this HD version which is optimized for devices packing Apple’s A5 processor, which include the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

The storyline holds true to the original version of Galaxy on Fire 2 but for those unfamiliar with the game, here is the back story:

A hyperdrive malfunction sends intergalactic adventurer and war hero Keith T. Maxwell tumbling through space and time. Awakening 35 years later at the far end of the galaxy, he quickly finds himself fighting for his life against a mysterious alien armada that is wreaking havoc on the warring races occupying this volatile sector of space.

The story is just interesting enough to keep me motivated to see it through to the end. The developer boasts that game has 10+ hours of gameplay and that is no lie. I have passed the 10 hour mark, have not completed the main storyline, and there are still more side missions left than I know what to do with.

You spend the majority of the game in a third person view of a spaceship and the only exception is when you are docked at a space station. In these stations you will experience text based conversations with other characters. Through conversations you will acquire more missions and receive money for successfully completing them. You can also get money by mining astroids for Ore and then selling the materials in the space station’s Hangar. Money can be used to buy more powerful spaceships and weapons, hiring wingmen, or purchasing components to build your own weapons. Different planets will have different prices for all items so there is definitely an element of economic strategy to the game. There is a Space Lounge on every planet and it is the place to go when you need a mission or want to earn some extra money. The types of missions vary from transporting cargo or passengers across the galaxy to being hired security for other citizens. Overall the gameplay is entertaining and it makes it hard to put the game down.

The real selling point of this release is the stunningly enhanced visuals. All the 3D models used in the game have been completely rebuilt and many elements such as asteroids and jumpgates are four-times the original resolution. The developers have added additional light sources for incredible realism which can be truly appreciated when taking an “Action Freeze” – it is like a screenshot except you can spin the camera around in any direction to find the best angle, utilizing the light sources to enhance the quality of the freeze frame. New textures and enhanced backgrounds all equate to an amazing visual representation of a living, breathing universe that is so immersive I guarantee you will lose track of time while playing. Read more

iOS 5 Reminders From an OmniFocus User’s Perspective

When I first got my hands on the new Reminders app in iOS 5, I launched it and scoffed under my breath. Sure it was cute but it was not for me. I have spent so much time developing a bond with OmniFocus that I don’t know if it could ever be broken. It probably sounds dramatic but OmniFocus and I have been through some hard times together, probably some of the worst in my life.

My wife hates when she sees OmniFocus projects related to something personal in our marriage but it is my trusted system and I use it for everything. I have never found a suite of applications that can do for me what OmniFocus does. I have tried so many productivity and task management apps that I refuse to count them for fear of realizing the amount of money I have wasted. I have a natural (or unnatural if you ask my wife) attraction to this genre of apps so of course I was excited to take a look at the new Reminders app.

Reminders is a simple, albeit extremely well done, list-making application. Its main appeal is the “geo-fencing” feature that will trigger a reminder based on your proximity to a predefined location. The concept is amazing to me. The only problem is Reminders does not easily integrate in to my existing system, thus I probably won’t be able to truly utilize it.

Enter Siri. Read more

Stream Wirelessly to Your HDTV with AirPlay Mirroring

AirPlay Mirroring is a new feature to iOS 5 that allows you to stream anything on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S directly to your HDTV with the help of an Apple TV.

This feature will appeal to all types of consumers. Businesses will find great value in AirPlay Mirroring because of the versatility that it brings to presentations in the workplace. As someone that works in an office setting I can tell you that there are not many affordable and reliable wireless presentation options. At a price of only $99, the Apple TV is inexpensive enough that businesses can have one in every conference room readily available for employees to stream presentations, PDFs, and even multimedia files from their compatible iOS devices. Educational institutions will be able to provide an even greater and immersive learning experience for students. Gamers will enjoy their favorite iOS games on their big screen TVs. The list goes on and on.

So how does AirPlay Mirroring work? First the iOS device and the Apple TV must be on the same wireless network. Then from the iOS device simply double tap the Home button and swipe all the way to the right. There you will find the AirPlay button that when tapped will display all of the AirPlay enabled devices on the network. As shown below, The Apple TV now has a new option labeled Mirroring. This option is off by default and you can actually continue to use AirPlay with no obligation to stream your screen to the television. Enabling the Mirroring option will immediately transmit whatever is on the screen up on to the television. The status bar at the top of the device will turn blue indicating that device is currently streaming to the Apple TV. When the device is rotated the image on the TV is rotated. When a key is pressed the software keyboard on the TV shows the key being pressed. It is quite impressive.

I found the performance of AirPlay Mirroring to be incredible. The setup I tested was an Apple TV connected over Ethernet to an Apple Airport Extreme and the iPad 2 obviously connected over WiFi. I immediately tried a few apps like Safari, FaceTime, and Photo Booth. All of them performed flawlessly on the HDTV. I remember thinking how impressive it was the first time I saw Photo Booth running on an iPad 2 and it had nine separate boxes each with a live video filter running. It was even more impressive to see the iPad mirror all of those live video filters wirelessly to my television. I also opened multiple types of files from my Dropbox app and they looked great on the big screen. When I started a video the iPad exited Mirroring mode and only played the video on the TV. When the video was stopped it switched right back in to Mirroring mode without any troubles.

Next I fired up ShadowGun to test the performance of a graphic intensive game. Once again AirPlay Mirroring did not dissapoint. It was difficult at first to look at the TV and use the controls on the iPad because they are not physical buttons but luckily you still see the controls on the television. It was a whole new experience to the play the game with audio booming out of my home theater sound system. I really enjoyed it.

AirPlay Mirroring unlocks a new array of uses for iOS devices and is a shining example of amazing integration between Apple’s products. It is just one of many new and exciting features that ship with iOS 5 for the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S.

AppleCare+ Provides Accidental Damage Protection

Apple now offers  a new AppleCare plan for iPhones called AppleCare+. This new plan is $99 and covers the device from two incidents of accidental damage. Each incident will cost you a $49 service fee to get the phone repaired. The AppleCare+ plan covers:

  • Your iPhone
  • Battery  (battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification)
  • Included earphones and accessories
  • Coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage from handling

Just like the original AppleCare plan, software support is included as well.

AppleCare+ for iPhone extends repair coverage and technical support to two years from the original purchase date of your iPhone and adds coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage due to handling, each subject to a $49 service fee.1 With AppleCare+ for iPhone, Apple experts can help troubleshoot issues over the phone or at an Apple Retail Store. They’ll answer questions about iOS, Apple iPhone apps such as Mail, iMessage, and Calendar, and help you solve interconnectivity issues between your iPhone and Mac or PC. And if your iPhone needs service under the plan, Apple technical support representatives can even set up a repair during the same call.

iPod Nano Gets Update, iPod Touch Now in White

 

Phil Schiller just announced an updated version of the iPod nano. The new model allows users to swipe between much larger icons instead of the previous grid layout with Apple’s Multi-Touch™ user interface. Other notable features include the ability to track walks and runs using  the built in Nike+ fitness app without the need for the Nike+ adapter.

Apple has also added 16 new clock faces for customers that enjoy wearing the iPod nano as a wrist watch. The clock faces have a large variety including classic analog clocks as well as Disney characters that will surely be popular among young children.

The iPod nano models:

  • 8GB for $129
  • 16GB for $149

The iPod touch have some exciting new software features that ship with iOS 5 including iMessage, Game Center, Notifications and Wi-Fi Syncing to iTunes.

The iPod touch now comes in a Black and White model, and it will be available starting October 12th.

  • 8GB for $199
  • 32GB for $299
  • 64GB for $399

The iPod shuffle is also still available in a 2GB model for $49.[Apple Press Release]

250 Million iOS Devices Sold, 18 Billion Apps Downloaded So Far

Tim Cook reported at today’s Apple keynote that iPod sales have exceeded 300 million units, with 45 million of those iPods sold since June of 2011. Also reported was that the iPhone 4 now accounts for over half of all iPhones sold.

iTunes has also seen significant growth. There are now over 20 million songs in iTunes. The number of features in the iTunes store has also increased; iTunes remains the number #1 music store worldwide and customers have downloaded over 16 billion songs.

Apple has sold over 250 million iOS devices. Tim Cook reported that 92% of Fortune 500 companies are testing and deploying the iPad. Apple’s Senior VP of iOS Software, Scott Forstall, reported over 500,000 apps are now available on the App Store, with 140,000 of them made specifically for the iPad. 18 billion apps have been downloaded so far, and over 1 billion are downloaded each month from the App Store. Apple has announced it has paid $3 billion to developers so far.

OS X Lion: 6 Million Downloads So Far, Apple Approaching 60 Million Mac Users

At Apple’s media event in Cupertino, CEO Tim Cook just announced that OS X Lion, released on July 20th, gained 6 million downloads so far on the Mac App Store, a 80% growth over the previous version, Snow Leopard. Tim Cook has also reported the iMac and MacBook Pro are the #1 desktop and notebook in the US, best representing the Mac’s 23% growth over the last year.

With the fast adoption of OS X Lion, which is sold at $29.99 on the App Store, and the popularity of the MacBook Air, Tim Cook announced Apple is nearing 60 million Mac users worldwide.

[image via]

Scripting BBEdit - Part I

I was recently listening to an episode of the popular podcast Build and Analyze where Marco Arment was discussing his experience of leaving the comfort of TextMate to test drive BBEdit for a week. The results of his experiment were similar to many others who have attempted the same feat and after that week, according to Marco, he had returned to TextMate. I once did the same experiment. A dedicated TextMate user who switched to BBEdit for no other reason than the lack of updates and BBEdit happened to be in the Mac App Store at a greatly reduced price. I jumped on the opportunity to try the legendary text editor with its newly added fullscreen, auto-save, and resume features.

The humorous part of listening to Marco describe his time with BBEdit was knowing that we shared identical opinions on all of the quirks that differentiate TextMate and BBEdit. I don’t think one is any better than the other, I just think they solve the same problem with two different methods. What features BBEdit lacks, it generally makes up for in scripting ability. It has one of the most detailed and feature-rich AppleScript dictionary I have ever seen. So as I came across quirks that I could change with AppleScript, I wrote a script for them and that is what I would like to share in this mini-series of posts. Please note these articles are intended for people that are familiar enough with BBEdit to be able to add a new script and assign a keyboard shortcut in the preferences.

Wrapping Text

The first thing that drove me absolutely crazy with BBEdit is when hitting the quotes or parentheses key while text is selected, BBEdit doesn’t wrap the text in that punctuation but instead writes over the selection.

To alleviate this issue I wrote six AppleScripts (one for each commonly wrapped punctuation) and I assigned each one a keyboard shortcut. In this situation I think the keyboard shortcut is just as important as the script itself. It has to be easy to remember and close to the position your hand is already in when typing the punctuation key. So in five of the six shortcuts I simply added the command key and it felt as natural as typing the punctuation normally. For the single quotes script I settled with the Option + Command combo because it is on the same key as the double quotes.

  • Wrap in Asterisks: ⇧ + ⌘ + *
  • Wrap in Backticks: ⇧ + ⌘ + `
  • Wrap in Brackets: ⇧ + ⌘ + ]
  • Wrap in Parentheses: ⇧ + ⌘ + )
  • Wrap in Quotes: ⇧ + ⌘ + “
  • Wrap in Single Quotes: ⌥ + ⌘ + ’

All six scripts are variations of the same code shown below:

Download these scripts here: Wrap Text scripts

Save these scripts to the directory: ~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts

Commenting Entire Line

The second feature of BBEdit that bugged me was the way commenting was implemented. Most of the time when I hit the “Comment” keyboard shortcut I actually wanted to comment out the entire line; instead, BBEdit starts the comment wherever the cursor is located. I wrote a script that reads the documents source language and comments out the entire current line using the correct syntax for that language.

For the keyboard shortcut I actually changed BBEdit’s default Un/Comment Selection to ⌥ + ⌘ + / so that I could configure my script with the default combination I was already used to: ⌘ + /

The script is configured to work with but is not limited to these languages:

  • Unix Shell Script
  • Python
  • Perl
  • Ruby
  • Java
  • Javascript
  • PHP
  • Objective-C
  • ANSI C
  • C++
  • HTML

If you don’t see the language you want it is very easy to add your own – just open the script and take a look at the code.

Download the script here: Comment Entire Line

Save these scripts to the directory: ~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Scripts

*Stay tuned for more posts on ways to really get the most out of BBEdit!