Black Friday Sales

Are you looking for a new Mac this holiday season? Perhaps a really nice gift for that special someone? Check out MacRumors Black Friday sales page. They've broken down the best deals on new iMac's, MacBooks, MacBook Pro's and iPods so you don't have to run around checking ads, visiting various websites, etc. Oh and if you're like my brother, who just bought a new MacBook Pro three days ago, sorry about your luck. You could've waited until today and saved an extra hunsky.

The Apple Store even has a few things on sale as well, so if you prefer to buy directly from our favorite fruit company, here you go.

Joseph Henry

Happy Thanksgiving!

From all of us to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving!

iPhone 3G Case Review Part 5: More-thing.com's Noel Collection Metallic Series Case

Just in time for Black Friday, the next installment of our Fall iPhone Case Review has been posted over in the Reviews section. This time we take a look at More-thing's Noel Collection Metallic Series case. To see how it fared, continue reading after the jump.

Pixelmator Updated to 1.3.1

The Pixelmator team today updated Pixelmator to version 1.3.1. The updated brings a new Color Management Sheet and a new Refine Selection tool. With the new Color Management Sheet Pixelmator seeks to simplify the process of color management which is often one of the hardest things to grasp for beginning digital photographers and artists. The Color Management Sheet brings all the color management tools into one place for easy selection.

The Refine Selection tool offers users the ability to dramatically improve selections made with selection tools. The tool features Smooth, Feather and size settings and of course works in real-time so you can see the results instantaneously.

Other improvements included in the update are improved Type tool stability, user interface tweaks and compatibility improvements, as well as some bug fixes. The update is free to all existing Pixelmator owners and new users can get the full Pixelmator 1.3.1 for $59.

MacJournals Digs Into Safari's New Anti-Phishing Feature

MacWorld.com is running an excerpted version of MWJ's examination of Safari's new anti-phishing feature. The excerpt is at times a little deep but not so much that the average reader can't follow along. If you're discerning enough to be reading AYAAW then you're way above average so the article shouldn't pose a problem for you. Anyway, the excerpt is very interesting and highlights a problem with our favorite fruit branded company: transparency. It also goes into depth on Google's Safe Browsing technology and how Safari uses it in it's new anti-phishing feature.

MWJ has a problem with Apple's reluctance to tell it's users what it's doing with data transmitted from Safari to Google. In the conclusion they state:

This is not how companies like Apple are expected to behave towards their customers, even if Firefox already had the same feature. Mozilla is very clear about how Firefox does this. Apple refuses to say anything about how Safari does this, and for no other reason than that the company simply thinks so little of its customers that it doesn’t feel the need to keep them informed about data Safari transmits on their behalf. For a Web browser to do things like this without explicit documentation is inexcusable.

We’re not so sure we agree with the statement “the company simply thinks so little of its customers” but it would be nice if Apple were a little more forthcoming about issues dealing with user privacy. Don't take our word for it, though, read the article and come to your own conclusions. Then, if you have anything "above average" to say about it, post a comment.

Give Good Food To Your Mac

Give Good Food To Your Mac is back and this years software line up is impressive. Over 65 apps are available during the promotional period. Four of our all time favorite apps are included in the promo: BannerZest Pro, Yummy Soup, Together and RapidWeaver (of course). Here's how Give Good Food To Your Mac works: buy any three of the 65+ apps and receive 30% off your total order, buy any 4 apps and receive 40% off, buy 5 or more apps and receive 50% off. Do the math and that's a heck of a deal. You'd normally pay $316 for our 4 favorite apps and Pulp Motion (we own it but just haven't had a chance to play with it much). If you buy them from Give Good Food To Your Mac you only pay $158! Sound too good to be true? Well it's not but you do have to act fast. As of the writing of this post you only have 5 days, 19 hours, 20 minutes and 27 seconds to make your purchase.

Here's a sampling of some of the other apps offered in this deal:

Toon Boom Studio
Tangerine
Relationship
Pear Note
Nutritionist
Hydra 1.6 + Aperture Plug-in
Comic Boom
Bee Docs' Timeline
Many, many more!

Walk don't run (virtually) over to the Give Good Food To Your Mac page and order up some goodies for your Mac. You won't find better prices anywhere.

iPhone 3G Case Review Part 4: Speck SeeThru

We've posted the next installment of our Fall iPhone Case Reviews over in the Reviews section. This time we take a look at Speck's SeeThru. To see how it fared, continue reading after the jump.

yabdab Software Releases FormLoom Beta

yabdab Software, makers of the PayLoom and GoogaLoom plug-ins for RapidWeaver, announced today the immediate availability of FormLoom. FormLoom is a plug-in designed to create forms that go beyond what the Contact page included with RapidWeaver can do. FormLoom offers the following features:

• AJAX Powered (never leave the page submission).
• Include CC and BCC addresses.
• Limit which files can be attached based on file extension.
• Filter input for possible spam injections.
• Includes reCaptcha security questions.
• Send Receipt email to sender.
• Custom Success message to sender.
• Customize look with CSS
• Automated MySQL Entry (coming in final release)

Requirements for building and serving up FormLoom pages are:

RapidWeaver 4
Server running PHP 5 or better.
Server running MySQL 5 or better (optional).

We here at AYAAW are very excited about this new plug-in and we've even thrown together a Contact Us page using it. Unfortunately there are a few kinks to work out yet so don't bother trying to send us anything through the page. We won't get it. Don't worry, as soon as its functional we'll let you know.

Apple Offering "iPhone Your Life" Website

Apple debuted a new website Friday designed to help new iPhone owners get the most out of their phones. The "iPhone Your Life" site offers up app recommendations for:

• Around Town
• World Travel
• At Home
• Getting Things Done
• Fun and Games

There are also links to an iPhone Tips and Tricks section, App of the Week and Top Apps.

If you've owned your iPhone for awhile you probably won't find anything new and startling here but it seems like a pretty nice place for new owners.

Invoking Google Maps Street View

How do you invoke Google Maps Street View? Do you know? We do and we're not telling. Just kidding! We'll tell you but you have to take a trip to the 3G Survival Guide to find out.

Apple Releases iPhone And iPod Touch Firmware Version 2.2

Unless you're living under a rock you know Apple released iPhone/iPod Touch Firmware version 2.2 on Friday. The update brings enhancements to:

Google Maps

• Google Street View.
• Public Transit and Walking Directions.
• Share Location Via Email.

Mail

• Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email.
• Improved formatting of wide HTML email.

Safari

• Improved stability and performance.
• Rearranged menu bar to included both the Google Search box and the URL address.

Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages.
Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen.
Preferences to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard settings.
Direct downloading of Podcasts from the iTunes Music Store.

For all the details and a list of undocumented 2.2 features and enhancements read the MacRumors article.

Our favorite feature is the enhancement to the Home button. When you have app spread like we do this is a welcomed addition indeed. Below you find a few screen shots of the various enhancements, and if you haven't already done so, get to downloading version 2.2. We've experienced no downside to the update.

RapidWeaver MultiTool 2 $12 On MacZot

RapidWeaver MultiTool 2 will be on sale today over at MacZot for the low, low price of $12.00. Normally a $20 application this companion app to RapidWeaver makes swapping out RapidWeaver theme graphics a cinch. With a simple drag and drop approach, RW MultiTool 2 allows you to replace many of the theme elements quickly and easily without have to know anything about theme or how they're made.

RW MultiTool 2 also includes many image editing tools so you can tweak the look of your graphics or images until they're just right: layer transparency, Text tool, flip, rotate and scale, hue, saturation and brightness, filters and borders. As always, you can try RW MultiTool 2 before you buy but the sale does end at midnight tonight so don't dilly dally too long. If you've ever wanted to change a graphic or the look of your RapidWeaver project's theme, but didn't know how, look no further than RW MultiTool 2.

New Item In The 3G Survival Guide

Just a quick FYI: we've posted a portion of yesterday's Bulging Laptop Batteries And My iPhone Battery Tale Of Woe article (the part about the iPhone battery) in the 3G Survival Guide. There are some good tips in there which have dramatically increased my battery time so head on over to the guide and check them out.

Building Better 404 Pages

Hey all you budding RapidWeaver's check out our hot-off-the-presses Building Better 404 Pages tutorial over in the RapidWeaver Tutorial section. We give you the low down on creating custom 404 redirect pages that not only make life easier on your website's visitors but it'll make Google happier. After all, that's what its all about right? Making Google spiders happy. ;-)

Bulging Laptop Batteries And My iPhone Battery Tale Of Woe

Bulging Laptop Batteries

While perusing the iTunes app store the other day we stumbled upon a new app from Consumer Reports. The app is free and as we’ve so often mentioned, free is good so we downloaded it straight away.

Upon launching the app for the first time, however, we were shocked and dismayed to find the first article about “bulging” Apple laptop batteries. Apparently this isn’t an isolated issue and many MacBook and MacBook Pro owners have experienced similar issues.

Consumer Reports reported the issue to Apple and after a fairly lengthly customer service call to Apple they were authorized an immediate overnight shipment of a new battery.

Aside from the long call, this speaks to why Apple tops our annual survey on computer tech support.

states Consumer Reports.

Oh and the free Consumer Reports is kind of cool as well. Check it out on iTunes here. If you want to read the online version of "Apple's Bloating Batteries" check it out over at Consumer Reports.

iPhone Battery Tale Of Woe

Speaking of batteries, my iPhone has been suffering progressively worsening battery life. I’d start the day off fully charged and by supper I’d be at or getting close to 20% left. This was odd as I’d not overly taxed the phone. I’d probably use an hour or so of Talk Time, checked my email every hour or so and brought up iCal 10 or 15 times. I'd also take a trip to Twitterland via Twitterrific (now replaced by Tweetsville by the way) and maybe use a few other apps along the way but did nothing that I felt should be running the battery down that fast.

A visit to Apple’s support forums has hopefully nipped this issue in the bud. Seems that although lithium-ion batteries like the ones in iPhones and iPods don’t suffer from “memory” problems like NiCad batteries do (we all knew that) they do benefit from completing complete charging cycles. Apparently this tunes the charging circuitry so that your phone knows when it’s fully charged and when it needs charging.

That day I let my phone discharge completely, to the point that it was at 5% and would only offer me the option to make an emergency call or charge the phone. I plugged the phone into a wall outlet for 5 or 6 hours and now everything seems to be back to normal.

Here’s a link to the myriad battery charging threads in the discussions forums. Apple also posted this interesting and useful lithium-ion battery tips page as well as this iPhone specific battery tips page. I believe much if not all of this info is contained in one of my many owners manuals but who reads those things?
Er, maybe I should. Nah!

For those too lazy to click on links, here are the iPhone specific tips Apple suggests. The ones in bold and underlined were news to me:

• Minimize the use of location services
• Fetch new data less frequently
• Turn off push mail
• Auto-check fewer email accounts
• Minimize the use of third party applications
• Turn off WiFi
• Turn off Bluetooth
• Use Airplane mode in low or no coverage areas
• Adjust brightness
• Turn off EQ
• Turn off 3G

Ok, lets get real. The reason I own an iPhone is solely (almost, I do use the phone for "phoning" people occasionally) for using third party applications so that one is just ridiculous. Also, putting the phone in Airplane mode kind of defeats the purpose of having a cell phone, doesn't it?

Anyway, the tips are good and along with following the monthly charging cycle tip I'm hoping to get more out of my iPhone's battery. One more little tidbit I hadn't even thought of:

Make sure your computer is on while charging iPhone via USB. If iPhone is connected to a computer that’s turned off or is in sleep or standby mode, the iPhone battery may drain. That's

a quote straight from the iPhone Battery tip page. I knew it wouldn't charge when the computer is turned off (duh!) but didn't know about the sleep or standby mode thingy. That's some good info!

iPhone 3G Case Review Part 3: Clear Naked

We've posted the next installment of our Fall iPhone Case Reviews over in the Reviews section. This time we take a look at Case-mate's Clear Naked. To see how it fared, continue reading after the jump.

And Yet Another Twitter App For Your iPhone: Tweetsville

It had to happen sooner or later. I finally paid for an iPhone Twitter app. I'm not sure which is more disturbing, that I paid for an app that has many, many free alternatives or that I'm tweeting at all. First, generally speaking, I don't mind ad supported apps especially Twitter apps. I've been using Twitterrific and I've tried both Twitterlator and Twitterfon. I'm getting good at tuning out advertising. For whatever reason, though, today I just had to pay for an iPhone Twitter client.

The weird part of this whole thing is that I'm still Tweeting after I swore, not 5 months ago, that I'd never become a Tweeter and that I thought it was probably the biggest waste of time yet conceived by mankind. Seriously, does anyone really care what I'm doing right now? I sure as heck don't care what you're doing so don't Tweet it.

Twitter, however, grows on you. Sort of like ear hair. You don't really know why it's there but you still end up paying way too much attention to it. I vowed back in July to give it a try for a few weeks and I'm happy/sad to say I'm still Twittering. Worse, I'm buying Twitter apps.

Anyway, Tweetsville is a nice Twitter iPhone app and goes for a reasonable $3.99. I'm finding that I much prefer it's UI over Twitterrific: it's a very clean and standard iPhone UI. The search option is handy as well and something that Twitterrific is lacking.

If you're ready to make the leap to a paid Twitter client for your iPhone, I'd highly recommend you take a good look at Tweetsville.

Joseph Henry

Leopard 10.5.6 Focus On MobileMe

AppleInsider is reporting that the latest Leopard build seems to be geared toward improving MobileMe syncing with portables under various circumstances. The build also includes the usual laundry list of bug fixes. As of today we've not heard of any timetable for the release of the next Leopard update. We'll keep you posted.

Pixelmater 1.3 Released

Yesterday the brothers Dailide (Saulius and Aidas Dialide are the creators of Pixelmator) announced the immediate availability of Pixelmator 1.3, code named Tempo. The update provides more than a few bug fixes, major performance improvements, click-and-drag Magic Wand, Paint Bucket and Eraser tools, improved Hue and Saturation, Replace Color and Colorized tools, a Smart Palette hiding feature and more.

Pixelmator 1.3 Tempo delivers performance gains in almost every function of the application. It takes even more advantage than before of Core Image, OpenGL, and the power of other Mac-only technologies so that dramatic performance improvements are easily seen when one is working with large images—opening and saving, using filters and adjustments, and more.

We haven't had any time to play with the new version but it sounds like a great update. We use Pixelmator on a regular basis here at AYAAW so we're pretty excited about taking Tempo for a test drive. Do you use Pixelmator? What do you think about the latest version? Post your comments in the comment section.

For more info on the update check out the official Pixelmator Press Release.

You can download the latest version here (if you're a new customer) or just use the built in auto updater.

iPhone Number One "Handset Purchased By Adults" In The Third Quarter

Whew! I was worried about that: the iPhone being the leading handset purchased by adults in the third quarter that is. Really, I was losing sleep. Ok, in all seriousness, the iPhone overtaking Motorola's Razr is pretty big stuff and a testament to what a great piece of technology the iPhone really is. We already knew that the iPhone was crushing the Blackberry in satisfaction among the business crowd. Add this latest Razr tidbit to the mix and you've got definitive proof that the iPhone is already the technology and smart phone of tomorrow, and we lucky Apple iPhone users clutch it in our sweaty little palms today.

This news won't come as a surprise to anyone who actually use an iPhone everyday. After Apple fixed all the problems associated with the 2.0 debacle the iPhone, at least mine, has been nothing short of stellar. I've not experiences a single Silver Apple of Death screen since and I've not had to do even one restore and reset. Woo hoo!

If you look beyond the 8,000 Tip apps, 200 million Sudoku apps and the 225 "I have to take this call and oh by the way I need to leave" emergency bad date call apps the iPhone and the iTunes apps store have been an astonishing success. There is only one company that could've pulled this off and it's Apple. Don't argue Windoz fan boys you know it's true. Just as Microsoft brought affordable computing to billions (okay, the Windows experience can hardly be called computing) Apple has brought an amazing smart phone and application infrastructure to the masses. So go suck eggs Balmer!

The iPhone platform based on Leopard is truly a revolution. All hail the revolution (gratuitous Blue Oyster Cult link)!

Joe Henry

Steve Jobs Successor?

CNN's Fortune Magazine is speculating on who will be Steve Jobs successor. This is always a hot topic and one which analysts and industry observers tend to get excited about. You can't blame them, though. Thinking of an Apple post Jobs sends shivers down our collective AYAAW spine. It will happen someday, however, and speculation is always good fodder for pundits, Wall Street and Apple observers alike.

The big question is, of course, would Apple continue to thrive as the industry leader in design and innovation with Jobs gone? Who at Apple would be able to take the company reins without negatively affecting continued product innovation, financial growth and the stellar profits Apple has been posting quarter after quarter? We sure as heck don't know but after every MacWorld keynote, Developers Conference and/or product introduction where Jobs shares the stage, potential CEO successor names get thrown about. At this point in time, Furtune's Adam Lashinsky seems to have fingered the logical choice in Tim Cook. It's not the first time his name his name has come up in this discussion and it certainly won't be the last.

One surprising omission in the article is Phil Shiller, Apples Senior VP of WorldWide Product Marketing. Seems logical that a marketing guy should be included in any Apple successor discussion but Lashinsky must not think so.

Anyway, the article is a good read and we highly recommend it. It offers up some good insight on an Apple exec you don't often hear a lot about and why he may or may not be Jobs' successor.

The Onion Now Offering ONN Video On iTunes

The Onion is now offering it's ONN video content on iTunes. You can subscribe here (iTunes store link). According to the Onion News Network (Video) podcast page "The Onion News Network is the 24-hour cable TV news choice for billions of viewers in 811 countries. Now the hard-hitting, award-winning news you need is available anytime and anywhere you want."

In case you haven't had the pleasure of reading the Onion or watching Onion video, it is without a doubt the funniest fake news outfits there is. The Onion's satire and parodies will make you laugh out loud and possibly even double over in pain from laugh cramps. It's seriously funny stuff. Seriously.

We here at AYAAW are regular readers of the Onion's online version including ONN videos. Now we can even enjoy ONN content on our iPhone! What could be better then that?

Our favorite clip of all time has to be "Breaking News: Series Of Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot". It's truly hilarious! So Onion readers what's your favorite? Post it in the comments. You mom always told you it's good to share.

iPhone 3G Case Reviews Part 2

FYI, we've posted the second iPhone 3G case review over in our Reviews section. This time we take a look at PDO's Sleek Crystal polycarbonate case.

RapidWeaver Plugs Releases Styled Text +

Gary Byrd of RapidWeaver Themes and Mudbug Software (maker of Webify), and Ollie Levy have teamed up as RapidWeaver Plugs and have released a killer RapidWeaver plug-in as their inaugural offering: Styled Text +. Styled Text + is a new page type that builds on the Styled Text page included with RapidWeaver by adding a dedicated header and footer area on each page. The header and footer are set up as mini Styled Text pages within the page so you have all the regular Styled Text page tools at your disposal. This is a truly sweet plug-in and RapidWeaver Plugs is selling it for the absurdly low price of $5. If you use RapidWeaver for building sites and use the Styled Text page Styled Text + will quickly pay for itself in time saved not having to fiddle with snippets or trying to decipher all the code you have pasted into your Styled Text pages. We love it here at AYAAW and are already using it on our site.

Download the demo and try it out before you buy.

iPhone 3G Case Reviews Part 1

If you remember back in October we promised to bring you the most complete iPhone 3G case review ever. That was a pretty lofty goal and we’re not sure we can live up to it. It’s the whole “ever” thing that we may have a problem with. Besides, trying to review a whole slew of cases at once, well we just weren’t using our noodle. So what are we going to do about it? Instead of all the cases all at once, we’re going to break it down a bit and spread the reviews out over the next few weeks. In the end we hope to come down to a couple of favorites and we’ll tell you why.

To get the low-down on the first case we're reviewing head on over to the Reviews page and check out Griffin Technology's Clarifi.

Numerous News Outlets Reporting iPhone Tethering Soon

AppleInsider, among others, is reporting that "AT&T Mobility chief executive Ralph De La Vega has disclosed that a carrier-sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for notebooks will be announced soon." The news came during an interview with De La Vega by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. De La Vega stopped short of providing any details about the plan including pricing.

Tethering has long been a no brainer for the iPhone, after all it is arguably the most advanced device of it's kind and AT&T offers tethering for it's Blackberry customers for an additional $30 per month. Now that the iPhone is capable of 3G speeds it's only more so of a no brainer.

Earlier this year NetShare by NullRiver was pulled from the iTunes App store because it enabled iPhone tethering. AT&T sited that too many iPhone users trying to tether their laptop with the phone would overextend their network without having to pay any additional fees.

MacWorld Reporting No New Products For The Holiday Season

MacWorld's Jim Dalrymple is reporting that Apple has no plans for any hardware updates during the holiday season despite rumors stating the opposite. Dalrymple quotes Apple spokesman Bill Evans: "our holiday lineup is set". A number of Apple related rumor sites were reporting that Apple would release new iMacs and update Mac Minis. Also rumored were Mac Pros set to debut at MacWorld Expo in January.

So kiddies, looks like there won't be any updated or new Apple goodies under your Christmas tree this year. Don't let that stop Santa from leaving a new iPhone, iPod, or Mac in your stocking, however. Better get to writing that letter to Santa ASAP.

Vector Designer 1.4.6 Released

VectorDesigner 1.4.6

TweakerSoft $69.95

TweakerSoft announced today the immediate availability of Vector Designer 1.4.6. The new version includes support for the new MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air multi gesture touchpad. TweakerSoft also says that the new version squashes some minor bugs and improves performance. TweakerSoft bills VectorDesigner as "the perfect application for vector drawings, diagrams and illustrations, raster image handling, filtering and color correction. Out of the box, it offers everything users need to create professional level vector artwork."

By leveraging the full capabilities of Quartz and Core Image, VectorDesigner retains the feel of traditional drawing applications and features a wide assortment of tools, including smart shapes, rectangles, ovals, rounded rectangles, polygons, stars, bezier creation and editing, as well as raster to bezier conversion.

Combine shapes using unite, subtraction, xor and intersection boolean tools. Text can be fitted inside a shape or along a path preserving all the text editing capability of Mac OS X. All filters and composition may be applied non-destructively to shapes and images. A particularly useful feature is the integrated flickr browser; search texture and images by tags, or by color and download them directly inside the document.

VectorDesigner Features:

* Smart Shapes
* Bezier Creation and Editing
* Text inside shape
* Text along Path
* Layers Support
* Raster To Vector Conversion
* Native Core Image and Quartz Composer Image filters
* Image adjustment panel
* Booleans Operations
* iSight integration
* Scanner Integration
* Flickr Browser
* EPS and PDF import
* SVG Import (WebKit based)
* iLife photo Browser
* QuickLook Support

Minimum Requirements

* Mac OS X Version 10.4 or higher
* Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
* G4, G5 or Intel Processor
* 900 Mhz or faster
* 512 MB Memory or higher
* 8.9 MB Hard Drive space

You can get your of VectorDesigner for $69.95 but the update is free for existing owners. VectorDesigner is a pretty slick app and we use it here at AYAAW all the time. It brings an affordable vector graphics editor to non-designers that's simple and intuitive to use. TweakerSoft also provides some very nicely done podcasts that help new users learn to use VectorDesigner. Head on over to TweakerSoft to download a demo of VectorDesigner and then get started by subscribing to the podcast.

Netfix Opens Beta Watch Instantly to Most Intel Mac Users

Netflix has opened it's Microsoft Silverlight based "Watch Instantly" option to most Intel Mac users. If you're interested in participating in the program your system needs to meet the following:

• Intel Base Mac
• Tiger 10.4.8 or later
• 1GB of RAM
• Safari 3 or Firefox 2

Netflix notes that this is a beta player and if you opt in, you may experience problems watching movies on your computer. They also point out that some movies aren't available to watch instantly (we're willing to bet most aren't available) and that if you join the beta program you will no longer be able to watch instantly using Windows Media Player. Ok that last was directed at Windows user but we figured we should probably include it anyways just in case someone out there is using Boot Camp or virtualization software to Watch Instantly on their Mac.

So, if you're into watching movies on your Mac, your options for watching streaming content legally just got a boost. Check out Netfix's blog for more details and if you want to jump in here's the opt in link.