Mac News
Instapaper Enhancements Just in Time for the Release of the iPad
Monday, 15 March 2010 12:35    Print E-mail
Instapaper ProInstapaper Pro has long been a great way to load your iPhone with content that you can browse at leisure--even if you don't have a wireless connection. Now they've enhanced it in version 2.2 with pagination, dictionary (Wiktionary) lookup, an in-app browser, and email support.

Instapaper lets you download web pages into your iPhone so they can be viewed offline later. A simple add-on to Safari and Firefox adds a "Read Later" bookmark to select sites for Instapaper. It does a good job of extracting the text so you don't have to worry about trying to pinch-zoom or accidentally side scrolling. You can easily change the font size for easy reading. In the past, you had to either set the pages to scroll continuously or use the "tilt-scroll" feature. Tilt scroll is admittedly sexy, scrolling the page slowly as you tilt the phone. But like most eye-candy the fascination wears off quickly. The new pagination feature works like most e-readers; just touch the bottom or top of the screen to turn pages.

Reading the latest article from Wired and stumped by one of the new buzzwords? Now you can just tap a word to highlight it and click to look it up; the word's entry in Wiktionary pops up. For those without iPhones, Instapaper also added the ability to send the page to your email rather than your phone.

The real value of Instapaper is for those getting iPads with WiFi support only. Now, you can load your article in the iPad and read it on the large screen without needing 3G support.
 
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A New Public Beta of VMWare Fusion 3.1 Delivers Long Awaited Enhancements
Monday, 15 March 2010 11:50    Print E-mail
VMWare FusionVMWare has announced the availability of the beta version of Fusion 3.1, and it includes significant enhancements that the user community has been awaiting. Perhaps most eagerly desired are the graphics enhancements for gamers and 3D applications. OpenGL 2.1 is now supported on Windows Vista and Windows 7. They claim better DirectX 9.0 SM3 performance as well (and hopefully that means more DirectX 9.0C app compatibility).

Other new features include USB "Easy Connect", a feature that is designed to help Fusion remember your preferred settings for each USB device. You can configure larger virtual machines as well, with the maximum virtual disk expanded from 950 GB to 2 TB. They now support up to 8-way symmetric multiprocessing as well.

Boot Camp virtual machines run a but more quickly--especially during the boot process, and they have improved the PC migration process. You can download the beta here, and if you do, it's a good idea to voluntarily participate in the user experience improvement program so they can use your data to make sure it's ready for prime time before the final release.
 
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Dell's New Mobile Device Aimed at iPod Touch Audience
Monday, 15 March 2010 10:22    Print E-mail
Dell StreakWe first reported rumors of the Dell Streak back in January, but details were very limited. Now, 9to5mac reports that Dell has pulled back the curtain--at least a little--to give us a better look at what's coming.

The new Mini 5 (its internal codename is the Streak, but the final name hasn't been released yet) is an Android device with a 5-inch 800x480 touchscreen. It includes a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, plus a front-facing VGA camera for video chatting.

Dell is reaching out to the style conscious, offering a wide variety of "premium finishes" and even allowing the buyer to personalize colors. They have also reached a content partnership with Amazon, including a link to the Amazon store backed up by a Kindle app for the new device and support for Amazon MP3 and Amazon video on demand. That also means 3G data support, something missing from the iPod touch.Dell Streak
 
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Apple Details iWork Features on the iPad
Monday, 15 March 2010 09:51    Print E-mail

When Apple started offering pre-orders on the iPad, it also gave away more details about the iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) for the mobile tablet device.

Pages

Pages will give you the ability to email documents as Pages, Word, or PDF attachments. You will also have the ability to import and edit Pages or Word documents into the application from an email. While you're editing a document, you can rotate the iPad for a distraction-free writing experience. You can also wirelessly connect an Apple Keyboard via Wi-Fi, or use the keyboard dock to type  out longer documents. Additionally, there are 16 document templates included in Pages for iPad.

Keynote

Keynote gives you the ability to view and edit Keynote or PowerPoint files on the iPad. The application includes 12 pre-designed themes. You can import photos and videos from your photo library to insert into your presentations, as well as choose and set slide animations and transitions. You can also use the optional display adapter to connect to a projector where slides can be presented.

Numbers

Numbers includes 16 templates for home, work, and school related spreadsheets. A full-screen mode enables you to view your documents horizontally. You can also use forms to gather data without entering information directly into a spreadsheet. Just like Pages and Keynote, you can send and import Numbers and Excel files right from your email.  

When exporting from Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, you also have the ability to upload files directly to the iWork.com beta website. Each of the iWork applications will be available for sale individually on the App Store for $9.99. They will be available for the iPad launch on April 3, 2010.

You can view all of the information about iWork, including viewing screenshots on the iPad features page.

 
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Rumor: Multitasking Coming to iPhone OS 4.0
Monday, 15 March 2010 09:25    Print E-mail
iPhone 4.0The web is buzzing today with reports that multitasking will be coming to the iPhone OS at least by version 4.0, and just maybe in 3.2. In fact, Just Another iPhone Blog shows a screen shot with an allusion to multitasking in a javascript comment block.

The iPhone OS has always supported multitasking; otherwise you wouldn't be able to receive a call while listening to music! That's also how you can continue listening to music from your iPod app while playing many games. But Apple has limited it to their own applications in the past. (Unless, of course, you did a jailbreak on your phone and ran an app like backgrounder.)

To be fair, there were some good reasons why Apple hasn't enabled multitasking of third-party apps in the past. First, apps that can run in the background without the user's knowledge are a potential opening for malware. Second, once you start loading multiple tasks at once you're going to see a real hit in battery life--which was a sticking point for many iPhone users already. Third, once you have multiple apps running, you have to give the user a new interface to switch between them--likely with additional utilities to allow the user to balance resource usage. Fourth, multiple tasks slow the system down and the processors in the iPhone won't stand up to too great a load.

In general, the lack of multitasking hasn't been a serious issue for most (other than Pandora users). The size of the screen doesn't lead a user to be thinking in terms of multiple windows anyway. But the iPad runs the iPhone OS, and with its larger screen and faster processor there will be much more demand for multitasking. It may be called the iPhone OS, but this upgrade is pointed primarily at iPad users.
 
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