Geekery

Your Xbox Live buddies are only an F12 away

Posted on May. 2, ’08, 9:52 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

The power of the Internet continues to amaze me—much like the power of cheese. A few months back, my longtime friend and partner-in-crime Jason complained on the blog my friends and I share that he was disappointed with all the existing Mac solutions out there for keeping track of one’s Xbox Live gamer buddies. And the Internet, my friends, answered.

Our friend Jacob mocked up a solution, which was then taken up by the industrious Andrew Baldwin. The result is a very handy Dashboard widget that lets you add the Xbox Live friends (or, potentially, enemies) you want to keep tabs on; it’ll then display their gamertag, gamer icon, and online status (or when they were last online). Now I can see how many of my pals are deeply ensconced in GTA IV.

I’ve been using beta versions of the widget for a couple months now, and I have to say that I find it to be the best thing since sliced cheese. If you’re looking for an easy and Mac-friendly way to keep track of your Xbox 360 buddies, give it a try (download link).

WWDC early registration pricing continues until May 9

Posted on Apr. 30, ’08, 5:32 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

Were you afraid you missed out on discount admission to the wondrous theme park that is WWDC? Fear not, you now have until the 9th of next month. But what about all the good little developers that actually signed up, you know, early?

I’ll admit my curiosity is provoked as to why Apple would bother doing this. A natural conclusion to jump to is that registration numbers aren’t what Apple expected and they needed to boost them. However, an alternate scenario also seems likely to me. Apple may be trying to pull in all those new iPhone developers that weren’t attending until now.

At any rate, we’ll bring you coverage of any announcements that will be coming out of the Apple developer conference.

You want wireless ‘net? Here’s your stinkin’ wireless ‘net

Posted on Apr. 29, ’08, 11:58 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Geekery

The MacBook Air is “truly” wireless — aside from the fact that you need to be near something wired (i.e., a WiFi base station) to access the Internet. Most modern mini-notebooks have some sort of cellular tech that enables ‘net browsing anywhere you can get a cellular signal.

The Air is an exception…‘till now. Intrepid (and brave) modder Jordan Bunnell ripped apart his AirBook and, using some extra unused USB controllers on the logic board, installed an internal EV-DO card for full location-indepedent Internet goodness.

I consistently get about 1,400-1,700Kbps vs. 1,800-2,000 when it was external, The hardest hit was the upload, I would get around 500Kbps, now I’m closer to 380Kbps.

I upgraded the firmware and activated the USB727 whilst still in USB form, and after I set-up and activated it I simply use the network controls under System preferences to “connect automatically when needed” which works like a charm when I close the lid to sleep, open to resume, and as soon as I make an internet request, a few seconds later I’m online!

Bunnell details the mod step-by-step, illustrated with photos, if you’re crazy enough to try it yourself. It seems he had to sacrifice the Air’s WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities — two steps forward, one step back, if you’re looking for “truly” wireless…but it’s all about priorities.

Check out this page for the steps, and this InsanelyMac forum thread for a discussion about the mod. Or, if you want EV-DO but don’t feel like voiding your warranty, you can check out a few external options as well.

[via Engadget]

Hacked OQO may be smallest Mac ever

Posted on Apr. 29, ’08, 9:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Geekery

If the MacBook Air just isn’t portable enough for you, but you want something a little more than an iPhone, there haven’t been a lot of options in the Mac arena to date. Windows users, meanwhile, have had the choice of using handheld computers like the OQO. Of course, the OQO is really just a very small PC, and as the Psytar clone wars have shown us, you can run OS X on pretty much anything you can run Windows on these days.

A user at the OQO Talk forums, going by the handle trf, claims to have gotten Leopard running on an OQO, dual-booting alongside Windows. The process is apparently not for the faint of heart, and there are still some lingering issues (getting the WWAN support working seems to be the biggest of them), but you can take a gander at this video to see the setup in action.

From what I can see, the performance looks a wee bit sluggish in some aspects (look how long it takes the icons to appear in Cover Flow); I attribute that to the OQO’s fairly lackluster graphics chipset and the 1GB of RAM ceiling. It does, however, appear to work, which is admittedly pretty darn cool.

How about it, readers? Does this setup get your salivary glands working overtime, or is it merely shrugworthy?

[via Gizmodo]

The Big Book of Apple Hacks helps you regain control of your Apple products

Posted on Apr. 25, ’08, 10:44 AM PT by Aayush Arya

Category | Tips

O’Reilly Media recently released the new Big Book of Apple Hacks, a 640-page tome chock full of tips and tricks related to Apple products, requiring varying levels of expertise. Authored by Chris Seibold, a senior author for Apple Matters, the book covers Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, iPods, the iPhone and Apple TV.

The book’s aimed at all sorts of users, from power users to recent switchers. The hacks vary from minor software level tweaks (known as “quick hacks”) to the full blown extravaganzas that may require you to get down and dirty with the hardware itself.

If you frequently find yourself wishing that your Mac or iPod did things differently and don’t find any preferences in the default set of options, this might be the book for you. Now, if only I could find a way to stop iChat from launching at random times in the day and sending nonsensical auto-replies to dumbfounded buddies.

P.S.: In the interest of full disclosure, I’d like to add that I’m also an author for Apple Matters. That, however, did not influence this post in any way.

Summer of Code students chosen for Adium

Posted on Apr. 25, ’08, 7:11 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

Google’s Summer of Code program sponsors students that want to help contribute to open source projects. It is, quite simply, one of the best things anybody has done for the open source community. Both Camino and Adium have participated in this program in the past. In fact, Camino’s new tab bar was born of such a project.

Adium has announced its three contributors, Branton Homer, Arcadio García, and Geoffrey Foster. Homer will be extending Adium’s testing infrastructure (not a shiny bit). García will be implementing behavior driven development (interesting, but mostly unimportant to most end users).

Finally, and I’m really excited about this one, Foster will be putting something like Apple’s data detectors into Adium. Each message you receive will be analyzed and have context relevant actions associated and made available. Also, the plan is to make the framework available for use by other applications. Having this everywhere sounds good to me.

iPhone SDK draws 200k developers, what about us?

Posted on Apr. 24, ’08, 7:19 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

Apple says that 200,000 software developers have signed up for the iPhone SDK. That is really big. Huge even.

Oppenheimer called the response to the SDK “tremendous” and said that interest in developing enterprise applications for the iPhone is also going well. More than 400 higher educations are now creating applications for the iPhone, and more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies are actively creating software for the iPhone as well.

But clearly this is more of an iPhone Central story. Why am I bringing this news here? That’s 200,000 developers that could be interested in developing for the Mac platform as well. Surely a large chunk were already fans of the Mac, but there are a large contingent that has never done so, but may see the power of tapping into a new market that is growing. Let’s hope the iPhone SDK is Apple’s gateway drug to Mac software development.

Shake, rattle, and roll: Macs help detect earthquakes

Posted on Apr. 22, ’08, 9:58 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Geekery

We know you can do all sorts of cool stuff with the accelerometers that have been built into portable Macs since around 2005. Here’s another to add to the list: detecting the next earthquake. MIT’s Technology Review has a story about a distributed computing network for detecting earthquakes—think SETI@home or Folding@home, but for earthquakes.

Much as it may sound like it, the Quake Catcher Network is not for determining when your employees are playing video games at work. Rather, it’s an attempt to quickly identify when an earthquake is happening so that those affected can be notified as soon as possible. QCN is intended as a supplement to the network of seismometers already in place in volatile regions like California. And before you ask, the program only kicks in if you haven’t used your computer for three minutes, and it can filter out extraneous vibrations from things like trucks passing by (though we bet that if you and your buddies installed it on enough computers in your office, you could trick the system into thinking there was earthquake—but that would probably be fundamentally wrong).

At the moment, the program is primarily aimed at frequent earthquake areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin. It’s also limited to those using Mac laptops with accelerometers (post 2005-PowerBooks and all MacBooks/MBPs/MBAs) or desktops with a special USB dongle. A Windows version of the software for compatible HP and Lenovo laptops is forthcoming, but right now Macs are the only ones who can help save the world.

Cloning around

Posted on Apr. 18, ’08, 9:20 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Geekery

Thanks to the appearance of the mythical beast known only as “Psystar,” Mac clones are a hot topic at present. It’s been more than ten years since a Mac clone was on the market and, of course, then they were actually legitimate. But the amount of discussion that Psystar’s coning has fostered makes one thing apparent: Apple’s current lineup does not have something for everyone.

Over at the Mothership, our colleague Rob Griffiths—you might known him from such websites as Mac OS X Hints—has undergone a mad experiment: building his own Mac clone. Should you wish to risk life and limb, you’ve been able to do this since Apple made the transition to Intel processors: the hardware is cheaply and easily available, and then it’s just a matter of following in the footsteps of those who have already hacked the software to get it running.

Rob took the time to bench his self-constructed Mac against a Mac Pro, concluding that the $980 computer he’s built stacks up pretty well against Apple’s own offering. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right solution for everybody: as I pointed out in my own editorial on the subject, what we pay for is not just the hardware and software, but the experience and niceties of running a Mac. And in that race, the Frankenmac, as Rob dubbed it, is going to have a hard time getting out of the gate.

Dying PowerBook rises from the ashes; becomes a desktop

Posted on Apr. 17, ’08, 1:00 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Geekery

The death of our laptop is a fear we all have to live with. Just one crack or blemish on the screen and it’s either time for a new laptop, or time to fork over a ton of cash to get that bad boy fixed.

Modder Richard Hunt took matters into his own hands. Faced with a dying, beat-up PowerBook that for many people would be ready for the trash, Hunt gutted the laptop, and reassembled the parts in an acrylic custom built case.

Parts used: “Just cheap odds and ends I had laying around (the acrylic was an off cut from a shower wall)”. The end result: shiny custom awesomeness.

Richard, you are a hero to geeks world wide. Rock on.