From all of us at theiLife.com, we wish you and your families the best for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years- or whatever you celebrate! We are working on some articles to get better use from your new gifts. Of course, in the meantime you can always entertain yourself with daily updates to The Daily iLife video library.
In this coming series, I will be looking at the large number of ways of accessing and updating Twitter. For this first installment, we will focus on tweeting from the Mac.
Twitter is the ubiquitous part social network part micro-blogging service that has approximately three million accounts and over five million hits a month. For some it has become an essential part of the internet including the average consumer to the hundreds of companies and high profile celebrities who use the service. Twitter users have a myriad of options to update or view their Twitter feed starting with the Twitter website (Twitter.com).
On Twitter.com, you can see an overview of recent tweets, sort @Replies, view and send direct messages to other users or only view tweets from your favorites. While this is everything the Twitter service has to offer, there are a number of advantages of using a dedicated Twitter client. Below are my two recommendations for Twitter clients.
If you can get past the $14.95 price tag, Twitterific by the Iconfactory is by far the best client I have used hands down. The design is very clean and simple- utilizing the Apple “Heads Up Display” style of menu. On the bottom of the display you can visit your Twitter homepage, adjust Twitterific settings or manually refresh your feed. And if you have Growl installed, it will automatically display new tweets when they come in. Twitterific is not only the cleanest and simplest Twitter client, but under the hood is very powerful. Within the settings pane you can adjust for any configuration you like. It is worth the $14.95 if you enjoy Twitter and great Mac software.
If the idea of paying for your Twitter client is hard to grasp, there are a number of free options to consider. Syrinx is the next best client, developed by MRR Software. Like Twitterific, it offers a simple interface for viewing the latest tweets or updating your Twitter status and also can interface with Growl.
If you’re on a Mac and you use Twitter regularly, you should definitely download a Twitter client that fits your needs. Not only will it save you time, unnecessary refreshes and a tab in your browser but you will get updates as they come in- not whenever you happen to check Twitter.com. Look for more ways of keeping in touch with your Twitter friends in further additions to this series.
[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/10-nomoremacworld.mp3|titles=Epoisode 10: No More Macworld]
Download MP3 (24MB)
The iLife Podcast – Epoisode 10: No More Macworld
This weeks episode covers the Apple pullout of Macworld, 10.5.6 release, iPhone applications and the iPhone nano rumors. Check it out!
You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.
Additionally, if you would like to subscribe to the podcast through a standard RSS feed, check this out.
Show notes coming soon.
This years Macworld will Apple’s last as an exhibitor and will not feature a Keynote presentation by Steve Jobs.
According to a statement released by Apple this afternoon, Phil Schiller will deliver the opening keynote to the Macworld 2009 Expo instead Steve Jobs. Additionally, this will be the last year Apple will be exhibiting at Macworld Expo. There were a number of rumblings pertaining to Steve Jobs not hosting his typical Keynote earlier this week which in the past have brought light to the iPhone, AppleTV and Intel iMac.
Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.
Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.
You can read more of Apple’s Press Release here. The iLife will not be in attendance to the Macworld Expo this year due to financial issues and the decreasing number of exhibitors at the show.
This is another animated Get a Mac ad for the holiday 2008 season. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.
This is the latest ad in the Get a Mac campaign. Once again, Apple animates Mac and PC for the holidays. In this ad PC explains how he loves this time of year because he can float, build a snowman in super fast motion, and even talk to animals. When he asks a rabbit where he is going, the rabbit replies “to the Apple Store to do some last minute shopping” and PC pushes the snowman’s head onto the rabbit.
This is the second Get a Mac ad for the 2008 holiday season. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.
This is another animated holiday 2008 ad for the Get a Mac campaign. In this advertisement Mac and PC are, yet again, putting aside there differences and having some fun trimming a tree. When they are done Mac asks PC to plug in the lights, PC hesitantly plugs in the lights, which flash “PC Rules!”.
As the year draws to a close, it has come time to reflect upon Apple and a growing trend with the Cupertino company.
With Mac market share on the rise, iPhone sales taking off, Apple profits and revenue up to record levels once again- it is undeniably a great time for Apple. Even during these times of economic uncertainty, Apple appears to be performing better than its market competitors, proving that Apple products are something more than luxury goods they’re made out to be. However, these business successes appear to have had unexpected consequences for the Apple of old.
Compared to years past, 2008 has been a dismal year in terms of upcoming product secrecy. For the typically insanely secretive company, the number of leaks and the accompanying lack of take down notices are unprecedented. At its height, Apple’s passion with secrecy saw the take down of rumor site ThinkSecret.com after leaking specifications on the unreleased Mac mini. Numerous other websites including AppleInsider, MacRumors and 9to5mac have all experienced the wrath of the Apple legal team in the past but surprisingly haven’t had any recent encounters.
A less secret Apple needn’t be a bad thing. Apple’s secrecy was often inhibiting within the company and to consumers. By Apple softening up on its secrecy, employees will be able to focus more on their jobs instead of having to worrying about containing leaks.. Recently, some examples of the “new” Apple are the emails from Apple CEO Steve Jobs which have on a number of occasions briefly detailed upcoming software updates or fixes. Earlier this week, Apple press representative Bill Evans told Macworld “Our holiday line-up is set,” and a representative of Apple responded to a concerned Mac mini customer with a phone call stating “Apple knew the mini was a popular machine and to be patient,”. Finally, last month Apple stripped it’s infamous Non Disclosure Agreement from the iPhone SDK stating “the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success”.
As we are beginning to see Apple evolve, the changes are ultimately for the better. With more attention on quality products and less on NDA’s and secrets, Apple can concentrate on producing more amazing products (MacBook Touch? Newton 2.0?) and developing good software. Missing however, will be the glory days of Mac rumors and magical “One more thing..” announcements as leaks become more abundant and are published by bigger sources like just another piece of news. It appears that the constant demand to see the latest and greatest from Apple before Steve Jobs can reveal it has been won.
[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/9-10000apps.mp3|titles=Epoisode 9: 10,000 Applications]
Download MP3 (32MB)
The iLife Podcast – Epoisode #9: 10,000 Applications
This weeks episode, featuring the usual Matt Dodd and Sidney San Martin is joined by special guest Keith and is titled 10,000 Applications. Topics including Snow Leopard, 10.5.6, 10,000 applications on the App Store and the latest information on The iLife are covered within- plus more!
You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.
Additionally, if you would like to subscribe to the podcast through a standard RSS feed, check this out.
Show notes coming soon.
For part I in this series see: Introduction to BitTorrent: Part I. This part will cover using µTorrent on Windows.
µTorrent is a free, light weight BitTorrent client maintained by BitTorrent Inc., who also maintains the BitTorrent Protocol. A study in PC World has shown that µTorrent is the number 2 peer to peer (P2P) client and the number 1 BitTorrent client.
This article will focus around using µTorrent for a beginner on a Windows system, although there is now a beta version of µTorrent for OS X.
Look for full setup instructions after the Jump.
[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/8-cybermonday.mp3|titles=Episode 8: Cyber Monday]
Download MP3 (25MB)
The iLife Podcast – Epoisode #8: Cyber Monday
Note: There was a sync issue in the original encoding of this episode. It’s been fixed, please try re-downloading.
This weeks episode, featuring the usual Sidney and Matt actually arrives on time! Discussing the Black Friday successes and stories, latest Apple development and the latest information on The iLife!
You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.
Additionally, if you would like to subscribe to the podcast through a standard RSS feed, check this out.
Show notes coming soon.
RSS 2.0