Apple Passes Billion Milestone, Prize Wasted on
Kid

post from TheAppleBlog on 24 April 2009 12:14:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

billionapps

My opinion might be slightly skewed, thanks to jealous rage, but I can’t help but think that Apple’s big billion-app prize could’ve gone to someone more deserving than the 13-year old who finally took it home. Like me, for instance.

Connor Mulcahey of Connecticut is the official grand prize winner, though, like it or not, confirmed by Apple this Friday. He’ll be taking home a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. The app he downloaded to win was Bump, which allows you to share contact information wirelessly between iPhones or iPod touches.

First of all, why does a 13-year old even need a contact sharing application? Is he networking? Does he have that many friends with iPhones? Actually, why does he even have an iPhone or an iPod touch in the first place? One thing’s for sure, the kind of 13-year old kid who has an iPhone probably isn’t so hard up for cash that he needs Apple to give him a bunch a free stuff. And what’s he going to do with a MacBook Pro and a Time Capsule? Edit and back-up skateboarding vids? OK, I’m done venting.

In all seriousness, Apple probably couldn’t have asked for a better winner. The teen market is one area where they still have lots of room to grow, as a recent survey indicates. Which is partially why I’m so baffled that one could actually win, since the odds seem stacked against it, percentage-wise. Also, it shows that kids like using Apple products, too, even if Microsoft stuff does appeal more to the highly lucrative four-year old girl demographic.

Besides the prize-giving, Apple also introduced a new online video advertisement trumpeting their own achievement. The ad, which appears on the New York Times website, among others, is basically an extended, animated version of the “Thanks a billion” graphic that they’re using on the Apple homepage. It dominates the header and sidebar of the Times’ site, and Apple probably wishes the news would also blot out the nasty black mark their reputation has suffered at the hands of the now notorious Baby Shaker app.

I wonder what effect the promotion and giveaway had on download numbers. Only Apple will probably ever know for sure, but if we see more sweepstakes and similar sales tactics in the future, that’s a pretty good indication that the campaign was successful. Here’s hoping it was, because daddy still needs a new Macbook Pro. Maybe I can catch a late flight to Connecticut and intercept a delivery from Apple en-route to a certain 13-year old’s house…

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/04/24/apple-passes-billion-milestone-prize-wasted-on
-kid/

Digg this

Lemke Software updates GraphicConverter to
Version 6.4.1

post from prMac on 24 April 2009 11:54:00 AM. © prMac

Lemke Software is proud to announce the immediate availability of GraphicConverter 6.4.1, their image editing and conversion utility for Mac OS X. GraphicConverter is the ultimate tool for image editing, image browsing, metadata editing, slideshows, image conversion from more than 200 file formats and much more. Version 6.4.1 includes many bug fixes and little enhancements and is a recommended update for all customers.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-5366.htm

Digg this

Photoshop Marketplace open

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 24 April 2009 11:35:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Adobe has opened the Photoshop Marketplace, a website dedicated entirely to its image manipulation s...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=834e7552e3a2bacf3f0b933c191f3616

Digg this

Synium Software releases CleanApp 3.1 - Keep your
System Clean

post from prMac on 24 April 2009 11:09:00 AM. © prMac

Synium Software today released a new version of CleanApp, the popular uninstaller and system management tool. Keep track on how free disk space decreases and why your hard drive gets filled up day by day. CleanApp 3.1 knows which related files to delete when the user drags an application in the trash. Version 3.1 comes with a brand new graphical view displaying disk usage for folders or the whole hard drive. CleanApp 3.1 is a free upgrade for existing customers.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-5365.htm

Digg this

ExpanDrive 2.0 Enhances GUI, Speed, and
Connectivity Options

post from TheAppleBlog on 24 April 2009 11:00:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

Building on the success of their initial offering, ExpanDrive has released version 2.0 of their Mac client for accessing a wide array of online storage systems.

ExpanDrive is built on MacFUSE, an open source project that provides the base functionality and SDK for connecting to remote and alternative filesystems. The ExpanDrive developer-alchemists have mixed in a bit of their own Python and Objective-C components to significantly enhance the potency of these MacFUSE-managed filesystems and definitely improved the formula for this major update. Read on to see what’s new in 2.0.

SFTP Overhaul

Not fully satisfied with the status quo, the developers brought the SFTP engine back to the lab and have completely re-engineered it. My tests confirmed that large file copies now transfer in approximately half the time. Traipsing through my cluttered web directories in the Finder is also a less painful experience due to a fully re-worked caching system.

An even more pleasant surprise is how quickly remote edits are detected. The video below shows a text file being edited in both vi on my very remote Linux box and also open locally in TextWrangler. Edits made on the server-side show up almost instantaneously now.

FTP/FTPS Support

ExpanDrive has had experimental support for FTP/FTPS filesystems for quite a while and has now made it a first class filesystem in version 2.0. As a daily user of the product, I regularly peruse both their Twitter activity and Get Satisfaction support forums and can attest that they really do listen to users. It’s very obvious that they wanted to make sure that FTP/FTPS support worked under as many conditions as possible before bringing it to their entire user base. If you must use FTP, you should definitely take advantage of the enhanced security in the FTPS protocol if at all possible. Standard FTP transmits both your credentials and all data completely in the clear, making it very easy for malicious users to eavesdrop on your sessions.

ftp-prefs

GUI Enhancements

Continuing the theme of listening to their users, ExpanDrive has tweaked their GUI to provide more information about the types of drives available and provides the ability to eject volumes from their Drive Manager as well as open volumes in the Finder.

expandrive

You can now also change the drive icon and use your own icons for ExpanDrive volumes by clicking on the drive icon in the edit dialog:

Live! New! Filesystem! (S3 Support)

Perhaps the most significant enhancement is the inclusion of support for Amazon S3. While inherently not as robust as SFTP volumes, S3 mounted volumes let you use the Finder to manage your buckets (i.e. copy/move/delete files), including setting object permissions via contextual menu. I created a test bucket via S3Fox, used ExpanDrive to move files into it and verified the results back in S3Fox.

new-s3-drive

s3-firefox-organizer

s3-access-control

Should You Buy/Upgrade?

If you’ve never used ExpanDrive and regularly have to FTP/SFTP files or work with content in S3 buckets, then you really should consider giving ExpanDrive a try (list price is $39.95 for new users). Existing users should also consider upgrading just for the speed and integrity enhancements alone. Couple that with good S3 support and it’s well worth the $19.95 upgrade price (free if you’ve purchased the previous version within 60 days of release).

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/04/24/expandrive-20-enhances-gui-speed-and-connectiv
ity-options/

Digg this

Movie Cowboy Media Hub

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 24 April 2009 10:45:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Digital Cowboy today provided an all-in-one alternative for media hubs in the Media Cowboy DC-MC35UL...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=2e8ed45971ff0ab7cf3b1c315ad7703b

Digg this

Apple refurbs: Macs $419+

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 24 April 2009 10:45:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Today Apple's online store has a variety of refurbished Mac models starting as low as $419. The 1.8...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=969b94ee6457ac956a575fc1fb90c4fd

Digg this

CT teen nabs billionth app

A Connecticut teenager is the winner of Apple's Billion App Countdown contest, the company has annou...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=6732c11a64f3412ce3a51586cd6effab

Digg this

Joost Selling Itself

Video site Joost is shopping itself around to cable and satellite TV providers as their possible hub...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=0066859eae0db50c50269fc171968644

Digg this

Apple loses 1600 at retail

Apple's increased retail revenue in the second fiscal quarter came at the expensive of many people's...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=40f35c6476eb007c77041aeb6e471588