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13 05 2008

Times Reader coming to the Mac

Posted by: in Internet Tools & News

Filed under: Software, World wide web Tools

I live in Philadelphia, but I’m a native New Yorker, and for my money there is no superior newspaper on the planet than the New York Times. The Times has really embraced the new realities that the digital age has foisted upon the newspaper business by trying a number of new things (running a great website included).

Sadly, it seemed that the Gray Lady was ignoring Mac users when it first released the Times Reader. The Times Reader, for those who don’t know, is a dedicated application which displays the last seven days of the New York Times. It has many of the benefits that one gets from reading nytimes.com (changeable fonts, searchable content, ease of printing) with the added benefit of not requiring an internet connection. The Times Reader syncs content on your computer, and lets you take it anywhere.

Luckily for me (and I am betting there are some other New York Times fans out there) the Times will be launching the Times Reader Beta for Mac at some point this month. The Times Reader for the Mac is a native Cocoa application powered by Webkit and Silverlight (yes, you’ll have to install Microsoft’s Silverlight to use this app). This is not the same as the RSS reader called Times which Mat posted about last week.

This is a beta, and so there are some features that the Personal computer version has that aren’t in the Mac version:

Resizeable windows: yep, the Times Reader on the Mac only has 4 preset window sizes at the moment.
Copy and paste of text: this is a pretty big feature that I hope they sort out sooner rather than later.

It isn’t all bad though, the Mac version supports search across all seven days of content while the Computer version only searches the current day’s edition.

During the beta the Times Reader for Mac will be free to use, but once the beta is over it’ll revert back to being free only for New York Times subscribers (though you can subscribe just to the Reader service for $14.95 a month). Check out the blog post for more images of the app.

As soon as I get a opportunity to look at the Times Reader for Mac beta I’ll post an in depth review.

10 05 2008

Adium adds Facebook Chat support; emo kids cheer worldwide

Posted by: in Internet Tools & News

Filed under: Software, Freeware, World wide web Tools, Universal Binary

Adium, the tasty multi-client Mac chat app, is about to get even tastier: developer Evan Schoenberg announced this day on the Adium blog that he’s adding Facebook Chat to the ridiculously long list of instant messaging protocols already supported by the app. He even included a screenshot of the new protocol in action, seen on the right.

No word on when the new release will be available, unfortunately, but you can keep track at the Adium blog.

Thanks, Chris!

09 05 2008

Yahoo! and Inquisitor seen sitting in tree

Posted by: in Internet Tools & News

Filed under: Software, World wide web Tools

Dave Watanabe’s Inquisitor plugin for Safari has been the source of some controversy for affiliate linking shenanigans, and underwent some changes following the public outcry. None of that seems to have deterred Yahoo! from taking an interest in the search plugin. Yahoo! revealed today in a blog post that they would be acquiring the rights to Inquisitor.

The new version (which is a free download) removes affiliate links (completely, I assume) and updates the preferences interface. There’s a reference in the Yahoo! post to a simplification of the process of selecting a search provider but I’m failing to remember what was complex about it in the previous version. Obviously, the top choice on the dropdown is now Yahoo!, but you can still select to use Google and all of the other secondary search options appear to be intact.

I’ll give Yahoo! credit for recognizing a beautiful interface and what many — myself included — concur is an extremely useful plugin. Whether Dave Watanabe’s existing reputation will affect Yahoo! in any way is debatable, so I’m withholding speculation. Dave has made it clear that he remains an independent developer and is not joining the ranks of Yahoo!, remaining focused on his existing projects.

Thanks, Ross!

07 05 2008

Calgoo products now support iCal sync

Posted by: in Internet Tools & News

Filed under: Software, Internet, World wide web Tools

Here’s good news for users of 30 Boxes and Calgoo Hub. Earlier this week, Calgoo announced two-way iCal synchronization for 30 Boxes, Google Calendar, and Outlook. Calgoo account holders can get started by logging in to their account.

For the uninitiated, 30 Boxes is an on the web calendar that includes to-do lists, event management, people finder and more. Calgoo is a company whose mission in life is to simplify the calendars people use. It’s their new Calgoo Connect service that lets iCal play nicely with these others.

Check it out, and let us know how it goes.

05 05 2008

SSHing for fun and profit

Posted by: in Internet Tools & News

Filed under: Internet Tools, Terminal Tips

I’m sure you’ve heard all the cool children talking about SSH in the cafeteria during lunch, but you had no idea what it was. Be ignorant no more, because Devanshu Mehta is writing a series of posts about using SSH for Apple Matters.

The first in the series explains the basics of SSH and what you’ll need to setup before you can start securely tunneling like a spy.

Here’s the really short explanation of SSH: it allows you to create secure connections between two computers. The protocol is a standard, so you can SSH into nearly any kind of personal, assuming it is running SSH and you’ve the proper credentials.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for the upcoming parts in this series, because who can’t use some more secure connections in their life?

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05 05 2008

Associated Press launches iPhone-optimized site

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Filed under: Internet, World wide web Tools, iPhone

Earlier today, the Associated Press launched an iPhone-optimized news site that really is pleasant to use. To check it out on your iPhone simply visit http://apnews.com. Once there you’ll find AP articles, of course, but also local events (in fact, you can enter several zip codes and follow events from several locations) and more from many different outlets.

The preference pane looks like that of a native iPhone application (Save the orange sliders instead of blue) and the photos and videos render pretty swiftly, even over EDGE. Plus, they’ve got a cute web clip icon. What more do you need?

It’s nice to see the AP catering to mobile users. We say, “Well done.”

[Via iPodNN]

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05 05 2008

iPhone as backup web server

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Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone

Using the port of lighttpd on his jailbroken iPhone, Mark Hoekstra of GEEKtechnique offers real-world proof that an iPhone can, indeed, function as a web server. He put up a static page and served 411 very special visitors during the time his server was offline for maintenance. Obviously, that’s not battle-testing for a busier server, and the lack of database queries certainly aided the capacity of the little server, but it’s definitely a fun example of the capabilities of a (hacked) iPhone.

Apache has also been ported, along with Python, vim, curl and other tools web servers can make good use of. There’s a good possibility we’ll see similar scenarios as time progresses, especially as the hardware capabilities of the iPhone improve. So, is that a backup web server in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Thanks, Mike!

04 05 2008

Hahlo 3: now out of beta

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Filed under: iPod Family, Internet, Internet Tools, iPhone

We at TUAW HQ definitely have an obsession with Twitter. We use Twitterrific for the Mac, and Hahlo for iPhone. Hahlo provides great features in a beautiful, usable user interface. A couple weeks ago we got a sneak peek at the beta of Hahlo 3 (titled “the Legendary Edition”), but now you can try it out for yourself. That’s because Hahlo 3 was released to the public this day. In addition to a absolutely revamped UI, the new version integrates full searching capabilities via Summize.

To try out Hahlo 3 for yourself, just point Mobile Safari over to http://hahlo.com. It’s free and simple to use. If you don’t have an iPod touch or iPhone, you can get to Hahlo from any standards-compliant modern browser (Safari 3, Firefox, etc.).