TidBITS#978/11-May-09
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/978>
Amazon's Kindle DX ebook reader was last week's big news, and Adam
offers a look at what's new, along with thoughts about what sort of
content the Kindle is best suited to provide. Also this week, Mark
Anbinder returns with coverage of FileMaker's new Bento app for the
iPhone, Doug McLean explains a new Apple policy regarding
water-damaged iPhones, and Neale Monks eulogizes AppleLust founder
David Schultz. For something a little different, Doug also looks at
an innovative tool created by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
to display their massive permanent collection on the Web. In the
world of software releases, we look briefly at Fireworks CS4 10.0.3
Updater, Apple's Xserve LOM Firmware Update 1.2, BBEdit 9.2,
OmniFocus 1.6.1, SousChef 1.2, Apple's iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.4,
and Tweetie 1.1. Don't miss entering this week's DealBITS drawing
for a free copy of the iTunes synchronization program SuperSync!
Articles
Apple Refreshes Wet iPhone Replacement Policy
FileMaker Reaches iPhone with $4.99 Bento App
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of SuperSync
RIP: David Schultz of AppleLust
Kindle DX Offers Larger Screen, Native PDF Support
SFMOMA's ArtScope Offers New Way To Browse Museum Collections
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 11-May-09
ExtraBITS for 11-May-09
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 11-May-09
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Apple Refreshes Wet iPhone Replacement Policy
---------------------------------------------
by Doug McLean <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10262>
Apple has recently revised its replacement policy regarding
water-damaged iPhones. The company still won't replace your damaged
device for free if its Liquid Submersion Indicator has been
activated (see "Liquid Submersion Indicators Reveal Accidental
Dips," 2009-02-17), but you can now purchase a $199 replacement
phone. While $199 isn't cheap, it's still $400 to $500 less than
purchasing a new iPhone without a 2-year contract.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/10080>
According to coverage at Ars Technica, an Apple Store sales rep
indicated that whatever generation your damaged iPhone was, the
replacement would be the same (e.g. if you soak a 3G iPhone, your
replacement would also be a 3G iPhone). Other sources note that the
$199 replacement phones are refurbished models, meaning they've been
previously returned to and tested by Apple, and come with 1 year
warranties.
<http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/05/apple-changes-water-damaged-iphone-replacement-policy.ars>
<http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2009/05/04/report-water-damaged-iphones-now-swappable/>
Just why Apple has decided to revise its replacement policy is
unknown. Speculation ranges from Apple's need to unload extra
inventory as a likely refresh of the iPhone approaches, to general
improvements to Apple's repair policies, to Apple recognizing the
possibility that damage could be unfairly attributed to water (it's
possible that the Liquid Submersion Indicator could be activated by
an event that didn't damage the iPhone). Whatever the reason, this
new policy will certainly be welcomed by those suffering from watery
misfortune.
FileMaker Reaches iPhone with $4.99 Bento App
---------------------------------------------
by Mark H. Anbinder <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10259>
Widening its arsenal of approachable but powerful database
solutions, FileMaker, Inc. has released an iPhone and iPod touch
version of Bento, the company's database software geared towards
individuals. Designed for people who don't need the relational
database features or networking capabilities of FileMaker Pro, the
Mac-only Bento has become popular by offering templates for common
database uses and themes that simplify making attractive interfaces.
<http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento/iphone.html>
<http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento/>
Bento for iPhone and iPod touch, available in the App Store for
$4.99, can be used as a standalone database application or to
synchronize data between handheld and desktop databases using Bento
2 on a Mac. The company includes templates for such common data
tracking needs as expenses, recipes, to-do lists, event planning,
charitable donations, and more. As with the desktop version of
Bento, users may create their own databases (called "libraries" to
make the idea sound less scary, and more like something a normal
human would want to use) and modify them on the fly.
<http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=314638461&mt=8>
FileMaker's example libraries are somewhat limited, as is often the
case, especially considering the many iPhone apps that offer better
interfaces and more features than would be possible in a Bento
library. When considering whether Bento could be useful to you,
think about data that you might want to track that's sufficiently
specific that no one would have come up with an app for it - photos
of and details about your house plants, the members of a club you
manage, that sort of thing.
Adam and I had the opportunity to preview Bento for iPhone last
week, and while no doubt there will be some iPhone and iPod touch
users who install Bento purely for handheld use, the killer feature
of this software is its integration with Bento on a Mac. Why? Handy
as it is to be able to enter data on an iPhone when you're out and
about, we think most users will want to do data entry on a real
keyboard whenever possible, and access the info when away from the
computer.
Unfortunately, Bento's syncing feature is hobbled by the same
limitation as Apple's Keynote Remote app: it works only if both the
handheld and the Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network subnet. This
means it won't work if your Mac uses a wired network or one of the
many incompatible enterprise wireless networks that create logical
subnets for different devices connected to the same access point. A
FileMaker representative says the company is aware of the problem,
and plans to "make it a priority to address in an update." Creating
an ad-hoc network on your Mac for your iPhone to connect to will
help in some such situations.
Bento's capability to interact with data from core iPhone apps like
Contacts is especially slick. Not only can it display names and
phone numbers, but it also enables the user to add additional fields
like a nickname, phonetic pronunciation, and instant message screen
name that will remain associated with the address book entry. So
far, while Bento for Mac lets users manipulate calendar and to-do
entries in iCal, these libraries can't be synced to the iPhone
version of Bento.
At just $4.99 for your iPhone or iPod touch, Bento is a useful tool
by itself, but we think it will be most effective when paired with
the $49 desktop software. We'd also like to see FileMaker help users
break Bento libraries out into standalone apps for the iPhone and
iPod touch. After all, if you come up with the ultimate library for
tracking details about house plants, you very well may want to make
it available to other iPhone users.
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of SuperSync
-----------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10264>
iTunes is a fine program in many ways, but its designers seem never
to have considered how it might be used in a family situation, or
even by a single user with multiple computers. Just because you have
multiple Macs, or use a Windows PC at work, doesn't mean you want
each one to have a completely independent iTunes library.
Unfortunately, moving music, movies, and playlists from one library
to another is a hassle.
Enter SuperSync, from the company of the same name. Its claim to
fame is that it can synchronize two or more iTunes libraries on
networked computers - across a LAN or the Internet. It can move the
music files themselves, update iTunes, and even update just metadata
changes like play counts, ratings, and so on. The program is
extremely flexible and customizable, which can make for a complex
interface, but that's a small price to pay for being able, for
instance, to synchronize just certain playlists, or only videos in
.m4v format. And the fact that you can do it bidirectionally means
that you don't have to worry about changes on one Mac being
overwritten by changes on another. SuperSync even works under
Windows, if you want to sync your Mac's music with your Windows
machine at work. Other useful features include the capability to
compare and merge libraries, find duplicate tracks and corrupt
files, access your music library over the Web, and listen to your
music from an iPhone, iPod touch, or even TiVo. SuperSync costs $29
for a 2-pak version, $39 for a 5-pak, and $49 for a 10-pak, but you
can enter to win a 5-pak in our DealBITS drawing this week.
<http://supersync.com/>
Entrants who aren't among our lucky winners will receive a discount
on SuperSync, so be sure to enter at the DealBITS page. All
information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy policy.
Remember too, that if someone you refer to this drawing wins, you'll
receive the same prize as a reward for spreading the word.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/supersync/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
RIP: David Schultz of AppleLust
-------------------------------
by Neale Monks <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10268>
David Schultz, creator of the AppleLust Web site, died in October of
2008. For various reasons, those Mac writers who knew him best
seemed to have lost touch with him, and the news of his death will
come as a surprise to many. So while writing a few words about David
six months after his death may seem too late to make a worthwhile
obituary, David's influence on the Mac world was significant enough
that his passing deserves mention.
David Schultz was both a Macintosh evangelist and an old-school
academic, a professor of philosophy no less. His writing was always
erudite, and even those who wouldn't agree with him had to admit his
arguments were intelligent and consistently relevant. He loved the
Macintosh even when it wasn't fashionable to do so, during those
grim years of the 1990s when the media barely ever mentioned Apple
without throwing in the adjective "beleaguered."
He jumped onto the Internet feet-first, creating the AppleLust Web
site as a place where he and other writers could express their
thoughts about the Mac platform at a depth that didn't really exist
in print magazines at the time. For David, using a Mac was a
philosophical statement.
David's health was never good, but despite constant pain and a
series of operations that included three kidney transplants, he
never lost heart. When I lived in Nebraska for a few years, we would
meet up from time to time to do some amateur astronomy, and his
almost childlike love of science and the stars shone through every
time. David could be stubborn and volatile, and a frustrating
opponent when we disagreed, but he was always honest, polite, and
articulate. He'll be missed.
Since David's death, the applelust.com domain has been taken over by
another user. Former AppleLust webmaster Marc Messer, along with
Chris and Tyler at MacHighway, have archived much of the original
site, while Tim Robertson at MyMac is working to bring some of
David's most notable writings back online as well.
<http://applelust.macosjournal.com/>
<http://www.mymac.com/userinfo.php?id=David%20K%20Schultz>
Kindle DX Offers Larger Screen, Native PDF Support
--------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10261>
Bucking the trend for ever-smaller devices, Amazon has announced the
Kindle DX, a scaled-up version of the company's much-discussed ebook
reading device. Along with a larger screen, the Kindle DX provides a
native PDF reader, finally making it compatible with the most common
digital format for highly formatted electronic documents.
Apart from the larger screen, native PDF support, capability to
rotate the screen to landscape mode, and increased internal storage,
the Kindle DX is almost exactly like the recently released Kindle 2
(see "Amazon Announces Kindle 2 Ebook Reader," 2009-02-09). Such
standard features include 3G wireless connectivity that's built into
the purchase price, integration with Amazon's online store for quick
purchasing of books, long battery life, and text-to-speech on select
titles.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/10056>
The Kindle DX will be available "this summer" (read, "sometime
before September 2009") for $489; it's available for pre-ordering
now if you want to get into the queue early. The $359 Kindle 2
remains available. Unfortunately, both Kindles are sold only in the
United States at this time, with Amazon blaming the limitation on
"import/export laws and other restrictions."
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015TCML0/?tag=tidbitselectro00>
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00154JDAI/?tag=tidbitselectro00>
**Specs** -- The big news for the Kindle DX is, of course, the large
E-Ink screen. It's 9.7 inches (24.6 cm) measured diagonally, up from
the Kindle 2's 6-inch (15.24 cm) screen. It has a 824 by 1200 pixel
resolution at 150 ppi (pixels per inch), and offers 16 levels of
grays. In comparison, the Kindle 2 screen offers only 600 by 800
pixel resolution, but at 167 ppi and with the same shades of gray.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-05/Kinde-screens.png>
The larger screen increases the physical size of the Kindle DX
significantly, bumping it up to 10.4 by 7.2 by 0.38 inches (26.4 by
18.3 by 0.97 cm) and increasing the weight from 10.2 ounces (289 g)
to 18.9 ounces (535 g).
Although an improvement on the Kindle 2 and original Kindle, the
Kindle DX's screen is still rather small - a standard size for a
trade paperback is 7 by 9 inches (17.8 by 22.9 cm), giving it a
diagonal size of 11.5 inches (29.2 cm). Textbooks are larger yet,
often at 8.5 by 11 inches (21.6 by 27.9 cm). However, the overall
physical dimensions of the Kindle DX are fairly close to that trade
paperback size, which is quite comfortable to hold.
The lower pixel density than the Kindle 2 may make for fuzzier
fonts, and the larger screen could be more sluggish to redraw -
remember that the E-Ink screen must be redrawn in its entirety for
each page flip. We won't know until people have had a chance to
compare the two side-by-side in a few months.
Amazon also increased the internal storage of the Kindle DX, giving
it 4 GB of memory, up from 2 GB in the Kindle 2. Not all of that is
available for user content, with the usable space at 3.3 GB for the
Kindle DX and 1.4 GB for the Kindle 2.
Finally, the Kindle DX must have some sort of an orientation sensor,
since it can automatically rotate the display from portrait to
landscape when you turn the device, just like the iPhone and iPod
touch. There's no indication of any other accelerometer-based
functionality at this time.
**PDF, at Long Last** -- The main advantage of the larger screen is
that, for the first time with a Kindle, PDF documents will not have
to be converted to simple HTML and reflowed to fit a tiny screen.
Almost all magazines and many books - particularly technical books,
textbooks, and reference works like cookbooks - have significant
effort put into their layout, to the point where the content is
almost worthless without the layout. That has made the Kindle and
Kindle 2 nearly useless for layout-intensive content.
The Kindle DX, however, will be capable of showing full-page PDFs
such that they can be read without zooming in, as is often necessary
on the tiny iPhone and iPod touch screens. Of course, that will be
dependent on the text on those pages - text that may be readable on
paper in a large format textbook may still be too small to read
comfortably when shrunk down to the Kindle DX's screen.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-05/Kindle-DX.jpg>
This has the potential to be a big deal for the Kindle.
**Aiding the Industry** -- Amazon needs content for the Kindle DX, and
to that end has reached an agreement with three leading textbook
publishers to make textbooks available for the Kindle DX. The goal,
of course, is for students to be able to carry around a Kindle DX
rather than a backpack stuffed with heavy textbooks. Not
incidentally, it would ensure that every student buys a new copy of
every textbook, as opposed to now, when textbooks are commonly
purchased used and resold at the end of the semester. Textbook
publishers would be insane not to get behind the Kindle DX in a big
way if it takes off initially.
The $489 cost of the Kindle DX seems steep for students, but
textbooks aren't cheap either, even when purchased used, and
students are a captive audience - they must buy the textbooks for
their courses. Kindle versions of textbooks could be significantly
cheaper than paper versions, partly because of the elimination of
printing and distribution costs, and partly by eliminating the
"losses" due to sales of used copies. Although details haven't yet
been revealed, five universities will be "piloting" the Kindle DX in
the next academic year. They include Princeton University, Reed
College, Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University,
and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.
The other source for content for the Kindle DX will be newspapers.
Amazon has signed deals with the New York Times, the Washington
Post, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle to offer
reduced prices for long-term subscription commitments. It's not
clear what that means just yet, but I do think that the larger
screen size will make for a notably better newspaper reading
experience, though I can't see the Kindle stemming the flood of red
ink gushing from the newspaper industry.
In terms of traditional books, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the
company has continued to add titles that can be read on the Kindle,
starting with 90,000 titles 18 months ago for the original Kindle's
launch, 230,000 titles in February 2009 for the Kindle 2's launch,
and 275,000 now.
That said, we've been trying for months to make TidBITS available on
the Kindle, but have been almost entirely ignored by Amazon. In
theory, making our Take Control ebooks available for the Kindle DX
should be fairly easy (it doesn't require human intervention), but
there's no indication from Amazon yet about how publishers will be
able to submit PDF-based books without having them munged horribly
by conversion to the limited subset of HTML that the Kindle
supports.
**Enough Better for the Price?** -- At $489, a full $130 more than the
Kindle 2, the Kindle DX is quite pricey for a dedicated reading
device, and that high price might hurt its adoption rate. People who
are happy with a Kindle or Kindle 2 probably won't want to upgrade -
there is no discount - unless the lack of PDF support has been a
major problem. But the combination of the larger screen and PDF
support changes the game. Although Amazon has pushed the concept of
reading traditional text-only books on the Kindle (in part because
they have no formatting and can thus be reflowed to the small screen
easily), I think the Kindle in general is actually more attractive
for reading ephemeral content, and the Kindle DX's larger screen and
native PDF support open up a wide range of ephemeral content that
wasn't previously available.
That's because traditional books have a different sort of cultural
significance and value as artifacts. People who like books like them
for their very physicality, for being able to lend them to a friend
or relative. It says something about a person when they have shelves
of books in their house. Between the virtuality of the ebook and
Amazon's DRM, it's hard for some of us to be too enthused about
buying a book for the Kindle that we can't use in the ways to which
we've become accustomed.
But newspapers, magazines, and blogs? They're ephemeral by
definition. No one keeps newspapers for reference purposes, and even
people who hold on to old issues of magazines seldom refer back to
them. People even leave magazines and newspapers on planes and
trains all the time, since they have so little value after being
read. Blogs are basically the same - although it's nice to be able
to access blog postings after the fact, most of the time, once
you've read a blog post, you don't need to see it again. (One strike
against the Kindle DX is its lack of color in a world where most
magazines and many books are now printed in full color.)
Technical books that go beyond the basics of a column of text and a
few pictures may in fact have more in common with magazines and
newspapers than might be initially apparent. For instance, our Take
Control ebooks, which have just enough formatting to be difficult to
convert for the Kindle, are ephemeral too, though on a longer time
scale than a magazine or newspaper. Newspapers last for a day, or
maybe a week, and magazines can be current for a week, a month, or
even a couple of months. Technical books like ours are current only
until the underlying technology covered changes, which could be
anywhere from a week to 18 months. After that, there's little reason
to keep them around.
Textbooks have a different sort of ephemerality. Although they
presumably are relevant until their underlying field changes
sufficiently to warrant a new edition, what's more important is that
most students care about them only for a semester or two. And
because students theoretically advance beyond the level of the
textbook as they progress through school, there isn't much value in
keeping old textbooks around.
I could also see the Kindle DX becoming popular for reference works
like cookbooks, where it's not so much that the content is
ephemeral, but that you don't need most of it at any given time and
a search capability is highly useful. A single page is often enough
for a recipe, and the Kindle DX is small enough that it could be
leaned against a shelf in the kitchen while you cook. Much of this
sort of content will be provided by the Web (no word on whether the
Kindle DX has better Web capabilities), but there's still a role for
reference books.
Alas, Amazon has never been forthcoming with sales figures for the
Kindle, so we may never know how successful the Kindle DX is, either
on its own or in comparison to the Kindle and Kindle 2. And, as
interesting as the Kindle DX is, if Apple were to release a
much-rumored tablet-sized iPod touch at a somewhat comparable price
point, I think the Kindle DX would fade into the background. After
all, what student would buy a Kindle DX over a large-screen iPod
touch that could also play movies and run thousands of iPhone apps?
SFMOMA's ArtScope Offers New Way To Browse Museum Collections
-------------------------------------------------------------
by Doug McLean <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10212>
At a functional level, visiting an art museum is not so different
from going to a Blockbuster video store (considering the rise of
Netflix and Internet video, the two probably have similar attendance
levels these days). For the most part, the objects in both are
collected and categorized. In a movie store you have aisles for
Action, Horror, Comedy, and so on. Art museums use similar schemes -
wings for Flemish Paintings from the 1600s, Etruscan Sculpture, and
Japanese Works on Paper. Even in sections that appear jumbled,
there's usually some rhyme or reason - New Releases or Staff
Recommendations in the movie store, and Recent Acquisitions or Works
from the Rubell Collection in the art museum. The goal of the
organizational clarity is similar in both cases - it makes it easy
to find what you're looking for, and once you've found whatever that
is, to find more of the same.
<http://www.rfc.museum/flash.html>
Most art museums have taken a traditional approach to the
development of their online presence, transplanting their real-world
organization to the Web. Take, for example, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, whose Web site, while offering a searchable
database, focuses on giving each curatorial department its own page.
The Web site for the Louvre in Paris has a feature that furthers the
effort to preserve the real-world feeling of the museum by enabling
users to navigate 3D virtual spaces that replicate its rooms and
exhibitions. While there's nothing wrong with maintaining these
sorts of groupings, the digitizing of a collection opens the door to
many other possibilities. (For some now-historical musings on
museums in the digital world, see Brad DeLong's "Ontological
Breakdown, or, Pretending to be a Help System," 1995-08-21.)
<http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp>
<http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/curatorial_departments>
<http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home>
<http://www.louvre.fr/llv/dossiers/liste_ei.jsp?bmLocale=en>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/1361>
**Peering into the ArtScope** -- The San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art's ArtScope is a great example of an innovative approach to
bringing a museum's collection to the Web. ArtScope is a visual
browsing tool comprised of a thumbnail grid displaying 3,500 works
from the SFMOMA's permanent collection. The grid is zoomable,
displaying a lens which can be moved over it to magnify certain
areas, enabling users to view hundreds of artworks simultaneously,
or just one at a time in close detail.
<http://www.sfmoma.org/projects/artscope/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-04/ArtScope_full.png>
When you launch ArtScope, a set of controls and a search box are
visible to the right hand side of the window. The controls help you
zoom in and out, or zoom all the way out, though it's easier to
double-click inside the lens to zoom in, and to double-click outside
the lens to zoom out. You can also grab the grid and drag to move it
around, exactly as you can with a map in Google Maps. Unfortunately,
ArtScope doesn't support trackpad gestures or the scroll wheel for
zooming, and the incremental zooming via double-clicking is tedious.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-04/ArtScope_lens.png>
More interestingly, ArtScope also provides a search tool, and below
it a pane displaying information about the artwork at the center of
the lens (the artwork information is displayed even if you are fully
zoomed out). You can type anything into the search field: artist
name, title, date, medium, keywords, etc. If any results match your
search phrase, ArtScope moves the lens (maintaining the same level
of zoom) to the first match. If more than one result exists for your
term, a navigation bar displays the number of the result you are
currently viewing, the total number of results, and arrow buttons
that enable you to jump to the other matches within the grid. It's
fun typing in a term like "1970" or "Acrylic on canvas", and then
flying around the grid via the arrow keys to view all the results in
their scattered locations.
**Browsing the Hard Rock Memorabilia Collection** -- ArtScope finds a
kindred spirit in the Hard Rock Cafe's Memorabilia site, which has a
similar visual interface, and, in some ways, a better one for
browsing through the company's collection of popular music
artifacts. The controls and navigation are more along the lines of
what I'd like to see brought to ArtScope. The Hard Rock Memorabilia
tool has grab-and-drag navigation like SFMOMA's, but with an
Apple-like design touch. The drag has a little inertia to it, which
gives the navigation a natural and physical feel. That sense of
inertia also carries over to the zoom, which supports trackpad and
scroll wheel zooming - a much faster and more efficient way to zoom
in and out. Zooming in ArtScope magnifies the circumscribed area of
the lens, but also magnifies the background to a slightly lesser
degree. Visually it's a bit cluttered, and upon using the
unified-page-zoom on the Hard Rock site, the lens feels unnecessary.
<http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-04/HardRock.png>
However, ArtScope is resizable and can take advantage of larger
screens, while the Hard Rock Memorabilia tool maintains a fixed
window size on all monitors. This becomes an issue with the latter's
information pane, which, while slick in how it pops up at a certain
degree of magnification, takes up prime real estate in the limited
window area, occasionally blocking the object you're trying to view.
Another strike against Hard Rock's more attractive information pane
is that there are instances when you'd want to be able to view the
item's information while zoomed out, as you can with ArtScope. Yet
the largest problem with the Hard Rock Memorabilia tool is its slow
load times. Zooming in almost always results in a blurry pixelated
image that takes far too long to resolve into crisp detail. While
you can zoom in quite close, the delay ensures you won't bother. In
comparison, ArtScope zooms crisply and quickly.
Lastly, unlike ArtScope, the Hard Rock Memorabilia tool lacks any
search tool and instead provides categories for breaking the
collection into chunks. ArtScope's approach here is far more
effective and engaging, since it eliminates the traditional top-down
establishment of categories, instead enabling users to create their
own collections via the search tool.
**Rethinking the Online Museum** -- Despite my gripes about ArtScope's
zooming, I still think it's a brilliant step toward answering the
question of how museums can offer an online experience that goes
beyond what's possible in the physical world. Nothing can replace
the experience of seeing art in person, but since many people will
never have the opportunity to stand face to face with even the most
significant works of art, it's essential that we explore different
ways of viewing these things on a computer screen. ArtScope
encourages wandering, free associations, odd connections, and a
playful engagement with a group of objects often perceived to be
weighty and untouchable. The virtual Prado Museum in Google Earth
offers another approach, though one that lends itself more to deep
exploration of a very few works rather than any sort of synthesis of
an entire museum's collection (see "Google Earth's Virtual Prado
Museum," 2009-01-28).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/10038>
In sum, ArtScope produces an experience you simply cannot achieve in
a physical setting, and proposes a new model for looking at art. It
seizes upon the scalability of digital reproduction to enable new
juxtapositions - a large sarcophagus and a tiny drawing can be
viewed as identically sized images side by side, and we can sift
through a collection almost as though we're thumbing through a deck
of cards. I applaud the SFMOMA for approaching their Web site with a
sense of inventiveness, and hope to see more museums consider their
relationship to the Internet with an appreciation for what the
digital dimension can offer, and for what possibilities remain
unexplored.
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 11-May-09
---------------------------------------------------------
by Doug McLean <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10265>
Fireworks CS4 10.0.3 Updater from Adobe is a maintenance update to
the powerful vector and bitmap graphics editor. Changes include
improved general stability under both Mac and Windows, a fix for a
bug that caused text to shift, and a handful of bug fixes addressing
issues related to pasting text from Microsoft Office into Fireworks.
The update is available for download via the Adobe Update Manager
and from Adobe's Web site. Also available for download from Adobe's
Web site is a PDF version of the update's full release notes. ($299
new, free update, 46.6 MB)
<http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks/>
<http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html>
<http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/fireworks/cs4/Fireworks_CS4_Updater_10_0_3_ReleaseNotes.pdf>
Xserve LOM Firmware Update 1.2 from Apple updates the Lights-Out
Management environment for the Xserve (Early 2008). The update
addresses "issues that cause frequent power supply and fan
notifications to be sent." More information regarding the update,
including installation steps, is available via Apple's Web site. The
update is available via Software Update and can also be downloaded
from Apple's Support Downloads page. (Free update, 719 KB)
<http://support.apple.com/downloads/Xserve_LOM_Firmware_Update_1_2>
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3539>
BBEdit 9.2 from Bare Bones Software is the latest version of the
powerful text editor. New features include a Sleep command that
helps restore the application's current state at its next launch,
full support for the LassoScript language, and Growl support for
select functions. Other features receiving enhancements include
BBEdit's expert preferences interface, FTP and SFTP clients,
integration with Terminal, and command line tools. Full release
notes are available via Bare Bones's Web site. ($125 new, free
update, 15.4 MB).
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/>
<http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/arch_bbedit92.html>
OmniFocus 1.6.1 from The Omni Group is a minor maintenance update to
the task-management utility. Changes include enhanced compatibility
with Mac OS X 10.4, improved syncing performance, and updated
localizations. Two attachment-related bugs have also been fixed. A
full list of changes is available on The Omni Group Web site.
($79.95 new, free update, 17.2 MB)
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/releasenotes/>
SousChef 1.2 from Acacia Tree Software is significant update to the
cooking and recipe management software. Changes include support for
the metric system, the capability to import large MacGourmet
databases, paginated search results, an enhanced grocery list
feature, and more accurate ingredient parsing. A handful of bugs
related to slow quit times, crashing, and dialog cancellations have
also been fixed. ($30 new, free update, 8.7 MB)
<http://acaciatreesoftware.com/>
iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.4 from Apple fixes "intermittent system
freeze issues for iMac computers with ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics
and fixes wake-from-sleep issues in Boot Camp." Installation steps
are available, and the update can be downloaded from Apple's Support
Downloads page. (Free update, 1.7 MB)
<http://support.apple.com/downloads/iMac_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_4>
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3561>
Tweetie 1.1 from Atebits is a quick update to the recently released
Mac Twitter client. Changes include per-account notification
settings, support for Growl, the capability to save searches, a new
Mark All As Read command, and auto-updates for Trends. Also, error
handling has been improved, the tweet display has been tweaked, the
direct message display interface has been enhanced, and users can
now opt to disable menu items. ($19.95 registered/free with ads,
free update, 1.7 MB)
<http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>
ExtraBITS for 11-May-09
-----------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10272>
**Bluetooth Default Setting Poses Risk to MacBooks** -- Wired.com's
Brian X. Chen reports on a potentially dangerous default Bluetooth
setting found on Apple notebooks. The setting enables a Bluetooth
device to wake a machine even if its lid is closed. For a user
packing a MacBook and Bluetooth mouse into the same satchel, this
default could result in an overheated disaster. (Posted 2009-05-08)
<http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/macbook-users-turn-off-this-bluetooth-default-setting-now/>
**Apple Announces Apps Must Work with iPhone 3.0** -- In not
altogether surprising news, Apple has announced that all newly
developed iPhone apps must be compatible with the beta version of
the iPhone OS 3.0. In an email to developers, Apple stated that new
apps would be tested on the iPhone OS 3.0, and that current apps
must be updated to be compatible or will be removed from the App
Store after the release of iPhone OS 3.0. (Posted 2009-05-08)
<http://www.macworld.com/article/140490/2009/05/iphone30_apps.html>
**MiFi Offers Portable Wi-Fi Connectivity** -- Sick of hunting for
Wi-Fi whenever you're out and need to get online? New York Times
columnist David Pogue has the skinny on the Novatel MiFi 2200, a
portable Wi-Fi hotspot that gets its Internet connectivity via
Verizon's 3G cellular data network. It could be a great tool for
frequent travelers, but beware the bandwidth charges if you need to
transfer a lot of data. (Posted 2009-05-08)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07pogue.html>
**Adam Discusses the Kindle DX on the Tech Night Owl Live** -- Is the
Kindle DX a ho-hum revision to Amazon's ebook reading device, or
does its larger screen size and support for PDF make it more
compelling than the previous models? Adam comes down on the side of
"more compelling," although he also thinks that a color screen would
be a boon for magazines and textbooks. (Posted 2009-05-08)
<http://www.techbroadcasting.com/podcast/now-playing-may-7-2009-david-biedny-adam-engst-and-steve-mr-gadget-kruschen/>
**MacBook Pros Edit Video on Mount Everest at 21,000 Feet** -- The
video production guys filming this ascent of Mount Everest are
extremely happy with the MacBook Pros they're using for Final Cut
Pro editing. Be sure to note the high-bandwidth SherpaNet they use
to send video to the base camp at 17,500 feet. (Posted 2009-05-07)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01g4ugvMCIY>
**Myst Comes to the iPhone** -- Originally released for the Mac in
1993, the classic puzzle-adventure game Myst is now available for
the iPhone and iPod touch for $5.99. The original game, which
spawned multiple sequels, is currently unavailable for Mac OS X,
making its portable arrival all the more appreciated. However,
according to CNET's review, revisiting this gem comes at a price:
over 700 MB of precious space. (Posted 2009-05-07)
<http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10232932-233.html>
**VMware Fusion Makes Friends with Windows 7 Release Candidate** --
Microsoft recently made a release candidate of Windows 7 available
to the public, and according to this post on VMware's Team Fusion
blog, it works well in the current version of Fusion - but users
should make a few tweaks for best results. (Posted 2009-05-06)
<http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2009/05/windows-7-on-mac-with-vmware-fusion-a-practical-guide-revisited.html>
**Text Message Limits Devised by Clever Committee Head** -- A German
at a typewriter in 1985 figured out the 160-character limit of SMS
for GSM networks with no market research. He looked at telexes and
postcards, too. (Posted 2009-05-04)
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/05/invented-text-messaging.html>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 11-May-09
----------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[email protected]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10274>
**Achieving Email Bliss with IMAP, Gmail, and Apple Mail** -- Joe
Kissell's popular article brings up more discussion since last week,
including the use of smart mailboxes in Mail to work around some
Gmail limitations. (52 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2639>
**How to Share Full-Quality Photos via iPhoto** -- It turns out that
iPhoto compresses photos uploaded to Flickr, even at the Actual Size
export setting. (8 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2643>
**Ludditism** -- Readers debate the wisdom of relying on a GPS to
provide directions, especially since those directions can often be
wrong. Are gadgets wiping away essential skills like being able to
read a map? (47 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2645>
**Cleaning a dirty burner?** What's the best way to clean a DVD drive
to prevent burn errors? (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2647>
$$
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