1/8 Cult of Mac

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. Cult of Mac Keynote Remote for iPhone, iPod Touch Released for iWork 09 January 7, 2009 at 4:11 pm Among the underwhelming upgrades to iWork Apple announced Tuesday, I thought the ones made to Keynote seemed at least interesting. Call me crazy, but I’m rather fond of Apple’s presentation software and given the ubiquity of Powerpoint used in the business world, I’m always impressed when someone shows up with a Keynote presentation instead. It just tells me the person cares, you know? Helpfully, Apple itself has created Keynote Remote, an app for the company’s mobile devices that lets you control your Keynote slide presentation on your computer from your iPod touch or iPhone. Swipe to advance or return to the previous slide. In portrait mode, see your presenter notes on your iPod touch or iPhone. In landscape mode, preview your next slide. Keynote Remote works with your Wi-Fi network, so you can control slide playback from anywhere in the room. Great stuff, really. But, uh, you’ll need to drop another 99¢ in order to make it happen, even after you’ve bought the copy of iWork 09 needed to use the mobile app. Amazing. Macworld Brings Your Fave Mac Writers Together Too January 7, 2009 at 2:46 pm Evidence, if it were needed, that even writers of the Best Mac E-zine Of All Time need to stop for a sit down every now and again. Here, thanks to the CC-licensed photostream of TidBITS writer Glenn Fleishman, we can see the TidBITters relaxing between frantic article-writing. It’s funny that even the awesome TidBITS team ends up crouching on the floor, huddled up by the power sockets just like the rest of us. But wait, who’s this walking past - possibly also on the hunt for an empty power outlet? Why, it’s none other than equally great Mac writers David Pogue and Jason Snell. Pogue, Engst and Snell all together in one image: congrats! You’ve collected the full set! (Thanks to Glenn Fleishman for the CC photos.) Student iPod Touch Pilot Program: More Homework Done, Some Fumbling January 7, 2009 at 1:41 pm An Australian pilot program using the iPod touch as a classroom tool has some high school students doing more homework, others puzzling over the device. Though the small program — eight 14-year-olds — using iPod touches is far from giving a scientific answer of how they might change learning, a few interesting things have cropped up. One: Louise Duncan, the teacher who started the program at Shepparton High in Victoria, found that some of the kids had trouble using them. “We assume that 14-year-olds are really technologically savvy, but they’re often not,” she told Perth newspaper Western Australia Today. Students use the hand-held media players to search the internet, download music, do quizzes, research and submit assignments and work with students in Singapore. Duncan found that students in the test program were more willing to come to school, did more homework and used their iPods more than laptops or desktop computers. The iPods are on loan from Apple and run on the Study Wiz platform; the test is part of a global mobile learning project. Via WA today Crafty Felt iPod Shuffle a Charmer January 7, 2009 at 1:38 pm You could add this hand sewn iPod Shuffle in felt to your iPhone, a key chain, or otherwise adorn yourself with it, making the cuddly gadget just a bit more useful than the felt version of Apple’s phone that can’t be used even as a dog toy. Cuter than cute, the 1″ x 1.5″ plush iPods are the handiwork of a woman in the Philippines with, as you might imagine, a declared love of kawaii stuffed toys. iPod Shuffle charms come in blue, gray, pink, orange, red and green (specify your color pick in advance) at just $4 a pop on Etsy. Via High Tech Divas It'll Cost You To Convert To Apple's DRM-Free iTunes January 7, 2009 at 1:09 pm Lost in the verbiage over Apple’s decision to expand the number of DRM-free songs on iTunes was a fee some are calling Apple’s ‘music tax’ potentially worth $1.8 billion to Cupertino. iTunes users will need to pay $0.30 per track ($0.60 per video and 30 percent of the price of an album) to use Apple’s one-click conversion to DRM-free listening pleasure. While offering copy-protection free iTunes songs is viewed as a ‘win’ for consumers, it may also further enrich Apple’s coffers. Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch estimates Apple would earn $1.8 billion if each of the 9 billion iTunes sales were converted to non-DRM. “That’s a music tax, plain and simple,” wrote Schonfeld. Of course, the fee doesn’t apply to songs you burnt from your own CDs or obtained elsewhere - only from Apple. Still, the conversion could amount to a significant sum both in money and time, another writer discovered. Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote it cost $50.60 to convert 231 songs he’d originally purchased from Apple. The conversion to the DRM-free iTunes Plus took more than seven hours, he said. In related news, Apple’s adoption of a three-tiered pricing formula to entice music label’s agreement on the DRM issue may actually cost publishers, analyst firm Needham & Co. said Tuesday. Offering a higher price for more popular songs may push more music lovers to file-sharing, while the lower $0.69 per track price could force publishers to sell 40 percent more songs just to break even. WTF iPhone Apps Of The Week January 7, 2009 at 11:51 am Fart Studio: “Your all-in-one flatulence solution!” Oh, I see: you get to COMPOSE your fart sounds. Some people might call that feature creep. Meow: it … meeows. And finally, True Flirt. The developers say: “This might actually get you a date!”. Hmm. Might.   This email was sent to asidhu1.themacblog@blogger.com . Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.