An Apple Premium reseller in the UK sent us these photos of an Apple recycling information mailer they received: but the mailer itself was sent in a decidedly non-green way.
From photos the reseller sent, it appears the mailer consisted of two sheets of standard A4-sized paper. Those sheets of paper were placed inside a large, yellow clasp envelope. That envelope was then placed inside a corrugated cardboard box. The box was then mailed to the UK from Switzerland.
While all of these materials are recyclable, it seems like a little bit of a waste to send what could have fit in an everyday DL-sized envelope (that's about the size of a number 10 envelope for we Americans) in ridiculously oversized packaging. Plus, it probably would have saved them a bundle on postage.
Apple has been making a concerted effort to reduce its environmental footprint: not only with the program mentioned in this mailer, but for everything from iPhone packaging to how it makes its displays. Surely this isolated incident isn't representative of the company as a whole, but still. Sheesh.
By definition, nearly all tips we receive about Apple future product intros are wrong. After all, we're not Engadget. People aren't going to risk their jobs to deliver insider information.
That being said, a tip that shot into our mailbox this morning really tickled my fancy: not because I think it's accurate but because I really really want it to be true. Our anonymous tipster laid out a description for iTunes Unlimited that I thought was brilliant. Although this guy (by definition) does not work for Apple, he really ought to.
He suggested that the late September Apple event would introduce several great items that we'd love to see but haven't been holding our breath for. These are disk access for the iPhone and iPod Touch and iTunes Unlimited.
His take on iTunes Unlimited goes as such: For just $129.99 (or $179.99 bundled with MobileMe, or $99 for current MobileMe subscriptions), you would buy unlimited music access for one year. This would offer you 256 Kbps music, or as Steve would boom it, "The highest quality digital music subscription service ever." You could download and play directly on your computer or iPhone/iPod and the option to "buy and keep" would replace the subscription version of a song with a downloaded version.
I totally love this idea. It's not the first iTunes subscription rumor we've heard, either. I'm not betting that would happen. But it brought a huge smile to my morning. What do you think of iTunes Unlimited? If it were available, would you buy it?
Both ApolloIM and MobileChat were jailbreak applications for chatting on the go with your iPhone/iPod touch. Alex Schaefer, ApolloIM's founder, has recently joined the MobileChat development team. In a blog posting by the developer of MobileChat, he said that both applications underwent "friendly competition" and that, while there was no clear winner in the iPhone IM business, users got the benefit from the ongoing competition.
Now that Alex has joined the other team, you can expect that MobileChat will only get better. The post goes on to mention that Alex will be working on stability and user experience for the application.
MobileChat definitely got off to a rough start on launch day due to server problems, but seems to be working much better now.
According to a Knowledge Base article posted last week, Apple is now replacing (free of charge) frayed, discolored and deformed MagSafe power adapters for MacBook and MacBook Pro.
But -- and there's always a but -- they will only replace it if there's no sign of "abuse." So if you've been doing the right thing and holding the hard plastic connector to disconnect the cable, you might not have to pay another $80 for a new power adapter.
If your connector looks like the one pictured, and has been babied its entire life, then take it back to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or an Apple retail store for an evaluation and replacement. It doesn't matter if the warranty has expired.
Also -- bonus points for the greeked copy at the bottom of Knowledge Base article page. I'm sure that counts for a shot in some obscure Apple website drinking game.
Got an iPhone or iPod Touch but having trouble with the full-size version of TUAW? Try i.tuaw.com, our mobile Safari-tuned experience. Smaller, faster, lighter and unlike our m.tuaw.com pages (which work great on BlackBerry), you can add comments to posts. We realize it took a while, but we think you'll enjoy the experience of not watching Safari crash or lag horribly. Fun fact: nearly all of our mobile traffic comes from iPhones -- who knew?
So let's say you can't stand the iPhone. "I can't stand the iPhone!" we hear you shout, repeatedly. Fair enough, Apple's "third platform" can certainly take over the news at times, and the plucky little touchscreen-that-could definitely generates strong opinions.
As a gift to those of you tired of everything iPhone, we cooked up an iPhone-free RSS feed for you. Never again will your eyes burn with the news of yet another dice-rolling app, or wacky accessory. One caveat: older iPhone posts might still show up (we're going back in time to fix those as we can), and once in a blue moon an iPhone post might accidentally appear. We apologize in advance for the quasi-cognitive dissonance.
UPDATE: For those of you who want an iPhone-only page, or any other category-specific page, please check out the long list of categories on the right. All those links under "Mac News" on down are category pages. Enjoy!
Yesterday we posted a tip about using your iPhone on a cruise ship, but what about if you want to use a Mac on a ship or in a hotel and you don't have a MacBook to take along with you?
AppleInsider's Prince McLean is reporting that installations of Macs in hotels and on cruise ships are going strong, with thousands of Apple machines being sold for installation in those locations by Apple's Enterprise Sales Group. Back in June we mentioned the Fontainebleau's plans in Vegas -- they're also installing another 1,400 24" iMacs in rooms at the flagship resort in Miami Beach.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs.
Whether it's an in-room email and information kiosk, a public information center, or an intelligent set-top box, the Mac is definitely making inroads into the hospitality and travel industry.
Despite the notion that one day optical media will seem "quaint," in the current world we deal with a lot of physical discs. So why not label those discs with something a little better than a permanent marker? The Dymo DiscPainter is a rather large but impressive printer for one thing only: optical media. Pop in a disc with the appropriate coating, set up the print job and boom: a nicely-printed disc for all that soon-to-be-obsolete media you're carting around.
We've got our shiny review unit ready to send to the lucky commenter who is randomly selected via the comments. Maybe not great for the dorm room, as the Dymo is pretty big, but you could always use it to prop open your dorm door. To enter, simply tell us what was the last CD or DVD you burned (keep 'em clean folks!). Be sure to check out Steve's review of the DiscPainter. And stay tuned the rest of this week as we've got more goodies to come!
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
To enter leave a comment telling us what was the last disc you burned.
The comment must be left before August 21, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
Fantasktik is a taskbar app for Leopard that makes it easy to see what windows and applications are open, and to switch between them. Dockland Software, the developer of Fantasktik, announced in a press release today that the app is available for US$9.99 through the end of September. On October 1st, the price rises to US$14.99.
After installing Fantasktik, a small taskbar appears either just below the menu bar or just above the Dock -- you can set the location from System Preferences. The taskbar shows all of your open applications and windows in small icons, and by hovering your cursor over the icons you see a preview of the window contents. The preview is powered by Core Animation and provides a look at all open windows for an application through a MultiTouch-like interface called Click and Slide.
You can minimize the Fantasktik taskbar by clicking one of the small buttons on either end, and double-clicking an application icon collapses or expands all window icons associated with that app.
Fantasktik requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. A 15-day free trial is available from the Fantasktik website.
According to HitsLink, the people who track web usage statistics, iPhone users account for about a third of one percent of web browsers on the Internet, the largest of any mobile platform.
iPhone ranks fourth overall in terms of operating system market share, behind Windows, Mac, and Linux. On August 16, the stats peaked at 0.45 percent. That's a two-fold increase since the iPhone 3G was released July 11.
Jim Goldman, of business television network CNBC, says that "it's a key metric that shows market penetration and customer use." He cited a report by analyst Andy Hargreaves that suggests the increase in browser market share highlights the iPhone's key, long-term advantages. Well, duh.
"Consumers seem to know what some investors are having trouble grasping -- or believing: that Apple might be positioned better in so many key markets than any of its competitors," Captain Obvious Goldman said.
I've been a faithful reader for awhile and purchased a 3G iPhone a couple weeks ago. Everything is great - except for one thing which is extremely unusual (genius words), I wanted to share with you guys. When I am in my home (and only when I am in my home) my phone believes I am in Springfield PA. I live in Minneapolis MN. It doesn't matter if I am on the 3G network or my personal WiFi network (I've isolated each), Google Maps always centers on Springfield PA. If I walk down my street, watching Google Maps- the phone re-orientates itself back to Minneapolis MN. The Genius tried to re-set the time-zone and a couple other things, but it didn't work.
Anyway, I've got a bunch of screen caps if you guys want to see them. I just can't figure out why BOTH 3G and WiFi would both point to the same (incorrect) place...one uses cell towers and one uses IP addresses right? Anyway, I'm not necessarily looking for you guys to fix it or anything - just thought you might want to know. I Googled "iphone Springfield PA" or "google maps iphone Springfield PA" and several iterations, but it seems I am alone in my situation.
Reader Julius wrote in with an annoying problem: Whenever he tries to open a file by selecting "Other" from the "Open With" contextual menu item in the Finder, he's presented with a list of "Recommended Applications" that (more often than not) has the app he wants grayed out.
Ideally, there would be some preference to automatically show "All Applications" instead of just "Recommended Applications," but that doesn't seem to be the case. Sorry.
The best option for you comes from our own Erica Sadun, who says to drag the file onto any application icon with the Command and Option keys held down. That way, the Finder will force the app to open the file. This works with items in your dock, or just with an open Applications folder in the Finder.
Otherwise, every application maintains a list of the kinds of files it can open. Launch Services, a part of the Mac OS X system, reads these lists, and compiles the set of "Recommended Applications" that you are presented with.
As such, many users recommend keeping your Launch Services tidy by rebuilding it using the Terminal, or a utility like RCDefaultApp. It will at least remove the cruft from your list of available applications.
A reader in Barbados sent us a message today describing the success he had with a Rebel SIM card and his 3G iPhone. Having purchased a 3G in Canada, he returned to Barbados and ordered the Rebel, which has been working perfectly with no dropped calls.
Barbados does not have 3G service, but decent GSM. Of course, we can't confirm the story (though we'll gladly fly over to sunny Barbados to try it out!), so your experience my vary. In the meantime, you may want to read this article on how to remove your iPhone's SIM card, or our chat with jailbreaker Pytey.
A brief report from Reuters this morning said Japan's trade ministry claimed three fires had been caused by defectively hot iPod nano batteries.
Nobody was injured in the fires.
The government said in a statement that Apple had two other reported cases where people were burned by their iPod nanos. The defective nanos, they said, were sold between September 2005 and September 2006.
Japan's quasi-governmental product safety commission will investigate the incidents with Apple's cooperation, the trade ministry said.
Security researchers at Corsaire have published a PDF whitepaper discussing best practices for securing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in a networked environment. The whitepaper is free.
"While the default installation provides a relatively secure system, it may not always meet organizational security requirements. This guide is aimed at users in environments requiring stronger security controls in their operating system, making full use of the protection features offered by Mac OS X 10.5," the whitepaper says in its introduction.
"It may also be of use to System Administrators wishing to enforce an organization-wide desktop security policy."
The guide also discusses key security differences between Leopard and Tiger, and builds upon previous guides for those operating systems.
An Apple Premium reseller in the UK sent us these photos of an Apple recycling information mailer they received: but the mailer itself was sent in a decidedly non-green way. 
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Reader Julius wrote in with an annoying problem: Whenever he tries to open a file by selecting "Other" from the "Open With" contextual menu item in the Finder, he's presented with a list of "Recommended Applications" that (more often than not) has the app he wants grayed out. 
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