Apple posts "Finger Tips"

from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) by Dan Pourhadi

Filed under: Tips and tricks, iPhone

Apple loves them their videos: first the iPhone Guided Tour, then the Keyboard video, and now ten separate, easy-to-digest videos -- cleverly titled "Finger Tips" -- demonstrating various iPhone functions and offering some pointers to make good use of your new multi-touch monster. Tips include:

1. Silence the ring.
2. Delete a message.
3. Create your favorites list.
4. Assign a ringtone.
5. More song controls.
6. Browse in Cover Flow.
7. Magnify to edit.
8. Mail preferences.
9. Set a passcode.
10. Reset your iPhone

You can also watch all the Finger Tips in one video.

Apple: Everything We Know About the iPhone

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen
Following up our list of features the iPhone was finally confirmed not to have, here's a comprehensive list based on the four reviews currently out detailing everything we know about the iPhone so far: what it has, what it doesn't have, its known problems and what we still don't know.
What it has:• Built-in iPod with Video playback• Intelligent predictive typing• Multi-touch interface (fast)• Great scratch resistant screen (easily cleaned with your sleeve)• Tilt sensors that lock the screen when up to your face, but unlocks it when you lower it to type numbers• Screen that's visible in direct sunlight• Software upgrades over time• Decent voice quality• Call and song control from its headphones• Viewing Word, Excel and PDF documents• Free live traffic in Google Maps• Turn by turn directions that simulate a GPS (need to tell the phone when you're turning)• Dedicated volume control and mute switch• Microsoft Exchange support if your IT staff enables a setting on the server• Push email via Yahoo Mail• Syncing via Outlook calendar and contacts through iTunes (works even on Vista with the latest Outlook)• Ability to play with other applications while you talk• Good battery life• A "real" browser• Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, EarthLink, and various other email support• Visual voicemail (support for rewinding, fast forwarding like a song)• YouTube support• Decent 2-megapixel camera• It's thin• Lots of eye candy• Conference call with up to 5 people• Built-in speakers if you don't want to use headphones• Quicktime support in Safari• Activating the phone requires iTunes and internet access• A speakerphone
What it doesn't have:• Support for all iPod accessories—doesn't support all car adapters for playing back, only charging• An easy way to transfer phone numbers, via AT&T, from an existing phone• Copy and paste support• MP3/iTunes music ringtones• Built-in game support• Flash support anywhere (including browser)• Instant Messaging• Picture messaging (MMS)• Video recording• Voice recognition or voice dialing• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP support)• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)• A hardware keyboard• GPS• Removable battery• Expandable Storage• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)• BlackBerry support• Flash or zoom on the camera• Windows Media support
Known Problems:• Can get a little warm after use• Battery will need to be replaced by Apple after 300-400 charges• Levy had problems with one of his email accounts, due to his ISP blocking port 25. Apple's engineers "suggested a fix and said that this was something that would probably be addressed in an update."• EDGE data is very slow• AT&T's signal is lousy• No hardware playback buttons (on the phone itself) make you go back to the iPod app to change songs or stop music• Takes more taps to reach the phone interface than other smartphones• Getting your contacts onto here from your old phone may be a hassle• No real-time navigation• The few web-app programs Mossberg tried weren't' impressive• Camera is only good with ample light and no motion• Only 200 text messages included on any calling plan• Playing back music through an iPod dock may cause interference, so the iPhone "offered to switch to airplane mode". Doing so means you get no calls.
What we still don't know:• How fingerprinty/face greasy it gets• Whether Bluetooth file transfer works• When and how often software updates (with new features) will appear
WSJ Review
NYT Review
USA Today Review
Newsweek Review

Technophilia: Publish and map your photos with Picasa

from Lifehacker by Wendy Boswell

Besides using Picasa to organize and edit the digital photos on your computer, you can also use this versatile photo editor to create web albums, send and resize bulk photos to Flickr, and geotag photos using Google Earth. Keep reading for more on how to make your photos stand out a bit more with Picasa.

Web albums

Creating a Picasa Web album - a way to share you photos publically - is simple. Once you're in your Picasa workspace, just click on the Web Albums button at the bottom; you'll need a Google account and the sign-in process is pretty straightforward.

Pick the folder/pictures that you'd like to share in a Web album, name it, and then you come to privacy settings. Google swears up and down that privacy means PRIVATE, however, it's relatively easy to dredge up so-called "hidden" photos if you really want to. So! Keep in mind that you probably don't want any particularly, uh, naughty pics to be uploaded to your Picasa Web albums, capiche?

Once it's all uploaded, you are taken directly to your Picasa Web albums dashboard, which is connected with all your other Google-riffic stuff. You have a variety of options here to play with - download, embed, organize, share, etc. Here's my Germany album; you're also given the option to embed it (code is included, just copy and paste) from within your photo album workspace.

Picasa and Flickr

Once you've tricked out your Picasa Web album a wee bit, you'll probably want to move on to some Flickr goodies. Now, anyone who has used Flickr to upload a lot of photos realizes that it's kind of time-consuming; plus, you have to resize each image individually. However, there is a way around that using Picasa to send your images to Flickr instead (credit to Digital Media Minute for this shortcut).

• Log-in to Flickr and find the Upload by Email link. Keep that window open because you'll need that temporary email addy.
• Get into Picasa and go to Tools, Options, Email. Choose the My Gmail account (you can use Outlook too) and flip the slider to whatever size you want your photos to be. Click OK.
• Click on the image(s) you want to upload and click the Email button at the bottom of your Picasa workspace.
• Enter in the temp. Flickr address in the To: field of the popup window. You can enter in a description here and that's what will show up on your Flickr page.
• Click Send, and the image will show up in your Flickr account in about 10 seconds or so.

Picasa and Google Earth

Picasa integrates nicely with Google Earth and gives you the ability to geotag your photos very simply. Here's how it works (another shoutout to Ogle Earth for helping me figure this out!):

• Pick the photos you're interested in geotagging, then click on Tools/Geotag/Geotag with Google Earth.
• You'll see a popup window with some crosshairs on it; you'll be asked to drag it to where the photo was taken. Click away until you're all done.
• Once you're finished, the geotagged photos will be marked with a small earth symbol; you also come away with the ability to play around with the KMZ file or export the whole lot to a Picasa Web album.

Picasa - a lot to play with

With all this, I didn't even get to light on the various interesting widgets, extensions, and even more innovative uses that people all over the world are finding for this simple yet powerful program. Picasa has definitely become one of the most valuable additions to my efficiency/organization software tools. If you've come up with a new and interesting way to use Picasa to organize, edit, or display your photos, please share in the commets.

Wendy Boswell, Lifehacker's Weekend Editor, has gone a little crazy with the Picasa slideshows. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

Students: Video iPod SAT study guides now available

from Lifehacker by Gina Trapani

In addition to - or instead of - taking an expensive SAT prep course, download interactive study guides for the video iPod, which are now available at the iTunes Store.

The three programs, in critical reading, mathematics and writing, correspond to the three graded sections of the exam. The programs cost $4.99 each and are available in the iPod games section of the iTunes store alongside slightly more entertaining, if less educational, options like Tetris, Pac-Man and Lost: The Game.

SAT preppers should also check out how to rap vocabulary words. How do you study for big tests? Let us know in the comments.

Prepare for the SAT Test, or Play With Your iPod? Have It Both Ways [NYT]

Frankenreview: 7 Takes on the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros

from Gizmodo by Mark Wilson

We've already shown you the new MacBook Pro benchmarks, which show respectable improvements over the old model, not just because of the new Santa Rosa chipset, but Nvidia's new monster 8600M makes short work of 3D gaming. But what about the other features? How's the battery life? What's the deal on those LED screens? Is the MBP still hot enough to sterilize me if actually left on the lap? Hit the jump to see what they reviewers have to say on the new 15-inch laptops beyond the benchmarks.

Touchy Fire-Fly
If you touch the computer it results warm, but much cooler than my previous MacBook Pro with the lower limit of the cooling fan setted to 2000 rpm.

CNET
Perhaps the biggest improvement in the revamped MacBook Pro is in battery life. ... we got an impressive 3 hours and 35 minutes with our DVD battery drain test--that's 36 minutes more than the non-LED version of the MacBook Pro...[and] you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and typical office use.

Ars Technica
Intel's new mobile platform ups the front-side bus speed to 800MHz from 667MHz while adding support for Dynamic FSB Switching, which allows the FSB to be underclocked in order to save power. There's a new 965 Mobile Express chipset and built-in support for 802.11n, as well as Intel Turbo Memory.

PCWorld
The new [GeForce 8600M] chip is designed to improve performance with demanding programs, such as 3-D games and HD video editors. Indeed, in frames-per-second tests with id Software's Quake 4 and Doom 3 games...improvements of 25 to 60 percent...

Notebook Review
LED back-lighting is touted to provide a more evenly lit screen with sharper images and colors without sacrificing battery life. All these I find to be true, the screen is without a doubt the best i've ever seen on a laptop, and better than a lot of desktop monitors I use. With the brightness up to full, even in the most well lit rooms, solid whites are almost blinding,

Computerworld
The only difference in software is the version of OS X being used. Earlier models run Build 8P2137; the new one runs 8Q1058 -- tweaked, no doubt, to run smoothly on the new chips...the best laptop Apple has ever made.

MacInTouch
Past MacBook Pro models have not been without their issues, from overheating to sparkly displays to uneven lid gaps to optical drive problems. If our test unit is indicative, all of these issues have been addressed

Now if I could convince my wife that I needed to upgrade from my old model...

Google Apps: Add live Google data to Google Spreadsheets

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

The Webware weblog highlights 5 things you didn't know about Google Docs and Spreadsheets, most notably that you can insert live lookups in Google Spreadsheets via Google search and Google Finance.

Using two special formulas, users can create cells that will update constantly with data or information gleaned from Web searches or Google's finance service. This works for things such as stock symbols, sports statistics, or any other piece of information you want to source and keep up to date automatically

For example, you can insert the current price of Google stock in a spreadsheet by entering =GoogleFinance("GOOG"; "price"), or check out the number of internet users in Paraguay with =GoogleLookup("Paraguay"; "internet users"). Very cool.

5 things you probably didn't know you could do in Google Docs & Spreadsheets [Webware]

Dell customers win, no software pre-installed option

Future Dell hardware customers can rest at ease. Dell now offers an option to ship computers without the standard default crud pre-installed. After a long hard fight with Dell, this much desired option is FINALLY available.

Find free wifi with WeFi

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Windows only: Freeware utility WeFi helps you find free wifi connections on-the-go.

WeFi works like this: users install the WeFi client on their computer, then contribute data to the community by discovering open networks with the WeFi client. The client reports to WeFi headquarters, which then shares the open access point with other WeFi users. Aside from helping you find open hotspots, WeFi also has a social aspect that shows you where other WeFi users are. To be honest, it's hard not to be a little dubious of an app like WeFi, which basically tracks where you are as long as it's running and you're on the internet (plus I had difficulty installing it on my computer). However, if you're in desperate need of free wifi, it might be worth a try. WeFi is freeware, currently Windows only (with a Mac version "Coming soon").

Beta software icnic offers shared folders via Bonjour

from UNEASYsilence by Derek

Mac OS X users will enjoy this beta release from Objectpark Software. Picnic provides OS X users - who own multiple Macs - with the ability to share files between synced folders on two or more Macs via Bonjour.

Apple: OS X 10.4.10 is Out Now

from Gizmodo by Ben Longo

Mac users, Apple's first double digit OS X update (.10) is officially out, so go and hit the software update button and enjoy. But for the detail oriented readers out there, here's what they fixed.

Bluetooth •Addresses an issue in which a Bluetooth headset may show up as an available device for sound output in the Sound preference pane after it had been removed from Bluetooth preferences.

Third-party
•Adds RAW image decoding support for the following cameras: Panasonic DMC-LX1, Panasonic DMC-LX2, Leica M8, Leica D-LUX 2, Leica D-LUX 3, Fuji S5 Pro, Nikon D40x, and Canon EOS 1D Mk III.
•Resolves an issue in which some DNG images may appear tinted or distorted.
•Improves compatibility of Mathematica 6 with 64-bit Macs.

USB
•Improves reliability when using the IR remote control after waking from sleep.
•Improves reliability when mounting external USB hard drives.
•Resolves an issue in which a TomTom GO 910 may not be recognized when connected via USB to an Intel-based Mac.

Other
•Improves responsiveness when using the Control-Eject key combination to display a shutdown dialog.
•Addresses a specific issue in which users importing video from a DV camera may experience dropped frames.
•Includes recent Apple security updates.
•Addresses issues with calendar calculations in certain applications.
•Addresses issues when rounding decimal numbers for display in certain applications.
•For Motion, addresses an issue in which some texture corruption could appear in Motion if VRAM is full.

– Ben Longo

About the Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update (delta) [Apple via MacRumors]

Six creepy things I can learn about you

from Valleywag by Nick Douglas

Serendipitous meetups and I-know-you-so-well moves look so good in romantic comedies, so why have I been served so many restraint orders? Search and social sites have gotten sophisticated enough that I can pull off a good John Cusack boombox-over-the-head scene with your favorite song -- on date one. Here's how I can find out everything about you online.

1. Your favorite bands: Easy. If I'm lucky, you use last.fm or iLike to track your favorite music, or you're on a concert service like Sonic Living.

In any case I can rely on your MySpace or Facebook profile for what you've listed as your favorite bands. (I'll have to play safe and only count the newer bands, since you probably haven't updated in a year.)

But if I see you at the other side of a cafe, you might have iTunes on and be sharing your music. Jackpot!

2. Your age: MySpace and Facebook are obvious, but you probably hid your birthday on there. But you didn't hide your graduation year on LinkedIn. Subtract 21 or 22 years and I'm set!

3. Your school friends: Even if I can't see your friend list, I can probably find some schoolmates of yours on Facebooks who list you as a friend, and then I just need to cross-reference, maybe look at those classmates' snapshots for ones that include you. Naturally, this works better the more recently you've graduated.

4. Your other friends: And where you work, and so on and so on. Good thing you joined the "network" for your city on Facebook! Now that I've told the site I'm from the same city, I can see more about you without actually being part of any organization with you!

5. Whom you're dating: Gotta check if you're single, right? After a MySpace/Facebook check, I'll search for photos of you and a significant other on SmugMug, Flickr, Webshots, Zooomr, and other sites that let me search by names.

I'll check Technorati to see if you have a blog, even just a quiet LiveJournal. By that point I'll be searching not just for your name but for any user names you use on other sites. You didn't think a username would protect your privacy, did you?

If I still can't figure it out, I'll search for your description on dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony. God forbid I find that, because you've probably opened a bit of your soul up! Good thing you can trust the people you meet on the Internet!

6. Extra bits: Googling your name and digging down (maybe adding keywords like "date" or "angry") will unearth what others have written about you. I can find some serendipitous bits on Spock, a new people-search site, thanks to my beta account (though you can do the same to me if you join -- ask me for an invite at nick at lookshiny dot com).

Photo: Sumo gripp. Nick Douglas writes for Valleywag and Look Shiny. Like to stalk? Also see Stalking 2.0 at Mashable.com.

Tweak Vista settings with Vispa

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Windows Vista only: Freeware, standalone application Vispa tweaks Vista settings with a focus on privacy and security via a simple, organized interface.

On the privacy front, for example, you can disable automatic updates, error reporting, or Windows Media Player's automatic licensing downloads and sending your player ID to content providers (so you control when and to whom your computer talks to). Beyond that, it has all kinds of minor Internet Explorer, usability, and service tweaks. If you've got a Vista annoyance or two that you want addressed, chances are Vispa will address at least a couple of them. Vispa is freeware, Windows only.

Vispa [via Download Squad]

Launch: Edit your videos with the YouTube remixer

from Lifehacker by Gina Trapani

YouTube releases a video editing tool which remixes your 'tube clips using a Flash-based in-browser application.

Drag and drop your clips to a timeline (much like iMovie) and add music, effects, graphics, captions and borders. The remixer is throwing a couple of "still working out the kinks" hiccups here and there this morning, but it's still a fun and easy way to splice, slice and dice your clips together.

YouTube Remixer [via CNET]

Skype 1.4 beta for Linux

Linux meet Skype, Skype meet Linux.

Skype finally released the 1.4 beta version for Linux of its popular free cross-platform VoIP application.

It's nice that Skype has finally put some effort into updating its oft-forgotten Linux version, but Skype for Linux is still leaps and bounds behind the Mac and Windows version. Skype for Linux is still without webcam support and has been reported to be far below the standard of quality seen on Mac and Windows. Linux users can find a version for just about every distro at the Skype website. Has anyone out there had a good experience with Skype on Linux? Please share in the comments. The Skype 1.4 beta is a free download for Linux only.

Skype 1.4 Beta for Linux [Skype] found on Life Hacker

iPhone Ads - Four of Four

iPhone Ads - Three of Four

iPhone Ads - Two of Four

iPhone Ads - One of Four

Apple.com Redesign

from Appleology by Appleologist Along with today’s exciting announcements, Apple has redesigned their entire website, to shed its old “gray-lined theme” and opening it up to a new streamlined theme that reflects much of Leopard’s new iTunes-7-esque user-interface. The new website also includes some Coverflow-esque navigation and some AJAX-implementation.

Featured Windows Download: Give Windows an OS X-like dock with ObjectDock

from Lifehacker

Windows only: Freeware application ObjectDock brings the functionality of the Mac OS X Dock to Windows.

ObjectDock comes in a free and a pay version and gives Windows users all the perks of the OS X dock. With all the buzz surrounding Apple yesterday, this little application was too good to pass up. The free version of ObjectDock allows you to add launchers, run docklets (small applications like weather and RSS) and minimize apps directly to the dock. ObjectDock has a variety of themes and customization options for those that really want to hammer out an OS X look and feel. ObjectDock is freeware for Windows only. Thanks, Landon!

ObjectDock [Stardock via FayObserver]

YouTube Redesigns and Moves to Google Accounts

from Google News by Ionut Alex Chitu

After updating their embeddable player, YouTube experiments with a new layout for the site. The new design places the search box in the center, moves the metadata below the video, makes it easier to rate the video and to find other related videos. There's also an option to embed a video using the old player.

To get the new interface, add &v3 at the end of a YouTube URL, like for this video.


YouTube also added to the homepage a list of videos that are being watched right now using active sharing, cleaned their search results and included a new option to view the results as thumnbnails.

But more importantly, you can now use your Google account to login to YouTube. Yay!


The login page proudly lists YouTube's features:

• Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide
• Browse millions of original videos uploaded by community members
• Find, join and create video groups to connect with people with similar interests
• Customize your experience with playlists and subscriptions
• Integrate YouTube with your website using video embeds or APIs

Blogger Adds Video Uploading

from Google News by Ionut Alex Chitu

Blogger has a place where you can test new experimental features: it's called Blogger in Draft and it's available at draft.blogger.com. Everything will look the same as the normal Blogger, but you may discover new features or new interfaces that aren't yet ready to be released to the general public. There's even a new blog that promises to keep us up-to-date with the new functionalities. "Features on Blogger in draft may be updated, changed, re-imagined, transmogrified, or removed at any time. Draft gives us the freedom to see what works and what doesn't before we turn a feature on for everyone, so expect us to make changes — hopefully you'll think they're for the better!"

The first feature added to Blogger's labs is video uploading: you're now able to upload videos directly from Blogger's editor. After you click on the video icon, you only need to select a video from your computer and to enter a title.


The video will be uploaded to Google, but until it's ready you'll see this nice placeholder:


You can continue to edit the post during the upload, but you can't publish it until the upload finishes. The video can be aligned and resized in the rich-text mode and that's a good idea since the initial size is very small.

Google hides the details of the implementation and includes this obscure code in your post that depends on some JavaScript to actually work:



The videos don't seem to be uploaded to Picasa Web Albums and they're not available at Google Video either, so it's unclear how you can reuse them or share them. Blogger mentions that "your videos are kept private and will not be included in Google Video search."

Apple links iTunes to social networking through Bebo

from AppleInsider

Apple Inc. has made one of its first overt attempts to tap into web youth culture, establishing links between its iTunes Store and European social networking site Bebo.

The Financial Times reports that a deal with Bebo.com will let the site's nearly 9 million users in Ireland and the UK jump directly to Apple's online music store through embedded links in the profiles of musicians, providing a shortcut that displays their albums and songs on the iTunes Store.

Apple's deal will potentially give it access to as many as 500,000 musicians who maintain profiles on the page and will also serve as a vehicle for pushing new artists for both companies. A free Bebo single of the week will operate separately from the official iTunes release to encourage visiting Bebo itself and buying the music. Mercury artist Amy Macdonald will be the first to have a free Bebo single, according to the report.

The iPod maker is said to consider the move experimental and a means of encouraging legal downloads by putting them a click away on the artist page. If it proves successful, the Bebo project may expand to the full 33 million international Bebo users.

An incidental benefit of the move, however, is exposure to a younger market of web visitors that it has known in the past. Almost a third of youth between 16 and 24 years old visit at least one social networking site occasionally and will likely see the iTunes links if they visit to explore music. Most of that same audience is also especially active on peer-to-peer networks trading illegal copies, giving Apple an extra incentive to target their social sites.

The decision is the first of its kind for Apple, which has largely remained absent from social networking sites. Although the California-based firm has already established a system for linking directly to artists, albums, or songs from websites, the web referral method has so far been used for general ad campaigns independent of any one website.

Although easily recognized on the Internet, Apple has been relatively slow to embrace social networking and other Web 2.0 elements. Facebook recently put in place a development kit that lets Amazon and other online retailers embed store-related links in member profiles, and European carriers Orange as well as Vodafone have both outpaced Apple in striking deals for mobile access to Bebo.

Apple will begin to learn how well its name carries forward to a younger Internet community on Wednesday, when Bebo will reportedly start hosting the British and Irish iTunes Store links.

Bullet Points: Our Favorite Dozen Features in Leopard

from Gizmodo

Let's recap what's new about Leopard, right here in easily-digestible form. Here's our fave dozen updates:

•There's a new Desktop, with a dock and menu bars that adjust to your background.

•Stacks are like folders but they let you see items in a bundle, and when you click on them, they pop up.

•Network View shows computers in their files as if they were residing on your own machine.

•Cover Flow comes to OS X, giving you that same liquid movement to all your documents that you have with your album covers now in iTunes.

•Quick Look lets you view Excel, PDFs and Word documents without having to launch an application.

•Leopard is now entirely 64-bit, but you can still run 32-bit applications on it.

•Core Animation makes it easier for developers to add spectacular animations to everyday apps.

•Boot Camp is built in, and Jobs says that XP and Vista can now run at native speed.

•Spaces is barely changed since last year, giving you four separate virtual desktops that can be moved between with the arrow keys.

•Dashboard is slightly upgraded, letting you make widgets out of any web page.

•iChat has been beefed up with a lower delay in tabbed chats. Conferences can be expanded to full screen.

•Time Machine, the spiffy real-time incremental backup routine, looks about the same as when we first saw it, and it also has that great-looking cover flow user interface.

•Okay, it's a baker's dozen: one more thing, Safari 3 finally shows up on Windows XP and Vista. Some people are saying it's a lot faster. – Charlie White

Mac OS X Leopard: Leopard to usher in much-needed Finder improvements

from Lifehacker

Out of all the Mac OS X Leopard announcements made today, the one that I'm most excited about isn't hologram effects in iChat, it's the whole new revamp of OS X's file manager, Finder. We've long been complaining about Finder's general stuck-in-the-mud suckiness as compared to the rest of OS X, and wishing it would act more like iTunes. Well, the Apple gods today are granting our wish.

Apple's official Leopard marketing around Finder is just what the doctor ordered:

Imagine if browsing the files on your Mac was as easy as browsing music in iTunes. That's the idea behind the new Finder in Leopard. Now you can access everything on your system from an iTunes-style sidebar and flip through your files using Cover Flow.

Preview some screenshots of the new Finder to be launched in Leopard (available in October) after the jump.

Leopard's Finder sidebar displays all the Macs connected to your computer as well as devices.

Bigger, better-looking and more informative preview icons let you know what type of file is listed and previews its contents in a thumbnail:

Select an icon and hit the new "Quick Look" button (or press the Spacebar):

And you can preview it without launching its associated app:

The new CoverFlow view in Leopard's Finder can flip through your documents as if they were album covers in a jukebox (or in iTunes.) You can also page through multi-page documents and play Quicktime videos right inside Finder, courtesy of the aforementioned Quick Look preview.

The new Finder also support saved Spotlight searches, ala iTunes Smart Playlists, which appear in the sidebar.

Finally, you can also use Spotlight + Coverflow to search for files on shared Macs:

Check out Apple's video demos of Finder and Quick Look below.

Apple Releases Safari for Windows

from Google News by Ionut Alex Chitu

Apple launched a beta version for Safari 3 for both Mac and Windows XP/Vista. Apple claims that Safari is "the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world" and that it loads pages two times faster than Internet Explorer. Because Safari has a Mac interface it's hard to argue that the browser is easy to use for a Windows user. This beta version is not very stable, so you may experience frequent crashes.

For a browser that claims to be the most innovative in the world, Safari doesn't bring too many new features: private browsing that lets you pause the web history, resizable text fields, clever inline find, progress bar included in the address field.

I also don't understand how a company that promotes elegance and simplicity tries to install QuickTime with all their software and bundles Bonjour, a service that detects shared devices on your local network, with a browser.

But the most important thing is that web developers can test their sites in Safari without buying a Mac or using a service like Browsrcamp and more sites will support Safari.

Wwdc 2007: 10 Updated Features of Leopard

from Gizmodo

At the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs described 10 key features of the upcoming Leopard operating system.

1) Leopard has a new Desktop. Instead of putting another blue pattern up that you'll put your pictures over, their dock and menu bar will adapt and adjust to whatever background you set.

"Stacks," a new feature that helps you clean up desktops. Stacks sits on your dock and gives you a stack of items that pops up when you click on it. Works with folders and downloads. You can put any folder there, and access them quickly.

The dock is changed as well, and has reflections/transparency/3D-ness.

Stacks can also work as an app launcher if you put all your apps there, and will pop up a square with all your app icons so you can launch stuff with it. Demoing the stack with pictures and movies. HE SAID BOOM.

New sidebar, which looks like iTunes and has the capability to search other Macs & servers. Things are grouped, and collapsible. It also has a "Search" group, where there are smart folders that can group stuff by when you modified the files, for example.

Back to My Mac: .Mac knows all your IP addresses of your computers, so you can use .Mac to communicate over the net (encrypted) and grab files off your home machine from the road. It's easier to browse and share files on a local network. If you're a subscriber with .Mac, you can share stuff with other machines.

Also, Cover Flow. Details: Same views as before, list, columns, and now, Cover Flow view.

You can read PDF pages in Cover Flow. Cover Flow can view PDFs and scroll up and down through pages. When it's on a movie, you can preview the movie right in Cover View. Presumably the same for music as well. Steve says it's a great way to find things, but if you've used Cover View then it's more of a cool slideshow app rather than finding things.

Network view: One of the groups on the left side is network computers, so you can view other files as if it were on your own machine, including Cover Flow view. Back to My Mac: Click it on the left (if you're a .Mac subscriber), click Start, and it'll hook up all your machines that are also signed in to .Mac.

Boom Count: 2. You can also use Spotlight searching to search other machines over the network.

Boom Count: 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I think he did that one on purpose.

3) Showing preview in Finder to preview Excel docs, PDFs and Word docs without launching Preview.app. You can preview movies in the Finder Cover Flow, but if you hit space bar then it pops open and gives you a big view. And that's "Quick Look."

4) Leopard is entirely 64 bit. One version of Leopard runs 32-bit and 64-bit side by side. You can run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps on every copy of Leopard. "First time 64-bit goes mainstream." Demoing a 64-bit and 32-bit version comparison. Their demo app loads a 4GB image that can only be kept in memory on the 64-bit version, and 32-bit has to keep accessing the disk to load part of the image when you zoom in.

5) Core Animation. It's automatic animation that makes it easy to add "high production value" to your apps. Text, images, video, OpenGL. Compose things on Scenes of Layers and auto-uses the GPU acceleration. Demoing the starting movie in AppleTV with the giant screen of videos. This is interactive, and you can search for stuff by tags. Search for water, all the water videos come out. Pops out all with a fancy animation. Easy to add stuff to your apps if you're a developer.

6) Boot Camp is built-in and better than ever, letting you run XP or Vista with native speed. Since it's built in, no more burning CDs to install drivers. Interestingly, Steve-o says that it complements Parallels and VM Ware, which they're "helping...as much as we can." Over 2.5 million downloads of the Beta. Leopard has Boot Camp built-in.

7) Not much has changed with Spaces since last year—you can group apps into (only four?) separate "spaces," (pictured above) or virtual desktops, and move between them with the arrow keys. You can also zoom out to scope all of them at once and toggle from there.

8) Dashboard gets an upgrade, but nothing we haven't seen. WebClip is in full force: you can make a widget out of any webpage, like Rotten Tomatoes. New, kinda meh, kind cool: partnership with Fandango for on-the-fly movie times, tickets, and previews in Dashboard.

9) iChat is spiffied up with AAC-LD (low delay), tabbed chats (<3),>

10) Time Machine also hasn't changed much since it was demoed, but that doesn't bother us too much. The sweet Cover Flow interface that's everywhere rears its head here, too, as it flows through your typed keywords. Click and restore, essentially. It automatically backs up to a local HD or network server, plus you can back up every Mac in the house to one shared drive. Lost files can be hunted down with a Spotlight search, which are spot-checkable with QuickLook.

One More Thing: Safari 3 on Windows XP and Vista. Besides sporting all of its OS X Leopard features, it supposedly smokes IE 7 and Firefox 2, rendering twice as fast as IE and 1.6x faster than Firefox. Grab the public beta here.