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  • Swad
    Earlier this week we announced the iAnnoyance Challenge, a series of challenges in which we give you the weekend to code up a fix to something annoying in OS X. Oh yeah, there's cash involved too. While we initially said we'd give $100 to the winner (plus all donations sent in by others), we decided that, to kick things off, we wanted something special. That means that before donations, the prize money stands at an awesome...

    $500
    And now, introducing the world's first iAnnoyance challenge... (drumroll)
     

    Red means Stop, Green means Go How many times have you thought the red "Close" button was going to quit your application when it was actually still running? Ever looked at your dock to find all of your applications still open? How many times have you clicked the green "zoom" button in anxious anticipation, having no idea whether the window would get a little bigger or go full screen? Ever shaken a fist at a developer who didn't read the Human Interface Guidelines? It's happened to us all. But no longer.
     
    We're looking for an app we're calling Red means Stop, Green means Go that will allow any Mac user to...
     
    - Make the red x always quit an app
    - Make the red x always hide an app (as in, close all windows but keep the app open)
    - Make the green Zoom button always go full screen.
    - Change these setting on a per application basis, so that the features can be disabled or enabled for specific apps. There should also be a universal setting.
    - Use one or all features
     
    There are several obvious benefits that this app presents. First, it'll mean one UI action where there are currently thousands, making the OS easier for children and seniors to understand. Secondly, it will save RAM, processor usage, battery life by closing unused apps in one click. Finally, if you're a stickler for Apple's HIG rules, you can tweak to your heart's delight.
     
    You have until Sunday night (Midnight CST, 6 am GMT) to email me (mashugly [at] gmail.com), PM me, or IM me your solution. It should be in good enough shape to release at that point, but if it's still in a beta stage (as in, still has a few bugs) that's fine too. Since we'll be open sourcing this app, the cleaner the code, the better.
     
    Best of luck!
     
    Rules:
    1. All applications must be universal.
    2. All applications must have a cool name (we'll stick with ours, unless you have a cooler one).
    3. Every application must be easy and fun to use.
    4. If a solution is not found within the 3 day challenge, the prize money drops to $300 for the week after the challenge and $400 for the weeks after that. Just a little extra incentive to beat everyone to a solution. Donated funds will stay the same. (Props to DiegoMax for ideas on the prizes)
     
    Donation List (Click here to donate) :
    None so far.
     
    To share this contest with the world (which will result in a better pool of applicants), digg it!
  • Swad

    Apple updates Leopard Preview

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    As noted by viriiman in our Leopard Forum, Apple has passed along an update for its Leopard Developer Preview to those using the pre-release of Leopard, bringing the build number to 9A241e. While we're not clear on what exactly the update... well... updates, it does hold changes for several OS X apps, including Time Machine, Mail, and Spaces.
     
    For a full list of the updated changes, join the ongoing discussion in the thread!
  • Swad
    I wish that we could somehow harness the collective energy of the various Apple Rumor Mills™. That's some serious wheat grinding power.
     
    iLounge and HardMac, among others, are talking about an Apple event which seems to be happening on September 12 in an "undisclosed location" in California. No word if {censored} Cheney, known to frequent other "undisclosed locations," will be in attendance. (HardMac actually claims it'll be Cupertino)
     
    What shall we see there? Well, a new iPod is a safe bet with Zune on the way. HardMac also claims that iMacs are becoming scarce in Europe and that MacBook Pros might be up for revision as well. These revisions make a great deal of sense considering the latest offerings from Intel.
     
    In any event (pun intended), I'd hold off on that new Apple purchase just a few more days...
  • Alex Oughton
    Yesterday brought news that Google’s Chief Executive Officer, Eric Schmidt, has been appointed to Apple’s board.
     
    Steve Jobs has been quoted as saying “We look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple’s board of directors. Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.”
     
    The move suggests a growing alliance between the two companies, as Schmidt joins Apple- a company he describes as “one of the companies in the world I most admire”.
     
    Schmidt became Google CEO in 2001, after previously working for both Novell and Sun.
  • cavemonkey50
    While Leopard has been stealing the show lately, it might be time to start thinking about Tiger again. Mac Rumors is reporting that 10.4.8 has been seeded to developers. The most interesting news regarding the upcoming update is the size.


    The build weighs in at 305 MB for intel and 147 MB for PPC. If left as-is, the updates would be some of the largest in history (Mac OS 10.4.7, released in June, was only 133 MB intel and 64 MB PPC). However, many of Apple's early builds are significantly larger than when they are released to the public. With all of those changes, there are bound to be some notable bug fixes. Personally, I'm hoping for a fix for the MacBook's colored lines on boot issue that appeared around 10.4.7. What fixes are you hoping for in 10.4.8?
  • Swad
    While I'm sure the DRM Team at Apple probably can't see the beauty in this hack, a user over at AVS Forum has created DVD Assist, a "little Applescript applet I put together to allow Front Row to seemlessly play VIDEO_TS folders from inside of Front Row."
     
    It's free and enables you to watch all of those legitimately backed-up DVD's you have lying around your 4 external hard drives.
     
    Since I don't have any VIDEO_TS files handy I couldn't test this, but when you try it let us know what you think!
  • Swad
    Just because OS X is (arguably) the greatest operating system on the planet doesn’t mean it isn’t fairly annoying on occasion. And while we can’t fix everything, we can certainly fix some things.
     
    That’s why we're introducing the iAnnoyance Challenge this Friday. Every month or so we’ll launch an iAnnoyance Challenge in which we give Mac coders around the globe 3 days (the weekend) to come up with a small application to fix OS X’s little annoyances. If no one submits a solution in 3 days, the contest continues and the donation pot grows larger until a solution is found.
     
    To make it worth your time, we’ll give $100 to the first person that submits a workable app... and we'll take donations from others to make that number even higher (we expect several apps to be worth USD $200-300!). Prize money can also be donated to the charity of your choice.
     
    (Note: This is easy money, folks. Even if it takes you a solid 5 hours (unlikely) to create this app, you’re earning 20 bucks an hour for simple and fun work. When people donate more, your time is worth even more. That means that even if you’re unsure, it’s worth your time to try.)
     
    InsanelyMac will take the application (while giving you full credit) and make it open source as a free gift to the Mac community. Pretty neat, huh?
     
    We’ll launch our first iAnnoyance Challenge this Friday, so get your coding fingers warmed up. As with all of the Challenges we have planned, we think you’ll really like it.
     
    In the meantime, let us know what annoys you about OS X in our Great Debate. Your thoughts might make their way into an iAnnoyance app!
     
    [if you're excited about this idea, please digg it to share it with the world.]
  • Swad

    Snapz Pro X now Universal

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Snapz Pro X, the image and video capture application, has been on the "I can't wait until it goes universal!" list of bloggers and users alike since Apple began the Intel transition. If you were one of these suffering souls, suffer no more.
     
    Ambrosia software has announced that version 2.0.3 is now Universal, along with a few performance tweaks and bug fixes. Snapz Pro X is USD $29 for Image Capture and $69 for Movie Capture and can be purchased from Ambrosia.
  • Colonel

    Vista now works on Intel Macs

    By Colonel, in OSx86,

    Though we'll never know if Microsoft was unwilling or unable to accommodate it until now, Vista is reportedly now working on Intel Macs. Windows Vista Pre-RC1 is compatible with Boot Camp 1.1 and it appears that Microsoft will continue this support in future releases of Vista. As a Vista user notes in his blog,


    The new Vista Pre-RC1 build (5536) works now on Intel Macs. The installation procedure is the same as with Windows XP SP2. The only down side is that not all the drivers provided in Boot Camp will work under Vista; the iSight and the Apple keyboard will not install. The performance of this build is amazing when compared to the Beta 2 that was made available to the public a few months ago. All the bells and whistles of the new Aero GUI are supported on my MacBook Pro, and according to online reports even the plain MacBook supports all of the new effects. This is great news for Intel Mac owners wanting to try out Vista, meaning it’s now possible to install Vista without erasing your EFI partition and having to reinstall. Hopefully Microsoft now understands that folks will install Vista on Intel Macs with or without corporate help.
     
    If you can beat 'em, support 'em?
  • Colonel
    Tired of searching in your Applications folder for that one piece of software you're looking for? Then you might want to check out Todos. It'll show you all of your apps with a quick hotkey... AppZapper is a great utility for completely removing an unwanted application. Just drag the unwanted app into AppZapper and all its related files are sent to the Trash... Last Monday the highly anticipated My Dream App contest launched... The MacBook was rated the best computer for school by the Seattle Times.
     
    Up for something random? Help us reach 1000 posts in this thread... And finally, what would an Apple commercial for a video game system be like?
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