New iPhone details appear, faster processor expected

Macrumors.com got a hold of a big one, although the conclusions drawn don't surprise anybody.

Rumors of the next generation iPhone point to the support of Multi-Core CPUs and possibly Multi-Core GPUs from Imagination Technologies. Apple has been building a team of chip engineers over the past year to participate in their own ARM processor designs that will presumably be used in future iPhones. Schiller previously outlined Apple's natural product timelines and acknowledged that June is the usual timeframe for major iPhone revisions, although storage increases could happen at any time.

Read the whole article here.

Using Photoshop Smart Objects to simplify label designs.

Here's a tutorial which explains a way to design labels in Photoshop using free blank PDF label templates as a layer that you can then quickly modify for related products including CDs, DVDs, address labels. and more. Photoshop's Smart Objects helps you align-and-distribute options, and layer groups make it easy to repeat your label design to fit the label stock.

The detailed tutorial shows how to open a label template to use as a guide for sizing and positioning the label artwork critical for making labels.

It's Monday? Time for your first Dimitri Martin break.

Skip out of the office and take those WebEx conferences on your iPhone

From Lifehacker comes good news for us mobile junkies.

iPhone/iPod touch only: Cisco's popular meeting and collaboration tool WebEx has found a new home on the iPhone, and, frankly, it looks very impressive.

The free application lets you attend any WebEx meeting over 3G or Wi-Fi, including simultaneous conference calls, chat, and document sharing (you'll probably want to bust out your headset to use it all). We don't actually use WebEx here at Lifehacker HQ, so I wasn't able to put it through a full test, but if the video demonstration is any indication, it's a pretty impressive offering for the mobile worker. WebEx is a free download, iPhone and iPod touch only (though clearly two-way voice isn't really an option for the iPod touch).

Cisco WebEx [iTunes App Store]

Want an AT&T cell tower in your home?

As if the risk of brain cancer weren't bad enough justing using a cellphone, AT&T is contacting some of its customers asking if they'd like to test an in-home extension to its cellular networks powered by a subscriber's own broadband—a femtocell. Femtocells use frequencies licensed by the carrier for data and voice, while handling backhaul through a customer-provided service.

AT&T's new product is a small, security-enabled cellular base station that easily connects to your home DSL or Cable Internet, providing a reliable wireless signal for any 3G phone in every room of your house. The device allows you to have unlimited, nationwide Anytime Minutes for incoming or outgoing calls.

Sprint Nextel has been offering femtocells since last year; the advantage to the carrier is providing fill-in service in the home without deploying more base stations in an area. AT&T has apparently been testing femtocells with its own employees since last year as well.

Femtocells differ from T-Mobile's UMA (unlicensed mobile access) approach, which also puts a specialized device in the home. With UMA, specialized handsets must have both cell and WiFi radios, and the firmware to handle seamless handoffs between the two network types. With a femtocells, the radio side is effectively identical with only the backhaul varying. T-Mobile also offers WiFi routers that feature two increasingly common VoIP-oriented protocols (one for power conservation, the other for packet prioritization).

Carriers pay enormously less to transit and account for voice and data over a customer's own broadband, and thus can offer so-called unlimited voice plans (which have some very high monthly limits). T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service costs $10 (1 or more lines) per month adding to a minimum $40-per-month voice plan; Sprint charges $15 to $25 per month for the same thing.

Femtocells have few disadvantages for home users because the dedicated frequencies means that any WiFi network they may already have in place isn't degraded by cellular use, and vice versa.

The REAL Superhero Registry, and no, I'm not kidding.

Okay, there are super heroes like Spiderman that only fight crime on screen or in print. But then there are the real world super heroes like Fox Fire and Black Arrow who are out to fight crimes in their own cities. Think I'm joking. I'm not.

Check out the World Superhero Registry to see who's fighting crime in your area.

You can learn more about these secretive crime fighters through MySpace and their own personal websites, which are conveniently located on their profile pages.

My guess is that my wife and I could take them all in a fight. At the same time. But your mileage may vary.

I thought about becoming a superhero myself, but their online shop of "Real Life Superhero Items" was "coming soon" and listed no items. Foiled again!!!!!

Now I have to find out where Batman really does get all those incredible toys. Obviously not at the World Superhero Registry.

Kill your cable bill, learn how to get Over-The-Air HDTV Free

I can' t recommend it enough, kill your Cable/Satellite system and switch to Over-The-Air HD (OTA). but getting a good reception isn't always easy. Luckily there is help. The AntennaWeb site can help find the receiver that will net the most channels at your address.

From LifeHacker:

The free-to-use site only requires your street address or ZIP code and asks whether you've got any tall buildings or trees nearby. Based on your location (which it sometimes details down to the street level), it lays out how far each local broadcaster is from your house, what channel and signal type they're offering, and what kind of antenna will net you the best reception for the most digital channels. You can even get a map showing which direction each station will come to your house from, for those who need to point a directional unit (or plan to stick with a strategically-placed indoor antenna).

AntennaWeb leaves the purchasing of your outdoor model to your own preference and Google abilities, but the site does explain the whys and hows of antennas pretty decently for those who haven't worked at a RadioShack. Confused in a more general sense about the Feb. 17 transition and what it means? Try the official DTV 2009 site.

I use a TivoHD with my OTA digital reception, and between the Netflix streaming service and the hundreds of hours of HD programming, I rarely feel the need for cable. It makes a lot of sense in the new economy!

Sleaziest iPhone App Ever

Okay, I ran across this little creepy gem of an app, and just had to share it with you. It's called iAmAMan, and it's targeted at the untapped, and doubtfully lucrative, playa' market in the app store.


Menstral Cycle tracking apps have been around for a long time, but they are usually useful because they contain fertility trackers, or other actually useful items. But iAmAMan declares it "will help you with your private life planning" by tracking several girls at once so you can plan your dates accordingly.

It's also sneaky, if one of your "girlfriends" asks you to open up the program, each girl can be set with their own separate password. When you punch it in, it only looks like you're tracking her. That's pretty creepy in itself!

How exactly did iAmAMan get into the app store when a book with some mildly bad language didn't.

So the bottom line is, if you have this on your phone, you are a total douche. [The Standard via Fark]

Easily block ads in Safari/Firefox, kill your favorite blogs in the process

While I don't block ads personally, many people do. I personally want to support the sites that I read on a regular basis, and understand that the ad revenue keeps them in business. Without it, your favorite blogs and newspapers will go out of business.

But if you still want to kill the written word as we know it, there's a great new tool for blocking ads on Safari and Firefox on OS X.

Free, open-source application GlimmerBlocker adds a new preference pane to your System Preferences that brings system-wide ad blocking to your Mac.

Just install GlimmerBlocker and let it do its work. You can add custom filters, track your ad-blocking history, and even allow your iPhone or iPod touch to use the GlimmerBlocker filters on your network. Firefox users already have the beloved Adblock Plus extension, but if you ever use a different browser or you'd prefer to manage your ad blocking through a robust preference pane, GlimmerBlocker does the trick.

GlimmerBlocker is a free download, Mac OS X Leopard only. But please, use it responsibly.

Twitter becomes... useful?

It's amazing the ways in which Twitter is being used. What started out as a micro-blogging service for narcissists, is now providing real-time news, organizing people, and insight into the lives of people like Lance Armstrong and Shaq, and people who are next door neighbors but more fascinating that we had imagined.

Over the weekend, a terrifying plane accident in Denver occurred, where a Continental plane slid off the runway at Denver International Airport. How did I hear about it? Was it the local newspaper or television station? No, it was spreading like wildfire on Twitter.

Boulder software engineer Mike Wilson was on the plane, and started twittering what was going on immediately after he escaped the burning wreckage. With the telephone lines overloaded, it provided him contact with friends and family and let them know he was okay. Additionally, it allowed people in Denver to see what was going in a faster and more personal way than the local television stations could offer.

During the attacks in Mumbai, the twitter tag #mumbai providing an amazing real-time look from people on the ground. Everything from the worldwide reaction and sympathy, to the first-hand experiences of those who were experiencing the event first hand. It personalized the news from thousands of miles away, in a way that even TV news couldn't.

I've even used twitter to organize local twitter meetups for networking and meeting other people locally. Some people use it to organize political protests, charity events, news feeds, and more.

Twitter has become a platform without rules, and is therefore a very interesting product development case study.

Since it was never really defined as how to use Twitter, people have used it how they have seen fit to suit their needs. As a result, Twitter has become a popular and useful platform.

The question still remains as to whether Twitter can monitize their business model, but they are on the right track. They have allowed the users to define the product, provided the tools for them to be successful, and then will develop revenue models around the way Twitter is actually being leveraged by users, not on how they think users should utilize Twitter. It's an interesting business case without much precedent.

If you haven't checked out Twitter yet, I encourage you to do so. Because it has no set rules, it can often seem trivial, useless, and difficult to approach for first time users.

I'll be blogging in the coming weeks about successful ways to use twitter depending on your goals. Whether you want to organize friends to do fun stuff, or if you are interested in breaking news, industry knowledge, or a million other avenues, there is a way to use Twitter that is useful for you.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 released with improved MobileMe syncing

Apple has just released Mac OS X 10.5.6 with several fixes and tweaks. Though there are a number of notable improvements included with the update, MobileMe users will rejoice with the improvements to syncing with the service to and from a Mac. "Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com," according to Apple.

A few other fixes caught our eye as well. Graphics enhancements and performance improvements are included, and there's a fix specifically for those having video distortion issues with certain ATI GPUs. Mail has gotten some small fixes, as well as overall performance and reliability improvements. Networking gets several improvements, including improved Airport connections, particularly when roaming a large network. AFP and TCP connections are improved, as well as compatibility with AT&T 3G networking cards.

Printing from Adobe Creative Suite 3 apps is markedly improved (thank you, Apple!) as well as working with certain Brother and Canon printers via USB. Time Machine also gets some love, particularly when working with a Time Capsule as the backup volume. And, the 10.5.6 update adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for notebooks. If that weren't enough, Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update "improves the performance and reliability of Chess." Yes!

In addition to the bug fixes and improvements, the update contains all the security enhancements included with Security Update 2008-008. Mac OS X 10.5.6 can naturally be installed via Software Update, but delta and combo installers are available as a separate download. Mac OS X Server also gets some 10.5.6 updating as well. In all, it looks to be a solid update for Leopard users.

The Auto Bailout - In One Depressing Image

Click it to see the big version. Sad part, is I do drive a Subaru. I also have a 1955 Chevy, does that count? Well, maybe it counts for the last time American's made good steel cars!

The most awesome thing I've seen all day - Thriller - Bollywood Style.

This guy is a hit with the ladies for sure. And is he yelling "Girly Man"?

What's the connection between the Elves and the Nazis?

Can anybody tell me what movie this is from? I must know.

Nokia unveils the N97

Nokia has unveiled the Nokia N97, claiming it to be the world's most advanced mobile computer. The Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5" touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an 'always open' window to social networking sites and Internet destinations.

"From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. "Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet".

The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of 'social location'. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos.

The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features friends, social networks and news, available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The new device N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.

iPhone 2.2 Firmware Update Available Now - No Cut & Paste Yet

In case you don't know, the new Apple iPhone 2.2 Firmware is out today, as well as the iTunes 8.0.2 update. Go download it NOW, because the new features are impressive. I'm totally bummed there is no CUT & PASTE yet though.

Here's a list of the new features.

• Enhancements to Maps
  • Google Street View*
  • Public transit and walking directions
  • Display address of dropped pins
  • Share location via email
• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls

• Enhancements to Mail
  • Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
  • Improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)

• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
• Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

BlackBerry Storm Review Roundup

The BlackBerry Storm, Verizon and RIM’s answer to Apple’s iPhone, reviews are in. Here's a cheat cheat of the most important ones. Is it an iPhone killer?

• Walt Mossberg. The Wall Street Journal. BlackBerry’s Storm Presses Into the Touch-Phone Fray: Mixed positive. He likes the high-res camera (which does video), the replaceable battery, the push e-mail, the ability to cut-and-paste, the corporate security features and Verizon’s 3G network — an improvement over AT&T’s. He misses Wi-Fi, however, and he’s not particularly fond of the so-called SurePress touchscreen. “The feature does provide a more reassuring confirmation that a key has been struck or an icon has been clicked than the mere visual feedback one receives from the iPhone. But neither I, nor any of the several BlackBerry addicts I asked to try it out, considered typing on the Storm’s keyboard to be very similar to using the keyboard of a traditional full-sized BlackBerry.” (link)

• Joshua Topolsky. Engadget. BlackBerry Storm review: “The selling points are easy: the phone is gorgeous to look at and hold, it’s designed and backed by RIM (now almost a household name thanks to their prevalence in the business and entertainment markets), and it’s packed with features that, at first glance, make it seem not only as good as the iPhone, but better. The only hitch in this plan is a major one: it’s not as easy, enjoyable, or consistent to use as the iPhone, and the one place where everyone is sure they have an upper hand — that wow-inducing clickable screen — just isn’t all that great.” (link)

• Daniel Dumas. Wired.com. RIM’s First Touchscreen Device Almost Eclipses the iPhone: “WIRED Click screen is a revelation for touch compatible devices. Converts iTunes to BlackBerry media without breaking a sweat. Included GSM card means the Storm is a true globetrotter - it can work in virtually any foreign port. Photos, video, and text pop like Ice Cube’s AK (on a bad day). Posh fit and finish look rich enough to buy YOU dinner. — TIRED OS lag on a piece of hardware this gorgeous is unacceptable. Scrolling through menus is jagged, slow, and pokey. Accelerometer sometimes takes a good 5-10 seconds to orient itself. Lack of Wi-Fi is lame. Verizon’s totalitarian control over the Storm’s OS is even lamer.” (link)

• Yardena Arar. PC World. BlackBerry’s Storm: Awkward and Disappointing: “The decision by Research in Motion to differentiate the Storm by giving its capacitive touch screen a mechanical component (the entire screen functions as a button for confirming selections or initiating actions) turns out to be more confusing than helpful. Ultimately, the Storm’s touch interface feels like a failed experiment. — It’s too bad, because the Storm has some nice features and makes a great first impression.” (link)

• The Boy Genius. The Boy Genius Report. Verizon BlackBerry Storm review: “The good thing is that this is, afterall, a BlackBerry, and once you get past accepting that there will be some hiccups, it’s really not all that bad. It’s a great phone, a very good device for email, a really good media player, and a decent web browsing machine. You’ll just have to decide what your priorities are in a mobile device and see if the Storms meets that.” (link)

So what do yo uthink? Is this the BlackBerry for you? Is it an iPhone killer?

Personally, until RIM/Blackberry can effectively handle multiple IMAP email accounts - including folder management - it's dead to me.

Mozilla Launches Fashion Your Firefox and Makes It Easy to Customize the Browsing Experience

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – November 18, 2008 - Mozilla today released Fashion Your Firefox®, a new Web application that enables Firefox users to customize their browser based on their interests and online activities. With Fashion Your Firefox, add-ons that fit people’s online lifestyles are organized in easy to discover ways and are available for installation in just a few easy clicks.

Fashion Your Firefox presents add-ons in activity-based categories that make them easy to find and install. Add-ons are tiny pieces of software that add new features or functionality to Firefox, letting people customize their browser to meet their tastes. There are currently more than 1 billion downloads of Firefox add-ons.

Categories in Fashion Your Firefox include:

• Shutterbug: View and share pictures and videos online
• Rock Star: Listen to music while surfing, working, emailing or researching online
• News Junkie: Get the most up-to-date news and weather
• Shopaholic: Shop and take advantage of online deals
• Digital Pack Rat: Keep track of favorite sites, bookmarks and blogs
• Social Butterfly: Share, bookmark, and e-mail web pages via an array of social networking & bookmarking sites
• Finder and Seeker: Find and make information on the Web more relevant
• Decorator: Apply browser themes
• Executive Assistant: Organize online activities

“One of the best parts about Firefox is the amazing richness of our 5,000-plus free add-ons,” said Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. “We’re excited to introduce Fashion Your Firefox because it makes it even easier for people to discover useful add-ons that make the browsing experience better and more personal.”

“StumbleUpon helps millions of users discover new Web content based on their interests. With Fashion Your Firefox, we look forward to introducing personalized Web discovery to a much larger audience,” says Garrett Camp, co-founder and chief architect at StumbleUpon.

“Firefox’s robust add-ons platform allows us to create the most dynamic and intuitive media navigation experience, and we’re very excited about the mainstream potential of the 'Fashion Your Firefox' release,” says Josh Schwarzapel, a co-founder of Cooliris.

“At Foxmarks we improve the online experience for consumers by keeping bookmarks in sync and accessible across multiple computers, anytime, anywhere. Fashion Your Firefox helps us connect with Firefox users in a personalized way,” said James Joaquin, CEO, Foxmarks.

For more information about Fashion Your Firefox and how it can help customize your browser, visit www.fashionyourfirefox.com.

Steve Jobs Flipping off IBM (Pic)

Check out this great picture of Steve Jobs flipping off IBM in the mid 1980s. A rare moment captured. It looks like a picture of a picture.

Ubuntu to get prettier than OS X?

Word on the street is that Ubuntu is going to get prettified in the near future.


Well, maybe not that prettified.

From the original article:

When Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Canonical/Ubuntu, made the comment that Ubuntu should be prettier than Apple OSX in near term I got excited - the man was absolutely right. It doesn’t matter how customizable and operating is, or how good can you make it look with some effort if it does look bad out of the box. The out-of-the-box experience is the key to reach the average users, and if that is not aesthetically pleasing a lot of effort is needed to win the user back. Interestingly Ubuntu with their orange/brown themes and very basic Gnome looks is possibly the worst looking distribution out of the major players. So here comes release 8.10, the Intrepid Ibex - a first step to the direction of making Ubuntu look good? We’ll see about that…
....
Unfortunately the Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex does not live up to it’s name. It lacks any ground braking changes, innovation in design or brave new approaches on the visuals and usability.

One of my biggest complaints with Linux is the lack of a truly streamlined desktop experience. Each developer takes their own route for user interface and "prettification". This mean inconsistent menus, strange window behaviors, and even conflicting theming options that seeming to fight each other for control. I'm not a n00b, I've been running Linux for over 8 years now.

The real problem is, to impose usability standards on applications goes against the open-source grain of exploration and creativity in problem solving. There is no Steve Jobs to force developers into doing it in any particular way, and developers don't want that either. End users are another story.

I'd also argue that "pretty" is not vital to an OS, but usable is. Therein lies the rub for me. Until Linux runs Photoshop natively, it's usability as a desktop for me is dimished. Also, OS X has the pretty interface and the BSD based functionality to make it a daily driver operating system.

That being said, all of my servers are some flavor of linux.

So for now, I'd say embrace Linux for what it is - a user-friendly distribution with serious horsepower under the hood for power users. If you haven't tried it, and you are a Windows user, you should. Immediately. For OS X users, your mileage may vary.