iPhone apps: Voice Dialer, Units calc, DaysFrom

Voice Dialer (free) is a voice dialing application for the iPhone that allows users to search through their contact book using voice commands. Users press and hold the onscreen button, then speak a name and command such as "call." After a contact has been found, users can choose to call, e-mail or send a text message to the person. If an address is associated with the contact, a map of that locat...

published today, 1 hour 57 minutes ago, macintosh-news-network

Vlingo launches voice-command iPhone app

Vlingo has launched a voice-based iPhone application that allows users to speak basic commands to call contacts, search the web, find maps, or send status updates to Facebook and Twitter. Yahoo and Google searches can be initiated simply by stating the command and search terms, such as "web search: concert tickets in Boston," for example. Users can mention a specific location, and Vlingo will prov...

published yesterday, 17 hours 27 minutes ago, macintosh-news-network

New Industry launches FormSpring for iPhone

New Industry has published FormSpring, an iPhone application that allows users to view, collect and search online form data whenever an Internet connection is available. Along with building complex searches that can be saved for repeated use, FormSpring can also be used to upload audio and images directly from the iPhone's microphone or camera to a form, or to tag each submission with GPS coordina...

published yesterday, 23 hours 2 minutes ago, macintosh-news-network

iScrapBox manages artwork for digital scrapbookers

Chronos has launched iScrapBox 1.0, an artwork management program for digital scrapbookers. The software allow users to browse collections, called iScrapKits, and then launch the image or artwork into a scrapbook application like iScrapbook or into Photoshop for editing. iScrapBox supports click-to-purchase buying of iScrapKits on iScarpbook.com and has numerous searching features for finding spec...

published yesterday, 1 day 22 minutes ago, macintosh-news-network

Apple Exploring Liquid Notebook Cooling Systems for Cooler Laps

MacNN reports on a newly published Apple patent application which details ongoing research into alternative cooling systems for notebook computers. Specifically, Apple explores the possibility of a liquid cooling system for th...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macrumors

iPhone soars to 16.6% of smartphone market

The iPhone is now not only the second most popular smartphone in the world but has saved the smartphone industry from a decline this past summer, according to a research note by Needham analyst Charlie Wolf. Apple's handset has represented about 16.6 percent of the entire smartphone market worldwide for the quarter ended in September and is now second only to Nokia. The latter has already acknow...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

Mac web share hits 8.9% while Firefox tops 20%

New research data today from Net Applications has revealed both Apple and Mozilla bringing Microsoft's share of the web to historic lows for November. The Mac's usage share of the more than 40,000 websites tracked by the Internet firm has now reached 8.87 percent for the past month; the increase is a major jump from the previous record of 8.23 percent in September and is enough to have pushed Mic...

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

Retrieve the raw mixdown file from GarageBand

Every time GarageBand exports a song, it first creates an uncompressed mixdown file, called Output.aif. It then compresses this file into the file that you actually see. If you ever want to access the raw, uncompressed file, you can do this: Initiate the export. GarageBand says it's creating the mixdown. Open up Activity Monitor (Applications » Utilities » Activity Monitor) and select the GarageBand process. Press the Inspect button at the top. Select the Open Files and Ports tab. Copy the contents of it into a text editor. Search the text for Output; it's usually on the last line. Copy the path to the clipboard -- it will be something long and ugly like /private/var/ folders/8c/8c6KjuqYGKCLxYlDtiJ​FJk+++TI/ -Tmp-/GarageBand/Export/Output​.aif (robg says: Note that spaces were added to the path shown here to allow line breaks; the real path won't have spaces, of course.). Open up Terminal (App...

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, macosxhints

Touchscreen Phones and Mobile Apps: Fitting Hand in Glove

Touchscreen phone users are discovering that much of the fun in their devices stems from applications -- those little nuggets of convenience, amusement and distraction available for download on the slightest whim. A good example is Google's newly updated Mobile App for Apple's iPhone, which has been generating a lot of buzz for one main reason: voice search.

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, macnewsworld

Greenpeace Slams Apple For Environmental Record

nandemoari writes "According to a recent advertisement airing on American TV, Apple's new Macbooks (well-received by most technology critics) are 'the world's greenest family of notebooks.' It seems an indication that the Cupertino-based company is increasingly aware of a consumer base that demands green electronics. However, Greenpeace is less than enthused with Apple's overall green performance. In their report (PDF), the environmentalists argue that Apple 'needs to commit to phasing out additional substances with timelines, improve its policy on chemicals and its reporting on chemicals management.'" Ars Technica points out that Greenpeace's research isn't quite up-to-snuff, and it's also worth noting that Greenpeace admitted to targeting Apple for the publicity in the past.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

published on Friday, the 28. November 2008, apple-slashdot