We’re all in favor of advancing the state of the art, but there are times when we suspect that research is more about “what if” explorations than anything else. Exhibit A: Apple’s new patent application for a wireless display. The concept would let a touchscreen detach from its laptop base through a 60GHz ultrawideband format (such as WiGig) and keep its battery powered up through at least some form of wireless charging located in the laptop’s hinge. It sounds viable when others have experimented with wireless displays before, but we’d note that both technical realities and corporate philosophies might stand in its way. Along with the usual challenges of battery life and wireless range, Apple has so far argued that touchscreen laptops are unwieldy and isn’t exactly in a rush to supplement booming iPad sales — even if granted, the patent may just be a matter of covering the bases rather than any kind of roadmap for a two-piece MacBook Pro. Still, we won’t completely rule it out when many also thought Apple wouldn’t make a phone.
Microsoft knows that many Mac-based developers still have to test in a Windows environment, whether it’s to check web rendering in Internet Explorer 10 or to port an iOS or Mac app to competing environments. The firm doesn’t want anyone hemming and hawing over how they cross that digital divide, so it’s launching a Windows QuickStart Kit in late April to make Windows testing a trivial affair. The USB drive bundle includes a full copy of Windows 8 Pro, virtual machine support through Parallels Desktop 8 and a set of porting labs to help with any app conversions. The lure may may as much about the cost as the convenience: outside of shipping, Microsoft is only asking for a $25 donation to Code.org, the Kahn Academy or Watsi.org. While code builders have to verify their credentials and race to buy from limited stock, the kit could still be one of the easiest (and most charitable) ways to go cross-platform.
The Amazon Cloud Drive app for Windows and Mac was released in May last year. It was said that Cloud Drive was Amazon’s answer to popular services such as SkyDrive and Dropbox. However it had a few shortcomings. One major feature was lacking and today it has finally been added. File Sync has finally been added to Amazon Cloud Drive. The apps for both of these platforms have been updated, users can now easily store and access files hosted on the Amazon Cloud from a File Sync folder on their computers.
When the Cloud Drive Desktop app is installed on a secondary computer, all of the synced files become available on that machine as well. Files in this particular folder can either be accessed from the computer itself or from the web. All Amazon Cloud Drive users get 5GB of storage and additional storage can be purchased for as little as $10 per year. Good to see Amazon stepping up its game, at least now it is in the same ballpark as established Cloud storage services such as Dropbox and SkyDrive.
Back when Apple’s first Macintosh computer was introduced, there was an explosion of interest from not just geeks and nerds, but “the rest of us” too – that’s what this television program explores. What you’re about to see is an episode of the legendary Computer Chronicles, a show here dug up from the archives by Wired for your enjoyment. This episode goes by the name “MACINTOSH”, was directed by NICHOLS, and is program number 210, and is approximately 29:03 in length – there’s even a countdown beeper before it begins!
Obviously when there’s a program this old all about computers, even when it’s all “retro” and funny because of it, there’s some level of understanding you must have so far as how excited everyone seems about now-ancient tools and features. What’s particularly interesting about this video is how simple the presenters make each of the terms included in the still relatively new concept of visual computing.
What you’re going to learn is how the Apple Macintosh computer made working with a computer at home – or at school, or in the office – a reality for those that otherwise would never have considered using a computer. While the difference between working only with lines of code and working with pictures and renderings of objects wasn’t brand new at the time, the solidification of that kind of thinking was certainly taking place.
You’ll find that the Macintosh they’re working with here in the program was launched with two applications – one for typing (MacWrite), the other for drawing with your mouse (MacPaint). By the time this program had been filmed, as they say “the number of Mac products has skyrocketed, and now numbers in the hundreds.”
So consider this your mission for this weekend – see if you or one of your friends or family members would like to learn how computers work at their most basic. The talks here are applicable even to our most advanced systems – see how they make the magic happen now! And make sure you grab your healthy helping of Easter ham or otherwise non-denominational feast with the future on your mind!
BONUS: Save a collection of episodes lost to time for whatever reason, there’s a massive amount of episodes of Computer Chronicles up in the Internet Archive for your perusal now as well. More computer knowledge from the 1980s than you’ll know what to do with!
Have a peek at a few more “Weekend Watching” posts below to see how they ring your bell!
Tweetdeck, the Twitter client that’s more popular (and useful) than the company’s own native desktop app, is getting a version bump that has everything to do with filters. Available for Windows and Mac users now, the update lets social tweakers get granular as they sort through columns and search with new content and user filters. Keen to see a column filled with only RTs? You can do that now, as well as filter by using select terms, media, verified users and lists. A minor visual refresh is also bundled in that gives users the option to expand column width and choose from more font sizes, alongside a couple of handy new shortcuts. If you’re running Tweetdeck now, it’s likely you’ll be prompted to update. Or you can head to the source below to get things started now.
Today several bits of a couple of speeches made by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and another Macintosh legend have surfaced via a friendly holder of several VHS recordings of a 1984 meeting of the Apple Pi computer club. These tapes recorded Woz and Apple Employee #6 Randy Wigginton speaking at the Denver Apple Pi computer club back on October 4th 1984, and are being digitized and cleaned for your enjoyment this weekend. Don’t miss the “Pledge of Apple Allegiance”, whatever you do.
These videos were submitted initially to Tuaw where a reader by the name of Vince Patton notes that he’s in the process of making sure all of the tapes are transferred and that watchable video is produced from the source material. These videos are all being displayed at Patton’s YouTube channel where you can enjoy them in kind – we’ll also be embedding each of them in this post, of course.
First you’ll see an epic moment in the history of computing that you’ll be glad you took the time to click. Here Woz leads the club in the Pledge of Apple Allegiance, complete with the following lines:
I pledge allegiance to the logo of corporate marketing in Cupertino. And to the computers for which it stands: one notion under Jobs – indispensable hardware and software for all.
Make sure you commit that one to memory, dear readers.
Next you’ve got Woz speaking on pranking a hotel, hacking a Video on Demand box, and re-numbering a telephone. Immediately following that, you’ll find a video about additional pranks and wild times Woz had as a college students, including a choice note about how he’d used a TV jammer more than once.
A bit of a break from Woz for a moment, you’ve got Randy Wigginton speaking about the aversion of a near disaster 6 days before the original launch of Macintosh. He goes through the heart-pounding several days before Macintosh had to be launched as a software package, explaining that at 2 o’clock in the morning on the day they had to send the final build out at 6 o’clock in the morning (four hours later), the situation should very well have given their team all panic attacks: “nothing worked.”
Once again with Woz you’ll find a description of how the Apple II was created. This should enlighten your life even if you never used that magical machine, complete with its massive floppy disk drive and connectivity with the epic Koala Pad. This machine was many users of my generation’s first encounter with an Apple product, as the big A had a rather important link with grade schools at that time.
With one good turn comes another – next you’ll see Woz speak about the creation of the Apple I (which of course was created before the Apple II). Inside you’ll have found a fabulous note about how the Apple I worked with 4k dynamic RAM built-in even though it was more difficult to design for – and how no other system worked with that advanced feature for a year (or even two) after they’d done it. This is an absolutely unthinkable situation today.
Below you’ll see Woz speak on how Steve Jobs formed Apple Computer knowing full well he’d have to lose some money before he made any.
Woz returns with more information about how he was put on probation at the University of Colorado for “Computer Abuse”. Such is the life of a young genius, yes?
Finally, (for now), you’ll see Woz recall the point at which he was forced to quit his job at HP and put his efforts toward Apple full-time. This is an iteration of the story of Apple’s creation that we’ve never seen before today, spoken by none other than one of the two men who founded the company. Consider that for a moment, won’t you?
We’d like to thank Patton for his work in translating this all to digital video this week and look forward to the rest of the media without a doubt. Let us know if you hear any other hidden treasures in your viewing of these clips, too!
Blizzard Entertainment has been creating quite a stir in the gaming community lately as they not only announced its Diablo III will be headed to consoles, specifically the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 at this point, and today, they’re announcing they’re going to be releasing a free-to-play game.
The game is called Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and will be shown at a PAX East panel sometime this weekend. Hearthstone will be an online free-to-play collectible card game, similar to Magic: The Gathering, and will be made available on the PC and Mac in beta form this summer. Shortly after its initial beta release, it will be made available for the iPad. (more…)
Viruses, trojans, and other malicious pieces of software are nothing new on OS X. While the mainstream consensus is that Apple‘s desktop platform is impervious to such malware, that’s actually not the case. In fact, a new piece of adware is making the rounds that injects advertisements into web browsers after installing a disguised plugin.
The trojan is detected as “Trojan.Yontoo.1” and it was discovered by Russian security firm Doctor Web. Of course, you have to an install a plugin or other piece of software in order for the trojan to activate, but hackers are making it easy for unsuspecting users to take the bait. They’re prompting users to install a plugin before they can watch a mobile trailer, for example.
Of course, we’ve all come across this scenario before, where we don’t have a certain plugin installed in order to view something, so we’re forced to download and install it before continuing. However, it looks like criminals are taking advantage of that tradition by implementing the same kind of system in order to get users to install the trojan.
It’s said that a Windows version of the trojan also exists, but it doesn’t affect Windows 8 users currently. Cross-platform malware isn’t rare most of the time, but this particular one uses its own code to target each specific operating system, as opposed to targeting a universal piece of software like Java, which we’ve heard plenty about recently.
Thanko’s popular “Super Slim Scanner A4″ has become more powerful and useful. We’ve seen compact stick-style scanners before but this one has a liquid crystal display, so you can instantly check the scanned image without using a PC. Images can be checked at full size, 2x, 4x and 8x magnification. Maximum resolution of scanned images has improved from 600dpi to 900dpi, and the maximum capacity of the microSD external card for data storage has increased from 16GB to …
When the concept of the original iPad was being knocked around a number of years ago, many people hoped it would end up being a tablet with OSX installed on it. Ultimately, Apple used its iOS platform for its iPads, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for a stripped-down tablet considering you can spend $3,500 to get the MacBook Pro in tablet form.
The Modbook Pro brings Mac OSX to tablet form as its sports a 13.3-inch screen and brings all of the internal specs a mid-2012 MacBook Pro has. The base model features an Intel Core i5 dual-core 2.5GHz CPU and 8GB of RAM, although it’s possible to upgrade to a i7 dual-core 2.9GHz CPU with double the RAM. (more…)
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