What’s interesting about this update is the timing, coming one week before Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). The iPhone 3.0 software will be the star attraction, and developers have been working with betas for a couple of months. Could Apple be planning to release the final version of the iPhone 3.0 software to coincide with the event, ahead of a rumored iPhone hardware update? When the iPhone 2.0 software was released on the same day as the iPhone 3G (which was also the day Apple switched .Mac to MobileMe), Apple’s servers crumbled under the load of activations (see “iPhone 3G: On the Line in Seattle,” 2008-07-13). So I can see the case in separating the software and hardware releases, even if it means owners of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G get to install the new operating system before new units running it appear.

More likely, I think, is that Apple released iPhone 3.0 compatibility so developers can test live interactions between iTunes and the new software before iPhone 3.0 ships. With a larger share of the market, tens of thousands of developers, and more competition (such as from the Palm Pre, which is due to ship two days before WWDC), Apple doesn’t want the same type of fiasco as last year’s MobileMe release (see “Apple Claims MobileMe Mail Fully Restored,” 2008-07-30).

Also released today was QuickTime 7.6.2, which provides support for iTunes 8.2 and fixes a number of security vulnerabilities related to viewing malformed media types. It’s also available via Software Update or as standalone downloads for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (57 MB), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (48 MB) or Windows (20.9 MB).

Even hiding the Dock doesn’t seem to help, at least not all the time—when a Dock icon bounces with my Dock hidden at the bottom of the screen, it pops up just enough to be visible (and annoying). While some programs, such as iChat, nicely give you control over the dock bouncing, others provide no control at all.

If you dislike those bouncing icons, I have a fix. Unfortunately, it’s an all-or-nothing proposition; you can’t control bouncing on a per-application basis. But if you really dislike those bouncing icons, here’s how to ground them forever. Open Terminal, in Applications -> Utilities, and enter these two commands (don’t type the $; that’s just the command prompt):

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
$ killall Dock

(If at some point you decide you’d rather have your bounce-happy Dock back, repeat the above commands, but change TRUE to FALSE at the end of the first command.)

The first command sets a hidden preference to stop all Dock icon bouncing, and the second command kills the Dock, which then restarts automatically. After it restarts, you’ll never again be bothered by a bouncing application icon. This does mean, however, that it’s now up to you to keep an eye on your running programs so that you know when one of them wants your attention.

Copy this whole post to another site

Slurp cancel

select site advertising consumerist deadspin defamer fleshbot gay fleshbot gawker gizmodo idolator io9 jalopnik jezebel kotaku lifehacker valleywag artists gawkershop

Windows only: Panda Cloud Antivirus uses the power of cloud computing to scan and eliminate viruses from your PC that can identify new malware in almost real time.

Traditional anti-virus applications simply download an update from the servers on a periodic basis to keep your virus definitions scanning for the latest viruses—Cloud Antivirus uses their cloud system to do the work of classifying and scanning for new viruses, and is constantly updated with the latest virus information based on information from every other PC running the software.

The client is lightweight, taking a mere 16mb of RAM on our test system—and while it caches a copy of the definitions for offline use, it doesn’t seem to take much drive space either. We’ve not had a chance to test the software against real malware—in our testing it quickly found and eliminated a bunch of spy cookies, but it’s refreshing to see new innovation in the boring world of virus killing.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free download for 32-bit Windows only, and according to CNET will stay free for personal use even after it is released from beta. For more, check out the five best malware removal tools, and the five best antivirus applications.

Another new addition (which is more exciting, to me) is full AppleScript support in Things on the Mac. I haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet, but it’s a topic I discussed with Cultured Code at the last Macworld Expo and I’m excited to see it come to fruition. People using Things in any kind of group setting will appreciate the reconsidered approach to task delegation, as well.

For those who aren’t familiar with Things in general, I’ll take a quick step back. Things for the Mac has been a staunch competitor in the Mac task-management colosseum. Battling it out with OmniFocus and newer gladiators like The Hit List, it’s been recognized by many for its simplicity and elegance. Things is powerful and flexible, while remaining reliable and simple. Things Touch is its iPhone companion, usable on its own or synced with Things Mac.

You may be asking, what’s an “Area of Responsibility?” This is one of the features of Things which was hardest for me to grasp. It’s not quite a GTD context, and it’s not a folder for projects. Basically, Areas provide a flexible means of handling tasks which aren’t part of a “project” and aren’t necessarily sequential in nature. In the words of Cultured Code:

With an Area of Responsibility (or simply “Area”), you don’t ask yourself about the desired outcome, but what standards you would like to maintain. An Area corresponds to an ongoing activity. These could be, for example, job responsibilities, roles you have taken on in your family, or personal responsibilities like health.

Things is available for download as a free trial, and can be purchased for $49.95US. Things Touch, the iPhone version, is available in the App Store for $9.99US.

The inspiration for many SSB offerings was the Firefox offshoot Webrunner, and the descendant of that project has now earned a 1.0 beta designation and its own website: Prism, from Mozilla Labs, gives you a power tool for creating your own SSBs at will, either via a Firefox extension or by launching the Prism config app and typing in the target URL.

Aside from having a dockable icon for each website you convert, you can also set your SSBs to launch at login, or assign mailto: links to open your web email client (similarly achievable for Gmail with the Gmail Notifier tool). If you have to keep separate sets of credentials for work & personal accounts for web services, no need to log in and out repeatedly — just set up a Prism SSB for one of the accounts, and the passwords & cookies will stay as they need to be. In my brief testing this morning, several sites worked just as expected; the only sticking point is that the Choosy extension gets confused about whether or not Firefox is running when an SSB is open.

Safari 4 developer seeds had offered a “Save as Web Application” feature for creating SSBs, which has been stripped from the File menu in the current public beta but still looks to be part of the final release; meanwhile, you can still make WebKit-centric SSBs with the excellent and free Fluid.

Vonage, the international VoIP provider, has just released its Vonage Companion software for OS X. Vonage Companion is available to users who subscribe the the Vonage Pro plan and it basically allows users to use their laptops or desktops to make or receive phone calls. Think of it as Skype but for your Vonage account.

You can use Vonage Companion to record calls, set-up conference calls (or separate conference calls into separate phone calls), selective call block, call transfers and more.

I don’t have a Vonage Pro account, so I wasn’t able to check out the features firsthand, but flipping through the manual (PDF link) it looks pretty powerful. The biggest benefit to a service like this is the ability to make and receive calls from the road, using your Vonage number and account credentials.

Vonage Companion is free for Vonage Pro customers (existing Vonage users will need to upgrade to a Vonage Pro account) and it works with OS X 10.4.11 Tiger and OS X 10.5 Leopard, though Vonage strongly recommends having the latest security updates and latest OS updates installed. You can download Vonage Companion here (direct .DMG link)

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222