In a rather surprising move, the publishers of the top Windows Mobile monthly magazine, Smartphone & Pocket PC, have announced that they're suspending publication. What's even more interesting is that they will be publishing a quarterly iPhone-oriented magazine titled Smartphone magazine's iPhone Life.
Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine publisher Hal Goldstein noted in a blog entry that the reason isn't that sales of Windows Mobile devices are plummeting -- on the contrary, almost 20 million Windows Mobile devices were sold during the last Microsoft fiscal year. It's just that advertising support from Windows Mobile manufacturers, cellular carriers, and developers has dropped significantly.
It appears that they are expecting big things from the iPhone market and advertisers, as they will be publishing the quarterly iPhone mag in paper and online versions. My personal speculation is that they realize that with all the venture capital going into iPhone development, there will be a lot of developers who will want to buy ad space to flaunt their products.
Do you think this move is indicative of a larger trend that may spell doom for Windows Mobile? Voice your opinion in the comments!
You know those movie trailers that begin with the narrator intoning the familiar words "In a world...."? Beau Weaver, a Hollywood narrator and diehard TUAW reader who does a lot of those trailers, was asked by his friends to create an iPhone ringtone that played on the same phrase. He did, and he'd like to share it with TUAW readers for free.
If you thought the new Get a Mac ads were spot-on or funny, then you will definitely get a kick out of this. On Microsoft's Photosynth website, they admit something that we've known for years: They're not cool enough to run on Macs.
"Unfortunately, we're not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows. Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site," reads the website.
Photosynth is a technology Microsoft has designed to create 3-D "worlds" with your photos. This technology is definitely cool, and we actually would like to see it come to the Mac, but the way they worded the install page just makes us laugh. Meanwhile, VMware Fusion's Pete Kazanjy told us that the warning about Photosynth not working in a virtual machine isn't quite right; he got it running just fine in Fusion 2 Beta 2, and has the video to prove it.
Microsoft has set aside $300 million for an ad campaign featuring once-funny comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a series of advertisements targeting Apple. [Insert "master of his domain" joke here. -Ed.]
According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft will pay Seinfeld $10 million to appear in a series of ads for its "Windows, Not Walls" campaign that will feature Seinfeld and Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman. According to AdWeek, other highly-relevant comics like Chris Rock and Will Ferrell may also appear in the ads.
Wired notes that Microsoft's "choice of Seinfeld was an effort to avoid pandering to the kids with 'a celebrity that was too hip.'" Mission accomplished.
It's unclear why the titan even has to advertise; its highly successful Windows Vista and Zune media player products have dominated the landscape for ... I'm sorry. I just can't type anymore. I'm laughing too hard.
The campaign is due to launch September 4, and will be produced by MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The agency is responsible for such memorable hits as Burger King's "Subservient Chicken" and Miller Lite's "Man Laws," the latter with Burt Reynolds. Will his star ever stop rising?
Erik Schwiebert is one of the lead developers on the Mac Business Unit team under the Microsoft banner. I find their position constantly interesting -- even in these enlightened days of Safari for Windows, many dyed-in-the-wool Mac users still consider Microsoft the enemy, and yet the Mac BU has always been like a kind of diplomatic envoy. We have to use things like Office and Entourage, so we cautiously let them across the border, regarding them like strange visitors from the other side of the wall.
But maybe that's just all in my mind. Recently, the Mac BU released an update for Office 2008, and lots of users, apparently, have suffered from error problems while trying to install it. So many, in fact, that Schwiebert has responded to the problems on his blog, saying that the problems are most likely because users have deleted or otherwise messed with files inside the installation, causing the installer to abort. And that strange Mac BU/Mac users fragile truce comes into play here as well -- he specifically calls out Xslimmer and Monolingual, two programs that delete often-unnecessary files in OS X, for causing the issues.
There's a workaround floating around, but Schwiebert warns it leaves the application suite in a possibly unstable and unsupportable state. Unfortunately, Schwiebert doesn't really offer any solutions (other, we guess, than to reinstall the software so that it's back to the full install, and then apply the update). And the alliance between the Mac BU and their users remains fragile -- we've got to work together, but it seems that many are unhappy about it.
The land of Hello Kitty is also the land of the iPhone.
Here in the US, we only have 2 or 3 magazines that cover the Mac, and they usually throw in coverage about the iPhone. Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine is coming out with a special iPhone magazine called iPhone Life. But for our Japanese friends, many iPhone-specific magazines have been available for over a year.
In the photo at right, you can see 4 of the mags that were found recently in a Tokyo camera shop. One commenter to a Macenstein post reported seeing 6 different iPhone magazines in a small "Kwik-E-Mart" on one of the tinier Japanese islands.
Apparently the content of the magazines is quite similar, with articles about jailbreaking the 3G being popular. Would you buy an iPhone-specific magazine? Take our poll!
An Apple Premium reseller in the UK sent us these photos of an Apple recycling information mailer they received: but the mailer itself was sent in a decidedly non-green way.
From photos the reseller sent, it appears the mailer consisted of two sheets of standard A4-sized paper. Those sheets of paper were placed inside a large, yellow clasp envelope. That envelope was then placed inside a corrugated cardboard box. The box was then mailed to the UK from Switzerland.
While all of these materials are recyclable, it seems like a little bit of a waste to send what could have fit in an everyday DL-sized envelope (that's about the size of a number 10 envelope for us Americans) in ridiculously oversized packaging. Plus, it probably would have saved them a bundle on postage.
Apple has been making a concerted effort to reduce its environmental footprint: not only with the program mentioned in this mailer, but for everything from iPhone packaging to how it makes its displays. Surely this isolated incident isn't representative of the company as a whole, but still. Sheesh.
Yesterday we posted a tip about using your iPhone on a cruise ship, but what about if you want to use a Mac on a ship or in a hotel and you don't have a MacBook to take along with you?
AppleInsider's Prince McLean is reporting that installations of Macs in hotels and on cruise ships are going strong, with thousands of Apple machines being sold for installation in those locations by Apple's Enterprise Sales Group. Back in June we mentioned the Fontainebleau's plans in Vegas -- they're also installing another 1,400 24" iMacs in rooms at the flagship resort in Miami Beach.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs.
Whether it's an in-room email and information kiosk, a public information center, or an intelligent set-top box, the Mac is definitely making inroads into the hospitality and travel industry.
Fantasktik is a taskbar app for Leopard that makes it easy to see what windows and applications are open, and to switch between them. Dockland Software, the developer of Fantasktik, announced in a press release today that the app is available for US$9.99 through the end of September. On October 1st, the price rises to US$14.99.
After installing Fantasktik, a small taskbar appears either just below the menu bar or just above the Dock -- you can set the location from System Preferences. The taskbar shows all of your open applications and windows in small icons, and by hovering your cursor over the icons you see a preview of the window contents. The preview is powered by Core Animation and provides a look at all open windows for an application through a MultiTouch-like interface called Click and Slide.
You can minimize the Fantasktik taskbar by clicking one of the small buttons on either end, and double-clicking an application icon collapses or expands all window icons associated with that app.
Fantasktik requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. A 15-day free trial is available from the Fantasktik website.
If you're going on a cruise vacation, don't be concerned about being out of touch. Chances are excellent that you can use your cell phone.
Reader Steven Madow reminded TUAW that many cruise lines use a service called Cellular At Sea to provide you with satellite-linked cellular service. Almost 100 ships currently use the service, which is a joint venture between AT&T Mobility and SeaMobile.
Madow said that with his iPhone, configuration was a simple matter of looking at the settings (right) for a carrier called "Cellular at Sea." The cost of the service varies depending on your home carrier, but for AT&T users it is about $0.79 per minute. While that's not exactly cheap, it's priceless if you need to keep in touch in case of an emergency.
Most cruise lines also provide Wi-Fi based onboard Internet service. Rates for these services usually range from $0.75 per minute down to $0.30 per minute. The more time you prepay, the lower the rate is.
To find out if your favorite cruise ship has Cellular At Sea or Internet service, click the Read link or visit the website for the cruise line.
From the "really strange looking iPhone accessories" department, we present for your inspection the mobile.brando.com.hk Apple iPhone 3G Mobile Phone Telescope. Dave mentioned this in passing a few days ago, but since Engadget noted it today we went back and took a closer look. This product definitely wins the TUAW award for the longest name for an iPhone add-on. In case you're wondering what the function of this device is, the website says it all -- "Overcome the short coming of camera cellphone that can only near-sighted, it also makes distant view for you at the moment."
The idea is to take this plastic "crystal" case, put it on your iPhone 3G, and then put the telescope onto the case. This gives your iPhone a 6X telephoto lens. But it does more! Once again, from the website -- "The new design to run of rays can effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography."
Huh?
If you really need a telephoto lens for your iPhone 3G and don't mind the abuse from friends, you can order one for the bargain price of US$19 plus shipping. For more mind-boggling details or to order the telescope, click the Read link below.
Dust off that FTIR table you've got down in the basement and fire up your internets to play with Touché, an open-source multi-touch tracking environment for Leopard. You too can have a giant iPhone-like interface in your own den.
That's right, no more calling up Perceptive Pixel with (emotional) support questions or fretting over when Surface will invade your Motel 6 with a Blue Screen of Touchy Death. Touché is free, just like a number of other apps from Georg Kaindl. Said FTIR table, however, is slightly less than free. But once you've got a table, a Mac running Leopard and some functional digits, you're ready to rock multi-touch style.
Other apps from Georg that may tickle your fancy include:
AppUpdate, a Dashboard widget that checks for updates using MacUpdate and VersionTracker and Apple's software directory. We covered it back in 2006.
WidgetUpdate does the same thing but for widgets (shocking, I know). We covered this back in 2005.
VoodooPhone, a plugin for VoodooPad for viewing those notes on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Join TUAW as we go on a weekend road trip to Apple's campus at 1 Infinite Loop. No, not really, but we can always take a virtual visit to Apple HQ thanks to Google Maps Street View, now that Google has finally completed their street level photography of Infinite Loop.
This allows you to see the buildings in their full grandeur. Unfortunately, you cannot visit the legendary Apple Company Store. To start your virtual road trip, click here.
When using iChat, do you sometimes feel like you're stuck back in 2005? Away from all the glory and marvels of today's modern social networking? Bring your iChat client into the golden age and sign up for iChat Buddy Updates at AOL's site so you can share your status messages as social-network updates.
Buddy updates transform iChat into a social network tool. You'll see a status feed from all your buddies including all the status changes you might have missed while you were out. You'll learn that your pal went to the gym 90 minutes ago and out to eat 75 minutes ago and into a meeting 4 minutes ago. (Great workout, huh?)
What's more, you can add your Twitter, Flickr and other site feeds into the mix so it's not just a steady stream of "away", "available", "away", "available" notations.
And of course, once you know you're building an audience with this new beta tool, you're sure to start using more interesting status messages than "Work only! Evil overlords on a case-by-case basis" all the time.
Buddy updates are a free service of AIM. Sign in with your iChat user name and ID at the buddy update site.
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on cool software for K-8 classrooms.
Canvastic LLC has announced a new version of the Canvastic graphics, writing, and publishing tool. Canvastic is designed to be used in K-8 classrooms, and is fun and productive for students.
Canvastic 3.5 is designed for use on both PPC and Intel Macs (which is great, as many American schools still use older Macs). The student publishing tool includes drawing, text and presentation tools, plus an Audio Tool for voice recording, insertion of sounds and integration with iTunes. Audio tracks can be played in documents or presentations.
Other new features include:
Transparency and color tones in graphics and text
Teachers can enable or disable spell checking, and also keep students from "customizing" the dictionary
New brush shapes
The ability to import digital photographs
Additional templates, backgrounds, and art
As before, Canvastic presents a customized user interface depending on the grade level of the student. Canvastic 3.5 is a free upgrade for all registered users, and those with free site licenses can upgrade for 50% of the posted educational prices. Pricing ranges from US$39 for one user to US$949 for an unlimited school building license. Schools can do an unlimited pilot of Canvastic for up to 60 days, and many school districts qualify for a free site license for half of their schools.
In a rather surprising move, the publishers of the top Windows Mobile monthly magazine, Smartphone & Pocket PC, have announced that they're suspending publication. What's even more interesting is that they will be publishing a quarterly iPhone-oriented magazine titled Smartphone magazine's iPhone Life. 
Erik Schwiebert is one of the lead developers on the Mac Business Unit team under the Microsoft banner. I find their position constantly interesting -- even in these enlightened days of Safari for Windows, many dyed-in-the-wool Mac users still consider Microsoft the enemy, and yet the Mac BU has always been like a kind of diplomatic envoy. We have to use things like Office and Entourage, so we 
The land of Hello Kitty is also the land of the iPhone.
An Apple Premium reseller in the UK 
Yesterday we posted 
If you're going on a cruise vacation, don't be concerned about being out of touch. Chances are excellent that you can use your cell phone.
From the "really strange looking iPhone accessories" department, we present for your inspection the 
Dust off that 
TUAW's going 
