The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

From tablets to type, finding the right gift for the choosy graphics expert in your life can be frustrating. Here are plenty of ideas at a variety of price points that should make any designer merry and joyful.

Graphics Tablets
For any designer, a graphics tablet is a great way to illustrate, or just precisely control your mouse. I started using one about eight years ago to cope with RSI, and I've never looked back. Wacom offers the Graphire Wireless 6" x 8" tablet that connects to your Mac via Bluetooth. (It's not entirely wireless, however: you have to plug it in to charge it.) You can use it up to 30 feet away. If Bluetooth isn't your thing, or charging your tablet every night doesn't sound like fun, the Intuos 3 USB tablet is available in a variety of sizes, including 6" x 8". The USB version also offers more dynamic pressure sensitivity, touch strips, accessories, and a five-button mouse.

• Wacom Graphire Wireless 6 x 8 tablet: $249
• Wacom Intuos 3 USB 6 x 8 tablet: $329

SlimKey v2
Keeping your desk tidy is a constant challenge for the designer. Designers tend to fall into three categories when organizing their desks: the piler, the spreader, and whatever. In any case, keeping your monitor up and away from the mess is sometimes helpful (or, it gives you more room to spread stuff into). The SlimKey v2 raises your iMac or Cinema Display with a spiffy ribbon of aluminum designed to match your hardware. Plus, it features four powered USB 2.0 ports: very handy if you have an iMac and a lot of peripherals.

• SlimKey v2: $65

Continue reading “The graphic designer's holiday gift guide”

Have you ever been reading an email in Leopard's Mail.app and thought, "Oh, I need to remember that"? If you can right click, then you can remember anything, quickly and easily, using Todos. When you come across something in an email you want to remember, first highlight the text.

Next, right-click on it and select "New Todo." The current message window will then show a notepad-style view of the selected text. From there, you can change the due date and priority. Finally, assign that todo to the iCal calendar of your choice by clicking the orange arrow/circle beside the item.

Mail displays Todos in the sidebar. To see your tasks in iCal, select "Show To Do List" from the "View" menu.

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

Do you like keeping up with friends on social networks? Do you have an iPhone? If so, you might be interested in a new social networking application for the iPhone called Ziibii. Ziibii [iTunes link] brings an innovative approach to viewing your social networking sites and RSS feeds -- without ever leaving this one app. Ziibii allows you to see friend updates, videos, and photos from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.

Ziibii's killer feature is its "River" feature, which depicts friend updates, photos, videos, and RSS feed headlines "floating" down a river on tiny rafts. You can interact with the river and rafts with gestures. Moving too fast? Move your finger left or right on the screen. You can even make the river flow in the opposite direction by swiping your finger against flow.

Rafts too close together? Pick it up and move it. If you tap on a raft, you will be presented with a full screen view of the update and get the option to share that update via email or Twitter. If you get sea sick with River view, you can also give list view a try, which stacks updates on top of each other; swiping right to left loads more updates.

Ziibii comes pre-loaded with some good blogs (TUAW is listed under the "iPhone Stuff" section), and you can also add your own RSS feeds via the "My Feeds" setting.

Ziibii has a very nice user interface, and allows you to quickly see all of your friend updates in a unique fashion. However, we would like to see an option to post updates and photos to Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. We would also like to see support for Pownce and Digg, among others. With the price of free, Ziibii is a must-have application for anyone that uses social networks. You can download Ziibii from the iTunes App Store.

My buddy Gavin Baker, CEO of Abunga, took three iPhone cases from Marware for a spin. He took a look at the SportGrip ($14.99), C.E.O. Glide ($24.99) and the C.E.O. Premiere ($34.99). Which best suited this CEO on the go? Read his take below for the answer...

I first tried out the Marware SportGrip, the silicone case that has a rubberized feel and covers the back and sides of the phone leaving the touch screen open. This was my go-to case for about 2 weeks. It easily protected the back and sides of my phone from scratches and the material deadened any type of accidental drop of the phone, reducing the damage inflicted. I had no fear about tossing my phone around onto tables, chairs or in my Jeep. The downside is that the protection afforded by the cover also creates a much bulkier pocket profile. This made it more difficult to slide into pockets. One major downside was that I took the cover off after about 1 week and noticed it had collected a lot of dust, dirt, lint, etc. on the inside of the cover, creating some smaller scratches on the backside of my phone. I'm sure had I taken the cover off more frequently this wouldn't have been an issue.

The Marware C.E.O Glide was next on my list and it didn't make it long; partially because of the red snakeskin cover, but it is essentially a vertical sleeve with a Velcro clasp to keep the phone inside. It's not functional for me since I prefer my phone to be in my pocket and easily accessed or on my belt. This was a mix of the two and a cover that doesn't work in that circle isn't the best for me.

The Marware C.E.O Premiere is the last case I tried out. It is a horizontal belt case and allows easy access to the phone while providing a secure environment. As soon as I put the case on I was very confident with it. I wasn't worried about the case falling off my belt, and the case has a Velcro enclosure to ensure the phone stays in the case. The interior of the case is soft but not microfiber so I have no fear of putting my phone into the case and it coming out in worse shape. I've used the case daily for about 2 weeks and the exterior of the case shows minimal wear. My only complaint about the case is the Velcro closure. In the weeks I've used it the Velcro has started to loosen and is not as tight as it once was. Other than that the case has been phenomenal and it is the one I've settled on for everyday use.

All of the Marware products come with a cleaning cloth and protective film.

Thanks Gavin!

Apple also released a firmware update for iPod touch, bringing it in line with most version 2.2 updates for iPhone released a little while ago. It doesn't appear, however, that iPod touch users get the enhancements to the Maps app that iPhone users do. (Thanks, Guillermo!)

The update contains enhancements to Mail, fixes connection issues with WPA-secured wireless networks, improves Safari stability, and includes a new preference to turn off auto-correction for typing.

Also, podcasts are now available for download from within the iTunes app, and pressing the Home button from any home screen will now take you to the first home screen.

Several security enhancements are included, too, updating CoreGraphics, ImageIO, networking, Office Viewer, Passcode Lock, Safari and Webkit. A complete list of security updates is available on Apple's website.

The update is available by clicking "Check for Update" with your iPod selected in the Devices area of the sidebar in iTunes.

The long awaited iPhone firmware version 2.2 has appeared in iTunes and is ready for download. You can grab it now by clicking the "Check for Update" button in your iPhone Summary panel. Once you download and install it let us know how it goes.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Apple just released an update to iTunes. Version 8.0.2 "...improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes." They note that this update adds VoiceOver capabilities for both iTunes and iTunes U. VoiceOver is the built-in screen reader utility for Mac OS X that helps visually challenged users.

In addition to VoiceOver, Apple also includes the following "important" bug fixes:

• Addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers.
• Fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X.
• Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.

You can get this 60MB update via Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from the Apple Support Downloads website.

Thanks to Randall and others for the tips!

Apple shares today dropped to an intra-day 52-week low of a penny over $75, and rebounded to close at $80.49 per share. That was down 5.8 points from yesterday's close.

This marks the lowest prices for Apple stock since the introduction of the iPhone in early 2007. Many stocks lost ground today in a broad market selloff that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average down nearly 445 points.

Marketwatch.com's Rex Crum says that AAPL has lost "the iPhone premium": That is, whatever gains the company made since the introduction of the popular handset. Apple shares hit a peak of almost $203 per share late last year, but those days are long gone.

If there's a silver lining to this gray cloud, it's that now might be a good time to buy. Macworld Expo is coming in January. In years past, the stock price has risen in anticipation of product announcements at the expo, leading to a selling frenzy the day of the keynote.

Of course, past performance does not necessarily indicate future results. In this market, who knows?

For your evening amusement (and nothing more), Flickr user elbewerk has found a creative way to try and convince people that, no, he's not actually using a PC.

Persuasive? Perhaps not. But at least it's marginally more honest about being a PC compared to, say, an MSI Wind.

[Via Digg.]

Santa Claus has decided that he'd like all good little boys and girls to check in on what he's doing at the North Pole, so he's set up a special webcam network at his workshops. The webcams can only be viewed through a special iPhone app called SantaLive 2008. Starting on Thanksgiving Day and for 30 days after, you can get a daily update on your iPhone or iPod touch as Santa trains his elves to make toys, feeds Rudolph and the other reindeer, and prepares for worldwide toy deliveries during the evening of December 24th - 25th.

On Christmas Eve, he'll be providing a special report. Santa's cyber-helpers warn that the Christmas Eve report might take a while to download.

In an exclusive interview, Santa told TUAW that he's not much of an iPhone developer, so he had to outsource this work to The Casual Game Network to set up the webcams and make the system work. Since he has to pay these subcontractors, he's charging US$1.99 for SantaLive 2008 (click opens iTunes) through November 30th, after which time he's going to charge $2 more.

We'll be talking to the Easter Bunny's press manager soon to see if he's going to follow up with his own app.

Update: Comments suggest that the developer of SantaLive may have offered a cash bounty for five-star reviews on the App Store. While the Amazon bounty page is now offline, we have to say that if this was an actual strategy for harvesting positive feedback... well, someone's getting a lump of coal in his stocking.