The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

We've covered Things for Mac and the iPhone version before. Things is a slick task management tool with a ton of features, clean layout and powerful organization capabilities. Adding the iPhone version (works on the touch, of course) means you can take your tasks with you -- and sync wirelessly when you have to.

Thanks to Cultured Code we're giving away two "Things Packs" which include Things for Mac and Things for iPhone. The usual rules apply: US and Canada only (sorry!), must be 18, only one entry per person, and it's totally random. Enter by telling us how you currently keep track of your tasks, right there in the comments.

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us how you manage your tasks.
• The comment must be left before February 8, 11:59PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: Things Pack, including Things for Mac ($49.95) and Things for iPhone and iPod touch ($9.99).
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Whether you've got a new Mac and you're looking to replace the tired "Aurora" background, or perhaps you just want to spice up your desktop with something a little Apple-flavored, this site's for you! Francesco Mugnai has up at his blog over 60 different Apple-focused wallpapers that he has found at various and sundry locales from around the web.

Many of the wallpapers are from DeviantArt and Flickr, so if you have spent any length of time perusing Apple wallpapers from either site, then you have likely run into a couple of them. Some of these I have seen a few times before and some of these are a new take on an old favorite; but many are completely new to me. In other words they are all worth checking out and possibly adding in to the desktop wallpaper rotation.

What about you, dear friends? Do you have any stand-out, Apple-related desktop imagery that you've created or found which you would like to share with others? Post some link love in the comments and pay it forward; after all, everyone loves finding new Apple stuff! My personal favorite, you ask? I suppose you will have to click through to find out.

Read more →

New nightly builds of Safari's bleeding-edge doppelgänger, WebKit, are getting some new support for CSS animations -- support that's already available in MobileSafari.

The animations, which include a falling leaves effect, a way to simply animate objects sliding across the screen, and a "pulse" effect (described as "the new <blink>") are all supported by WebKit. The WebKit blog shows code examples about how to use these behaviors in your own sites.

MacRumors's Arnold Kim suggests that Apple may be looking to obviate the need for Flash on the iPhone and iPod touch through the implementation of web tools like CSS Animation. I would argue that while CSS is powerful, getting Flash on the iPhone is about one thing and one thing only: Games.

Read more →

Matthias Kremp, of German periodical Der Spiegel, has an interesting story about PearC, "Der PC mit Mac OS X." You don't need Google Translate to figure out what that means, though a mechanical translation of the story is available here.

PearC is offering three flavors of Mac clones in Germany, starting at €499. All of the options are built to order: The Starter edition can be equipped with anything from an Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 to a Core 2 Duo E7300. The Professional version, though, starts at €1,499, and can be powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Core i7 Extreme processor for an extra €720 -- a processor that Apple does not offer. PearC also offers Blu-Ray optical drives as an option.

All come with the option to install Mac OS X. Kremp notes that PearC's parent company, Hypermeganet, says that since the End User License Agreement (EULA) is sealed inside retail copies of Mac OS X, there's no legal way to review the EULA. If you'll pardon the bad translation, "the restrictions that Apple [has] for its Mac OS X in the EULA [...] in Germany [has] no legal explanation," said Hypermeganet spokesman Dirk Blößl.

"Hypermeganet assumes, therefore, that the product (meaning the Mac clone) in Germany is legal," he says.

Similarly, Psystar, possibly bankrolled by a larger PC clone maker, is defending itself now against charges that it violated Apple's EULA by selling clones with Mac OS X. That dispute is ongoing.

Apple did not return Spiegel Online's request for comment. However, Kremp concluded by suggesting "one may probably assume" that Apple will pursue legal action against the clone maker.

Thanks, Hauke, Holger and Martin!

As Apple continues a march toward all Intel-based computers, those hanging on to perfectly good G5 and G4 computers are left to watch features slowly bleed off.

In the recently released iLife '09 package, iPhoto has left some owners of older Macs wondering where their slide show transitions have gone.

Apple has now released a support document detailing what is missing:

The number of slideshow themes available in iPhoto '09 depends on your Mac's processor and, in some cases, available vRAM:

• Intel-based Mac computers, PowerPC G5 with more than 64MB of vRAM: All iPhoto '09 slideshow themes are available.
• PowerPC G5 with less than 64MB of vRAM: Only Classic, Ken Burns, Scrapbook, Sliding Panels are available.
• PowerPC G4: Classic and Ken Burns are available.

Apple has also changed the minimum specs on Garageband '09, noting that one of the apps most desired features is Intel only: GarageBand Learn to Play requires an Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better.

It is also rumored that the next version of OS X, Snow Leopard will completely drop support for PowerPC processors. Last year, iMovie dropped PowerPC support, so it looks like the handwriting is on the wall. Apple's push to get consumers and businesses to change to the newer Intel platform will get less and less subtle as time goes on.

When researching this week's Ask TUAW I ran across a nifty little utility for reclaiming the function keys on a Mac portable or recent Apple external keyboard. Basically, FunctionFlip allows you to set the individual function keys to be regular F-keys instead of those special control keys (brightness, volume, iTunes, etc.).

While the Keyboard Preference Pane will let you flip all of the keys one way or the other, FunctionFlip lets you individually choose which ones you want. That way you can preserve whichever of the control functions you like, but regain access to certain of the F-keys without having to hold down the fn key. It can be a handy way to have your cake and eat it too.

FunctionFlip is a free download (donations requested) from Kevin Gessner.

The Sims 3 is the latest iteration of the best-selling computer game in history -- it features the ability to custom-make and create your Sims and their surroundings, and explore the neighborhoods and cities that they live in. But even more strangely, it's set for an almost simultaneous release on PC, Mac, the iPhone and the iPod touch. The popularity of iPhone apps may have done what Mac gamers couldn't do for years: convince developers that releasing their games simultaneously on Mac and PC was worth it. While EA only has a release date for the PC version so far (June 2), the company is saying that Mac, iPhone and the iPod touch versions will be out in "Summer of 2009," which is much better than, say, years later.

Of course, we'll have to believe it when we see it -- EA uses Transgaming for their Mac ports, and they've left a little bit to be desired so far. But just the fact that they plan an almost concurrent release for the sequel to one of the biggest games of all time bodes very well. The Sims 3 probably won't make too many waves in the hardcore PC gaming set, but anytime a major publisher plans a simultaneous release for a big title, we definitely give a nod of approval.

[via IMG]

In the long-established tradition of apps that make your pictures extra silly, Portego is offering its app Wanted free of charge through the end of February 5 (yes, that's today). Snap a photo of the nearest cowpoke (cheesy music is optional, but it does tend to attract a crowd of would-be bandits), accessorize with a selection of facial hair, weapons and other goodies, select the text you want and then save the "wanted poster" to your photos roll.

Even though the 1.3 version notes in the App Store suggest that "ALL CRASHES are solved now," I did have the app lock up on me on my 2nd picture; however, if you get it for free today, what's to complain about? Starting tomorrow, Wanted will set you back $0.99.

Despite the fact that the App Store is capturing everybody's attention, old-school (as in, about 8 months ago) mobile web apps are still worth checking out, too -- Andy Ihnatko reports that Google has put their Google Book Search web app in iPhone form, and the result is awesome: 1.5 million public-domain texts in a well-coded and clean reader all for completely free. Classics, you may be a video star, but you can't touch this.

Ok, so no it doesn't have Classics' fun little page-turning or bookshelf-browsing graphics, nor Stanza's bookstore and eReader support, nor Bookshelf's linkup to Webscription.net -- but it is awesome, and completely free. To check it out, you just need to visit http://books.google.com/m on your iPhone or iPod touch (and you might as well bookmark it, because you never know when you'll want to read a little Shakespeare or Dickens).

Update: Commenters note that you can add Google books to Stanza by entering the URL of the book. Not too shabby. Stanza is free [App Store link].

Welcome to our new, irregularly-published series "One Page of Apps," where we take four to sixteen apps on a single screen of our iPhones (or iPod touches) and review them all at once. Most of these are pretty simple apps, just as Apple suggests you make for the mobile devices.

To kick things off I've got a random sampling of apps on my iPhone:
Lemonade
Find Your Mind
Fnorder
Clinometer
Freshwater Aquarium
Zen Meditate
Fish Tycoon
FS5 Hockey
iDoodz Lite
Decibel
Amnesia
Darkroom
Mandala
BetaHelper
PhotoSync
Oblique Strategies

Check the gallery for screenshots, and continue on to page two for the first four apps...