Vintage cassette tape holds Apple I BASIC, killer modem tune

Fair warning: this here post is nerdier than usual, and those who begin to feel nauseous at the mere mention of data-bending may want to refrain from continuing on. For you brave, hardened souls that are following through, feast your eyes on the “first piece of software ever sold by Apple.” The Apple I BASIC cassette wasn’t even included with all of the 200 Apple Is produced eons ago, but a few engineering souls have managed to extract the data and create an MP3 of the wave structure. Not surprisingly, the tone resembles that of a 1200 Baud connection, and if we should say so ourselves, would make for a wicked ringtone. Believe us, it gets even weirder in the read link, but you’ll have to determine whether venturing down is something your brain can handle.

[Via BoingBoing]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Microsoft compatibility problems, iPhone charging, Mail bouncing, syncing, and more

In this riveting episode of Ask TUAW we’re catching up a bit on the backlog, so we’ll be looking at a couple of problems generated by Microsoft products (Hotmail and Photo Story), charging an iPhone from a sleeping Mac, syncing personal data between two user accounts, using a Mac mini as a backup server, and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you’re running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we’ll assume you’re running Leopard if you don’t specify). And now, on to the questions!

Andrew asks

I’m running the current version of Leopard on a PowerBook G4 (1.5GHz with 1.25GB memory). I was wondering if there is a way to shut the lid on my laptop while still keeping power to the USB ports. I would like to be able to put my computer to sleep and keep it charging my iPhone..

Unfortunately, no; this is a hardware issue. In fact, Apple recently added this feature to the iMac line. However, according to this thread and this hint the FireWire port is still powered while the computer is asleep. While you can’t sync your iPhone over FireWire, you can possibly use that to charge it with a FireWire to Dock connector cable and if indeed if you use this double headed cable ($19) you don’t even have to switch (i.e. plug in both at the same time).

pjones asks

When using iChat, I love that the icon bounces in the dock when I receive a new message. Is there a way to assign this same icon “bounce” behavior to the Mail.app dock icon, so that it bounces when I get new mail?

As another reader pointed out this is easily accomplished with a Mail.app rule. Just configure a rule in the Mail.app preferences as follows:

Kyle asks

I have recently switched to a mac mini 1.83Ghz running leopard and now use a .mac e-mail address. Previously I used a windows live hotmail account as my primary e-mail and I am wondering if there is any way to have e-mails to the hotmail account delivered to the “mail” application on my mac?

I have a very short-term solution for you: the Mac OS X HTTP Mail Plugin will allow you to download Hotmail into Mail.app. However, the developer has a note saying that “Microsoft is closing us down” as of June 30, 2008 because they’re replacing WebDAV access with a new proprietary (and undocumented) technology called “DeltaSync.” Now if you’re willing to pay you can get POP3 access with a Hotmail Plus account. Finally, there’s also a third-party service called IzyMail that will supposedly allow you to access Hotmail with an IMAP mail client, however I have never used it and cannot comment on its reliability.

My wife had this problem when switching and I finally just switched her over to Gmail. If I were you, I would go ahead and just pull the band aid off switch away from Hotmail. Microsoft’s mail service is just not competitive anymore and it’s a bear to deal with as you’re finding out.

Adam asks

Some time ago, in the not so distant past, I noticed that the .Mac sync icon started to appear on the top menu bar for me. I have a MBP running Leopard. I have never synced anything with .Mac, yet so much as subscribed so I have no clue how this appeared. Now I want to know how to make it disappear, the .Mac button in Settings does not help me out as far as I can tell.

The sync item will also run for the iPhone so that may be how it got there. Anyway you can remove in either of two ways. Just hold down the ⌘ key and drag it off the menubar. Or you’ll find the checkbox setting in the Sync tab of the .Mac Preference Pane.

joeyjoe serially asks

I use my MacBook at work and home, so I created two accounts on it. I did this primarily because I need easy access to different applications at work and at home and because I didn’t want anyone to accidently stumble onto my personal files at work. This setup, however, has not really worked because I would still like to keep my email, contact, calendar and applications in sync between the work and home accounts. The simple solution I suppose would be to use one account and set up two different docks and desktops, but this isn’t even possible with Spaces. What do you suggest?

You could try using one account and keeping all of your personal files in an encrypted FileVault created with Disk Utility. Alternately, you could continue using separate accounts and adopt some kind of syncing solution. The obvious one is .Mac, however, you might also consider using something like IMAP for email and something like Google for calendar and contact information. You can even sync Google’s services with iCal using BusySync ($25) or Spanning Sync ($25/year). Address Book syncing is now possible with Syncman ($15) though apparently Address Book syncing is coming to the others as well. Having lots of this kind of data online as other advantages as well, so that might be worth looking into.
I created a Windows Media File using Microsoft’s excellent slideshow program, Photo Story, however I cannot view it on my Mac. The WMV file that Photo Story creates cannot be played in anything before Windows Media Player 10, and as far as I can tell, the latest version of Flip for Mac only covers files created for Windows Media Player 7.0 and earlier. I can’t find anything to play this thing!

I found this site with some suggestions. Basically, it is a codec problem and so the suggested solutions are converting the file to a QuickTime MOV with the file conversion site Zamzar or (if you have access to Windows) convert the file to a Flip4Mac compatible version with the Windows Media Encoder.
computergeeksjw asks

I have a Rage 128 video card that came with my old iMac. I’ve looked and looked, but I can’t seem to find a driver anywhere. ATI’s website only has drivers for Windows. I wanted to set up Extended Desktops but my Mac won’t recognize it. Apple Technical Support @ 1-800-My-Apple said to get a driver, but I can’t find one:). Any solutions/suggestions?

Unfortunately, I do not think Extended Desktop is possible with the Rage 128. The hack to enable this on older machines is called Screen Spanning Doctor but the Rage 128 is explicitly not supported.

Jason asks

…. My utopian goals for the backup system are 1) to have an automatic system that takes the responsibility out of it as much as possible, 2) have an offsite - preferably, online - backup of my photos and music (because those are virtually irreplaceable - especially the photos), and 3) if possible, have online access to all my personal files for when I travel (a lot)…. Is it possible to use the Mini as a backup & Time Machine server (with a huge HDD attached via USB) without having to buy Leopard Server ($500) to expose the external disk?

Yes. Backup to an AFP-shared HFS+ disk mounted on any Leopard computer (Client or Server) is officially supported by Time Machine. What I would do is buy a large external FireWire drive and hook it to the Mac mini. Then, share that drive with AFP and use it with Time Machine and/or SuperDuper!.

Finally as far as accessing file from the road goes there are a number of ways to accomplish this from Back to My Mac and iChat Screen Sharing, to others like iGet ($49). You might also want to check out a little application we posted on before called FarFinder ($35).

Sam asks

If I have a 1st gen iPhone and want to get a 3G one, could I just buy a 3G phone and put my 1st gen sim card in?

You’ll probably have to unlock the new phone to get this to work. It’s obviously not known yet whether the unlocking tools with work on the 3G iPhone.

Joel asks

I am thinking of an application, but I can’t remember it’s name, and I can’t find it via searching for the life of me! It was talked about on TUAW, and what it does is, it allows you to make a bookmark of a website, and it treats the bookmark like an application that you can open separately, and keep on your dock and stuff.

I’m not 100% sure what application it is you’re referring to. I suppose you know that you can just drag a URL to the right side of your Dock (assuming it’s on the bottom) and add a spring icon to launch any website.

If what you want is a site-specific browser, you can check out Fluid or Prism — these custom builds of the Webkit and Firefox browser engines can create one-off apps that launch a specified website in a standalone window.

[Via TUAW]

Popularity: 48% [?]

The Apple tease

Apple is the master of the tease. Just when you are about to get bored with their unwillingness to reveal what they are doing, they come out with an announcement that entices but doesn’t quite satisfy.

Their latest missive about the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, in San Francisco next month has just confirmed that Steve Jobs will be giving the keynote address and that yes he will be talking about their operating system OS X Leopard and, more alluringly, the iPhone.

At this year’s WWDC it certainly seems that Apple is putting the iPhone centre stage. For the first time it will showcase sessions for mobile developers with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to explore the capabilities of the iPhone 2.0 software.

But Apple media figures are stonewalling on whether or not Mr Jobs will actually be taking the wraps off a new 3G smartphone at the WWDC event.

Let’s have a look at some of the signs that suggest there is a high probability factor that he will.

First up you can’t get your hands on an iPhone for love nor money. Online in the UK and the States it seems supply has dried up. And last week O2, the iPhone provider in Britain, admitted it wasn’t currently available on shop shelves and that customers may well have to hold out for the 3G version. Even in Mac shops in the States the iPhone has disappeared.

Also there have been copious hints over the previous months from the likes of AT&T’s wireless chief Ralph de la Vega who said during a conference in April “Our integrated devices will be 3G devices in the not-too-distant future, and I mean months.”

And let’s also add into the mix the fact that the price of the 8GB iPhone was slashed by $169 (£85). Perhaps this was a way to get rid of old stock and persuade people to snag a bargain despite the fact the next generation phone is waiting in the wings.

The last thing Apple wants is everyone holding onto their money until the new shinier version of the iPhone is available. After all what company wants to be saddled with lagging sales as a result and a load of old stock nobody wants?

Apple is not alone in keeping information about updated products close to its chest.

But timing is everything.

Conversely you don’t want to be turning away customers with money to burn. They may well choose Apple’s chief smartphone rival in the market the BlackBerry which this week launched its new 3G, wi-fi and GPS enabled Blackberry Bold.

And in a move to hang onto its lead over the iPhone, BlackBerry has just announced its partnering with Microsoft Windows Live to give users services like consumer email and instant messaging. This shifts the phone away from the buttoned up image of a business device and makes it more social and per chance hip.

Plenty of analysts are talking up the BlackBerry Bold and applauding the company’s success at beating Apple to the punch with their new phone, but perhaps not unsurprisingly the guys over at MacDaily don’t think that much of it. Chris Neher told me “The BlackBerry 9000 is a pathetic and sad attempt to hide an antique beneath iPhone veneer.”

If Apple wants to make real inroads into mature 3G markets like Europe and Asia then it is going to need something with real bells and whistles to attract sales. And Steve Jobs will need these markets to succeed if he wants to achieve his stated aim of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of the year.

Oh and Mr Jobs if you think BlackBerry’s Research in Motion is your main competitor, a word to the wise to look over your shoulder.

Microsoft is reportedly talking about controlling 40% of the smart phone market through Windows Mobile by 2012. So far 11 million devices carry the operating systems and the Redmond company is aiming for 20 million by the end of this year.

And let’s not forget about Google’s offering via Android.

So Steve no pressure then!

Oh and one other reason to believe the rumours swirling around the Valley that the new iPhone will make an appearance next month is that it will be one year old. Happy birthday.

Popularity: 20% [?]

PPPoE, SSH, Exposé, Wake on LAN, importing DAT tapes and more

This time in Ask we’ll be looking at getting rid of a PPPoE menubar item, assigning keys to Exposé, activating Wake on LAN, importing 32MHz DAT tapes, changing the iTunes Library location, learning SSH and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you’re running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we’ll assume you’re running Leopard if you don’t specify). And now, on to the questions!π asks..

In my menu bar I have an icon resembling a ethernet icon. apon clicking on it the text appears:

No PPPoE configurations were found (In gray)
Open Network Preferences (in black)

I’m trying to clean out my menu bar, but I can’t find where to get rid of it. Please help me!

It’s in the Network Preference Pane. You have a PPPoE interface set up. To get rid of the menubar item just uncheck “Show PPPoE status in menu bar.” If you don’t actually ever use the PPPoE interface you can also probably just delete it.

Tim asks

Does anyone know how to setup and ssh connection between mac/mac and mac/pc to use for VNC? I’ve googled it and haven’t come up with any easy answers.

We recently posted on a series at Apple Matters about SSH so you might want to start there. Check out Devanshu  Mehta’s Part I and Part II of Using SSH: Secure Tunnels for the Common Man.

ooscow asks

Is there a way to disable Expose just for certain programs? Final Cut and Avid have keyboard shortcuts on the F keys that I use and it would be nice to be able to disable Expose when these programs are running. Could this be done with Spaces? Maybe with a new user?

There is no convenient way to do this. I’d just suggest an alternative: reassign the Exposé keys to something that those applications don’t use. In the Exposé & Spaces Preference Pane you can choose whatever you want. You can also add modifier keys by holding down the appropriate key. So for instance if you want to use ⌘F9 rather than just F9, merely select the drop down box and press the command key.

andrew asks

Is there a way to remote wake my macbook from sleep? Not an alarm clock. Just thinking here of a time where I’m away, realize I need a file (using apple script and mail rules), but can’t activate those rules without the macbook away.

Your Mac supports wake on LAN in the Energy Saver Preference Pane, which will wake your Mac up if a special “magic packet” is sent to it over the network. You can use a tool like Wake550 to do this. However, the trick is how you’re going to get the special “magic packet” to your Mac from a remote computer. Your router will have to support directed broadcast if your MacBook is connected through a router. Furthermore, this will only work with wired ethernet and will not work through Airport. All in all, I think it would probably be easier just to set the MacBook not to go to sleep if you think you might need this.

JoshK asks

I currently have all of my iTunes library on one external hard drive (besides my iPods) and I’m worried at it’s age it could fail now. I’d like to get a new hard drive and move all my music files to there. How can I move my files without having to tell iTunes where each song is located? Thank you for your help.

This isn’t a problem. Just copy over your iTunes Library to a new drive then go into the iTunes Preferences > Advanced and change the location of your library to the new disk.

caleb asks

When you highlight text on your Mac, it’s possible to use your mouse to cut and paste by grabbing it and dragging and dropping the text where you want it. Sometimes however, it starts re-highlighting using the starting point where you’ve clicked. I’ve been fighting with my Mac for weeks now trying to out smart it or at least figure out how it decides when to do which. I realize there are other ways to copy paste, but I just want to understand how to get this method to work when I want it to.

The trick is how long you hold down the mouse button. In order to do what you want you’ll need to hold the mouse button until the cursor changes from the insertion point ‘I’ to an arrow. Then you should be able to drag and drop your text snippet.

Adam asks

I just found that front row actually works on my mac allowing me to watch videos in fullscreen (unlike Quicktime) and as such I’ve been thinking of trying to link all my media thats on my external firewire into front row. My main issue is with TV. I have a bunch of divx TV shows that I want to show up in the TV section of front row, rather than the movies section is it currently is. anyone know how to do this? hope this makes sense.

To get something to appear in the TV section it need to be an MP4 file with the TV show tag set. You can set this tag with Meta X but I don’t think this will work for the divx files unless you re-encode them. Incidentally, QuickTime Player should allow you to watch videos full screen with ⌘F.

Update: several comments indicate this is possible without re-encoding the file by saving it with QuickTime Pro.

Brooklynguy asks

Hi, I’m here a little late in the game, but I saw the comments on TOSLINK and figure there are some digital audio experts here who might know the answer to this: what are my options for importing 32mHz digital content from DAT tape (Fostex D-5 DAT deck, TOSLINK cable going into MacBook Pro 8 months old)? The MBP soundcard apparently won’t accept a digital sampling rate for anything less than 44.1 and I need a workaround-hardware or software. My old tapes need converting to mp3s.

If there MacBook will not accept the signal directly I believe you can use a USB audio capture device like the Roland EDIROL UA-1D. According to the owners manual it will accept a 32 MHz sampling rate for input and should be automatically recognized as an audio device by OS X. Then it is only a question of selecting it as the audio input device in the Sound Preference Pane and then recording the audio with an application like Audio Hijack Pro ($32) or WireTap Studio ($69).

Popularity: 18% [?]

iPhone / iPod TiVoRemote App Makes Telnet Control Easy

Remember when we showed you an iPhone controlling a TiVo over IP by means of Telnet? Well, over at the TiVo Community Forum, a user named Duckfin has compiled a “quick and dirty little program” that gives the iPhone and iPod touch a proper TiVo Remote. The app which is named TiVoRemote, no surprise there, actually makes practical use of TiVo’s Telnet control feature. But as with most apps these days it does require a jailbroken iPhone / iPod. For installation and info hit the jump.

Installation is pretty simple and allows for TiVoRemote to be installed via Installer.app, once a new source is added. After launching the program and entering the settings menu, all that’s required is the TiVo’s IP address. Once entered, your iPhone / iPod is ready to control your Series 3 or HD TiVo. As you can see from the video above and picture below, the key layout is pretty basic. But I am sure it’s only a matter of time till it gets spruced up, allowing the TiVo guy to be on the iPhone / iPod. From complete instructions hit the TiVoRemote link for the Google Code page.

[TiVoRemote via TiVo Community Forum]

Popularity: 10% [?]