George Holtz makes it ra1n:
Yes, this is what you’ve all been waiting for. A jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS. And it’s awesome. To get started right now, go to purplera1n.com. Download it.
Not sure if a jailbreak is even relevant anymore. If you do, pay heed to the warning the iPhone Dev Team throws up.
I am a huge beta whore. I contact nearly every cool looking piece of software’s developer about trying to get in on its beta. I tried to get in on Dropzone when the beta was first announced. I was not successful. So what did I do? I bitched about it on Twitter. John over at Aptonic must’ve been searching Twitter cause he found me and graciously appeased me by adding me on to the beta. And I’m so glad I’m a crybaby cause it’s been awesome having Dropzone on my system.
Dropzone sits in your dock and you can drag all sorts of files to it, and Dropzone will let you do all sorts of automated tasks. Currently, I’ve got tasks set up for zip and email, install application, move/copy to desktop, create a text document from selected text, share text on Pastie, upload to Flickr, move to external HDD, and upload to FTP. That’s a lot of tasks, but that isn’t even all. Dropzone’s got all sorts of extensions, and it’s open enough that anyone can program extensions for it. It comes with a bunch of pre-loaded extensions, and you can easily jump to the site through the app, and add other user-created Dropzone extensions. For me, the coolest thing I’ve been able to do with Dropzone has been installing applications. If you drag a downloaded app into Dropzone, it will copy the app into the applications folder, launch the app, eject the DMG, and then move the DMG to the trash. Really keeps the number of forgotten DMGs sitting around to almost zero.
Dropzone stays out of the way in the dock. Just drag a file onto it, a stack-like window pops up, and then just drop your file on the task you wanna run it through. A small notification HUD appears in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, showing a growl-like progress bar. You can turn off sound notifications if you wish too. You can also customize the icon that appears in Dropzone’s menu. And that’s about it. Dropzone is lightweight, unobtrusive, and extremely useful. You can keep adding extensions to it for tasks you need as the need arises. The developer has been very responsive during the beta process, with quick updates to bugs, and the last couple releases have been bug free and 100% stable for me.
All problems I had while testing Dropzone have been fixed already. It may be at version 0.2.6, but it’s totally ready for primetime. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It goes for $10, and would make a great addition to any Mac user’s utility collection. You can download it and play with it for up to 15 days here.
This is probably the least used feature of Mac OS X, and yet it’s present in almost every application you might use. I’m talking about the Services menu of course, tucked in under the application name in your menubar. I must admit, for the longest time, I never really paid much attention to it. At the surface, it seems like something useless (most of the options are greyed out anyway), so why bother? Well, it turns out that the Services menu is so awesome, that you would be a fool not to use it.
You see that application name right there in the menubar? Finder, Safari, etc? Under that menu is a “Services” flyout menu. Inside you will find a variety of commands that ‘sort of’ make sense. However most of these are greyed out because all services are activated only in context. In TextEdit or any other application with a text input field, select a little text and go to Services » Speech » Start Speaking. Getting the hang of it?
Why go through all that trouble you must be thinking? Much better to just drag and drop your way around right? Well since the Services menu is a menubar item, you can customise keyboard shortcuts for any command. You can perform any of the service actions by adding keyboard shortcuts using the Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts preference pane.
The beauty of the services menu is that it’s highly extensible by third party plugins. Many third party apps like Coda, Things, The Hit List, will automatically add their own menus for executing tasks related to their apps. For instance one can quickly create new tasks in Things by selecting text in Safari and then hitting a shortcut.
There are also some special ‘plugins’ for adding functionality to the menubar.
WordService
Created by Devon Technologies, WordService is a boon for writers and publishers. The plugin adds things like converting to lowercase, changing straight quotes to smart quotes, as well as more advanced commands like ‘Trim Line Endings’, ‘Windows to Mac encoding”. My personal favourite? Remove multiple spaces for all those spacebar happy articles that I come across.
LargeType
This adds a service for displaying any selected text in large type, much like the phone numbers are displayed in the Address Book. Very useful if you want to leave a message like “Don’t Touch Anything!” for the next user.
KavaServices
Costing $25 for a license, KavaServices adds a bunch of (potentially) useful commands like text translation, currency conversion, search engine integration, calculating mathematical expressions, and a whole lot more.
Print Selection
Copy any text from any application, and hit the Print Selection to bring up a dialog box with your text loaded.
Service Scrubber
Not a plugin as much as a full blown applications to reorganise your services. You can disable third party services, customise keyboard shortcuts, and basically give it a much cleaner look.
Okay I admit it. Services are less important these days in this Exposé drag and drop world, where everything is controlled by the mouse and being prepped for touch. However there are some interesting uses for them, because at the end of the day, nothing saves time like a bunch of keyboard shortcuts!
Introduced back in January, and finally out at the end of June, GridIron Flow is one mysteriously awesome looking app. I’ve been using the feature complete beta for a while now, and I think I’ve finally figured out what GridIron really is. Pretty much the same time I also figured I would have a tough time writing a review.
I usually know how to use an application before even lauching it. Mac software is generally designed to be intuitive to the point that once you know the data you’re dealing with, using the application to manipulate it is a simple task. Not so with Flow. I usually don’t look at reviewer’s guides until absolutely necessary, and after a lot of tinkering around, I finally had to look at the PDF guide that was sent to me.
Clickety click the screenshots to view larger images
GridIron Flow is a project management application at the file level. It aims at replacing Finder and other forms of managing files to give you a clear and concise way of looking at your project files, and the way they interact with one another. Flow installs files deep in the system, so much that you have to restart your Mac for it to complete the setup. The background service constantly monitors your system, files, and interactions with one another.
It was a hush hush update, as the MobileMe minions set to work on adding fine improvements in to its web extension. It’s got some visual refreshes like better icons (yay!), unread counts in the sidebar of the Mail app, and other possible subtle changes to the UI.
The most important change to me however, is the Mail’s ability to retain formatting while replying to emails. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve preferred reply to an email on the iPhone instead of having the >>s scattered across my email.
What’s still missing? A decent search for one. MobileMe still searches on the headers, and only in the current folder. I like what Apple is doing with MobileMe, but I’m afraid they’re not working fast enough.
Here’s a complete list of changes at the MobileMe support page.
Adam C Engst does a detailed overview of Firefox 3.5:
Mozilla has thrown back the curtains on Firefox 3.5, a significant update to the most popular Web browser that’s independent of operating system makers. The tagline for the new browser is “Faster, Safer, Smarter, Better,” and in initial testing, its new and improved features indeed apperar to improve an already good experience.
Some good stuff in the latest release, but I’ll continue to stay in comfortable Safari 4 territory.
Here’s what the iPhoneblog had to say about what’s new:
- Non-destructive video editing means trimming a clip no longer saves over the original video but gives you the option to “Save as copy…”
- Voice Control now works over Bluetooth
- iPhone vibrates when moving icons
- Updated AT&T profile to 4.2
Sounds like a pretty good update, for 3GS users.
Photoshop continues to have some of the most primitive ways of managing extensions. Managing brushes for instance is almost non existent. You have to store brush files inside folders in Finder, with no way to know what the brush file contains.
Apparently Jay Hilgert, a frustrated graphic designer couldn’t take the workflow, so he went ahead […]
It happens to the best of us. 5 months into using and abusing your Mac, you suddenly find your free space disappearing much like the reservoirs in Central India have started drying up at the end of summer. Fortunately, unlike the reservoirs in Central India, you can easily get back that free space. The question […]
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