The fear of freedom that Zengobi’s Curio offers users has caused me to write and rewrite this post many times over the past few months. I just haven’t known how best to embody its essence. So before I confuse (and frighten) myself more, I’m kicking this post off with my conclusion of Curio: It’s the ideal place to marry disparate pieces of information. Or more accurately, disparate pieces of information, each of which are organized in their own way — think Visio-style drawings, mind mappings, spreadsheets, outlines, etc. Curio is flexible enough to use for just about any data gathering or task organizing that you may be facing.

What Curio is Not

There are many applications on the market that fulfill fairly singular functions. XMind allows you to capture Mind Maps. Keynote helps you create great slides for presentations. Microsoft Office products like Word and Excel assist with creating somewhat formal collections of information. Quicktime can capture video.

Well, Curio is not any one of these things. Just the opposite, it’s all of these tools (and more) in a single package. At this point the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none” may be flitting through your mind. But while Curio doesn’t master the features of all of the aforementioned specialized applications, it certainly does a great job of handling the important functions of each — and then melding them together for a seamless user experience.

Features as Far as the Eye Can See

Covering all of Curio’s features and capabilities is better suited for a book, not a blog. But since I’m writing for TheAppleBlog, and not publishing my own book (or one for Zengobi — unless they’re hiring), I’ll just hit the most compelling points from this vast product.

Knowledge Base – Thinking of a Curio file as a Legal Pad may be a good place to begin. This Legal Pad contains all kinds of information you may want to keep track of — drag anything you want into Curio, create diagrams, record audio or video to embed into your document, snap images with your iSight or take screen grabs. And the list goes on. All of this information is flag-able, tag-able and searchable for later use. I’ve considered (though haven’t had the chance to try yet) using Curio in professional training courses to capture notes in a contextual manner.

Library – All of your content is kept in the Curio Library. So even if you’ve brought something into a Curio file and decided not to use it there, it can be stored in the Library for later use. This is a great way to keep important information available across all of your files.

Project Management/Task Tracking – Who knew Curio could function as a Project Manager? It’s no Microsoft Project, but you can certainly create tasks out of your Legal Pad notes. Those tasks can be assigned priorities and due dates. And then all of it can be tracked from within the Status view of Curio.

Flashlight – The systemwide search capability built directly into Curio is Flashlight…like Spotlight in OS X. This gives users a super simple and quick way to find anything to drag into your Legal Pad and associate with something you’re currently working on.

Sleuth – System files aren’t all you can grab, either. Sleuth is the built-in browser that allows you to search all kinds of web media and sites for things you may need to incorporate into your Legal Pad. Once you find what you want, drag the content of the search results, or the URL, into Curio’s workspace and do what you like with it.

Presentations – Because the content of your Curio file may be so diverse, converting it into a Keynote file for presentation may turn into a minor migraine headache. So why bother? Curio has its own presentation mode, which allows you to take full advantage of all the content you may have included in your notes (whether it be text, images, web links or movies).

Evernote – The go-anywhere note-taking solution (it’s great on the iPhone!) is integrated right into Curio. So anything you log in Evernote becomes immediately available for use directly inside your Legal Pad. Imagine the power of being able to capture ideas anywhere, and have them fully integrated into your note-capturing knowledge base built with Curio!

Extensibility – You can go to the Community part of Zengobi’s site and download different styles, themes and plug-ins to take your Curio notes to the next level.

Conclusion

The free-form methodology of Curio is truly powerful. No matter what kind of information you have, or how you want to mash it up, this is the software that will put it together for you, and make it completely usable and beautiful. But the power comes in the right situation and with the right user. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to decide what that situation is for my own use, and it frustrates me. You can purchase Curio in Standard or Pro versions — $99 and $149, respectively — or if you’re a student, you can get the Pro version for $69. Download a trial of Curio, and check out their Tutorinis (toward the bottom of the page) for more explanation and examples uses. You’re bound to find a great use for this amazingly flexible tool.

If you’re a Curio power-user, please share your use of this tremendous tool with the rest of our readers.

The Palm Pre debuted to a series of mixed reviews, but I have to admit I still want one.  The full keyboard, the multitasking functionality, and Linux-based OS are just too much for a gadget nerd like me to resist.

But I still didn’t stand in line for one when it was released, and I have to admit it’s because the iPhone has its hooks in me good and proper.  Or, specifically the App Store.  I know it’s not fair to compare a software library that’s been around a year to one that’s been around a few weeks.  But it’s close to time for me to re-up my phone contract and between the Pre and the new iPhone 3GS, I’ll probably end up going with the iPhone.  Here are three applications that are swinging my decision–note that I’m not saying that these are the “best” iPhone apps, just the ones that don’t yet have an equivalent on the Pre and I would be sore to have to go without.



1) Stanza–This eBook reader that supports both eBook purchases through Fictionwise and a huge library of free books through sites like Project Gutenburg is pretty much essential for me.  It’s rich in features including page resume, Coverflow for book covers, full settings for changing orientation, font size and more, and even the ability to download eBooks from your PC and share them with friends (using a matching desktop app).  While there’s been talk about porting Lexcycle’s Stanza to the Pre, there’s no definitive timeline (as far as I know).


2) imeem Mobile–Both the iPhone and the Pre have Pandora, which is a great application, but the recently-released imeem app takes it a step further with the ability to upload your entire music collection to imeem and stream it to the app, so you don’t have to take up storage space on your iPhone.  It also has other features from the imeem.com site, such as Spotlight artists, recommended music, and featured stations.  And if you find new music you can’t live without, you can click in the app to go straight to that artist’s iTunes page.  Pandora’s fantastic, but the ability to jump within one app between new music and my own uploaded favorite tunes makes this one a winner for me. 3) The Quest–There are a lot (a lot) of casual games for the iPhone, but The Quest is one of my favorites.  I’m a huge fan of old-school RPGs, and this is a classic dungeon-crawler with surprising depth.  I may be dating myself by saying it’s the closest you’ll ever get to a portable version of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, but needless to say The Quest has chewed up time on many a plane and bus ride.  The game is actually a port of the original game for Pocket PCs so the sprite-based graphics aren’t cutting-edge but serve well enough and evoke serious nostalgia for old-school gamers.  You can choose from a wide array of custom race/class combinations and there’s plenty of gear and magic to pick up along the way in order to overcome the baddies.  The huge game world has day/night and weather cycles, you can enchant your own gear and brew your own potions, and the main story plot is well-written along with plenty of side quests, with multiple ways to solve most quests.  Plus, there’s even a miniature card game you can play in the inns that’s simple but fun.  Highly recommended if you’re looking for a portable game that’s a little deeper than Sudoku.

–Aric A.

The Palm Pre has been riding fairly high on a wave of publicity since its launch just a few weeks ago, so much so that Apple seems to have decided that it might be prudent to take a little wind out of the smartphone’s sails by announcing that, although the new device’s claim to be able to seamlessly synch with Apple’s iTunes store may be true at the moment, that may not be the case for very much longer. Sound a little draconian? Sure enough, but business is business and anyway, this move is built into Apple’s existing company line, which says that,

“Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with,
non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over
time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide
syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”

So, be forewarned new and potential Palm Pre owners. Apple is a jealous guardian of its markets. If you were hoping to be able to download music and movies to your heart’s content via iTunes, think again, or at least do it quickly. No doubt Palm will be ratcheting up its plans for its own apps store for the Pre, the App Catalog, but that’s a good way off and there’s pretty much no chance that it will feature anything to match the entertainment media of iTunes. So, although it is definitely premature to write off the Palm Pre, it is probably not too early to remove its equally premature mantle of iPhone killer.

–Tom Milnes

Time to cue that old 80s chestnut from hair metal band Europe (or perhaps you prefer the faithful remake by Leif Garrett… yes, Leif Garrett) as we dive into the final weekend of conjecture, rumor mongering and dreaming of the new iPhone hardware that everyone knows will be announced on Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Despite the fact that some stock analysts think that Apple might not intro new iPhone hardware, lest the rollout of the Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6 and iPhone 3.0 software get upstaged, signs are pointing to hardware on the horizon with new model numbers entering into inventory systems and even AT&T’s support site. (Heck, even Uncle Walt pretty much let the cat out of the bag.) And the new rumor flying around today, offered by the Financial Times newspaper, is that Apple will be introducing a cheaper iPhone on Monday–perhaps as low as $99 with AT&T service contract.

There’s been a lot of rumors about what might be showing up in the new hardware–from improved camera megapixels and video capture to a digital compass and support for 802.11n Wi-Fi support–that it’s a little hard to sift through it all. Happily, The Green Room blog has put together a very handy info-graphic that rounds up the bulk of the rumors along with the probability that they’ll make the final cut (it’s even been translated into Spanish).

While I think it’s a safe bet that new hardware will be announced on Monday, I don’t think we’ll actually see the hardware in stores until sometime in July (with July 17 being the focus of most bloggers) as the new iPhone hardware will need to pass some system tests with AT&T in addition to Apple releasing some features to developers that haven’t been unleashed yet (such as the in-app commerce feature as noted by Wired’s Gadget Lab). Check back on Monday afternoon when we’ll have a wrap-up of what happened and didn’t happen at WWDC.

• Many have been hoping for an appearance by Steve Jobs at the Phil Schiller-hosted WWDC keynote, but the Wall Street Journal (by way of Cult of Mac) reports that Jobs most likely won’t appear… but will “host a product presentation or other special event later in June.”
• If you’re heading to San Francisco for WWDC and aren’t familiar with the city, Lonely Planet is offering its SF City Guide iPhone app (link opens iTunes software) for free for a limited time (via iPhone Central).
• The new white MacBook that was quietly released two weeks back has been benchmarked by Macworld, and it actually outperformed the entry-level 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro–with “an 8 percent boost in Photoshop times and iTunes MP3 encoding scores.” As John Gruber ponders at Daring Fireball, “Almost makes you think that Apple is going to announce a refreshed lineup of aluminum MacBooks, with the 13-inch one gaining the “Pro” designation, at WWDC next week.”
• If you’re frustrated by the lack of controls on the latest iPod shuffle, Scosche has released the TapStick case, which adds three button controls that mimic those on the headphone remote (via CNet’s Crave)
• Rumor Roundup: Based on a patent application, we could be seeing the iPod clickwheel transform into multi-touch scroll wheel (via The Apple Blog).
• Macworld reviews the Birdhouse iPhone app, which is yet another Twitter app… but then again not. It functions as a notepad where you can elegantly compose tweets and save them until you feel they’re ready to publish. To learn more about it, check out this developer introduction–one of the funniest demo vids I’ve seen in a long time:

• John Paczkowski reports at All Things Digital über-analyst Gene Muster is hyping the very speculative idea that Apple could release an SDK (software developers kit) somewhere down the line for the Apple TV that would be aimed at making it an app-friendly platform like the iPhone–complete with Wii-like gaming with your iPhone or iPod touch as the controller. Gizmodo likes this idea and so do I–a slightly frustrated owner of an Apple TV who yearns for it to be more than just a dumb box that is essentially just a gateway to making purchases and rentals from the iTunes store (though these days I’m using it more to access video podcasts, from Rachel Maddow to Geekbrief.tv).
• My pal/colleague Jeff Carlson over at TidBITS offers a good survey of Mac software that can help you recover photos that you might have been accidentally erased from a memory card before transferring them over to iPhoto or Aperture.
• Wow. I haven’t seen an iPhone peripheral as wacky or tacky as the Ozaki iMini Pet–an iPod dock with an animatronic frog that dances on the back of the dock (seen at right and covered in great detail over at iLounge)–in some time.
• Belkin’s already touting a new accessory (available in the fall) that’s specifically compatible with the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software–the TuneCast Auto Live FM Transmitter, which transmits audio from your iPhone to your car stereo. But it adds a twist of GPS, where it’s able to access your iPhone’s location services to determine the best “known” clear frequencies on your FM dial (via Macworld and Engadget).

• And finally… find out if you’re a true Mac Geek by seeing if you match up with these 10 signs at The Apple Blog.

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

For the most part, things seem to be in a holding pattern with few big news stories or juicy rumors flowing out of the Apple wing of the gadgetosphere as we approach t-minus 10 days until Phil Schiller and friends deliver the keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8. So let’s get straight to it:

• Apple did release some new product this week with the quietly upgraded entry-level white MacBook, which gets bumps in processor speed (2.0 to 2.13), hard drive (120 GB to 160 GB) and RAM speed (667 MHz to 800 MHz, but still the same 2 GB installed)–all for the same price of just under a grand.
• If you’re tempted by the low prices on external hard drives (and who wouldn’t be when you need to a couple gigabytes for a movie download and digital audio files are growing in size as their bit rate sizes grow), Matt Newburg at TidBITS has some tips on how to format your new drive for optimal usage with your mac
• My pal/colleague Jeff Carlson wrote up a collection of tip tidbits in his most recent Seattle Times column, including one how how to block Flash in the Safari browser (something I thought only Firefox could do–having this utility might help bring me back into the Safari fold).
• The upcoming Palm Pre (which is getting a release on the weekend before Apple’s WWDC) looks like it will sync music directly from iTunes, and Gizmodo breaks down the tech of how Palm is likely achieving this.
• Rumor Roundup: Apple may introduce a family of super-thin MacBook Airs, including a new entry-level model with a price starting at $1300–not exactly a netbook-beating price (via Pocket-Lint). Steve Jobs has been sighted around the Apple campus this week, and Steve Wozniak reports that Jobs sounds “healthy” and “energetic”–which will only fuel speculation that Jobs will make a cameo at WWDC.
• Looks like AT&T is improving its 3G network–moving from a maximum throughput of 3.5 Mbps to 7.2Mbps–in preparation for the on-rushing new iPhone model, which Ars Technica notes is expected to have a 3G radio that’s compatible with the faster speed. Glenn Fleishman also notes at TidBITS that the iPhone has always been a 3G network-intensive device and will be even more so with the likely addition of tethering (connecting your laptop to the 3G network via the iPhone) in the arsenal of AT&T service offerings.
• Now we know why Hulu wanted to pull its content from Boxee: this week a Hulu Desktop application was released, enabling you to not only free Hulu from the web browser but also control it with your Apple remote.
• In a followup to a news item from last week, Apple has relented and approved the Eucalyptus e-book reader for sale in its App Store–despite its continued ability to access the Kama Sutra.
• Aric reported earlier this week on the announcement of the iPod touch-competing Microsoft Zune HD, and it seems to stack up well with the iPod touch with its touchscreen and HD radio/HD video output capabilities. But Christopher Breen at Macworld reminds us what the Zune HD lacks: an App Store, which can transform a HD-loving touchscreen music player into a small tablet-like computer.
• The Apple Blog points to an article in USA Today that describes changes to Apple’s One to One training and support program–which has been a great way to educate switchers new to the Mac environment–and sought out further clarification from Apple. It looks like the program will only be offered to folks who buy Macs from Apple directly (web or retail location) and that there’s no grace period–you need to decide to enter the program on the day you make the purchase.

  If you’re not familiar with One to One, it’s a pretty sweet deal: for a $99 subscription, you get to meet with an Apple trainer at an Apple Store once every week for an hour to go over stock training (how to make a video in iMovie) or answer specific questions you have. My mother-in-law made the switch to a Mac from years of using Windows PCs and the One to One program was extremely helpful in assimilating her… I mean getting her ramped up on how to get the most out of the Mac.

• And finally… if you haven’t see it yet, be sure to check out the cover to this week’s New Yorker, which was drawn entirely using the Brushes iPhone app (which is on sale for a limited time, no doubt due to all the publicity its garnered). Check out the video below to see how it was composed:

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

Before we get to this week’s breathless rumors about the next iPhone (yes, there have been online sightings via T-Mobile in Austria, a report from Australia that the current 16 GB model is end-of-life, and reports that AT&T is running out of stock), I thought I’d share a bit of a conversation I had with a friend of mine. As I’m involved in writing and research a lot of different technology (and especially Apple-related gear), I get a lot of questions from friends and family about both buying advice and and tech support, and a friend of mine who is looking to replace his iBook G4 was wondering which direction to go for a family-oriented desktop–Mac mini or 20-inch iMac. Here’s how I broke it down for him:

Mac mini: The appeal of this machine is its size and price–at $600 for the entry-level machine you’re getting a decently powerful processor and much better graphics than previous incarnations. But the gist of the minimalist Mac mini is that you’re going to have to add a few things (monitor, keyboard/mouse) if you don’t have them lying around already. Since the latest Mac mini still doesn’t have an HDMI output, you’ll need to be mindful that any monitor you add includes a DVI connection (and one with HDCP copy protection, so that you can enjoy worry-free viewing of iTunes content). Since my friend wasn’t looking for a large screen size, I suggested this 22-inch Dell monitor.

Additionally, since the entry-level Mac mini only comes with 120 GB of hard drive space and 1 GB of RAM, I recommended an external hard drive (1 TB models are super cheap these days) for both backup and media storage as well as upgrade RAM to 4 GB (one of the least expensive ways to ensure you get optimal computing performance, especially with a processor that’s a bit on the slow side). The hard drive addition is easy-peasy, but you’ll need a putty knife, an adventurous spirit, and some helpful guidance. With both the Mac mini and the iMac, I recommended adding an AppleCare protection plan that extends warranty coverage from 1 year to 3 years. So the price (before any taxes are applied) breaks down thusly (all prices noted before any taxes are assessed):

$600 for Mac mini + $200 for monitor + $40 for keyboard/mouse combo + $120 for hard drive + $110 for RAM upgrade + $2.50 for putty knife + $150 for Mac mini AppleCare = $1,222.50

iMac: Now, prying open a Mac mini case with a putty knife isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, and gathering all my recommended equipment might seem like a scavenger hunt. That’s where the all-in-one iMac comes in. Due to price, space and usage consideration, my friend was interested in the 20-inch iMac, and it’s a pretty good choice for a family computer with a faster processor (2.66 GHz) that won’t feel too slow a couple years down the line and more hard drive storage (320 GB) and RAM (2 GB) right out of the box. Knowing my friend’s current usage (music/photo management, elementary-level learning games, web browsing), I decided not to push him to upgrade the RAM immediately. But when he does want a boost (with an 8 GB maximum capacity–double that of the Mac mini), it’s far easier to do the upgrade. And while the hard drive is larger, I still recommended getting an external hard drive as media files will keep getting bigger and bigger and it’s important to back things up. So, here’s the tally with the iMac:

$1200 for iMac + $120 for hard drive + $150 for iMac AppleCare = $1,470

For $250, you’ll get a stronger computer right out of the box with a lot less hassle. However, you’ll definitely save some money going with the Mac mini (and be able to shave even more off the cost if you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse that you like), and it allows for upgrading your peripherals now and in the years to come (say, when larger HD monitors come further down in price). Ultimately, it comes down to a trade-off between convenience and customization and how comfortable you are in either of those camps.

Alright, let’s get onto news of Apple-y goodness from the week that was…

• In regards to iPhone rumor-mongering, John Gruber at Daring Fireball offers the most complete and cogent rundown of the iPhone hardware that’s likely to be coming out sometime this summer (and announced on June 8 at WWDC). The most intriguing bit of his rundown is the boost in CPU speed (as well as RAM) and how it will make the iPhone feel like a major leap forward.
• An AT&T honcho confirms that the company would consider lowering the price of data plans for the iPhone and other smartphones in its stable by as much $10 a month… as long as there was a ceiling on the amount of data used over 3G connectivity.
• Apple stock analyst Gene Munster has another against-the-grain speculation this week (last week, he took the announcement of Phil Schiller as WWDC keynote speaker to mean that there would be no iPhone announcment) claiming that there will be no Apple iTablet until 2010. Munster believes the device will be priced between $500 and $700 and possibly be subsidized by a cellular carrier. Ars Technica notes that the big hurdle for the iTablet will be blending the OS and the UI of Mac OS X and iPhone OS. But we could perhaps see something earlier as Electronista reports that contract manufacturer Wintek will be providing 10-inch touchscreens to Apple sometime in the second half of 2009.
• Seth Weintraub at Computerworld wonders whether Apple is going to get back into the digital camera game, with Apple rumored to be purchasing both 3- and 5-megapixel sensors for upcoming products. Yes, I wrote “get back into” as Apple indeed once offered a digital camera called the QuickTake with a whopping 640 x 480 VGA resolution back in 1994 (which I totally forgot about).
• Book Talk: My the latest edition of my pal/colleague Jeff Carlson’s iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide should be shipping sometime next week. Because he’s added so many pages covering the new features of iMovie ‘09 (I’ve gotten a sneak peek and it’s been helpful with my recent initial forays into the software), he and his publisher are offering the iDVD portion of the book as a free download. Another of my favorite authors, Joe Kissell, has updated two of his Take Control ebook titles that are great for folks just learning about the Mac OS X environment as well as provide good reminders for more advanced users. Troubleshooting Your Mac will help you diagnose and fix problems that crop up while Maintaining Your Mac provides daily/weekly/yearly prescriptions to help you avoid trouble (and if you’re housebound on a rainy Memorial Day weekend, it might be a good time to start on the yearly tasks like cleaning the dust from your keyboard, changing passwords, and removing unneeded files).
• Speaking of books, looks like Apple has another snafu on its hands with the rejection of the Eucalyptus e-book reader (which provides free books from the archives of Project Gutenberg). Seems that while the app doesn’t come with any offending material, you could potentially download the potentially offending Kama Sutra. Oh my. Of course, you could download the same title using other iPhone apps, including Amazon’s Kindle app and Stanza. For more on this, see Technologizer, Cult of Mac
• And speaking about the Kindle for iPhone app, it’s been updated with the ability to choose different background and text colors as well as the ability to read in landscape mode (via IntoMobile).
• Much has been made about Boxee and how delicious it is to hack an Apple TV with it in order to gain access to streaming video from a variety of sources (including Netflix), but Joel Johnson at Boing Boing Gadgets has a contrary opinion largely based on the slow processor speed of the Apple TV.
• And finally… if you’ve bought a lot of MacBooks (and I mean a lot) and you’re wondering what to do with the boxes, Gizmodo offers an idea: create a dresser out of ‘em:

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

It’s now less than a month until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which kicks off with the keynote address at 10am PDT on June 8 delivered by… Phil Schiller and a “team of Apple executives”. Thus, it looks like Steve Jobs is going to remain true to his word and stay away from work until his leave of absence officially ends at the end of June. So that’s one mystery solved with the bigger mystery of the next version of the iPhone still dangling in the wind. Earlier this week, the usually sane/reliable Apple analyst for Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, took Schiller’s keynote announcement to mean that there would be no iPhone announcement and that the focus of the keynote and the conference would be on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. But, to quote the estimable John Gruber of Daring Fireball, “That’d be goofy.” As he points out:

(I)f there are any new hardware features — like say a video camera or magnetometer — that means new APIs, and if Apple wants to have WWDC sessions for the new hardware-specific APIs, they have to announce the hardware first.

And John Paczkowski over at All Things Digital reminds us that since Apple has pulled out of Macworld, WWDC is the only big event it has to unveil a major new release. My guess of what this may portend is that the new iPhone hardware is just going to receive some incremental bumps to its feature set (i.e., more memory, more imaging megapixels, etc.) and won’t get any new design overhaul (as was repoprted by Hard Mac this morning)–thusly placing more emphasis on the iPhone 3.0 software (which would rightly be the focus of a developer’s conference).

As for the new iPhone hardware, speculation is ramping up that there will be three models based on a snapped pic of Best Buy’s inventory system posted by Phone Arena (via Ars Technica among others), which shows three handsets labeled as “Project Charlie” coming from AT&T (most likely variations in memory size and color).

• In other rumors, Hard Mac also claims that, as per Apple’s yearly refresh cycle, the iPod touch and iPod nano will get new models in September with both also tantalizingly getting cameras (since every mobile gadget that we carry today obviously needs a camera).
• Amazon announced this week that it had created an iPhone-optimized rendering of its Kindle Store (seen at right) for easier browsing of books that you can wirelessly send to the Kindle for iPhone app (link opens iTunes). However, simply typing in the URL for amazon.com/kindlestore into Safari won’t get you there, as that opens up the full Amazon web page. Rather, searching for a title or selecting a category from the iPhone app’s How to Get Books section will open Safari to the appropriate iPhone-friendly template, or by using this iPhone-specific link (note that you’ll get a 404 error on any browser other than Safari on the iPhone).
• This week Apple dropped the OS X 10.5.7 update, and if you found that it produced issues with external monitor resolutions, Andrew Bednarz over at The Apple Blog has some resolutions to your problem.
• Tip of the week: controlling iTunes with just your keyboard from Macworld.
• The SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app is finally a reality, but it’s a $30 investment (on top of your initial Slingbox/catcher investment). And it only works when connected to a Wi-Fi network, as AT&T confirmed that it was behind the crippling of the app’s use of cellular 3G connectivity (unless you jailbreak your iPhone). For more on how good the app is, check out this hands-on review at Macworld
• Apple and Microsoft continue to duke it out on the airwaves, with Microsoft’s latest Laptop Hunters ad (featuring a second Lauren)…

  …followed up by Apple’s most direct response to date to the LH ads:

• Microsoft also started going after Apple from another angle, with an ad featuring former Apprentice contestant Wes Moss pointing out that it costs $30,000 to fill the “latest” iPod (in this case, the large-capacity 120 GB iPod classic up with music and that the all-you-can-listen Zune Pass subscription (at $15 a month) for the Microsoft Zune player is the more economical way to go. As Dan Moren at Macworld notes, this uses some interesting accounting with each song purchased individually from the iTunes store (no album bundling) and nothing imported from your existing library of CDs. And the rub of the Zune Pass subscription model is that once you end the subscription, all of that music goes away unless you purchase those tracks and albums separately.
• And finally… a very creative use of packing materials from Apple MacBook boxes–a chandelier dubbed the Styrolight, which won the Sustainable prize in Design Within Reach Austin’s M+D+F competition (via Cult of Mac).

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz