via Geek & Mild

via Chris Armstrong

via David Chartier

via Smoking Apples

via Chris Armstrong

One of the developers of HandBrake suggested that the AppleTV preset in HandBrake with the quality slider bumped up to 62% gives a near perfect encode. What the thread didn’t mention is that you’ll need to uncheck “Large file size”, as well, since this is only for encodings where the produced mp4 will be greater than 4GB and breaks compatibility with most software and devices when enabled.

Onto the apps…

Messages: This is an app I cannot live without, and I am sure most of you agree. The iPhone has become less of a phone, and more of a messaging device in more ways than one.

Calendar: I keep eying Calvetica, but the default Calender.app has been serving its purpose since the launch of the original iPhone. It has some trouble keeping the calendar colors in sync across my iDevices, but as I said before, it gets the job done.

Photos: Contains my priceless Camera Roll. I have been putting off syncing it to iPhoto, until I finally get a new Mac.

Camera+: It’s a shame that the developers found it necessary to sneak-in a previously rejected feature, but you cannot deny Camera+ its spot as the best camera app in the App Store.

YouTube: Sometimes I wish Apple had not included YouTube as a default application in iOS, and instead released it as a downloadable application. I have nothing suitable to replace it, and so it remains.

Utilities Folder: Thanks to this little gem, I was able to cut down the amount of pages I had from eight, to four. I won’t describe the apps themselves, but I will appease you with a list. Clock (irreplaceable), Calcbot (replaced Calculator.app), Dropbox (irreplaceable), Deliveries, Tipulator (irreplaceable), Banking, iFiles (in desperate need of a replacement), Stocks, Convert, Voice Memos, Find My iPhone (irreplaceable), and finally iStudies Pro.

Maps: Since its debut on the original iPhone in 2007, Maps.app has replaced the Yellow Pages as my go-to-source for directions and phone numbers.

Weather: I am currently on the hunt for an improved weather app, but nothing seems to improve on what I already have. My main complaint is the lack of support for the Retina Display. Outside.app used to be my favorite, but the app is screaming for attention from its developer, and My-Cast.app (based on many recommendations) has failed to live-up to its hype.

Simplenote: Replaced Notes.app. It was a necessary replacement, to keep the notes, on my Mac, iPhone and iPad in sync. I am still praying for more advanced functions: RTF Bold, *Bold*, or <strong>Bold</strong> – I am looking at you.

Instapaper: I do not use this app as much as I should. I mainly use the service as more of a filing cabinet that I tend to never file. As of this little post, I have 49 unread items. The app is great on both the iPhone and iPad, but I find I have to force myself to open it once-and-a-while.

iTunes Store: I have a problem keeping everything between iPhone, iPad and my Mac in sync. The NC data center could come in handy right about now.

App Store: Both the worst, and best part of the iPhone. I do not want to know how much money has been lost to this deceitfully friendly blue icon.

Settings: No matter how hard I try, Settings.app will remain on my homescreen. It could fit in my Utilities Folder, but I do not know of a suitable replacement.

Reeder: Simply amazing. The iPad app needs some refinements, but an irreplaceable app nonetheless.

Things: Cultured Code’s app is another irreplaceable gem. However – and I know many of you have heard this before – it is crying-out for an interned based syncing solution. I would be happy, though not thrilled, to sync with iDisk through my MobileMe account. The status page says it (Over-the-air Sync) is coming, but the real question is, “When?”

Twitter: The icon is a little fugly, but the app is again, irreplaceable.

The Dock

I really have not had time to look at many Homescreen.me accounts, so I am not sure whether people are sharing their thoughts on the applications in their dock. For me it is really simple: the defaults stay, and nothing gets replaced.

Phone: I have tried switching the Phone.app with Messages.app, but as the iPhone is a phone, I feel the Phone.app must remain.

Mail: iOS 4 has enabled some pretty amazing features to the Mail.app (primarily, the unified inbox), but it is still in need of some work. Multiple custom signatures and better folder management are among my top complaints/requests.

Safari: I tend to use the in-app browser more than the actual Safari.app. In fact, I tend to forget it is there. I have been introduced to many web browsers in the App Store, but the default will always remain a favorite. I also use Safari exclusively on my Mac – aside from the occasional launch of Firefox to test some code. Tabs in iOS would be nice (esp. on the iPad).

iPod: Both iPod.app and Pandora.app receive an equal amount of abuse. If I am driving anywhere, you can assume I have one of these apps connected via an aux cable.

There you have it –  a pretty thorough description of the applications that reside in my digital home. If you are wondering where to download my wallpaper, I will share the link, with a proper description, very soon.

Computers have had time to evolve, and become the best tool for a job, because we are accustomed to them. We know what to expect from them; the iPad is a completely new experience. In about four months, the iPad has changed many of my computing habits. If I intend on reading for any extended period of time on my MacBook, I am forced to hunch over my desk, launch Reader, and read. I now have a choice. If I so desire, I can grab my iPad, walk to the closest (and most comfortable) chair, sit, and read.

Give the iPad the same amount of time both Macs and PCs have had to evolve, and I am sure the iPad will replace many – and I am not saying all – of tasks you have become accustomed to doing on your computer.

John Carmack shows off demo footage of Rage running on iPhone, live from his QuakeCon 2010 keynote.

According to a poll by Cooper Murphy Webb, the copywriters, Apple’s iPad is the preferred method of reading newspapers and magazines among consumers already owning the device. The poll also found that a plurality of iPad owners prefer the device for reading books and gaming.

Nissan, which created a multilayer interactive ad for its electric LEAF car, said customers spent an average of 90 seconds with the ad — 10 times longer than interaction times for comparable online ads. Moreover, people chose to “tap” on the Leaf iAd five times more frequently than they clicked on regular online display ads for the Leaf.

“We feel pretty strongly that this is the way to capitalize on where the mobile Web is heading,” said Chad Jacoby, a senior manager of Nissan’s media operations. “What iAd promises is the most progressive thing I’ve seen to date” in digital advertising.

We’re always interested in the ways that new technologies can enhance a customer’s experience with our products. Naturally, we’re developing an iPad app.

via Youtube

We’re taking a look at the prototype for our iPad app (not yet available in public) and talking about what this means for the future of our company’s products and service — how we are working to make customer’s lives simple and easy.

Apple Support:

FreeType: A stack buffer overflow exists in FreeType’s handling of CFF opcodes. Viewing a PDF document with maliciously crafted embedded fonts may allow arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking.

IOSurface: An integer overflow exists in the handling of IOSurface properties, which may allow malicious code running as the user to gain system privileges. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking.

Download Links

• iPhone 3G

• iPod Touch – 2^nd gen

• iPhone 3GS

• iPod Touch – 3^rd gen

• iPhone 4

• iPad

Designs can succeed or fail on a number of levels, some of which are subjective, some of which aren’t. Things like the overall concept, mood and its visual appeal are subjective: one person might think a design succeeded in its overall goals whereas another might think it failed.

So without any context what can you really critique? Design execution. The execution of a design is the nitty-gritty details of the design. The pixel-level details. The alignment of individual elements. The kerning of a logo or headline. The sharpness of an edge. These can be wrong. These can be so incredibly wrong that they stand out no matter how good the overall concept, mood and visual appeal may be. Screwing up the execution of a design ruins the design. Game over, it’s wrong, and no context is needed to understand its wrongness. A 400×300 pixel screenshot on Dribbble can be wrong without knowing anything about the project. An iPhone app icon can go from right to wrong in just a few pixels. One misplaced pixel. One misaligned button. One blurry edge. This is what makes a design wrong, this is what makes an execution of a design go from good to garbage.

The primary reason this API exists is because we have been working with Apple to come up with a way to reduce power consumption on Macs. As we see more and more HD content on the web it is critical that we take advantage of hardware resources when available. In that context it is important to understand that this API targets HD content, not SD or smaller sized video. In fact SD sized content will not be accelerated in most cases. The decision of what content is accelerated and on which machine it is supported is up to Apple.

The Incident is a fast-paced, retro-style action game from Big Bucket Software. Run and jump your way to safety as an angry rain of just about everything in the world falls and builds a mountain of platforms for you to climb up, up… up to the source of it all: the cause of The Incident.

It’s only been one day with the case, however, I really like it! Sure it adds extra weight (not much since the materials themselves are lightweight) and bulk to the iPad, but it’s so incredibly slick looking!

I really have enjoyed the angled of interacting with the iPad when the lid is flipped backwards – makes for easier typing too! It’s easy to remove the iPad, yet not too easy for it to just fall out. I’ll be interested to see how this holds up over time, but from first use, this thing is well made and well worth the 6 week wait time.

So, “Great Movie Starring Some Person” is released to theaters, a few months later it appears on Epix, then three months later it can be streamed on your Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, or whatever other device you have that streams Netflix.

I’m a big fan of Safari Extensions. I’ve written several of my own, some of which I share with the Internet public. But because I’ve built those extensions, I’ve realized how easily a malicious developer could harvest all sorts of information about you, using a method that could sneak in and evade immediate detection.

Installed extensions can add any HTML to any page you surf to. And that’s where the danger comes in — and that danger is actually even worse than it first seems, which is already pretty bad.

Friedman’s extension is a little fugly – if he is using the extension himself, I am sure he will work on the aesthetics.

Even Okuda was impressed with how natural and fluid the interface of the iPad feels in use. Actions that involved complex post-production effects on a PADD actually seem easy on an iPad, he said. “There are a lot of things that are very easy to do in a prop, but actually very difficult to do in reality,” he told Ars. “For example, pinch to zoom—that was relatively difficult to do even as a visual effect. It’s implemented brilliantly on the iPad and the iPhone.”

Before iPhone, the market defined a smartphone as, “a mobile phone capable of providing the functionality found in a PDA.” If the device had a touchscreen, it used a stylus. No touchscreen, no stylus. Somewhere along the lines, iPhone changed the definition of a smartphone to a more socially accepted definition, “a mobile phone capable of providing the functionalities found in a PDA, and has a touchscreen.” Hence iClone.

RIM founder and CEO, Mike Lazaridis, took the stage, ready to announce the biggest change BlackBerry had ever seen: the BlackBerry Torch, and the all new BlackBerry 6. If you predicted RIM would announce a major update to the BlackBerry OS, capable of competing with the iPhone – you came close. The Problem? RIM made the decision to mold the BlackBerry from a world-renown messaging and communications device, to an iClone with a keyboard.

After their first – and second – touchscreen failures, why would RIM continue to trot down this road? Multi-touch has become the de facto way to control any handheld device. It’s like having a camera on a smartphone, a necessity instead of a feature. To prove my point, let’s take a leap into the advertising sector of the market. What feels more intimate?

• Person A, typing away on a keyboard.

• Person B, swiping their way around the multitouch interface.

Sure there is an ad campaign for a keyboard-based UI, but it will feel dated compared to the ad campaign of any truly competitive touchscreen device. The market is filled with tons of copycats, and grams of innovation. Consumers are always looking for a revolutionary product – four years later, the iPhone is still the smartphone to beat. RIM had the chance, and let’s just say, they blew it.

iOS 4.1 Beta 3, the latest beta version of Apple’s upcoming software update, has a new feature that allows for FaceTime calls to be associated with an email address instead of a phone number.

I might not want to give you my phone number – who knows?

“(Apple CEO) Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy,” Ono, the 77-year-old widow of John Lennon, told Reuters. “There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out.

“Don’t hold your breath … for anything,” she said with a laugh.

Short version: Power it off immediately and put it in a bag of uncooked rice.