Installing QuickTime 7 on Snow Leopard

QuickTime X is a ground-up rebuild of the old standard (the latest prior version was 7.6) and was designed to sturdy the foundation of the platform. QuickTime X features stable new code, a new interface, screen capture functionality and allows fullscreen playback (QuickTime 7 required you to purchase the Pro version for access to this feature). However, many of the advanced features of QuickTime 7 were stripped out of QuickTime X during the rebuilding process. Lost features include:

Open Image Sequence
Clip Trimming
Clip Copy and Paste
Exporting to specific codecs
Clip resizing
and more

If you find that QuickTime X doesn’t provide the features you need, you probably need to “downgrade” to QuickTime 7. Fortunately, you can install both versions side-by-side in Snow Leopard, and even specify which files to open with either version. Unfortunately, if you try to install QuickTime 7 from the internet by downloading it, Snow Leopard will kindly tell you that you already have a newer version installed.

QuickTime 7 can be installed from the Snow Leopard disk, but almost everyone hates having to find the disk. Everyone else got it from the bittorrents.

This handy guide tells us that if we right-click on a .qtz (a Quartz Composer file) and select “Open with QuickTime,” Snow Leopard will offer us the chance to download and install QuickTime 7 automatically.

My problem is that I don’t have (or can’t find) any .qtz files on my computer! Here is where I can make your life 100% better. Ready?

Open TextEdit
Hit (shift)+(command)+T to make the document plain text
Save the document and change the file extension from .txt to .qtz

Bingo, now you have a perfectly legit .qtz file. Open it using QuickTime X and you will be prompted to install QuickTime 7.

Original iPod Envy!

Apple’s marketing is so powerful it makes me want to buy the original iPod. From 2001! In 2010!

iPad Retail Already Dry? Gimme a break!

So, this is an odd one. This morning MacDailyNews broke a story that overwhelming iPad orders put in-store pickups in jeopardy for new orders.

Multiple sources are reporting to us about telephone conversations they’ve had with Apple reps regarding changing their iPad orders from delivery to in-store pickup.

Multiple iPad buyers have been told that in order to do such a change, the delivery order would have to be cancelled and a new in-store pickup order completed, but that iPad orders (which began this morning at 8:30am EST) have been “so overwhelming” that new iPad orders may not be available for in-store pickup on April 3.

The story quickly spread to sites such as Macrumors, 9 To 5 Mac, and Electronista. Served with catchy headlines such as “iPad retail already dry?” or “Apple Already Running Low on iPad Supplies for Launch Day In-Store Pickup Reservations?” Frankly it’s become to large of a “story” to ignore.

Yet, everything about it stinks. Think about it for a moment. Put the hype aside, take a deep breath, and THINK about it. Twelve hours after this story broke, Apple is still taking reservations on new iPad orders for April 3rd. So why would it be a problem to change an existing order? And even IF there is a problem, why not simply put in a new reservation and cancel your previous order? There’s no queue for in-store pickups. It doesn’t matter if you reserved at 6:30am or 6:30pm, as long as Apple is still taking reservations (which they are).

Who are these people that are having an alleged hard time with this?

Basically, what I’m saying is: I don’t understand the point of this story. None of it.

I believe someone is trying to artificially hype the iPad launch. Be it Apple’s marketing team or click-hungry rumor sites. I don’t know. But let’s admit it: It’s just too much fun to give in on the hype of such a fantastic story. Wouldn’t it be fun if Apple were to sell out on day ONE of pre-orders? Tasty!

Well, they didn’t. So let’s all just move on. There’s nothing to see here. Sorry to burst the bubble.

Questions or comments? Let me know: @eierund on twitter.

How I Dodged The iBoot Bullet — State of Jailbreak Affairs

I am very careful with updating my iPhone 3GS, since I have become quite accustomed to freeing the device from Apple’s tight grip via jail-breaking.

I use Backgrounder to run apps such as Cyclemeter and Skype in the background. I utilize 3G Unrestrictor to make VOIP calls over the 3G network. I implement various other hacks to enable iPhone tethering for light laptop browsing. And I unlock my iPhone while traveling overseas. Without this freedom, I can’t tell if I’d be able to tolerate Apple’s tight grip on the iPhone with “more open” platforms such as Google’s Android quickly catching up.

Hence, I kept my iPhone’s baseband at it’s original version (04.26.08), while carefully upgrading my firmware to 3.1.2 via DevTeam’s Pwnage tool. Because I purchased my 3GS before October 2009, it also sports the original iBoot 359.3 (more on that later). With this configuration I’d be able to jailbreak and unlock indefinitely.

Unfortunately, this week, my carefully preserved iPhone needed replacement due to a faulty dock connector. Not a big deal—Apple usually replaces broken iPhone’s right on the spot—but what would happen to my jailbreak options?

Since Apple has made it nearly impossible to downgrade the firmware and baseband of the 3GS (unless you’ve put some safeguards in place during the very early 3.0 days) I knew that I’d loose control over what configuration I would receive with my exchange unit.

So, let’s have a quick look at the possible options and their (current) ramifications in terms of jail-breaking:
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Flash Beta 10.1 — Take The Pill, Ease The Pain?

I’ve been obscenely obsessed with the back and forth between John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Adobe’s official bloggers. While John Gruber is publicly cheering on Apple for not including Flash on the iPhone, Adobe is defending their technology, as well as promising improvements.

John Gruber:

It’s probably pretty clear to regular DF readers that I don’t care for Flash, and that I’m hoping Apple never includes it in the iPhone OS. Might as well make my biases clear. Why? At the core, because Flash is the only de facto web standard based on a proprietary technology. [...] There are also practical issues. One, Flash’s aforementioned crashiness on Mac OS X. Second, crashiness aside, its performance on Mac OS X is not as good as it is on Windows. And for video playback specifically, Flash’s performance pales compared to H.264 played through QuickTime.

Prompting replies from Adobe’s John Nack:

Adobe isn’t in the Flash business. Seriously. It isn’t in the Photoshop business, or the Acrobat business, or the [take-your-pick product name] business, either. It’s in the helping people communicate business. [...] Flash has stepped in to fill some gaps heretofore left by other technologies. It is, however, just one possible means to an end–always has been. Adobe will of course continue to invest in making Flash better, and it’ll keep investing in other ways to help creative people reach customer eyeballs.

And Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch:

In Flash Player 10.1 we are moving to Core Animation, which will further reduce CPU usage and we believe will get us to the point where Mac will be faster than Windows for graphics rendering. [...] With Flash Player 10.1, we are optimizing video rendering further on the Mac and expect to reduce CPU usage by half, bringing Mac and Windows closer to parity for video.

Fascinating stuff, right?

While I absolutely agree with John Gruber in terms of Flash being a de facto web standard based on a proprietary technology which needs to be replaced (at least for video playback) by HTML5 — I’ll still need to rely on Flash until the transition is complete. Therefore, I find myself in a weird juxtaposition of hoping for Flash’s demise on one hand, while rooting for the Adobe engineering team to make noticeable improvements on the other.

Lucky for me, Adobe has made available a public beta of Flash 10.1 for OSX with Flash engineer Tinic Uro providing some interesting info on Flash & Core Animation, highlighting some of the bottlenecks that the teams are now overcoming.

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Biologic Bike Mount for iPhone — Review

As most of the country is still drowning in a blanket of snow, riding your bike is probably a far distant memory for you (unless you live in California of course). But soon enough the first rays of sunshine will break the dark skies and you’ll be joyfully riding down the street, listening to music on your iPhone, until:

*DING*

Text message alert! Should you check? Overcome by curiosity you’ll probably wiggle your iPhone out of that tight jeans pocket, almost losing balance, as a car whooshes right by your side. Even though you know better, this is probably a familiar scenario if you’re an avid bike rider with an iPhone.

What you need is a mount — right in sight — on the handle bar of your bicycle. Surprisingly, however, there aren’t many great choices out there. So, we’ll be taking a look at one of the newest contestants: Dahon’s Biologic Bike Mount for iPhone.

The Dahon bike mount ships with two parts: A snap-on iPhone case and a matching mount that you’ll have to install on your bike’s handle bar. Installation is fairly easy with the included allen wrench, even though the instructions aren’t very well detailed. Once the mount is installed, however, all you have to do is place your iPhone into the case, close the lid, lock the latch, and snap the enclosure in and out of the mount as you get on and off your bike.
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iPad, Magazines, and Newspapers — An Open Letter To Steve Jobs

Dear Mr. Jobs,

First of all: Congratulations to you and your team on the announcement of iPad. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities this new device will offer us in just a few weeks. As an early adopter of eBooks (Specifically on the Kindle) I am particularly enthusiastic about the iBooks application and the accompanying bookstore. Both look extremely promising. There’s something, however, that seemed oddly amiss in your announcement: An integrated solution for electronic periodicals.

While I understand that iPad is still under development and additional details may still be announced, it concerned me that the New York Times was asked to present a dedicated iPad application during last week’s keynote. Does this suggest that publishers should develop one application each for every newspaper and magazine subscription? While this is certainly a possibility I’d like to take this opportunity to outline a few weaknesses to this approach:

• Subscriptions will clutter the home screen.
  I already find myself shunning iPhone applications that do little more than displaying the content of one particular blog; dedicated RSS readers can pull all my favorite blogs into one place without cluttering up my home screen.
• Hassle to maintain.
  Users will need to monitor each application separately for new content. I’m concerned that they might simply forget about the applications; leaving them behind — unchecked for weeks at a time — on page five and six of their home screens. This is neither practical for us (the user) nor profitable for the publisher. Eventually subscriptions will expire or be canceled.
• Dilution.
  Each magazine/newspaper will create its own user interface, syncing mechanism, and bookmarking system; unnecessarily convoluting the experience.
• Steeper (than necessary) learning curve for publishers.
  Producing a magazine/newspaper within an application requires a set of complex programming skills that many independent publishers may not wish to acquire or even have the resources for; hence, artificially heightening the barrier of entry.
• Noise.
  Magazines and newspapers may get lost among the “real” applications in the iTunes store.

On the other hand, an integrated subscription service (or one integrated within iBooks) would offer the following advantages:

• Easy access.
  All subscriptions will be loaded in one place, at the same time, ready for instant consumption.
• Integration.
  Articles can be bookmarked, synched, shared, and searched, all within the same application. A unified interface will also help transition users from a physical to an electronic experience.
• Exposure.
  Periodicals will stand out from the noise of the iTunes ecosystem. This will be especially important for independent and self-publishers.

Since the ePub format seems far too limited for heavily formatted magazines with thoughtful layouts, multimedia content, and a specific set of font choices (and PDF’s seem too “inflexible” to make for a great periodical file format), I would like to suggest that Apple introduces a dedicated — open source — file format for magazines and newspapers.

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Google Street Traffic Inaccuracies

The idea of street level traffic overlays in Google Maps is obviously appealing. In theory, it eliminates the guesswork involved in trip planning during heavy traffic times. Where I live in Los Angeles (universally known for its shallowness congested highways), drivers often abandon the freeways in search of a less congested side street. Knowing the status of that side street before taking your exit should be a huge help.

Google announced this feature, available in major cities, in August. It gathers data from a variety of sources, including pulling speed information from smartphones running Google’s Map application. Herein lies the problem. My experience has shown that this traffic data is less than accurate.

I noticed this problem while driving across town and trying to choose between freeways and side streets showing all yellow and red. I was traveling at night, around 9pm, and suspected that the street traffic may not be as bad as the Maps application on my iPhone indicated. None the less I was worried about this large red patch on my route:

When I arrived to the problem area, I was not surprised to find that the traffic was not nearly as bad as the map was showing. In fact, I snapped this picture right after taking the screenshot of the map:

As you can see, I am the only car on the road! Notice also that traffic on the other side of the street shows yellow on the map, and is also extremely light in reality. I suspect that the problem comes from how Google utilizes the data it gets from mobile users of its Maps application. For example, if the application polls the speed of a user while they are sitting at a red light, and the speed is returned as 0, how does google treat this anomaly? What about when someone is parked in the car and looking up directions? I know that the data displayed by Google is close (but not exactly) in real time, but the red block in question existed for 30 minutes before my arrival and continued to be red for ten minutes after I had passed through. The issue did not seem to be a jam that cleared just before I arrived. Further, traffic jams do not clear immediately, they should change from red to yellow to green as the traffic lightens.

As with any crowd-sourced technology, valuable data comes from the collective average of all users, not from any one specific user. I suspect that the way Google is treating the data relies too heavily on individual results, rather than a more accurate average of many users. These issues are likely to become less of a problem as use of the Maps application becomes more widespread, especially if it is integrated in the iPhone’s Map application.

Save Now on Select TomTom GPS

Watch TWIT Live Video on your iPhone

Here’s something for fans of Leo Laporte’s podcast network TWIT. Besides the regular podcasts (which include long time favorites like This Week in Tech and Macbreak Weekly) the network also streams live video of the shows 24/7 at live.twit.tv. They also publish this stream on USTREAM and Stickkam. Despite USTREAM having an iPhone client to watch live video, the TWIT stream had not been accessible, until now. Thanks to TWIT sending out some additional iPhone compatible video, you can now grab the USTREAM app from the app store and watch away! Inside the app, popular and featured channels are listed on the front page, and unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to point the app at a specific channel, or add bookmars or favorites. Just enter TWIT into the search bar for a quick way to find the right place. Bonus: if you have 3G Unrestrictor you can even watch the video over 3G (normally, the USTREAM app is restricted to wifi). Even on 3G the video buffers quickly and looks great!

Better iPhone Macro Shots – at No Cost

Several articles about taking macro shots with an iPhone have been circling the web lately. The first seen here, instructs people to destroy a DVD player and extract the laser’s focusing lens. A second article posed on Make Magazine’s Blog uses the front lens from a disposable camera to achieve a similar result. The results from both methods are impressive. However, I will show you a few much simpler methods which are easier, faster, cheaper, and produce better results!

Magnifying Glass:

Don’t ruin that DVD player! The simplest way to shoot macro on your iPhone is with a humble magnifying glass! The penny seen on the left (click it to see the full rez) was taken using this method. Simply hold any magnifying glass (this one would work just fine) over your camera lens and shoot away, no need to take anything apart! The magnification provides a real boost to the 3GS, which has an autofocus lens that allows you to get relatively close to the subject, and older fixed focus models benefit even more. I’ve used this method since the original iPhone to shoot things like boring barcodes, closeups of parts I need and even dangerous wildlife. See the examples below: