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While reviewing my settings over the at the amazing Timehop service, I came across this gem of a setting: “Cursing Level.”  I think I’ll stay with “a little.”

Way to go Myspace with the old-school messaging.  Love the sad face in the title attribute.

Our site has issues. Literally. W’re working hard to get things back in working order as quickly as possible.
-The Myspace Team.

Thanks to Peter for capturing this one.

...and we’re back with an exciting, animated 404 message from Spotify.  Make sure to click through to the actual page to see the little critter swinging from his teeth!

It’s hard to believe this is a photo of the Hudson River Path in December.  What a beautiful day to be out on the bike.

Here’s another good fix for a MacOS X default-

How to expand all Open/Save Dialogs on MacOS X:


defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE


One of the more interesting features of MacOS X 10.7 Lion is the ad-hoc, wireless, peer to peer networking feature called AirDrop.  Unfortunately, this is only supported on the very latest hardware.  It turns out that you can easily enable AirDrop for many older Lion systems with a simple visit to the Terminal.

At the commend line, you need to enter:


defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1


Then, restart the Finder with the following:


killall Finder


Open a new finder window and you should now see AirDrop listed on the left-hand side under favorites.

From the my first computing experiences with the Apple ][+ to my current MacBook Air, Steve Jobs has inspired me.  Both my wife and I “grew up Apple.”  Nearly everyone who matters to me both professionally and personally has been influenced by his work.  His personality, conviction and attention to detail has been imprinted upon us all.  In his passing, I feel as if someone close to me has died, although I never knew him personally.

As I learned of the news on via an AP alert on my iPhone, I kept quiet not wanting to ruin the mood at the tech meetup I was hosting.  Secretly, I noticed that everyone in the room was receiving the news (from their Apple devices).  Finally, someone verbally acknowledged the news and silence fell among our group.  Gradually, murmurs and hushed conversation began, and slowly, our world of tech reluctantly moved on.

An era has passed and a historic luminary is gone. 

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

After upgrading to MacOS X Lion 10.7, you’ll find that the system conveniently hides the Library folder in your home directory.  If you’re wondering how to view the /Library folder after the upgrade, here’s how.

Of course you can still view it by using the Finder’s “Go to Folder” feature.  Just type command-shift-g in the finder and enter:

~/Library/

But if you’d like to keep it visible all the time, you can change the hidden flags on that directory with the following command:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

update: I just noticed that Dan Frakes over at Macworld has posted a completely over the top 18 ways to view the ~/Library folder in Lion.  I think this hint is now complete.

iTunes offers a bit rate conversion feature which allows you to load more music onto your iPhone, iPod and iPad devices by downsampling high bit rate audio files.  This was initially introduced with the diminutive iPod Shuffle, but has available for all devices since iTunes 9.1.

This iTunes conversion feature is most useful if you have songs that have been imported directly from standard audio CDs to Apple Lossless or other high bit rate formats.

Upon enabling the “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbs AAC” checkbox in the device options screen, iTunes converts all music set to transfer to the iPod, iPhone or iPad.  This conversion happens during the sync process.  All original music is left intact in your iTunes library, and the compressed audio is stored solely on the device.

This conversion process does reduce the quality of your music, but you’re likely not to notice if you use Apple’s included earbuds or other inexpensive compact headphones.  It’s perfect for listening on the go.

This year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off with a keynote by Steve Jobs.  With his team of execs, he revealed three major products- all software-based.  Thousands of new features, services and APIs were announced setting the stage for future products and services across Apple’s compete line of products.

1. Mac OS X Lion- Apple’s next desktop operating system- aka 10.7.

As previously demoed, multi-touch gestures and many details from iOS have been brought over to the desktop.  Security and OS refinement are central as well as the initial integration of iCloud for document, photo and data access.  Release date is “July.”

2. iOS 5.0- The next mobile operating system for iPhones, iPads, iPods & AppleTV. 

The early beta build shows that Apple has continued chipping away at the most-requested features list.  The most visible and obvious change is the introduction of a better notification system.  The OS is now a very capable desktop replacement on the iPad and even more feature-rich on the phone.  Other changes are much more subtle refinements.  Release date is “fall.”

3. iCloud- The long-awaited Apple cloud services offering.

iCloud replaces the earlier MobileMe service with free Contact, Cal, Docs, Photos, and Music sync for free.  The service becomes a wireless digital hub, replacing the requirement for USB to PC functionality with a broadband network connection.

In addition, three of the Apple online stores (Music, Books & Apps) get re-download capability. Furthermore, an option has been introduced to automatically download purchased content on all associated devices “from the Cloud.”  This feature is immediately available in beta release form.  There was no mention of TV or movies.

Most interesting was the announcement of iTunes Match.  This service matches all songs in a user’s iTunes library, including those ripped directly from CD and obtained from file sharing sites, and offers them in the Cloud with high-resolution audio.  At $24.99/year, this is the only paid component of iCloud (other than upgraded storage). Release date is “fall.”

iCloud does not include traditional music streaming or even “iTunes in the browser.”  Instead, it’s positioned more like iTunes-as-a-service.  The vision Apple articulated was that the Cloud exists to make native apps better, not to replace them as Google and Microsoft are pursuing by running software in the web browser.  To drive this point home, Apple’s did not even show web interfaces to the iCloud services (although I do expect to see them at some point).

If iCloud’s services do deliver as advertised, expect this robust service layer will likely grow into an expectation of functionality across both the mobile environment and the entire computing space. 

A few closing stats:

- Apple has sold 200 million iOS devices

- Apple claims 44 percent of the mobile operating system market. Android is #2 with 28%, RIM is #3 with 19% and Others at 9%

- 15 billion songs have been sold through the iTunes Music Store.

- 14 billion apps have been sold on the App Store

- 130 million eBooks have been purchased from the iBooks Store