Workable proposal for iPhone Copy & Paste!

At last! Someone has the ingenuity to develop a workable solution for
the perennial problem on the iPhone: How the heck do we do Copy &
Paste?!?!
Apple has been really dragging its feet with this, saying its not a
priority right now while releasing firmware updates that include silly
things like "lets move the google searchbox so its next to the Safari
URL line!"
The guys at Proximi have made a very cool app called MagicPad
(currently free!) that has a very nice interface for C&P. It took me
some getting used to, but it works just fine. Of course, as the app
is sandboxed in its own environment, the clipboarded items are limited
to MagicPad only. However, they've thought it through and made this
video proposal for system-wide C&P, as well as other text editing
functions. Its a total of about 15mins, but its very clever and to
the point. Highly recommend you download MagicPad to try it out and
leave a review on the App Store - Let Apple know how highly you regard
this app and hopefully they'll take notice and consider their proposal!

http://magicpad.proximi.com/video.php

Migrate using Time Machine

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/29/6-easy-steps-to-migrate-your-mac-using-time-machine/

Does what it says on the tin

Alternatively, use the Firewire cable if possible.

Last Macworld for Apple: Jan 2009

Lots of noise has been made about Apple's decision to withdraw from Macworld after Jan 2009.
I personally think that there are several reasons behind this, the biggest being that Apple would rather announce products on its own schedule and venues rather than be forced to wait until January every year to build up the hype. It has already done this several times on its own Special Events, with invites to the press sent out literally days beforehand. The speed of this tactic means that Apple can still keep every detail under wraps until it is really ready, rather than make pre-announcements for products that will not ship until several months later, which disappoints everyone. Worst still, they had to pump up the hype by announcing products such as MobileMe and iPhone 2.0 which caused such a shock to everyone who expected better from Apple. I think they've learnt their lesson and are refraining from over-hyping their products now.
It would also save Apple a ton of money on the venue and logistics of setting up a large booth there.
As a fan, I'm a little hurt by this news, and that I'll never be able to attend one now, but there are two facts here to deal with: 1) It's really too far for me to make a quick trip to San Francisco just to attend and then return, not to mention the cost. 2) Macworld seems to have lost its momentum and buzz after the big iPhone announcement in 2007. It's a shame to lose the big event that everyone gets so excited about, and looking forward to seeing new products, but if there's nothing to announce, then it all ends up rather anti-climatic, and probably even worse than not having one.

DFU mode "disabled" by OSX 10.5.6 update

Some tips from the iPhone Dev Team on how to overcome this issue:

DFU Issues in OS X 10.5.6

Lots of users have been experiencing problems with the use of DFU mode after applying yesterday’s 10.5.6 system update.

We believe this behavior is due to a kernel bug not a specific countermeasure by Apple. Possible fixes are (try at your own risk!) -

1. Replace the following plugin kexts from within IOUSBFamily.kext with the ones from 10.5.5 and then rebuild kextcache (if you don’t understand this, then you shouldn’t attempt it!)

/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

2. Use a USB hub in-between the DFU device and the Mac and insert/reinsert the iPhone’s USB cable.

3. Use a PwnageTool created .ipsw on Windows! Oh the irony!

Access iDisk via Cyberduck to avoid Finder issues

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081203103957517

How to use CyberDuck to access iDisk for stable and efficient data
backups.

Change TimeMachine backup intervals

Great tip from TUAW

Filed under: Terminal Tips
Sometimes you want your Mac to be backed up more frequently than usual. If you want to instantly back up using Time Machine, you could click on the menu bar item and select "Back Up Now," but what if you want to change the backup interval indefinitely? With this Terminal Tip, you can do just that.

Time Machine is set to automatically back up every hour, but if you would like to change it to every half hour, you can use the following Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) command:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800

You will need to authenticate as an administrator, since this command is run under a "sudo." The time interval is measured in seconds, so you can enter any time you wish there; just make sure it is in seconds. By default, Time Machine backs up every 3600 seconds (every hour). If you wish to revert to the original, just replace "1800" with "3600."

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Terminal Tips section!

Simpsons take on (m)apple

This is just too hilarious to ignore!
The Simpsons taking a satirical look at Apple! :)

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/the-simpsons-mocks-m-apple/