Other sites have rumors. We have the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is the iPhone 5 and its carriers.

As Autumn rolls around and the iPhone 5 gets ready to launch, what carriers do you expect to see joining Verizon and AT&T with official Apple support? By "official", we're not talking about putting a T-Mobile SIM into an unlocked Apple GSM iPhone. We're talking about announcement and roll-out in integration with the company.

Place your vote and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You're the Pundit: iPhone 5 US Carriers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of the shiniest gems on the Android Marketplace has made its way over to the iOS App Store. The Dolphin browser was an early alternative to the official browser on Android phones, and actually ran faster and smoother than the real thing for a while. Now, the Dolphin browser has come to the iPhone, and is available as a free download from the App Store.

It's more than just a Safari alternative in this case -- there are gestures that you can play around with, full tabbed browsing capabilities, multiple ways to store sites and bookmarks, and you can easily flip between the standard desktop web view and the special mobile view on various websites. Unfortunately, the app is currently made for iPhone, but it works with iPad, if you can deal with the upscaling.

It's a solid app, and especially if the usual Safari browsing leaves you wanting a little more, you should give it a look. Most of the time, we end up hearing about quality iOS apps heading on over to the Android side of the fence, but in this case, we're glad to have one of Android's favorite apps over here as well.

Popular Android browser Dolphin Browser now on iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iTunes Match, Apple's answer to the "online music locker" service, has just entered beta according to an email sent out to members of the Developer Program. iTunes Match will store users' music libraries in iCloud, allowing anywhere/anytime access to the entire library from any device.

iTunes Match is now available to US-based developers, and subscribers will receive iTunes Match service both during the beta period and an additional three months beyond the beta period for free.

Concurrent with the iTunes Match beta is a new beta version of iTunes 10.5, beta 6.1. Developers must download this newest beta of iTunes in order to enable iTunes Match. Apple encourages developers to continue maintaining backups of their iTunes libraries, as iCloud libraries may be reset periodically during the beta.

iTunes Match will cost US$24.99 per year when it launches. Its public release is expected to concur with that of iOS 5, iTunes 10.5, iCloud, and possibly OS X Lion 10.7.2, all of which may debut in either September or October.

iTunes Match beta now open to developers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Star Legends is the release title of Blackstar, an MMO whose origin I've recounted on the site here before. Spacetime Studios was a company formed from the ashes of an unreleased PC MMO that went on to make Pocket Legends, a full mobile MMO that started on iOS and then moved on to Android. Earlier this year, we heard that the company planned to use the built-up Blackstar concepts and work to create a sci-fi themed MMO for iOS, and Star Legends, released last week and now available for free on the App Store, is the product of that work.

Like Pocket Legends, the game is a full World of Warcraft-style MMO, with persistent characters, environments, and lots of instances and dungeons to fight through. Of course, it's all sci-fi based instead of fantasy, but Spacetime built up a really in-depth library for its planned title, and Star Legends presumably has made full use of it (with lots more content to come, no doubt). If you've never played a game like this, it can be a little confusing, but if you've ever jumped in to an MMO before, you'll be amazed to see what Spacetime has done with the genre on a mobile platform.

The game is microtransaction-based, but there's plenty to do for free right away. If you're a fan of Pocket Legends, or just want to see what kind of magic Spacetime has been working, definitely check it out.

Daily iPhone App: Star Legends originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're in the path of Hurricane Irene and you haven't gone through the App Store already looking for the best sources of info on the storm, there are others who have done it for you. Information Week, Appolicious, and MSNBC's Technolog have all made lists of apps for various flavors of smartphones.

Virtually all the lists of apps include the free Weather Channel App for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and Blackberry*. The application description doesn't clearly state if the free app (there's a paid version) has push notification for weather alerts, but the $3.99 Weather Channel Max app does include them.

Aside from TWC's contributions, there's also the paid Hurricane for iPhone or Hurricane HD for iPad which shows up in multiple lists of suggested apps. You may want to try searching for an app for a TV station in your area; a lot of them have notifications for breaking news or weather alerts which you can set up.

CNN has a few apps listed alongside Twitter feeds to watch and things like a multipurpose radio which includes weather band information, a flashlight, a USB port for charging, and a hand crank to make the whole thing go.

Google has set up a crisis response map with a wide variety of layers including power outages, shelters, forecasts and loads more.

Here are some basic tips for maximizing battery life on your smartphone/tablet/laptop/e-reader in case of power outages: Turn the screen brightness down as low as you can, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and if you can run multiple apps at once, quit anything extraneous. That way you'll get the most out of your battery before you have to hook it to that Axis radio and work the hand crank till your arm gives out.

If you do need this list of apps because you're in Irene's path, all of us at TUAW (who aren't battening down our own hatches) are thinking of you and wishing you well.

*Irene doesn't care what smartphone you use.

Best apps for tracking Hurricane Irene originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For $8.99, Touch Studio's Finch app for OS X promises to to quietly track your computer usage as you work. With it, you should be able to monitor which apps and sites you spend the most time in, and adjust your workday accordingly.

Finch runs in your menu bar, keeping track of your usage by monitoring window title bars. It offers instant reports showing the duration of window use per app.

The problem is that Finch doesn't do this very well.

Monitoring While The User is Absent

If you leave a window open when you're rushing out to dinner, Finch records the entire time it's there. There doesn't seem to be any activity trigger beyond the fact that the window is on-screen. In my tests, that caused a lot of false-data which showed I spent more time at certain sites than I actually did. There really needs to be some kind of time-out on these.

Incorrect Multiple Results

What's more, Finch sometimes had problems keeping track of staying on the same page. While writing up this post, it reported dozens of visits, all to the same page, the one I'm typing into right now. Nothing changed as far as I can tell in my title bar, even when I hit the "Save" button at regular intervals.

No Application-by-Application Results

Finch doesn't group its results by application because it only looks at titles, I couldn't build up usage stats for "How long was I in Email? How long in Firefox? In Safari? In Echofon?" You'd imagine that would be a big part of analyzing usage patterns, but it's not part of the app.

No Sessions

Nor can you create regular sessions to automatically monitor your workday. I'm only interested in usage between 7:30 AM and 3:30 PM. Finch provides no support for this kind of regular monitoring and no way to do session-by-session trend analysis.

Stalking

Finally, there's one more thing. And it's totally not Finch's fault. The app is creepy. It's like an electronic stalker looking over your shoulder. Every window you visit. Every website, no matter how stupid or crazy or embarrassing is listed in the results. There's no way to filter with Finch to only look at the usage patterns that are relevant to you. If you click a RickRoll link in your business e-mail, that site is going to be added to your Finch history.

Summary

All in all, I like the idea behind Finch better than the implementation. I hope Touch Studio continues developing the product but does so in a way that better lends itself to business use and "Getting Things Done" (GTD) analysis. As is, I cannot recommend it.

Finch usage tracker for OS X disappoints originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hearing the news that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO took me back to the mid-nineties, when I was managing a large software project in London. Our company was a pretty big Apple customer, and it was decided that the newly installed CEO Gil Amelio would drop by, shake some hands and discuss Apple's future at our conference table.

Amelio is a smart and impressive man, and he's known for leading the team that developed the first commercial CCD sensors while working for Fairchild Semiconductor. He later became CEO of another chip manufacturer, National Semiconductor, where he was instrumental in restructuring the company and helping it to regain profitability. Amelio was there to give us confidence after Apple had been pretty bruised under John Sculley and Michael Spindler.

It wasn't an encouraging visit.

I remember Amelio going on and on about the past problems at Apple, and how he was going to fix them. Click here for an Apple video of 'the speech.' He had a long list of fixes, but what was lacking was a coherent, compelling vision. He was going to do 'something' about the clones, finally replace System 7, and settle down all the politics and warfare between Apple divisions.

I had some specific questions, but he dodged them. It wasn't convincing, and I wondered if Apple was going to pull itself out of what seemed a certain death spiral. After killing Copland and failing to make a deal for the BeOS, Amelio invested in NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. At the end, Amelio got Apple back to making a small profit, after years of losing millions. It was a tiny victory, but certainly not a turn-around.

Amelio was finally ousted from Apple in July 1997 via a boardroom coup engineered by Jobs. The rest is history.

I never met Steve Jobs. But every day he has touched my life. When I check my mail, prepare a presentation, edit a photo, or answer my iPhone, it all happens because Steve had an idea of how I wanted to work. I don't know of any single company or products that have had an equal impact.

Gil Amelio had lots of plans, but plans are not a vision. Jobs laughs at market research, avoids focus groups, and trusts his gut when designing what customers want. That is, what they will want. Other companies try and copy Apple features and designs but usually come up short, because, like Amelio, they had lists instead of a dream.

Jobs is now on the next part of his journey through life, a journey we will all take, sooner or later. It's hard to define exactly the magic that Steve brings to Apple, but it is unique and it is successful. Smart as he was, Gil Amelio could not summon the magic, or as it turned out, much lasting enthusiasm.

Thank you to Gil Amelio for bringing Steve Jobs back. Thanks to Steve for bringing Apple back.

Steve Jobs and the quality of leadership originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As reported earlier, Steve Jobs' resignation from Apple's CEO slot -- following an incredible trajectory of success after success -- has been anticipated for some time, and it is a reminder of human fragility. As Twitter fills up with shock, sadness, and wistful appreciation at the culmination of Jobs' Apple leadership, a good number of people are beginning to realize that today could mark the end of the "SteveNote" as well.

Is it time to say goodbye to that special brand of showmanship? SteveNotes were always an exercise in excitement and a demonstration of product passion. Even as Jobs' health declined over the past few years, it was a great treat when we were able to watch him demo the newest hardware, the latest software, and hints at the future of the platform.

My first SteveNote wasn't actually an Apple one. It was way back in NeXT history, the company whose operating system eventually gave rise to OS X. It was, like all SteveNotes, a combination of bravura technical showmanship and personal commitment to the brand.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to blog my way through many of his speeches, and I really appreciate the perfection of his presentations. Much as we appreciate the competence of Tim Cook and company, if Jobs truly has finished fronting both Apple and its product intros, we have lost a certain magic.

Unless Jobs continues keynoting post resignation (the Wall Street Journal writes that he will continue to maintain an active role in product strategic planning), there won't be "one more thing" anymore.

Thanks for all the memories, Mr. Jobs. And best wishes for the future.

Is this the end of the Keynote as we knew it? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I miss my old style screenshots.

I use screenshots a LOT for presentations and training purposes -- specifically the window-only snapshot (cmd-ctrl-shift-4 followed by the spacebar).

This feature is still in Lion; however, it now includes a pretty big drop shadow with the screenshot. Is there a way I can turn this drop shadow off to trim the window down to just the important parts -- the window and its contents?

Your loving nephew,

Patrick

Dear Patrick,

There's a simple command-line approach to controlling whether Lion adds those shadows or not (Snow Leopard, too, as this dates back quite a while). Just issue the following to disable the shadows. Use false instead of true to enable them.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

There are other cool screencapture preferences you can use as well. For example, you can set the capture format to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG using the following. Google around to discover more.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpeg

After setting the defaults, you must restart the SystemUI server:

killall SystemUIServer

And there you have it. If you're not a command-line kind of guy, you can also use the latest build of GrabUpper to set the shadow and capture format defaults with a simple menu selection.

Hope this helps! Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me ditch the screenshot shadow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple Remote Desktop allows IT professionals to manage multiple Macs on a network. Last month Apple released Apple Remote Desktop Client 3.5.1 to bring Lion compatibility. Today Apple has updated its Apple Remote Desktop Admin software to version 3.5.1.

The delta update fixes an issue that could prevent reporting tasks from completing. You can read Apple's knowledge base article about the update here.

Apple Remote Desktop is available from the Mac App Store for US$79.99.

Apple Remote Desktop Admin updated to 3.5.1 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.