Apple Mac and iPhone news for New Zealanders

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mac.nz is owned by Mark Webster, an experienced writer and IT commentator with articles published over the years in Monitor, Stamp, Loose, Macguide, Tone, Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll, D-photo, NZ Classic Car, The Dominion Post, NetGuide, NZ Herald online and for PC World. He is also a director of the CreativeTech conference.

He was the editor of NZ Macguide magazine for five years and has worked exclusively with Macs for 20.

Mark is the author of the NZ history book Assembly: NZ Car Production 1921-1998 (Reed Books, 2002).

He is a speaker on Information Technology and automotive, historical and Apple subjects, and works as a Mac trainer with wide experience. Mark has dispensed Apple knowledge at Natcoll, to MAINZ, for ImageText, to 3Media, MacMillan Publishing and for Microsoft, and to dozens of individuals.

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The New Zealand Herald Mac Planet blog by Mark Webster

Sun, tips, Flash

Friday, 26 February 2010

NASA puts the sun on iPhone: A team of programmers at NASA has developed an application for studying the sun in a three-dimensional view. 
The 3D Sun application allows users to see a live view of the sun using images downloaded from NASA’s Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) satellites. Users can rotate the view of the star and zoom in on active regions using the touch screen. It won't warm your pocket – 3D Sun (pic) is available on the App Store as a free download. (Why is it green, though?)

Adobe rebuffs Flash battery hog charges: Following a video preview of Flash running on a Nexus One, Adobe has rebuffed claims that the software slashes battery life. Several bloggers, including Daring Fireball's John Gruber, observed that the battery charge indicator dropped from the 50 per cent level down to 25 per cent during the eight minute video. The preview was edited, however, making it unclear how long the team actually used the phone during filming.
iPodNN has more. 

Adobe launches Connect Pro: The new title for the iPhone and iPod touch serves as an extension of Connect Pro, the company's enterprise-level web conferencing platform. Users can correspondingly participate in company meetings using chat, a regular conference call or VoIP technology.
iPodNN has more, but Connect Pro Mobile is a free download from the App Store, but is dependent on an organization paying for a Connect Pro subscription. Monthly, annual, pay-per-minute and several specialized arrangements are available. Adobe notes that Mobile is also its first in-house app built with Packager for iPhone. The tool has yet to become commercially available, but is already in the hands of third-party outfits such as Wired.

Explicit comes, Explicit goes: The new Explicit option available for App Store developers has already been pulled, just hours after Apple added the new category. The company briefly posted the new option in iTunes Connect, the software used to submit and manage apps for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Future iPhone finger-swipes: Finger swipes over the iPhone's camera could at some point allow in-call control of functions such as fast forwarding or rewinding a voicemail, according to a new patent application from Apple.
In addition to a camera detecting the direction of a finger swipe, the phone's accelerometer could also be used to interpret a user tapping the iPhone, allowing control of the handset while on a call without taking the phone away from one's ear.

iPod touch users use more: A new survey of mobile device consumers has discovered that iPhone and iPod touch owners are mostly male, though iPhone users are older and have less time to use downloaded applications than those who have an iPod touch.

Five Tip Friday on iPhone: up soon – the days' tips cover the iPhone. To get the month's worth of tips collated into one easy to read document, just sign up for the free MagBytes newsletter.