Looking for an old track?
Universal has opened up a rare music store. For those tracks that won’t sell enough for them to make new CD’s out of you can now download 320Kbps MP3’s.
The tracks are DRM free so they should play on just about any device.
So if you’re looking for that Old Johnny Ace Recording, and you still have some respect for copyrights and you don’t hate the RIAA, you’ll want to check out LostTunes.com.
[via electronista and Distorted-Loop]
I’ve been annoyed for some time with the slow connection times and the issues my Comcast service has offered me. I knew I had to change from Comcasts DNS servers but I’d long since forgotten where a good source was.
I came across a LifeHacker post talking about a recent DNS vulnerability. The post was about OpenDNS as an alternative safe DNS offering.
I went in and set it up right away. I had some trouble figuring out where on my D-Link DIR-615 had its DNS settings, but after I located them (thank you Google and DSL Reports) I was up and running right away.
OpenDNS makes its money I understand through the error pages, so that when you attempt to go somewhere that doesn’t exist you are sent to a customized Google Adwords page.
More information on how to setup your OpenDNS account is posted here by webmonkey (not to be confused with bytemonkey).
I immediately noticed a significant improvement in my connection speed. If you’re having trouble connecting to things online, if the lag between click and finding the page seems to take longer than you suspect it should, give OpenDNS a try.
.Mac worked just fine with Firefox on Linux – thanks for the “upgrade” Apple. Please note that my $99 renewal fee is no longer compatible with corporations located in Cupertino.
(And yes, I tried clicking “Don’t show again” and “Continue”)
A test post from the latest WordPress iPhone app.
I’m sitting here on my iPhone tapping out a post on Autmattics first iPhone application for WordPress. Essentially what you get is a good space to ppst, review and modify past posts, and add and select categories and tags for new posts.
This is great for getting started with a post or just typing out your thoughts quickly.
I think this is a great start to an app that can only serve to improve a blogger’s access.
The biggest downsides are things Automatic can do nothing about. Perhaps the most glaring omission from the latest iPhone launch was the missing copy and paste framework this is noted in a recent MacWorld article, but I can’t link to it because there’s no way to copy the URL and I can’t link to it. I could write it down but that’s why I have an iPhone right?
The other omision whos necessity could be debated is the lack of spellcheck. There is a limited one in the keyboard autoprotector, but I miss the checking that OSX provides.
Lastly, it’s be nice if I didn’t have to manually enter HTML. I’ve long since forgotten most of my HTML.
One of the coolest features is the ability to save drafts locally. So, when I’m not in range or on my iPod touch I’ll still be able to create a post.
The preview tool does a good job of giving you an idea of how the post is going to look.
The photo uploaded is almost easier to use that the web version of the WordPress client. I can’t place the photo where I want to but it’s easy to grab a photo from the iPhone library.
This is an awesome, well done application. Congratulations and thank you Automattic.
The following guide will explain how to update your iPhone to firmware 2.0.
The iPhone-Dev Team has released the update for Pwnage tool 2.0 for OSX. It jailbreaks first generation iPhones updated to 2.0 software. This means you can still install applications that aren’t a part of Apple’s App Store. You’ll have to be at iPhone Os version 1.1.4 or lower and Boot Neuter(installed of pwnage tool) before upgrading to 2.0.The phone will still be locked It can be downloaded here and here.
OnStartups.com today has an excellent post on the why many of us hate Microsoft and love/hate Apple.
Dharmesh brings up some great points.
Apple cares too much about customers, and the customer experience — and not much about the community. Apple has become a benevolent dictator. They’ll invest lots of time, energy and money making their products great and their customers “happy”. But, at their core, they want it to be them that delivers that happiness — not someone else.
What this points to however is the company’s push of its Xcode and iPhone developer toolkit and the “core” tools. These provide developers with a much easier ways to develop than they’ve had in the past. See Peter Bright’s series on moving from Win32 development to Cocoa. But what these tools do is enforce a uniform experience while protecting the ground that “The Benevolent Dictator” is trying to hold onto.
The most current case is with the iPhone. When initially released Steve Job’s pointed out that anyone could be an iPhone App, so long as it was a web app (and no Flash or Java). This didn’t sit well with the user/developer community and Apple changed it’s tune launching a large program around application development on the iPhone. There are still significant limitations Apple is imposing.
I am often extremely frustrated with the choices Apple makes with trying to control my experience. While at the same time I am somewhat grateful for the consistencies. I would argue however that by trying to control this experience, and slowly letting go, benefits their products and those of us that use them.
Slowly opening up the platform is allowing Apple to pace the consumers introduction and allowing for greater success of the product. It reduces the overall number of poor experiences. Those that decide to opt out of the Apple sanctioned iPhone ecosystem are moving forward at their own risk, and expect problems. Whereas if, say the iPhone was immediately open to development we’d potentially see a litany of poor user experiences.
The introduction saw the iPhone as Apple intended. Going forward we know it works, and we know how it works. The burden of developer mistakes is more likely to be put on developers themselves, and less likely Apple.
