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Hacker Runs Microsoft’s Kinect on OS X

A few days after Microsoft released Kinect (and years later Apple’s interest in the device), a motion-based game controller for the Xbox 360 console, a group of hackers managed to modify the device’s settings, hack it and let it run on Windows 7.

Microsoft of course isn’t interested in this kind of hacks and will never support such efforts – also because there’s not really much you can do with Kinect on computers. It “runs” and  displays the images it captures from the camera, but you can’t do much after all. Read more

New Gorillaz Album Recorded On An iPad

Damon Albarn, Blur’s singer and frontman of Gorillaz, announced the follow-up to Plastic Beach (3rd studio album of Gorillaz) has been recorded entirely on an iPad. He’s aiming at a holiday season release. In an interview with UK music magazine NME, he said:

I’ve made it on an iPad – I hope I’ll be making the first record on an iPad. I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I’ve made a completely different kind of record.

I wonder how many music apps were necessary to get the album recording done on the tablet. Perhaps they needed to deploy their own app? We look forward to whatever Mr. Albarn has in store.

Apple and Oracle Announce OpenJDK for OS X, Java Developers Rejoice

When developers noticed Apple was deprecating Java on OS X, there was quite a mess on the internet. Today, Apple announced that is joining Oracle to bring the OpenJDK project on the Mac in order to maintain Java.

Apple will contribute most of the key components, “including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries and a networking stack”.

With OpenJDK, Apple’s Java technology will be available open source for developers to contribute to. Press release embedded below. Read more

IA Writer Now iOS 4.2-ready

I’ve been waiting for this update: when IA Writer first came out, I couldn’t use it. I was already running iOS 4.2 beta on my iPad, and the app had a few bugs with the new operating system. The focus mode wasn’t working (and that feature is possibly the most important one in the app), custom keys didn’t match.

With the latest 1.0.2 that showed up a few minutes ago in iTunes, the app is finally ready for the elusive OS. Subfolders and auto-sync aren’t included yet, but they’re coming soon.

Finally, I can use IA Writer. Go get it, as it seems totally worth it.

iOS 4.2 “Delayed” Due to iPad WiFi Issues, New GM Build Coming [Updated]

Two days ago we reported Mac OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 were set to come out on Wednesday, with iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to follow on Friday Nov. 12th – tomorrow. Mac OS X 10.6.5 indeed came out, without AirPrint functionality for shared printers as previously reported as well. iTunes 10.1 didn’t come out.

Basing on the information we got from a reliable source, it appears that iOS 4.2 won’t come out on Nov. 12th due to last-minute WiFi connection issues experienced by many users running the GM build on the iPad. The issues have been widely documented on MacRumors forums (here and here), Twitter and Apple’s own discussion boards, both by users and developers. You can check out a video of the bug in action below. Read more

Noteshelf 2.1: Dropbox Integration, Finer Ink, New Notebooks

From my Noteshelf review, about a month ago:

What totally convinced me to pick Noteshelf as my go-to app for handwritten notes, though, is wrist protection. When people write, they usually rest their wrist on paper – that’s natural and necessary to have a correct writing position. Well gentlemen, unlike all the other apps available for iPad, Noteshelf has an option to not detect your wrist as an active touch on the screen. Welcome to natural and human writing on a tablet.

As for features I’d like to see besides the upcoming Evernote and Dropbox integration and a template creator, it’d be nice to be able to pinch and zoom on pages, especially in landscape mode. I also don’t like the fact that you can’t select multiple pages when exporting them (email and iTunes are supported).

Noteshelf was already a great iPad app, now it’s even better. With the latest 2.1 update available in iTunes now, the developers added the possibility to export notes as images pr .PDF documents to Evernote and Dropbox, a feature many users have been asking since the first version of the app. Uploading to these services is simple and accessible through a popover menu in the top toolbar. You can also select and export multiple pages via email, or just email a whole notebook. Speaking of which, there are new notebook themes such as music notes and baseball scores. Read more

You Can Buy An Original Apple-1 For $200K

The Apple-1 is the computer that started it all. Sold by Steve Jobs and the Woz in Jobs’ garage, it was the first pre-assembled computer to come with 8k or RAM, but without a keyboard or monitor. Back then, the two folks that started Apple Computer used to sell it at $666.66, and a very few ones have survived today.

Now, you can buy one if you want. Only at $200K. Read more

Found Footage: Wiimote and Apple TV

Once I get my hands on an Apple TV you can stay assured this is exactly one of the things I’m going to test. As TUAW reports, developer and hacker Tom Cool has recompiled an old Wiimote-to-iPhone bluetooth implementation to work with the latest gen Apple TV.

The mod is based on a custom stack (from the popular BTstack) that makes sure the Apple TV activates its Bluetooth functionality. After that, a 3D render of a Wiimote is shown on screen and follows the movements of the actual Wiimote in your hands.

It’s a rough demo to show that Wiimote’s control can be passed along to the Apple TV, so if you think about Wiimote-powered gaming shouldn’t be too impossible to achieve, right?

“Ram, this is Steve”→

“Ram, this is Steve”

A developer submitted an app containing private APIs to work around a bug in Apple’s own SDK. The review team didn’t accept the app, so Ram emailed Steve Jobs. A few hours later, Jobs called him:

Steve Jobs has a well-deserved reputation for creating great quality products and for his passion for excellence and user experience. I’ve also read that he is a detail-oriented executive and a hands-on guy who is intimately involved with his company’s work (in a way that few other CEOs are).
His phone-call reinforced those notions and went further to suggest that he was also a very conscientious guy who cared about people. The fact that he took the time to read my email, think about the app and then personally call me was amazing.

The app is now available in the App Store, but no private APIs are being used. Great story.

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