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| Friday June 27, 2008. 06:00 PM |
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Way back in January, we showed off LiveDisc for Macworld San Francisco. We got a number of requests from other developers looking to use it themselves. At the time we just said “maybe”, and then everyone went home from Macworld and proceeded to forget about it.
I, however, went home and spent the next few weeks [...]
Over on the Inside iPhone blog, I’ve got a post on the iPhone App Store, detailing some of the questions and concerns we have for it.
As I’ve previously indicated, I firmly believe the App Store should not be the exclusive means of getting software onto the iPhone. But currently, it is, and as such [...]
Over on the Inside iPhone blog, I’ve got a post discussing iPhone Application pricing. Have a look!
The fine folks over at O’Reilly have created a new blog, entitled Inside iPhone, which has now officially launched. Inside iPhone will relate to all things iPhone, from the hardware itself to the platform for software development. They’ve got several great authors lined up, and I’ll be posting there occasionally as well. You can check [...]
Back in February we announced that we were hunting for a new programmer as we continue to grow, and we’re happy to report that that position is now filled. Without further ado, let me introduce Rogue Amoeba Employee #008, Jeff Johnson.
Jeff joins us after doing contract work on Airfoil, providing the Apple Remote and Keyspan [...]
Red Sweater: Apple should make JavaScript its default scripting language.
This is one of those things I’ve been advocating ever since JavaScript-based Dashboard arrived and received massive uptake. AppleScript was a nice experiment, but was never accepted by the mass market, and with good reason.
Today we’ve got an update for Airfoil for Mac available, with several minor fixes as well as a couple great new features. Most importantly, this update improves our support for the new 802.11n AirPort Express, including full password support and better synchronization.
As well, Airfoil now supports remote control of iTunes or QuickTime Player when they’re [...]
As regular readers of this blog know, from time to time I do interviews with MacVoices and Chuck Joiner. Chuck’s got a new show, MacJury, wherein he and a panel discuss various technical topics. I’ve now had the honor of appearing twice, in episodes #802 and #808, discussing such things as the Mac Mini, Microsoft [...]
This is precisely why we support the EFF. It’s also a perfect example of one of the major problems with DRM.
We’ve previously posted several articles about making ringtones with our software, both for the iPhone and for any phone that can accept them. Using Fission, you can losslessly edit MP3 and AAC audio files, trimming them down as desired for that perfect ringtone. And with MakeiPhoneRingtone, you can quickly get those files onto an iPhone. [...]
A little under a month ago, we posted the first beta of Airfoil Speakers for Linux right here on our weblog. Today, we’re pleased to release an official version, Airfoil Speakers for Linux 1.0.0. You can download Airfoil Speakers for Linux (as well as for Mac and Windows) right here.
Using our Airfoil application, you can [...]
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to chat with Marcelo Lewin (The Digital Media Dude) from the Pixel Heads Network. We discussed Audio Hijack Pro and Fission, our two tools most used for podcasting.
That podcast is now available right here, so download it and check it out!
Our newest application Radioshift hasn’t seen an update in a couple of months, but today we’re happy to unveil version 1.0.5. If you haven’t used Radioshift, it’s our tool for listening to and recording Internet radio. With its built-in guide, you can search over 50,000 radio listings, then listen or subscribe with a single click. [...]
Apple released Security Update 2008-002 yesterday and this led to a problem for some users on Mac OS X 10.5 using our Instant Hijack component. The Instant Hijack component is optionally installed by Airfoil, Audio Hijack Pro, and Nicecast, and enables these applications to grab audio from applications that are already running. Following the Security [...]
As some of you may have noticed, Apple released Security Update 2008-002 yesterday. If you had Instant Hijack installed and applied the security update, you may also have noticed that suddenly ssh and some related programs would crash on startup.
We have posted updates to Audio Hijack Pro, Airfoil, and Nicecast with a fixed version of [...]
As you may have seen, Apple released new AirPort Express units yesterday. We picked up a unit as quickly as possibly to test with Airfoil, and quickly discovered that Airfoil wasn’t quite compatible with it. Mike and David worked quickly to rectify the situation, and we’ve now got updates to Airfoil for Mac and [...]
Today, Apple has unveiled a new AirPort Express unit, on their site. This update appears to be identical to the original AirPort Express in all ways, but it now features the faster 802.11n wireless protocol. That means you can still send music to the device and out through attached speakers with our own Airfoil application, [...]
Early this morning, it was brought to our attention that Airfoil Speakers for Linux and Airfoil Speakers for Windows both contained a small portion of GPL-licensed code. If you’re not aware, the GPL is a license for open source code, and using GPL code in a closed-source project is a violation of that license. So, [...]
Since its release, Airfoil 3 has been garnering praise from all manner of Mac journalists. TidBits mentioned it briefly back when 3.0 was released in January and when 3.1 came out in February. This week, however, Rich Mogull has posted a fabulously in-depth look at his use of Airfoil.
“Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil 3.1 is that [...]
The iPhone SDK announcement has come and gone and reality is beginning to set in. The SDK provides opportunity for lots of great new applications on the iPhone. However, there are also a great many restrictions. As Quentin noted, we worry about the potential for innovation to be stifled, due to these restrictions.
In an [...]
As Mike noted in his post on code signing, Apple has stated that there will be restrictions on what Apple allows on the iPhone. They list the following application types as being excluded:
Illegal
Malicious
Unforeseen
Privacy
Porn
Bandwidth hog
However, this list is incomplete. Section 3.3 of the iPhone SDK aggreement includes a whole litany of restrictions for which your key to the iPhone can be revoked should you violate them. I would list them all here myself, but the license agreement itself forbids that. You can download this file from the iPhone DevCenter, but you’ll need at least a free ADC account to access it. Unfortunately, if these restrictions remain in place, opportunities for developers to be truly innovative on the platform will be stifled from the start.
Perhaps a little history can put this in perspective. Back when the Mac OS was first released in 1984, it had some limitations to it. It could only run a single application at a time, barring some utilities like Calculator and other Desk Accessories. Much like the modern day iPhone, which can only run one application at a time, barring some utilities like Mail and SMS.
This limitation of early Mac OS was solved in the end not by Apple themselves, but by a third party working in their own time. The whole story can be read here but in brief, while not employed by Apple, Andy Hertzfeld took it upon himself to add multi-tasking to Mac OS. In the course of a few weeks, he single-handedly wrote an application that could allow multiple applications to co-exist. That may sound simple in 2008, but in 1985, it was revolutionary and incredibly complex. It involved patching system traps, fiddling with low-memory variables, and playing with other applications’ memory spaces.
When Steve Jobs first saw Switcher, his reply was: “It’s great. Apple is going to bundle it with the Mac. Congratulations.” Andy had writen a innovative application that improved the platform for every single user from there onward. Fast forward to today, if he had an iPhone instead of a Mac, it would have been legally impossible for him to do so. This is no mere hyperbole - the SDK agreement expressly forbids using non-public APIs, attempting to touch other applications, and running in the background, among other things.
I don’t mean to suggest that an application like Switcher should come from a third party on the iPhone, merely that such feats of magic are possible on open platforms. As it stands today, as a developer who much wants to take the iPhone to the next level, I must constantly watch to avoid running afoul of Section 3.3 of the SDK license. I must ask “does this go too far?”, and worry about pushing legal limits instead of mental ones. When Andy implemented Switcher, such thoughts never crossed his mind once, and he was able to create something spectacular as a result. We hope that Apple will see the potential of their great little device, and allow developers to push it to its utmost as well.
At WWDC ‘06 I was looking over the session list and picking out all of the ones they didn’t announce ahead of time when one of them stood up, extended its finger, and poked me right in the eye. “Code Signing”. There wasn’t much of a description, but there didn’t need to be.
The place was [...]
I was asked for many quotes today, because as you might have heard, Apple unveiled details on the iPhone SDK. There’s plenty of good coverage from:
Daring Fireball
TidBits
Macworld
The video itself is also worth a watch, right from Apple’s site. There are many questions left to be answered, but we’re certainly excited about the future. For [...]
Wired: The past few years have seen an uprising of DIY hobbyists, people who’ve realized that making stuff is not only cognitively empowering but also a lot of fun.
Today we’re happy to announce an update to one of our most popular Freebies, SoundSource. Now at version 2, SoundSource features volume controls when used on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) as well as several other minor improvements.
If you’re not using SoundSource, check it out right on our Freebies. With SoundSource, you can [...]
Airfoil, our tool for transmitting audio, to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, and other Macs and PCs, has never been better. We’ve talked about Airfoil 3 a lot lately, with good reason. Airfoil 3 is our most recent major update, full of new features. After just a month, we were ready with Airfoil 3.1, with [...]
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| Thursday February 28, 2008 |
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I’m always delighted to chat with Chuck Joiner of MacVoices, so when he emailed to do a show on Airfoil 3.1, I said sure. This time, I brought along Mike Ash, who’s served as lead programmer on Airfoil 3. Mike was able to provide some more technical details on what we did inside of Airfoil, [...]
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| Tuesday February 26, 2008 |
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The iPhone SDK is due by the end of this month. Or maybe it’s late. Either way, the iPhone SDK is coming soon; by the time you read this it may already be here. I posted about our pending plans for the iPhone already. But while contemplating the iPhone, I realized something simple, but important: [...]
Podcasting has come a long way since it was first mentioned on our blog in 2004. Instead of a separate podcasting app, we’ve worked to improve Audio Hijack Pro, making it the premier tool for recording podcasts. There are now hundreds of podcasts being recorded with help from Audio Hijack Pro and Skype.
Now, Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani have posted a fantastic tutorial on recording Skype from Audio Hijack Pro.
This tutorial goes into great depth, providing step-by-step instructions for checking your net connection, configuring Skype and setting up Audio Hijack Pro. If you’ve been looking to get into podcasting, or just need to record Skype conversations for any reason, check out this tutorial then grab Audio Hijack Pro to get started.
It’s been nearly two years since we hired employees number #005 and #006, Joseph and Guy. Now Rogue Amoeba is looking to grow once again, by adding another Mac programmer. Join us as we build some of the greatest software available on the Mac today. For more information on the job and how to apply, please see our jobs page.
Speaking of hiring, I’m also happy to present our newest team member, seen to the right. That’s Rogue Amoeba Employee #007 and his name is Longwell, Justin Longwell. Justin is our newest support technician, so if you email for support, you’re likely to get a speedy and helpful reply from Justin. Justin’s actually been handling the support load since December of last year, on a contract basis. He finally joined us full time just a few weeks ago, and we’re happy to have him aboard. Welcome to the Rogue Amoeba team!
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| Saturday February 23, 2008 |
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Since the day the iPhone was released, people have been clamoring for it to do more. The iPhone really is a handheld computer, running mobile OS X, so why can’t it do everything a Mac does? After it was broken open, plenty of applications were developed for it in a very short time. While nearly all of these applications were small and often little more than tech demos, it’s obviously fertile new ground for software development.
After their initial dodge on applications for the iPhone, Apple rapidly changed course, promising an SDK by February. An SDK means that third party developers will have a sanctioned way of getting onto the iPhone. We don’t know the specifics, but this is obviously a positive step.
A few intrepid developers have continued to work on hacked iPhones, but for our part, we’ve been content to work on other things while waiting for the official SDK to arrive. Of course, that hasn’t stopped users from asking for (and at times, demanding) software for the iPhone. To be sure, the iPhone will be an exciting new place to develop and we intend to be there. The SDK is set to arrive shortly, and when it does, we’ll begin examining it and seeing what we can add to the iPhone. We’ve got some ideas already:
Airfoil Speakers for iPhone
Airfoil Speakers currently runs on Macs and Windows, turning it in to a virtual AirPort Express. This enables you to send music out from one machine to others on your local network. When running on an iPhone, it would effectively turn it into a walking AirPort Express. This makes for a very nice demo, enhances Airfoil’s value, and would certainly be useful in plenty of situations - I know I want it for myself. Perhaps best of all, it should be one of the easier applications to bring over to the iPhone.
Airfoil for iPhone
Users have oft requested the ability to send audio from the iPhone out to the AirPort Express as well as Apple TV and Airfoil Speakers on Mac and Windows. It actually took me awhile to cross the Getting It Gap with this. If you’re at home, why not just transmit audio with computer to which the iPhone is connected? That machine holds all your music, not just 8 Gigs worth, and you can couple it with an iTunes remote.
Quentin finally explained it in a way that made sense to me - picture the newest iPhone in 24, maybe 48 months. It’s likely to hold all your music and if all your music is in your pocket, why not control everything from there? There are worries here about battery life, as well as how we’ll access the wi-fi and music, but it’s definitely worth investigating.
Those will be the first two applications we’ll be considering and they’ll likely take some time. There are likely to be plenty of additional opportunities, however. What do you want to see Rogue Amoeba develop for the iPhone?
We posted some links from Macworld San Francisco previously, and we’ve got some more today. If you’re wondering what it’s like to work the trade show floor, it’s a lot like this interview with The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Scott McNulty. Only there’s usually no camera, and you repeat your spiel for 8 straight hours.
Adam from the MacCast came by to chat about Airfoil too, available here. I also spoke to Chuck Joiner of MacVoices about Airfoil 3, right in the famed/feared Podquarium.
And finally, if audio or video aren’t your thing, check out this overview of Airfoil 3 by Glenn Fleishman.
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| Thursday February 21, 2008 |
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I’m a real sucker for cute and slick little tricks, those small things that seem pretty cool when you see them and leave you thinking, “How’d they do that?”. For instance, if you’ve used an iPhone, you’ve no doubt seen that it bounces when it hits the bottom of a list. It doesn’t have to do this, but it’s certainly a cool effect. It’s also more natural, which is always a positive thing. This week, I was happy to be able to help add a similarly-cool trick to the newest version of Airfoil.
Perhaps the most interesting new feature of the the “Apple TV Take 2″ update, as far as Rogue Amoeba is concerned, is its ability to receive streamed audio via iTunes. Because the Apple TV is an AirTunes client, you can now use Airfoil to send any audio to it. It’s in sending to the Apple TV that I was able to inject a bit more spice into Airfoil.
What we did
When you use iTunes to send audio to the Apple TV over AirTunes, iTunes sends metadata as well, causing the Apple TV to display the track name, the artist, the album, and album artwork. Once we had Airfoil properly talking to the Apple TV, we turned to working out what exactly we’d send for metadata.
In Leopard, Apple has shipped beautiful icons that represent all the recent models of Mac capable of running Mac OS X 10.5. From Mac Pros and Minis to the new MacBook Air, there’s an icon for each sitting on your system. You can see a slightly scaled-down version of their iMac icon to the right. We actually make use of these icons Airfoil already - when an Airfoil Speakers client shows up in Airfoil’s list, we show the associated artwork to help identify the client machine. However, these images are tiny, just 16×16, so you might not even notice that they’re customized for your machine. With Apple TV, however, we thought it’d be a nice touch to display a full-sized 512×512 image of the Mac that’s sending the audio.
Mike set this up easily enough and it certainly looked nice. On Tiger, however, we could only use a generic icon of an Apple Display. That set Paul to thinking about showing something on that display to help identify the machine. He hit on the idea of showing the desktop of the machine, superimposed on the icon. To quote him, “It’d only be mildly useful, but it would be sexy, and it might be easy?”.
I agreed that this was a sexy idea, but would it be easy? There was only one way to find out. Ultimately, it took some fancy footwork and a little bit of craziness on my part, but I was able to make this happen in just a few hours. Along the way, this actually morphed into a Leopard-only feature. So when you’re streaming to an Apple TV via Airfoil running on Leopard, we send along the image of your Mac and overlay your desktop on it. Put simply, it’s damn cool to see. You can see a sample below, - we’re generating this image live, as we’re sending iTunes audio to the Apple TV via Airfoil running on a MacBook Air1. It’s really best experienced in person though, so if you’ve got a Leopard mac and an Apple TV, stop reading and grab Airfoil right now to check it out.
“How’d they do that?”
So, how did we make this happen? To start, we ask the system for the image of the Mac model we’re running on (using [NSImage imageNamed: NSImageNameComputer]). That gives us one of those giant 512×512 pixel images representing the local machine. Then we need to figure out where on that image the “screen area” is - the blue desktop that we can overwrite. We debated hard-coding that information for all the models that were there, but that’s not terribly elegant, as it would fail any time Apple brings out a new Mac or if they changed the included images even slightly.
Instead, I decided we could do this with some image processing magic, finding the part of the image that shows the blue Mac OS X default desktop image. By finding colors between certain hue, brightness and saturation ranges, it’s possible to work out which part of the image represents the Mac’s screen. If a screen isn’t found, as in the cases of a G5 tower or Mac mini, then an image of a nice Apple Cinema Display is substituted in. The Windows Blue Screen Of Death beige monitor seen to the left was also under consideration, but the Cinema Display is just a tiny bit nicer.
At this point, we’ve got an image of a Mac or an Apple display and we know where the “desktop” area is on that image. That means it’s time to get the new desktop image to be superimposed over this. Originally we thought of doing a simple screen shot, but this raised security concerns. Mike envisioned, quote, “some upset user coming to us because he forgot to close his porno browser before he started playing music on his 52″ plasma screen”. A simple “Sorry Mom!” probably doesn’t fix the trauma there.
With a bit more discussion, we settled on the “Apple Product Shot” style - just the Desktop, Dock and Menubar. This provides a nice, clean look but it’s still obviously recognizable as your machine. Using the great new CGWindow API in Leopard, I was able to get just that without much difficulty. We also decided to add in the source application from which Airfoil is pulling audio. Here are a couple more examples, with Pandora from a Mac mini (so we substituted the generic Apple display) and Front Row from a MacBook Pro.
So that’s “how we did that”, and the final results are really pretty exciting. When you use Airfoil to send audio to your AppleTV, you’ll be treated to a great-looking rendition of your Mac, replete with its desktop and source application visible. It’s like magic! Don’t take my word for it though - you can get Airfoil 3.1 and see for yourself!
1. Why would we send iTunes via Airfoil? For use with Airfoil Speakers, of course. iTunes doesn’t acknowledge Airfoil Speakers as it can’t authenticate with it. Instead, we get Airfoil to pull audio from iTunes. Then we can send audio to the Apple TV, along with Airfoil Speakers on Mac or PC and of course, AirPort Express units. ↩
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| Wednesday February 20, 2008 |
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Just over a month ago, we released Airfoil 3, a major upgrade. Airfoil is our tool for sending any audio to the AirPort Express, allowing you to send any audio to your AirPort Express units as well as other Macs running our complimentary Airfoil Speakers application. With the release of Airfoil 3.1, we’re now providing full support for sending any audio to the Apple TV and Airfoil Speakers for Windows!
Airfoil is the first and only third party application to send audio to the Apple TV. Using Airfoil, you can send anything to the Apple TV, not just iTunes. Send audio from media players like QuickTime Player or RealPlayer, or web-based sources like Pandora, Last.fm, XM and Sirius.
Further, with the complimentary Airfoil Speakers for Windows, you can send audio to Macs and Windows PCs running on your network too. AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, Macs, and PCs - Airfoil lets you send your audio, everywhere!
We’ve also updated Airfoil for Windows to version 2.5. Airfoil for Windows is the Windows cousin of Airfoil for Mac, and shares the same basic functionality. Airfoil for Windows can also send audio to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs and other PCs and Macs.
Airfoil for Mac 3.1 is a free update for all owners of Airfoil 3 and Airfoil for Windows 2.5 is a free update for all owners of Airfoil for Windows. New users can purchase Airfoil for Mac or Airfoil for Windows for just $25 each. If you need to run Airfoil on both Macs and Windows, you can even bundle them up for just $40 total!
Visit the Airfoil for Mac or Airfoil for Windows sites to get started sending audio to your AirPort Express units, Apple TV, and other machines. Grab the free trials and start streaming, right now!
Earlier today, two things happened. First, I wrote about our support of the EFF, noting that none of our products were created to facilitate theft. We’ll get back to that in a minute, but it was a timely post. Second, CBS-owned music site Last.fm opened up streaming from their site. Where previously they’d provided 30-second previews of songs (a la iTunes), they’re now providing on-demand access to full-length tracks and albums.
This is a very cool thing, as it makes music more accessible. Various individual artists in the past have streamed their new album or a single right from their site, with the idea that you’d take a listen or two and hopefully buy the album. Last.fm is looking to shake that model up and monetize the streaming itself via ads as well as sales of both individual songs and subscriptions. In fact, each play results in a royalty payment to the artist, which is great.
The basic assumption being made here is that streaming is fleeting, non-permanent. Simply put, that assumption is wrong. Tools like our own Audio Hijack Pro, as well as many others, enable you to record any audio. This ability has “substantial non-infringing uses”, commonly known as the Betamax Doctrine1. As part of this, it’s possible to make a permanent copy of streamed audio.
This incorrect assumption has been around for years, but it was largely harmless. Such streaming was scattered, low-quality, and in the case of online music radio streams, random. Last.fm, however, has made an enormous catalog of music from the major labels available for streaming on-demand, and it sounds pretty good to my ears. Suddenly, this erroneous assumption could well impact the bottom line. If you don’t need to stream music, they don’t get to count plays or show ads, and artists don’t get paid.
Ideally, users will do what’s right, and purchase proper access to the music to which they wish to listen. My fear, however, is that potentially infringing uses of recording tools will become widespread. In that scenario, it’s possible that instead of adjusting their model, the entertainment industry will just come after developers of recording tools. Should the Betamax Doctrine not hold up, these tools could disappear. That would be bad for us, of course, but it would also hurt the thousands of users using them legitimately.
An even more dire scenario would involve the music studios going after Apple and Microsoft to implement a required “secure audio path” in the OS. Vista has this in the form of the Protected Media Path, but it’s currently in limited use. Things could get much, much more restrictive, and that’s bad for everyone involved. Even the entertainment industry would likely suffer. They once opposed the VCR, with then-head of the MPAA Jack Valenti famously comparing the VCR to the Boston Strangler. Today, home video accounts for tens of billions in revenue.
This is an exciting development in access to music. Thirty second previews just aren’t enough, and terrestrial radio doesn’t provide access to new music as it once did. I hope this will work well for Last.fm, artists, and consumers alike. As part of that, I’ll urge you to support the artists you love. If you listen to their music, pay for it, whether through albums or subscriptions. Your support is needed to enable them to keep creating the things you love (much like software developers). The iPod wrappers have long said it best - “Don’t steal music”.
Footnotes:
1. The Betamax Doctrine has been important for 20+ years of innovation in technology. It was established by the Supreme Court in 19842, and it basically says that if a tool can be used for obvious legitimate purposes, it’s potential illegal uses do not make the device illegal. In other words, beating someone up with a baseball bat is still assault, but we don’t need to shut down the Louisville Slugger factory. ↩
2. From Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984) (link). This is the same case that legitimized timeshifting, paving the way for things like TiVo and our own Radioshift. It’s amazing the enormous effect this one case has had on both Rogue Amoeba and technology in general. ↩
Back in 2001, a fantastic little site called Crazy Apple Rumors was launched, dedicated to lampooning Apple and the rumor sites that hang on its every word. Since that time, Editor In Chief John Moltz and his dedicated staff have brought you all the latest made-up news on Apple. Sadly, CARS appears to closing up shop, due to financial difficulties related to the departure of their benefactor known only as The Entity.
For over six years, from sexbots to the scoop on the iPhone’s one-buttony goodness to sexbots, it’s been…uh…well, it’s been over 1000 posts, that’s what it’s been. And that’s something, right? Sure it is!
I’m not quite sure where I first learned of CARS, but in 2003, Apple linked to a CARS post on Al Gore from their Hot News section. A proud day for CARS! After that prestigious link, we knew we had to advertise. I’m proud to say that CARS has been sponsored in part by Rogue Amoeba since 2004.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite moment from CARS. Virtually every post gave me a good laugh, and that’s damned good track record.
The live keynote coverage provided by CARS has long been superior to that of all other sites combined. Read up and see all the news you missed the first time around at Macworld 2008 and other events. Over the years, I’ve also been honored to be mocked myself, in several articles. Once you’ve made CARS, you know you’ve made the big time. How sad for future generations, who will be unable to measure success with the CARS metric.
But before he rides off into the sunset, I’d like to thank John Moltz for his years of service to the cause of hilarity in the Mac world (and occasionally Macworld). It is a sad day, as the Entity’s departure has seemingly brought an end to Crazy Apple Rumors. So long John, and thanks for all the rumors. We hope you’ll be back someday soon.
For those who missed the CARS boat (ha!), begin at the beginning. You won’t regret it.
Hopefully, you’ve already seen Airfoil for Mac 3, our recent major upgrade to Airfoil. If not, you can have a read through the Airfoil 3 tour to see what’s new in our AirPort Express extender.
One of the biggest new features in Airfoil 3 is Airfoil Speakers. With Airfoil Speakers, you can turn any Mac (running Mac OS X 10.4 or up) into a virtual AirPort Express. With Airfoil Speakers and Airfoil, you can send audio from one Mac to other Macs, as well as to AirPort Express units.
We’ve already had a lot of great feedback on it, with users expressing an interest in both Windows and Linux versions, to run on spare machines around the house. We’ll see what happens as far as a Linux version goes, but we’re nearly done with Airfoil Speakers for Windows. Now, we need you to help us test it out.
If you’re interested in testing out the Airfoil Speakers for Windows beta, great! All you need is a Windows machine, and a copy of Airfoil for Windows or Airfoil for Mac. Of course, Airfoil for Mac and Airfoil for Windows can each send to Airfoil Speakers running on Mac or Windows. To test, sign up at through our tester forums. Once you have an set up account there, send an email to us with your full name and username, and we’ll add it to the Tester group.
Mike Ash: A Tool for Editing Version-Controlled Bundles
A little tool for all of you that have suffered editing Subversion-managed RTFDs, and watching TextEdit blow away the .svn folder time and again.
With this post, I’m happy to announce that Under The Microscope has just hit version 3. Our weblog started out powered by Movable Type and later moved to Pyblosxom (pronounced Pie-Blossom). This involved a lot of hand-editing and while it worked, it was far from ideal. So we’ve now updated again, and Under The Microscope is powered by WordPress.
For linking and page rank purposes, the old posts are still all around on the old Pyblosxom site. We’re also migrating them all into the archive here, however, so the Search function will be comprehensive. Comments, however, are not so easily migrated, so we’ll just see about linking back to the old site (and forward to the new one). Of course, all new posts will show up right here.
You can update your RSS link to our new feed, though I believe most clients should handle this for you. Beyond that, there are probably a few bugs to work out, so if you spot anything, leave a comment and let us know. Otherwise, just enjoy!
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a hat tip to Red Sweater’s MarsEdit, which I’m now using for all my posts. I first got a chance to use it in practice with the MacSanta developer blog, and realized just how much nicer blog writing could be. That was a major impetus for this switch, so thanks to Daniel, as well as Brent and Gus - three friends o’ the Amoeba who all have worked on MarsEdit. You can check it out yourself, on the Red Sweater site.
Today, Apple released “Apple TV Take 2″, version 2 of the software running the Apple TV. This update adds many things, including iTunes store access right from the device, a new UI, and more. Unheralded, but very much worth noting, the Apple TV now has AirTunes functionality. I haven’t seen any mention of this on Apple’s site, though plenty of people did notice it at Macworld. However, there’s also been a bit of misinformation, so let’s see if we can’t clear some of that up.
Apple TV Can Receive Audio Over AirTunes…
The Apple TV can now receive audio from iTunes, as an AirTunes device, just like an AirPort Express. As you can see, Apple TV’s will now appear in iTunes output menu - my Apple TV is named Boxy1. It works just like a standard AirPort Express units.
…But It Can’t Transmit Over AirTunes
However, this AirTunes functionality is one-way -the Apple TV can not send audio to AirPort Express units. It functions only as a receiver, not a transmitter, at least currently. AppleInsider previously reported otherwise, but it appears this report was wrong.
Apple TV Can Receive Information From The Sender…
When receiving audio from iTunes as an AirTunes device, the Apple TV shows information on the audio its receiving, including song, artist and album name, as well album artwork where available. You can see this in the image to the left. And yes, I’ve updated my TV to a fancy new widescreen, high definition LCD since we last looked at the Apple TV. Thanks for noticing!
…But You Can’t Remotely Control The Sender
The Apple Remote does not remotely control the sending iTunes while the Apple TV is receiving as an AirTunes devices, as reported here. When the Apple TV is receiving and in AirTunes mode, the Apple Remote currently only allows you to bring up the menu and exit AirTunes mode.
…And You Can Remotely Control The Sender
The Apple Remote remotely controls the copy of iTunes that’s sending to the Apple TV, as reported here. When the Apple TV is receiving and in AirTunes mode, the Apple Remote allows you to pause and skip tracks.
Update: Thanks to multiple commenters for convincing me to go back and check on this. With the help of our own Guy English, I realized that I needed to adjust an iTunes preference to make this work.
This preference is in the Advanced section -> General tab, and it appears to be off by default. Prior to now, this preference only applied to Keyspan’s hardware, and was always a bit odd. Anyhow, turn it on and the remote will control iTunes, through the Apple TV. Very nice!
You Can Try And Send Audio From Airfoil 3…
Right now Airfoil 3, our tool for sending audio to hardware all around your house, also sees the Apple TV as an output. It displays it as an AirPort Express unit for now, and you can even send audio to it. If you do, Airfoil will think things are working fine.
…But It Won’t Work
However, currently, no audio will be played by the Apple TV. The Apple TV seems to know we’re sending to it, as the display will change in some setups to enter AirTunes mode. However, it does not properly handle this audio, because the receiving method differs from that of a standard AirPort Express. The specifics of network encryption used by the Airport Express appear to differ on the Apple TV. Thus, at this time, Airfoil 3 is not able to work as desired with the Apple TV.
What Next?
We’re currently working to get the Apple TV and Airfoil talking to one another fully, and we’ve already got the Apple TV experimentally receiving audio from development builds of Airfoil.
Of course, we’re stuck doing all of this in the dark. It would be nice if Apple would work with us, in any capacity, to make Airfoil compatible with their hardware. Doing so would speed development time of an application that can only help to move more units, while costing them next to nothing. Nevertheless, we hope to have an Airfoil 3.1 update with full Apple TV support in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Footnotes:
1. Loyal readers may notice that it’s yet another device named after a Futurama robot. Previous such devices include Clamps and iZac. ↩
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| Wednesday February 13, 2008 |
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As noted yesterday, we’re working on Apple TV compatibility for Airfoil 3. We’ve already got it working experimentally, and we’re ready to take on a few testers. If you?re interested in helping, great!
Update: Airfoil 3.1 and Airfoil for Windows 2.5 are out now and we’re set on testers. As always though, watch this blog for more chances to test new Rogue Amoeba Software.
To test, you’ll need an Apple TV, of course, as well as a copy of Airfoil for Mac. You can sign up through our tester forums. Once you have an set up account there, send an email to us with your full name, username, and product you want to test. We’ll add you to the Tester group and you’ll be good to go.
We’re also still taking testers for Airfoil Speakers for Windows and Airfoil for Windows 2.5, which will likely also gain the ability to transmit to Apple TV. Sign up instructions are the same as above: sign up in our tester forums, then send an email to us with your full name, username, and product you want to test.
We generally get a lot of tester entries, so make sure your entry is complete or we won’t be able to process it. Thanks and we hope to hear from you!
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| Saturday February 9, 2008 |
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Nicecast has received a minor update, full of bug fixes and updates to included components. This includes updates to all three Extras for Nicecast - Instant Hijack, Soundflower, and Smart Crash Reports. As well, Nicecast now runs icecast 2.3.1 under the hood.All current users of Nicecast should grab this free update now. If you've never used Nicecast, click to learn more about broadcasting audio across the internet.
It's been almost a month since version 3 of our AirPort Express extender Airfoil came out (with Airfoil 3.0.1 right behind it), and you folks are absolutely loving this update! Your praise and support has been incredible, and we appreciate it. After another few weeks of users from around the world pounding on Airfoil and sending us bug reports, we're ready to release Airfoil 3.0.2, a free bug fix update.Version 3.0.2 includes updates to the Instant Hijack and Soundflower extras, components for pulling audio from already-running applications and all System Audio, respectively. Airfoil Video Player has also received several key updates including improved DVD support for PAL and color-shifted DVDs, as well as better support for subtitled movies. Airfoil 3.0.2 is a free update for all owners of Airfoil 3.You can learn all about Airfoil on the Airfoil for Mac page then download the free trial. New users can purchase for the low price of $25, while Airfoil 2 users can upgrade for just $10. If your license key begins with TX40-, you automatically receive this upgrade free of charge.
We're excited to announce Audio Hijack Pro 2.8, the latest version of our tool for recording any audio, is now available and fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). With this update, all of our applications are now 100% ready for Leopard, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). This update includes Instant Hijack 2, enabling the hijacking of audio from applications which are already running on Leopard, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). The System Audio Extra has also been updated with Soundflower 1.3, more ID3 tags are supported, and bookmarkable recordings have been made more reliable. As always, there are also myriad minor bug fixes and improvements as well.Audio Hijack Pro 2.8 is recommended for all Audio Hijack Pro owners, and it's a free update. Head over to the Audio Hijack Pro page to read more and to download Audio Hijack Pro now.
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| Saturday February 2, 2008 |
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We've updated Airfoil to version 2.0.6 today, with several bug fixes. Airfoil now has full support for IPv6, along with other networking code updates. We've also fixed a bug that caused the equalizer to use excessive CPU on some machines, and updated the version of Smart Crash Reports bundled with Airfoil.Users of Airfoil on the Mac should grab this free update now. If you've never used Airfoil, click to learn more.
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| Thursday January 31, 2008 |
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Today, we're happy to announce full Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) support for yet another application. Version 1.9 of our own instant internet radio station tool Nicecast has just been released. This update includes Instant Hijack 2, enabling the hijacking of audio from applications which are already running on Leopard, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). As well, the System Audio Extra has been updated with Soundflower 1.3 and a new Track Titles drawer has been added.This free update is recommended for all users on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and can be downloaded right from the Nicecast page. And fear not, Audio Hijack Pro users, as we're hard at work on a final version of Audio Hijack Pro 2.8 as well.
Airfoil 3 came out Thursday, and it's been incredibly well-received. We've fixed a few minor bugs, and we've now got Airfoil 3.0.1 ready to go. This update improves compatibility with firewalls and has better error handling for many small issues.Just head over to the Airfoil for Mac page and see what the buzz is about, then download Airfoil 3. New users can purchase for the low price of $25, while Airfoil 2 users can upgrade for just $10. Users who've purchased since July 16th, 2007, automatically receive this upgrade free of charge.Of course, Airfoil 3.0.1 is a free update for all owners of Airfoil 3. We'll be at Macworld all week, so if you're here be sure to stop by our booth, #2738 in the South Hall.
Tuesday marks the start of the expo at Macworld, where Rogue Amoeba will be exhibiting. The keynote will be that morning, though Crazy Apple Rumors has the scoop on that already. After that, the expo hall opens, and things go nuts for four straight days.So then, one last reminder that Rogue Amoeba will be exhibiting! We'll be in the South Hall, booth #2738. You can come by and see all our products, including Airfoil 3, in action. Or just come by and say howdy - we love to meet our customers!Best of all, we've got a very special guest who will be with us at the booth all week. He's something of a celebrity, and we'll be snapping pictures of our visitors with him for you to remember him by. So, swing by and say hi!
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| Thursday January 10, 2008 |
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We first started work on the newest version of our AirPort Express extender Airfoil over one year ago. Today, we're thrilled to announce that Airfoil 3 is now shipping. Airfoil has always allowed you to send any audio to your AirPort Express, but this update brings with it some major feature updates. They may just knock your socks off, so watch out.Airfoil 3 lets you transmit any audio to multiple AirPort Express units, providing perfect synchronization between units. You can now play audio locally too, in sync with remote playback. But that's not all - now you can turn any Macintosh into a virtual AirPort Express, with the complimentary Airfoil Speakers app! Run Airfoil Speakers on any local mac, and it will appear in Airfoil as a standard output. With one click, you can transmit your audio to that machine and other Macs, all in sync and with no AirPort Express required. You can of course sync this with local playback and playback to AirPort Express units as well. It's your audio, everywhere!As if Airfoil Speakers wasn't enough, Airfoil 3 offers a second huge feature - video playback! If you've ever wanted to watch video while using Airfoil, you know that the AirPort Express buffers audio playback by several seconds, resulting in video that's out of sync with the audio. No more! With the included Airfoil Video Player, however, this is no matter. Airfoil Video Player handles playing video locally in sync with remote audio, for the perfect viewing experience. Airfoil Video Player supports all of the most popular video formats, and even features preliminary DVD support!Airfoil 3 also has many smaller updates, including full Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) support, interface improvements, and simplified preferences.You don't need to take our word for it - head over to the Airfoil for Mac page and see what the buzz is about, then download Airfoil 3. New users can purchase for the low price of $25, while Airfoil 2 users can upgrade for just $10. Users who've purchased since July 16th, 2007, automatically receive this upgrade free of charge.Last but not least, if you'll be at Macworld next week, be sure to stop by our booth, #2738 in the South Hall. We'd love to say hi!
Twenty two years ago, Macworld magazine started a tradition, giving out annual editor's choice awards known as the Eddys. Two years ago, we earned our first Eddy award, with Nicecast. Today, we're pleased to announce that Fission has brought us our second Eddy award! Fission has been met with rave reviews, and now it's won the first of what we hope will be many awards.If you haven't been paying attention, Fission is our newest product. Fission is an audio editor designed to provide fast and lossless splitting and trimming of audio files. With Fission, you can edit MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, and AIFF/WAV files, trimming out portions you don't need or breaking them up into multiple smaller files. So why not try out our newest award-winner right now? You can download Fission 1.1 or visit the Fission page for more information.
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