Hijinks Inc.

Category: Apple

  • iOS 4.2 Beta Drops

    Apple has made a beta of iOS 4.2 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch available to developers for download.

    While I was downloading iOS 4.2 for iPad, I noticed this advisement:

    iOS SDK 4.2 beta requires Mac OS X v10.6.5 pre-release to test printing from your app.

    So it looks like you’ll need a Mac connected to a printer in order to print wirelessly from an iDevice, not quite the network printer discovery I was hoping for. This also raises the question of  whether or not Apple will be releasing a Windows client for sharing printers as well? Technically the framework is already there, since Bonjour has been available for Windows users for awhile now.

    I have yet to install 10.6.5 to try this out, but my spare MacBook Pro looks like a prime candidate for the pre-release software treatment.

  • Removing the Vertical Buttons from iTunes 10

    One of the first things I noticed about iTunes 10 was those ridiculously awful vertical buttons. Seriously, what were they thinking? And as a fellow developer pointed out, that even violates Apples own Human Interface Guidelines… Not to mention it’s a crime against humanity.

    Someone much craftier than I figured out that all you need to do to restore those buttons back to their horizontial counterparts is open up a Terminal window and enter the following:

    defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

    Press Enter, close Terminal and restart or open iTunes. You should see things are now back to normal.

  • Alternative iTunes 10 Icon (OS X)

    If you’re like me, you might not be sold on this new icon for iTunes. Don’t get me wrong, I love that they killed off the CD, but the new icon looks a little Windows 7ish in my dock.

    This morning I noticed this new icon from Chris Carlozzi floating around on Twitter, which looks pretty sweet.

    So I downloaded it and converted it to a .rsrc file so you can replace your iTunes icon with it on OS X.

    You can download the .rsrc file as a .zip here. After it’s downloaded, extract the icon file and right click on it a select Get Info.

    Next, navigate to your Applications folder and right click on the iTunes icon and select Get Info.

    You should now have both Info windows next to each other. In the iTunes 10.rsrc window, click once on the small icon in the upper left hand corner (should now be highlighted). Then press Command+C.

    In the iTunes Info window, click once on the icon in the upper left hand corner and press Command+V. You should now see the same icon in both windows.

    Close out the open windows and start iTunes, and you should see the new icon in your dock. Enjoy!

  • iPad 3G Data Usage for August

    Seems like my data consumption is averaging out a bit, last month I used 22.4GB, this month 27.4 so the mid-20GB range seems to be the sweet spot.

    I’d still like to break 40GBs in a month, just to stick to AT&T, but I’m not going out of my way to make that happen.

  • New iPods? Yes please.

    Apple just finished live streaming their latest press event, which for starters is pretty awesome that they finally live streamed it! Outside of announcing the expected  new iPod touch, they also announced a new Shuffle and a new Nano.


    For me, the new iPod touch is the most interesting. Retina display, front and rear facing cameras, HD video recording, A4 chip. All the things you’d expect after the iPhone 4, but it’s nice to see that Apple actually include all those updates in one refresh. 8GB model is $229, 32GB for $299, 64GB for $399.


    I don’t really care about the Shuffle, but I do think it’s interesting that Steve had to concede and bring buttons back to please the users. New 2GB version of the Shuffle is $49.


    Nano looks pretty slick, loses the video camera and click-wheel and moves to a nice square touchscreen and adds a clip on the back. 8GB for $149, 16GB for $179.

    iOS 4.1 is dropping next week for the iPhone / iPod touch bringing HDR camera mode, Game Center, TV show rentals, and general bug fixes to the table. But better yet, iOS 4.2 hits in November for iPhone / iPad / iPod touch with wireless printing being the big feature of interest to me.