Filed under: Retail, iPhone

Filed under: Enterprise, Apple Professional, Apple, Leopard

Last month, I wrote a post about Apple certifications in general. Today, I'll focus on Mac OS X certifications.

If you're a Mac geek who wants to make a living troubleshooting Macs, these are the certifications to get because they are your ticket to becoming a member of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). ACNs can build a relationship with their local Apple store and get references for work that can't be performed by Genius Bar techs, and they're listed on the Apple Consultants Network website. The rest of this article is after the break.

TUAW blogger Steve Sande is an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator and volunteers as the South Central US Regional Champion for the Apple Consultants Network.

Continue reading TUAW Certification Series: Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server

Filed under: iPhone

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Enterprise, Switchers

Axel Springer AG, Germany's largest newspaper publisher, is moving its entire organization -- 12,000 computers -- to the Mac platform. Axel Springer will become Apple's largest corporate customer in Europe, and second largest customer worldwide. (Google is number one.)

The article is only available in German so far.

Axel Springer owns Bild and Bild am Sonntag, tabloid-style dailies (not unlike The Sun in the UK or the New York Post in the U.S.) and several magazines sold under the Bild brand. The company currently uses large-scale publishing solutions from WoodWing Software and CCI, both of which support Mac clients.

In a video message to employees, CEO Matthias Döpfner cited ease-of-use, appearance, and total cost of ownership in the reason to switch. Employees can start buying and using Macs and iPhones this month, though the entire organization will be migrated over the course of a year or two.

Thanks Alex, Rouven, and bimbum for the tip (and the help with the German)!

Filed under: Software

On this long weekend (for some of us), how about some outdoor activity? TrailRunner updated its route planning software for runners, bikers, and hikers that works with your iPod nano and Nike+ sport kit.

TrailRunner 1.7 is the latest release of the software, which can now import workout data from the Garmin ForeRunner 50, and from nikeplus.com. It also improves the diary history chart.

This new version is 4.3MB, Leopard-only, and donationware. (Version 1.6 still runs in Tiger.) It's also available in French and German.

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Other Events, iPhone

Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools

Filed under: Tips and tricks, Terminal Tips, Mac 101

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Switchers, Cult of Mac, Internet, Apple, Blogs

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail, Apple

RetailWeek recently compiled a list of the top 100 retail locations around the world. What did they find? Well, Apple holds two positions in their list: one for the 5th Avenue store (New York) and one for the Regent Street store (London).

According to the list, the 5th Avenue store has all three key deciding factors: "excitement, education and ease." They go on to say that the glass cube is in line with the "DNA of the brand."

Does this change your mind about shopping at Apple's retail stores? Be sure to take our poll and drop a comment.

View Poll

Filed under: Retail

Apple opened a new retail store in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this weekend, number six for The Great White North. As usual, we asked any TUAW readers who may have attended to share their reports and/or pictures. So, did you go, and if you did, how was it? Let us know in the comments. Here's hoping you scored a T-shirt!

If you haven't gone down to the store yet, grab your camera and add anything especially interesting to our Flickr pool!

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Filed under: Deals, MacBook Air

Filed under: iPhone

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet Tools, Open Source

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Steve Jobs, Apple

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends

Filed under: OS, Mac 101

Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone

Filed under: Freeware

Filed under: iPhone

Filed under: iPod Family, Software, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store

Filed under: Freeware

Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone

Filed under: Developer

The Pragmatic Bookshelf has published a series of Core Animation tutorials, that are available for purchase and download. These four screencasts walk you through the process of building Xcode projects and incorporating Core Animation features into them.

Each tutorial runs for about a twenty to thirty minutes and includes a live voice over by developer Bill Dudney. They take you step-by-step through the development process for several projects.

Don't look for a general overview of Core Animation and the technology behind it in these videos. They take it for granted that you know the vocabulary (such as layers and timing functions) and that you understand what Core Animation should do. The videos help you to move that knowledge into Xcode. These videos are best for the self-reliant programmer who's looking for a little bit of low-cost hand-holding while getting started. Each of the four tutorials cost five dollars and are available in both full-screen and iPod-compatible resolutions.

Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, Tips and tricks

Here we are with the long-awaited third part of my series on how to make music with your Mac. In the first installment, we looked at audio hardware; in the second installment, we discussed digital audio workstations. Today we're going to look at useful DSP (or digital signal processing) plugins and software synthesizers to help aid in your music making.

Again, a disclaimer: these are only a small handful of the options open to you. There are thousands of Mac-friendly synths and plugins out there, and you can spend as much time playing with demos and tweaking presets as you can making music. Having said that, these are a few tools I've personally found useful in my quest to become a halfway-decent digital producer.

More after the jump.

Continue reading A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part three

Filed under: iPod Family, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Filed under: Hardware

In an interesting test by the folks over at Tom's Hardware, solid-state drives (SSDs) suck more power than their platter-based counterparts. Why should you care? Because the MacBook Air features an SSD in its higher-end configurations.

Tom's looked at four different SSD models, and compared them with a 7,200 RPM disk of the same size. One disk, from Crucial, touted its "low power consumption" in marketing materials. However, the disk reduced its test laptop's battery runtime from seven hours to six hours. Ouch.

SSDs are significantly faster, of course, but the idea that they consume less power appears to be false. As manufacturers develop thinner and thinner sub-notebooks, power consumption can only become more and more important.

Filed under: iPhone

Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Leopard