Time for a trip down MacOS memory lane.

I have been a Mac user since OS 6, and when you have been a Mac user as long as I have you get to know and love the old alert sounds. With every new OS release Apple eliminates a swath of their old alert sounds, from System 6 to System 7 we lost Clink-Clank and who could forget the hysterical Monkey noise. Over the other OS changes we lost ChuToy, Submarine, Laugh as well as the dearly missed Wild Eep to name a few.

Some alert’s even have their own back story – for example “Sosumi.” The sound’s unusual name was coined during a trademark dispute with the Beatles. The sound’s name also exists currently in an inside joke on Apple Computer’s website, where it marks the CSS class denoting a copyright notice #.

Anyway, might as download all these alert sounds and bring your modern machine back to the good ol days. Windows users don’t fret, they are encoded a WAV’s so you can join in on the fun.

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All of these methods work, success greatly varies depending on your work and thought style however. With this in mind I will say that Journler isn’t going to be for everyone… or maybe it is!

Price:
journler right from the get go won me over with it’s price … FREE! (as in beer. for now). This is a “feature” pretty much non-existent in this software market with some apps/suites costing up to $130! Now you probably noticed I said “(for now)” above, this is because the developers are moving the application over to a shareware model… everyone’s gotta make ends meet.

Features:
The feature set is what sold me (as it should be when using an App.) it can be as cut dry and simple or as needlessly complex as you desire. This is something we don’t usually see. From most of the “personal productivity” software I’ve used you’re given a series of tools and a set idea as to how they are going to be used. Not the case with journler.

Notes:
Keep your thoughts stored just how you had them. Attach files, record your own video or audio clip. Insert HTML elements … make a todo list with HTML checkboxes. Toss pre-fixes on list items or high light a line out of a copy and pasted paragraph. I would go so far as to say that the interface for composing and organizing your ideas inside your notes rivals Word or Open Office.

Organization:
Labels, Tags, and Folders on my! Corny I know, but seriously you’ve the ability to organize your notes any given way… even multiple ways! Using Labels and Folders would be enough to keep a veteran personal productivity app user happy. When you consider Tagging and Smart Folders along with this the way you organize your ideas almost becomes blaring obvious.

Smart Folders: (my favorite feature)
It’s like real time message filtering for your notes. You’ll create a Smart Folder that doesn’t actually contain anything, nor will it ever per-say. Smart Folders are more like a logic location, any give item can span multiple Smart Folders based on that items characteristics. I’ll give you a simple example.

I’m a web developer by choice and trade, I love it. With that said at any given time I’m usually juggling work, freelance, and my own projects simultaneously. This means I have serious collisions of time and ideas. I might have 50 separate tasks from 3 different projects 13 of which are Urgent. Now rather than look over notes from a 3 projects and find the ones I’ve labeled as “Urgent” I could simply create a smart folder. Using the stupid simple interface I could add a “requirement” or “exclusion” for items that should appear in this folder. In my example I’ll say I want “all” notes with a “label” or Urgent. The smart folder would instantly populate with my 13 labeled notes for all projects/categories/etc.

Great!… now lets say an entire project is placed on developmental hold, these tasks are no longer urgent because of the dev freeze but once that project begins development I’ll need them to remain urgent. I could now edit my Smart Folder and depending on your organizational preference exclude that project from showing up in said filter. If using folders you could tell the smart folder to “exclude” notes from folder “project foobar”… or if using tagging (my preference) “exclude” notes tagged “foobar”.

Application Integration:
Talk about stream line! Journler hooks into some of OS X’s most popular Apps. While composing a note attach a file (also note the files are reference pointers, so if you update that file… it’s updated in the note) using finder… or view an attached file in Finder. However you can also attach a contact from your Address book, or email a file/note from Mail. Attached an XLS file… have Office installed, it already knows and shows the Office Excel Icon as the viewing option. Listen to an MP3 file you’ve attached or watch a vid right inside the app using native Quicktime support. Hook dates into iCal and link them to existing iCal entries. It even hooks into Spotlight, just type in the title of the note you want to view and Spotlight tracks it down, hit enter and it opens right up in Journler. All of this is done so smoothly you’ll start to wonder why other applications don’t do it the same way. As if that wasn’t enough Apple Script integration allows you to write your own functionality!

Summary:
I consider journler although one of my newer Apps easily one of my MVP apps. As I get more used to it and discover new ways to use and implement it the more I fall in love with it’s simplicity and functionality. I’d suggest everyone give it a week worth of trial and see if you don’t agree. It’s so open anyone could find a way to utilize it…. and I mean anyone… Soccer Mom’s to NASA engineers.

check it out @ http://journler.com/

I highly suggest, if you are Apple addicted, you signup for these updates at TUAW’s special page or by simply texting “ping tuaw” to 95495.

Also I will be providing pre and post game coverage on UNEASY and via my own special dedicated live page (Or you can subscribe wirelessly by texting “ping uneasy” to 95495).

Let the games begin!

So it came to me as no surprise that Apple built a super secret Apple Store on a Warner Brother lot to shoot a super secret commercial for the not so secret 3G iPhone.

Seen over Memorial Day weekend, Apple built a full scale store on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. On Memorial Day they proceeded to shoot a commercial that will be part of Steve’s announcement on June 9, a la Steve’s favorite team at TBWA/Chiat/Day. This was no small feat. This was a full scale and fully operable store, complete with laptops, iMacs, the kids pod, software and accessories on the shelf, functional genius bar. Everything you’d see at at the Apple store, was on the lot/soundstage (same one that The Perfect Storm was filmed on) in working order. The store took 2 days to build. Tear down was complete Monday evening (memorial day). Only a handful of people were allowed to stay for the shoot and no extras/actors were seen in the “store” when the shooting commenced. [via]

Now to add fuel to the fire a Apple insider has tipped me that the 5th Avenue store and closure was not for a commercial shoot but to fuel the media fire and get more free press about the 3G iPhone. Now it makes no sense to some why Apple would go to such a great expense for a decoy. Just think of the PR they have received by shutting down their most high profile retail location.

Thoughts?

Ok, who is with me in the fact that they don’t care or are numb to the incessant rumor mongering regarding the existence or the non existence of a 3G iPhone. I don’t care what day it will be announced, who is making it, how big its gonna be – I’m tired of the MONTHS of speculation from small hobbyist websites to the Wall Street Journal.

Lets sum it up here. There will be a 3G iPhone before the earth spins off its axis and hurtles to the Sun. Guess what, there will be a 4G iPhone too. Why don’t we get the rumors starting now – I hear it will grant eternal life!

The machines specs are as follows:

• 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB of DDR2 667 memory
• Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 20x DVD+/-R Drive
• 4 USB Ports
• 250GB 7200RPM Drive

Now we all know that you can install MacOS 10.5 on an ordinary PC, but the legality of such a procedure is a grey area. This is the first time a company is emulating the Mac EFI firmware to achieve a true Mac clone. Sure Apple’s crack legal team have begin firing up the old C&D machine as we speak.

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Based upon Safari Adblock, this utility will hopefully increase load times by filtering out advertisements when you surf. Only catch, the iPhone has to be jailbroken.

To install AdBlock for MobileSafari, you will need to “Jailbreak” your iPod Touch or iPhone and install the Installer.app on it. Once you are jailbroken, open the Installer and click on Sources locate at the right end of the bottom toolbar. Then click on the Edit button locate in the top right corner of your screen. Click the Add button on the top left corner of your screen and enter the following address http://i.cocoamug.com

I reached out to the developer of the product for a longer trial period to evaluate the product, but from a days test I found most ads filtered out. If your phone is jailbroken, this program is certainly worth a look to make your EDGE web browsing much more pleasant. Available for roughly $8.

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As you may have heard, the Writers Guild of America, the union representing TV and movie writers, has settled its strike and its members have returned to work. Because of the strike your season pass for [Season Name] may have fewer episodes than were scheduled by the network at the time of your purchase.

We will make all additional episodes which are broadcast during the 2007-08 season available to you as we receive them. If the season does end up with fewer episodes, you will receive a partial refund to make up for the difference.

For now, I have granted two free video credits to your account which you can use to purchase any two TV episodes, music videos, or short films on the iTunes Store.

Your video credit balance should display in the upper-right corner of iTunes next to your account name. If it does not, please sign out and sign back in to refresh. The sign out/sign in functions are found under the Store menu of iTunes. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for being an iTunes customer.

I really think it’s neat that Apple, although not required to, is helping to compensate the user because of a situation out of their control. Any other iTunes season subscribers getting these messages?

First of all, turn your computer speakers off. If you are curious what the iPhone 2.0 OS would look like (well with a shaky camera) this YouTube find may just fill your void.

Again, we warned you about the speakers.

Tisk, Tisk, Tisk. You people know who you are! You think a little check mark next to “Private Browsing” in Safari will keep your slick surfing habits secret? No, No dear reader! Safari will squeal on you! Doesn’t matter even if you quit the application or reset Safari.

It seems Safari like leaving little trails of what it does in its cache. If you open up the Terminal in MacOS 10.5 and type in:

dscacheutil -cachedump -entries Host

You will see a list of all the websites you visited even with private browsing enabled.

To destroy this last bit of evidence in Terminal type in:

dscacheutil -flushcache

This will purge Safaris secret cache and keep your little indiscretions secret.

Its also important to note that this cache is also emptied when you log out of your user account or restart your computer. Seems like Apple’s little code monkeys will need to code a little harder to fix this little snafu. All evil lurks in the logs!

Thanks to Tim for the tip! Safe surfing!