Bites from the Apple: Fumbling Past the Tryptophan

The weekend of gratitude, eating and shopping is just about over, and I need to head to the gym to shed some of the pounds of stuffing, turkey and cheesy carrots from my midsection. A colleague of mine mentioned recently that he'd recently lost 5 pounds just using the free Lose It iPhone app (link opens in iTunes), which combines a good calorie database with intuitive tracking capabilities to help you keep yourself under a daily caloric goal. And TUAW notes that the recently updated 2.0 version of Lose It has added synchronization with its new web site as well as the ability to connect with friends using Lose It for tracking and motivation. I've downloaded it and will start using it this week so as to avoid the annual 10-pound bump I tend to gain during the festive season. Now onto a heaping helping of Apple-y goodness from the last week or so.

• It looks like Apple may be testing out the next version of the iPhone out in the wilds of the San Francisco area, as the model number "iPhone3,1" started cropping up in usage records for the iBart iPhone app (via MacRumors). In other rumors from MacRumors, it seems that Apple has been advertising an iPhone software engineering position on the Maps team to help take it "to the next level." MacRumors further writes: "Although Apple and Google are said to be working on bringing the same technology to the iPhone, there's been evidence that Apple is working on their own mapping technology."

• 9to5Mac notes that Apple takes three of the top four slots in most wished for Computers and Accessories at Amazon.

• The Mac mini tops the charts for in-use power efficiency in testing done by the Sust-It site, which helps folks find the most energy efficient products and appliances in Britain (via MacNN)

• If you run the business-oriented accounting program QuickBooks on your Mac, Jason D. O'Grady over at ZDNet's Apple Core notes that the new QuickBooks 2010 has been released with such new features as direct processing credit card purchases, tracking billable hours, and backing up to MobileMe. Intuit also notes in its Mac features section that you'll be able to share data with Windows-based users, but sadly it doesn't look like the company has improved the roundtripping function that requires to create a special Windows-friendly file and then import and translate that back into your Mac program (something that has given me and my accountant headaches for years).

• Handbrake, the free DVD- and video encoding wonder-software, has just been updated to version 0.94 after a year of 0.93ness--but it's chock full of new features including 64-bit compatibility and the ability to add subtitles. As noted by Ars Technica and TUAW, the 64-bit support provides about 10 percent faster encodings--and you don't have to be running Snow Leopard to get the speed gain. I tried it out this morning and found it definitely faster. However, Handbrake also requires that the VLC video playback software also be installed if you want to encode DVDs, and I kept getting roadblocks from Handbrake saying that a 64-bit version of VLC wasn't to be found. With the most current stable release of VLC (1.03) only available in 32-bit, John Gruber at Daring Fireball has included a link to a previous 1.02 version of VLC that has a 64-bit version.

• TUAW offers a basic introduction to the Pomodoro Technique way of time management and provides a number of iPhone- and Mac-related software titles to help you achieve productivity bliss.

• To celebrate the release of 1Password 3.0, Agile Web Solutions is offering the 1Password Pro iPhone app for free through December 1st. The pro version includes "folders for better organization, the ability to copy multiple fields to paste elsewhere, and a unique switching mode to quickly copy and paste info into Mobile Safari" (via TUAW).

• You might have seen an update to iPhoto available in your Mac's Software Update, and TidBITS notes that the iPhoto 8.1.1 update provides some fixes for the face recognition feature, including slow performance and improved accuracy.

• And finally... the Observer Music Monthly (from the London Guardian) published its look back on the Noughties decade this weekend, and it named Apple's Jonathan Ive as inventor of the decade:

  With the first iPod, there was nothing to distract you from your music except a pause button, a headphone jack, and a single port to recharge and/or input data. It was a stunning feat of engineering, with Ive's trademark attention to detail: the serial number is individually etched onto each unit to avoid an ugly paper sticker, and the wire twists that usually secure cables when you first get them out of the box have been replaced by neat clips. This doesn't necessarily cost more, he points out. You just have to care. And he does, obsessively.

  Also be sure to check out the PBS web site for the design documentary film Objectified by Gary Hustwit (who also directed Helvetica), which includes a section interviewing Mr. Ive (you can also rent the film from Amazon Video on Demand).

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

Comments

[Cybersherpa on November 30, 2009 at 08:04 PM]

I lost 23 lbs using the lose it app. My wife lost 16. A very simple app to use.

[DaveS on November 30, 2009 at 09:51 PM]

I set Lose It to give me a calorie budget to lose 1.5 lbs a week. Two months later, I had lost 12 lbs. It seems to do what it says it does.

[Cab on December 01, 2009 at 03:10 AM]

I've been using Lose it since August. I'm down 34 pounds. It's a great app.

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