How to convert your Magic Trackpad to a Magic Numpad

(Credit: Photo by Jason Cipriani)

LAS VEGAS--Apple's wireless keyboard lacks a full-fledged number pad, and while most users can do without, for some a number pad is a must.

Instead of adding another accessory to your desk, taking up more valuable desk space. Mobee has came up with a way to convert the Magic Trackpad into a Magic Numpad.

We were able to get our hands on the Magic Numpad here at CES 2012, and while we couldn't see a full demo due to Bluetooth interference in the hall, so we've included a video from Mobee below of the Magic Numpad in action at the bottom of the post. 

To turn your trackpad into a numpad, you will need to purchase the layover films. You can find the Magic Numpad kit at Amazon or in Apple stores, and it should run you around $29.

Inside the box will be a serial number that allows you to download the OS X app from the Mobee site. Once the app is installed, you can pick the layover layout you will be applying to the trackpad.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani)

You can pick a simple number layout, leaving half of the trackpad to behave like, well, a trackpad.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani)

There's also a layover that provides the normal full-size keyboard layout, complete with arrow keys.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani)

Last, there's a layover that provides the full-size keyboard layout, minus the arrow keys. Instead, using the Mobee app you are able to create app shortcut keys. Want to launch Mail or perhaps iTunes with the tap of a button? Create a shortcut for the Magic Numpad, name the blank space with a marker and you're all set.

Switching back and forth from numpad and trackpad functionality is as simple as tapping on the toggle switch located in the top right corner. The layovers are reusable and can be changed out in a matter of minutes.

by Jason Cipriani  January 11, 2012 11:57 AM PST

Read more: http://www.cnet.com/8301-33373_1-57357182/how-to-convert-your-magic-trackpad-to-a-magic-numpad/#ixzz1jEPr0BtC

Remembering Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

1955 - 2011

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

NOBODY else in the computer industry, or any other industry for that matter, could put on a show like Steve Jobs. His product launches, at which he would stand alone on a black stage and conjure up a “magical” or “incredible” new electronic gadget in front of an awed crowd, were the performances of a master showman. All computers do is fetch and shuffle numbers, he once explained, but do it fast enough and “the results appear to be magic”. He spent his life packaging that magic into elegantly designed, easy to use products.

He had been among the first, back in the 1970s, to see the potential that lay in the idea of selling computers to ordinary people. In those days of green-on-black displays, when floppy discs were still floppy, the notion that computers might soon become ubiquitous seemed fanciful. But Mr Jobs was one of a handful of pioneers who saw what was coming. Crucially, he also had an unusual knack for looking at computers from the outside, as a user, not just from the inside, as an engineer—something he attributed to the experiences of his wayward youth.

Mr Jobs caught the computing bug while growing up in Silicon Valley. As a teenager in the late 1960s he cold-called his idol, Bill Hewlett, and talked his way into a summer job at Hewlett-Packard. But it was only after dropping out of college, travelling to India, becoming a Buddhist and experimenting with psychedelic drugs that Mr Jobs returned to California to co-found Apple, in his parents’ garage, on April Fools’ Day 1976. “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences,” he once said. “So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions.” Bill Gates, he suggested, would be “a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger”.

Dropping out of his college course and attending calligraphy classes instead had, for example, given Mr Jobs an apparently useless love of typography. But support for a variety of fonts was to prove a key feature of the Macintosh, the pioneering mouse-driven, graphical computer that Apple launched in 1984. With its windows, icons and menus, it was sold as “the computer for the rest of us”. Having made a fortune from Apple’s initial success, Mr Jobs expected to sell “zillions” of his new machines. But the Mac was not the mass-market success Mr Jobs had hoped for, and he was ousted from Apple by its board.

Yet this apparently disastrous turn of events turned out to be a blessing: “the best thing that could have ever happened to me”, Mr Jobs later called it. He co-founded a new firm, Pixar, which specialised in computer graphics, and NeXT, another computer-maker. His remarkable second act began in 1996 when Apple, having lost its way, acquired NeXT, and Mr Jobs returned to put its technology at the heart of a new range of Apple products. And the rest is history: Apple launched the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and (briefly) became the world’s most valuable listed company. “I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple,” Mr Jobs said in 2005. When his failing health forced him to step down as Apple’s boss in August, he was hailed as the greatest chief executive in history. Oh, and Pixar, his side project, produced a string of hugely successful animated movies.

In retrospect, Mr Jobs was a man ahead of his time during his first stint at Apple. Computing’s early years were dominated by technical types. But his emphasis on design and ease of use gave him the edge later on. Elegance, simplicity and an understanding of other fields came to matter in a world in which computers are fashion items, carried by everyone, that can do almost anything. “Technology alone is not enough,” said Mr Jobs at the end of his speech introducing the iPad 2, in March 2011. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.” It was an unusual statement for the head of a technology firm, but it was vintage Steve Jobs.

His interdisciplinary approach was backed up by an obsessive attention to detail. A carpenter making a fine chest of drawers will not use plywood on the back, even though nobody will see it, he said, and he applied the same approach to his products. “For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” He insisted that the first Macintosh should have no internal cooling fan, so that it would be silent—putting user needs above engineering convenience. He called an engineer at Google one weekend with an urgent request: the colour of one letter of Google's on-screen logo on the iPhone was not quite the right shade of yellow. He often wrote or rewrote the text of Apple’s advertisements himself.

His on-stage persona as a Zen-like mystic notwithstanding, Mr Jobs was an autocratic manager with a fierce temper. But his egomania was largely justified. He eschewed market researchers and focus groups, preferring to trust his own instincts when evaluating potential new products. “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” he said. His judgment proved uncannily accurate: by the end of his career the hits far outweighed the misses. Mr Jobs was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit a “reality distortion field”, such were his powers of persuasion. But in the end he changed reality, channelling the magic of computing into products that reshaped music, telecoms and media. The man who said in his youth that he wanted to “put a ding in the universe” did just that.

iOS 5: Tweet everywhere

by Twitter on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 2:29am

Twitter has always been the best way to instantly share whatever is happening around you, and everything you're interested in, anywhere you are. And today we're working with Apple to make sharing on Twitter even easier: Twitter is built right into iOS 5, coming soon to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide.

This means that you’ll be able to sign in to your Twitter account once and then tweet with a single tap from Twitter-enabled apps, including Apple’s apps—Camera, Photos, Safari, Contacts, YouTube, and Maps. And developers of all of your favorite apps can easily take advantage of the single sign-on capability, letting you tweet directly from their apps too.

Building Twitter into iOS 5 truly creates the easiest way to share everything that’s happening in your world. Take a picture, tap “Tweet”. Tweeting has never been simpler.

Mac security firm ships first-ever iPhone malware scanner

Lets iOS device owners do 'on-demand' scans of file attachments

By Gregg Keizer

Computerworld - A French security company known for its Mac OS X antivirus software today released the first malware-scanning app for the iPhone and iPad and iPod touch.

Intego's VirusBarrier for iOS has been approved by Apple, and debuted on the App Store Tuesday for $2.99.

Because iOS prevents the program from accessing the file system or conducting automatic or scheduled scans -- as do virtually all Mac and Windows antivirus software -- VirusBarrier must be manually engaged, and then scans only file attachments and files on remote servers, said Peter James, a spokesman for Intego.

"Because of the sandbox, you can't scan the file system," said James. "Since you don't see the iOS file system, the only things you can scan are attachments sent by email or files in, say, your Dropbox folder."

Unlike software written for Android -- such as Lookout, from the San Francisco-based company by the same name -- VirusBarrier cannot scan apps for possible infection.

When an email attachment is received by the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, the user can intercede by calling on VirusBarrier, which then scans the file for possible infection before the file is opened or forwarded to others.

"We've had enterprise customers say that although they know you can't do a full system scan of an iPhone, they don't like the fact that files go through these devices and end up on a Mac or Windows PC," said James. "They want their users to be able to check that an attachment is safe."

He characterized VirusBarrier for iOS as a way for iPhone and iPad users to prevent their hardware from spreading malware. "You don't want your iPhone becoming a 'Typhoid Mary,'" James said.

VirusBarrier for iOS can scan email attachments in a variety of formats, including Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint; PDF documents; JavaScript files; and Windows executables, those files tagged with the .exe extension. It can also scan files in a Dropbox folder, those stored on MobileMe's iDisk, or files downloaded via the iOS version of Safari.

The scanning engine and signatures -- the digital "fingerprints" used to detect malware -- in VirusBarrier for iOS are identical to those used by Intego's Mac OS X product line.

VirusBarrier for iOS lets iPhone and iPad users run on-demand scans of email attachments before those files are opened or forwarded. (Graphic: Intego.)

"It's important that people understand what [VirusBarrier] can and cannot do," said James, pointing to the malware scanner's limitations. "Although there is no malware written for iOS today, if attackers do try to exploit the [recent] PDF vulnerability, this is something we can scan for."

James was referring to the still-unpatched vulnerability in iOS that can be exploited through a malicious PDF document, one of two bugs used last week to "jailbreak" an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

VirusBarrier for iOS can be downloaded to an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch fromApple's App Store. It requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at  @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com

Apple iOS 5: Everything you need to know

By Molly McHugh | Digital Trends – Tue, Jun 7, 2011

WWDC kicked off this morning and among the announcements, Apple introduced iOS 5. The new operating system is due for the iPad, iPhone 3GS and 4, as well as third- and fourth-generation iPod Touch this fall. iOS 5 addresses old customer complaints while also bringing some innovative surprises to the table, chief among which is its new Twitter integration. But the upgrade isn’t all play and no work: Notifications, Mail, and Safari are just a sampling of Apple’s built-in apps that got a retouch. Here’s everything you need to know about iOS 5.

Notifications

A questionable “leak” this morning revealed a new look for the iOS notifications. The image showed off a bar atop the phone’s home screen that read “2 new mentions,” tying in the possibility of Twitter integration. While both upgrades turned out to be true, the notifications update is likely the most necessary and heralded of iOS 5. The pop-up alerts that took over your display and rolled one notification in after another has been a common gripe among iPhone users, and Apple has taken notice. Now your notifications are cleanly, clearly, and discreetly collected in the Notification Center. By swiping from the top to the bottom of your device, you can pull up the Notification Center and access any alerts. An “X” icon lets you dismiss them. The biggest improvement may be in how you view notifications when the screen is locked: They are displayed in a list and by “type,” meaning each has an icon for the function they are notifying you about (i.e., missed call, test, app, etc).

Twitter integration

This was the other feature we caught wind of this morning, and also one of the most likely new upgrades to hit iOS, but it’s a welcome additional nonetheless. Apple has deeply integrated Twitter within iOS 5, and makes what’s already a simple service mind-numbingly easy to use. iPhones will now have single sign-on service, and outside Twitter clients can pull your login information from here so you won’t have to deal with the hassle. Better yet, native Apple apps now work with Twitter. The Contacts, Camera, Safari, YouTube, Maps, and Photo apps all instantly connect with the microblogging service, meaning by simply tapping you can instantly share content via Twitter. Of course, this largely will be used in junction with Twitter’s new photo sharing service, and your Photos will now have a “Tweet” option for auto-updating your feed.

Mail

On the surface, the notable improvements are rich-text formatting, paragraph setting controls, and the ability to drag addresses to email contact lines. Users can also flag emails. Among the other new upgrades are S/MIME support, a built-in dictionary courtesy of iBooks, a dual keyboard so users can type with both thumbs.

Safari

Safari has undergone a pretty major revamp that will make mobile browsing a much more intuitive process. Of course Apple’s focus has long been using the phone via apps, and for this it’s been occasionally lambasted for abandoning the browser and forcing users to exist within its developers’ iOS-approved software. Safari will now include tabs for iOS on the iPad – for the moment. True, it seems like tabbed browsing could easily crowd the iPhone or iPod Touch’s screen, but it’d be a welcome option.

Reader and Reading List are two other big additions to Safari. Reader functions how it does on the desktop version of Safari (and just as Google Reader does as well) and allows you to grab or or share content wiped clean of ads, links, and other non-relevant information. Reading List is like bookmarking pages for short-term use, and simply saves a Web page for later reading. Better yet, you can access this content via Safari on your desktop.

iMessages

iMessages are much like Apple’s current Messages app, except it adds a few new capabilities, chief among them being the ability to see when texts have been received and read. You can even see when someone is in the process of responding to your message.

It’s built into the current Messages app, but what sets iMessage apart is that it’s taking a cue from BlackBerry Messenger by being exclusive to iOS users – meaning you won’t be able to use it with anyone not using a mobile Apple device. But iMessages are pushed to all iOS devices (read: The iPad) and work using 3G and Wi-Fi. If any of this strikes a chord of security fear in you, Apple says all iMessages will be encrypted.

Reminders

There are more than a few ways to create reminders using your iOS device. Apple has various options built-in, from the simplicity of Notes to the more technical Voice Memos. And of course there is no shortage of productivity apps ready to help. Still, somehow, iOS 5’s new Reminders tool improves on them. Apple has designated lists, like Groceries or To-Do, and can be date and location-stamped. Why would that be important? Well, now when you need to remember to do something at a certain place or when you leave somewhere, your iOS device will alert you about the specified activity. They sync with iCal and Outlook, so all that information isn’t trapped in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

What else?

Cord cutting: We all know Apple is cutting the cord for its iCloud service but it’s also getting rid of PC dependency for its mobile devices in a whole other way. Now when you buy a new iPhone or iPad, you can setup the device without going near a desktop computer. Software updates are now available OTA as well.

Newsstand: As more big name print publishers are getting on board to push subscriptions to iOS devices, Apple has created the Newsstand app for purchasing and accessing this content.

Camera: The iOS Camera app is obviously one of the most crucial features an Apple mobile device has, and now they have added functionality. Via the lock screen, users can double tap the home button to pull the app and use the volume buttons to capture images. There are now some simple editing capabilities as well.

Game Center: During the event, we heard that Apple’s Game Center has become wildly popular (it has 50 million users) and would be getting more social. Profiles will include user photos and a way to view your points against your friends, see their friends, and a way to recommended games within your network. The most exciting upgrade (we think) is support for turn-based games on your mobile Apple device.

iPad only: The iPad 2 will now support multitasking gestures and AirPlay mirroring. The latter feature allows you to stream content from your iPad 2 to your HDTV via Apple TV and you will see everything as it appears on the iPad – including zoom, and rotation.

iPad versus MacBook Air: Which is right for you?

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Feb 22nd 2011 at 1:00PM

Both the iPad and the MacBook Air offer phenomenal hardware solutions, but they occupy distinct niches. A well-accessorized iPad may take you pretty far along the way in getting work done on-the-go, but in no way does it provide the full OS X experience. In cost as well as weight, a low-end MacBook Air is not all that different from an iPad, but it lacks the simple form factor and touch-based interface that makes the iPad a perfect lightweight reading and connectivity solution. Two tools, two form factors -- which one is right for you?

At this time, Apple's computing solutions consist of five families. They include:

• Pocket solutions: small in form factor and big in music and gaming, these include the iPhone and iPod touch pocket-based devices.
• Tablets: perfect for on-the-go reading, media watching and lightweight connectivity, this family is represented by the iPad.
• Laptops: including the sleek MacBook Air as well as the more powerful (but larger) MacBook Pro, laptops provide mobility crossed with full OS X solutions.
• Desktops: ranging from the consumer-grade Mac mini through the incredibly able iMacs and topping out with the Mac Pro, these computers let you get your work done with as many monitors, hard drives and printers as your work demands.
• Other: a catch-all family for computers that don't fit into the other categories, this family is currently limited to the non-mobile TV-based Apple TV, which provides an iOS solution with a limited user appliance interface.

The iPad and MacBook Air belong to separate families, and yet they're often put up against each other for purchasing decisions, especially when considering the 11-inch entry MBA. Both provide mobile on-the-go solutions. Both are lightweight. Both are affordable. So why go for one over the other? It all comes down to use case.

When the MacBook Air first debuted, many people called it "Apple's netbook." It wasn't. The Air is a full-featured laptop with a proper keyboard and screen, despite its small size. Netbooks, for all that they looked like laptops, were used in a different way. Their incredibly low cost and mobile form factor was not geared to providing a full OS experience. Instead, they provided a simpler on-the-go way to keep in touch and perform light computing tasks. Netbook computing wasn't about work, it was about connectivity and experiencing media, the same tasks now performed by Apple's iPad.

The iPad is the perfect device for playing games, watching some shows, checking email, surfing the Web and reading books. It may not be the ideal device for any single one of those tasks, but it is excellent at doing all of them. Add in its incredibly slim form factor and amazing portability, and you're looking at what the netbook should have been from the beginning. Instead of shrinking a laptop and using 5 percent of a standard operating system, the iPad offers core netbook functionality with a physical package that beautifully matches those tasks.

What the iPad does not do well is work. Yes, you can get work done when the need arises, but the iPad was not designed for day-to-day business. It is, at its heart, a netbook with the core demands of light computing and connectivity guiding its use. If you want multitasking, multiple windows, professional software suites and so forth, then you want a proper computer running a full-featured OS. You want a laptop or desktop, not a pocket or tablet device, even if you still need mobility.

That's where the MacBook Air excels. It provides the same kind of beautiful form factor and portability that typifies the iPad while adding in the full OS X experience. When your demands are business, deadlines and mobility, the MBA is the solution. Yes, you can find iPad workarounds and viewers, but why settle?

The MBA offers exactly the same UI, the same software and the same power as other desktop installations, but it provides these on a lightweight laptop that travels in the car and to the coffee shop as well as into the boardroom and the classroom. It does this with a full hardware keyboard and trackpad, without iPad compromise.

In the end, it all comes down to you and your needs. The iPad is not a laptop, and laptops are not iPads. Your specific use case and your personal needs should guide you as to whether you want to cuddle up with an iPad or drink mocha with a MacBook. They are both powerful, affordable and usable solutions. Which one is right for you?

Floor Plans for IT Show 2011

It's going to start tomorrow, and here's the floor plans for the IT Show, and their exhibitors.

How to Improve Battery Life on Any Gadget

The lithium ion batteries in our phones, laptops, cameras and MP3 players never seem to last long enough. But there are plenty of small adjustments you can make to make sure batteries don't run down quite so quickly. Here's a complete guide to improving all your gadgets' battery life.

These days, we ask a lot of our gadgets. They, in turn, ask a lot of their batteries. And while the lithium-ion batteries that power most of today's mobile devices are an improvement on the ones electronics used to rely on (they last longer and don't have a "battery memory" effect to worry about), having a laptop expire midflight is still frustrating. Short of any chemistry breakthroughs, our batteries won't be getting much better anytime soon. That means it's up to us to stretch their abilities as far as possible.

For just about any lithium-ion-powered gadget, there are a few basic rules that should help with battery life. First, try to avoid extreme hot or cold temperatures—these conditions can limit the charge. You'll also want to go through at least one charge cycle a month. A battery won't lose its charge as quickly if you keep its electrons moving. If you know it's going to be a long time before you use a gadget again, run its battery down to a bit under half of the maximum charge and leave it in the fridge (but never the freezer). And for many electronics, downloading the latest firmware from the manufacturer's Web site can provide better battery management.

Phones

Modern mobile phones are communication addicts. Even when they aren't making calls, they are constantly pinging cell towers, searching for networks and grabbing e-mail from the data cloud. All these connections use a lot of power. So turn off your phone's Bluetooth when you aren't using a wireless headset or transferring data, turn off its 3G connection and Wi-Fi when you aren't surfing the Web or using data-intense applications, and turn off the GPS receiver when you aren't trying to pinpoint your location. And while smart phones such as the iPhone can continuously check for and download new e-mails, each of these check-ins uses power. Turning off this "push e-mail" and pulling your messages manually (and less frequently) will stretch your battery life.

Other preventable phone-battery wasters: the speakerphone, the "vibrate" function and anything that uses the phone's processor or screen, such as pictures, music, movies and games. Keeping the key lock on can prevent accidental in-pocket button pushes from wastefully turning on the screen's backlight.

MP3 Players

If battery life is important, opt for an MP3 player that stores its data on flash memory. Hard-drive-based players usually hold more songs, but they also have more moving parts, which translates into shorter battery life.

You'll also want to adjust a few key settings. First, set the backlight timer, which controls how long a screen's backlight stays on after a button has been pressed, to the minimum time available. Then make sure the sound equalizer (called simply "EQ" on iPods) is turned off—that added bass boost doesn't come for free. However, if you're using an iPod and made changes to a song's equalizer preset within iTunes, this won't help. In this case, switch the EQ setting to "Flat."

And as tempting as it is to song-surf, it's more efficient to simply let a playlist or shuffle run without skipping. Not only does jumping tracks trigger the screen's backlight, but it also calls the player's processor (and hard drive, if it has one) into service. And, with some MP3 players, sticking to shorter songs can save power. The iPod, in particular, uses a memory cache to store upcoming tracks. This cache is designed to work most efficiently with music files that are smaller than 9 MB.

One last point: Most MP3 players face substantial power penalties when they play tracks with antipiracy digital rights management built in. This is because it takes processing power for the players to decrypt the files. So stick to simple MP3s when possible.

Cameras

Auto-flash and autofocus functions allow anybody to point and shoot with just about any camera. However, these crutches are battery-busters. Cutting back on your use of a camera's flash and autofocus won't just allow you to take more photos between charges, it will also make your shots more interesting. So try manually adjusting the focus (assuming your camera allows you to). And instead of using a flash, increase the camera's light sensitivity by raising the ISO setting, or adjust the exposure manually, if you can.

Still, a camera's single biggest battery-burner is its LCD screen. Framing your shots with the optical viewfinder (assuming your camera has one) can yield massive power savings. Likewise, fight the temptation to repeatedly review your shots on the screen.

Laptops

First stop: Your laptop's preprogrammed power-saving settings. These save juice by trimming down on a computer's internal activity, typically by minimizing the unnecessary use of its processor, screen and hard drive. To find these settings in Windows Vista, go to your computer's Control Panel and click Power Options, then Power Saver. For Macs, click into System Preferences and then Energy Saver. You can even create a custom setting that will save more energy by cutting power to these components after they've been idle for as little as 1 minute.

The optical drive is one of the biggest bandits. Instead of watching movies off of DVDs, watch them off your hard drive. Another culprit: external components, particularly powered USB gadgets that piggyback off your laptop's battery. If battery life is a concern, stick to a laptop's own keyboard and trackpad.

As with other gadgets, dimming a laptop's screen will save power. But you can save even more by turning the backlight off completely when it's not needed. Turn the brightness down until the backlight is completely off while you wait for idle tasks such as downloads and file conversions to complete.

You'll also want to turn off scheduled tasks and close applications that aren't in use—particularly ones that launch automatically at startup. And, as with anything with a wireless connection, kill the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you aren't using them.

Oddly, a battery doesn't need to be completely dead for a laptop to shut down—the computer just needs to think it's dead. Recalibrate the circuits that keep tabs on how much battery life is left by running the battery down completely and charging it back up. Do this every 30 or so charge cycles.