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The Apple Blog

TheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.


Yazsoft Monster Holiday GiveawayYesterday

Yazsoft today announced an extensive Christmas giveaway — their “biggest one yet.” From December 1 to December 24, 2008, everyone has a chance to win 1 of 4 grand packages. No purchase is required to enter, and winners will be drawn randomly during the first week of January 2009. Entering is simple, just email Yazsoft with the subject line ‘Yazsoft Holiday Giveaway.’

Each Grand package will consist of:

  • 1 MacBook computer (MB467LL/A: 2.4GHz)
  • 1 LED Cinema Display 24 inch
  • 1 Apple iPhone (8GB)

It’s a fairly comprehensive set of prizes and, with entering as simple as sending an email, it’s definitely worth a shot. Obviously, the odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. As you’d expect, you can only enter once.
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Ecardlets: Greeting Cards for Your iPhoneYesterday

If you’re like me, sending holiday cards is one of those “necessary evils” of the holidays. A new service, Ecardlets.com, hopes to make the process a little easier — at least for your friends with iPhones.

Ecardlets.com is a San Francisco, CA startup founded by ex-Microsoft and ex-Googlers, and has just launched its initial public beta of the first-ever ecard platform designed specifically for the iPhone. The unique three-dimensional greeting cards take advantage of the iPhone touch screen by allowing recipients to open and flip the cards with just a flick of the finger.

I tried out the service today by sending myself a few cards. The service couldn’t be any easier to use. Simply design your card and hit “send.” The service sends a text message to your AT&T iPhone recipient which includes a link to your card. Then simply swipe your finger to open the card and read the enclosed message.

There are plenty of stock cards ready to send (there’s even a “Congratulations on your new iPhone” card), but the service will b

Joost iPhone App: A Bit DisappointingYesterday

Personally, I can’t get enough of the new podcast features rolled out in the iPhone/iPod touch 2.2 firmware update. They’re now an indispensable part of my daily commuting. That’s why I was looking forward to Joost for the iPhone (free). It seemed to have the potential to provide the same kind of time-killing power and more, because of its library of content, which includes popular film and television shows. The app comes with some caveats, however, and it remains to be seen whether those limitations will prevent the app from reaching its full potential.

First strike, although it doesn’t affect users in the U.S., international iPhone owners may be disappointed in the library of available content. Unless you’re a huge fan of Naruto, which seems to make up all of the Anime video section. Many services encounter problems when trying to pick up international distribution rights for all types of media. Pandora is one high profile example, as is Hulu for video. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more content available in future. The Xbox Live Marketplace has brought video to Canada a

Keep Your Mac Clean and Tidy With SpongeYesterday

Dare to be Creative has released Sponge, a system cleaning and optimization tool for Mac OS X. The tagline for the product, summing up the aim of Sponge well, is:

You’re running out of disk space? You want to clean your disk to free up some space and get rid of the clutter? Sponge is a tool to keep your Mac clean and tidy.

Features

Sponge combines three different techniques to clean up your Mac: removing applications, locating the large files on your drive and finding duplicates.

  • Removing applications: Sponge generates a list of all the applications installed on your system, how much space these applications occupy, and their associated files and folders. Sponge then provides the facility to remove applications safely from the system.
  • Sweeping disk hogs: Sponge will show which files and directories take up the most space, giving you a starting point for cleaning some of the clutter from your Mac. Once you’ve tracked them down, Sponge can conveniently swipe them off your disk.
  • Finding duplicates: With all the attachments, memos, letters and other documents with which we are flooded in today’s world, it’s easy to lose track and accidentally save duplicates of files. Sponge makes findin
“Mapple” Lampoons the Cupertino Faithful on The SimpsonsYesterday

Apple fans found their beloved company satirized Simpsons-style last night. The latest installment of the Fox cartoon featured a “Mapple” store in the beginning of the episode, a tech store where hip, young t-shirted employees take brand loyalty very seriously and display an inordinate amount of devotion to their bespectacled leader. Sound familiar?

The Mapple Store bears an uncanny resemblance to the 5th Avenue Apple Store, with the exception of being in Springfield’s Mall and not New York City. Lisa is amazed at the MyPods, MyPhones, and the Braniac Bar, where smug customer service representatives deal with Comic Book Guy’s complaints about the latest Mapple OS. Homer is intrigued by the dream-fueled, imagination-powered MyCube, whose function isn’t entirely clear, and which glows to show you that it’s not on.
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