haniblog

They’ve done it again, those Tapbots boys. Pastebot the third iPhone app they’ve released, after Weightbot and Convertbot and they’re getting better every time.

Pastebot is a clipboard manager for your iPhone and your Mac. Quite simply, with this app anything you copy, image, text or link can be pasted into Pastebot. Run the app, hold down on the item and it will be put into the iPhone’s clipboard to be pasted anywhere. The magic really happens when you get Pastebot Sync, a free system prefpane on OS X. Once connected with the iPhone when it’s running Pastebot, anything you copy on your Mac will automagically transfer to the app on the iPhone. Copy an image, a block of text (with formatting), html, video or an mp3 file and it pops into a slot in the iPhone.

Now how would this be useful? Here are a few recipes I picked up from different websites. As you can see I copied the recipe image and text and Pastebot did it’s duty and created slots for each item. The really cool thing is if I hold down on any image or text on the app it’s pasted into the current running application on my Mac! This operation is so quick it feels as if I hit ⌘-V on the keyboard.

Click to see the full interface.

As with the previous apps Tapbots conjure up, the interface is magnificent. Guys, you’ve done it again. Pastebot costs a paltry £1.79 in the App Store.

Barely a day after the iPad introduction and everyone and their next-door neighbour’s cousin’s friend’s dog has an opinion on the new device. I think the ratio of the number of people who have actually used one over the people opining are probably 1:20,000,000 or so.

“It’s just a big iPhone!”

“No camera and no flash!”

As everyone who knows me knows I’m an unabashed Apple fanboy and my opinion? I’m very impressed and I think I see the potential, but I am also ambivalent. I’ll wait until I hold one and try it myself. Everyone who was actually at the keynote and tried the iPad is completely won over, from John Gruber to Stephen Fry to Michael Pusateri. Money quote from the latter:

I am a technology professional. For almost 20 years I’ve tested, used, broke, fixed, and played with all kinds of technology from broadcasting to air conditioning to software. I am not easily swayed in these things. But even with all my skepticism, I think the iPad is something different. A new way of computing that will become commonplace.

Of course it’s called iPad! What was I thinking of? No clues yet on pricing or availability in the UK but with current exchange rates it should start at £300. Which makes it a nice birthday present, no?

This feels just like how it was before the iPhone was revealed, doesn’t it? The Tablet will be announced 6.00pm London time and I have to admit that I’m a teensy bit excited. Today’s tablet rumour video looks slick now but how will it appear after the event?

Seriously though, I love how Apple work so incredibly hard to make me a birthday present.

With Apple’s special event happening this Wednesday I thought it would be fun to feature the best Tablet mockups over the next few days. Today’s video rumour is a Tablet running an Ikea app (in Pounds Sterling, no less!). Enjoy!

I’m trying to avoid repetition but sometimes too many good developments happen around the same time so apologies for this. With regards to my recent Boxee post, I discovered an interface update to Plex which brings that software back in front. Get the AeonSlim skin for Plex. Now. It’s stunning.

All the images you see in this post are randomised from a huge set of attractive Backdrops . Enjoy!

Installation instructions: Apologies for not posting proper install notes as it was quite late last night when I posted this. Here’s how to get it going:

1. Download Aeon Slim and the Backdrops.

2. Uncompress the AeonSlim folder. Open a new window and go to your home folder. From there go to Library > Application Support > Plex > skins and move the AeonSlim folder in there.

3. Uncompress the various Movies, Pictures, TV Shows and Music folders downloaded from the Backdrops link and move them all into a folder (I created a Backdrops folder within my Pictures folder and dropped them all in there.)

4. Run Plex. Go to Settings > Appearance > Look and Feel and change the Skin to AeonSlim.

5. Go to Settings > Customise and then Backdrops.

6. Select Movies, press Enter, then the down arrow and navigate to where your Movie backdrops are. Do the same for Music, Picture and TV Shows.

7. There is no step 7! Done! Enjoy Plex!

There’s been a huge volume of speculation on the rumoured Tablet and now it’s all but confirmed. Apple sent out invites to the press for a special event next week and the rumour mill has now changed into the cast of CSI: Apple Invite. Among the names for the new device, the two that seem to have stuck are iSlate and Apple Tablet but a recent comment on Twitter by Cabel Sasser just lit a big lightbulb over my head. My Apple predictions have been ropey, to say the least, but that comment along with the invite design above, seems to fit.

So, Apple Canvas?

I’m not one for complacency so I sometimes throw out what I’m used to and start again. I bought a MacBook Pro recently and started fresh with only my MobileMe sync to get me going. Actually I’m typing this on my second-new MacBook Pro since the first one had wobbly feet which Apple replaced with, again, no quibbles.

Like any long-time Mac user, Safari was always my main browser but there have been times where I’ve had Firefox, Camino and even Opera as my default. I almost always go back to Safari after a while and shake my head at my folly. This is the browser, I’d say to myself.

And here we go again with Google’s Chrome. But after two days I’m encouraged and I really like what I see. The tabs are brilliantly organised and much better than the short-lived Safari beta implementation. My favourite feature so far is the Omnibox. Most other browsers have an address box along with a separate search box on the side. Chrome combines the two into a “How could I have lived without this?!?” feature. Type in any search term into the address field and Google Suggest finds relevant sites for you. Or go for an URL you know and it’s there. Brilliant.

Chrome is also snappy to launch and quite a fast browser. I’ll forcibly use this for this week and then switch back to Safari to see if I miss anything Chrome-wise.

Updates to follow.

UPDATE 15th Jan: What? No auto-RSS detection? Am I missing something? And no Mac Extensions yet. Crap.

UPDATE 18th Jan: Right it’s back to Safari for this week to compare.

UPDATE 30th Jan: Safari it is I’m afraid. Chrome was snappy and responsive, as I stated previously, but there’s a feeling of gimmicky-ness that I just couldn’t shake.

There are three alternatives to Front Row: XBMC, Plex and Boxee. Actually, both Plex and Boxee owe their existence to XBMC since they’re based on the open source media content player. My preference had always been Plex but the Boxee crew have just released a new beta. And it, as they say, rocks.

Just as with Plex and XBMC, Boxee will scan your user folder for music, films and TV shows and play them all fullscreen with a slick 10-foot user interface. You can also specify remote servers to stream content to your local system. Boxee version 1 had a strong social network layer to it, which the other two don’t. For my use, I found that distracting and unnecessary. Thankfully, the current beta’s interface has been completely overhauled and the social-centric functions have been tucked away leaving a beautiful and clean interface. Here’s my Home Screen.

I love the simple but quite effective icons for the application’s main functions. Here are the Movies and Music interface screens.

Lovely interface isn’t it? And here’s the Global Menu which lets the user jump between the main functions, application settings and shortcuts.

Boxee also have released Boxee Remote a free iPhone app that controls the interface remotely across the network. The Boxee app also features a gestural interface that has to be seen or tried to be appreciated.

It gets better. Boxee have teamed up with electronics manufacturer D-Link to create the Boxee Box.

This unusually shaped yet attractive media box makes my WDTV look archaic. Aside from the usual HDMI, USB and Optical Audio ports, it has 11n WiFi built-in, an SD card slot and a brilliant RF remote with a full qwerty keyboard. And it’ll retail for less than $200.

Why oh why was this not released before Christmas?

This is the current satellite view of Southern England and yes it is as cold as it looks! And it’ll get colder over the next week or so. Click on the image above for a view of the whole country.

We missed having a white Christmas day but it’s certainly been cold and snowy right before and after. Still, our girls are thoroughly enjoying the weather and the walk to school takes twice as long, with all the snowball-making and mummy-targetting. Even Gillian’s getting in on the act, bashing me with a few rock-hard balls of solid ice and drifts swept in my face with childish ruses such as, “Oh no! Is that a little dog stuck in that car?” Like I said, childish.

And here she is, the sneaky snowballer in action. Hey, what the hell. Merry New Year everyone!