Section: Reviews Provides: Voice activation for alarm and time settings Developer: Moshi Lifestyle Minimum Requirements: AC wall outlet (3 AAA batteries for backup), voice Price: $49.99 Availability: Now What does an alarm clock have to do with Apple products? Not much, in this case. There’s no iPhone dock, no iPod compatibility at all. This is just an alarm clock, but with one fairly unique feature; it’s almost entirely voice activated. So, let’s say you’re getting a little to used to calling up your music by simply stating the name of the band and the song. Or maybe you use voice dialing on your iPhone pretty much every time you make a call. You can now carry that simplicity over to setting your alarm at night and waking up in the morning. The conversation goes like this: You: “Hello, Moshi.” Moshi: “Welcome. Command Please.” You: “Set time.” Moshi: “What is the current time?” You: “3:45 p.m.” And there you go. The time is now set.

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Get your browsers ready kids, it’s live-bloggin’ time! Starting at 10am PST on Wednesday January 27, the Mac|Life staff will be bringing you up-to-the-minute information directly from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. What will our favorite technology company release? The Tablet, iPhone OS 4.0, an Apple TV with DVR and an LOLcat feature? We’ll find out on Wednesday. If you can’t make it to MacLife.com during your work day, you can follow our Twitter feed at Twitter.com/maclife or follow along on your iPhone with our magical Cover It Live module.  

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Get your browsers ready kids, it’s live-bloggin’ time! Starting at 10am PST on Wednesday January 27, the Mac|Life staff will be bringing you up-to-the-minute information directly from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. What will our favorite technology company release? The Tablet, iPhone OS 4.0, an Apple TV with DVR and an LOLcat feature? We’ll find out on Wednesday. If you can’t make it to MacLife.com during your work day, you can follow our Twitter feed at Twitter.com/maclife or follow along on your iPhone with our magical Cover It Live module.  

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Well, the year has certainly settled down into the same old routines that were popular in December of 2009. Whodathunkit? We’d hoped you’d have kept your New Year’s resolutions at least a little longer than two lousy weeks, but, then, we’re still spending (wasting) just as much time on Lolcats now as last year. At least we have a little something for you that isn’t a waste of your time. That’s right, it’s our weekly round up of stuff you might have missed while singing along to " The Internet is Made of Cats ." Features: – 50 Killer Mac Apps For Under $50 – Try to find software out there on the internet to do anything, and you’re bombarded with every developer in the world’s version of something. Some are free, some are share, and some cost a little bit. But why risk plunking down your hard earned dollars on something you’ve never even heard of before, something whose quality you can’t judge? See, that’s why you read Mac|Life. We’ve got you covered whether your interests are organizing your collections, sharing files, playing different media formats, getting your to-do lists in order, straightening your finances, or jumping into social media. – 20 Real-World Uses for Google Wave – From the moment it was announced, we signed up for  then pined and ached for our Google Wave invite. Once we got it, though, like a lot of people we weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Unless you know a few other people who can tap its digital richness, it’s not much fun playing with it by yourself. Pass these little lessons along to your friends and get Waving with the best of ‘em. Reviews: – Motorola Droid – Let’s cut straight to the chase here, never mind games, never mind software. Let’s talk the latest smartphone to try a crack at the iPhone’s well-deserved crown, the Motorola Droid

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Short of sexting and posting Facebook status updates illiterately quoting homonymously mangled Lady Gaga lyrics, few teen activities seem as ubiquitous as descending upon the local Apple store in one lolzoring, bubble-gum-smacking biomass and stupiding it up for everyone. Usually that stupid is pretty much confined to Photo Booth, but one New York teenager set

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TotalFinder is starting to cause a buzz in the Mac community. The app aims to bring something to Finder long-rumored to be coming from Apple itself: tabs. We spoke to developer Antonin Hildebrand about his project, the reasons behind it, and his plans for its future. Please note: TotalFinder is alpha software that integrates with Finder.

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Section: iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Features , Originals My family never had many traditions. Back in the ‘70s, we always watched King Kong on channel 43 on Thanksgiving, and there was The Sound of Music on Easter. But as far as family traditions outside of what most families did, we were never really that creative. Except for this; every year on Christmas Eve, we’d get home from the evening church service and gather ‘round the record player to hear dad’s old, scratchy 45 of Louis Armstrong reciting “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Now, the iPhone is no substitute for a vintage turntable, and Louis Armstrong is simply irreplaceable. But if you’re in a pinch for a peaceful way to end your Christmas Eve, there’s no shortage of iPhone apps available to do the trick. Do a search for “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and you’ll turn up 18 apps. A few of these are games (Santa’s Delivery Dash? Uh…okay.), but the majority feature the classic poem by Clement C. Moore. If you’re the type who likes to read the poem yourself, BeamItDown Software’s Twas the Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore is about as traditional as you can get. The main feature here is that the app scrolls the text as if on a teleprompter, so it’s easy to read without the pauses of turning pages. Also, it doesn’t hurt that it’s free. For a more modern, iPhone-style approach that still keeps its roots in tradition, check out Twas the Night Before Christmas Illustrated Story with Music from OnceUponAnApp. As implied by its name, it features a music accompaniment, but the real draw are the original illustrations by Curtis Wager-Smith. This app just looks like Christmas…or, at least what we want Christmas to look like.

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Section: Software + Apps , Miscellaneous , Third-Party , iPod + iTunes , iPod touch , iPhone , iPhone , iPhone SDK & Apps , Mac + Computers , Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for November 24, 2009: Macintosh Ergonis Software has released PopChar X 4.3 , the award-winning tool for finding and inserting special characters. The new version supports the usage of font collections, can restrict the font list to only those fonts that contain a special character, and adds support for Unicode 5.2. PopChar X 4.3 utilizes Ergonis’ new easy installation and upgrade technique. Furthermore, PopChar X 4.3 improves compatibility with Snow Leopard as well as with MS Word, MS Excel, and Java applications. Dejal Systems, LLC has announced Simon 2.5.4 , the essential server monitoring tool for Mac OS X. It checks websites and many other kinds of services for changes or failures, with lots of notification and reporting options. Version 2.5.4 includes a couple of important fixes, and is a recommended update for all users. Simon is available in TheMacBundles for just a few more days. Discounts are also available via MacUpdate Promo and the Dejal Store. Apparent Software has extended its offer for MacGraPhoto buyers with additional 50% discount on leading Mac applications, including Pixelmator image editor, Apple Design Award winning Sandvox easy web site builder, Apple Design Award winning Fontcase font manager, iCollage application, and Cashculator, a unique personal financial application. An additional application -  ButtonDesign is added for free. These add up to additional savings over the regular MacGraPhoto promotion. iPresentee has released Keynote Animations 3.0 for Apple’s Keynote presentation software. The new package contains 115 animations. It includes 80 animations from the previous release and adds 35 new remarkable animations which are made with the precision, highly detailed and easy to use.

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Section: iPhone , iPhone There has been a lot of news lately on iPhone worms targeting those with jailbroken phones. These exploits take advantage of people with jailbroken iPhones using OpenSSH (which is available via Cydia) who don’t change their password for access as both a “root” (most powerful) and “mobile” (more restricted) user. Apple has actually officially commented on the situation, stating that “the worm affects only a very specific set of iPhone users who have jail broken[sic] their iPhones and hacked it with unauthorized software.” Apple has never been friendly towards jailbreakers, and it seems from their statement that they don’t even want to be bothered with it. The only good side of all this is that if you have a jailbroken iPhone with OpenSSH installed, you can simply secure your device from being targeted by this worm. To do so, follow the steps below from TUAW : Install MobileTerminal via Cydia (or login to SSH from Terminal.app on your Mac or a Cygwin-equipped Windows PC). Type “login,” you will then be asked for a login name, enter “root” and “alpine” as the password. Type “passwd” and then tap return (or your enter key) and you’ll be asked for a new password, enter it and tap return again. Repeat the previous process for the “mobile” user by replacing “root” with “mobile” and then “alpine” as your password again. Also, if you’d like to go the extra mile, you can install jailbreak apps like BossPrefs or SBSettings, both of which contain toggles to disable SSH when it’s not in use. Having SSH disabled is obviously the safest way of avoiding any worms. Read [ TheLoop ] Via [ TUAW ] Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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iPhone devs are a rebellious bunch, and they don’t like to be bullied by anyone other than their Apple, which both frustrates and affirms their existence. Now, in light of what some might call a campaign being waged against the App Store by a well-known trademark troll, many iPhone devs are protesting what they see as Apple’s cowardice in the face of unjust threats. According to TUAW , the trademark troll in question is none other than Tim Langdell, founder of the “gaming company” Edge Games . In reality, Edge Games produces very little beyond copyright infringement suits, which it launches against any and all games that feature the word “edge” in their title. EA’s Mirror’s Edge recently fell between Langdell’s crosshairs, for example, despite the fact that the game itself bears no similarity to any of Edge Games’ roster of “planned” titles. Apparently the App Store has been a prime target for Tim Langdell and Edge Games. Reports claim that all he has to do is contact Apple and let them know that a game is in violation of his trademarks — which again, basically means it has “edge” somewhere in the title — and Apple pulls the game without much fuss. No doubt Apple just doesn’t want to deal with yet another legal battle that could ensue if Langdell gets the opportunity to take things beyond the cease-and-desist phase, but this really seems unfair to honest game devs who actually work for their money. In protest, a group of iPhone devs are changing the names of their games to include “edge” in the titles, with the desired outcome being that Apple will realize that to continue just disallowing the word completely will significantly affect the App Store’s catalog of offerings. So, for example, Canabalt becomes “ Canabedge ,” the Eliss sequel becomes “ Edgeliss ” and Critter Crunch becomes “ Critter Credge .” All of the changes mentioned haven’t actually been made to the apps in the store, but on developer web sites as a show of solidarity. Even though this particular protest limits itself to the area beyond Apple’s sphere of control, it does demonstrate a promising solution to App Store bully tactics. If developers could organize in a similar manner, but with bigger numbers and with the support of some of the pillars of the App Store, they could more effectively combat unfair policies

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