Search Results

Search found 4585 results on 184 pages for 'apple 2'.

Page 83/184 | < Previous Page | 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90  | Next Page >

  • Hard crash when using bluetooth headset on MacBook Pro and Lion 10.7.2

    - by jtalarico
    I recently picked up a bluetooth headset (Motorola S10-HD) and started using it with my MacBook Pro (17" purchased new in 2010) running Lion 10.7.2. Here's what works - stereo audio: iTunes Spotify Pandora (via browser) games (e.g. Minecraft, which is a Java app) audio from YouTube Plex, VLC, other video players Here's what doesn't work well - stereo audio fails and the headset seems to go into mono (i.e. tinny-as-hell) mode: Google Hangout Skype GoTo Meeting Here's what's just downright catastrophic. If I'm listening to stereo audio and then decide to jump into a Skype call (Google Hangout, or GoTo Meeting), bluetooth often crashes and I can only get things working again by shutting down the device, disabling bluetooth, and getting things back up and running again. But the audio is still horrible, and MUCH better using just a simple set of iPhone earbuds and mic. About 80% of the time during such a call, bluetooth crashes. And about 90% of the time, after the call ends, Skype is shut down, or I try to switch back to playing stereo audio, I get a hard crash!! The gray screen of death descends and I'm told I need to restart my machine. In one such instance, even after a reboot, I could not enable bluetooth again ("Turn Bluetooth On" was grayed out in taskbar). Is this just a weak implementation of bluetooth by Apple, or is this a hardware issue? I've seen others posting similar issues even on the Apple support site indicating that bluetooth headsets are failing left and right, but I haven't seen anyone mention hard crashes.

    Read the article

  • How to reproduce the behavior of Mac OS X's dead keys on Windows 7?

    - by Pascal Qyy
    I'm French, but I've chosen to take a QWERTY keyboard for my MacBook Pro for many reasons: first of all, the AZERTY keyboard is not at all ergonomic because it has no numeric keypad, and I must use MAJ or CAPS LOCK to access to the numeric keys ; secondly, I've bought this mac for development ; and chars {, }, etc., are not directly accessible on the Apple AZERTY keyboard the last thing is that: the diacritics are VERY easy to produce on an Apple keyboard with Mac OS X : ? + c for a ç, for example, and many dead keys easy to use (e.g. ? + e, then e give you an é. So, I have no difficulties to write in my native language with this keyboard under Mac OS X. BUT, when I boot on Windows 7's Boot Camp partition, or when I use applications from it through VMware Unity, it is no longer the same comfort! Without numeric keypad, it's impossible to use it for produce specials characters (e.g.: Alt + 0231 for the ç) I've tried many solutions, like auto replacement in Microsoft Office (e.g.: ,,c being replaced by ç), but for all my diacritics, I must type a space, then a back space before the replacement work. I've also tried third party software, as Texter, but it is very buggy and don't work properly (or don't work at all) in many case! So, is there a solution somewhere, to have this Mac OS X's nice and comfortable way of producing diacritics for Windows 7? Thank in advance for your help and your time!

    Read the article

  • Auto Launching PHP-FPM

    - by Seth
    My plist file <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd" > <plist version='1.0'> <dict> <key>Label</key><string>org.macports.php-fpm</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/opt/local/bin/daemondo</string> <string>--label=php-fpm</string> <string>--start-cmd</string> <string>/opt/local/sbin/php-fpm</string> <string>;</string> <string>--pid=fileauto</string> <string>--pidfile</string> <string>/opt/local/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.pid</string> </array> <key>Debug</key><false/> <key>Disabled</key><true/> <key>OnDemand</key><false/> </dict> </plist> After rebooting, it's not loading up automatically. I still have to manually start php-fpm. I have tried unloading and adding RunAtLoad etc. with no luck and tried both these launchctl commands. sudo launchctl load -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.php-fpm.plist sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.php-fpm.plist

    Read the article

  • How to make quicksilver remember custom trigger

    - by corroded
    I am trying to make a custom trigger for my shell/apple script file to run so I can just launch my dev environment at the push of a button. So basically: I have a shell script(and some apple script included) in ~ named start_server.sh which does 3 things: start up solr server start up memcached start up script/server I have a saved quicksilver command(.qs) that opens up start_server.sh(so start_server.sh, then the action is "Run in Terminal") I created a custom trigger that calls this saved qs command. I did that then tested it and it works. I then tried to double check it so I quit quicksilver and when I checked the triggers it just said: "Open (null)" as the action. I set the trigger again and when i restarted QS the same thing happened again. I don't know why but my old custom trigger to open terminal has worked since forever so why doesn't this one work? Here's a screenie of the triggers after I restart QS: http://grab.by/4XWW If you have any other suggestion on how to make a "push button" start for my server then please do so :) Thanks! As an added note, I have already tried the steps on this thread but to no avail: http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver/browse_thread/thread/7b65ecf6625f8989

    Read the article

  • Convention location for JAR files for a LaunchDaemon on OS X?

    - by Barry Wark
    I'm setting up a Hudson build slave on an OS X machine. I'm using launchd to start the slave using the following plist in `/Library/LaunchDaemons/': <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>KeepAlive</key> <true/> <key>Label</key> <string>org.hudson-ci.jnlpslave</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/usr/bin/java</string> <string>-jar</string> <string>/Users/Shared/Hudson/slave.jar</string> <string>-noCertificateCheck</string> <string>-jnlpUrl</string> <string>file:///Users/Shared/Hudson/slave-agent.jnlp</string> </array> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> </dict> </plist> I'm currently putting the slave.jar and slave-agent.jnlp files in /Users/Shared/Hudson but this seems like an unnecessarily user-visible location. What's the convention? Where should I be putting these JARs for a daemon?

    Read the article

  • PHP application failed to connect after a network plugged back in

    - by tntu
    My data-center appears to have had some issues with their network and thus my server has suffered from on an off network connectivity for about an hour. After the connection has been completely re-established my code still kept reporting the same issue over and over until I have restarted the service. The code is a simple PHP code that loops forever checking the Apple feed-back server and then sleeps for a few minutes and then it begins all over again. Now I understand the error being generated if the network is down but once it got back up why did it continue until I have restarted the code? Does PHP have something that needs to be re-initialized or something?? Messges log: Dec 20 08:57:22 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 08:57:28 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up Dec 20 08:57:29 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 08:57:33 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up Dec 20 08:57:33 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 08:57:37 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up Dec 20 08:57:38 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 08:57:44 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up Dec 20 08:57:44 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 08:57:52 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up Dec 20 08:57:52 server kernel: r8169: eth0: link down Dec 20 09:10:58 server kernel: r8169 0000:06:00.0: eth0: link up PHP Error: PHP Warning: stream_socket_client(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /home/push/feedback.php on line 36 Code Line 36: $apns = stream_socket_client('ssl://feedback.sandbox.push.apple.com:2196', $errcode, $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT, $stream_context);

    Read the article

  • UIDs for service users in Mac OS X

    - by LaC
    Some third-party servers should be run under a special user for security reasons (eg, PostgreSQL is typically run by "postgres"). Of course, these service users should not show up in the Mac OS X login windows. I know how to create hidden users using dscl or dsimport, but I'm wondering what the best policy is for assigning UIDs (and matching GIDs). Apple's documentation states that UIDs from 0 to 100 are reserved (pg. 69), but OS X comes with several special users and groups outside that range. I used to use ids from 401 onwards for services, but I noticed that OS X 10.6 has started using that range for groups created by the Sharing pane in System Preferences. What is the recommended ID range to use for third-party services, then? Perhaps I should just use IDs in the 500 range, since all that is needed to hide a user in Snow Leopard is setting his password to "*"? Also, most of Apple's services have names starting with an underscore, with an alias sans underscore; eg, _sandbox and sandbox. Is there any special significance to this? Should I do the same for my services?

    Read the article

  • How to set up Windows 7 Professional as a NAS

    - by Enyalius
    I searched and didn't find any answers, so please forgive me if this is a repeat. Anyway, I have an older computer that I'm using as an HTPC, and I was hoping that I could use it as a NAS/multimedia server, as well. My primary uses would include accessing content on my PS3 (same LAN), accessing content from other computers on my home network and (if I can) accessing content from my Android phone over the internet. I have used SubSonic to stream music to my Android phone and other computers before, but I would really like to find a way to do this natively if possible. I know that I can buy external hard disk cases that can plug in the USB port of my router, that I can get a Drobo or other network storage solution, but I would really just rather not spend the money (especially considering that I already have a computer that I should be able to use). Hardware involved: Apple AirPort Extreme base station router (most recent revision) Home Theater Personal Computer: Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz, 8GB DDR2 RAM, ~3.5TB hard drive space Sony Playstaiton 3 Thin 120GB HTC Thunderbolt (I have 4G coverage) rooted and running Android 2.2.1 Various Apple laptops Various Windows 7 desktops/laptops Thanks in advance! Note- I have looked at open source NAS software but I would like to preserve the Windows Media Center functionality in Windows 7, so other NAS software is not an option for me currently. .

    Read the article

  • Accessing CIFS shares from an OS X machine incredibly slow

    - by Aron Rotteveel
    This is a longshot, because this issue seems over-reported and unanswered on the internet (see references below), but it is about time this issue is permanently solved. The facts: Server: Windows Server 2008, acting as a file server Client: OS X Lion 10.7.3. Method of connecting: directly via IP through Finder: smb://192.168.1.100/share The problem: The initial connection attempt takes about a minute. After the connection is made, it takes one more minute to show the directories in Finder. After navigating to any other directory, it takes several seconds/minutes to parse the directory, seemingly based on the size of the contents. Actually, my entire Finder has this problem after connecting. When using Finder to show my desktop, it can literally take up to a minute to load. Obviously, this is not right. I have no clue how to fix this and would appreciate any help I can get. I am unsure about other relevant information I can provide, but if there is any, please let me know so I can update the post. I seem to be not the only one having this problem: Most importantly, an apple.stackexchange.com entry. Unsolved and unanswered. Several users on the Apple support forums. Users on EduGeek.

    Read the article

  • iPhone SDK 3.0 and symbolicatecrash not getting along?

    - by Steve
    * UPDATE * I've reinstalled with Snow Leopard, clean install. Completely wiped my existing Leopard install. Same problem persists. I've tried numbers of versions of symbolicatecrash to resolve symbols in my crash reports. From the version provided by Apple, to Alan's Quatermain's version posted on GitHub and finally from http://openradar.appspot.com/6438643. For whatever reason, the best results I can get is for symbols on my own libraries to get resolved. Normally, this is enough data to point me in the right direction -- other times it is not. With 2.x I had no problems getting the symbols for my code + Apple provided libraries from within the stack traces in each thread. Most likely an issue with my environment here, I'm not at all doubting the work that Apple or Alan have done. Yes I'm certain the dSYM I have stashed away is the same exact one that's generating the crash report. Although 'Foo' is me, and getting symbols from it is wonderful, I need to see symbols from the other functions in the stack to truly understand my reports. Note: For devices that crash running the app on iPhone OS 2.2.1, I have no problem getting all symbols. This is an iPhone OS 3.0 issue it appears. Also, while running symbolicatecrash in verbose mode here's a few of the things that struck me as wrong: - NO MATCH NOT searching in Spotlight for dsym with UUID of /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/CoreFoundation ## Warning: Can't find any unstripped binary that matches version of /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/CoreFoundation ..........fetching symbol file for libobjc.A.dylib--[undef] Searching [/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0 (5A345)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0 (5A347)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0.1 (5B108)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0.2 (5C1)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.1.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.2.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.2/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/3.0 (7A341)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib]...--[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0 (5A345)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0 (5A347)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0.1 (5B108)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.0.2 (5C1)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.1.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.2.1/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/2.2/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH --[/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/3.0 (7A341)/Symbols/usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib] -- NO MATCH NOT searching in Spotlight for dsym with UUID of /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib ## Warning: Can't find any unstripped binary that matches version of /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib Here's an example of the crash report after running it through symbolicatecrash: Thread 0 Crashed: 0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31dc476c 0x31d46000 + 517996 1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31dc4755 0x31d46000 + 517973 2 Foo 0x00053075 uncaught_exception_handler + 21 3 CoreFoundation 0x3028f65f 0x301fd000 + 599647 4 libobjc.A.dylib 0x30013693 0x3000c000 + 30355 5 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x374ccc2d 0x3748a000 + 273453 6 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x374ccc81 0x3748a000 + 273537 7 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x374ccd4d 0x3748a000 + 273741 8 libobjc.A.dylib 0x300135ff 0x3000c000 + 30207 9 CoreFoundation 0x30222f2d 0x301fd000 + 155437 10 CoreFoundation 0x30222ecb 0x301fd000 + 155339 11 Foundation 0x30521e33 0x30501000 + 134707 12 Foundation 0x30570d47 0x30501000 + 458055 13 Foo 0x0000a1db -[Bar barfoo] (Bar.m:1617) 14 Foo 0x00032f73 -[MyViewController foobar] (MyViewController.m:727) 15 Foo 0x000329b9 -[MyViewController foobar] (MyViewController.m:666) 16 Foo 0x00031fab -[MyViewController tabBar:tabSelected:] (MyViewController.m:440) 17 Foo 0x00068d41 -[TTTabBar setSelectedTabIndex:] (TTTabBar.m:160) 18 Foo 0x00068ca3 -[TTTabBar setSelectedTabView:] (TTTabBar.m:142) 19 Foo 0x000689cf -[TTTabBar tabTouchedUp:] (TTTabBar.m:83) 20 CoreFoundation 0x302552f9 0x301fd000 + 361209 21 UIKit 0x3094d101 0x308ed000 + 393473 22 UIKit 0x3094d0a1 0x308ed000 + 393377 23 UIKit 0x3094d073 0x308ed000 + 393331 24 UIKit 0x3094cdcd 0x308ed000 + 392653 25 UIKit 0x309779c1 0x308ed000 + 567745 26 UIKit 0x30977011 0x308ed000 + 565265 27 UIKit 0x309767d9 0x308ed000 + 563161 28 UIKit 0x30923613 0x308ed000 + 222739 29 UIKit 0x30923163 0x308ed000 + 221539 30 GraphicsServices 0x32045a4d 0x32041000 + 19021 31 CoreFoundation 0x30253041 0x301fd000 + 352321 32 CoreFoundation 0x30252771 0x301fd000 + 350065 33 GraphicsServices 0x32044b0f 0x32041000 + 15119 34 GraphicsServices 0x32044bbb 0x32041000 + 15291 35 UIKit 0x308f0363 0x308ed000 + 13155 36 UIKit 0x308ef121 0x308ed000 + 8481 37 Foo 0x00002097 main (main.m:13)

    Read the article

  • How to disable Mac OS X from using swap when there still is "Inactive" memory?

    - by Motin
    A common phenomena in my day to day usage (and several other's according to various posts throughout the internet) of OS X, the system seems to become slow whenever there is no more "Free" memory available. Supposedly, this is due to swapping, since heavy disk activity is apparent and that vm_stat reports many pageouts. (Correct me from wrong) However, the amount of "Inactive" ram is typically around 12.5%-25% of all available memory (^1.) when swapping starts/occurs/ends. According to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342 : Inactive memory This information in memory is not actively being used, but was recently used. For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. This Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory. However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is converted to Active memory, instead of loading Mail from the slower hard disk. And according to http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Performance/Conceptual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html : The inactive list contains pages that are currently resident in physical memory but have not been accessed recently. These pages contain valid data but may be released from memory at any time. So, basically: When a program has quit, it's memory becomes marked as Inactive and should be claimable at any time. Still, OS X will prefer to start swapping out memory to the Swap file instead of just claiming this memory, whenever the "Free" memory gets to low. Why? What is the advantage of this behavior over, say, instantly releasing Inactive memory and not even touch the swap file? Some sources (^2.) indicate that OS X would page out the "Inactive" memory to swap before releasing it, but that doesn't make sense now does it if the memory may be released from memory at any time? Swapping is expensive, releasing is cheap, right? Can this behavior be changed using some preference or known hack? (Preferably one that doesn't include disabling swap/dynamic_pager altogether and restarting...) I do appreciate the purge command, as well as the concept of Repairing disk permissions to force some Free memory, but those are ways to painfully force more Free memory than to actually fixing the swap/release decision logic... Btw a similar question was asked here: http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/434650/why-does-os-x-swap-when/ and here: http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=87688 but even though the OPs re-asked the core question, none of the replies addresses an answer to it... ^1. UPDATE 17-mar-2012 Since I first posted this question, I have gone from 4gb to 8gb of installed ram, and the problem remains. The amount of "Inactive" ram was 0.5gb-1.0gb before and is now typically around 1.0-2.0GB when swapping starts/occurs/ends, ie it seems that around 12.5%-25% of the ram is preserved as Inactive by osx kernel logic. ^2. For instance http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/4288/what-does-it-mean-if-i-have-lots-of-inactive-memory-at-the-end-of-a-work-day : Once all your memory is used (free memory is 0), the OS will write out inactive memory to the swapfile to make more room in active memory. UPDATE 17-mar-2012 Here is a round-up of the methods that have been suggested to help so far: The purge command "Used to approximate initial boot conditions with a cold disk buffer cache for performance analysis. It does not affect anonymous memory that has been allocated through malloc, vm_allocate, etc". This is useful to prevent osx to swap-out the disk cache (which is ridiculous that osx actually does so in the first place), but with the downside that the disk cache is released, meaning that if the disk cache was not about to be swapped out, one would simply end up with a cold disk buffer cache, probably affecting performance negatively. The FreeMemory app and/or Repairing disk permissions to force some Free memory Doesn't help releasing any memory, only moving some gigabytes of memory contents from ram to the hd. In the end, this causes lots of swap-ins when I attempt to use the applications that were open while freeing memory, as a lot of its vm is now on swap. Speeding up swap-allocation using dynamicpagerwrapper Seems a good thing to do in order to speed up swap-usage, but does not address the problem of osx swapping in the first place while there is still inactive memory. Disabling swap by disabling dynamicpager and restarting This will force osx not to use swap to the price of the system hanging when all memory is used. Not a viable alternative... Disabling swap using a hacked dynamicpager Similar to disabling dynamicpager above, some excerpts from the comments to the blog post indicate that this is not a viable solution: "The Inactive Memory is high as usual". "when your system is running out of memory, the whole os hangs...", "if you consume the whole amount of memory of the mac, the machine will likely hang" To sum up, I am still unaware of a way of disabling Mac OS X from using swap when there still is "Inactive" memory. If it isn't possible, maybe at least there is an explanation somewhere of why osx prefers to swap out memory that may be released from memory at any time?

    Read the article

  • Blogging: MacJournal & Windows Live Writer

    - by Jeff Julian
    One thing I have learned about using a Mac is that Apple does not produce very many free applications. The ones they do are typically not full featured and to get the full feature you need to buy their upgraded version. For example, when it comes to Photo editing and cataloging, iPhoto is not a solution for large files or RAW processing, you need Aperture which is a couple hundred dollars. I am not complaining because I like it when an application has a product team who generates revenue with it, because the chance of them being around longer seems to be higher. What is my point in all of this? Apple does not produce a product for blogging/journaling like Microsoft does with Windows Live Writer. I love Windows Live Writer. If you are on a Windows box, it is a required tool in your toolbox if you publish to a blog. The cleanness of the interface, integration with most blog APIs and ability to Save Local or Publish as a Draft make capturing your thoughts for publishing now or later a very easy task. My hope is that Microsoft will port it to the Mac, but I don’t believe that will ever happen as it is not a revenue generating product and Microsoft doesn’t often port to a Mac besides Remote Desktop Connection and MSN Messenger. For my configuration I used to use only Boot Camp on my two MacBook Pros I have owned in the past three years because I’m a PC, but after four different rebuilds (not typically due to Windows, but Boot Camp or Parallels) I decided to move off the Boot Camp platform and to VMWare Fusion. This is a complete separate blog post that I should spec out in MacJournal, but I now always boot into the Mac OS and use Fusion for my AJI Software VM or my client’s VMs. It just seems to work better for me and I have a very nice way to backup my Windows environments with VMWare.Needless to say, there was need in my new laptop configuration for a blogging tool that worked natively on a Mac. I don’t like to power up my machine for writing a document or working on an image and need to boot up a VM just so I can use Windows. Some would say why not just use a Windows laptop and put the MBP on eBay? It is just a preference and right now, I like the Mac OS for day to day work. So in comes MacJournal, part of the current MacHeist package for $19.95 (MacJournal is normally $39.95). This product is definitely not WLW, but WLW is missing some features I like in MacJournal. I hope the price point comes down on MacJournal cause I could see paying $19.95 for it, but it is always hard for me to buy a piece of software for $39.95 when I can use something else. But I am a cheapskate when it comes to software packages. I suggest if you are using a Mac to drop what you are doing pick up the MacHeist bundle today before it is over, but if you are reading this later, than download the trial and see if MacJournal is a solution for you. If you have any other suggestions that are as nice or cheaper, please comment.Product LinksMacJournal by Mariners Software $39.95 (part of MacHeist bundle for $19.95 with only one day left)Windows Live Writer by MicrosoftThis post was created using MacJournal.[Update: The joys of formatting. Make sure if you are a Geekswithblogs.net member that you use this configuration to setup the Metablog formatting of paragraphs correctly]

    Read the article

  • Google TV Gets Bad Reception. Can Media Center Pull in the Signal?

    - by andrewbrust
    The news hit Monday morning that Google has decided to delay the release of its Google TV platform, and has asked its OEMs to delay any products that embed the software.  Coming just about two weeks prior to the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google’s timing is about the worst imaginable.  CES is where the platform should have had its coming out party, especially given all the anticipation that has built up since its initial announcement came 7 months ago. At last year’s CES, it seemed every consumer electronics company had fashioned its own software stack for Internet-based video programming and applications/widgets on its TVs, optical disc players and set top boxes.  In one case, I even saw two platforms on a single TV set (one provided by Yahoo and the other one native to the TV set). The whole point of Google TV was to solve this problem and offer a standard, embeddable platform.  But that won’t be happening, at least not for a while.  Google seems unable to get it together, and more proprietary approaches, like Apple TV, don’t seem to be setting the world of TV-Internet convergence on fire, either. It seems to me, that when it comes to building a “TV operating system,” Windows Media Center is still the best of a bad bunch.  But it won’t stay so for much longer without some changes.  Will Redmond pick up the ball that Google has fumbled?  I’m skeptical, but hopeful.  Regardless, here are some steps that could help Microsoft make the most of Google’s faux pas: Introduce a new Media Center version that uses XBox 360, rather than Windows 7 (or 8), as the platform.  TV platforms should be appliance-like, not PC-like.  Combine that notion with the runaway sales numbers for Xbox 360 Kinect, and the mass appeal it has delivered for Xbox, and the switch form Windows makes even more sense. As I have pointed out before, Microsoft’s Xbox implementation of its Mediaroom platform (announced and demoed at last year’s CES) gets Redmond 80% of the way toward this goal.  Nothing stops Microsoft from going the other 20%, other than its own apathy, which I hope has dissipated. Reverse the decision to remove Drive Extender technology from Windows Home Server (WHS), and create deep integration between WHS and Media Center.  I have suggested this previously as well, but the recent announcement that Drive Extender would be dropped from WHS 2.0 creates the need for me to a) join the chorus of people urging Microsoft to reconsider and b) reiterate the importance of Media Center-WHS integration in the context of a Google compete scenario. Enable Windows Phone 7 (WP7) as a Media Center client.  This would tighten the integration loop already established between WP7, Xbox and Zune.  But it would also counter Echostar/DISH Network/Sling Media, strike a blow against Google/Android (and even Apple/iOS) and could be the final strike against TiVO. Bring the WP7 user interface to Media Center and Kinect-enable it.  This would further the integration discussed above and would be appropriate recognition of WP7’s Metro UI having been built on the heritage of the original Media Center itself.  And being able to run your DVR even if you can’t find the remote (or can’t see its buttons in the dark) could be a nifty gimmick. Microsoft can do this but its consumer-oriented organization, responsible for Xbox, Zune and WP7, has to take the reins here, or none of this will likely work.  There’s a significant chance that won’t happen, but I won’t let that stop me from hoping that it does and insisting that it must.  Honestly, this fight is Microsoft’s to lose.

    Read the article

  • Why Haven’t NFC Payments Taken Off?

    - by David Dorf
    With the EMV 2015 milestone approaching rapidly, there’s been renewed interest in smartcards, those credit cards with an embedded computer chip.  Back in 1996 I was working for a vendor helping Visa introduce a stored-value smartcard to the US.  Visa Cash was debuted at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and I firmly believed it was the beginning of a cashless society.  (I later worked on MasterCard’s system called Mondex, from the UK, which debuted the following year in Manhattan). But since you don’t have a Visa Cash card in your wallet, it’s obvious the project never took off.  It was convenient for consumers, faster for merchants, and more cost-effective for banks, so why did it fail?  All emerging payment systems suffer from the chicken-and-egg dilemma.  Consumers won’t carry the cards if few merchants accept them, and merchants won’t install the terminals if few consumers have cards. Today’s emerging payment providers are in a similar pickle.  There has to be enough value for all three constituents – consumers, merchants, banks – to change the status quo.  And it’s not enough to exceed the value, it’s got to be a leap in value, because people generally resist change.  ATMs and transit cards are great examples of this, and airline kiosks and self-checkout systems are to a lesser extent. Although Google Wallet and ISIS, the two leading NFC payment platforms in the US, have shown strong commitment, there’s been very little traction.  Yes, I can load my credit card number into my phone then tap to pay, but what was the incremental value over swiping my old card?  For it to be a leap in value, it has to offer more than just payment, which I can do very easily today.  The other two ingredients are thought to be loyalty programs and digital coupons, but neither Google nor ISIS really did them well. Of course a large portion of the mobile phone market doesn’t even support NFC thanks to Apple, and since it’s not in their best interest that situation is unlikely to change.  Another issue is getting access to the “secure element,” the chip inside the phone where accounts numbers can be held securely.  Telco providers and handset manufacturers own that area, and they’re not willing to share with banks.  (Host Card Emulation, which has been endorsed by MasterCard and Visa, might be a solution.) Square recently gave up on its wallet, and MCX (the group of retailers trying to create a mobile payment platform) is very slow out of the gate.  That leaves PayPal and a slew of smaller companies trying to introduce easier ways to pay. But is it really so cumbersome to carry and swipe (soon to insert) a credit card?  Aren’t there more important problems to solve in the retail customer experience?  Maybe Apple will come up with some novel way to use iBeacons and fingerprint identification to make payments, but for now I think we need to focus on upgrading to Chip-and-PIN and tightening security.  In the meantime, NFC payments will continue to struggle.

    Read the article

  • Avoiding new operator in JavaScript -- the better way

    - by greengit
    Warning: This is a long post. Let's keep it simple. I want to avoid having to prefix the new operator every time I call a constructor in JavaScript. This is because I tend to forget it, and my code screws up badly. The simple way around this is this... function Make(x) { if ( !(this instanceof arguments.callee) ) return new arguments.callee(x); // do your stuff... } But, I need this to accept variable no. of arguments, like this... m1 = Make(); m2 = Make(1,2,3); m3 = Make('apple', 'banana'); The first immediate solution seems to be the 'apply' method like this... function Make() { if ( !(this instanceof arguments.callee) ) return new arguments.callee.apply(null, arguments); // do your stuff } This is WRONG however -- the new object is passed to the apply method and NOT to our constructor arguments.callee. Now, I've come up with three solutions. My simple question is: which one seems best. Or, if you have a better method, tell it. First – use eval() to dynamically create JavaScript code that calls the constructor. function Make(/* ... */) { if ( !(this instanceof arguments.callee) ) { // collect all the arguments var arr = []; for ( var i = 0; arguments[i]; i++ ) arr.push( 'arguments[' + i + ']' ); // create code var code = 'new arguments.callee(' + arr.join(',') + ');'; // call it return eval( code ); } // do your stuff with variable arguments... } Second – Every object has __proto__ property which is a 'secret' link to its prototype object. Fortunately this property is writable. function Make(/* ... */) { var obj = {}; // do your stuff on 'obj' just like you'd do on 'this' // use the variable arguments here // now do the __proto__ magic // by 'mutating' obj to make it a different object obj.__proto__ = arguments.callee.prototype; // must return obj return obj; } Third – This is something similar to second solution. function Make(/* ... */) { // we'll set '_construct' outside var obj = new arguments.callee._construct(); // now do your stuff on 'obj' just like you'd do on 'this' // use the variable arguments here // you have to return obj return obj; } // now first set the _construct property to an empty function Make._construct = function() {}; // and then mutate the prototype of _construct Make._construct.prototype = Make.prototype; eval solution seems clumsy and comes with all the problems of "evil eval". __proto__ solution is non-standard and the "Great Browser of mIsERY" doesn't honor it. The third solution seems overly complicated. But with all the above three solutions, we can do something like this, that we can't otherwise... m1 = Make(); m2 = Make(1,2,3); m3 = Make('apple', 'banana'); m1 instanceof Make; // true m2 instanceof Make; // true m3 instanceof Make; // true Make.prototype.fire = function() { // ... }; m1.fire(); m2.fire(); m3.fire(); So effectively the above solutions give us "true" constructors that accept variable no. of arguments and don't require new. What's your take on this. -- UPDATE -- Some have said "just throw an error". My response is: we are doing a heavy app with 10+ constructors and I think it'd be far more wieldy if every constructor could "smartly" handle that mistake without throwing error messages on the console.

    Read the article

  • LINQ and ordering of the result set

    - by vik20000in
    After filtering and retrieving the records most of the time (if not always) we have to sort the record in certain order. The sort order is very important for displaying records or major calculations. In LINQ for sorting data the order keyword is used. With the help of the order keyword we can decide on the ordering of the result set that is retrieved after the query.  Below is an simple example of the order keyword in LINQ.     string[] words = { "cherry", "apple", "blueberry" };     var sortedWords =         from word in words         orderby word         select word; Here we are ordering the data retrieved based on the string ordering. If required the order can also be made on any of the property of the individual like the length of the string.     var sortedWords =         from word in words         orderby word.Length         select word; You can also make the order descending or ascending by adding the keyword after the parameter.     var sortedWords =         from word in words         orderby word descending         select word; But the best part of the order clause is that instead of just passing a field you can also pass the order clause an instance of any class that implements IComparer interface. The IComparer interface holds a method Compare that Has to be implemented. In that method we can write any logic whatsoever for the comparision. In the below example we are making a string comparison by ignoring the case. string[] words = { "aPPLE", "AbAcUs", "bRaNcH", "BlUeBeRrY", "cHeRry"}; var sortedWords = words.OrderBy(a => a, new CaseInsensitiveComparer());  public class CaseInsensitiveComparer : IComparer<string> {     public int Compare(string x, string y)     {         return string.Compare(x, y, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);     } }  But while sorting the data many a times we want to provide more than one sort so that data is sorted based on more than one condition. This can be achieved by proving the next order followed by a comma.     var sortedWords =         from word in words         orderby word , word.length         select word; We can also use the reverse() method to reverse the full order of the result set.     var sortedWords =         from word in words         select word.Reverse();                                 Vikram

    Read the article

  • Buy iPads In India From eZone, Reliance iStores [Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai]

    - by Gopinath
    Close to an year wait for Apple iPad in India is over. Now everyone can buy a genuine iPad with manufacturers’ warranty from dozens of retail outlets set up by Future Bazar’s eZone and Reliance iStore. This puts an end to the grey market that was importing iPads through illegal channels, selling them at staggering high prices and with no warranty. iPad Retail Price at eZone & Outlet Address The iPad page on eZone’s website has price details of various models and they range from Rs.27,900/- to Rs.44,000/-. iPad 16 GB WiFi  – Rs. 27900.00 iPad 32 GB WiFi  – Rs. 32900.00 iPad 64 GB WiFi  – Rs. 37900.00 iPad 16 GB WiFi  + 3G – Rs. 34900.00 iPad 32 GB WiFi  + 3G – Rs. 39900.00 iPad 64 GB WiFi  + 3G – Rs. 44900.00 Here is the list of eZone stores selling iPads Chennai Stores eZone :: CHENNAI-GANDHI SQUARE Gandhi Square, ( G2),No. 46, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Kandanchavadi, Chennai ( Before Lifeline Hospital) – 600096. Phone : 24967771/7 eZone :: CHENNAI-MYLAPORE Grand Terrace, Old no. 94, new door no. 162, Luz Church Road, Mylapore, Chennai – . Tamil Nadu. Phone : 24987867/68. Mumbai Stores eZone :: MUMBAI-GOREGAON Shop No-S-23, 2nd Floor, Oberoi Mall Off Western Express Highway , Goregaon(E) , Mumbai – 400063, Phone: 28410011/40214771. eZone :: MUMBAI-POWAI-HAIKO MALL Hailko Mall, Level 2, Central Avenue, Hiranandani Garden, Powai, Mumbai, 400076. Phone: 25717355/56. eZone :: EZ-Sobo Central C wing,SOBO Central, Next to Tardoe AC Market, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Road, Mumbai – 400034. Phone : 022-30089344. Bangalore Stores eZone :: Koramangala (Bnglr) Regent Insignia, Ground Floor,# 414, 100 Ft Road, Koramangala, Bangalore – 560034 Phone : 080-25520241/242/243. eZone :: BANGALORE-INDIRA NAGAR No.62, Asha Pearl,100 Feet Road, Opp.AXIS Bank.Indiranagar, Bangalore – 560038 Phone : 25216857/6855/6856. eZone :: BANGALORE-PASADENA pasadena’ (Ground floor),18/1.(old number 125/a),10th main,Ashoka pillar road,Jaynagar 1st block,Bangalore – 560 011. Phone : 26577527. Delhi Stores eZone :: NEW DELHI-PUSA ROAD Ground/Lower Ground Floor, Plot # 26, Pusa Road, Adjacent to Karol Bagh Metro Station, Karol Bagh, New Delhi – 110005. Phone :28757040/41. For more details check eZone iPad Product Page iPads at Reliance iStore Reliance iStores are exclusive outlets for selling Apple products in India. All the models of iPad are available at Reliance iStore and the price details are not available on their websites. You may walk into any of the iStore close by your locality or call them to get the details. To locate the stores close by your locality please check store locator page on iStore Website. Do you know any other retail stores selling iPads in India? This article titled,Buy iPads In India From eZone, Reliance iStores [Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai], was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

    Read the article

  • F1 Pit Pragmatics

    - by mikef
    "I hate computers. No, really, I hate them. I love the communications they facilitate, I love the conveniences they provide to my life. but I actually hate the computers themselves." - Scott Merrill, 'I hate computers: confessions of a Sysadmin' If Scott's goal was to polarize opinion and trigger raging arguments over the 'real reasons why computers suck', then he certainly succeeded. Impassioned vitriol sits side-by-side with rational debate. Yet Scott's fundamental point is absolutely on the money - Computers are a means to an end. The IT industry is finally starting to put weight behind the notion that good User Experience is an absolutely crucial goal, a cause championed by the likes of Microsoft's Bill Buxton, and which Apple's increasingly ubiquitous touch screen interface exemplifies. However, that doesn't change the fact that, occasionally, you just have to man up and deal with complex systems. In fact, sometimes you just need to sacrifice everything else in the name of performance. You'll find a perfect example of this Faustian bargain in Trevor Clarke's fascinating look into the (diabolical) IT infrastructure of modern F1 racing - high performance, high availability. high everything. To paraphrase, each car has up to 100 sensors, transmitting around 30Gb of data over the course of a race (70% in real-time). This data is then processed by no less than 3 servers (per car) so that the engineers in the pit have access to telemetry, strategy information, timing feeds, a connection back to the operations room in the team's home base - the list goes on. All of this while the servers are exposed "to carbon dust, oil, vibration, rain, heat, [and] variable power". Now, this is admittedly an extreme context where there's no real choice but to use complex systems where ease-of-use is, at best, a secondary concern. The flip-side is seen in small-scale personal computing such as that seen in Apple's iDevices, which are incredibly intuitive but limited in their scope. In terms of what kinds of systems they prefer to use, I suspect that most SysAdmins find themselves somewhere along this axis of Power vs. Usability, and which end of this axis you resonate with also hints at where you think the IT industry should focus its energy. Do you see yourself in the F1 pit, making split-second decisions, wrestling with information flows and reticent hardware to bend them to your will? If so, I imagine you feel that computers are subtle tools which need to be tuned and honed, using the advanced knowledge possessed only by responsible SysAdmins (If you have an iPhone, I suspect it's jail-broken). If the machines throw enigmatic errors, it's the price of flexibility and raw power. Alternatively, would you prefer to have your role more accessible, with users empowered by knowledge, spreading the load of managing IT environments? In that case, then you want hardware and software to have User Experience as their primary focus, and are of the "means to an end" school of thought (you're probably also fed up with users not listening to you when you try and help). At its heart, the dichotomy is between raw power (which might be difficult to use) and ease-of-use (which might have some limitations, but you can be up and running immediately). Of course, the ultimate goal is a fusion of flexibility, power and usability all in one system. It's achievable in specific software environments, and Red Gate considers it a target worth aiming for, but in other cases it's a goal right up there with cold fusion. I think it'll be a long time before we see it become ubiquitous. In the meantime, are you Power-Hungry or a Champion of Usability? Cheers, Michael Francis Simple Talk SysAdmin Editor

    Read the article

  • Five geeky things you must do with your Android Smartphone

    - by Gopinath
    Android is the Windows of next generation. Its open, free, widely adopted and smart enough to outsmart Apple’s iOS. It’s a stolen product and cheap imitation of iOS, but Steve Job’s once quoted saying good artists copy and great artists steal. Alright, this post is not about Android vs iOS or is it really stolen or not. Android is a great OS for mobile devices and it lets you do amazing through mobiles.  In this post I want to write about the geeky things we can do with an Android Smartphone. Control your computer using mobile Assume that it is a lazy weekend and you are on a couch watching movies on a laptop which is a meter away. Now you want to adjust volume or skip a scene/song. How to control your laptop without moving out of couch? Just install Universal Remote free app on your smartphone and start control your computer using phone. Universal Remove app controls computers over Wifi or Bluetooth networks with dedicated remote controls for various media players and applications like YouTube, VLC & Spotify.  The application is very easy to use and works amazingly well in controlling computers. Few of the remote controls provided in the app are – Mouse, Keyboard, Media Controls, Power, Start, Windows Media Player, VLC Player,  YouTube. There is also paid version of this app with additional remotes, but for most of the users Free version is good enough. Stream YouTube videos playing on you mobile to computer You can stream YouTube videos playing on your mobile to computer/smart tv. This is something similar to Apple’s most popular AirPlay feature, but works only with YouTube videos. To start streaming videos install Google’s YouTube Remote on your smartphone, open youtube.com/leanback on your computer  and pair up mobile with computer. Once the pairing is done, videos played on YouTube Remote app will be streamed on to your computer. Access your mobile using any web browser – send/receive SMS, view photos/call logs, etc. Want to control your mobile phone using a computer? Install AirDroid app on your phone and start controlling your phone using computer browser – send and receive messages, view call logs, play music, upload/download files, edit contacts and many more. At times it’s lot of fun to access mobile using a big screen devices like laptops. Launch a webpage on your mobile browser using your computer With Google Chrome to Phone installed on your computer and mobile, you can send links and other information from Chrome browser to your Android device. With a click on Chrome browser, the current webpage of Chrome browser will be automatically launched on Android device. This is very handy when you want to send links, send driving direction to mobile using Google Maps and launch phone dialer with number selected on webpage. Install Apps on mobile using computer To install apps on your smartphone you really don’t need to touch it. Open any web browser, sing in to Google Play with your Google id that is associated with smartphone and start installing apps on to your phone right from the browser. As you browse apps on Google Play store, you find Install button and all you need to do is to just click Install. Google will automatically installs app on your mobile within few seconds.

    Read the article

  • How do developer get rid of silly requirements?

    - by sugar
    Hmm ! First of all let me give you the note of the requirement. So that you can have idea what kind of problem I am facing. Words From Project Manager : Hey ! Sugar, I am assigning you a task for developing a framework. This framework is supposed to be developed for all iOS application. Please go through brief of the required framework. It should be able to detect the thickness of my Thumb. It should be able to detect whether User is using thumb or Fingers If user is using thumbs/Fingers, Framework should calculate the size of thumb/fingers. Once size is been calculated, all elements of user interface should arranged & resized automatically. ( not specified how & where as its framework - it should be smart enough to arrange automatically ) If thumb size is larger elements should get arranged near by center area of iPad/iPhone If thumb size is smaller elements should get arranged near by corners of iPad/iPhone If thumb size is larger, fonts of all elements should get smaller. ( assuming = aged person ) If thumb size is smaller, fonts of all elements should get larger. ( assuming smaller thumb = low aged person ) Summary : This framework is required for creating user-friendly user-interfaces programmatically. We need to develop a very developer-friendly framework. Framework should be developed in such a way that we can use in as many projects as needed. Well, I am a developer. What I want to have as an answer is as follows. How to describe them - the way of they thinking is bit ridiculous ? How do I explain them - we can better concentrate on developing actual projects ? How do I convince them - that this kind of things even if possible, is not recommended to develop such things ? How do I say politely, gently & respectfully NO to this ? What should I say, So that they can not point at my experience ? ( e.g. you are 3 years experienced guy & you must have abilities to develop such things ) Feeling horror. Please help. Thanks in advance, Sugar. Note : Please help me to tag this question properly. I am stuck & this is real situation. Frustrated & tensed. You guys might have faced such requirements from TopLevel. requesting you to help with your experience. Well ! I came to know that - those TOPLEVEL guys don't have any idea of iPad, iPhone, Apple etc. I would do one thing. Sir, before we go further for framework development. It is strongly recommended to read Apple Human Interface Guidlines.

    Read the article

  • 2013 Predictions for Retail

    - by David Dorf
    Its that time of year to roll out the predictions for next year.  I can't say I've really nailed it in the past, but feel free to look back at my 2012, 2011, and 2010 predictions.  I'm not expecting anything earth-shattering this year; just continued maturation of several technologies that are finally taking hold. 1. Next day delivery -- Amazon finally decided it wasn't worth fighting state taxes and instead decided to place distribution centers everywhere so they can potentially offer next-day deliveries.  Not to be outdone, Walmart is looking to leverage its huge physical presence to offer the same.  Clubs like ShopRunner are pushing delivery barriers as well, so the norm is shifting to free shipping in a few days or relatively cheap shipping overnight.  Retailers need be thinking about how to ship from physical stores. 2. Bring your own device -- Earlier this year Intuit bought AisleBuyer, a mobile self-checkout start-up, at least somewhat validating the BYOD approach.  Grocery stores, especially in Europe, have been supporting in-aisle self-scanning for a while and I'm betting it will find a home in certain verticals in the US too.  There's also the BYOD concept for employees.  Some retailers are considering issuing mobile devices at hiring along side the shirt and name-tag.  Employees become responsible for the hardware until they leave. 3. TV shopping -- Will Apple finally release a TV product in 2013?  Who knows?  But the industry isn't standing still. Companies like QVC and HSN are already successfully combining the TV and online experiences for shopping.  Comcast is partnering with Tivo to allow viewers to interact with ads with Paypal handing payment.  This will be a slow maturation, but expect TVs to get smarter and eventually become a new selling channel (pun intended) for retailers. 4. Privacy backlash -- It only takes one big incident to stir the public, and I'm betting we have one in 2013.  Facebook, Google, or Apple will test the boundaries of what the public is willing to accept.  It could involve a retailer using geo-location technology, or possibly video analytics.  And as is always the case, the offender will apologize, temporarily remove the technology, and wait 2-3 years for it to be generally accepted.  Privacy is a moving target. 5. More NFC -- I've come to the conclusion that adoption of any banking technology is going to be slow.  It was slow for credit cards, ATMs, and online billpay so why should it be any different for NFC?  Maybe, just maybe the iPhone 5S will have an NFC chip, but we're not going to see mainstream uptake for years.  Next year we'll continue to see incremental improvements from Isis, Google, and Paypal and a plethora of new startups, but don't toss your magstripe cards just yet. 6. In-store location -- The technologies for tracking people inside stores is really improving.  Retailers can track people using video cameras, infrared, and by the WiFi radios in mobile phones.  We're getting closer to the point where accuracy could be a shelf-facing, which will help retailers understand how people shop, where they spend time, and what displays attract them.  Expect CPG companies to get involved and partner with retailers, since the data benefits both parties.  Consumers will benefit by being directed right to the products they seek.  (In 2013 ARTS is forming a workteam to develop new standards in this area.) 7. M&A -- Looking back at 2012 there were some really big deals involving IBM, Oracle, JDA, and NCR and I expect that trend will likely continue as vendors add assets to bolster their portfolios.  Many retailers are due for an IT transformation to support anywhere, anytime shoppers, and one-stop-vendors can minimize complexity and costs. Predictions from other sources: Independent Retailer Stores Magazine IDC Insights Mobile Commerce Daily

    Read the article

  • Partner Blog: Hub City Media Introduces iPad Application for Oracle Identity Analytics

    - by Tanu Sood
    About the Writer:Steve Giovannetti is CTO of Hub City Media, Inc., a company that specializes in implementation and product development on the Oracle Identity Management platform. Recently, Hub City Media announced the introduction of iPad application IdentityCert for Oracle Identity Analytics. This post explore the business use cases and application of IdentityCert.Hub City Media(HCM) has been deploying certification solutions based on Oracle Identity Analytics since it first appeared on the market as Vaau RBACx. With each deployment we've seen the same pattern repeat time and time again:1. Customers suffering under the weight of manual access certification regimens deploy Oracle Identity Analytics (OIA) for automated certification. 2. OIA improves the frequency, speed, accuracy, and participation of certifications across the organization. 3. Then the certifiers, typically managers and supervisors, ask, “Is there any easier way to do these certifications offline?”The current version of OIA has a way to export certification data to a spreadsheet.  For some customers, we've leveraged this feature and combined it with some of our own custom code to provide a solution based on spreadsheet exports and imports.  Customers export the certification to Microsoft Excel, complete it, and then import the spreadsheet to OIA. It worked well for offline certification, but if the user accidentally altered the format of the spreadsheet, the import of the data could fail. We were close to a solution but it wasn’t reliable.Over the past few years, we've seen the proliferation of Apple iOS devices, specifically the iPhone and iPad, in the enterprise.  As our customers were asking for offline certification, we noticed the same population of users traditionally responsible for access certification, were early adopters of the iPad. The environment seemed ideal for us to create an iPad application to support offline certifications using Oracle Identity Analytics. That’s why we created IdentityCert™.IdentityCert allows users to view their analytics dashboard, complete user certifications, and resolve policy violations with OIA, from their iPads.The current IdentityCert analytics dashboard displays the same charts that are available in the Oracle Identity Analytics product. However, we plan to expand the number of available analytics in future releases.The main function of IdentityCert is user certification which can be performed quickly and efficiently using a simple touch interface. Managers tap into a certification, use simple gestures to claim users and certify their access.  Certifications can be securely downloaded to IdentityCert and can be completed with or without a network connection. The user can upload the completed certifications once they are connected to a cellular or wi-fi network.Oracle Identity Analytics can generate policy violation notifications based on detective scans of identity warehouse or via preventative analysis of identity access requests. IdentityCert allows users to view all policy violations, resolve, or delegate them to appropriate users. IdentityCert also analyzes the policy violation expression and produces more human friendly descriptions of the policy violation which improves the ability of users to resolve the violation. IdentityCert can be deployed quickly into a customer's environment. It is deployed with Hub City Media's ID Services to connect Oracle Identity Analytics securely with the iPad application.Oracle Identity Management 11g R2 is an important evolutionary release. Oracle's Identity Management suite has more characteristics of a cohesive platform. This platform provides an integrated set of identity services that can be used to protect, manage, and audit security within the enterprise. At HCM we take the platform concept a step further and see it as an opportunity to create unique solutions for Oracle Identity Management customers. IdentityCert is our commitment to this platform. You can download IdentityCert from the Apple iOS App Store today. It includes a demo dataset that you can use to explore the functions of the product without any server infrastructure. Download it. Give it a try. We would appreciate your interest and welcome any feedback.Resources:Press Release: Hub City Media Introduces iPad Application IdentityCert™ for Oracle Identity AnalyticsApp Store Download: http://bit.ly/IdentityCertOracle Identity Governance Suite

    Read the article

  • Prefilling an SMS on Mobile Devices with the sms: Uri Scheme

    - by Rick Strahl
    Popping up the native SMS app from a mobile HTML Web page is a nice feature that allows you to pre-fill info into a text for sending by a user of your mobile site. The syntax is a bit tricky due to some device inconsistencies (and quite a bit of wrong/incomplete info on the Web), but it's definitely something that's fairly easy to do.In one of my Mobile HTML Web apps I need to share a current location via SMS. While browsing around a page I want to select a geo location, then share it by texting it to somebody. Basically I want to pre-fill an SMS message with some text, but no name or number, which instead will be filled in by the user.What worksThe syntax that seems to work fairly consistently except for iOS is this:sms:phonenumber?body=messageFor iOS instead of the ? use a ';' (because Apple is always right, standards be damned, right?):sms:phonenumber;body=messageand that works to pop up a new SMS message on the mobile device. I've only marginally tested this with a few devices: an iPhone running iOS 6, an iPad running iOS 7, Windows Phone 8 and a Nexus S in the Android Emulator. All four devices managed to pop up the SMS with the data prefilled.You can use this in a link:<a href="sms:1-111-1111;body=I made it!">Send location via SMS</a>or you can set it on the window.location in JavaScript:window.location ="sms:1-111-1111;body=" + encodeURIComponent("I made it!");to make the window pop up directly from code. Notice that the content should be URL encoded - HTML links automatically encode, but when you assign the URL directly in code the text value should be encoded.Body onlyI suspect in most applications you won't know who to text, so you only want to fill the text body, not the number. That works as you'd expect by just leaving out the number - here's what the URLs look like in that case:sms:?body=messageFor iOS same thing except with the ;sms:;body=messageHere's an example of the code I use to set up the SMS:var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(); var url; if (ua.indexOf("iphone") > -1 || ua.indexOf("ipad") > -1) url = "sms:;body=" + encodeURIComponent("I'm at " + mapUrl + " @ " + pos.Address); else url = "sms:?body=" + encodeURIComponent("I'm at " + mapUrl + " @ " + pos.Address); location.href = url;and that also works for all the devices mentioned above.It's pretty cool that URL schemes exist to access device functionality and the SMS one will come in pretty handy for a number of things. Now if only all of the URI schemes were a bit more consistent (damn you Apple!) across devices...© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2013Posted in IOS  JavaScript  HTML5   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

    Read the article

  • Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service

    - by David Dorf
    When most people discuss mobile in retail, they immediately go to shopping applications.  While I agree the consumer side of mobile is huge, I believe its also important to arm store associates with mobile tools.  There are around a dozen major roll-outs of mobile POS to chain retailers, and all have been successful.  This does not, however, signal the demise of traditional registers.  Retailers will adopt mobile POS slowly and reduce the number of fixed registers over time, but there's likely to be a combination of both for the foreseeable future.  Even Apple retains at least one fixed register in every store, you just have to know where to look. The business benefits for mobile POS are pretty straightforward: 1. Faster checkout.  Walmart's CFO recently reported that for every second they shave off the average transaction time, they can potentially save $12M a year in labor.  I think its more likely that labor will be redeployed to enhance the customer experience. 2. Smarter associates.  The sales associates on the floor need the same access to information that consumers have, if not more.  They need ready access to product details, reviews, inventory, etc. to meet consumer expectations.  In a recent study, 40% of consumers said a savvy store associate can impact their final product selection more than a website. 3. Lower costs.  Mobile POS hardware (iPod touch + sled) costs about a fifth of fixed registers, not to mention the reclaimed space that can be used for product displays. But almost all Mobile POS solutions can claim those benefits equally.  Where there's differentiation is on the technical side.  Oracle recently announced availability of the Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service, and it has three big technology advantages in the market: 1. Portable. We used a popular open-source component called PhoneGap that abstracts the app from the underlying OS and hardware so that iOS, Android, and other platforms could be supported.  Further, we used Web technologies such as HTML5 and JavaScript, which are commonly known by many programmers, as opposed to ObjectiveC which is more difficult to find.  The screen can adjust to different form-factors and sizes, just like you see with browsers.  In the future when a new, zippy device gets released, retailers will have the option to move to that device more easily than if they used a native app. 2. Flexible.  Our Mobile POS is free with the Oracle Retail Point-of-Service product.  Retailers can use any combination of fixed and mobile registers, and those ratios can change as required.  Perhaps start with 1 mobile and 4 fixed per store, then transition over time to 4 mobile and 1 fixed without any additional software licenses.  Our scalable solution supports lots of combinations. 3. Consistent.  Because our Mobile POS is fully integrated to our traditional POS, the same business logic is reused.  Third-party Mobile POS solutions often handle pricing, promotions, and tax calculations separately leading to possible inconsistencies within the store.  That won't happen with Oracle's solution. For many retailers, Mobile POS can lower costs, increase customer service, and generally enhance a consumer's in-store experience.  Apple led the way, but lots of other retailers are discovering the many benefits of adding mobile capabilities in their stores.  Just be sure to examine both the business and technology benefits so you get the most value from your solution for the longest period of time.

    Read the article

  • Can anybody help me in designing my UITableView into MVC Pattern ?

    - by user2877880
    I have written a ViewController in which i get data from the internet and display it in a UItableview using a json parser which uses object for key to identify its objects. What i would like your help in is to convert it into MVC pattern to make it less clumsy instead of including everything in the same controller class. Please try explaining it to me in terms of my code. THANKS IN ADVANCE. The code is as given below #import "ViewController.h" #import "AFNetworking.h" #import "ModelTableArray.h" @implementation ViewController @synthesize tableView = _tableView, activityIndicatorView = _activityIndicatorView, movies = _movies; - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; // Setting Up Table View self.tableView = [[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, self.view.bounds.size.width, self.view.bounds.size.height) style:UITableViewStylePlain]; self.tableView.dataSource = self; self.tableView.delegate = self; self.tableView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight; self.tableView.hidden = YES; [self.view addSubview:self.tableView]; // Setting Up Activity Indicator View self.activityIndicatorView = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray]; self.activityIndicatorView.hidesWhenStopped = YES; self.activityIndicatorView.center = self.view.center; [self.view addSubview:self.activityIndicatorView]; [self.activityIndicatorView startAnimating]; // Initializing Data Source self.movies = [[NSArray alloc] init]; NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:@"http://itunes.apple.com/search?term=rocky&country=us&entity=movie"]; NSURLRequest *request = [[NSURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:url]; UIRefreshControl *refreshControl = [[UIRefreshControl alloc] init]; [refreshControl addTarget:self action:@selector(refresh:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged]; [self.tableView addSubview:refreshControl]; [refreshControl endRefreshing]; AFJSONRequestOperation *operation = [AFJSONRequestOperation JSONRequestOperationWithRequest:request success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, id JSON) { self.movies = [JSON objectForKey:@"results"]; [self.activityIndicatorView stopAnimating]; [self.tableView setHidden:NO]; [self.tableView reloadData]; } failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error, id JSON) { NSLog(@"Request Failed with Error: %@, %@", error, error.userInfo); }]; [operation start]; } - (void)refresh:(UIRefreshControl *)sender { NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:@"http://itunes.apple.com/search?term=rambo&country=us&entity=movie"]; NSURLRequest *request = [[NSURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:url]; AFJSONRequestOperation *operation = [AFJSONRequestOperation JSONRequestOperationWithRequest:request success:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, id JSON) { self.movies = [JSON objectForKey:@"results"]; [self.activityIndicatorView stopAnimating]; [self.tableView setHidden:NO]; [self.tableView reloadData]; } failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error, id JSON) { NSLog(@"Request Failed with Error: %@, %@", error, error.userInfo); }]; [operation start]; [sender endRefreshing]; } - (void)viewDidUnload { [super viewDidUnload]; } - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { return YES; } // Table View Data Source Methods - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section { if (self.movies && self.movies.count) { return self.movies.count; } else { return 0; } } - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { static NSString *cellID = @"Cell Identifier"; UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellID]; if (!cell) { cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:cellID]; } NSDictionary *movie = [self.movies objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; cell.textLabel.text = [movie objectForKey:@"trackName"]; cell.detailTextLabel.text = [movie objectForKey:@"artistName"]; NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:[movie objectForKey:@"artworkUrl100"]]; [cell.imageView setImageWithURL:url placeholderImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"placeholder"]]; return cell; } @end

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90  | Next Page >