Appletell

IconFactory makes a great universal tool for designers called xScope — for people who constantly use this kind of tool, it’s a worthwhile investment. But, a new app now gives you similar functionality — for free. Rulers provides a subset of xScopes useful features in an easy-to-read format. Photoshop-style rulers appear at the side and top of your screen for accurate positioning, and the HUD gives precise cursor coordinates with a magnifying glass option.

Rulers also has the capability to take screenshots and auto-measure — similar to the “Dimensions” mode on xScope. You can quickly determine the size of anything on-screen by using this. When Rulers is the active application, holding Command+A will bring up the cross-hairs and measurement for the area surrounding the cursor.

This useful app, that delivers almost all the features and functionality of xScope is completely free. An excellent tool for those wanting to get into web design on a low budget. You can download it from Omnidea.

Via [TUAW] Product [ Rulers ]

WebKit, the engine behind Safari and all of Mac’s other HTML needs, seems to be looking fairly far into the future.  It looks as if they’re anticipating the imminent release of Mac OS X v10.6 (or whatever it may be called, details on that in a bit).  Flickr user factoryjoe, famous for his screenshots, has a picture showing files deep in the heart of the most recent WebKit Nightly Build.  In the picture, a folder is shown labled “10.6,” linking as an alias to “10.5” above that.  Above that is the 10.4 folder. 

When it all gets boiled down, I think there are two explanations possible for the situation.  The first is the possibility of a preemptive strike of sorts when it comes time to start writing for 10.6.  This method is not unheard of for developers.  The second, and much more likely situation, is that the developers of WebKit have gotten wind of the new OS and have actually starting to develop WebKit for 10.6.  This may be due to Apple’s possible need of an open source foundation for their 10.6 browsing needs.  Although there is no date even rumored yet for a release, it should be here relatively soon.  Let’s just hope there are no Leopard-esque delays with the next version. 

As for the name, read on.  Back in 2004, when Apple trademarked the names Tiger and Leopard, they also trademarked the names Cougar and Lynx.  Thus, we have the two most likely names for then next iteration of the Mac Operating system, and heck, maybe the unused name will be saved for 10.7.

Via [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

For those who focus development on the iPhone, and missed there chance to go to WWDC ‘08, you may just be in luck.  iPhoneDevCamp 2 is a three day series of workshops and conferences, all dealing with development on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This follow up to iPhoneDevCamp 1 is a non-profit, and is sponsored by the likes of Adobe Systems, Belkin, iLounge and ANSCA Mobile, among others. 

Should you attend, you will be immersed in the development world, learning tidbits from professional coders, designers and developers, and work with other attendees to make your own programs and migrate existing Mac programs to the iPhone.  “If you’re a Cocoa Touch developer, web developer, UI designer, or tester, this is the place to be the first weekend of August,” says TUAW writer Steven Sande, and for the people mentioned above, it certainly will be the place to be. 

No registration info has been released, but make sure you check the iPhoneDevCamp 2 website periodically for more info.

[iPhoneDevCamp 2] via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Netscape Navigator, the of-late troubled browser that was the original mainstream browser in it’s heyday, will be laid to rest in February of 2008 when AOL will stop development and security updates for Netscape. Netscape.com will remain as a general-purpose web portal.

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Apple has posted, in a lovely new design, it’s iPhone web development guidelines on the Apple Developer Connection site. The document give tips such as “think windowless”, “adjust text size for readability”, and “lay out forms appropriately”. It also delves into how to integrate a web app with iPhone’s built-in applications and summarizes which technologies the iPhone, and it’s underlying Safari browser, full support. If you are even interested in potentially developing an app for the iPhone, this is the document to read.

Read [Apple.com] via [MacRumors]

When Steve Jobs announced the platform that people would be developing applications for the iPhone on, it came as a disappointment to many people. Without an SDK, most software developers for the Mac will not be able to create apps for the iPhone in the traditional way. As many of you have seen, there has been much concern from the Mac Community about this. At the moment though, iPhone development doesn’t seem to be all doom-and-gloom.

In the last few days, different applications for the iPhone have been popping up like Digg and iTweetr, that make use of AJAX, HTML etc.  Mashable’s Stan Schroeder has posted what he thinks are “7 Kickass iPhone apps that don’t exist yet.”

The list basically just talks about websites that are in use now like YouTube, Gmail and Flickr. You could still use these web-services now, but like Stan says in the article, they would be much more useable if tailored to fit on the iPhone’s screen, and interface. In the comments, there were also a few good ideas tossed around, such as a Ustream app (Live streams of you and your iPhone!), and maybe even a Slingbox client for TV on your iPhone.

I think that most of these apps sound like a good idea, but most will still work on the iPhone, even if a “specialized” version isn’t created. What I would really like to see is a Cocoa app re-coded for use on the web (if at all possible). Though until Apple can work out how to best set the iPhone up for more extensive development, it looks like this is the next best thing.

Read [Mashable]

At Macworld 2007, when Steve Jobs first let us see the holy grail, iPhone, he stated that the operating system it is running is Mac OS X. Most people took this to mean that it was a stripped down version of OS X, or Mac OS “Mobile.” At the All Things Digital Conference recently, we got word right from the horse’s mouth that the iPhone is running “real” OS X, not just a slimmed or stripped down version.

The speculation for what this could mean was last seen heading out of the atmosphere after it rocketed into the sky. The fact that the iPhone runs “real” OS X, makes the possibilities for development almost endless. It would mean that all widgets that are currently in your Dashboard, could theoretically also run on the iPhone. More traditionally desktop Mac-apps, could be ported easily to work flawless with the iPhone’s touch screen interface. Lets just hope that Apple will soon find a way to let third party developers “safely” release software for the iPhone.

via [TUAW]