Remember this stupid prompt on new series MacBooks? Even you have purchased movies on iTunes, you can’t play it on external display. It is because Apple enforces HDCP protection on new mini display port. It is very inconvenient. We don’t have that in old MacBooks.

Apple has released QuickTime 7.5.7 recently. For those new MacBook owners, download it now through Software update. Note now you can play those purchased and rented movies on external display. But this only applies to standard definition (SD) version, but not the high definition (HD) verison.

Playing high definition movies on external display over mini display port is still not possible. Hope Apple enable it next time.

[via Mac Rumors]

Google Voice Search app is amazing. It recognize voice correctly for a high percentage. Have you ever wondered how Google do that on iPhone? Google needs to use some undocumented application programming interfaces (APIs)in order to make the voice search feature works.

For those applications that uses undocumented APIs, normally it is not allowed to be put in the App Store. But, as we all know, you can use download the Google Mobile App for voice search now in the App Store. You know, Google and Apple are friends. They even share Google’s Eric Schmidt as a member of director of Apple. Google is having the uneven process for putting apps on App Store. It may not be fair to other iPhone developers. But, come on, they are Google…

[via CNET]

MacBook series has a new advertisement. They said they are environment friendly. Toxins are eliminated. It is highly recyclable. It is more energy efficient. For those who concern about environment, they will feel better when using the new Macs. But for others, what is your feeling for the MacBooks are green?

Click here for the new advertisement video.

It’s all okay in firmware 2.1 when we press and hold to save images from Safari, Mail or other programs. But, it is not okay in firmware 2.2. Lots of users complained when they are trying to save images from Safari, Mail or other programs, the images will appeared like above in the Photos.app. It is blurred. In iPhone 2.2, the system wrongly saved the low resolution images.

If you use other programs, e.g. Toy Camera, the photos created will be also blurred. I have tested it on my iPhone and got the same problem. All my images created in Toy Camera is blurred. It’s not fun anymore. This is very annoying. iPhone 2.2.1 fix coming soon? Hope so.

A little update from this Flickr feed:

Try this out yourself. On your computer, resize one copy of an image to no more than 480 pixels on the long side and a second copy to about 640 pixels on the long side. Email both to your phone, and save them to your camera roll by tap-holding on the images in mail then selecting Save 2 Images.

Open up the Photos mobile application and view the results. If your phone works as mine does after the 2.2 update, the image that was 480 pixels will be crisp and clear and the image that was 640 pixels will be fuzzy and pixellated.

[via Full Speed]

[Click above for bigger picture, or here for the original video link]

When I watch videos today, I found that the YouTube video size is much bigger. It finally has a wide screen. I thought that it only applies to certain videos, but apparently it is not. It looks like all videos have a wide big screen. I think YouTube understands people love big video size. You know, CollegeHumor, Vimeo and many other competitors have big screen for a while.

The video size is bigger, but not all videos look better. Some videos uploaded with a small resolution cannot enjoy the benefit. Take a look of the original video size above. It comes with big screen but black edges. For those newly uploaded videos, it can be shown with big screen. Anyway, it’s still a good start. No more small tiny online videos.

If you have 8-core Mac, iMac and MacBook, do you still have any money to buy the Final Cut Studio 2? Probably no. A Greenwich High School student wrote a letter to Steve Jobs directly and politely and ask whether it is possible to have a better discount for Final Cut Studio. Later, he received a direct reply by Richard Downhill, director of pro video product marketing.After 2 weeks, he received the software completely free. It sounds too good to be true, right? Hope Steve Jobs won’t receive lots of letters after this news is posted.

[via Gizmodo]

By the time iPhone received the new firmware 2.2, iPod Touch also have that. But the firmware update is different, and some new features for iPhone cannot be found on iPod Touch firmware 2.2. Google Street View is one of them.

Since iPhone and iPod Touch share the same OS architecture, it may be possible to enable it by editing the system files. You will need to jailbreak the iPod Touch to do so. Since jailbreak iPod Touch 2nd generation is not possible, this only applies to the old iPod Touch. Detailed instructions available here. It involves converting some files to xml for editing. Backup before you proceed. And as always, try it at your own risk.

1. get this file via ssh: /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/N45AP.plist
2. convert to xml at http://iappcat.com/plist/bin2xml
3. add

<key>telephony</key>
<dict>
<key>maximumGeneration</key>
<real>2.5</real>
</dict>

underneath

<key>standAloneContacts</key>
<true/>

4. save then using that website again reconvert to binary
5. rename original file N45AP.old
6. copy new N45AP.plist in (make sure permissions are 644)
7. reboot ipod

[via iPod touch Fans Forum]

T-Mobile G1 may not be as fancy as iPhone, but it’s still a great smartphone. T-Mobile or HTC does not announce the first Google Android phone screen is compatible with multi-touch, but somehow it can be. A programmer wrote a small program that can track 2 fingers on the screen.

In the video, the programmer use 2 fingers to draw dots and lines. It worked, but not so smooth. He said he will release the demo program later on. It may not be the perfect multi-touch T-Mobile G1 screen, but at least it can be done. When can I have a better photo browser in Android OS?

[via RyeBlog]

After updated my iPhone to firmware 2.2, besides enjoying Google StreetView and Podcast download, there is something more. In the old firmware days, I was unable the captured image easily on iPhoto. I didn’t know which one I really want to import. iPhone firmware 2.2 have finally fixed the bug.

You will be able to view all the images and screenshots captured from the iPhone. The screen shots captured in firmware 2.2 can be previewed, but those created in firmware 2.1 cannot be. Glad that the problem is finally vanished.

I’ve posted the free iTunes account here and here long time ago. They used 2 different approach. One is using the expired redeem code, and the other one is using the free app. Recently, I have received lots of comments saying the method does not work anymore.

Hence, I have tried the steps again. Apparently, Apple has closed the “hole” recently. Both methods do not work anymore. i have searched the internet, and most of other sites are using similar techniques. Their method also not working anymore.

There is no method to create free iTunes account without using the credit card. For instance, you will need a US credit card to create the US iTunes account. It won’t work using other countries credit card, paypal account or expired redeem code. If your country does not have iTunes account, you got no luck. Stay tuned, and hope for the new method to “crack” it.