msmtp, a free tool to send email from Terminal

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I fully expected that my article on mailsend would lead to several “Why don’t you use use XYZ instead?” replies, and it did. Suggestions included Ruby, Python, iPhone push notifications, and configuring postfix/sendmail.

But one suggestion was to use msmtp, and that turned out to be the golden nugget.

What makes msmtp so great, especially compared to mailsend, is that it completely eliminates the need to store your Gmail password in a plain text file on your computer. msmtp uses the Mac OS X Keychain instead. The other big advantage is that mailsend required several command line arguments every time, which makes it very likely that someone (i.e. “me”) is going to screw it up. Once msmtp is configured, I can use the venerable “/usr/bin/Mail” to send email from the command line, and /usr/bin/Mail is nearly idiot proof. (Note I said “nearly” — this is not a challenge!)

In short: msmtp was what I was looking for when I found mailsend.

Although configuring msmtp took about 30 minutes, it was well worth it, and now that you have these handy instructions, it should take you even less time than it took me. (You can also get mstmp from Rudix or MacPorts but I still like building my own whenever possible. You might not share my neuroses, however.)

Read on for a complete walk-through.

TUAWmsmtp, a free tool to send email from Terminal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 04 May 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad pulls Fraser Speirs back in to iPhone OS development

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When I saw Mac developer Fraser SpeirsTwitter post linking to a blog entry titled “Back In” I knew what it was about: the App Store.

Back in September 2008, Fraser announced he was ceasing new iPhone OS development in a widely-linked post titled “App Store: I’m out”.

Fraser wasn’t the first or last to announce that he was giving up on the App Store, but he is the first that I’m aware of who has come back. Why? Because to ignore the iPhone OS is to risk missing too many potential new customers. He says that he hasn’t seen any comparable alternatives to the iPhone platform, and with the arrival of the iPad, Apple’s mobile device platform is the place to be. “I have to ask myself if there’s a train that I would rather be on,” says Speirs. “I don’t see one right now, and I don’t see one coming down the track.”

TUAWiPad pulls Fraser Speirs back in to iPhone OS development originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 03 May 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Use mailsend to send email from the Terminal

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Update: After this article was written I learned of mstmp which I highly recommend instead of mailsend.

There are times that I want my iMac to be able to email me: when certain scripts run via cron or launchd, when certain events happen (a backup has been completed), etc. I’ve found that none of the included command-line programs work.

The good news is that, with a UNIX foundation, it was fairly easy to find a free program which would do just that.

A little searching turned up a free program called mailsend, which will work. For this example I will be using a Gmail account, which requires OpenSSL. Your mail server may not require OpenSSL support, but if it’s possible, I encourage you to use it.

The short version of the instructions are as follows:

1) Download and install OpenSSL to /usr/local/ssl/

2) Download and install mailsend to somewhere in your path such as /usr/local/bin/

3) Use mailsend -h to learn how to use it on the commandline

4) (Optional) Use TextExpander 3 to fill in some of the variable fields, such as To, Subject, and Message.

Read on for more of a step by step walk-through.

TUAWUse mailsend to send email from the Terminal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 03 May 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple posts thoughts on Flash

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Apple has posted their Thoughts on Flash, signed by Steve Jobs himself, which echos a lot of the commentary that you’ve probably already read on why Apple isn’t supporting Flash on iPhone OS devices, and why they plan to block apps that allow Flash programs to be recompiled into iPhone OS programs, especially games.

Beginning with citing their long-standing relationship, Steve outlines six points: openness, “the full web”, security and performance, battery life, touch, and the drawbacks of relying on third-party development tools.

In case anyone has been unclear thus far, or has been waiting for a version of the iPhone OS that supports Flash, here is your clear and unmistakable sign: you will never see Flash on an iPhone OS device. Steve’s letter addresses the “why not?” questions.

TUAWApple posts thoughts on Flash originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smiley Face Clip Art – The Deeper Meaning

You might be surprised to know that there’s a pretty significant reason for all those pesky little smiley face clip art emoticons in your email, instant messenger, and forums. Their importance can be seen when studying psychology and communication. As it turns out, more than 90% of human to human communication is non verbal! That’s right.A lot of what we convey when communicating to others actually happens without us saying anything. Most of how you’re feeling is conveyed in your body language, posture, the tone of your voice, the gestures you make with you hands, your facial expressions,and more! When you can’t see or hear someone, in an online chat for example, smileys and emoticons attempt to take the place of that “non-verbal” communication as best as possible.

So next time you’re in an online conversation, don’t be afraid to use a couple of smiley faces  in there to add to your message. Smiley face clip art helps convey emotions and expressions which might be harder to do so without them.

The majority of IM and email programs have emoticons built right into them for easy access, but they usually only contain a very small library. For avid smiley lovers out there, there are free downloadable programs out there which allow you to download more than ten thousand smileys in a simple toolbar which you can then use in all your instant messengers, emails, social media sites like facebook and myspace, and more!The toolbar contains all types of smileys including animated smileys, 3D smileys, smileys with sound, holiday smileys, and smileys to convey any possible emotion you can think of.

I think it’s ironic how originally, humans used to communicate though the use of images and symbols (like the ancient egyptians). Then we developed language, but as we become more technologically advanced, we are in a way moving back to using symbols to communicate, in the form of smiley face clip art!

The best iPhone 3GS Review? I’ll let you find out…

Ah! The iphone. Never in seven years of reviewing cellular cell phones have we encountered a telephone that has been so controversial. We have even been personally abused by reviewers who disagreed with our ideas. This evaluation is definitely an make an effort to find balance in between the conflicting opinions( some thing we usually strive for at Freegifts4you.co.uk, but which has been difficult to achieve using the apple iphone). Normal readers of Mobile Phones UK will know that we wrote an article back in June 2007 which cast doubt on whether the apple iphone would live up to the hype. We hadn’t observed the Free iPhone 3GS at that time, but when it lastly showed up right here in the UK, we were blown away by the user interface and gave it a five star review( although we did stage out its several limitations). With hindsight, five stars was wrong, and getting taken on board all of the feedback from users, we’ve arrived at a 3 star rating.

The thing is how the iphone is in some methods so good, and in other methods so poor. Let’s be generous and begin using the great.

The iPhone 3GS is the first of a brand new generation of cell phones: it’s a touchscreen smartphone working Apple’s OS X operating system. Rather than utilizing buttons, joysticks, and so on, the apple iphone has icons that show up on the huge touch-sensitive screen. The screen is huge, and also the user interface is simply breathtaking. Apple claim that the apple iphone is five years ahead from the competition, and actively playing with the user interface you can start to believe the hype. Contact the Phone icon about the screen and the address book seems; tap on the name and also the apple iphone can make a call. Contact the Pictures icon and your photo album glides onto the screen. The responsiveness of the person interface and also the wealth of outcomes makes utilizing the telephone an complete pleasure. SmartPhones have a reputation for becoming slow, bug-ridden and difficult to use, however the apple iphone may be the complete opposite. Utilizing the iphone is merely an incredible experience, and once you’ve owned an apple iphone it’s difficult to imagine actually going back again to some regular telephone. Consider a look in the movie demos on the apple iphone website to determine for yourself.

The apple iphone is definitely an iPod as well needless to say. It plays music and having a built-in 8 Gbyte of flash memory, you are able to throw away your iPod. The iphone plays music and video(on that stunningly large screen) and can obtain songs from iTunes on the move. 8 Gbytes is sufficient to shop 2,000 songs.

Other excellent functions include the Safari web browser (which offers one of the best implementations from the cellular web that we have come throughout), Google Maps ( which is fabulous about the iphone) and built-in Wi-Fi support.

That’s where the good stops and also the poor starts. First the price. The iphone is exclusive to O2 and can cost£269 to buy on a£35 per 30 days 18-month contract. It’s locked to O2 and will carry on to become locked even when the 18 month deal ends. This can make it far more costly than every other phone within the mainstream marketplace.

Some of the technologies below the hood is a lot more like “five years out of date” than “five many years ahead from the competition”. For instance, the camera is just 2 megapixels, lacks autofocus and has no flash. It’s only a toy camera in comparison to the Nokia N95, Samsung G600 or Sony Ericsson K850i. These 3 phones are currently in the top five sellers in the UK and all have five megapixel cameras with flash and autofocus. Apple seriously misjudged the public’s desire for quality cameras in their phones.

The connectivity from the apple iphone can also be critically lacking (hey, it’s an Apple, we shouldn’t be astonished by this!) The most apparent omission is the lack of 3G. It’s the only real present smartphone that lacks 3G. For a phone that locations so much emphasis on its music downloading and internet browsing capabilities, the truth that you can only obtain at 2G speeds is a major limitation. It’s like a Ferrari having a top speed electronically limited to 30 mph! If you’re in an EDGE-enabled part from the O2 network or even a wi-fi hotspot, then you can access greater data speeds, but still absolutely nothing like 3G. It’s this kind of a shame, simply because the web surfing around capacity from the iphone is the best we have ever seen on a mobile. It seems that the apple iphone was designed primarily for the US market exactly where 3G is largely unavailable and exactly where the choice of handsets is scaled-down. The Bluetooth support can also be critically limited, without any filesharing and no support for stereo Bluetooth headsets.

The battery life from the iPod is an additional issue. The iPod includes a large LCD show that eats power and with so many devices to perform with, the battery is going to be utilized up fairly quickly. But even heavy customers ought to get a complete day’s use in between charges, so it’s not the end of the world. Other difficulties consist of the omission of MMS, and the fact that you can only assign MP3 tracks to ringtones if they had been downloaded from iTunes.

So, what to conclude concerning the iphone? It’s clearly not really a phone for everyone. It’s really expensive, so we ought to compare it with the very best of the competitors. What has the iphone got that the others haven’t? The answer may be the person user interface: a large touchscreen show, having a person user interface that really is a contemporary wonder. It’s also a good media player, but then so are its rivals. If you’ve received the money and also you adore the look, then the iphone could be your telephone, but for the rest of us on a spending budget, you’d be advised to forget the charms of the iphone and buy a cheaper alternative that does so much a lot more. Options include the LG KU990 Viewty, the Nokia N95, the Nokia N81, and the Sony Ericsson W960i.

Facts about iPhone 3G 16GB

iPhone 3G 16GB is really a wonderful telephone, very appealing, yet very easy in its look. It’s slim and can easily suit in your hands and looks and feels good. It’s got 3. five inch show that is totally obvious and bright. The icons of the phone are already deigned beautifully and the buttons are easy to use. Quite a lot of effort may be invested to include business-related function within this fantastic telephone.
The data throughput of the phone is very good and also you shall be satisfied. The telephone has an accelerometer sensor to enable auto-rotate. The area is scratch resistant and the iphone 3G 16GB includes a proximity sensor to permit auto turn-off. It has a speakerphone with three. 5 mm headset jack. The telephone book allows you to report nearly unlimited fields and entries and also allows photocall. Calls records of 100 missed, received and dialed calls are available.
The phone is GPRS enabled and also supports Bluetooth, though it’s got no infrared port. You may enjoy capturing stunning pictures with the assist of the 2MP camera of the apple iphone. The battery supports 10 hours speak time, up to 24 several hours music perform and has up to 300 several hours stand-by facility. In the iphone 3G 16GB you shall also find optimized edition of Google maps, that is merely great.
Owing to it you are able to very easily update your current placement with only a click as well as research for nearby companies inside a fraction of the 2nd. You shall also be able to call a company very easily and directly in the Google maps entry.
Web browsing is excellent with the Safari browser. The web pages open rapidly and that too obviously. The spreading, pinching and panning finger gestures are incredible and great to use. The browser has a single from the best available browsing solutions that could be used on a mobile. You’re surely going to adore each minute that you would invest using this fantastic apple iphone.
Telephone calls created in the iphone have great clarity and proper reception. Among the SMS messaging features is the threaded messaging facility. You are able to configure emails instantly if you are producing utilization of one from the compatible e-mail providers. The media playback in this apple iphone is incredible, and also you can sync it with iTunes on your PC or MAC. Every function of the iphone is great and you are certain to be a proud owner of the exact same.

Downloads page at Apple.com no longer being updated

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On March 16th, we reported that although the “Downloads” tab had been removed from Apple’s homepage, the downloads page itself was still available.

However, about 10 days after that, Apple apparently ceased updating the page. The most recent app listed under “Recently Added” is March 26th, and we’ve been told that developers who have sent in apps have not gotten any response.

Many applications will now check and report when new versions are available, but if you are looking for applications to fit a specific need, you can still use VersionTracker and MacUpdate.

TUAWDownloads page at Apple.com no longer being updated originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hackintosh-friendly Dell Mini 10v discontinued

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The Dell Mini 10v, choice of netbook hackintosh owners everywhere, has apparently been discontinued as of a week ago. I discovered that today when I couldn’t find any on Dell’s site, and confirmed it with a live chat with a support representative who told me it was discontinued last week. A message was left for Dell’s Media Relations team but was not immediately returned.

Dell’s naming system is confusing, so it would be easy to see the “Mini 10” and think that it is available, but the “10v” has a chipset that works with Mac OS X; the regular Mini 10 does not.
Coincidentally, last night I setup my first Dell Mini 10v running Mac OS X. I had my Snow Leopard DVD, the free Netbook Installer application, the instructions from Gizmodo, and an 8GB USB thumb drive; setting this up could not have been any easier. The results are pretty cool, if you are willing to accept the obvious tradeoffs inherent in a netbook.

Today I even ran Software Update, and have the beast running 10.6.3 without a hitch.

As of this writing, there are still a few refurbished models available at Dell’s outlet. Although the Mini 10v has been a hackintosher’s dream machine, I have no doubt that other computers will come along which prove equally as hackintoshable (I realize that these are made-up words).

Update: A Dell spokesperson tells TUAW that the product was naturally end-of-lifed. Intel launched its Pine Trail Atom processor last year; Dell will be refreshing the mini line with that updated processor. The spokesperson could not clarify the degree to which updated units would be Hackintoshable.

TUAWHackintosh-friendly Dell Mini 10v discontinued originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Manage your TUAW commenter profile

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We’ve had a few inquiries on our tip line and feedback form in the past few days about managing your TUAW commenter profile. Whenever you leave a comment on a TUAW post, an account is created for you using the name and email address that you use in the “New Readers” tab in the comment field.

You wil receive an email with a subject line that reads: “The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Please confirm your comment.” The body of the email will ask you to “Please activate your comments by clicking the following URL.” That request is followed by a fairly random looking URL such as “http://www.tuaw.com/confirm/ d3c2c40709244bdab990689e484f419c/”.

Once you do that, you will receive another email with a subject line that says “Thanks for confirming your account on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).” Save that email message! It will contain your email address and a randomly generated password.

Read on for some FAQs and more commenter tips.

TUAWManage your TUAW commenter profile originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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