Biggest day ever

This is Engadget.

This is Engadget when Apple launches a new iPhone. Any questions?

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by today to read our coverage of the iPhone 3G launch — it’s always an extraordinary amount of fun and a real honor to be the go-to place for big news in the gadget world.

And yes, I was fortunate enough to play with it and definitely can’t wait to really put the spurs to one.

Good folders to exclude from Time Machine backups

Time Machine is a really effective tool for backing up everything on your drive. And when I say everything, I mean it — Time Machine indiscriminately backs up a lot of junk on your drive. And because of the techniques it uses and the way some files are used by your apps, you might find that your 500GB external backup drive is getting full after just a few months of use.

It’s really easy to identify folders for exclusion from Time Machine, which will save time and space during backups. It’s worth noting, though, that if your machine’s drive does fail, you won’t be able to execute a full restore without having some of these locations backed up. Then again, if you’re anything like me, you’re far more likely to just do a full reinstall and just restore your lost user data. (Doing a full restore from backup just doesn’t have many advantages compared to a full system reinstall, anyway.)

These are just a few suggestions — you should NEVER exclude anything from backup if you’re unsure you have another copy, aren’t able to get it again, or are unaware of the possible ramifications. Of course, you’ve got any good folders you think should be added to the list, feel free to drop ‘em in comments.

Obvious
The duh stuff.

• /Applications - This will likely save you more space than any other single folder, especially if you have lots of apps. Just make sure you know what programs you’d want to get back if your machine were to die.

Caches and downloads
Big directories of files that should probably be excluded automatically, but aren’t. Unless you’re a crazy developer debugging code, you’ll probably never need a backup of your caches.

• /Users/[user]/Library/Caches and /Library/Caches - Between the two you can knock off a few hundred megs of constantly changing, essentially useless data.
• /Users/[user]/Downloads - Where all your internet downloads wind up. Frequently changes, and if you’re anything like me, it’s filled with gigs of garbage.
• /Users/[user]/.Trash and /.Trashes - Some people might see value in backing up their trashed files. Not I.

More after the break. More…

Amusing Live Search result for Engadget

Certainly no one can ping Microsoft’s Live Search for weighting down anything fruit-related.

Leopard 10.5.2: external USB drive crashes Finder, possible fix

Yeah, I’ve been contending with Leopard / 10.5.2 since certain external USB drives began crashing Finder endlessly (until they’re yanked and Finder springs back to life). Using the Console app, I traced the issue back to this core error message from com.apple.launchd: com.apple.finder Exited abnormally: Bus error. I happened upon a solution that seems to work, though:

First, with the drive plugged in an Finder crashing, go to System Preferences > Sharing and change your computer name. Then, if Finder doesn’t come up and stay up, go to your Time Machine prefs and turn it off. That did the trick for me. When you’re done, change it back, it should stick and not crash.

I have to say, this is definitely one of the more ridiculous bugs I’ve seen in Leopard.

The real reason fanboys hate tech reporters

Farhad Manjoo had me at “On hot-button issues — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Mac-PC divide — we’re quick to see bias in even the most objective news.” He’s penned a solid read about that pestering bit which really ought not be as prevalent as it actually is in the wonderful field of writing about tech: the kicking-and-screaming high-intensity “BIAS!” that usually seems to be more in the head of the gadget fan in question than the editorial.

I’ll leave you with this pull: “If I see the world as all black and you see the world as all white and some person comes along and says it’s partially black and partially white, we both are going to be unhappy. You think there are more facts and better facts on your side than on the other side. The very act of giving them equal weight seems like bias. Like inappropriate evenhandedness.”

Questioning iPhone SIM unlocking on the App Store: is the obvious unimportant?

Funny thing, I’ve been getting some small bit of, um, commentary today for asking Steve Jobs a question we all well know the answer to: would Apple allow its developer community to disseminate SIM unlock software on the App Store? I guess the criticism is that it’s a wasted question and a lapse of journalistic judgment to even bother asking — after all, of course it won’t be allowed, jeez. Clearly.

But even knowing the answer would be a resounding no, asking whether SIM unlock software would be allowed can be construed as a statement — as well as and an opportunity for Apple to address the millions of potential customers who’d like to be able to use an iPhone on a non-prescribed carrier. Is Apple going to facilitate the process of breaking its carrier exclusivity agreements by helping distribute that software? Of course not. But it’s important to recognize that these also constitute decisions Apple has made which ultimately limit consumer choice — so why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to account for those decisions?

Not that I would ever compare this kind of trivial stuff to the gravitas of political journalists covering the goings-on of the government, but should White House reporters stop asking Bush when we’ll withdraw from Iraq just because they know the answer will be the same every time they ask? No — and they keep on asking, year after year.

Obvious question with an obvious answer? Totally. Fruitless to ask? I don’t think so.

The iPhone’s long-missing two-pane email client

So I was looking over my Macworld 2007 keynote coverage the other day and noticed something just about everyone — myself included — glossed over as the months passed between its January introduction and June launch: the iPhone once had a two-pane email client. (You can even see the view mode selector up top! This later became the edit button.)

Anyone who knows me and my email-addicted ways knows how desperately I loathe the iPhone’s mail client, and, given its frequency of use, how much I wish they’d improve it. Apple: three simple steps to make email nerds like me happy.

1. Add delete for multiple / all messages.
2. Fix the annoying bug that just lets the iPhone idle while some HTML messages are not downloaded / parsed.
3. Give us (back) the two-pane view mode!

That’s not so hard, now is it? One more minor email client diff after the break. More…

Back from CES, at Macworld tomorrow!

What a crazy fun couple of weeks. Back from CES with the same illness I had before shipping out (isn’t that always the way?); the team was a sight to behold, absolutely a well-oiled machine. I really can’t thank this crew enough for making Engadget possible. Such amazing people, unbelievable.

Be sure to check us all in action tomorrow with our live coverage tomorrow from the Stevenote — not to be missed!

Ten Macworld 2008 predictions

I can always tell the holidays are closing in when it becomes such that a day doesn’t goes by I’m not asked at least a few times what inside dope I’ve got on what Apple’s introducing at Macworld. My stock response is (and always will be), “Everything I know is published on Engadget.” Now, I’m also not usually one to grasp at predictions (just not my thing), but what the hell. If you’re curious as to what I THINK — and not necessarily know — will go down at MW08, here’s the shortlist. In order of most likely to least likely:

1. iPhone SDK / firmware update - duh.
2. Ultraportable MacBook Pro - These kinds of rumors don’t stay alive for so many years when they’re untrue.
3. Movie rentals (with direct download / rental on Apple TV) - Pretty much already confirmed.
4. iPhone 2.0 / 3G - We know it’s coming, and Steve will want to stand on stage triumphantly one year later and introduce the next version.
5. 16GB iPhone 1.0 - Has to happen eventually. The Osborne effect sure is a bitch, so the 8GB 1.0 will get even cheaper (maybe by $50 or $75).
6. Nothing much about 10.6 (that’ll be at WWDC), but there will be mention of the next updates to 10.5.
7. LED-backlit 17-inch MBP - Also an eventuality.
8. Mac mini gets left alone. Probably no mention at all. Same with the iMacs and MacBooks.
9. New monitors with webcams - These things need a refresh like crazy. If Apple’s smart, they’ll put DisplayPort in ‘em.
10. All laptops move from DVI to DisplayPort to match those new monitors. And why not? DisplayPort to DVI adapters should be easy enough for legacy gear.

Leopard: disable “Open with” previous versions of applications in Time Machine?

So Leopard does this really clever thing where, if you don’t exclude it from making backups of your Applications directory, it will let you do a right click / “open with” and select previous versions of apps Time Machine has backed up. The rub: you can’t turn it off, and if your Time Machine drive is connected but not spun up, it’ll wait until the drive gets going before populating that list and giving you the menu. Anyone discovered how to disable it (short of excluding the Applications directory from backup)?

Also, big ups to Conrad for sharing Stamatiou’s really useful OS X hack for turning off safe-sleep mode.