You can do this for any app without any extra software. It’s pretty easy.

1. Right click on the dock icon and select Show in Finder
2. Right click on the app and select Show Package Contents
3. In the Contents folder, open Info.plist in a text editor
4. Look for this line “LSUIElement” and change the following string value from 0 to 1.
5. Restart the app and it should appear without a Dock icon.

Note that you have to do this each time after updating the app.

Taken from: GetSatisfaction

Either way, we went to one of the two places that back then were the only authorized retailers of Macs. A place that goes by the name of Modernica. They did not have the Power Books with bluetooth because of ‘export concerns’. They took 3 weeks to get the Power Book after my friend ordered it, and even then, it was the past generation model. Is Apple to blame?

At the time of writting this is the low end Mac Book Pro model you can buy at Modernica’s website and the low end model you can buy at Apple’s site.

After visiting the Modernica Store in Plaza Las Americas I can now confirm two things, they do not update their website, as they actually -do- have the current model machine for sale. I can also confirm I can’t say ‘in stock’ as they told me they had to order pretty much anything I asked them about, and it would take about 2 weeks. Good thing I wasn’t planning on buying a Mac there.

The other distributor was CompUSA, but since their bankruptcy and subsequent re-opening they seem to have gotten rid of the Mac aspect. So off to the newly opened Best Buy, prices remain the same, but they actually do have a stock of Apple machines.

Where does this leave the iPhone?

The iPhone works. In fact, it has always worked in Puerto Rico. This is against what ATT and Apple both told you at launch. You just have to realize that ‘not available for sale’ does not mean ‘does not work in’. Apple finally signed with America Movil (aka Claro) to bring the iPhone to Latin America, which would include Puerto Rico. This is supposed to happen ‘before the end of the year’. A few people I talked to in the island about it also mentioned that:

1) If you have an AT&T account, activation through iTunes now works as it does in the USA.
2) AT&T will most likely be providing the iPhone in Puerto Rico as well before the end of the year. Making it one of the few places where the iPhone is -not- exclusive to one carrier.

Of all the people I talked to many got it through friends/family in the USA who would just mail the device down. Many others mentioned eBay as the source of their phone.

I have had my iPhone hacked and in use with a Puerto Rico phone number in the United States for almost a year now. Even if I could activate it normally I would still have it hacked, since there are no official applications right now, and if there were, I’m pretty sure the SNES Emulator won’t make the cut.

Apple has been shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a very avid fan base for Apple computers. The office I used to work at uses them exclusively and many of my friends have switched to mac. But when you go to purchase a Mac you need to know what you’re getting into or you will end up not liking the experience. Having Modernica, the only retailer with Apple Macs on sale in the main mall in Puerto Rico, not have a stock of machines is ridiculous, and adds an extra unnecessary barrier to entry to the consumer that would just like to purchase a machine on that given day.

Best Buy is an option, yes, but it is not a Mac exclusive retailer. Modernica should have the advantage here.

If you are on the fence about getting an iPhone and you live in Puerto Rico, wait until the update (sometime in June) and get an iPhone 2.0. You will not regret it, It will work in Puerto Rico under AT&T if you already have a contract with them. If you don’t wait a couple of months. The iPhone will be available for purchase soon enough.

If you are on the fence about getting a Mac. Go to Best Buy, play with them there, and just do it. Life outside of Microsoft is sweet and delicious.

Apple, please fix this. Give all U.S. citizens equal rights to a Mac!

I will try and upgrade my account to an iPhone account sometime later this month and I will post my findings.

Cookbook, according to their site is “The ultimate cookbook application, with online grocery shopping, thousands of recipes, Leopard voiceover technology integration, shopping list sharing, and more.” That is perfect. The screenshots make it look even more delicious. How saddened was I when I found out that it is vaporware. I decided to look a bit deeper…

The forums of My Dream App are in a eternal state of maintenance, which was no help. I then turned to google, trying all the combinations I could. There was a post that noted that he had in fact, found a replacement for Cookbook, yet he didn’t link to it. I decided to then e-mail Phill Ryu who was one of the masterminds behind the whole project and Austin Sarner the developer in charge of Cookbook.

We’re talking about very busy people in the Mac shareware scene, Phill is responsible for the insanely successful MacHeist, and Austin is responsible for a few project like AppZapper and Disco. Needless to say, I did not expect an email back from them. I of course, never got an email back, so I continued my search.

I finally found a cookbook application that seems like would do the trick, YummySoup!. It’s pretty cool but definitely not the end-all cooking app. Mainly I dislike that I cant create a calendar with the recipes, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to select a group of recipes and have it create my shopping cart automatically, which I can just print out before going to the supermarket. In fact, that’s something I’ve done with even the Kraft Foods website.

Just before I gave up I made yet another search. This time however I searched the MacHeist forums, which are active year-round. A post there has Phill mentioning how Cookbook development will be handed over to Hungry Sea Cow, the makers of YummySoup!. He posted this in February 2008, and he updated in April 25th, 2008 that there have been complications with the contract.

This leads me to believe a few things, Austin has either left the project or needs help in it. Austin has been working on another application called Versions which has also been delayed. Additionally, Hungry Sea Cow already has a library of recipes that could be ported over to Cookbook and they have been working on YummySoup! for a while now so they must already know how the cookie crumbles when it comes to cookbooks. I do not believe that development has been switched over to Hungry Sea Cow however, since not having a contract would limit that (Phill does state an ‘understanding’ has been reached, but that was back in February).

It just seems like the whole Cookbook thing was a bit more involved than they thought, and therefore has suffered massive delays. However, I think that, if they sort out their differences with Hungry Sea Cow, My Dream App has a winner. Hungry Sea Cow would be responsible for updating the software and as such would make a way better product.

In fact, I think that is what MyDreamApp 2 should concentrate on. Give the projects to new developers or up-and-coming developers and have the established ones oversee it. It should be about growing the community, the more people doing shareware the better!

I will keep investigating to see what I can find out about the other winning apps.