Getting PDFs into iTunes to sync them with iBooks on your device can be a bit of a chore. But by using the method below, you can send any document or even web page straight to the Books section of iTunes for syncing with ease.

To get iTunes ready is simple. All you have to do is open your Applications folder, and make an alias of iTunes by control-clicking its icon and selecting ‘Make Alias’. Now drag your newly-created alias and drop it in [Your Home folder] → Library → PDF Services. What this does is adds iTunes as an option when you select the PDF button in a Print dialog.

At the moment when you click PDF under Print, it’s going to say ‘iTunes alias’, which isn’t very informative. Rename your iTunes alias in the Finder to something along the lines of ‘Send PDF to iTunes’ or ‘Add PDF to iTunes’ and the menu item in the Pront dialog should update next time you open it.

Now whenever you have a document or web page open that you’d like to read in iBooks, all you have to do is go to File → Print, then click the PDF button in the lower left and choose your menu item for iTunes. The document will be saved as a PDF and sent straight into the Books section of your iTunes library.

This method works for any application that can open PDF files, not just iTunes.

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This has been percolating throughout and hit a fervor today, as every single main star of Nike’s Write The Future ad is now out of the tournament. Even a few of the minor stars, like the US duo and Cesc, who’s played a whole 59 minutes in 4 games, are falling to the curse as well (Iniesta and Pique are still going strong).

The verdict:

Didier Drogba: Broken arm before the tournament; crashed out in the groups.

Fabio Cannavaro: First round exit; tainted his legacy with a pretty mediocre showing in central defense; added injury to insult by retiring to Dubai.

Franck Ribery: First round exit; may or may not have called Yoann Gourcuff names and/or punched him in his pretty face.

Wayne Rooney: Quarterfinal thrashing by Germany; game can be found on a milk carton, because it was nowhere to be found.

Ronaldinho: Not invited despite having perfect teeth.

Cristiano Ronaldo: Quarterfinal exit to Spain; out of eight World Cup halves, he showed up for most of one – when Portugal were already routing North Korea.

In summation: complete failure by Nike.

adidas, on the other hand, went with Lionel Messi and David Villa.

The former is a heavy candidate, if not favorite, for the Golden Ball and David Villa is joint-leader for top scorer (with Higuain and Vittek at 4) – an award conveniently sponsored by adidas – and just as importantly, still playing. They also might have predicted a semifinal, with Argentina needing to beat Germany and Spain to slip past Paraguay for the semifinal of speed.

So clearly we can deduce adidas’ products are better than Nike’s. Because commercials never lie.

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Nike's colorful new boots have been conspicuous at the World Cup in South Africa. (AFP/Getty)

London, England (CNN) – With the sheer number of Nike ticks seen on the clothes and the shoes of the footballers, you could be forgiven for thinking the American sportswear giant is an official corporate sponsor of this year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Of course, it’s Adidas and the famed three stripes that are supposed to catch the eye. It’s the German company's ball that's being used for all matches, and its name that appears on the boarding, along with some of the kits of teams such as Spain, Germany, France and Argentina (spare a thought for Nike-owned Umbro, which supplies England).

But, oh those bright orange and silver Nike Elite series of boots that so many players are wearing! It can be no coincidence that Nike’s latest shoe is so easy to see from far away. Many of those players wearing Adidas clothes are wearing Nike Elite. It worked. I noticed.

Don’t call it ambush marketing, though. This is a far cry from placing beautiful models wearing orange-colored clothes in the stands to promote a Dutch beer brand that is not a sponsor.

Nike is simply fulfilling a right to sign any player or team to a kit contract. Players have the right to wear what they want when it comes to critical equipment, like boots and baseball gloves, no matter who is the event's sponsor.

And you can’t blame Nike for people referring to its pre-tournament TV commercial (which is called "Write the Future") as  “Nike’s new World Cup ad.” Though, as an aside, it's worth noting that all the players featured in it have already been knocked out of the tournament.

What Nike cannot do is link itself to the World Cup. Go to its website and you would never know that the most important sporting event in the world is taking place.

This is not a mild issue, of course. In order for big events to sign big-time sponsors, governments have to pass laws and make ambush marketing illegal (read South Africa’s law here).

That is why South African prosecutors could have filed criminal charges against the two Dutch women accused of being behind the beer stunt. The matter was dropped by soccer's governing body FIFA, though, after the beer company agreed to not do it again while Budweiser is the official beer of the tournament through 2022.

Then there are the "exclusion zones" around the stadiums where only official merchandise and drinks can be sold. Brands spend millions of dollars for the right not to have to compete with rivals who have not paid.

I was in Turin for the 2006 Winter Olympics, and people there had to be be reminded that Italy had passed such a law and that it was illegal to profit from the Olympics if you had not paid up first.

I also overheard Coca-Cola people making sure athletes did not bring the "wrong" water to press conferences, as they indicated had happened in the past.

Nike hasn’t had to worry about these things. It just had to make sure its players where brightly-colored shoes. Though at $400 a pair, I will not be buying them.

View full post on CNN World Sport

One of the few – very few – bright spots of England’s miserable World Cup campaign was the form of Ashley Cole. The England left back had a decent World Cup 2010, and has avoided most of the criticism directed at the team by, well, everyone who saw the team play in South Africa. But a story in The Sun yesterday has ruined all that.

Apparently, before the World Cup, Cole updated his status on his Blackberry (supposed to be visible to only a closed network of people) to read: “I hate England and the f***ing people!” Nice one Ashley Cole. Because now they probably feel the same way.

The Sun did allow Cole to comment on his status update, explaining that “I always try my hardest for England and Chelsea but the intrusion and pressure I feel is making my life hell.” Which would be a good excuse if Cole didn’t attract said attention by doing things like cheating on his super-hot ex-wife and sending out status updates about how he hates England all its people.

I’m still not sure how The Sun got hold of Cole’s private status update, or what sort ethical boundaries they trampled to do so. But I know the basic equation here is that if Cole had not been dumb enough to insult an entire nation, then he wouldn’t now have that same nation about to hate him back tenfold. Am I overreacting, or is this the sort of scandal that ends in international retirement?

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The biggest speculative conundrum for Mac laptop watchers currently is, “Whither the MacBook Air?” It’s been more than a year since the Air received its last (very modest) refresh, and the operative puzzler is whether it will be getting another or just be allowed to fade away from relevance through neglect.

Just to refresh our memory, the MacBook Air was last breathed on — mildly — in June 2009, when it received a speed bump to 1.86 GHz and 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, and a price reduction to $1,499 for the base model with a 120 GB hard drive, and $1,799 for the 2.13 GHz high-end model with a 120 GB solid-state drive. Since then, Apple has stood pat with the Air. It would be interesting to know how they’ve been selling lately.

There have been spurts of rumors about the potential for, say, a 3G MacBook Air, but nothing came of them, and that particular market niche would appear to now be amply covered by the iPad 3G.

Disinterest From Apple

However, MacBook Air fans shouldn’t give up hope just yet. Earlier this month the Mac mini got a major refresh and new lease on life after a long stretch of apparent disinterest from Apple.

I have no inside knowledge, but what I suspect is that Apple wanted to wait and see what sort of market reception the iPad achieved before committing to a MacBook Air upgrade. Of course, the fact that the iPad has been an out-of-the-park home run in sales performance probably hasn’t enhanced the Air’s prospects for survival, but it’s more complicated than that.

For one thing, the two machines occupy widely divergent points on the price spectrum, and in that context don’t compete directly with each other, although it is entirely conceivable that some users who might otherwise have purchased a MacBook Air will now get an iPad to serve as a light, handy, mobile computing device. I expect more than a few will be of that persuasion, bleeding potential sales from an already limited MacBook Air market.

A “Real” Computer

On the other hand, a sizable cohort of users will still want a “real” ultralight laptop computer with a proper keyboard, a trackpad and stand-up display that can run full-fledged Mac OS X production application software. Despite its virtues, which are many, the iPad meets none of those criteria.

Personally, I’ve resisted the 3-pound, 0.76-inch thick MacBook Air mainly on price, but have also objected to its constrained expandability and connectivity. However, compared with the iPad, which hasn’t even a single real USB port to its name, the Air is almost a power-user machine.

One of the MacBook Air’s problems is that it’s always been arbitrarily positioned and priced as something of a carriage trade accessory and arm candy for well-heeled users, rather than as a serious work tool. In terms of practical capability, the 13-inch MacBook Pro has pretty much all of the same bases covered, aside from extreme thinness and light weight, and in a package that’s not grossly thicker, heavier, or larger in footprint, and which manages to look really great doing it while selling at a relatively bargain basement price. Willingness to carry around an extra 1.5 pounds to get the MacBook Pro’s superior performance is a subjective value judgment and benefit trade-off. These things are relative; the MacBook Air weighs twice as much as an iPad.

Get a MacBook and iPad Both for the Price of a MacBook Air

Another way to look at it is that you can buy a white, entry-level MacBook and a base model iPad for exactly the same money as the base MacBook Air, and essentially have your cake and eat it, too, at no greater cost.

Yet another possible stumbling block in the MacBook Air’s upgrade path is Apple’s CPU vs. GPU dilemma. The current Air has, as noted above, Core 2 Duo processor silicon paired with NVIDIA 9600M integrated graphics processing — both categories being previous-generation hardware. Apple chose to stick with Core 2 Duo for the 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro so they could use NVIDIA’s new and much faster 320M integrated GPU, which I think was a good and sensible decision for now. But for an ultraportable machine like the MacBook Air, raw graphics performance is not a first-priority attribute. Few users are likely to be doing high-end graphics, video editing or serious gaming on an Air.

Core i3 Power?

Consequently, Intel’s new low-power consumption Core i3 CPU with its own, in-house HD Graphics GPU and Hyper-Threading technology, which enables each processor core to address two tasks at the same time, might arguably be a more sensible alternative. That would make the Air the only Apple system using Core i3 silicon, which is offered in clock speeds ranging from 1.20 GHz to 2.40 GHz, but presumably it won’t be sticking with Core 2 Duo for the 13-inch MacBooks forever, so it could serve as a relatively low–volume engineering trial.

It would help if Intel could relent and license NVIDIA to make graphics chipsets for core CPUs, but odds of that happening are difficult to gauge.

With the iPad’s spectacular sales success, I have to say I’m skeptical about the MacBook Air having a very auspicious future. However, Apple has surprised us before, and it could again. If you really want a MacBook Air, my best guess is that it might be prudent make your move now while they’re still available, but don’t be mad at me if you do and Apple springs a new Air on us.

View full post on TheAppleBlog

(CNN) – A key reading on business sentiment shows that optimism is on the rise in the country’s business sector. The closely watched Tankan survey is out, and it shows – for the first time in a long time – the country's big businesses are feeling good about the state of the economy.

The quarterly survey had a reading of plus one. Most economists were expecting a reading of minus four. That means optimists outnumber pessimists.

That’s in contrast to negative numbers out of Japan earlier this week, led by news that unemployment inched upward in May. Still, the results will likely come as welcome relief, particularly to exporters who have been hammered this week by a stronger yen.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media is reported that China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was at 52.1 percent. That’s down from 53.9 percent in May, a sign China’s red-hot economy is starting to cool.

View full post on Business 360

There’s a two day break in World Cup action, so we don’t have any goal or other match highlights to share today. But that’s OK. Because what we do have is this footage from one of Spain’s practice sessions in which young Valencia attacker Juan Mata completely befuddles Real Madrid defender Raul Albiol with a trick so complex I have no idea what to call it.

It’s a roll, it’s a change of direction, it’s maybe a crossover, it’s definitely a nutmeg. It’s good enough to warrant a celebration. It’s the sort of trick that makes me wish YouTube had a slow motion button. I want to study this move in detail and then fall over while trying to repeat it. Don’t expect to see Mata pulling this out during an actual World Cup game though. The 22 year old has so far only played 20 minutes of Spain’s campaign. Which I think underlines the quite unfair level of talent that currently exists in this Spain squad. Can anyone explain the Madonna “Like a Prayer” soundtrack though?

View full post on World Cup Soccer – South Africa 2010

The new iPhone 4 does away with the ‘hold’ button during a call, but what if you want to put your caller on hold? Don’t worry, you still can.

Apple’s iPhone 4, which was released less than a week ago, introduced FaceTime, a new video calling feature currently exclusive to the device. It’s designed to let users enter into a video session during a call; however, in order for the feature to be available, one of the default call options still found on older iPhones had to go. The one that got the cut? The ability to place a call on hold.

Old Vs. New: A call on an iPhone 3GS and a call on the new iPhone 4

One concerned Apple customer recently emailed Steve Jobs asking the Apple CEO about the issue. As usual Jobs replied with a simple response, stating that the hold functionality is actually the same as using mute. His exact words being: “Hold doesn’t do anything more than Mute.” However, although Jobs is technically correct, quickly pressing mute only stops the sound on one end of the call, whereas the hold function will stop audio from both ends.

So if you’re an iPhone 4 owner and you want to place your calls on hold rather than using the mute option, there is a way. To place your call on hold, all you have to do is keep your finger pressed on the mute option for a few seconds. Now instead of your call being muted, it will be on hold.

View full post on TheAppleBlog

This is simply amazing. At the risk of being labeled a fanboy by Dvorak, one simply has to give credit where credit is due. The only question is who deserves the lion’s share of the credit: Apple or Majek Pictures?

When Steve Jobs announced that the new iPhone 4 would have HD video capabilities, and that Apple would be releasing iMovie on in the App Store, everyone’s first impression was that the Flip was dead. What was not expected was that within the first few days of the product being available to the public, such a well put together movie short would be comprised entirely on the iPhone using the new iMovie App.

If you have not already seen this, you have to check it out for yourself. “Apple of My Eye” is a movie short shot and edited entirely on an iPhone 4. That’s right, full production on the iPhone. Watching the behind the scenes clips that follow the short, you will see that the folks over at Majek Pictures do have skills. They did have some sophisticated rigging that was used to maneuver and hold the iPhone steady, but still. In an exhausted testimonial, the editor Anna Elizabeth James admitted that it only took her fourteen hours of tedious pinching and tapping to get the whole thing done. Perhaps she should have checked out TheAppleBlog first to understand what the potential health risks were before she started. All the same, I am glad she didn’t.

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I didn’t know who Larissa Riquelme was before today. I’d seen her picture in Chris’ World Cup Awards post last week (and had felt an overwhelming desire to make phone calls for the rest of the day) and had seen multiple photos of her since, but had assumed the attractive lady in red, white and blue was just a particularly stunning soccer fan.

Turns out she’s actually a Paraguayan lingerie model with massive massive… enthusiasm for la albirroja.

I should credit Dirty Tackle with my putting two and two together and figuring out who Riquelme was:

Described as Paraguay’s No. 1 fan, Riquelme is a model like so many others you’ve never ever heard of but seen pictured in popular alleys of the Internet. Yet because of her emphatic support of her national team and the hypnosis she holds over cameras far and wide, she now overflows from the pages of leading sports sites like Spain’s AS.com, Italy’s Corriere dello Sport, Brazil’s Globo, and has become one of the most popular names in search engines and on Twitter. On Tuesday, Larissa Riquelme searches on Yahoo rocketed 241%.

Good news for lovers of, erm, enthusiasm is that when Brazil’s Globo suggested Larissa Riquelme match Diego Maradona’s promise to run naked through the streets should her team win the World Cup, she answered “Of course, but with my body painted with the colors of Paraguay.”

So there you have it. If Argentina wins the World Cup we get to see Diego Maradona naked in Buenos Aries. If Paraguay wins the World Cup we get to see Larissa Riquelme naked in Asuncion. I know Argentina plays the more attractive football, but I think I’d prefer a closer look at Riquelme’s enthusiasm than whatever it is Maradona hides under his clothes.

If you need any extra persuading to support Paraguay, here are a few more images of Larissa Riquelme supporting Paraguay:

Viva la albirroja!!!

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