Way back in December, our Christmas Gift Guide featured our pick of the many OS X-related books out there. One of the recommendations was the (very excellent) Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass - commonly referred to as 'The Bible' in the Mac development community.

At the time the book was a little outdated -- however in the last couple of weeks an updated third edition has been published. New sections feature Objective-C 2.0, Core Data, Garbage Collection, Xcode 3 and Core Animation, meaning this third edition is all ready for many of the new technologies in Mac OS X Leopard.

At just $32 (via Amazon.com), this updated version clearly ought to be on every developer's bookshelf (and aspiring developer's wishlist).

Back in January, the folks from Creaceed released version 1.0 of Hydra -- a Leopard-only, GPU-powered photo application for creating High Dynamic Range photos that competes with the much-renowned Photomatix Pro. Just in time for the Apple Design Awards version 1.5 of Hydra is available. With more tone-mapping options, an image-navigation HUD, RAW importing (should you wish not to convert to 16-bit TIFF before importing), a plethora of Aperture options (more on those in a moment), and many more new features it's certainly a compelling release.

As mentioned before, there's plenty of Aperture integration with this release. As well as being able to import photos from (and export photos to) Aperture, Hydra is now available as an Aperture plugin (beta) - based on the all-new Aperture 2.1 Plugin SDK - that allows you to create HDR photos from within Aperture.

Unlike the cross-platform Photomatix Pro, Hydra's UI is the epitome of OS X slickness -- replicating much of the look and feel of both Aperture and other iLife applications. We'll be taking a look at both Hydra and Photomatix Pro in the near future to see whether Hydra's charms are merely skin deep.

Hydra 1.5 costs $59.95, and is a free update for those we already have a license.

If you think back to June last year, Picturesque - a neat lightweight image editor - was the deserving recipient of an Apple Design Award for 'Best Student Product'. So it's fitting then that, just in time for this year's Apple Design Awards, Acqualia Software has released version 2.0 of Picturesque.

We may not have movies in the U.K. iTunes store, but that hasn't stopped the UK broadcasters from slowly but surely adding their wares to the UK shop. First the BBC pitched in with a selection of shows such as 'Spooks' (it airs in the US as 'MI:5') and then Channel 4 added the likes of Black Books (amongst others). So today adding to the mix is commercial broadcaster ITV, which has added 'Lewis', 'Goodnight Mr Tom', 'Brideshead Revisited', 'Cold Feet', 'The Saint' and 'Captain Scarlet' to the UK store.

That may not sound like a great deal of content, however ITV is clearly looking to milk the archive shows for all they're worth. Apple UK's Hot News quotes Dawn Airey from ITV: "[We have] thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes". and then leaves us with the perennial teaser of "Watch out for more great additions coming soon on iTunes".

As usual, iTunes UK TV show pricing of £1.89 (US$3.75) an episode applies to all the ITV content.

Like it or not, unboxing is a ritual for many Apple users, and when there's a new product on the streets, Flickr is home to many Mac users' latest acquisitions. We don't feature unboxing photosets for no-longer-new products all that often here at TUAW, but upon seeing a photoset on Flickr from user ntr23 this morning we couldn't help but share these frankly incredible unboxing shots of an iPhone.

Lego men abound in the set, with precision unboxing being captured (including ladders to help scale those heights) in a truly amazing set of shots. Yes, it's Apple unboxing shots. But of all the unboxing shots we've seen here at TUAW, these have quite possibly captured our hearts as the best we've seen to date.

Be sure to check out ntr23's full set on Flickr and admire these works of art.

[Via]

British readers listen up! If you're a resident west of London, your choices for UK Apple Stores are -- shall we say -- somewhat limited. With just one store in the southwestern part of the UK (Exeter), and one on the south coast in Southampton, Apple's retail clout has yet to extend to the area in between (such as to other larger cities like Bristol). Fear not though, as Apple is indeed planning to open an Apple Store in Bristol later in the year.

Apple has posted job vacancies for the (to be determined) location just today - meaning that the store will likely open in advance of Christmas. If you hear anything about the location, be sure to let us know.

Thanks to all those who sent this in!

Update: Multiple tipsters say the Cabot Circus development (scheduled to open in September) is home to the new store. Thanks folks!

Are you a browser fiend? The sort of person who loves Safari, yet can't quite live with some of its peculiarities? If you hadn't guessed, I certainly am one of those people. I love the speed and simplicity of Safari, but it never worked as well as (say) Camino, particularly when it came to persuading links from the likes of Gmail to open in the same window. No number of SIMBL hacks (yes, hacks) seemed to persuade Safari to open links in the existing window - driving me away from Safari, and instead swear by Camino.

But that's about to change, as Apple has added a hidden preference to Safari 3.1 that allows you to tell Safari to stick to one window. Even in Gmail. Tipster Dennis Stevense, explains in a blog post that through a simple Terminal command, true one-window mode is finally, finally, here for Safari. All you need to enter is the command below into Terminal, hit enter, and you're sorted.

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Thanks Dennis!

Update: If you want to reverse the change, it's a simple matter of entering the following into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

With the iPhone SDK announcement last week, some of us here at TUAW were expecting a Worldwide Developer Conference date to be announced. Thankfully, the world has been put to rights, as Apple has now announced that WWDC will run from 9th - 13th June at San Francisco's Moscone Centre (West Hall). With three tracks (iPhone, Mac and IT) if you're a developer or IT Pro this is probably a conference you'll want to be at -- and students are encouraged too, with Student Scholarships usually available.

Whilst the ticket prices are forthcoming, it'll Tickets get you 5 days of sessions, Apple engineers, (likely) a Steve Jobs keynote and plenty you can't talk about. With the arrival of the iPhone SDK, we'd wager this years conference is frankly going to be a little popular (what with the full public release likely to arrive around the same time) so it might be prudent to book at your earliest convenience.

Pricing for this year's WWDC is US$1295 for a single ticket, US$5180 for 5 tickets (saving you $1295). Apple are also offering combined packages of ADC membership and a WWDC membership.

Remember the recent unconfirmed quotes from the BBC that a version of the iPlayer was coming for the hallowed iPhone? Well in a surprise move, no doubt trying to gain a little momentum with today's SDK furore, a limited selection of shows from the iPlayer have been made available to UK residents on their iPhones. It's worth noting, however, that the service makes use of existing technologies on the iPhone -- not anything announced today.

At the moment only the BBC-produced 'Whistleblower' documentary seems to be working from the iPlayer website, with content being streamed-only via the iPhone's built-in QuickTime player -- quite the surprise given the heavy use of Windows-only technologies until fairly recently -- although we'd guess there's more shows on the way.

Of course, it's a beta service (when aren't they?) so you may not be able to access all the content and the usual caveats apply. As ever, the iPlayer is only for UK residents.

For those expecting a low-level bit-by-byte account of what the SDK means, Erica will return momentarily after a break from her (epic) type-a-thon this afternoon to give you the low-down. While we all wait for our downloads of the SDK to start here at TUAW's globe-spanning offices, let's just recap on what you need to build your next, earth shattering, application for the iPhone and iPod touch:

• Mac OS X Leopard
• An Intel-based Mac (sorry, PowerPC folks -- this one's an Intel-only show)
• Xcode
• a free Apple iPhone developer account and the SDK itself -- note that access to the SDK is not going to cost you ninety-nine bucks. It's free, though getting the application approved and out onto devices will set you back the $99.
  

Sadly, if you're wanting to run off and pick up a copy of said SDK, you're likely to be left wanting. Apple Developer Connection is 'pulling a Twitter' (much like Twitter itself did, during the event) and is totally unresponsive to most visitors. That said, when the ADC site comes back online, be sure to scroll to the bottom of this page to get in on the SDK (note, existing ADC members need to update their memberships too and sign up as iPhone developers to access the SDK).

Ready to crack on and unleash some applications for the iPhone later this year? Be sure to set aside $99 to get your application onto the store however, as Ars Technica reports "Developers have to register with [Apple]. For that $99, we give them an electronic certificate that tells us who they are .... if they write a bad app, we can both track them down and we can turn off the app's distribution".

In addition to the $99 licensing charge to distribute the application (whether it's a free or commercial app) companies seeking a proprietary solution will need to cough up another $200 ($299 total) for the 'Enterprise Programme'.

Another item worthy of note those still using PowerPC machines: if you want to develop for iPhone, you'll not only need Leopard, but an Intel-based Mac to run the SDK. Disagreements about architectures aside, what does your $99 get you?

• Complete set of resources in the iPhone Dev Center
• Testing of your code on iPhone and iPod touch
• Code-level technical support from Apple engineers
• the ability to reach every user via the Application Store

The paid-for Developer Programme is currently US-only "and will expand to other countries in the coming months."

As many of our readers know, London is already host to the world's largest Apple store (pictured above) on renowned shopping-mile Regent Street. However, Apple's ambitions for the UK capital have yet to be fully realised according to a Macworld UK report today - for Apple is preparing to open another store just over a mile away in Covent Garden.

The new store is touted as being a 3-storey affair taking up around 25,000 square foot. The existing Regent Street store is approximately 28,000 square foot, and according to ifoAppleStore remains one of the best performing stores - clearly Apple thinks there's plenty more custom to be snapped up and certainly TUAW visits to the flagship store have never been quiet affairs.

The Covent Garden store is apparently going to be located at 4 The Piazza, in a location currently taken by a restaurant and nightclub -- it is of course too early to guess when the new store will indeed open.

Back in early February, we reported that sources had given GearLive (of jiggly-icon fame) the nod about Flash coming to the iPhone 'very, very soon'. Unfortunately, anyone hoping to get Flash on their iPhone (or iPod touch) anytime soon is likely to be left waiting, as Steve Jobs yesterday pulled a broadside on Adobe Flash, saying it simply wasn't suited for the iPhone. Ouch.

Of course, some folks are likely to be more than disappointed with this announcement (not least Adobe and perhaps GearLive). Others, myself included, are simply relieved that our iPhones will remain clear of Flash's clutches [call me bitter, but I've seen enough 'Unresponsive Script' errors for my liking]. Either way, with Flash now brushed aside by Steve-O, it's all-eyes on Apple's Campus Event tomorrow, which starts at 10am PST, as the veil of secrecy (hopefully) rises on Apple's plans for third-party applications.

Podcasters, wannabe music stars, and GarageBand dabblers of all ages -- it's that time again for Apple has released an update to your beloved application (bumping it to version 4.1.2). It goes without saying that this wouldn't be an Apple consumer-software update without a simple one-sentence release note (Aperture 2.0.1's release notes are somewhat more substantial), so if you're wondering what's been fixed:

"This update improves overall stability and addresses issues with the automation of software instrument parameters, FireWire and USB based audio devices and Magic GarageBand."

The update is available through Software Update or through Apple's Download Site, weighing in at just over 19MB. Rock on!

Here at TUAW, we've been greatly enjoying the latest version of Aperture, which hit earlier in the year. With a few minor bugs slipping under the radar, the experience has not been entirely annoyance-free, and today Apple has released Aperture 2.0.1 update. Areas receiving treatment include:

• Library upgrading from previous versions
• .Mac Web Galleries
• AppleScript support
• 'Export Plugin API reliability' - presumably to fix issues with Export Plugin statuses not being showed in the Activity Window (much to the chagrin of third-party developers)
• and lots, lots, more.

The 43.9MB update is available now through Software Update (if you're running a fully-licensed version of Aperture) or Apple's Download Pages -- if you're running the Aperture Trial, you'll need to re-download the demo from Apple's site as the updater will not work with the Trial version. Aperture costs US$199, with upgrades from version 1 costing US$99.