TextMate loves Halloween

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 9:01 PM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

There’s but a few minutes left in Halloween here on the east coast, so I’ll have to hurry and pound this out before you start having to manipulate your clock in order to benefit. I’m still a die hard BBEdit fan and have yet to even try TextMate, but it will celebrate Halloween in several ways.

Icon changing seems rather obvious, so it’s good that the developers didn’t stop there. The new project window features a big spiderweb and the output console has it’s own Halloween theme. The Apple Blog post has all the pictures. It brings me back to a fonder day when so-called Easter Eggs were commonplace. Heck, the book Mac Secrets was chock-full of them (I shed a tear on a regular basis that the book hasn’t continued that original glory).

Spook out your Mac

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 2:40 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Apple » Humor

I thought I’d squeeze in the last post of the month with a little bit of Mac-spook. It’s how to make a Mac-O-Lantern (no, not the electronic version Derik posted earlier today)! This little sucker houses a Mac Mini, sees through two iSight eyes, breathes through a fan in his nose, speaks through a speaker in his mouth, and proudly proclaims what OS he’s running with the neon Apple on his side. Check out the instructions (with lots of pictures) on how to make one yourself—although you might need to save them until next year, as the trick-or-treating begins at sundown!

[via MAKE]

iSkin for 2G nano

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 2:03 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | iPod » iPod Accessories

After a long wait and much anticipation I discovered last night that iSkin has finally released its skin for the second generation iPod nano. I have always loved iSkin’s products because of their simplicity and functionality. However, rather than being excited over the new iSkins, I was disappointed. iSkin has been going down a path which strays from the simplicity of their original skins, and I don’t like it.

The new nano skins, for example, have two parts—one which is the silicon skin and another which is a hard plastic shell (much like the iSkin for the iPod video). I think their skins detract from the simple beauty and functionality of the iPod. Not only that, but the skins aren’t even compatible with the iPod nano dock. I emailed iSkin a question about this and received a response which said:

The iPod nano (2G) is only compatible with the universal [dock] adapter, but we will be releasing an extension cable [for the nano dock] in the near future.

What? An extension cable for my nano dock? Oh, you mean like one of these? Oh yes, and I nearly forgot: iSkin only sells these nano skins in packs of three. Since when do I need three skins for my one iPod? Plus, the colors they choose now a days aren’t nearly as exciting as they used to be. Just check out the picture above—it has boring written all over it.

Call this post a rant, but I just don’t like where iSkin is going. I miss the olden days with the original, simple iSkin eVo. Maybe my expectations for iSkin were just too high on this one.

Apple Store destined for Mackintosh home town

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 1:37 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

Just one of the many things you may not know about me: I lived in Scotland for a time while in college. Edinburgh, to be exact. This was well before the days of brick-and-mortar Apple Stores back in the US, but I was pleased to find in my first ramble about the town that there was an Apple reseller not a block from my dorm. Just like being at home.

Now Apple’s about to get its first official store in Caledonian climes. Unfortunately, it’s not in my old stomping grounds of Edinburgh, but rather in that other Scottish city: Glasgow.

The store will be situated at 147 Buchanan Street, in one of the city’s prime shopping districts. Currently at the site is a building called “The Pier.” The plans call for removing the mezzanine floor, adding an elevator and, of course, covering the inside floor and walls with stainless steel. I rather hope they leave the exterior largely untouched, as it’s quite an attractive building with, I’d imagine, at least some degree of historical significance. The intended start of construction is next February with the store opening sometime in July. The total cost of the endeavor? £1,168,000 (or $2.2 million). That’s a wee bit of change, it is.

But if you ask me, what’s the real reason for putting an Apple store in Glasgow? Why, its most famous artist and designer, but of course.

[via Infinite Loop]

Get connected: Macs and PCs

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 1:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | Software

TechRepublic has a great article posted, covering the more technical details of networking Macs and PCs. Sure, you can easily plug them together, but making them talk is a whole ‘nother matter entirely. Thankfully, Mac OS X comes loaded with many of the technologies to make sharing files easy.

One point I’m surprised they didn’t mention, though, is the great little Mac application SharePoints. While OS X may come with the necessary technology, accessing it can be made much easier using SharePoints, which allows you to create Windows (and Mac) shared folders, much like how the Finder used to work in pre-OS X days. If you deal with both Macs and PCs and intend to share files between them, both the article mentioned above and SharePoints are your best bet for starting points.

Quick searching with AcidSearch

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 12:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | Tips

One of my favorite Safari addons, AcidSearch, can vastly improve your web browsing speed by creating just a few custom Search Channels. The end result is that you’re able to type something along the lines of “img macbook keyboard” to instantly jump to a Google Images search. Here’s how.

When searching a site, take a look at the address bar and note where your search terms appear in the web address. Copy the entire address, open AcidSearch’s preferences by clicking on the search engine icon in Safari’s search field, and add a new channel. In the prefix field, paste the entire address leading up to your terms, and put the rest of the address (minus your search tems) in the suffix field. When your new channel is put to use, your terms will be sandwiched between the prefix and suffix, making a new address for each search. Finally, give the channel a short letter or three combination.

Close the window and try out your new channel by typing [combination] [search terms], sans the brackets. After you’ve added a few more on top of the default channels, you’ll be cruising through searches in no time!

Awaken 3 Beta Released

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 11:39 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

Awaken, a pretty neat application that turns your Mac into a ridiculously expensive alarm clock, has just entered its beta stage for version 3.0. For an application that’s sole purpose is fulfilled by just about every gadget on the planet, it actually seems like a pretty cool setup. It might beat my current solution of dragging a song file to the desktop, then telling iCal to open it up every morning (there’s no better way to hate a song than to hear it every day at the time when your wrath levels are at their highest).

With a sleep timer, iTunes playlist support, Apple Remote support, and a cool FrontRow-esque interface option, you can try it for free for two weeks. After that, Awaken 3 costs $8.95.

Disco Beta First Impressions

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 10:56 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

As promised, I went ahead and grabbed the beta of Disco. After a night of CD burning on a scale of unprecedented magnitude (for me at least), I think I’ve gained enough experience with the app to give my opinions some credibility. What follows are some of my initial impressions of the app.

Keep in mind that this is a beta. Some of the negative attributes I’ve mentioned may go away, or at least be minimized by the time the app reaches its final stage.

So, without further ado, here’s the good, the bad, and the rest.

An unmasked Apple blogger. His name is Jim.

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 9:39 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » People

There’s been a lot of talk about Apple’s blogging policy—or lack thereof. Not long ago, we were all speculating about the Masked Blogger, an occupation that was interesting for perhaps a full five minutes. Anonymity is attention-getting, but it soon becomes boring when you have no idea about the person’s credentials or whether or not they’re even what they purport to be.

That’s what makes nondifferentiable.com so refreshing. Jim Puls is an Apple engineer working on Apple Mail. He says so, right in his blog. No tricks, no hiding, no masks. Of course, being an Apple blogger, there’re restrictions on what he can talk about, but again, he’s upfront about it:

Just like everybody else at Apple, I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement. You’re welcome to ask me anything you want about juicy unreleased product details and I’ll be happy to respond with a hearty “no comment”.

So we won’t get any details on the down low; I’m cool with that. The best thing about Jim’s blog is that it gives me the impression that the people at Apple aren’t simply shielded behind a big gleaming white facade that filters all traffic in and out. They’re people and, better yet, they’re Mac fans:

You’re welcome to report bugs you find in Mail or ask about a feature you really want to see, and I’ll be happy to read your e-mail and promptly not respond. Believe me when I say that I read all of the same Apple-related websites that you do. If Macintouch or Hawk Wings or Macnn or Macworld or TUAW or TAB or any of the rest are reporting something, I guarantee I’m well aware of it.

See? He’s one of us, trolling the web for the latest infor—wait, no MacUser? Dude.

[via Hawk Wings]

Slinging comes to OS X at long last

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 8:43 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

For those of you keeping score at home, we’ve been talking up Mac support for Slingbox since time immemorial (or, well, January of this year). The Sling Player for OS X has been “imminent” since the beginning of this year, and after many a delay (caused, no doubt, by marauding zombies or, perhaps, pirates) the beta version of the player software has now been publicly released.

For those of you not familiar with the Slingbox—understandable, given the lack of Mac support until now—it’s a device that intends to do for space what TiVo did for time. That is to say that you can watch your TV connection via your computer from pretty much anywhere in the world. The real killer, however, is combining your Slingbox with your DVR, forever freeing you from the mundane restrictions of the space/time continuum. Watch your TV whenever you want, wherever you want. Of course, you’ll need one of the physical Slingboxes for the software to be any use to you.

There are some additional caveats for the Mac version. Though the application is a Universal Binary, only 10.4 is supported as of the moment, though 10.3 support is supposedly forthcoming. The system requirements call for a 600MHz G4 or 1GHz Core Duo machine with 256MB of RAM (1GB recommended) and 100MB of hard disk space. Also, the Slingbox requires a wired connection to the broadband source, so AirPort Express users will need to find a different solution. Finally, the software is only available to US and Canadian customers; support for the PAL video standard used in the UK is not working yet.

All of these exceptions inside, it’s good to see Sling releasing the software at long last; one hopes it won’t take as long to fill these gaps in support as it did to release the software in the first place, especially as in the meantime Sling has been selling products that claimed Mac support. Time to make good, guys.

[via MacCentral]

Shuffles off to Buffalo (and other places as well)

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 8:16 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

As we mentioned yesterday (and several of our readers confirmed), second generation iPod shuffles are now shipping to those who’ve preordered the darling little music players. The good news for the rest of us is that the iPods are making their way to stores now—I envision them hitching their way across the country via railroad boxcars, like hobos of yore.

This Friday, November 3rd, is the marked day, the day when iPod shuffles shall descend on stores across the country, the day when you will be able to hug and love and call one your very own (vintage ’80s denim jacket sold separately). If I get a chance, I’ll head over to my local Apple Store and see if I can’t get my hands on one. I shall also try and resist the urge to buy one, but as we all know, entering an Apple Store is oft like being in the presence of Steve Jobs himself—it’s as if each store is siphoning just a little bit of the Reality Distortion Field from the CEO and pumping it out to their customers, like some sort of unholy Muzak. “After all,” you’ll find yourself thinking, “it’s just $79 for a shuffle. Why wouldn’t I buy one?”

Allow me to take this opportunity to remind myself of a fact which I shall no doubt forget later: “Because, genius, you already own three iPods. Okay?”

Encrypted Mac OS X binaries and you

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 7:47 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

Amit Singh, author of Mac OS X Internals (I swear I’m going to read my copy one of these days), has released another bonus chapter online. This time he’s breaking down all those encrypted binaries that make Mac OS X… well… Mac OS X.

On the greatest hits lists of these binaries is the Dock, Finder, loginwindow, SystemUIServer, mds, ATSServer, translate, and translated. I’m hoping you can figure out most of those. mds is basically Spotlight. ATSServer gives you all those pretty fonts. Finally, translate and translated make up Rosetta, the technology that made the Intel switch possible and so silky smooth (yeah, yeah, I was a skeptic).

The upshot is that Apple is protecting itself from being copied (through reverse engineering) by encrypting these binaries. Also, don’t forget the the encryption kernel extension dsmos gem hidden within its data:

Your karma check for today:
There once was was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he’d do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don’t steal Mac OS!
Really, that’s way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc.

[via Slashdot]

Adobe news spookiness

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 7:11 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

John Nack, aka Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Photoshop, has thrown down on his blog about their Intel only Soundbooth decision.

“The elimination of PowerPC support in Photobooth [sic] raises major issues,” writes Macintouch. I’m a little puzzled: how is it that people can refer to the “elimination” of something that never existed—namely, PPC code in Soundbooth?

Ok, so I’m on board so far for the most part.

Now, if you were Adobe and had started developing a new application at exactly the time when Apple told you, “This other chip architecture is dead to us,” would you rather put your efforts into developing for that platform, or would you focus elsewhere?

I missed that memo. Apple has committed to changing all of its computers to Intel (a goal they’ve met). As I recall though, Apple also committed to years of continued PowerPC development. When exactly did they say “this other chip architecture is dead to us”? I also seem to remember Apple touting this ability to deploy to multiple platforms with ease. I understand part of that is marketing hype, but when did they say abandon ship?

All that said, the decision to go Intel only for Soundbooth does make sense when considering limited development resources. However, they’re still going to miss out on a juicy 90% of Mac users (I’m guesstimating, don’t take me to task, please).

In other, happier news, Adobe is going to use WebKit in Apollo. For those not in the know, Apollo is a tool for developing cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies. Sounds pretty cool. More validation of the rendering engine in Safari hopefully means better support down the line.

Das Boot Camp 1.1.2 surfaces

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 6:24 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Windows

Owners of newly renewed MacBook Pros had to suffer without proper Boot Camp support for almost a week for version 1.1.2 to be released. That’s rough. However, before you other fellow Macintel owners brush this off, look at the changes.

• Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
• Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
• Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
• Support for built-in iSight cameras
• Support for built-in microphones
• Support for the Apple USB Modem
• Trackpad scrolling and right-click support on Apple Laptops
• Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys
• Improved International Apple keyboard support

Most of those should sound pretty familiar as most of them were in 1.1.1. However, new to this update is “trackpad scrolling and right-click support on Apple laptops”. As I’ve still only got the Mac Pro, I can’t confirm, but I imagine this is exciting news for all of you that adapted to those features only to not be able to use them in Windows. Your two fingers are useful once again.

Clearly Apple isn’t satisfied to leave Boot Camp in a undersupported state (as the Parallels conspiracy theorists would have you believe Apple would do). I’m looking forward to what Leopard may bring for improvements.

FreeRangeJack is more fun than it sounds

Posted on Oct. 31, ’06, 5:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Are you getting sick of Halloween themed posts? Too bad. This is another one. FreeRangeJack puts a Jack O’ Lantern on your desktop. It’ll float at any level you specify including above everything else.

Nine different types are included, as is a template to make your own spooky lantern. If I were more artistic, I’d try my hand at making one of myself. For extra fun, click your Jack O’ Lantern for a spooky bat flying across your screen.

All that fun and it’s free.

Save money, gain power with MBP battery

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 2:41 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Hardware » Accessories

If you’ve been hesitating on purchasing an extra battery for the MacBook Pro because of financial reasons, then this just might make you rethink that. Fastmac released a high-capacity replacement battery for the 15” MacBook Pro today. It lasts about 5% longer than the standard Apple battery and costs about 25% less ($100 versus $129). The battery boasts technology which detects cell swelling or a short-circuit, does not used explosion-prone Sony cells, and has the same LED status lights as Apple batteries. What a deal.

My green bundle of joy

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 2:26 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | iPod

Some of you may remember from last week’s podcast that I recently sold my 60 GB iPod video and purchased a green 2nd gen iPod nano instead. I’ve owned the device for about a week now, and I thought I’d share some of my first impressions with you.

Design. The overall layout and construction of the device is very similar to the first iPod nano, but as this is my first nano, it took some getting used to. For example the click wheel is much smaller and because the iPod is narrow it’s sometimes difficult to scroll using my thumb. The 2nd gen nano also feels very fragile (although tests prove otherwise) due to its extremely thin design. Finally, I will comment on the new aluminum casing: amazing! It doesn’t have a scratch as of yet.

New patent: hello Video iPod, goodbye click wheel?

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 2:07 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Apple » Speculation

An article that ran in Silicon Valley’s premiere newspaper The Mercury News highlights a new Apple patent which would do away with the click wheel. According to the article, Apple had:

…previously explored replacing the click wheel with a virtual one as part of a touch-sensitive display. But now Apple appears to be looking at a third option: a touch-sensitive frame surrounding the display. Rather than click a physical button or press a virtual one on the screen, users would touch an area on the frame to operate their iPod.

After a good amount of searching I actually managed to find the patent Apple filed on the US Patent & Trademark Office’s website. It reveals several things, along with some diagrams (see above). I found this to be of interest from the patent itself:

The device can have a sensor for determining the orientation of the device. Based on the orientation, the device can alter the areas designated on the bezel for the controls and can alter the location of the visual guides for the display so that they match the altered areas on the bezel.

While similar technology has been in digital cameras for years, it’s nice to see Apple is making use of it too. This patent seems to support the true Video iPod everyone’s been waiting for. Will it really happen? How far along is Apple on the design? Will we know at Macworld 2007? Only time will tell—until then there’s speculation to fill the gaps.

Disco Public Beta Available

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 1:45 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

Disco, an app which you may remember from a post I wrote a couple weeks ago, has launched its public beta and been made available for the introductory price of $14.95. After the introductory period, the price will jump to $24.95, so if you think that this is an app which you’ll be purchasing anyway, you may want to go ahead and save yourself ten bucks by doing it today.

I plan on spending some time with the beta, then letting you know my first impressions tomorrow. Until then, you can go check it out for yourself at discoapp.com. Also, check out the pre-order contest that’s going on at macZOT.com, in which you might be able to win one of three LaCie d2 DVD burners with LightScribe.

BrowseBack helps you find it again

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 1:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | Software

I just discovered a very handy application by SmileOnMyMac Software, BrowseBack, which stores a detailed log of viewed web pages and presents a visual listing of your browser history. By keeping archived copies of web pages you’ve seen, you can easily hunt backwards in time for a page which you haven’t bookmarked and now need again. What was once a time-consuming task, usually involving history searches and some Googling, can now be done in seconds.

BrowseBack also offers the ability to save any previously viewed page as a PDF, email it, or print it, just in case you want a more permanent copy. History can be searched by date and by content, both of which help you find what you’re looking for faster than conventional methods. For those who use alternative Mac browsers such as Firefox, BrowseBack supports all the major browsers, ensuring that you’re not left out in the cold. If you often find yourself looking through browser history for that thing you “just saw the other day,” BrowseBack should make your queries as painless as possible.

Dead.licious cleans up del.icio.us links

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 12:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | Software

For those who use the popular social bookmarking site del.icio.us (myself included), you’ll occasionally run across a bookmark whose linked site or page no longer exists. With all the bookmarks you’ve saved, it’s impossible to tell what’s broken and what’s not without visiting each one individually. …Or is it? Computers excel at repetitive tasks, so why not let Dead.licious do the work for you?

Dead.licious scans through your del.icio.us bookmarks and identifies which links are broken and no longer worth saving. Upon completion, you’re presented with a list of non-working links, which you can then prune and remove for good, keeping your important bookmarks up-do-date.

[via FreeMacWare]

Plastic surgery for Firefox

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 11:09 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

Now, I know you may be sick and tired of me babbling about browsers, but let’s face it, your browser is your gateway to this big thing called the internet. And from reading some of your comments to me, it seems that there is a contingent of you who are taken with Safari’s beauty, yet crave Firefox’s utility. So let’s see what we can do.

As you may be aware, Firefox allows themes. This is a feature that is as likely to be added to Safari as native support for ActiveX controls. And while I happen to find Firefox’s interface to be debonair and dashing, if you really want your Firefox to be lickable, then themes are your solution. For starters, give Pinstripe and GrApple a try. If you don’t fancy either of those, you can search on your own and find what fits.

After installing a different theme, you can use Fission to integrate the progress bar into the address bar. It’s a light touch that makes a heavy difference. You can specify the color of the progress indicator, or even use an image.

So hopefully these tricks can hold you over until the release of Safari 3.0, which is sure to beat us all into submission with its excellence.

Life as the Woz

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 10:12 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Apple » People

Just the other day, through a twist of favorable fate, I ended walking around with $100 dollars in my pocket. Now I realize, to some of you, this may seem about as notable as finding a horseshoe at a rodeo. Keep in mind though, I’m a college student (not a cowboy), and this was a hundred smackaroos (not a horseshoe). So for a time, I was the cock of the walk. That was, until I came across this quote from Steve Wozniak:

I’ve got about $20,000 (£10,670) on me at the moment, which is about the usual. Cash has always appealed to me more as a means of payment than cards.

Now, bear in mind the fact that this is a man who owns roughly 13 Segways, is an honorary employee for life at Apple, and oh yeah, will be making a trek to the South Pole in a hydrogen cell powered Hummer with Buzz Aldrin. Now, without sounding indignant, I’ll say that something tells me that my parents were on to something when they told me that life’s not fair.

Make iTunes arrows point the way to your own music

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 9:54 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Tips

Good as they are with design, sometimes Apple still sacrifices useful functionality for the potential of making a buck. I speak of those little gray arrows in iTunes that show up next to the song name, artist name, and album name (if you don’t see them, you can check off “Show links to the iTunes Store” in iTunes’s preferences).

These links showed up as of iTunes 4.5; if you clicked on one, it would take you to the iTunes Store and show you other tracks with that title, by the same artist, or on the same album respectively. In iTunes 7, only the currently selected and currently playing tracks display the arrows.

However, it’s much more useful if you option-click the arrows; that will, instead, show you every track in your own Library with that title, artist, or album name. Think of it as a shortcut to using the Browse feature.

Even better, you can make swap the two actions, making the Library function the default and the Store function only occur when you hold down option. All it takes is a quick trip to the command-line. Open up Terminal and enter the following line:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

If you ever want to change it back, put NO instead of YES. Somehow, I doubt you will.

Playlist’s winter Gear Guide, part I: For your private enjoyment

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 9:20 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Take cover! The holiday season is practically upon us. Only 55 days until Christmas. To me, holiday shopping is kind of like trench warfare. It’s messy, smelly, and there are far too many casualties.

If that’s the case, well, consider Macworld and Playlist your airborne cavalry. The first section of Playlist’s winter Gear Guide, covering iPod-friendly headphones, software, and some other goodies is now up, with contributions from the likes of Jason Snell, Dan Frakes, Jonathan Seff, Mathew Honan, and yours truly.

So if you’re looking for a way to please or appease the iPod-lover in your life, we’re here to help. Oh, and let me offer you this tip for free: whatever you do, don’t buy them a Zune. Trust me.

Washington Post discloses iPod critic’s Creative ties

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 8:46 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

You may recall Neal Mueller, the mountain climber whose Washington Post piece last Sunday complained that his iPod died while he was ascending Mt. Everest. Eagle-eyed readers discovered that Mueller’s website mentioned Apple music player rival Creative—the very brand that Mueller lauded in his piece—as one of the climber’s sponsors. There was no mention of this affiliation in the Post, an omissions that caused many a reader to cry foul.

The Post has now printed a clarification above Mueller’s article:

An article in the Oct. 22 Sunday Business section on Creative MP3 players failed to disclose that the writer, Neal Mueller, received a free player from the company to use on his 2005 expedition to Mount Everest. He is not officially sponsored by Creative. He received that player after writing to the company to say that he is a fan of its products.

Good to see that the Post has finally stepped up.

Despite this admission, Mueller’s piece remains a poorly written and rather lame attack on the iPod. There are valid shortcomings in Apple’s music player, but Mueller does not touch on a single one, preferring to spout spurious claims of “closed systems” and absurd comparisons of the iPod to Paris Hilton. I don’t expect to see those “clarified” anytime soon.

[via Daring Fireball]

New shuffle’s ship comes in?

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 8:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

There may only be two days left in October, but there’s still time for Apple to get their new iPod shuffle out the door without breaking their promise. We’re starting to get reports now that the tiny iPod that could is already making its way to customers.

Rumors abound that demand for the shuffle is very high, explaining the delay in shipping. I have to say, despite having three iPods, the new shuffle looks quite slick. And at $79 for a 1GB player, it’d be perfect as a kid’s first MP3 player, or a second iPod for exercising. I’d expect Apple to be doing blowout business this holiday season.

Any of you gotten new shuffles yet? Impressions?

MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1 does work

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 7:47 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Troubleshooting

While most MacBook Random Shutdown sufferers are getting their MacBook fixed at the hardware level by using AppleCare and the Apple KnowledgeBase article, some users haven’t had the time to turn theirs in. The MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1 may make that unnecessary.

Today, Apple released MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1, which “improves the MacBook’s internal monitoring system and addresses issues with unexpected shutdowns.” And, so far as I can tell, it does just that. I installed the update and as soon as the machine finished booting, I launched Terminal and opened two windows, each running yes > /dev/null. And left it like that for 10 minutes. The fan revved up to full speed, the core temperatures plateaued around 85°C, but that was it. The machine kept running and when I closed the Terminal windows the temperature dropped, the fan slowed and everything behaved exactly as it should. It’ll be a couple of weeks before I can declare the truly random poweroffs fixed, but the predictable ‘incorrect assessment of thermal overload’ problem certainly seems cleared up.

Many have quite naturally been skepticle that this is a real fix. Considering this has been diagnosed as a hardware issue thus far, how could this be fixed with a software update? Perhaps not all of the MacBooks thus far have actually needed service. Then again, if I were a MacBook owner, I think I’d feel a whole lot better sending my MacBook in and getting the hardware replaced.

Any of you have similar experiences to report?

[via Daring Fireball]

Make your own Mac-O’Lantern

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 6:34 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

Nitrozac and Snaggy of the Joy of Tech have created some cool Jack O’ Lanterns. They made Steve Wozniak, Ellen Feiss, Happy Mac, Steve Ballmer, and many others. Of course, the Ballmer one is the scariest of all. All it needs is a proximity tripped sound player that says “Developers, developers, developers, developers.”

Just so you don’t have to stay jealous, they’ve included instructions to do it yourself. Ironically enough, despite the fact that I type all day, I lack the dexterity to do this myself (yet another reason I didn’t become a surgeon). Take today off from work and bust one out. Then post the link to the picture in the comments.

Sony gets punished for battery problems

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 5:53 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

Oh snap. Sony got really burned (pun intended) by the battery scandal. It may be just desserts for giving Apple and Dell a PR black eye with faulty batteries.

The company reported today that it earned a net profit of 1.7 billion yen ($14.4 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, the second quarter of its fiscal year. That was a 94 percent decline from the comparable period a year earlier, despite sales that were 8.3 percent higher at 1.9 trillion yen ($16 billion).

The company took a charge of 51 billion yen ($430 billion) for the quarter, mostly related to the battery problem — an amount far higher than analysts initially expected.

Ouch. A 94% drop in profits. Stockholders can’t be happy about that. I have to wonder who is going to be the fall guy in what may be one of the greatest blunders of all time. While Sony may be optimistic that the mistakes made will result in much safer batteries, no company in its right mind is going to buy large quantities of their batteries.

[via Daring Fireball]

Pumpkin your Mac

Posted on Oct. 30, ’06, 5:17 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

Halloween is tomorrow and you haven’t put any decorations… again. It’s just one of the unfortunate side effects of being a geek. You just don’t have the time to do anything that doesn’t have to do with your computer.

MAKE to the rescue. One of the featured computer to pumpkin transformations is a Mac Classic, complete with step-by-step pictures. Can you reproduce this work of art? You could use it to spook your Windows loving pals.

Strip DRM with…iMovie??

Posted on Oct. 28, ’06, 1:49 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Music

Who ever would have thought that one of Apple very own applications would be used to counter-act its FairPlay DRM? Certainly not me, but that’s exactly what Seidai Software has done.

The utility (called FairGame) requires that you make two small adjustments to your system. The first: enable “Access for assistive devices” in the Universal Access system preference. The second: select “Place clip in Movie Timeline” in the Import preference of iMovie HD. Then simply select some songs in iTunes and click “Process songs” on the FairGame utility. The songs are now being stripped of DRM using iTunes own encoder!

If this is something that interests you, I would recommend that you act fast, as Apple tends to pull these kind of things quicker than lightning (remember Front Row enabler?).

[via MacNN]

Someday, you will come to them for a favor

Posted on Oct. 28, ’06, 10:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Troubleshooting

Reached the end of your iRope in dealing with AppleCare? Consider this the “break glass in case of emergencies” solution for getting your problems “taken care of.” Note that this should be a last resort, for cases in which machines have been unsuccessfully fixed at least three times. A tipster over at The Consumerist gives us the lowdown:

1) Call Apple Corporate: 408-996-1010)
2) Ask the operator for Gene (like denim) Teluse, VP of Customer Care. She is Apple’s highest ranking customer service agent, and she reports directly to Steve Jobs.
3) Leave a nice message, include any Apple Case/Repair numbers you might have, or your machine’s serial number, and a callback number.
4) Wait ~24 business hours for one of Ms. Teluse’s minions to call.
5) Calmly explain your story, and what you want Apple to do.

As we said up top, this procedure shouldn’t be abused. Keep it polite and calm, and perhaps they’ll work some super crazy white-sheened Apple magic for you.

The MacBook Pro’s iSight light: now you see it, now you don’t

Posted on Oct. 28, ’06, 8:07 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Hardware

We know the brand new MacBook Pros feature some things that weren’t found on the older models: the FireWire 800 port, for example. But you might not have noticed that some things have disappeared as well, such as—duh duh duh!—the iSight’s little green indicator light.

Well, it’s not actually gone, of course. But Apple, with its typical flair for design, has decided to conceal the iSight’s indicator light behind the screen’s bezel. User Nobihaya has documented the new feature on Flickr (here’s a shot of the flawless bezel with the light off). For comparison, this is what it used to look like.

My theory? Apple loves to make features unobtrusive. Think of the speakers on the MacBook and the hidden microphone on the MacBook Pro; it’s transparent technology that just works.

[Thanks, Dan G.]

Apple grabs a good-sized chunk of the web

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 2:16 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Internet

What is it that’s so appealing about Apple’s website? Is it the slick hardware, functional software, interesting stories, or something else? Whatever the cause, Apple certainly has got web-appeal, as they have ranked at number 11 in global web traffic. Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google are the current top three, with 727, 505, and 480 million users respectively. Apple has 95 million users, which is very respectable considering their site is nowhere near as multi-functional (ie: news, research, finance, groups, etc.) as the above three mentioned.

[via comScore Networks via MacNN]

Retrieve music from your iPod

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 1:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | iPod » iPod Software

When dealing with computers, one of the most frustrating experiences is having the hard drive die, taking your digital life with it. Thankfully, you have carefully and thoroughly backed up your data, right? …Right?

For those times when you don’t have a backup of the music on your iPod, or would simply like to retrieve it elsewhere, the handy and intuitive utility PodWorks is here to help. PodWorks presents a list of the music stored on a connected iPod, and enables you to simply copy the selected files back on your Mac in the original form. To find what you’re looking for among the myriad of songs which may reside on your iPod, PodWorks offers a list of current playlists, as well as features an iTunes style search field.

For a mere $8, PodWorks is one utility iPod owners may find indispensable when transferring music around.

[Inspired by C|net]

802.11n hardware built into MacBook Pros

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 12:30 PM PT by Collin Allen

Category | Hardware » Intel Macs

According to recent reports on the MacRumors forums, the newly updated Core 2 MacBook Pros are, like the new iMacs, sporting 802.11n hardware manufactured by Atheros. While Mac OS X certainly doesn’t yet support the full capabilities of this hardware, we’re likely to see a firmware or system update in the future to enable it.

All this speculation is linked to the upcoming release of the iTV, which is undoubtedly connected by as yet unfinished 802.11n hardware — more than likely the reason the sleek little gadgets aren’t on shelves yet. To stream all that high quality video, wireless protocols faster than the current 802.11g are necessary, and the standards simply aren’t ready yet. However, you can be sure Apple has been ready to ship faster wireless features for some time, and with these recent discoveries, they appear to be planning well in advance for what’s to come.

Productivity Diminishers

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 11:11 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

As you probably know by now, there exists a wealth of resources that are solely aimed at enhancing your productivity. Any any given moment, a quick glance at my Applications folder will reveal a bevy of apps that I’ve installed, specifically, just to try to keep myself in line.

Unfortunately, for every app that I find to constrain my extemporaneous tendencies, I stumble across ten that exploit them to smithereens. Case in point: Mouse Distance Measurer. This little app just sits in your menu bar, telling you how many inches (then feet, then miles) your mouse cursor has moved. That’s it.

How many rational uses can I think of for this function? Not one. How many excuses do I have for letting it decimate my output? Not one.

I never really understood the appeal of “leveling” when my friends played World of Warcraft. That is, I never really understood until this application came along. Every time I move my cursor, it’s one step closer to another milestone (literally). I’ll take that over Ironforge any day of the week.

So, while we’re on the topic, do any of you have any other good productivity assassins?

What browser are you using? (Part II)

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 10:32 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

Remember when I asked you what browser you were using a couple days ago? Well I “analyzed” the numbers to see which browser rules the hypertext transfer protocol roost.

The winner? Safari. Here are the full results:

• Safari - 9 votes
• Firefox - 5 votes
• OmniWeb - 5 votes
• Camino - 4 votes
• Shiira - 4
• Flock - 1 vote

Obviously, these results are nowhere near indicative of any market on this planet, but I think it’s pretty reasonable to declare Safari as the winner. Not only did it receive the most votes by quite a clear margin, but you also have to consider the fact that this is MacUser.com, a magical place where I can talk about software and RSS all day long without seeing anybody’s eyes glaze over in befuddlement. And while I find that to be a refreshing sentiment, your knack for Mac (sorry, I just couldn’t resist) increases the possibility that you may have some atypical demands for your browser.

Still, despite my suspicions of statistical treachery, Safari emerged as a clear winner. Now the question is, why?

Turn your Mac into a mailserver

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 9:53 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Tips

Email has become, for many of us, the primary means of communication. So, above all, it needs to be reliable. But if you’ve ever been out on the road with your laptop, you may have run into problems using your SMTP servers. Some ISPs block port 25, and occasionally you might even get the dreaded “relaying denied” error.

Fortunately, the OS X’s UNIX underpinnings make it easy to turn your computer into its own SMTP server. Aaron Brazell over at Technosailor has instructions for setting up the postfix software. It takes a little bit of Terminal know-how, but following the instructions should get you through. This version of postfix still sends on port 25, so it won’t work if that port is blocked. Usually, the backup port in such circumstances is 587. A little judicious Googling will probably reveal how to change that in Postfix.

On the other hand, if you prefer the graphical approach and don’t mind shelling out a little money, check out the $10 Postfix Enabler.

[via Digg]

Apple regaining ground in higher education

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 9:02 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » News

We’ve talked in the past about Apple gaining market share in higher education, for example, at Princeton, where 45% of freshmen buying computers through the school were looking at Macs. Now it appears that Apple has got a solid lead in the #2 spot for market share in higher education, according to Student Monitor, a group that tracks college students consumer habits.

A spring 2006 Student Monitor survey of 1,200 full-time four-year undergraduates at 100 campuses found Apple squarely situated as the No. 2 preference among the 19 percent of college students — equivalent to 1.1 million people nationwide — planning to purchase a computer within the next year. Among those students planning to buy a desktop, 41 percent said they planned to buy Dell and 13 percent Apple, with other companies, including Gateway, HP and eMachines, close behind Apple, with 9, 7 and 6 percent of the pie respectively.

Not entirely surprisingly, among those students who said they were planning on buying notebook computers, Apple ranked second at 21%, after Dell with 40%. Third place for notebooks went to HP and Sony with 6% each.

Clearly, there’s a lot of room for Apple to grow, with Dell still dominating the market, but Apple has at least definite advantage over the cut-rate bargain bin PC vendor.

“Dell is pervasive,” Weil said. “Dell is about price. Dell is about convenience, and I certainly wouldn’t want to minimize the image of Dell.”

“But there’s an element that everything that Apple does is cool.”

Sorry, Dell, but you can try consoling yourself by repeating that you’re just “too cool for school.”

[Thanks, Dad]

Well, they’re both small, white, and rectangular

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 8:13 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

You’ve got to feel for this guy Sean. He ordered an iPod from Small Dog Electronics, but when he opened the sleek packaging he was greeted not by a shiny new music player, but by the pleasant, waterfall-fresh scent of two bars of Irish Spring, and a considerably less fragrant pack of cheap batteries. Sean, needless to say, was upset.

“I picked up the phone and gave Smalldog a call,” writes Sean, “I was ready to really tear into someone when a supremely polite and nice customer service rep answered the phone. When I told her about my situation (and not too nicely, I might add), she started laughing.”

“For a second I was shocked! I mean, first you screw up, and then you laugh at me!? But the next thing I knew, I started laughing too. She used just the right amount of humor and seriousness in helping me figure out what had happened.

While the mystery of the squeaky clean iPod has not yet been solved, Small Dog got Sean a replacement on the spot.

The box reveals that the iPod is a 40GB model, and the packaging itself appears to be that of a 4th generation iPod, meaning that this was likely a used model, despite being shrinkwrapped. Small Dog is, in my experience, an excellent shopping site, so it’s good to see that they handled this problem smoothly and, er, cleanly.

Minor update: DVD Studio Pro 4.1.1

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 7:48 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

If this were made by any other company, I would have ignored it, but as DVD Studio Pro is an Apple product, I’m obligated to spread the word. DVD Studio Pro 4.1.1 is a bug fix update. Apple continues its terse tech note theme:

DVD Studio Pro 4.1.1 addresses an issue with disc layout for DDP and CMF images on Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Unbelievably, the Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1 update is even terser.

Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1 addresses compatibility on specific hardware.

I’m not even sure what it means. Any video pros want to break down for me?

Is the fast lane really faster?

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 6:39 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

As a child, my father regaled me with lectures about how when you’re in a traffic jam, the fast lane is actually slower. That’s the only thought that ran through my head as I read Bare Feats report on the effect of different PCIe lanes on graphics cards.

After extensive testing with a 3GHz Mac Pro with 16 GB of RAM and a Radeon x1900XT video card (jealous? I know I am), Rob figured out that only a small amount of performance is lost when using the card in a 8x slot instead of the full speed 16x slot. On the other hand, using the card in a 4x slot loses a significant amount of performance.

Another cool tidbit in the write up is the fact that Apple includes a utility to configure the speed of the slots in /System/Library/CoreServies named Expansion Slot Utility (play with it at your own risk).

Greenpeace shown the door at MacExpo

Posted on Oct. 27, ’06, 5:22 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Events

It wasn’t too long ago we reported on Greenpeace’s environmental parody site. There was no love lost from me over that and it looks like MacExpo likes them about as much as I do. They forced them to close their booth and take a hike (of course, they said it in a far more British way). They’ve vowed to return and continue to try to attract attention by acting as leeches on Apple’s current media visibility.

“It’s time for Apple to use clean components in all of its products and to provide a free take-back program to reuse and recycle its products wherever they are sold. We are challenging the world leader in design to also be a world leader in environmental innovation. We challenge Apple to have a product range on the market by 2007 which is free of the worst toxic chemicals,” Kruszewska concluded.

That’s funny. I got an email from Apple on the 24th that read:

Got an old computer, printer, or monitor lying around? Recycle your hardware free right now with the Apple Recycling Program. Equipment received through this program is recycled domestically in an environmentally friendly manner. Plus it’s so easy, why wouldn’t you?

Emphasis added is mine. Greenpeace and its supporters are implicating Apple as the “unnamed” complainers. They have no proof, but it makes this controversy oh so juicy. It’s becoming painfully clear they’re willing to do anything for more attention. I have to wonder if the unidentified objectors were really just Greenpeace members. See? I can make up conspiracy theories too.

The new, improved .Mac webmail is here!

Posted on Oct. 26, ’06, 7:38 PM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Internet

I’ve been anticipating the new .Mac webmail since Apple previewed it a while back. The webmail component of .Mac’s email service has been a weak spot for some time now. I’m unfortunately forced to use it pretty regularly and therefore I need to be a snob about the interface. The original version was decent for the time, but times changed. The new AJAX version that just came out reflects that. What’s new?

Junk mail folder. I can’t yet tell if this means server-side filtering dumps suspicious email in there, but for some reason, I doubt it. However, it does give me a convenient place to dump my spam.

Keyboard shortcuts. This is really convenient. All you have to do is press a key and your bidding is done. It needs to be turned on in the preferences, but once you do, it works great. I’ve included the quick reference in the extended portion of this post.

Spellcheck. It looks pretty much the same as the old version. Incorrect words are underlined with a red dotted line. Moving the pointer over turns it into a pop-up menu. What’s new is that it can now “Learn” new words. No longer will my name be a dirty word on the web!

Addressing. As you start typing, names in your Address Book begin to appear, just like with Mail.app. This alone is almost worth the price of admission as I have my regular Address Book synced. The main window also features a contact search.

Message drag and drop. Yahoo’s beta webmail has had this for a while and it’s just a good idea.

Search. While the “recent searches” is new and useful, searches don’t seem to search body text. Disappointing.

New preferences. There are a couple options in addition to the Keyboard Shortcuts one previously mentioned. You can choose a two or three pane interface. You can use small mailboxes, show all mailboxes, and choose whether to load HTML message images automatically. All good things.

My initial impression of the new webmail is that it might just be my favorite “Web 2.0” webmail makeover yet (compared to Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail). I’m not just saying that because some might consider me a fanboi. The interface is close enough to the Mail.app experience that I won’t feel too put out when I’m forced to use it. The only downside is that the revamp didn’t include a healthy boost to .Mac’s storage.

Don’t forget, the old version is still accessible for you stubborn guys.

Apple fixes MacBook random shutdowns with firmware update?

Posted on Oct. 26, ’06, 3:10 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Troubleshooting

Last we heard, random shutdown syndrome was being cured by the replacement of one of the MacBook’s heat sinks. But today, Apple released a firmware update for MacBooks that claims to address the problem.

The SMC Update improves the MacBook’s internal monitoring system and addresses issues with unexpected shutdowns. This update is recommended for all MacBook systems, including those that received warranty repair.

The knowledge base article on the update claims that it “resolves this issue.”

Could it be that the nightmare is finally over and everything will be gumdrops and sugar plums once again? The same knowledge base article implies that there’s a chance that the firmware update will not solve the issue: “If you continue to experience trouble with your MacBook after applying both updates or if your MacBook is in a state that will not allow you to install the updates please contact AppleCare for further assistance.”

SMC stands for System Management Control, which handles internal technologies such as heat and fans. That jibes with what we know about the problem—i.e., the heat sink—but that there’s a software fix suggests that perhaps the fraying heat sink cord is a red herring.

I’m about to send my MacBook under the knife over here. Install away and let us know if you continue to have random shutdowns. We’re all ears on this one.

DIY Magsafe for a PC

Posted on Oct. 26, ’06, 2:02 PM PT by Scott Silverman

Category | Apple » Huh?

“Create and you shall be copied.” Apparently this principle doesn’t apply only to Windows Vista and Mac OS X, but now also to the Magsafe. However, I have much more respect for this copycat then I do for Microsoft. Why? Take a look at the list of tools needed to copy Apple’s Magsafe on your IBM Thinkpad:

• An aluminum rod
• Mounting tape
• Washers
• Magnets
• Copper flashing
• A soldering iron, epoxy glue, and scotch tape