Exciting features for Parallels Desktop 3.0

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 2:42 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Windows

Parallels today announced new and thrilling capabilities for the next big version of Parallels Desktop. Version 3.0 of the virtualization software should be available in the next few weeks, for an upgrade cost of $49.99 for existing users ($10 less if you pay before next Thursday).

So what does the extra 50 bucks get you? The biggest and most anticipated feature is without a doubt 3D graphics acceleration with support for both OpenGL and DirectX. 3D games will be finally compatible with Parallels, pretty much eliminating the need to keep a Boot Camp partition for serious gaming. We’ll need to wait and see how well it actually works, but it looks very exciting.

Continuing the trend of integrating Windows and Mac OS X, 3.0 also adds “SmartSelect”: this will allow you to open files from either OS with apps on either OS. Basically, you could open a Word file from your Mac with the Windows version of Word, or open a JPEG from your Windows virtual machine with Preview. Combined with Coherence mode, this further blurs the line between OSes, for better or worse. Speaking of Coherence, that will see some refinement as well.

Parallels Desktop will still cost $79.99 for a full license, and the website shows additional new features of version 3.0.

The Delicious Generational gap

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 2:06 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Apple » Advertising

It’s back. Remember the Delicious Generation? Well a recent Tweet on the ever-watched Twitter of John Gruber revealed what appeared to be an unfinished ‘Delicious Generation Strikes Back’ post written by Austin Sarner and John Casasanta, two of its biggest promoters/deveopers. Then today, the post went live. Austin and John’s post discussed their marketing-driven approach to creating software (containing such questionable a like “Development Isn’t Simply the Key to a Successful App”). They even announced their decision to embrace the term “Delicious Generation,” going so far as creating a spiffy logo.

Unfortunately, the post also stunk of grapes so sour that they managed to all but decimate my sympathies for the two. Austin and John clearly took the label applied to their software personally, and have mistakenly responded accordingly, calling Paul Kafasis’ well-written post in which he coined the phrase a “narcissistic, pessimistic, manipulative, envy-driven rant.” I’d beg to differ.

How to know if you’ll be on Google Street View

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 12:25 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Geekery

So there’s this flap right now that’s making its way around the internets about how Google is freaking everyone out with this Street View feature on Google Maps.

While it’s pretty rad that you can see a detailed photo of your front door, there are some creepier moments that the boys and girls in Mountain View have immortalized for all time, such as a cat in the window or the guy possibly breaking into an apartment, the culprit has now been found.

So, if you see either this VW Bug, then you know that you very well might be forever remembered as the guy or girl who blankly stared into the camera, or quite possibly something more embarrasing.

Meet Jeff Han, the man behind Microsoft Surface

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 12:13 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Rivals

While everyone’s all amazed (or not) by Microsoft’s new piece of furniture, some may forget that Macworld (or more specifically, yours truly) got a preview of this really slick technology back at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology conference way back in March 2006.

I penned a blog entry on Mr. Han’s fun little table, and for good measure, even had him on the podcast.

Now again, I’m not really sure how this translates into a workable product, other than “ooo shiny!”

So Microsoft, the floor’s yours.

D5 video: just like being there, except you can’t pester Bill and Steve

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 9:44 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

Are you lamenting missing out on heading to D5? Find our reports on the Gates v. Jobs tête-à-tête lacking in the crucial qualities of being thereness? Well, lucky you: you can swing on over to the All Things Digital website to peruse their extensive list of video content.

You’ll find the eight segments of video from last night’s exploits of Gates and Jobs, as well as highlights from Steve Jobs’s solo talk earlier in the day. And, should you wish, there are a number of other luminaries who have been recorded for posterity, including CBS chief Les Moonves, FOX CEO Peter Chernin, Cisco CEO John “Johnny boy” Chambers, and Emperor himself, George Lucas.

Me, I’ll be watching and rewatching Jobs’s “ice water in hell” comment with a Zapruder-esque level of devotion. You can almost feel the RDF.

Online gaming service says Mac client is on tap

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 9:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Games

We’ve spilled digital ink before on the difficulties the Mac has had capturing gamers, but we caught an intriguing tidbit the other day that bodes well for Mac gamers. GameTap, an online game service owned by Turner Broadcasting, is apparently poised to add Mac support to its previously PC-only offering.

GameTap has previously dallied with Mac-compatibility; earlier in the year they announced they’d bring Myst Online to the Mac using TransGaming’s Cider technology. But in a conversation with gaming blog Joystiq, GameTap VP of Marketing, David Reid and VP of Content, Rick Sanchez dropped the following bombshell:

Will there be more options available for Mac users in the future other than Myst? Has there been enough of a Mac presence to make it worthwhile?

It’s definitely something we’re looking into — late summer we’ll have a Mac product.

Late summer you’ll have a what?

We’ll have a Mac product. So yes, late summer Mac users will get use of GameTap.com and our subscription service.

Sweet. Of course, what games will be available is probably still up in the air: GameTap has everything from classic arcade games that run under emulation to brand-new first run titles like Splinter Cell, and original exclusives like Sam & Max. They also provide original streaming television content, GameTap TV.

All in all, promising news for gamers on the Mac; while gaming may not exactly be burgeoning on our favorite platform, it’s far from dead.

160GB Apple TV now available

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 8:54 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple TV

Yesterday, Stevie J. personally spilled the beans on new features coming to the Apple TV, including YouTube downloads in mid-June. He did not mention a new, larger capacity version of the Apple TV, though news of its imminent arrival quickly flooded the Interweb.

As of this morning, you now have your choice of Apple TVs: the original 40GB flavor is unchanged at $299, but if you want to jump that up to 160GB, you can spend a Franklin more, and take it home for $399. Of course, if you’re more of a DIYer, you can crack open the 40GB model and pop in any hard drive that fits, but if you prefer not to void warranties willy-nilly, the 160GB option might be appealing.

iTunes may become a lord of the ringtones

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 8:24 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPhone

Is there anything more despicable in life than the sale of ringtones? Not only do vendors demand your firstborn as payment, but deals with carriers also often mean that should you even legitimately own a CD or MP3 of a song, your phone won’t easily let you turn that into a ringtone.

Heinous, if I may say so. And yet it appears that Apple itself has become complicit in this outrage. The new Terms of Service for iTunes clearly state (Section 9, Usage Rule VIII):

You may not use Products as a musical “ringer” in connection with phone calls.

This change is apparently new to iTunes 7.2, which, of course, also brought us DRM-free tunes that can easily be edited and chopped into ringtone-sized bits.

Whether this is purely Apple’s decision or is influenced by its deal with AT&T is a mystery, though I’d suspect the latter. The news does jibe with the screenshot we previously saw of the iTunes management for the iPhone, which included a “Ringtones” tab. Will iTunes enter the ringtone market, or will we all be forced to buy said chimes from AT&T?

[via Daring Fireball]

One more tiny iTunes 7.2 tidbit

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 7:46 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iTunes

While the big banner new feature of iTunes 7.2 is the inclusion of support for iTunes Plus (aka DRM free iTunes music), there were other minor changes. I happened to stumble upon one that might throw off your feng shui if you’re as hot on podcasts as I am.

Apple changed the sorting logic for podcast names. It’s a little smarter now. Witness the attached picture. Previously, the word “The” at the beginning of podcast names affected its sorting. As such, The Bitterest Pill ended up further down the list. Now it’s ignored and rightful order is restored.

Not so cloudy skies for third party applications

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 7:04 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPhone

Yesterday was an exciting day and filled with lots of new information from the Mac deity, Steve Jobs. His interview contained one kernel of information that’s sent the Mac and gadget community into a frenzy. As recorded by Macworld:

“I think sometime later this year we will find a way to let third parties write apps and still preserve security. But until we can find that way, we can’t compromise the security of the phone. Nobody’s perfect, but we sure don’t want our phone to crash. We would like to solve this problem, if you could be just a little more patient with us, I think everyone can get what they want,” he said.

Pat has already taken a rather negative stance. He’s convinced that the future is bleak for third party iPhone software development. On the other hand, sites like Engadget are interpreting this as a committal to third party development. While I normally like to sit on the far fringes of issues, this time, I think the middle is right where you ought to be if you’re a betting man.

First, let’s deconstruct a bit. Steve specifically mentions a timeline. I think that says a lot. To my mind, it says that he’s seriously considering allowing third party development. Offering up such a timeline always leads to media outlets carefully following him asking the inevitable “So, how about that third party iPhone development?” If he was only trying to appease people that ask the question, he wouldn’t have given any kind of timeline. He would make a vague reference to the future.

The bigger question here is what constitutes third party applications. It’s clear that Apple now has an obligation to Cingular AT&T to help preserve its bottom line. That includes keeping things like Skype away from their unlimited data plan (which could result in large amounts of lost revenue in upgraded plans and minute overages). What would exacerbate the situation is if AT&T offered a lower priced unlimited data plan. I’m not saying whether that could possibly happen, but it would make sense in terms of really showing off what the iPhone can do.

At this point, it may seem clear that Apple would preclude all third party development, but there’s one more option that Apple’s already shown us. Remember those iPod games that are made by third party developers? Imagine, if you will, that Apple starts a program for third party developers to write for the iPhone under the condition that Apple has to approve those applications and gets to distribute them (get ready for another iTunes source).

Maybe I’m blowing a lot of smoke like big fancy analysts do, but to my mind, the road right down the middle seems like the most likely. Apple can offer functionality that would otherwise be too costly for them to include by default, preserve AT&T’s network integrity, and give many of us what we seek. It’ll make things tougher for independent developers, but that’s probably going to be the price paid for pairing with a cellular carrier.

The man is keeping tabs on you

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 6:09 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Just when you though all was right with the online music sales universe, you find out that you’re being watched. Sort of. Those excellent iTunes Plus tracks that come in high quality, DRM free, have your account information in them. Not your password of course, but they do have your account ID and name.

Today, Apple released its first “iTunes Plus” tracks, music in 256 kbps AAC format with no DRM. So you can copy this music to any computer, play it on any device or computer that supports AAC, with no restrictions. However, while there is no DRM (digital rights management) in these tracks, there are breadcrumbs.

If you look into an iTunes Plus file—just open one with a text editor—you’ll see both your name and your iTunes account ID.

Connect the dots. If your copy of the music track ends up on P2P services, it won’t be long before you can expect your account to suddenly stop working on iTunes. Long story short, Apple’s not going to force you to do the right thing using technology anymore. They’ll just punish you when you do the wrong thing. Seems fair enough to me.

The Boom Bam montage

Posted on May. 31, ’07, 5:02 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Video

I love you readers. I asked for a mashup of Steve Jobs and Emeril saying boom and bam respectively. Bryan delivered with the following presentation. Kudos!

Thanks again Bryan.

It’s the Steve and Bill Power Hour

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 9:41 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Steve Jobs

There was no appearance of Noah Wyle, or Anthony Michael Hall. No John Hodgman or Justin Long. Nobody uttered the words “I’m a Mac” or “I’m a PC.” Punches were not thrown, nor fireballs, nor ninja shurikens. By all accounts, the historic discussion with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs was not merely peaceful, it was downright friendly. If you’re looking for the full scoop, check Jason Snell’s live coverage at Macworld. If you’re looking for snarky, secondhand commentary, well, good—we presume that’s why you’re here.

After opening with a heartwarming montage of videos from 1984, 1991, and 1997 (the historic Big Brother appearance at Macworld), Gates and Jobs entered from opposite ends of the hall, like two Roman gladiators sizing each other up—the whole Earth laid before them as a battleground. As the two circled warily, things first started going terribly awry. Distracted by comfy chairs, the two titans were caught off guard and antagonistic thoughts shortly vanished into creaky reminiscences about days gone by: when men were men and computers were geeky. One almost expected Bill to whip out a piece of long-stemmed grass to chew on, while Steve tied a bandana over his head and swatted at imaginary flying bugs.

Then the lovefest began in earnest.

Apple hits market cap of $100 billion

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 4:48 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Money

Apple stock has, to say the very least, soared over the past 10 years. With a 40 times increase in share price, two stock splits, and more popularity with investors, Apple has performed amazingly well as a publicly-traded company. But, today, the stock set a new milestone in the area of market cap.

Today, Apple’s market cap reached an all-time high of $100 billion (though it was at $102.7 billion at the end of the trading day). Market cap, or market capitalization, is a measurement of a company’s worth on the stock market, and is calculated by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the share price. Obviously, this is a huge milestone for Apple to reach, especially considering how pretty much no one expected the company to make it into the new millennium in the mid-90’s (read: Michael Dell). This isn’t the first time, though, Apple set a major market cap milestone. Back in January of last year, Apple’s market cap surpassed Dell’s for the first time ever, as stated by Steve Jobs in a letter to Apple employees.

So, as Steve Jobs said in that letter last year, “Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today.” Indeed Steve, indeed.

DISCLAIMER: Aaron Freedman holds 10 shares of Apple stock (and possibly more through mutual funds, ETFs, etc.)

Apple TV and YouTube, together at last

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 2:45 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Apple TV

Another instance of Google-Apple collaboration was shown today: in his Q&A with Walt Mossberg, Steve Jobs demoed a future Apple TV feature: playing YouTube videos right from the device.

in a few weeks, Apple will roll out a free software update to all Apple TV users, which will place a “YouTube” entry right in the main menu. Judging by the interface demo on the Apple TV page, in addition to shortcuts to Featured, Top Rated, and the like, you’re also offered the option to search. It also appears you can log in to your YouTube account and view your viewing history. The whole thing is presented in the typical slick Apple TV look, complete with descriptions, YouTube ratings, running time, and all the good stuff.

However, not all videos will be available next month, because YouTube needs to convert them to H.264. Initially, you’ll only get the most recent and popular shorts, but the entire catalog is promised for “this fall”, with more content being added each week.

But the Internet portion of Apple TV was not the only one to get an update today; Apple will also add a 160GB model which will cost $399, $100 more than the current 40GB version. That will go on sale as soon as tomorrow. With these new features, Apple TV inches its way to a brighter future. Do 160GB hard drives and YouTube capabilities influence your purchase decision?

Highlights of Steve Jobs’s coversation with Walt Mossberg

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 1:38 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Apple » Events

In a one-on-one conversation with Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs gave us his usual swagger, rhetorically speaking. He shared with us the fact that the iPhone is actually the best phone they’ve ever created, as well as the best iPod, though it might be worth noting that it hadn’t much competition in either category, what with Apple’s prior phone experience consisting of a Motorola that somebody injected with a weakened strain of iTunes, thus vaccinating it to make sure it never caught iTunes in full force. As for the prior iPods, nice as they were, they weren’t… you know, phones.

When asked about third party development on the iPhone, Steve’s reply was the same line we’ve been hearing since Macworld in January. While he wasn’t kind enough to paint us a picture of Cingular’s annihilation at the hands of a kid trying to create a Tetris on his new iPhone, the situation doesn’t seem to have improved for developers who want to put their code inside this device.

Once the conversation turned to the AppleTV, things started getting interesting. First, came the announcement that YouTube videos will become available via a software update arriving in the coming weeks. As Steve described Apple’s intentions for its “hobby” project, he let loose a few examples of what Mr. Mossberg described as “that Steve Jobs humility.” On the high percentage of iTunes users being Windows users as well, he offered this description, which I found rather poetic: “It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell!”

The conversation also brought to light such tidbits as where you won’t find Mac advertisements, the iPhone’s battery life (hint: it’s what you expect), and the Real Steve Job’s opinion of the Fake Steve Jobs (he thought it was funny).

Check out Macworld’s in-depth coverage of the event to learn more, and make sure you have your browser pinned to Macworld’s live coverage later today of the Jobs/Gates joint talk. I hear that they’re going to throw down.

Microsoft doesn’t know what it’s doing.

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 11:44 AM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Apple » Rivals

I was riding the latest wave of RSS items to hit NetNewsWire and I saw a mention of Microsoft’s “Surface” technology. I thought I may as well give it another look since other people are talking about it, so I tried to point NetNewsWire’s browser to the official web site. I was greeted by a black screen with the following error:

This site requires that scripting is enabled in your browser. Please enable scripting and refresh this page.

You see, NetNewsWire’s default settings don’t support Javascript. Many browsers don’t, including screen-readers for the visually impaired, mobile browsers, and of course, my favorite feed-reader. (I’m not criticizing NetNewsWire here. I actually like the fact that it doesn’t play nice with Javascript. NetNewsWire is about content, not visual bells and whistles.)

Plenty of web sites use Javascript these days. The trick is what’s called “graceful degradation.” That means that when there’s no Javascript, the site still works, albeit with less flare. What’s an example of a site that degrades gracefully? Why, Apple.com of course!

Keep reading to learn more about how Apple.com’s design degrades gracefully, and how Microsoft’s… doesn’t.

Harry Potter and the missing Audible.com content

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 11:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Now I may be so old that I remember when this song and dance was one of the only ways to play Audible.com content in iTunes and consequently, on your iPod, because the iTunes Store didn’t sell Audible’s wares. Luckily, that soon changed and one could purchase and listen to most of Audible’s offerings without ever having to leave the comfort of iTunes. I do have one request of Audible’s website: please give me my Harry Potter fix.

Why does iTunes has all six Harry Potter audiobooks while Audible.com continually insists that the series isn’t currently available on their own website. Where’s the Harry Potter love, Audible.com? I’m not trying to be cheap by not wanting to pay iTunes $33-$50 USD for an audiobook, even if it is narrated by Jim Dale. I just believe in equal opportunities for spoken-word versions of popular children’s fantasy literature. Where’s the harm in that?

You’re not still mad over how Book Six (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) ended, are you, Audible.com? Yes, I was upset too but we need to move on and see what Rowling has in store for the seventh, and final title. So please, Audible, make me happy and start carrying Rowling’s series. I promise I won’t make fun of your light-green-on-dark-green color scheme anymore.

MS Office in New Zealand schools: and the battle rages on

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | Software

The issue of removing MS Office from school computers has reared its shrill, ugly head yet again in New Zealand.

Back in April, I reported that some New Zealand educators were upset about having to remove MS Office from their classroom Macs, thanks to new vendor contracts. Now, one Auckland principal, Julien Le Sueur, is definitely not happy with the situation, or with suggestions of alternative software like NeoOffice or Apple’s offerings:

Mr Le Sueur said NeoOffice was littered with problems, and its website warned that users could expect lots of bugs. “That’s not the sort of software we should be expecting kids in New Zealand to be using.“

Orders to remove the software stemmed from Microsoft insisting that New Zealand’s Ministry of Education pay licensing fees for all school-owned Macs to use MS Office, even though only half the computers used the software suite, according to Education Minister Steve Mahary. This reportedly resulted in an extra $2.7 million NZ dollars ($1.9 USD) that the ministry couldn’t justify giving to Microsoft. Schools can still buy MS Office for Mac on their own at a discounted rate. In the end though, it seems that all this back-and-forth over education budgets and software licenses could hurt students whose only exposure to a pervasive software suite may have been the classroom computer.

[Via MacSurfer]

[Edited 7:05 PM EST for links]

Mac Plus and AMD Dual Core Athlon fight to the pain

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 9:48 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Huh?

Today is all about battles. Coming up later in the day, we’ll have a recap of the titanic battle royale between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but let’s ease into that with this one-on-one duel. Hal Licino pitted a Mac Plus (circa 1986) against a modern day AMD Dual Core Athlon 64 X2 4800+. Now, in a physical brawl, I’d take the Mac Plus any day: it’s hardy and compact, like a wizened kung fu master. But in a performance shoot out? Much as I love the Mac, an arthritic twenty year old computer couldn’t possibly beat a hard-throwing rookie of the 21st century.

Could it?

The Mac Plus decked the AMD in 53% of tests, including an astounding 11 second boot time, beating the AMD by 52 seconds. Now, we must point out that the tests didn’t focus on the full potential of the modern platform: there are no Photoshop rendering tests, no computer game framerates, not even numbers on web surfing. Instead, Hal tested common tasks (saving, scrolling, zooming) in Word and Excel on both and found that in most cases, the Mac Plus performed faster.

For a conclusion, let’s turn to Hal himself, who I think puts it best.

Is this to say that the Mac Plus is a better computer than the AMD? Of course not. The technological advancements of 21 years have placed modern PCs in a completely different league of varied capacities. But the “User Experience” has not changed much in two decades. Due to bloated code that has to incorporate hundreds of functions that average users don’t even know exist, let alone ever utilize, the software companies have weighed down our PCs to effectively neutralize their vast speed advantages. When we compare strictly common, everyday, basic user tasks between the Mac Plus and the AMD we find remarkable similarities in overall speed, thus it can be stated that for the majority of simple office uses, the massive advances in technology in the past two decades have brought zero advance in productivity.

And that’s just plain crazy.

True enough. So much time is spent focusing on the bullet points of what computers can do that less and less time is spent making those tasks more efficient. Think of the surfeit of processing power, RAM, and hard drive capacity available these days: sure, you can do a lot with them, but it’s constantly taking you more and more time to do those things. Don’t you ever miss the simple days, when computers were more about the tools and less about the lifestyle?

[Hat tip: Peter Cohen]

The strange case of Paul McCartney’s iTunes catalog

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 8:52 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

Update: It’s 5:47PM on the East Coast, and there are now twenty six albums listed under Paul McCartney, both with and without Wings. Hurrah. No Fab Four, though.

We won’t be all iTunes all the time, I promise. But I thought it worth pointing out that updating the store seems to be a very gradual process. For example, consider this excerpt from this morning’s press release on iTunes Plus:

iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time. [Emphasis added]

Of course, we’d been hearing that Sir Paul’s catalog was iTunes-bound for a couple of weeks now—it’s already appeared on other download services, so we presumed the delay was so it would appear day-and-date with the DRM-free tracks. That seems to have been correct, but as of this writing, there’s a surprising lack of McCartney albums on iTunes. Above you’ll see the listing for McCartney’s album page. Don’t be deceived, though: two of those are listings for singles (the pre-order pages for his new album), and one is a compilation of 2007 Grammy Nominees, leaving just two full albums. This, despite the press release boast and the appearance of a Paul McCartney banner, reading “Catalog + Exclusives Just Added” in rotation on the front page of the iTunes Store.

A search for Paul McCartney doesn’t turn up anything additional. At least both of the full albums, Press to Play and Chaos and Creation, are available in DRM-free format. I presume we’ll see more McCartney albums rolled out throughout the day. I’d love to see Apple sneak in those Beatles guys too, though. That’d be a nice treat.

iTunes U looks great on your resume

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 8:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes

Alongside the flashy appearance of DRM-free tracks on iTunes this morning, Apple slipped out another iTunes-related announcement: iTunes U—the “U” is for Utopian Idealism. iTunes U is a collection of educational content on iTunes: podcasts, lectures, and videos from the likes of Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, and Duke (I particularly like Stanford’s motto: Stanford to go. In your home. In your car. In your pocket. In your head).

Consider iTunes U your trick to getting a world class education without the high price tags and pedantic need of “being there.” It’s classes when you want them. Take Existentialism in Literature from Berkeley, Black Ships and Samurai from MIT, and the ever popular Homeland Security from Texas A&M. Learn science, philosophy, languages, all from the comfort of your own couch, without anybody chastising you as you crunch through your bag of Cheetos.

And when your parents shake their heads and give you a look that suggests perhaps you’d better consider moving out sometime soon, just point to your iPod with a smug look and say “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m learning.”

ChangeShortName because it’s easier than changing your real name

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 7:38 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

Many people don’t think very hard when creating their short name (aka username) when they create their account in a Mac OS X machine. I knew to choose something I wanted to live with a long time. Not everyone has that foresight and unfortunately, Mac OS X still lacks the ability for you to change it after that initial choice.

Dan Frakes of Macworld and Playlist Mag fame collaborated with James Bucanek to create ChangeShortName, the utility of record when it comes to this task. It was just updated to version 1.3, making it even friendlier for those that aren’t Unix savvy (or even want to be). While there’s some implicit danger in the procedure, the software is free and has been widely used. If it’s something you’re dying to do, this is the best way to go about it.

How to: buy evil-free tracks from iTunes

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 7:03 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

As Derik pointed out, iTunes 7.2 dropped today, bring along with it the unencumbered joys of DRM-free music. Should you wish to partake of this sweet deliciousness yourself, there are a few steps you’ll need to go through. And, I have to say, this is thus far not one of the most seamless experiences Apple has ever offered.

The DRM-free features are being billed as “iTunes Plus”: in order to turn it on, you have to click on your account name in the top right corner of the iTunes store. You’ll be prompted for your password, and then brought to the account information page. The top button on that page now reads “Manage iTunes Plus.” Clicking on that will let you choose whether or not iTunes will show you DRM-free tracks when available. Click the checkbox and hit “Save Changes” and you’re ready to rock (Update: You can also hit the “iTunes Plus” link on the right-hand side of the store’s main page, or on an individual album page; both of which will prompt you to enable iTunes Plus).

Finding DRM-free tracks is a little trickier. There are a fair amount of artists included in the iTunes Plus catalog even from just EMI alone, including Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Gorillaz, KT Tunstall, and The Rolling Stones, so try one of them if you’re coming up empty. I searched for Coldplay, knowing that they were on EMI’s label, and was rewarded with a bunch of tracks at $1.29 with a little “+” icon next to them. That part was simple enough, but clicking on the album link (the arrow to the right of the album name) brought me to what appeared to be the DRM version of the album (all the tracks were $0.99 with no “+” icon). However, then clicking on the “See Previously Purchased Songs” or “Show Full Album” links showed the DRM-free version (Update: The “iTunes Plus” link from the front page has finally been fleshed out a bit, giving you links to most of the iTunes Plus albums).

On the Complete My Album page you’ll also see an “Upgrade to iTunes Plus before Completing this Album” link. That’ll take you to an “Upgrade My Library” page, which will let you upgrade your tracks for $0.30 apiece (I haven’t found any other link to that page, but I presume Apple will make a more prominent one shortly you can also click on “iTunes Plus” link on the right hand side of the store’s front page, which will then give you a link to “Upgrade My Library”). The list will auto-update as more free tracks are added to the library, but from what I can see, I’ve only bought a handful of EMI tracks so far. However, given that it costs just $1.80 to upgrade all of the songs I took the plunge. Apple took my dosh, and automatically downloaded all the new songs into my library.

I don’t think Apple has done quite a perfect job, though. With both the $0.99 and $1.29 albums showing up depending on what link you click, customer confusion could be high. Fortunately, most of the customers who actually take the time to turn on DRM-free downloads probably know what they’re getting into. I wonder how many of your average Joe music purchasers will even have a clue how or why they should bother spending $0.30 more per track. It’s also worth noting that the FAQs are apparently not up yet—every time I tried to click on a link for one, iTunes gave me an error (Update: as of 6:43PM ET, I’m still getting an error whenever I try to get to the FAQ). I wonder if the big push will come with Steve Jobs’s talk at All Things Digital later today.

As far as the tracks themselves, I found myself duly impressed by the 256kbps recording, despite the fact that I didn’t think I’d be able to tell the difference. Right now, I’m listening to the Coldplay song “The Scientist” and you can definitely hear much more range. I do have to admit that seeing that “.m4a” suffix at the end of the file puts a smile upon my face (not, as Coldplay would have you believe, unlike God). Viva la revolution!

Checking in with your neighborhood rival

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 6:33 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Rivals

Palm will reportedly be releasing a new mobile device tomorrow. They’re bread and butter is their Treo line of smartphones, which is quite naturally threatened by Apple’s iPhone.

Palm is keeping quiet about the details, even declining to brief industry analysts ahead of the announcement. But one possibility is the Linux-based smartphone that Palm CEO Ed Colligan has promised to release before the end of 2007. Such a device would improve performance compared to Palm’s current Treo by running the Palm OS on top of a Linux kernel, Colligan told analysts at the company’s annual investor day in April.

That would just figure considering I just got a Treo 680. Now, we’re all fans of the iPhone, but how many of you are interested and willing to take a look at Palm’s offerings now? Could a Linux based version sway you?

Putting the ‘DRM’ in ‘drama’: DRM free tracks arrive

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 3:57 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iTunes

I ran Software Update this morning to get the Quicktime security update and to my surprise, there was a new version of iTunes (7.2) featuring the following description:

With iTunes 7.2, preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.

Apple and EMI have delivered on the promise. I’ll have to spend the rest of the day exploring the offerings to see what I’ll be downloading. Oh, and for the record, Dan, I called Wednesday. Too bad I didn’t tell anyone else.

So, for those of you that have been hesitant to use iTunes, has this changed things for you? Are you going to buy some albums today? Which ones?

YAQTSU: Yet another Quicktime security update (and more)

Posted on May. 30, ’07, 3:53 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Security

Considering its recent track record, YAQTSU is a phrase we may very well need to become familiar with. Apple introduced Security Update (QuickTime 7.1.6) yesterday. It includes fixes for two issues relating to the Java access afforded by Quicktime.

• CVE-ID: CVE-2007-2388: Visiting a malicious website may lead to arbitrary code execution
• CVE-ID: CVE-2007-2389: Visiting a malicious website may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information

More information is found at the update’s web page. This is one of those rare updates that doesn’t force the user into rebooting the computer, so go ahead and kick it off while you keep reading. It was a mere 1.9MB when I downloaded it, but it’s 1.4MB when downloaded for standalone usage.

I hope I’m wrong about this, but I expect we’ll be seeing many more updates like this in coming months. It’s become really clear that the Quicktime to Java bridge is rife with problems.

In other security news, Samba (the software that enables Windows file sharing in Mac OS X) has a vulnerability that exposes Macs to possible buffer overflow exploits. You can try updating it yourself, disabling Windows file sharing, or, my personal favorite, hide your Mac behind a router and any outside connection attempts.

Listen to Sirius satellite radio on your Mac

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 5:13 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Software

Satellite radio has started to catch on lately. With commercial-free music, high quality, and pretty much nation-wide coverage, the medium has a lot of appeal. But, one of the other cool things about satellite radio is being able to listen to it as an online stream. Unfortunately, this process can be not as easy as one may think, especially for Mac users. But, if you’re a Sirius satellite radio subscriber, SiriusMac can help.

SiriusMac is a free OS X app for playing Sirius web streams. The interface is very sleek and simple, resembling that of a Sirius radio, complete with customizable presets, a virtual display, and navigation keys. Unfortunately, the installation process is not as easy as using the program itself. First off, you need to have the open-source VLC player, Growl notification system, and Python programming language (version 2.5) installed before SiriusMac will run at all. Then, you need to download a hard-to-find disk image with an older version of the app and two scripts, which you then have to install, followed by downloading the updated version of the app and installing that. This process isn’t that hard, but mostly just annoying and slow. Once all this has been done, you can open the app, select a Sirius stream, and start listening (though it took a little while for my stream to open).

So while SiriusMac’s installation process is quite annoying, using the actual app is much more enjoyable than fussing around with the web interface and Flip4Mac. Plus, this is still a very new program, so it will probably get easier to use over time.

Audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Store recently won’t play on iPods

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 2:55 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

In what may be the first instance of DRM infringing upon a actual users’ abilities to reasonably do what they want with their media, a number of recently released audiobooks on the iTunes Store are not iPod compatible. Affected titles include such popular reads listens as Tim Ferriss’ “The Four-Hour Work Week” as well as Al Gore’s “The Assault on Reason.”

Apple is instructing would-be mobile audiobook listeners to hold off on making any audiobook purchases from the iTunes store while its engineers work on a fix. For those whom had already taken the plunge and purchased the only somewhat playable audiobooks before the announcement from Apple, a refund has been made available.

The comments on this story found on other sites declare this trouble to be just another instance of DRM restricting the uses of legally acquired media. The trouble with this argument of course, is the fact that Apple is readily refunding these purchases, making the problem not a symptom of DRM-armageddon, but instead a mere technological glitch, an anomaly awaiting remedy.

So to those of you who might be inclined to start up the anti-DRM picketing campaigns, I beseech you: take a deep breath, and don’t buy any audiobook from the iTunes Store for a bit. It’ll all be better soon.

[via Gizmodo]

Who uses widgets?

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 12:30 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

One of the only biggest things to look forward to in Leopard will be the enhancements to the dashboard, especially the webclip widget which allows you to create a widget from a portion of a web page. There are already some widgets that mimic this behavior but their abilities are rather limited. For example, if you have a web page that requires login that you wish to widgetize, you’re plumb out of luck. Hopefully, the web clip widget will remedy this shortcoming.

Personally, my use of widgets fell off exponentially from the time I first came to OS X. For a time, my dashboard was totally bare, though I have started to come around a bit. At this point, my dashboard contains three widgets: the calculator, the phenomonal iStat nano, and a nice timer widget called Minutes. I like having a calculator available to me at all times, and it’s nice to be able to see how my system is doing at the press of a button. The countdown widget was somewhat of an impulse download, though I’ve found myself using it here and there, and it bears a relatively small footprint.

I’m curious to see if there’s anything I’m missing, and at this point I’d like to tap the collective wisdom of the MacUser readership. Do you have any widgets that you can’t live without?

Microsoft sells a million Zunes? Not so fast, Turbo.

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 11:50 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Rivals

So apparently, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, has been widely quoted as saying that the boys in Redmond have sold one millions Zunes during the little guys being nine months on the market. The fault originated from an article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle.

But Apple 2.0 wised up to this oft-cited figure, noting both that the Zune has only been out there six months, and further, goes the extra mile to listen to the Chronicle’s podcast, where the interview with Bach is recorded for posterity.

In it, he actually says: “When we finish our fiscal year in June we’ll have sold a little over a million Zunes, so we feel very good about that.”

In other words, as Philip of Apple 2.0, concludes: “That’s what we used to call an editing error, one that mistakes a projection with actual sales and expands the time frame by about 15%. Microsoft still has more than a month to sell its first million Zunes, which would put it on the schedule it set for itself, not ahead.”

Still, we sincerely and heartily applaud Microsoft on reaching their one millionth Zune sold, whenever it actually happens. Really.

Google Maps adds Street View, Awesomeness

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 10:55 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Geekery

Oh man, I haven’t been this excited about maps since—well, who am I kidding, I’m always excited about maps. (For the record, I have no less than three that decorate my bathroom.)

In any case, Google has just wowed us again with a street view feature into Google Maps. For now, in selected metro areas around the country, including New York City, Las Vegas and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Basically, you enter an intersection or an address as you normally would, and then click “Street View,” and you get a pop-up that shows you a photograph of that intersection, complete with a cardinal axis superimposed over it.

In this photo of the main entrance (Bancroft Ave. at Telegraph Ave.) to my alma mater, UC Berkeley, you can clearly see the north-south axis that bisects the campus.

Heck, if that doesn’t impress you, I put in my home address in Oakland and found my Toyota Corolla parked right out front. I encourage you to try this at home, kids.

Other sites:

Times Square
Golden Gate Bridge

Update: According to a posting on the official Google Maps blog, Denver and Miami are also covered, with more cities to come soon. -DM

MacUser Podcast #21: The stalker edition

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 9:52 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | MacUser

Did ya miss us? It’s been almost a month since our last podcast, way back at the beginning of May and so much has happened since then. I, erm, got Gears of War for my Xbox. Then there was that day when everything turned into chocolate. That happened to you too, right?

Anyway, we’re back and we’re better than ever. Join Derik, Aaron, Kate, and myself on this week’s MacUser Roundtable as we discuss the latest in Mac news, Aaron’s stalker tendencies, and the unavoidable fact that I am a huge geek, especially where matters of Stars Wars are concerned.

AAC version (11.8 MB, 46 minutes)

Comments and feedback on the show are always welcome, so feel free to share your thoughts below, or in an email to macuser [at] macuser [dot] com.

Show notes after the jump…

Bean streamlines my daily grind

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 9:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

For me, the vast majority of every day is now spent processing words, you might say. Reading them, writing them, inventorizing them. It’s words from the moment I roll out of bed and fire up my email to the moment I close my book and turn out the light at night.

You’d think I’d get tired of them, and, well, from time to time I do. “Couldn’t we just use numbers instead?” I wonder on occasion. “What if I just put up a post reading 35987201047. Wouldn’t everybody know what I mean?”

Oh, well, words it is, then. As longtime readers of the blog no doubt are aware, I’ve been engaged in a seemingly endless quest to find a replacement for the venerable AppleWorks, which still occupies a soft spot in my Dock. I’ve interviewed a number of promising candidates without finding a suitable app. Until, perhaps, now.

Bean is a small, lightweight, and best of all free word processor. It doesn’t have the bells, whistles, or corkscrews of Microsoft Office, but what it does have is a clean, no muss interface that lets you get straight to the business of putting words down.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have features. Like TextEdit, you can control the typeface, and text styles, and it also adds a zoom slider, live word count, and the ability to define alternate colors (say, green on black for that old time terminal feeling) and switch to them with a keystroke or toolbar button. The app also deals with Word files (97 and 2003 XML format), RTF, text, web archive, and its own Bean format (which looks to be just a wrapper for an RTF document).

Bean’s one of the most promising word processors I’ve seen in recent memory, and while it still lacks a few features that I’d love to have (sections, for instance, and headers and footers), I value the simplicity more. If you’re looking for an easy to use, clutter-free word processor, Bean might be right up your street.

[via Low End Mac]

iTunes UK selling new music on the cheap

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 8:52 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

I happen to know we’ve got ourselves plenty of UK readers out there in MacUser land, so this one’s for you, folks. The UK version of the iTunes Store is running a special on 25 albums by new artists for under £5 (iTunes link). Albums in the UK store are usually priced at £7.99, so this is a pretty shiny deal if you’re looking to snag some new tunes for cheap.

Personally, I haven’t heard of any of the artists featured, but as it’s “new music,” I suppose that’s to be expected. Still, how could I resist music by bands like The Sunshine Underground, Datarock, and Molotov Jive? With names like those, they’ve got to be good.

And you know what, this is as good a time as any to renew the plea to record companies that they open up all the iTunes stores around the world to everybody. Maybe we’d like to snag us some music from these spiffy new artists—without a UK billing address, c’est impossible! Likewise, I”m sure our UK buddies would be thrilled to get access to some of the US store’s wares. Let’s tear down these borders instead of building them up, shall we?

[via Macworld UK]

MacUser bloggers: The Empire Snags Scott; Return of the Cyrus

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 8:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | MacUser

The MacUser crew has gone through some ch-ch-ch-changes recently, so I figured it only fair that we let you in on all the fun. You may notice that MacUser Senior Contributor Scott Silverman is no longer listed on our staff page. Scott’s gone on hiatus this summer, working for some ridiculous fruit company out in the Bay Area. I can say no more than that. We hope he’ll be able to rejoin us in the fall, assuming he hasn’t been completely and utterly brainwashed.

We’ve also been rejoined by a blast from the past: the one, the only Cyrus Farivar. Cyrus, as you’ll no doubt recall, was one of our very first bloggers, and we’re psyched to have him back on the team. In his absence from the blog, he’s been living the itinerant life of a freelance writer, hopping off to places like Estonia and South Korea. Which, no doubt, has imbued him with a unique perspective on all things Mac.

Anyways, I hope you’ll all welcome Cyrus back into the fold and wish Scott the best of luck in his summer adventures. We now return you to your regularly scheduled MacUser.

ModBook will be here soon, really

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 7:46 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

A recent visit to Other World Computing’s ModBook page yielded some interesting new information. I was actually surprised that these hadn’t shipped yet. They were the talk of this year’s Macworld Expo (as the only new Mac at the show). Besides, it’s the first Mac tablet, how cool is that?

Orders taken now will be shipping by July 31st of this year (with some shipping in June). Also of note is that OWC is taking to the max by offering a 3GB of RAM configuration, which while unsupported, actually works in a MacBook with a Core 2 Duo processor. How many of you are going to lay down the big bucks for the tablet?

Your iPod is your guide to WWDC

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 6:34 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPod » iPod Software

Not everyone knows WWDC and the Moscone center like the back of their hand. I’ll admit, I’d be completely lost. Keeping yourself oriented is half the battle. That’s why Expodition has created a handy, free, iPod formatted guide to the event.

Basically, the guide is, like many other iPod utilities, a series of notes organized into folders in a convenient, easy to use way. I took a quick look (I didn’t want to tease myself too bad with the fact that I won’t be going) and found some useful stuff like the schedule and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). If you’re going to be one of those lucky attendees, be sure to throw this on your iPod way ahead of time (when I visited San Francisco, I forgot to add Cyrus’ excellent restaurant guide and I kicked myself for it).

Gullibility and agent strings

Posted on May. 29, ’07, 5:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPhone

I’m quite certain that someone at Apple is having a really jolly laugh at MacRumors and MacShrine’s expense. MacRumors reported they’ve been visited by an iPhone (based upon a browser agent string), which was quickly followed by MacShrine.

One reader tipped us off that they had come across iPhone browser identification strings in the Apache logs of their eBay images. According to their submitted logs, the browser identifies itself as:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A538a Safari/419.3

While browser identification strings can be easily spoofed, these requests originated from Apple’s internal IP addresses.

Easily, he says. Easily. It’s less than easy. Safari has the capability built in. Given, it doesn’t currently have an option for the iPhone (yet), but it’s there. The more geeky among you may already know that you can set this string with an argument to curl (the fabulous command line download utility).

I can just see it now. There’s an Apple software engineer sitting at his desk, feet up, looking at his Cinema Display laughing as he reads the headlines on both sites, saying “n00bs” under his breath.

N00bs indeed.

AT&T peeps about iPhone here and there

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 3:38 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | iPhone

In case you just can’t get enough of iPhone non-news, AT&T is sprinkling a few details here and there.

First, about the phone plan: the cell carrier apparently wants to re-launch its “Unity” phone plan at the same time as the iPhone. So far, the plan has been a disappointment, since it’s an over-complicated combination of local, long-distance and cell phone plans. For the iPhone launch, AT&T says it wants to make it simpler. No word, of course, on the possibility of a special iPhone plan. [via Infinite Loop]

Second, the Seattle Times interviewed Glenn Lurie, an AT&T executive. While most of it is innocent chit-chat and a little Apple love, Glenn does tease us on how it is to actually use the iPhone:

I think when people get their hands on it and really experience it — the touch screen is phenomenal, this touch screen is like nothing you’ve ever used — to experience that, the skepticism, I think, around some of those things will go away.

[…] It’s a pretty incredible browsing environment. That’s the first part that I think will blow people away. It’s the first widescreen iPod they’ve ever done; it is very, very good, works extremely well.

He also mentions “Google applications”, plural, which makes T3 magazine speculate on whether we’ll see Google Reader or Google News in addition to Google Maps. Maybe, maybe not, who knows?

An SDK for Apple TV development

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 2:26 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Apple TV

Since its launch, the Apple TV has seen an avalanche of unofficial plug-ins for doing things such as reading RSS feeds or playing obscure video formats. To further nourish this growing pool of plug-ins, Alan Quatermain has released a Software Development Kit for BackRow, the Apple TV interface.

The free download includes a project template for Xcode and even a little Apple TV interface emulator to test your apps. The process of creating these hacks is not for the faint of heart, however, not to mention installing them on the Apple TV itself. But if you’re an enterprising developer and Apple TV user, take a look at the SDK and the BackRow tutorials Alan has created.

[via MacNN]

Apple’s retail prowess hard to copy

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 11:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | Apple » Stores

Walk through your typical Apple store and you’ll likely find a bustling cornucopia of consumerism (see what happens when I don’t drink coffee?) Maybe it’s the magnetic pull of their products that brings people in; perhaps it’s the Genius Bar; or maybe consumers wander into the Apple Store by mistake, thinking that a trip to Hawaii is in order. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to argue with the success of Apple’s retail stores. So why is that success so hard for Apple’s competitors?

Randall Stross at The International Herald Tribune compares Apple’s retail story with Sony’s, which has 39 stores (including flagship locations in New York and San Francisco). Sony Retail’s senior vice president compares a typical Sony retail store to “a fashion boutique for women and children,” which strikes me as a bit odd. It’s great that my Mac looks stylish and works well but I’m not ever going to confuse it with say, a cute pair of shoes. Although “iShoe” does have a nice ring to it…

[Via MacSurfer]

This space is MySpace—unless you’re in an Apple Store

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | Apple » Stores

Having spent the past two Saturdays in an Apple Store (feast or famine, I tells ‘ya), I can’t say that it ever occurred to me to randomly explore cyberspace while price-checking FM transmitters, or helping a friend buy his first Mac. It certainly never occurred to me to check out that MySpace thing that all the cool kids are talking about. It looks like I won’t have the chance to now, at least from an Apple Store: it’s now banned from the retail store computers.

Apple released a statement last week, explaining, “Nearly 2 million people visit Apple stores every week. We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores.” MySpace is the only site that’s been blocked so far, according to CNET.

[Via MacSurfer]

WiFind is Tasty and then some

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 9:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

I spend a lot of time in cafes doing work, including one in an area which seems to be more saturated with Wi-Fi than my inbox is with offers for cheap prescription drugs. The list is quite a bit longer than the length of my screen, but I have to resort to trial and error (and the occasional help of coconutWiFI) to find one that’s both strong enough and unlocked.

It’s a wonder Apple doesn’t build that functionality into OS X itself, but fortunately, the fine folks at Tasty Apps have come to the rescue with their WiFind 1.1, a SIMBL plugin that will put the signal strength and security status of detected Wi-Fi neteworks right where it belongs: in the AirPort menu, next to their name. Sweet Moses on a pogo stick!

The little add-on will cost you $8, but is sure to save you untold hours of exploring the ins and outs of Wi-Fi networks—a task that could very well take you to eternity.

[via Digg]

iBraiiiiiins

Posted on May. 28, ’07, 8:03 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

You know, just the other day I found myself wondering what I would do if I were confronted by the shambling hordes of the undead. Make a run for it (given that zombies are known for their lackadaisical pace)? Grab the nearest makeshift weapon (n my case, a bottle of Scotch) and try to take as many of them out as possible?

I’m rather glad, in fact, that this situation has not yet presented itself, for it could be ripe with misunderstandings. For example, had I been at the San Francisco Apple Store on Friday night, when it was invaded by the legions of the undead, I might very well have decapitated a few, before realizing my crucial mistake: these were merely zombie enthusiasts.

Awkward.

The zombie mob, whose tattered clothes and bodies were evidence that they had apparently decided not to purchase the AppleCare extended protection plan, left after taste-testing some iMacs and gazing longingly at the swollen, delicious brains behind the Genius Bar.

[via Engadget]

Fun with Flickr

Posted on May. 25, ’07, 11:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | Photography

So I’ll admit it: it took me a while to even set up a Flickr account, let alone actually use it more than once a season. But the more I finally used it, the more I saw how useful it was, even just for sharing pictures. Prime example: my extended family is huge so for the most recent Special Event, I decided to throw some pictures up on my Flickr page, copy the link into an email, and wait for the comments roll in. No more worrying about email limits, slow downloads, or large attachments.

If you plan on using Flickr for a lot of photos (let’s say, more than 20 because I like that number), I recommend using an uploader tool instead of the web-based method. My personal favorite is the shareware FlickrExport iPhoto plugin from Connected Flow but your mileage may vary. It’s also worth looking into the different privacy levels you can set for your photos, such as restricting access to just people you’ve marked “friends” or “family.” Naming and tagging photos (even in batch-mode) is so easy it’s scary. Don’t forget: you can even make Flickr work with Photobooth.

Trading in iPods for Zunes?

Posted on May. 25, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall

Category | iPod

This almost breaks my heart (assuming it’s not a prank): Microsoft’s Zune team has a bin set up for employees to toss in discarded iPods. Should you navigate to this intriguing Flickr page, you will find a picture of the “iPod Amnesty Bin” (oh….kay…) bearing a poster of a green apple with bite marks and the words, “bite me.” Heh. Not. The fifth graders who chit-chatted all the way through Spiderman 3 could crack better jokes than that poster (that’s one May 16 I’ll never get back).

The bin contains a few older iPods (fourth-generation, as far as I can tell), plus what looks like an iPod skin. The photo was reportedly posted by MSNBC.com employee Rex Sorgatz, who said he thought the bin was a joke. Know what makes me laugh? The fact that I love pink but the rosy-hued Zune fills me with a deep, lingering terror—or possibly ennui.

[Via Playlist]

Season finales collected on iTunes