Sticker Sighting: iTrash

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 3:01 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Geekery

Yes, this is the obligatory “omg I saw an Apple sticker!” post. Yes, I know some of you probably don’t care. And yes, it has been a great day, thanks for asking!

Ready for the most shockingest revelation you’ll ever read on any blog ever? Here it goes: Apple is getting more and more popular. I know. Unbelievable, right? That’s ok, sit down if you need to.

And with popularity comes more and more branded-adhesives smacked onto cars, mopeds, moogs, luggage, um…Dells, and, yes, janitorial trash cans. (Flickr’s got a great selection of stickered tangibles.)

This lovely image was taken with my iPhone underneath a stairwell on campus.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Holy crap, Dan! You took a spy shot of a secret new Apple product!

No-ho-ho buddy. I thought so too at first, until I asked some pretty smart Apple-oriented people and they assured me it probably wasn’t. At least I think that’s what they said. It was hard to tell over all the laughter and lousy mean-spirited jokes.

Stay up late, make a movie

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 12:37 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Events

In one of my previous attempts at finding my life’s calling (which, clearly, is blogging), I dabbled with becoming a filmmaker. I made a couple of shorts and wrote a few screenplays, which will likely never see the light of day. Sometimes, I feel like I just missed the curve on the accessibility of technology though. You kids today!

So for those aspiring moviemakers who are still striving away, you may be interested in checking out the Insomnia Film Festival that Apple’s running on October 13th. The rules are simple: a team of five has twenty-four hours to create a film no longer than three minutes. At 9AM Eastern on the 13th, Apple will also post a list elements; choose any three to include in your money.

Once your film is uploaded, visitors to Apple’s website will be able to rate all the films; the top 25 will then get watched by industry professionals like Barry Sonnenfeld and Nora Ephron. The most popular movie with the judges and most popular with the plebes will both net their team a full set of MacBook Pros, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, and Shake.

I’d totally be there, but the contest is only open to college and high school students. Blast! Is it too late to go back to school?

SRS iWOW 2.0 released, unlikely to wow you

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 11:30 AM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software » Updates

If I am any indication, the recent MacUpdate bundle helped publicize SRS iWOW quite a bit inside the Mac shareware community. I’ve now been using the fancy sound enhancement iTunes plug-in for a while, and I’ve been pretty happy with the results. I don’t know how iWOW does it, but the music really does sound much richer, more detailed, and just plain better (in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not one of those Dan Frakes-style audio experts versed in the art of sound quality description).

So I was pleasantly surprised to see iWOW 2.0 be released. The new version brings welcome improvements, including the much-needed ability to save your custom presets. Also cool is that iWOW can now automatically change the active preset based on the playing song — I assume it looks at the Genre field. Speaking of presets, we’ve now got a few more, including podcast and techno. Finally, there’s some kind of virtual 360-degree surround sound experience thingy which sounds interesting. See for yourself at the website.

That’s all very fine, but frankly, many of these changes are (a) fairly minor or (b) should’ve been there in the first place. And this leads us to the bad news: the upgrade cost for registered 1.x users is $11.99 (the full version is $19.99). I don’t want to complain too much as I got iWOW as part of a bundle, but still, $12 is a little steep for 2.0’s new features. What do you think?

Refurb Store keeps you posted on Apple Store deals

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 9:44 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Just because we’re Mac users doesn’t mean we don’t like to save a penny here and there. That’s why we keep an eye out on deals for you, our lovely readers. But we understand that you can’t just depend on us to let you know when prices have dropped, or there’s a sale going on. You need that information delivered to your desktop in a timely fashion, so you take advantage of those special deals at a moment’s notice.

That’s where the Refurb Store widget from Widgetinfo comes in. It delivers the latest deals from Apple’s Refurbished store direct to your Dashboard. You can choose between Mac, iPod, and iPhone price breaks, and the widget will tell you what model’s going for how much. Clicking on any of them will take you to the Apple Store, where you can shop ‘til you drop (or run out of cash). And it’s not just the US, either: you can also monitor deals from Canada and France.

If you’re in the market for a new iPod, Mac, or iPhone at cheap—and, well, you’re reading a Mac news site, so you probably don’t need too much of a shove—Refurb Store is probably the best way to stay up-to-the-minute on the latest deals.

AOL Desktop can stay the heck off my desktop

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 8:58 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

You might excuse me for thinking, upon seeing the headline that AOL had decided to release a new version of its Desktop software for the Mac, that I had been sucked into some sort of temporal vortex, and spat out into the year 1999. Like that show Journeyman, only, you know, less crappy and with more Macs.

Okay, so what’s in this fancy shmancy public beta? IM integration. Tabbed browser and IM windows. The ability to send email from multiple accounts, including .Mac, Gmail, Verizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—What? What? I’m awake. Totally awake.

Are there people out there who still use AOL? I guess. On their Mac, though? You can do all of this pretty much out of the box, as long as you’ve got an ISP. AOL says that this is all part of “reaffirming its commitment to Mac users,” which kind of sounds like a threat to me. I mean, I might reaffirm my commitment to family, but that doesn’t mean I want creepy Uncle Algernon moving in with me. And to drill the point home, they’ve also launched a Mac Blog (everybody’s doing it! It must be—what are the kids saying now, is “hip” still in?). Unfortunately, it kind of reads like your average student being forced to write an essay for English class.

Let me ask you this: How much do you think we’d have to pay AOL just to leave our platform the hell alone?

[via Macworld]

Apple to hang with Mr. Cooperman

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 8:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » People

If it seems like just last year that Apple brought on IBM’s former counsel, Donald J. Rosenberg, to act as their lawyer-in-chief, just six months after the departure of options-embroiled Nancy Heinen, that’s because it was just last year. November to be precise. And now, after a hard ten months on the job, Rosenberg is bidding adieu to Cupertino. Given the amount of work that Apple Legal sees on a daily basis, we can’t say we blame him.

But when one ornately scrollworked door closes, another must open. To replace Mr. Rosenberg, we give you Mr. Daniel Cooperman, formerly general counsel at Oracle. Apple CEO Steve “Lawyer Up” Jobs had this to say:

“Dan will be an excellent addition to our team and will fit right into Apple’s fast paced culture,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Dan is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in securities compliance, intellectual property, litigation and corporate governance.”

At last, though, a member of the Secret League of Dans in a useful position! It’s only a matter of time before the intelligence begins flowing straight from Apple Legal into my coffers (wait, do I have coffers? Note to self: pick up some coffers on the way home).

Hungry, hungry Mac Pros

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 7:40 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

Dan (number 2) brought word of several EFI Firmware updates yesterday. I took the plunge and applied the Mac Pro variant to my own lovely machine. The good news is that although I’m typing this on my Powerbook, my desktop is just fine. This update acted like the rest of them. Am I the only noticing that the Intel Macs get far more firmware updates than the PowerPC machines ever did? I’m not complaining, but it’s interesting.

First, the update gives you the set of instructions. It shuts down the Mac. You press and hold the power button until the light flashes or you hear a long beep. Release. Then wait as the progress bar slides across the screen. This is where things got interesting. My Mac Pro suddenly kicked both optical trays open. Once the update was finished, the trays closed on their own. Like the title says, all I could think of was the game Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

At this point, I had another little mishap (completely benign). My Mac Pro started into Windows for some inexplicable reason. Choosing my Mac OS X boot drive in the Boot Camp panel and restarting set things right. Hopefully it was just a one time thing.

The new online Apple Store is pretty inside and out

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 6:28 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Stores

Apple’s online store got a very nice redesign recently. We’re a fan of its clean looks and the use of blue (color my eyes, so it must be good). While it’s beautiful to look at, the code behind it is also gorgeous.

But while its beauty and usability have always run ahead of the pack, its underlying source code has not always kept pace. Now the online Apple Store’s inside is as beautiful as its exterior—and as far ahead of the mainstream in web development as a company like Apple needs to be.

One day, all sites will be built like this. View Source for an inspiring glimpse of how semantic and accessible even a grid-based, image-intensive, pixel-perfect site can be.

What Zeldman says is very true. You may wonder though, why we should care as users of the site? The answer, my friend, is accessibility. Think about people that don’t use traditional web browsers. Screen readers can handle clean sites far easier than complicated ones. So, in that regard, this update gets double cool points.

Macworld’s review of VMware’s Fusion is in… and it’s good

Posted on Sep. 28, ’07, 5:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Windows

Since its release (and perhaps even for part of its beta phase), I’ve been talking up VMware Fusion, the virtualization software that allows you to run alternative operating systems within OS X. It’s most often used to run Windows (yes, yes, I know, boo hiss), but it can be, and in some environments frequently is, used to run operating systems like Linux, Solaris, and other Unix variants. Parallels was the first to deliver the dream of running Windows at nearly full speed without leaving the comfort of Mac OS X and as such, became the early favorite. I tried Fusion and was pleasantly surprised by its functionality and reliability (Parallels and I were on the outs because it was misbehaving).

I don’t use Windows often, but I do use it to get the most out of Netflix and its streaming movie feature. I’ve read a lot of positive feedback about the product that seemed to corroborate my own feelings, but I was never quite sure if the fanboi in me forced me to look for validation. Rob Griffiths (that’s Mr. Mac OS X Hints to you) examined Fusion for Macworld’s review.

Rob likes Fusion’s multiple CPU and USB 2.0 support, strong memory management, and library of pre-built VMs. I personally would add 64 bit OS support, Cocoa interface, and excellent Linux support to the list. He dings it for single snapshots, Unity’s lack of multiple monitor support, less 3D supported uses, and costly tech support. Those are all fair points, but despite Parallel’s very accessible support, I felt as if I never got any (hence my multiple posts about its incompatibility with Cisco’s VPN client).

I can’t put my finger on it, but Fusion just feels like the more mature product despite Parallels early arrival on the scene.

Are iPods a cause of violent crime?

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 5:29 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | iPod

It’s common knowledge here in New York City that when riding the subway and walking around in certain neighborhoods, it’s best not to flash your fancy new iPod. But could these little media playing devices actually be causing a rise in crime? Well, that’s what a report by The Urban Institute suggests.

The report gives three main reasons for why the rise in iPods and robbery are related, not coincidental. This basically comes down to robbery growing more than theft and burglary, the fact that most of the new robbery crimes are committed by minors, who covet iPods more than their adult counterparts, and that the large increase in robberies, from 2004 to 2006, occurred during the exact same time the iPod gained huge mass-market appeal. The report also states a variety or reasons for iPods being more susceptible to crime than other similarly-valued objects, including its lack of accessible anti-theft protection and the distinct look of the device.

So, while I think that the rise in crime and iPods are no coincidence, I also don’t think that Steve Jobs is the cause of mass lawlessness across the country. The truth of the matter is that with immense market saturation and appeal, any small, portable device can become susceptible to mass theft. But this doesn’t mean that you should toss out your ‘pod in favor of something less valuable (read: Zune); just that you should be more careful with your media player outside instead of zoning out with those little white ‘buds in your ears.

[via City Room]

Oh, and don’t forget iWeb

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 4:49 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software » Updates

You thought we were done with updates, eh? Not quite. iWeb, the only part of iLife that wasn’t updated yesterday, now joins the fun: iWeb 2.0.2 was just made available. If you think there have been a zillion updates recently, you’d be right: this is the seventeenth one in seven days. New record?

As for this particular one, this is what Apple’s got to say about it:

This update to iWeb addresses issues with upgrading iWeb 1.x websites, and fixes some common publishing problems, and supports general compatibility issues.

Classic iPods get software bump

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 4:30 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | iPod

Astute readers will note that our friends over at Playlist will recall that the classic iPod — you remember, the ones frontin’ the 80GB and 160GB hard drives — “could be sluggish when drawing artwork.” They surmised that perhaps the spinning drives (instead of the flash drives the rest of of us) slowed down the process.

However, about 10 days ago, Apple released another cryptic iPod software update that purported to fix this problem. Did it?

The brainiac Mr. Breen took it for a spin and found some interesting results:

The slow screen redraws disappeared and the click wheel no longer paused. The interfaces of the iPod classic and 3G nano remain slower than the interfaces of their most recent predecessors—the fifth-generation iPod and second-generation iPod nano. But while slower than these earlier models, the current iPods respond consistently rather than slowing down intermittently as they once did.

So there you have it, folks. Your iPod classic now transitions as nicely as everyone else’s.

Apple to up the e-card ante?

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 3:17 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Internet

A new entry on the USPTO site seems to indicate that Apple may be getting further involved in online e-cards, reports ZDNet.

Techniques described herein allow multiple users to sign the same ecard. For example, a first user signs onto an ecard website, and selects an ecard template. After personalizing the ecard, the first user selects an option to invite other users to sign the card. Invitation messages are sent to the invited users.

If an invited user accepts the invitation to sign the ecard, the invited user is prompted to login to the ecard website and sign the ecard. Once all the invited users have responded to the invitation, the first user is notified that the ecard is ready to be sent. Before sending the ecard, the first user may preview and modify the ecard. Once the first user is content with the ecard, the first user submits the ecard to the ecard web server to be sent to the intended recipient.

Now I’ll be the first to admit, that doesn’t seem like Apple’s style, to make an entire site that focuses on something as mundane as e-cards. Or… would they?

Update: Ok, don’t I feel dumb — but I suppose that it happens to us all. I completely forgot that the iCards even existed. I’ve never sent one, nor have I ever received one (until now — see below). Still, I guess I’m just wondering what the big deal is about an e-card signed by multiple people. This is probably just an update to the iCard setup. We cool now? Kthxbye. — CF

Keep ‘em comin’: iWork, EFI firmware updates; iPod Touch 1.1.1, iTunes 7.4.3 (Windows)

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 2:22 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software » Updates

Apple, you’re wearing me out. I know you loved that stupid software-gets-promoted analogy I used yesterday, but there’s no way I’m keeping it going. I killed the joke last time. It’s dead, alright? Dead. And seriously, you can’t spread these releases out a little? It’s like you’ve got Irritable Update Syndrome.

Anyway, aside from the incredibly-hyped iPhone 1.1.1 update (whatever happened to iPhone 1.1?), Apple released a bunch of other updates more in-line with the focus of this blog. Giving me more work. Thanks. Here’s the Update Rundown™:

iWork ‘08: Keynote 4.0.1 (32.4 MB) focuses on build issues, Pages 3.0.1 (29.1 MB) on change tracking, and Numbers 1.0.1 (27.3 MB) on tables. And, of course, they all claim to improve performance (wouldn’t be an Apple update otherwise).

Apple also released iPod Touch 1.1.1 (I still can’t get over that version number), which is only said to include “bug fixes.” But, according to MacRumors, it may actually be fixing the “Negative Blacks” screen problem for some users. It also brings the version numbers of Apple’s two OS X-based mobiles into sync.

Then there’s EFI firmware updates for the iMac (3.9MB), Mac Pro (2.8MB), MacBook (1.7MB), MacBook Pro (2.8MB), and Xserve (1.5MB). Brief summary by MR:

• Improves performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo Processors (iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro)
• Improves performance and reliability of Dual-Core Intel Xeon Procesors (Xserve)
  
• Fixes issues with Boot Camp (iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro)
• Fixes fan behavior (Mac Pro)

And not really MacUser material, but might be of interest to some of you: iTunes 7.4.3 is now available for Windows, which “addresses issues with the initial setup of the iPod touch on some international versions of Windows.” iTunes for the Mac, however, remains at the 7.4.2 mark.

Is that all? Yes? OK, I’m goin’ on break.

[via MacRumors and Macworld]

Target makes Shuffle all girly (but for a good cause)

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 10:49 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iPod

Someone inform Jacques Clouseau: the pink Shuffle has been found! It’s not exactly a diamond with a panther-shaped flaw, but it did go missing a few weeks ago and it is quite shiny.

AppleInsider reports that Target brick-and-mortor stores are now selling special-edition pink — very, very pink — iPod Shuffles.

For the same $79 that Apple charges for the diminutive clip-on digital players, Target is also throwing in a $15 iTunes gift card. In addition, the retailer is donating a portion of the proceeds of each sale to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation — up to $25,000 in total.

AI is uncertain as to whether Apple is involved in this, or if it’s simply an attempt by Target to clear out old iPod Shuffle inventory. Apple did away with the pink models at the “Beat Goes On” media event earlier this month and replaced them with a less-glitzy smooth purple. There were no changes to the hardware, so the pink Shuffle is still technologically on-par with current models.

Check out the article for some pics of the package as well as more details on the offer. If you liked the pink Shuffle — or are looking for a good gift for your honey-bunny sweetheart (yuck) — this may be perfect for you. Not only do you get a modern iPod, you get $15 iTunes credit for no extra charge. And with a chunk of the proceeds going to breast cancer research, it’s definitely a meaningful and worthwhile purchase.

Meet the Gateway iMa…er, Gateway One

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 9:34 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Rivals

You know what I like the most about Gateway’s new all-in-one computer, the Gateway One (aside, of course, from the simple naming style)? It’s that little fake glass sheen that they put in this product photo. Man, that’s slick. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Crazy!

Seriously, G-dub, are you feeling a little bit insecure about your spot in the PC market? I know this isn’t the first time you’ve tried introducing an all-in-one computer design, but the design here is pretty darn shameless, if I may say so. Glossy monolithic exterior? Flat keyboard? Wireless mouse? Included remote? It’s almost enough to make me want to go out and buy, well, an iMac.

The One is priced between $1,300 and $1,800—pretty close to a certain other all-in-one computer—but it comes with just a 19” display. While it has some other amenities that the iMac lacks, like a 5-in-1 flash card reader and USB TV tuner (on the high-end model), the specs seem pretty close: 1.5GHz-2.0GHz Core Duo, 320GB HD, 2GB of RAM. Will this be enough to push Gateway out of its sales slump? You know if copying Apple was all it took, then all of those geniuses who thought that the secret to making a computer was to make it blue ought to be rolling in the dough by now. Right, eMachines?

[via Engadget]

Iris keeps an eye on things using your iSight

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 8:59 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Look, it’s not paranoia if there really are people out to get you, okay? It’s just…best practices. Maybe you don’t get worried that people (or cats…or dust mites) are using your computer when you’re not around—lucky you. But for the rest of us, we like to make sure.

MildMannered Industries’s newly released $30 Iris is perfect for this kind of thing. Using your computer’s iSight (internal or external), Iris can act as a motion detector, alerting you when some nefarious element has tried to use your computer. You can set it up to email you, play a sound, capture a snapshot, a movie, and more.

That’s not all Iris can do, either. It lets you take snapshots, à la Photo Booth, capture movies, à la iMovie, and even record timelapse movies. You can even set Iris up as a webcam, letting you check in on your computer from anywhere on the web (password protection optional). Iris’s Gallery window features a thumbnails of all the movies and pictures you’ve taken, along with options to email them, post to Flickr, or convert them for your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV.

All in all, a pretty nifty application, especially for the rightfully paranoid among us.

[via Macworld]

Use CardBus cards in that fancy MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 7:22 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

Technology is always progressing. Sometimes, to usher in the new, we break with the old. Some of us still miss you, ADB and SCSI (yes, I know modern versions are used extensively, but it’s no longer used standard in Macs). When MacBook Pros burst onto the scene, gone were the CardBus cards that we’d all gotten used to. Ironically enough, the one CardBus card I owned was a SCSI card. Many Powerbook owners got those compact flash readers.

Rejoice recyclers! Addonics (which Greek god was he?) has released a CardBus to ExpressCard adapter. It’ll set you back a cool $69.95, dangles the card way off the side of your laptop, and the drivers for your existing card may not be available as a Universal Binary, but it’ll work for some stuff.

Apple stock reaches 52 week high

Posted on Sep. 27, ’07, 6:02 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Business

Apple’s stock reached a 52 week high yesterday, reaching an astounding $155 per share. For some perspective, Apple’s stock price was about half of what it reached today. Talk about a return on investment. Honestly, I wish I’d had the money and foresight to buy a year ago.

At this point though, one has to wonder how much higher it can go. If the last year graphed is any indicator, it will grow for some time. Logically, that is. We all know that Wall Street is a fickle beast. One moment they love you, the next they hate you. Sometimes, they even hate you after showing real fiscal health. It’s madness.

Anyway, congratulations to you smart Apple shareholders that bought in a while ago. I envy you.

[via Digg]

Your iLife just got better

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 3:06 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software » Updates

Apple just released a slew of point-updates for iLife ‘08, promoting hard-workers iMovie, GarageBand, and iPhoto to version .1. Now they each get their own cubicles and a full supply of ball-point pens. iDVD, which didn’t do so well on its last review, only made it to .0.1 — pens, but no cubicle. iWeb must’ve pissed off the boss or something because it gets nothing at all. Not even a stapler.

Here’s the full list of updates and links to their Apple support pages*:

• iDVD 7.0.1 (20.2MB)
• iMovie 7.1 (46.1MB) — not only an update, but also has a bunch of new features, including Multiple Clip Selection, Fine Tuning, Still Frame Creation, and several more (check the site for full details)
• GarageBand 4.1 (47.0MB)
• iPhoto 7.1 (61.8MB)
• iLife Support 8.1 (10.3MB) — which also seems to be available for iLife versions prior to ‘08

Using my ninja math skillz, I calculated that to 185.4MB total in iLife updates, which is a hefty chunk of fixes and improvements. You know what they say: “You can always tell the importance of an update by how large the download is.” I’m not certain that’s entirely accurate and I don’t know who “they” is, but I am certain it has been said by someone at some point or another — and that’s good enough for me.

Check Software Update for the pointy downloads and their stereotypically-vague descriptions. Oh, and be sure to congratulate the fellas on their spiffy new titles, mkay?

(*The standalone installers on Apple’s site seem to be smaller in size than the updates via Software Update. I don’t why, or if this is normal. Anyone know?)

Finally: image editors for the graphically-impaired

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 1:30 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software

I run into too many situations where I need to mock up an image or draw a little picture — or draw a little picture in a mocked-up image — for a school project, or a website, or to help illustrate information (and thus distract from the poor writing in a post such as this). But I have a helluva time finding a good enough app for those tasks that won’t force me to sell my computer to buy it (obviously negating its benefits).

I’ve turned to simple solutions like Skitch, which is an awesome little screen shot app that lets me doodle on or annotate the images I capture (unfortunately, though, as reader nicholasser notes, it’s still an invite-only beta). I also frequently use ImageWell, which is one of the most basic crop-resize-copy-paste-draw apps I’ve found — but also one of the most efficient and easiest to use. I’ve tried ChocoFlop, which is fine but slightly convoluted, and the GIMP, which is great if you’re a pro image editor, an open-source fiend, or a masochist (or all three). Still I am unsatisfied. You either get a too expensive, too powerful, or too complicated app, or you get one that’s too simple and too basic. I’ve found no in-between.

Which is why I thank James Dempsy for penning a new series looking at “Image editors for the rest of us.” The first post examines two: Acorn, a simple one-palette program that we’ve discussed before. It’ll set you back $40 — worth it, says Dempsy, if you’re looking for a complement to iPhoto but would like to keep both kidneys.

The other app is Pixel, which isn’t as clean (“the Microsoft-Windows-like approach, with a window-inside-a-window, looks foreign on the Mac, as does the rest of Pixel’s interface”) and simple (“Pixel has obviously been developed with the advanced user in mind”) as Acorn, is apparently dog-slow, difficult to use, and will soon cost more than Dempsy thinks it’s worth.

…OK, so we’re one-for-two here, but that’s OK. Pixel is relatively powerful, and still cheaper than Photoshop, so it may be worth a look. Check out the entire post over at Macworld for more info and keep an eye on the series. There are tons of editor apps out there — one of them is bound to be right for you (and hopefully me). And yes, I will make the call: If you’ve found a cheap/free/simple image editor you’ve fell in love with, do share it in the comments. Thank you.

(Update: Dan Moren wrote earlier today about Pixelmator. I didn’t include it here because I wrote this post last night — but if Pixel isn’t your cup of tea, maybe adding “mator” will do the trick. Check out his post for more details.)

Online Apple Store gets facelift

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 10:45 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

Reader Shawn tipped us to the fact that the online Apple Store was down last night. As we all know, that doesn’t necessarily herald major product changes, but in this case, there were a couple of alterations made. For one thing, the 4GB iPhone is no longer available (rest in peace, li’l buddy). But, for another, the store itself has undergone some cosmetic changes.

The flat gray color scheme has been largely replaced with blue gradient headers; the top now features a header that’s reminiscent of the iTunes Store and the rest of Apple’s site. The sidebars for the store have been reorganized and cleaned up a bit, making it (hopefully) easier to find what you’re looking for. A couple of other sections have been added as well, including a “Staff Picks” section.

Overall, it might not be much more than a prettying-up, but as the old design was getting a bit long in the tooth, it’s nice to see it meshing more with the rest of Apple’s site design. Plus, who doesn’t like blue?

[via MacNN]

Pixelmator 1.0 released into the wild

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 9:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

An image editor here, an image editor there, everywhere an image editor. The latest addition to the arsenal of low-cost image manipulation programs is the long-awaited Pixelmator, which has finally been released this morning.

Not unlike Flying Meat’s Acorn, Pixelmator is aimed at the user who doesn’t need the full power of Photoshop, but wants something like 75% of the functionality, with a much smaller footprint. It leverages the power of Apple’s Core Image technology, and offloads the processing to the graphics card where possible. You’ll find layer-based editing, the usual assortment of painting tools, the ability to layer in iSight pictures directly from the application, iLife integration, and the full complement of filters and effects.

The interface is super shiny, with black palettes floating hither and thither, tool icons that pop out at you, and wacky filter interfaces (you’ve got to check out the panel for Kaleidoscope—triptastic). It stands very much in contrast to Acorn’s approach, with its single palette, which just goes to show you there’re always multiple ways of solving the same problem.

Pixelmator will run you $59, and it requires 10.4. Future 1.x updates will be free to users.

Shareholder getting access to Apple board minutes

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 8:38 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

Because we know that when we put together the words “back” and “dating,” you get chills. That’s why we keep covering the Apple options backdating rigmarole. It’s for the children.

The latest development? The Boston Retirement Board, an Apple shareholder, has gone to court to get permission to see the minutes from board and committee meetings for the last ten years as well as other records related to the backdating (gooooo Boston?). California Superior Court Judge Jack Komar (that charming fellow at right) is presiding over the case, and is expected to officially make the order on Friday. Once so ordered, Apple will have a week to hand over any documents, except for any that it can prove are covered by attorney-client privilege. The judge also denied the handover of documents related to Apple’s internal investigation of the backdating.

Don’t expect this to be the smoking gun, though: any documents that are handed over are subject to a protective order that forbids them from being disclosed to a third-party, which also includes other shareholders. Bummer.

The notMac Challenge may finally be won

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 7:33 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Internet

Like a man unable to say no, I keep returning to Apple’s .Mac service. Year after year, I pay a largish sum of money (discounted by buying it through Amazon) to keep an email account, an online data store, syncing, and services integrated into Apple’s applications. By and large though, the service hasn’t gotten a lot of lovin’ from Apple. It’s frustrating to watch as free services pass Apple’s paid solution by (at a really fast clip I might add).

The notMac Challenge had the goal of completely replacing Apple’s service with a bit of software that eliminates the yearly .Mac tax as it’s frequently called. Ben Spink, the developer of CrushFTP, has submitted what seems to be a complete solution.

It includes a “lite” version of his FTP server software and it currently available for download and evaluation. I personally have not tried it as I get warm fuzzies knowing that I’m using the Apple supported solution. The thread is full of people that confirm it mostly works, but it still requires some knowhow. I’m also unwilling to surrender one of my Macs as a constantly running server. If you’re desperate to avoid the tax, it’s a worth a try.

[via Ars Technica]

Sling Media gets bought up by EchoStar

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 6:27 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Video

One of the coolest video products on the market right now is Sling Media’s Slingbox. There are several variations of the product, but the overall concept is a small, self-contained box that one attaches to your TV source, box, or even DVR and your internet connection/network. You can then watch that video from your Mac, your PC, or even your smartphone (Treo, Pocket PC, or Windows Smartphone).

If you can’t already tell, I think the product is near perfection. I’m not the only one though, as EchoStar, the satellite dish TV operator, acquired Sling Media. The deal is worth $380 million. Now, it’s pretty easy to see what EchoStar gets out of the deal. They can include the technology in their boxes, or, as the more helpful suggest, they could do it in reverse, beaming TV over the net instead of using the increasingly bandwidth constrained satellite connection.

Now, this is a win for them, but it leaves many of us in the lurch. It’s not in EchoStar’s best interest to continue offering, and further developing a product that can be used with TV service offered by its competitors. This may sound like a paranoid delusion, but I’m terrified they’ll kill the product for use as anything but an optional add-on for their service. Fingers crossed people (because you know the next thing to go after supporting other services is the Mac client).

(And just to throw another log on the iPhone SDK bonfire, this is an application that can’t be done with web 2.0. We need that SDK before the iPhone will ever be a way to watch your Slingbox.)

All aboard the crazy train: OJ Simpson is a “hitman” for Steve Jobs

Posted on Sep. 26, ’07, 5:31 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

I don’t normally like to use AppleInsider as a source, but this story must be read to be believed, or more accurately, the complaint must be read to be believed. I literally fell off my chair I was laughing so hard.

South Carolina inmate Jonathan Lee Riches has filed a lawsuit against Steve Jobs for hiring OJ Simpson as a hitman. And plotting to release OJ so he can radio wave warp Riches because he owns OJ Simpson football trading cards. And pointing nuclear missiles at his brain. And betraying Riches at his trial by using water to cause XLp8-52gig software to misbehave, causing the jury to all vote guilty.

Don’t think the OJ, Jobs relationship is one way though. OJ paid Jobs to clone Dolly the sheep. And has been providing Jobs with blenders since the midwest flood of 1993. And used Riches’ credit to fund Apple.

If you think that I’d picked out all the good bits, you’d be sadly, sadly mistaken. Like I said, you have to read the original complaint. The complaint is so entertaining, I don’t even care if it’s real. For double fun look at Riches’ Wikipedia entry.

VMWare fuses 1.1 with Beta 1

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 11:29 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Windows

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with decent puns lately, especially with these guys hording most of them. I don’t even know what my titles mean anymore. Let’s run it through the Pourhadi Cryptic-Title Decoder™: “VMWare releases Fusion 1.1 Beta 1.”

Ah, cool. As you undoubtedly know, VMWare Fusion, just like Parallels, enables you to run Windows (and Linux, etc.) through virtualization on your Intel Mac. The new beta release includes a barrage of new/updated features and bug fixes, most notable of which include:

• New experimental support for DirectX 9.0 3D graphics (without shaders) to enable more Windows 3D applications and games.
• iPhone now syncs with Outlook in Windows virtual machines
• Eject key now automatically ejects the optical drive, even if the optical drive is attached to a virtual machine.
• Fixed issue where sometimes the Airport process would take up to 100% CPU utilization when VMware Fusion is installed
• Slow mouse scroll wheel scrolling performance in Unity has been fixed

…and plenty of others. Check out the Fusion beta site for full details. Remember: this isn’t an official update to the software. It’s a beta release of an upcoming official update to the software. Viz: for testing purposes.

I’m a Parallels guy myself, but Fusion is starting to pique my interest. And thankfully if I or any of you decide to make the virtual (haha pun!) shift, Macworld’s got our backs with a migration tutorial.

Peacock-a-thon: “Chuck” is in the house

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 4:08 PM PT by Jason Snell

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Remember when NBC pulled out of iTunes effective December? And then Apple said that it was going to dump NBC from the store in September? To which NBC said, “oh no you don’t”?

Cynics among us have suggested that the whole thing is just posturing, and after more negotiation over pricing, and flirting with other download options, NBC and Apple would end up finding a way to make it work.

Well, nothing’s been announced. But the last time we checked, all of NBC’s shows were still up on iTunes. What’s more, one new NBC series — the (quite good, if you ask me) comedy-action-drama series Chuck — is available on iTunes. And not just available, but available with a Season Pass option.

Is this an odd quirk? A secret indication that NBC and Apple are still talking? I’m not sure. And what are we to make of the fact that Chuck appears in the Comedy listings, but not on NBC’s own iTunes page?

UPDATE: Less than 30 minutes after this post went live, NBC’s page was updated to include links to not just Chuck, but new drama series Journeyman (with no Season Pass option), both of which premiered last night. My super-secret Macworld sources also inform me that these leaks have something to do with the studios who produce these series. (Chuck is produced by Warner Bros., and Journeyman by Fox.) However (as I’ve explained in the comments), all previous series not owned by the network that aired them have only come on air as a result of agreements between the networks and the studios. Scrubs being the trailblazer, since it went on iTunes only after NBC (its network) and Disney (its owner) agreed on how to split the profits. (Side question: will Scrubs remain on iTunes if NBC does truly pull out of the store?)

What does this mean? Probably that Warner Bros. and Fox didn’t want NBC’s spat with Apple to harm the shows they’re producing for the network. But I’m pretty certain that the studios couldn’t do this on their own: they needed NBC to agree to this approach.

So, a new question: Is this a thaw in the NBC-Apple relationship, or just a rebellion by the makers of some of NBC’s new series against Apple’s spat with the peacock? As they say in the biz, stay tuned.

Microsoft apologizes to .Mac users, asks for hug

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 1:00 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Rivals

We didn’t report on it, probably because no one seemed to care: but last week, users of Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger thingy (or The IM Service Formerly Known as MSN) who registered for accounts using .Mac addresses were told via a very rude pop-up to “Buzz off” or “get a sweet Hotmail address instead, which doesn’t make you look like sucha fanboy loser.” (It didn’t actually say that, specifically. Had something to do with a system patch or whatever. But I’m paraphrasing what I’m sure Microsoft really meant.)

Well, anyways, as the blokes at Macworld UK report, Microsoft has addressed the issue and apologized to .Mac users for the screw-up, blaming it on an “internal error” (as opposed to an “external correction”).

“Access to Live IDs has been restored to our customers who use .Mac domains. We regret any inconvenience this caused for our customers,” the company told MacNN.

According to MWUK, only .Mac users were affected, while Gmailers and other @-non-Microsoft-addresses seemed to have no trouble at all. Now I’m not one to propagate conspiracy theories or accuse others of being malicious, but Microsoft clearly hates all .Mac users and will not be satisfied until each and every one of them is rounded up, packed into a boat, and left to rot on a lifeless island somewhere where they’ll be instructed to fight to the death in a frenzied battle royal. (I also think they had something to do with this whole “moon landing” charade, not to mention getting all their software from advanced — yet apparently detail-deficient — alien technology hidden at Area 51. I mean, c’mon, if their technology is so great how could they possibly have crashed here on Earth? And this may seem like a lame pun, but do you really believe Windows’ constant “crashing” problems are mere coincidence? Yeah, right.)

Back on track: If you used .Mac addresses with the MSN/Windows Live IM service (shame on you), you are now good to go. Microsoft is sorry, and they got it all fixed up just for the two of you. But take this warning from a fellow .Mac user: watch your back.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to Exclude Chips worse than an 867MHz G4?

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 12:00 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Hardware

Apparently the latest rumor on the Internet about the soon-to-be and ever-so-anticipated OS update, Leopard, is that it will not run on anything worse than an 867MHz G4 chip, says the good peoples over at AppleInsider. We remind you that as of yet, this is an unconfirmed rumor, so don’t panic just yet.

Previously, it had been rumored that Apple had set the cutoff for 800MHz, but with this new bump (if true), it’ll exclude a handful of Macs, including the 800MHz PowerBook G4 (Titanium), 800MHz PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver), 800MHz iMac G4, 800MHz iBook G4, and 800MHz eMac.

Apple’s site doesn’t yet list system requirements, so we don’t have any official information yet, but we’ll update you as news comes in.

I guess my media server (a 400MHz G4, thankyouverymuch) will live out the rest of its days as a Tiger machine. *sighs*

Finally, some worthy competition comes down the river

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 11:05 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

We’ve seen as many online music ventures come and go in the last few years as we’ve seen wannabe popstars crooning on American Idol. While some, like Real’s Rhapsody, have managed to carve out a niche for themselves by offering services that iTunes does not, such as subscription music, there’s never been one that could take the fight to Apple.

Until today. Amazon has launched its much-anticipated online music store, and it looks to be the first major iTunes rival worth sweating over. That’s mainly because of two factors: 1) support from the major record labels and 2) DRM-free downloads. The former means that we’ll be seeing much of the same music that iTunes features—at launch, Amazon has 2 million tracks from 180,000 artists—the latter is the holy grail for online music stores, because it means full compatibility with the iPod. With Amazon selling its entire catalog as 256kbps DRM-free MP3s, most for between $0.89 to $0.99 a track, it all adds up to one healthy throwdown.

They’ve got a little something up their sleevies, too, in the form of the Amazon Downloader. You see, Amazon’s smart enough to realize that they don’t want the task of handling device syncing; there’s already a perfectly serviceable framework for that, and it’s called iTunes. All the downloader (available for Mac and Windows) does is automatically import any music you buy from Amazon into iTunes (or Windows Media Player on the PC). Simple but effective, and brilliant. It also means it’s one of the only other services that’s compatible with the Mac. I’ve already tried it out this morning, and the experience was smooth as butter. And because it’s Amazon, you can just use your existing Amazon ID; no need to give them any more information.

At the moment, iTunes still has a better selection, and—from what I’ve seen—a more easily navigable interface. But those are both things that Amazon will likely improve in time; that’s one reason they’ve branded it as a beta. Amazon’s ability to deal with the major players and offer more or less what Apple wanted, i.e. DRM-free downloads with little variation in price, means that this is the first serious competitor to iTunes. And, for once, consumers stand to gain big time. Let the battle begin.

Microsoft Office 2008 details unveiled

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 10:01 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Software

About a week ago, Derik told us about the preview site for Microsoft Office 2008. Sadly though, it was big on the style, and lesser on the substance. Fortunately our friends at Macworld have the story.

The full version will cost you four Benjamins, and the upgrade will set you back two Benjamins and four Hamiltons. Meanwhile, the “Home and Student Edition” is only a Benjamin and a Grant. (That’s $400, $240, and $150, respectively.)

Sadly, Macworld skipped over the best part, but ZDNet got it: “For the first time, Office 2008 for Mac will be offered in Nordic languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian) in addition to English, Japanese, French, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch and Spanish.”

Man, I’ve been dying for a Norwegian version of Office. After, how else was I going to type “Skål!” ?

Oh, and there is one more thing: “Microsoft’s Technology Guarantee Program that allows customers in select regions who purchase qualifying Office 2004 for Mac product(s) after today the ability to upgrade to a version of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac for US$10 plus applicable taxes.”

Update: The release date for Microsoft Office is January 15th, 2008, which of course is the first day of Macworld Expo. Global release is expected later in first quarter 2008 -DM.

Mozilla looking to plug memory leaks in Firefox

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 7:41 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Internet

Plentiful memory in modern computers hides a lot of flaws in software. Web browsers of late have gained incredible featuresets and handle terribly complex pages (who seriously thought we’d see word processors and speadsheets on the web in the Netscape 1.0 days?). However, they all seem to suffer from memory leaks. Some are worse than others. Personally, I’ve noticed Firefox does it pretty badly.

I don’t like the way it looks on my Mac, nor do I particularly like the way it performs, so I don’t notice leaks during my limited usage. However, I am forced to use Windows with some regularity and while Firefox beats the pants off Internet Explorer for a host of reasons, it does leak memory steadily over time until it negatively impacts performance and I restart the browser.

This problem (which seems much more apparent in Firefox 2.0) hasn’t gone unnoticed by the fine folks of the Mozilla community. In fact, they’ve been going memory leak crazy. That’s good news, especially for users of older Macs with older versions of the OS as Firefox does a much better job of supporting elder platforms. Those systems have far more limited RAM. Firefox 3.0 might actually run faster with fewer resources. I’m looking forward to it.

Your backups are belong to us, EMC

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 6:32 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Mozy, the data backup service, has been bought up by EMC (based here in beautiful Massachusetts, ding) for $76 million. EMC is a storage hardware seller. Their whole business is based around making hardware that companies can rely upon to keep their data and keep it safe. Mozy has been offering a Mac client to their service for some time now, and still offer 2 GB of backup storage for free.

I expect this acquisition will not only enhance the survivability of the service, but double ensure your data integrity. As long as the service continues it’s current pricing, I see this as a good thing. There’s one more Mac tie-in you need before I can end this entry though. EMC also owns VMware, which, among other things, offers Fusion, the virtualization software for Mac. It seems, almost unintentionally, EMC is steadily growing its Mac software offerings. We’re almost a virus.

Mark/Space announces Missing Sync for iPhone

Posted on Sep. 25, ’07, 5:24 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPhone

I can’t seem to stop talking about Mark/Space. Clearly their marketing department was working overtime when they made the decision to announce Missing Sync for Symbian and Missing Sync for iPhone on separate days. That’s right, they’re developing a version of their syncing software for use with the iPhone that’ll be released Q4 of this year.

I’ll admit that when I first read the headline, I scratched my head. One of the iPhone’s most compelling features for a Mac user is rock solid data synchronization that has generally escaped us with other phones and devices. While Missing Sync has been doing a good job for me, there’s something to be said for Apple supported sync. I have no experience, but I trust address book and calendar data are handled.

What then, could the Missing Sync offer? Well, they’re bringing three things to the table: SMS, call log, and notes syncing. Until I was able to sync the former two with Missing Sync for Palm 6, I didn’t realize how handy it would be to have this information in my computer and searchable. I couldn’t live without. Finally, I think notes syncing is fairly obvious. Nearly every Mac pundit noted (pun unintended) the fact that notes never made it into the computer you synced with. You can even sync with Yojimbo, which should get Gruber all riled up.

Apple spits out MacBook/MacBook Pro updates

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 9:28 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software » Updates

Can you tell I’m running out of clever titles? What does that even mean, Apple “spits out” updates? Does the company spit? I mean, I know some companies squirt, but…

Uh, anyway: Via Software Update, Apple just released (“spit out”) the 660KB “MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0.” According to the loogey-launching company:

This update enables file system journaling on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems were shipped with file system journaling turned off. Journaling is recommended on all Mac computers as a preventative measure against file corruption.

Always good to see Apple fixing problems I’ve never heard about. Especially particularly large ones like this. My MacBook Pro’s was disabled; but after running the update, Disk Utility now informs me that my disk is journaling, not only acting as a “preventative measure against file corruption,” but documenting its life, hoping to one day publish its writings as an emotional memoir detailing its traumatic and inspiring struggle under the harsh and demanding conditions of Pourhadi enslavement.

Oh, and something to keep in mind: Apple does note that installing the update will enable journaling on your Mac. So if you intentionally disabled it for whatever reason, I’d pay close attention to if this update actually changes that. (And let us know if it does.) For the full skinny on the update and how Apple recommends you go about ensuring a safe installation (which includes booting off your OS X install disk and running “Repair Disk” in Disk Utility), check out the download’s about page on Apple’s support site.

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: Ringtones, copyrights, and long articles you probably won’t read

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 3:25 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

The iTunes ringtone broohaha has been hotly debated…er, would be hotly debated, assuming anyone disagreed: Most seem to have reached the consensus that the record labels Suck and Apple has adopted a policy of acquiescence (love that word) when it comes to the whole ringtones spiel. After all, you paid for that music once already — why in the fiery pits of Redmond would you have to pay again just to use the same music in a way different way? It’s like buying the track to use it on your iPod for jogging, but having to pay again to play it on your home stereo for a party. (I’m sure someone used an analogy like that before — if so, cheers to you, whoever you are.)

Well, the so-far-peaceful pond of concurrence has been disturbed by the wake of the USS Argument, in the form of contradictory opinions on ringtone pricing, thought once to only be shared by evil corporate RIAA types and lawyer-y people. Our Supreme Beloved Overlords at The Glorious Macworld* have posted an editorial piece by MacJournals on utilizing iTunes Store tracks as ringtones — writing billions of words essentially arguing that Apple’s method of ringtone pricing is actually fair. (At least I think that’s what it says. It’s long; I skimmed.)

The iTunes Store terms of service do not and did not allow you to make free copies of purchased music. In the best case scenario, making a copy of a purchased track to use as a ringtone would be an additional use of one of your five “Apple-authorized devices” under the iTunes Store terms of service. Since the current iPhone design requires you to own the original song and a separate ringtone file in each of two places (in your iTunes library and on the iPhone), that would be four of your five allowed uses right there. You could then use the song on one more computer, but maybe not on another iPhone or iPod, without purchasing it again anyway.

Viz: You’d wind up paying more for ringtones according to the service agreement anyway. There are obviously kinks in the argument: Apple could (should) change their terms of service to be more…you know, fair. Another is The Grube’s point about having to use multiple files:

That’s just a matter of implementation, though — Apple could easily allow the iPhone’s phone app to play the same song files in your regular music library.

Similar, I’m assuming, to setting the “Start” and “End” points in a track’s Get Info settings (which you don’t have to pay to do). Just add checkboxes for ringtone start and end times, then you have no need for multiple copies of the same song.

But that’s only one of MacJournals’ arguments. They dive deeply into copyright law, who deserves to be paid for what, “fair use,” and the simple reality that sometimes things just work this way and that’s that. The article is definitely worth reading, despite its length — I did actually read…most of it — and I suggest giving it a glance if you’re interested in seeing both sides of this murky issue. There is one sentence, though, that pretty much sums up the whole ordeal:

Yes, this sucks, but it’s the law.

Gee, thanks.

(*When I first signed on to MacUser, Dan Moren told me, “Even though we’re technically owned by Macworld, the blog is not intended to be a shill for the mothership.” Despite this, I figure it never hurts to suck up a little.)

Rogue Amoeba Radioshift kicks radio into high gear

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 1:54 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

When new mediums vault into popularity, old ones often end up relegated to niche status. Radio’s a great example: in a world dominated by television and the Internet, over-the-air audio-only broadcasts can seem antiquated and quaint. But add a dash of modern technology and the rejuvenated result might rip free from its bonds and terrorize innocent village people.

Rogue Amoeba’s new Radioshift aims to do just that with radio, bringing the ease and simplicity of TiVo to radio. Taking advantage of the vast number of radio streams on the net, both for Internet-only stations as well as terrestrial broadcasts, Radioshift is a DVR for your radio-listening habit. Search for a station or program, and Radioshift lets you subscribe to it with a single click, automatically scheduling and recording in the background. There’s integration with iTunes if you want to transfer your recordings to your iPod, and a nifty map feature that lets you find results geographically. There’s built-in support for QuickTime and MP3, and Radioshift can also work with Real Player and Windows Media (via Flip4Mac), provided you install those components. Rogue Amoeba’s also working with Griffin Technology by integrating with that company’s RadioShark device.

Rogue Amoeba CEO/Lackey (and Friend of the Blog) Paul Kafasis gave Derik and I a demo of Radioshift a couple of weeks ago and we were quite enamored with it. While I’m by no means some sort of dedicated radio junky looking for my next hit, there are a handful of shows that I like to listen to, only, well, I forget when they’re on. I’ve been using a final candidate version of Radioshift for a few days now and radio best watch its back; that’s all I’m sayin’. Radioshift will run you $32, but there’s a free (somewhat limited) trial available.

Vivendi slams iTunes contract as “indecent”

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 11:45 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

And the bicker-a-thon between Universal and Apple continues apace. Jean-Bernard Levy, the CEO of Universal’s parent company, Vivendi, talked to reporters today about Universal’s future, the direction of the music industry, and their relationship with Apple.

“The split between Apple and (music) producers is indecent … Our contracts give too good a share to Apple.”

At present, UMG, the world’s largest record company, gets 0.70 euro ($0.99) out of the 0.99 euro retail price charged by iTunes, Vivendi said.

As far as I’m concerned, the labels are digging their own graves. Not immediately, perhaps, but this money-grubbing attitude isn’t doing them any favors. Nor is the lack of focus on the music. Levy went on to say that revenues from “traditional” music products like CDs would soon account for less than half of music industries, and that Universal would be focusing on “monetizing” (that’s always a watchword) the image of the artist, leveraging it into clothing and TV shows.

Universal’s contracts are now being negotiated on a monthly basis, with the company having the option to terminate the deal with 30 days notice (if Apple doesn’t continue their playbook with NBC by deciding to yank them first). Levy is also pushing for variable pricing, arguing that they should make more on a new release than on 30 year old track. If you think that means lowering the prices of the 30 year old song, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Yes, if Universal pulled out of Apple, people might go where the music is—but at the rate that the labels are going, I wonder if they’ll be where the music is much longer. Independent artists have shown themselves able to subsist without the help of record labels, and while it may not enable them to rake in the dough with the huge advances that record companies often give, you can bet that the percentage of sales on the music is higher on iTunes than the royalties paid out by the labels.

So, good luck Universal/Vivendi. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Dan’s dream girl comes to iTunes

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 8:55 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Dedicated readers of this blog know that I’ll take advantage of pretty much any excuse to write a post that lets me use the “Natalie Portman” tag. Look: we’re bound to fall madly in love at some point, so deal with it. Just as soon as she knows my name.

But today the stars have aligned and I don’t even need to stretch. The Wall Street Journal reports that director Wes Anderson will be debuting his new short film, Hotel Chevalier, tomorrow night at Apple Stores in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Santa Monica. Wednesday morning, the 13-minute film will be distributed free on iTunes.

Hotel Chevalier is effectively a prequel to Anderson’s forthcoming feature, The Darjeeling Limited (here’s the trailer for that on Apple’s site). While you’ll be able to watch Darjeeling without seeing Chevalier, the short does flesh out the backstory of one of the main characters from the longer film.

And as much as I hate to fuel the prurient interests in my beloved dream girl, the fact that Hotel Chevalier features Portman, in the words of the esteemed Journal, “in an extended nude scene,” will probably guarantee a fair amount of the downloading.

That’s all to the good, of course, but what’s really of interest here is the shift this marks in terms of film distribution. Anderson financed the short himself, which means there’s no studio involvement in Chevalier at all. Could iTunes become an alternative distribution market? Might the traditional studio system be under attack from online media? Could this change eve—you totally didn’t hear a thing I said after “nude scene,” did you?

[via Daring Fireball]

Starbucks and iTunes make so-so music together

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 8:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

Like free music? Half-caf no foam vente soy lattés? Man, does Starbucks have your number. Starting on October 2nd, you’ll be able to pick up a card good for one free song at iTunes during your morning trip to any of 10,000 participating Starbucks. Coinciding with the debut of the Starbucks-related features of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, the coffee company plans to distribute 50 million free songs between next Tuesday and November 7th.

But free music is perhaps just as suspect as the mythical free lunch. For there is a catch: you don’t get to choose what song you get free. The tracks will be selected by Starbucks from their Hear Music label, with a different track available every day as a “Song of the Day.” The first track is “Joker Man” by Bob Dylan, with subsequent music coming from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, the Blackberry-lovin’ John Mayer, and Dakota, the barista who just made your double espresso.

I’m not sure that a free track of Starbucks’s choice is enough to lure me into departing from my favorite indie cafe, but I will at least be making a trip at some point to check out the Starbucks-related features of the iTunes Wi-Fi Store once it launches. And I can see why they wouldn’t let you just download the song of your choosing: how fair would it be if you downloaded a song, then just went to the Starbucks across the street for another card?

Waste time figuring out how the new 43 Folders can save you more time

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 7:43 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Tips

Friend ‘o the blog, Mr. Merlin Mann, has revamped his productivity website 43 Folders. It’s now running the powerful, yet painful to configure, Drupal CMS (content management system). This means among other things, that a single logon for the site is used for all areas of the site.

If you’re not familiar with the Mann and his website, he helps people get things done using a system called, surprisingly enough, Getting Things Done. While many of his tricks and tips will work for anybody (like the Hipster PDA), Merlin is a huge Mac advocate and if there’s any platform specific content to his postings, it’s generally Mac specific. In fact, if you’re a Quicksilver fan, 43 Folders should be a daily haunt for you to find new tips and news.

Anyway, the redesign of his site is, quite simply put, brilliant and worth checking out.

Where are the Mac user World of Warcraft guilds at?

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 6:32 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Games

I’ll admit it. I’ve been steadily playing World of Warcraft for a while now. I started with a night elf druid, but I had so little idea what I was doing that I kept dying over and over. I got the Burning Crusade expansion pack, promptly created a blood elf hunter and I haven’t looked back. Now that I’m finally approaching end game, I’m thinking about creating a new character, but I want it to be in a guild associated with my other addiction interest, Macs.

I fired up Google and started searching for Mac guilds. Considering the number of servers and players, I thought there’d be a number of them, but I’ve found but one. Shout out to the Reservoir Dogcows. It looks like a healthy guild, but here’s the thing. I like the Horde better than the Alliance. I’ve given up on the idea of finding a Horde Mac user guild on my home server (Nordrassil).

That said, it’s something I’d still like to join. Do any of my well informed readers know of such a guild? If not, is anyone interested in starting one up?

Macworld Expo registration is open

Posted on Sep. 24, ’07, 5:20 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Events

The Macworld Expo is the biggest Mac event of any year. It’s amazing to be in a place with so many like-minded individuals. It’s also when you can count on Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, to give a keynote (I hope I haven’t jinxed it). Since my visit to the expo last year, I’ve been anticipating the upcoming expo. If it’s been on your mind as well, I have some good news. Macworld Expo registration is now open.

There are many packages available, from the $1695 Platinum Pass to the $25 Exhibits Only pass. Keep in mind though, if you want to experience the religious experience of seeing Steve preach in person, the only way to get guaranteed entry is to get the Platinum Pass, or settle for the slightly less expensive ($1495) Super Pass. MacIT, Users, Power Tools, Market Symposiums, and Hands-on MacLabs attendees can attend, but it’s first come first serve. Now, imagine a nation converging on a single spot, badges in hand, wanting to see a legend.

All that’s left to imagine are the series of caged surrounded rings for attendees to fight over chairs in. Two attendees enter, one leaves. Second rule of Macworld Expo, you don’t talk about Macworld Expo. Got it?

Anyway, that aside, the exhibit halls themselves are worth seeing by themselves. I hope I get to see you down there.

Woot drops Zune price $20, offers $10 credit

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 4:57 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Humor

Woot is a website that every day takes one product and sells it at an incredibly low price. Today’s gem? A 30GB Zune for $130 (it’s sold out — probably Microsoft’s biggest sales day ever). Well last month Woot also offered a cheapo Zune (repetitive?), but then for $150, $20 more than today’s price.

That’s more than a 13% decrease in one month. As you can probably imagine, customers of the original deal aren’t pleased. From “An Emergency Open Letter” to Woot customers on the company’s website (worth reading), Woot’s Larry Stalin claims to have received more than three emails complaining about the price drop, and offers some “observations and conclusions”:

First, I need to make a better effort to hide my email address…. Second, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 30GB Zune from $149.99 to $129.99. This confidence is based on more than the holy doctrine of corporate infallibility…the Zune is a breakthrough product…. Third, being in technology for 1+ years, give or take a year, I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always some idiot changing lanes without signaling, and the potholes never seem to get fixed…. Third-and-a-half, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of the Zune, and even though the technology road is, like, this total Deathrace 2000-type scene, we need to do a better job taking care of our early Zune customers.

So how does Woot plan to remedy this highly publicized blunder?

…We have decided to offer every Woot customer who purchased a Zune from us on August 22, 2007 (or in the last Woot-Off) a $10 Woot credit towards any Woot order of $40 or more.

While they aren’t giving their customers the $20 they fully and rightly deserve even though they made a conscious decision to purchase the product at the time and obviously could’ve expected price cuts in the future, it’s good to see companies strive to make the customer happy, even when the customer is being a childish cry-baby.

But if Woot wants to make its customers happy, why oh why would it be selling Zunes?

It benefits both Woot and every Zune user (but especially Woot) to drag as many new victims as possible into the Zune “dungeon”. We strongly believe that misery loves company this holiday season.

Oh. How thoughtful.

Former Ramones member suing Apple? I wanna be sedated.

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 2:09 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

Another day, another lawsuit against Apple. This time it’s punk rocker Richard Reinhardt (alias Richie Ramone) of The Ramones who’s turned to legal means to settle an outstanding issue. Reinhardt (seen here at his punkest) is alleging that he never authorized the sale of six songs that he wrote for the band: “Smash You,” “Somebody Put Something in My Drink,” “Human Kind,” “I’m Not Jesus,” “I Know Better Now” and “(You) Can’t Say Something Nice” and that he’s owed over $900,000 in royalties. Among the defendants named in the suit are Apple, Real Networks, Wal-Mart, the Ramones’ management, and the estate of the late Johnny Ramone (aka John Cummings). Oh, punk rock: why must you be so contentious? So edgy?

Reinhardt is hardly alone. Rapper Eminem recently launched a suit along similar lines. It must be in the in thing to sue Apple over music downloads. I may just sue them myself. I just need to write some music first.

Never mind, nobody wants that pain.

[via Playlist]

I went to the Apple Campus and all I got was this bombass t-shirt

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 1:00 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

I’m feeling a bit fanboyish today, a fact I’ll blame entirely on this spiffy red Apple shirt that I picked up this week. While I was out in California visiting friends and family, I undertook that holy pilgrimage that every Mac fan should make at least once in their life, and drove down to Cupertino, to pay homage to Steve Jobs himself.

As it turns out, polite burly men at the door informed me that Mr. Jobs was quite busy in some other country. Europia, I think they said. But the trip wasn’t a total loss, since I was deposited gently but firmly in the blinding beacon of the campus’s retail store.

In case you haven’t ventured forth into the Loop, let me explain: while the campus’s retail store is basically an Apple Store (you can buy Macs, iPods, iPhones, etc), it also happens to be the only Apple Store at which you can buy Apple-branded paraphernalia. Want a Swiss Army knife with an Apple logo, or an Apple mug? Looking to pick up some Apple apparel, including—I swear on OS 9’s coffin—an apparently unironic Apple-logoed black mock turtleneck? You’re out of luck if you don’t visit Cupertino.

As I perused the aisles of “Hello, I’m a Mac” t-shirts, Apple-branded onesies, and hipster hoodies, I found myself wondering why, in the name of all that is Jonathan Ive, does Apple not sell their schwag at every Apple Store? They’d make a bundle from the fanboys, no problem, and for holiday gift-giving, who could resist the lure of Apple-logoed space pens and keychains? They scream stocking stuffer.

But perhaps that’s just the point. Apple’s image is founded upon the idea of being swank and elite, and perhaps they feel that a t-shirted cadre of fans might cheapen that. It’s hard to argue that Apple doesn’t know marketing, but it’s important to note they pride themselves on their products above all; they’re perfectly happy to let Macs and iPods—and their users—do the talking (there’s no better example than the ads for the iPhone, which simply showed the product in action). As a result, the apparel itself becomes a sign of cachet, a “Hey, where did you get that?” secret handshake conversation-starter between geeks. And it’s not as though Apple really needs the money from merchandise sales.

Either way, I ended up buying four shirts for other people and one for myself, dropping a decent $80. I’d suspect I’m pretty much par for the course for Mac fans, so maybe they’re getting the best of both worlds. And the shirt has already filled its most important purpose: giving me one more day before I have to do my laundry. Thanks, Apple.

Puttin’ the “DRM” in “drama”, day 228: Bronfy shows his softer side

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 10:46 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

When Steve Jobs unveiled DRM-free downloads on the iTunes Store back in May, he boldly claimed that, by the end of the year, half of the music on iTunes would be available in DRM-free formats. We’re still a long way from the end of the year, it’s true, but we’ve yet to see another label sign on. Sure, Universal is trying its hand at DRM-free downloads, but not on iTunes. And the other major labels, Sony and Warner, seem to be holding out.

But soft, what’s this? A crack in the facade of notable DRM-lover Warner CEO Edgar “Bronfy” Bronfman, Jr?

“DRM is here to stay, whether it’s here to stay on every business model in the music business is open to question,” [Bronfman] said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference.

There’s still three months and change left in the year for Steve Jobs’s oracular statements to come true. But in order for that to happen, at least one major label is going to have to crack. Or Universal will have to bring its DRM-free tracks to the iTunes Store. Or, and here’s a crazy thought, Apple’s going to have to start working with the indie labels who have been pushing for DRM-free music. Chop chop!

Forbes rates Jobs 56th top billionaire, gets into shouting match with Fortune

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 10:13 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Steve Jobs

We get it, Forbes. You like making lists. Perhaps even checking them twice (you filthy, filthy people). But didn’t we just have a list of the world’s billionaires back in March? Ohhh, that was Fortune, who ranked Jobs at 132nd. Well, surely Forbes can’t have come out that different.

#56 Steven Jobs
Net Worth: $5.7 billion
Hailed as “igod” on magazine cover for advent of iPhone—slickest, most-hyped gadget ever. Black-clad digi-god suddenly a Dark Angel falling to earth. His creation sells a million units in 10 weeks at $600; instant $200 price cut riles disciples. Gets Tinseltown takedown when he tries to muscle Hollywood as he did music biz; NBC Universal pulls shows from iTunes. Result: iFlop for Apple TV. Specter of options backdating still hangs; SEC stops at CFO, new ex-pal Fred Anderson—who blames Jobs. New novel by “FakeSteve” (a FORBES writer) depicts him as narcissistic jerk. Options due in October. Adopted by working-class couple, drops out of Reed College, founds Apple in proverbial garage. Fired 1985. Best revenge: One year later he buys Pixar graphics startup from Star Wars creator George Lucas (see) for $10 million. Sells it to Disney 20 years later for $7.4 billion—with a “B”—thanks to heavenly hit list (Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles). In interim had second coming at Apple 1996. Now Mickey’s largest individual holder, 6.7% stake worth $4.6 billion—6 times more than the value of his 0.6% bite of Apple. Never mind the setbacks. Still coolest tech superstar ever.

Despite his connections within Forbes, Fake Steve did not make the list of billionaires. He was last seen muttering “frigtard” and wandering around in downtown Cupertino, looking for a handout.

[via The Mac Observer]

OWC unveils more ways to get 802.11n

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 7:47 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

If there’s one thing about Apple I find more frustrating than anything else, it’s that they never seem to have a plan for delivering the next generation of wireless to the existing computer lines. My Pismo was stranded at 802.11b. My windtunnel G4 was stranded there as well. My 12” Powerbook is stuck at 802.11g. Each has discrete wireless cards that could be replaced. I understand that Apple uses the various generations of wireless to help differentiate new models, but as someone still holding out for 12” MacBook Pro, they’re not giving me an upgrade option.

In the past, we’ve informed you of nQuicky solutions, but they’ve been rather expensive. OWC is now offering a complete line of 802.11n solutions, all of which are priced at $67.99. Quite a bargain. They offer PCI, Cardbus, and USB cards. That covers most anything you might own. However, they’re still not Apple form factor, meaning I’d have to sport an ugly protrusion sticking off the side of my Powerbook.

Despite OWC, I think it’s time that Apple makes their Airport card slots a bit more forward compatible.

Mossberg, not a fan of Touch(ing)

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 6:36 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPod

Cyrus already linked the WSJ review of the iPod Touch but only in reference of the screen problem. However, I think his review is pretty fair and harsh on the device where he should be.

But it seems ridiculous to me to sell a powerful device with Wi-Fi and a huge screen, and to leave out things like an email program, even though you can use Web-based email programs. I assume Apple was concerned that the less costly Touch might compete too much with the iPhone if it had these features. In fact, if somebody can jam a voice-over-Internet capability into the iPod Touch, it might be more of a threat to the iPhone, which is tethered to a single cellphone carrier, AT&T.

I had the same reaction and so have countless others. Rather than let the iPhone and iPod Touch separate themselves on the real differences: the phone, the camera, and storage space, Apple has gone out of its way to disable or remove a large part of the functionality present in the iPhone.

Apple says the Touch was meant mainly to present typical iPod features, not to replicate the iPhone, and it included the Web browser only so users could get onto Wi-Fi to use the mobile music store in certain places that required a log-in screen.

So basically, Apple has spent software development resources removing features and tweaking others to remove functionality just because it’s supposed to “present typical iPod features”. Further, the browser was included just so more iTunes Store sales could be made. Lame. On the other hand, it is the best iPod for watching video yet (save that whole limited space thing).

Sync that Symbian

Posted on Sep. 21, ’07, 5:25 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Perhaps I’m rationalizing my lack of iPhone, but since it’s release, I’ve actually become more interested in Apple’s competition in the smartphone market. There’s the Treo (my current champion), Blackberry, Windows Mobile (shiver), and Symbian. Mark/Space software has been steadily adding to its sync software offerings to take care of the first three options. They’ve completed the list with Missing Sync for Symbian.

Symbian is the Linux based (please consider this an exhaustion fueled dream that was never real) OS that’s commonly used on cell phones, including models from Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and many, many Nokias. While announced, the software hasn’t been released yet. It’s promised for Q1 of 2008. All the familiar sync data you’re looking for is there, such as address book, calendar, photo, video, and music.

None of the current Symbian offerings really grab me, but I’m not so naive as to believe that someday they might. Back in the early days of iSync, that Sony Ericsson T68i looked pretty sweet. Personally, I’m glad someone will be supporting sync to these other platforms, even if Apple’s priority is only on their own.

The Fading Oxymoron: EA games available

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 4:41 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Games

Apple would like you to know: Yes, you can play games on the Mac, and here’s proof: EA titles are available. Some games have been around for a while now (my brother’s been playing C&C3 for a few weeks), and the news of EA working to bring its popular titles over to the Mac certainly isn’t new. But Apple thought today it was important to put a nice graphic on the their homepage about the dopamine-boosting time-wasters — and if it’s news for Apple, then gosh-darnit that’s good enough for me.

Apple lists six games on their “EA Buying Guide” — Madden NFL 08, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Need for Speed Carbon, and Battlefield 2142 (can you tell I’m bored?). NFL 08 and PGA TOUR 08 are only available for preorder* at the moment — probably because all the Mac nerds at EA who don’t actually play any sports saved them for last — and are expected to ship in “3-4 weeks.” The rest are good to go. Which is probably great news for Mac parents everywhere: whereas PC parents could rely on their Windows computers to keep their kids occupied with mind-numbing video games all day long, Mac parents had to statistically spend more time with their children. Thank goodness for EA, huh?

*Do you notice how iTunes uses “pre-order” (with the dash) and the Apple Store just uses “preorder”? What’s up with that? Someone must’ve missed the consistency meeting.

Slow News Day: On Comment Calling

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 3:11 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | MacUser

Kind of a slow news day here in the Mac realm, so I thought I’d ramble on about something non-Mac-related.

You might have noticed, as I have (remember, I am fairly new here), that after some of our opinion-laden posts, we call for comments from you, the reader, to either agree or disagree (preferably agree) with what we’ve written. Sometimes we ask for comments on technical posts, looking for better solutions, or people who have had similar problems. Sometimes we’re seeking info, and sometimes we (or, erm, I) just do it to make the post look longer. But comments have a purpose, and we do the calling for a reason.

(See more after the jump.)

Apple acknowledges iPod touch video glitch

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 12:00 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | iPod

The Wall Street Journal is the first to report that Apple is confirming a glitch in the iPod touch, which appears to be displaying overly dark video.

WSJ’s Walt Mossberg: Also, some early iPod Touch units have had defective screens, where images appeared too dark. Apple says this problem affected a small number of units and is being remedied. My two test units displayed beautiful images.

However, Macworld’s own Chris Breen has had these exact problems:

The other iPod touch was far worse. Dark portions of video were extremely dark, with lighter areas completely blown out as if someone had cranked the contrast too high, [as shown above.] Regrettably, the iPod touch has no contrast control, just brightness, so there’s no fix for this problem other than returning it to Apple in the hope of getting one without the problem. We’re not the only ones affected by this issue. Others have reported similar problems with their iPod touches.

SEC to subpoena Steve Jobs

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 11:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Legal

You really didn’t think that whole backdating scandal had gone away, did you?

Oh no, we’re just getting started.
Reuters:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed Jobs for its case against former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen, who was sued on April 24 for backdating option grants to Jobs and other executives, according to the Bloomberg report.

Apple officials and a lawyer for Jobs could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to a document filed in a California court on Aug. 31, Heinen is seeking 45 depositions for the case while the SEC is looking to limit the number to 12 per party.

iTunes Tip: Find all tracks with (and without) artwork

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iTunes

iTunes is a robust piece of ones and zeros. Lots of spiffy features and handy settings. Plus the obligatory eye-candy like Cover Flow, which, while purdy and even sometimes useful, isn’t the most effective means of visualizing your boy-band-riddled pirated music collection. Not because it isn’t easy to use — but because it becomes rather useless when you have a bunch of albums that don’t actually have album art. Related to that little quibble, here’s an interesting question brought up by Cyrus’ friend, Aaron Azlant:

I have a lot of random mixtapes and things without covers, but I think that all of the blank entries are kind of unsightly. Is there a way to get Cover Flow to only display covers that it has art for?

Sounds simple enough, right? Well…no. No it’s not.

My first thought: Smart Playlists. Then just browse Cover Flow in that playlist. But nope. No “Album Artwork” option there. In fact, there is no way in iTunes to sort, filter, or identify songs that have (or do not have) album artwork without going through each individual track manually. And what a pain in the at-symbol-dollar-sign-dollar-sign that would be.

Fortunately, I can become incredibly determined (my clueless therapist calls it “obsessive”), and so I spent several hours looking eagerly for The Perfect Solution. I didn’t find it, of course, but I found one that’s pretty darn good: After a few Google searches, I came across Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes. There I found a script called “Tracks Without Artwork to Playlist.” Don’t let the vague, wacky name throw you — all it does is look at your iTunes Library (or whatever songs/playlists you have selected), identifies each track that doesn’t have cover art, and adds it to a new playlist called “No Art.”

Excellent…except for the fact that it does exactly the opposite of what I was looking for. So I did what any obsessive friendless nerd would do: I opened up Script Editor and re-wrote it. About a dozen errors and an hour later (I’m an AppleScript n00b), “Tracks With Artwork to Playlist” (download link, .dmg, 92kb) was born. And yes, unlike Doug’s abstractly-named original script, mine does exactly what the title suggests: searches the playlist of your choice (including your main music library), identifies all the tracks with cover art, and adds them to a new playlist called “With Art.” Run the script and watch the magic happen. Then simply view Cover Flow in that playlist and say goodbye to the unsightliness that is Generic Music Note.

There are some caveats, of course: You have to run the script every time you want the playlist to be updated with new music. And, as Doug notes in the original Read Me, if you try to use it on too many tracks at once, it could take a really, really, really long time. Or, uh, crash the script. Check out the Read Me included in the download for more information.

Have any of you run into this kind of situation? Have you come up with your own solution? Any questions about this AppleScript? Let us know in the comments!

Microsoft loses its EU appeal, Apple could face trouble

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 10:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Legal

We know we’re a little late to the party on this one, but Microsoft just got nailed by EU regulators earlier this week when the Blue and Gold Stars decided that Redmond needed to pony up over $1 billion in fines for violating the EU’s antitrust laws.
Fortune magazine:

The roots of Microsoft’s troubles in Europe date to 1998, when regulators began looking into the company’s monopoly in operating system software and its practice of bundling new products into Windows, which runs more than 90 percent of the world’s computers.

In 2004 - three years after Microsoft settled an antitrust case with U.S. regulators over the same bundling tactics - the European Commission fined the company a record 497 million euros (about $690 million). The commission found that Microsoft unfairly used Windows to lock out competition in the market for media player software and workgroup servers.

Last year the commission ordered Microsoft to pay another 280.5 million euros (about $390 million) for not complying with its earlier ruling.

So what does that mean for Cupertino? Well, it appears that EU regulators may have their sights set on Jobs & Co. for their rather uncompetitive behavior when it comes to iTunes. As you may recall, the EU is nary too happy with the bundling of iTunes and the iPod.

As ZDNet puts it:

What the [EU] Commission lawyers really want to get tangled up in the the iPod/iTunes ecosystem that Apple has created. Just in the same way that the Commission objected to how Microsoft forced Windows Media Player onto Windows users, Apple has done exact;y the same with iTunes. In much the same way that the bundling of WMP froze out competition, forcing iPod users to go with iTunes does pretty much the same. Just as the Commission forced Microsoft to carve off WMP from Windows (going as far as to make Microsoft offer media player free version of Windows (a product which both consumers and OEMs alike have enthusiastically ignored), it’s very likely that the iPod/iTunes ecosystem will be broken up.

Looks like Apple’s legal department will have a fun winter ahead.

Peacock-a-thon: NBC getting promiscuous

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 9:30 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Oh my gawd. So like, did you hear what NBC Universal did to Apple? It’s totally trying to make Apple like totally jealous, you know? After they broke up, like, what? Last month or whatever? When everyone was being all “ohhh my gawd they’re fighting again blah blah.” Well anyway NBC was all like “Apple you don’t deserve me” and Apple’s like “psh woman I got other media distributors for my store” and they were spreading these rumors about each other and then NBC started bragging about some fling named Hulu, a cheap Hawaiian floozy or something. So Apple’s all like trying to play the victim and tells NBC that they’re done…like done done, you know? So then they’re like officially “broken up” and NBC moves out and everything. Well see NBC gets all pissed ‘cuz most of its stuff is still at Apple’s place and NBC wants to keep it there in storage until it can, like, find somewhere to move in December or something, but Apple wants to just throw it all out. So like as payback I guess NBC, which is a vindictive little brat, went on a date with Amazon to — you’ll never guess this one — the restaurant where Apple buses tables, and the company had to, like, actually clean up after them and stuff. And now, gawd, now the gossip papers are talking about media-whore NBC and its new flavor-of-the-week boy-toy “NBC Direct” (jeez, love yourself much?). Everybody knows NBC is just using Direct to make Apple jealous, but the service is so whipped and dense it doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. It doesn’t even work on Macs, which is like Apple’s big thing, you know? And NBC’s being all smug about it like it’s hot stuff. What-ever.

Gawd it feels like we’re in high school again with all this drama and crap. NBC is sleeping with anyone with a broadband connection, obviously just looking for attention, and Apple’s being all indifferent about it like it’ll just fix itself. You know they still love each other and wanna go out again but they’re so…like…ugh. And all of us get caught in the middle of their pathetic whiny little games. It’s like the whole Universal family is screwy in the head. They should all just grow the hell up. Srsly.

(Trust me: that was as painful for me as it was for you.)

Samsung wants to go steady with Apple

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 7:03 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Stores

Samsung has decided to gussy up a couple of its printers. The ML1630 and SCX-4500 are real purdy. The former is a compact monochrome laser that will retail for $199 while the latter is a multifunction (pictured on the right) that will retail for $299. But why do we care, other than having an appreciation for a nice form?

We care because Samsung has decided to sell them exclusively through the Apple Store (online and retail). Maybe I don’t get out enough, but I haven’t heard of any other printers that were sold exclusively through Apple stores. This deal isn’t forever though. By the time 2008 rolls around they’ll be sold all over the place, so if you want the prestige of owning something available only in the plain white stores, you’ll have to pick one up quick.

[via Gizmodo]

USB 3.0 is gonna be 4 Gbps big, wireless USB 1.1 on the way, and Firewire aint dead

Posted on Sep. 20, ’07, 5:55 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

The ubiquitous USB marches on. The current “480 Mbps” wireless USB doesn’t achieve speeds anywhere near the quoted spec. That’s why although 1 Gbps wireless USB 1.1 will probably achieve nowhere near that spec either. However, considering how poorly Bluetooth has turned out for most computer peripherals (save headsets), I’m hoping the new wireless USB delivers on the promise rather than force companies to use their own RF to get decent mouse response.

On the corded front (and wonder be, we don’t yet have some idiot analyst proclaiming corded USB dead yet), USB 3.0 will have speeds in the ball park of 5 Gbps, be backward compatible (yay!), and use optical cable technology. That all sounds good for the most part, but the optical cable aspect troubles me a bit. That would make the cables rather sensitive to bending, perhaps snapping under duress.

Meanwhile, Firewire hasn’t completely stagnated. The next version should support at least 3.2 Gbps and proposals for 10 Gbps are in the works. That be fast mateys (ok, a day late). Firewire has been far better about achieving and maintaining its spec speeds, meaning that we’ll have to wait and see testing before we know which one will be best for data transfer.

[via Digital World]

Under the gavel: the Danes are fit to Burst

Posted on Sep. 19, ’07, 12:15 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

Oh ho, it’s another edition of Under the Gavel for your legislative perusing enjoyment. We know how much you like to be kept abreast of the latest developments in Apple’s wonderful world of law, so grab your gavel and join us in the public gallery for the trial of the century.

That might be overstating it a bit. And frankly, if Apple gets their way, there won’t even be a trial. The company filed a motion for dismissal in the lawsuit leveled against them by Burst.com, who has accused Apple of violating several patents with the iTunes Music Store, iTunes, iPod, and QuickTime Streaming Server (quick, guess which one is the odd man out). Earlier this year, Apple asked a judge to dismiss four of Burst.com’s patents, resulting in the aforementioned countersuit. In a statement, Apple’s lawyer, Matthew Powers said “It’s not some epiphanous, oh my God, when you put all these things together you have an iPod.” Really? Huh. Frankly, I’m disappointed: I’d imagined this holy light shining all around Jonathan Ive as he held the iPod over his head like Moses coming down from on high. Oh well.

If that’s not enough legality for you, we’ve got more news breaking from our very favorite European country, Denmark—home of Legos, melancholy princes, and dinosaurs. Well, two out of three anyway. When last we left the home of acclaimed physicist Niels Bohr, they were accusing Apple of a design flaw in certain models of the iBook G4. In a crazy move that will be sure to keep legal minds a’guessin’, Apple has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to refund the customer’s money. Don’t get too hopeful: there’s a class action suit under way in California for similar reasons, and Apple’s asked to have that sent packing. More Danish consumers are coming forward, so if you happen to be in the vicinity and have a naughty iBook G4, you should see if you can get a few krone back.

That’s it for this edition of Under the Gavel. Until next time: we’ll see you in court!

Update: Looks like the fat lady has yet to sing. Says Apple, “Apple disagrees with the DCCB’s findings based on our own investigation, and has a strong track record for customer satisfaction.” Despite said disagreement, Apple agreed to refund the customer’s money anyway. Link to the updated story is above.

Apple makes new iPod owners repay for games

Posted on Sep. 19, ’07, 11:15 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Games

As much as we love Apple, it doesn’t mean we can’t occasionally chide them for lapses in judgment. Take, for example, the case of new iPod games. When the classic and nano appeared, we discovered that they were incompatible with the exciting titles that Apple offers for download via iTunes. Fans of The Sims Bowling (all three of them) rent their garments and beat their breasts while crying their lamentations.

Now, Apple’s remedied that unfortunate situation by rereleasing three of the games—Tetris, Ms. Pac-Man, and Sudoku—in updated versions that are compatible with the new hardware. They’re even compatible with the iPod video, and cost the same $4.99. So far, so good.

But, if you happen to already have owned one of those games for a previous iPod, you’ll find yourself paying another $5 for the privilege of Click Wheeling along on your new classic or nano. Boo, Apple. Boooooo. It’s not our fault that you didn’t plan ahead well enough. Help a Tetris-addicted brother out. That’s $5 I could use for something far more productive. Like parking, or the crank (hey, kids, don’t do crank, ‘kay?). Show us a little love, guys. Thanks.

[via Infinite Loop]

Mozilla lets Thunderbird fly in its own company

Posted on Sep. 19, ’07, 7:49 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

I previously informed you that Mozilla was looking to free itself of Thunderbird. They’ve finally done it. It’s been spun off as its own for profit company.

The result is that Mozilla is launching a new effort to improve email and internet communications. We will increase our investment and focus on our current email client — Thunderbird — and on innovations in the email and communications areas. We are doing so by creating a new organization with this as its sole focus and committing resources to this organization. The new organization doesn’t have a name yet, so I’ll call it MailCo here. MailCo will be part of the Mozilla Foundation and will serve the public benefit mission of the Mozilla Foundation. (Technically, it will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, just like the Mozilla Corporation.)

Ah, so MailCo is the dumping ground for what has, as yet, been an unprofitable program. While their choice of David Ascher is a smart one, I’m still not sure why splitting off a new company will suddenly bestow the ability to derive profit onto Thunderbird. I’m more concerned about the long term survivability of this new company.

Mozilla will provide an initial $3 million dollars in seed funding to launch MailCo. This is expected to be spent mostly on building a small team of people who are passionate about email and Internet communications. As MailCo develops it and the Mozilla Foundation will evaluate what’s the best model for long-term sustainability. Mozilla may well invest additional funds; we also hope that there are other paths for sustainability.

That part just sends a message straight to my brain that says “they’re setting the company up for failure”. Given enough time, it seems very likely they’ll run out of the seed money, at which point, Mozilla can throw up their hands in resignation without looking like the bad guy. I hate to seem so negative, but this behavior just seems out of place for a company looking to sustain an existing product.

Microsoft Office 2008 preview site launched

Posted on Sep. 19, ’07, 6:32 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

More than a couple of us may have migrated to iWork ‘08, but Microsoft is redoubling its marketing efforts. The company has launched a very pretty preview site. Even if you’re not planning on buying the updated version of the software, it’s worth taking a look to see what direction they’re taking the apps.

I noticed from a quick look (because it’s taking far too long to load the site for anything but a quick look) that Word actually uses a native Cocoa toolbar. In fact, there are a lot of sweeping changes. I’ll admit that part of the reason I stuck with Office v.X for so long was that Office 2004 had very little in the way of new features (though purchasers of the new version seem really in love with those couple of features). 2008 may finally deliver new interface changes that actually put it back in the running for great Mac apps.

MacBook hack saga resurfaces, Mac community groans

Posted on Sep. 19, ’07, 5:19 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Security

Perhaps motivated by winning an award for most hyped hack, David Maynor has finally revealed details of the MacBook hack that dragged on and on as Mac fans wanted proof and information about the hack while Maynor and Ellch stonewalled. The situation got worse as Mac advocates demanded more strongly that the duo put up or shut up, while they responded with “you guys are a bunch of know-nothing jerks”. The act got old real quick. Eventually, Ellch accused Apple of employing lawyers in a black helicopter.

Since then, we thought the whole thing died out until Maynor promised the source code back in February, only not to deliver. He’s finally given the details. I read through the article, which doesn’t skimp on the detail (a refreshing change of pace). I’ve read through it and all it all seems kosher, but without the equipment and time to reproduce it, I can’t very well verify. Luckily, Glenn Fleishman has some colleagues that have volunteered to do so.

The entire exploit seems to have been based on the lack of bounds checking in the part of a wireless access points response about available speeds. While this may settle whether the hack was real (unless you want to be really paranoid and conclude that the release of this article was delayed because Maynor spent all this time finding a real exploit), it still doesn’t explain the bizarre behavior or even speak to whether Maynor/Ellch or Apple’s Lynn Fox was telling the truth about disclosure.

Maynor says the delay was due to an NDA with an undisclosed company and that a third party card was used in the video because he was told (by undisclosed people) that it would be less offensive. Uh huh.

Further, the wireless driver source code Maynor uses for comparison (because it’s so similar to Apple’s) already had a range check that wasn’t present in Apple’s binary. That check would have defeated the exploit, meaning Apple’s patch could have independently fixed the issue without any input from the duo. There, clear as mud.

[via Macworld]

Best Buy’s Apple stores to surge by year’s end

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 6:00 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Stores

In a conference call to investors today, Best Buy said that they would expand the current number of in-store Apple stores from 200 to 270 by year’s end. Now I can’t say that I’ve ever explored an Apple store in a Best Buy, but apparently the people have spoken: they likey.

The best part for Apple, is that according to Bloomberg’s account:

Unlike other computer retailers that reported softening sales from July to August, Best Buy did not see a significant shift in its sales patterns during that period, executives said.

In other words, all those PC vendors really need to get their act together.

If you’ve shopped at an Apple Store in a Best Buy, leave us a comment, m’kay?

Teh tpyos arnt Apple”s fult

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 3:51 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

I wrote a little earlier today about my struggle with a Motion City Soundtrack album pre-order from the iTunes Store. Browsing through that band’s profile page, I noticed a few things that seemed a little…off.

See if you can spot them (look closely!):

Screenwriting with TextMate

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 2:00 PM PT by Pat Nakajima

Category | Software

Here on MacUser, everybody writes. Most of it is in blog format, which is pretty easy: write until you’re bored/your point has been proven. Some of us are students, which requires writing in MLA format. In this case, Microsoft Word tends to be the best option (maybe Pages, if you’re hip). For as little as it has to do with the quality of a particular piece, formatting tends to exert a rather large influence on writers, which is why we strive to seek the best tools for the job. Dan explored a bevy of options last March, including a tool called Final Draft, which is the de facto standard of screenwriters everywhere.

Screenwriting is a format with strict specifications. Final Draft takes care of formatting for you, making it great for serious screenwriters. It’s been highly recommended to me by several people who would know. Still, I like every word I type to be in a TextMate window, so I really couldn’t rally around the thought of using Final Draft. I toyed with the thought of writing a Ruby script to convert some custom markup language into script format. Fortunately, somebody had already been faced with my dilemma, and had already conquered it.

Meet the screenwriting bundle for Textmate. Created by Oliver Taylor, the screenwriting bundle lets you write your script while paying minimal attention to the format. It gives you shortcuts and automatically inserts text in all of the places it should be inserted. Then, when you’re done, you can export your screenplay as either a PDF or HTML file, formatted like a screenplay ought to be formatted. You can even open your screenplay in Final Draft if you need some of that app’s tools for heavy lifting.

The screenwriting bundle isn’t a perfect solution. Its PDF export feature still has a couple small glitches, and relies on PrinceXML, which puts a tiny link to the PrinceXML website at the top corner of your file unless you unlock the full version, which is really expensive. Still, the screenwriting bundle is easy to use, free, and even has a few screencasts to get you started on its website.

Disorderly pre-orders

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 1:30 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

I’m not an impatient person; I just prefer to have everything now. Anything after “now” tends to frustrate me…a lot. To the point where I smash my fist on the desk. Throw things. Maybe make angry phone calls to random numbers in the yellow pages. You know, normal stuff. So you can imagine my dismay when I woke up this morning and noticed that my iTunes pre-order for Motion City Soundtrack’s new album, “Even If It Kills Me,” had not automatically downloaded and filled my Library with its savory pop-punk sweetness.

Since I’m a relatively laid-back kinda guy, I decided to try every-freakin’-thing imaginable to get it to download: log off/on, Check for Purchases, view my Account settings to make sure I had actually pre-ordered it, quit iTunes, etc., etc. Nothing worked.

Fine. iTunes wants to be a grouch. Fine. I wound up downloading the non-pre-order album, which was actually available (even though it doesn’t come with some tracks that are included in the pre-order).

Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one smacked by iTunes’ confused definition of “pre”: my friend Tim had the same problem with the MCS pre-order. My other friend (yes, I have more than one friend) Mike has had three separate instances where his pre-order failed to download, and he then had to contact iTunes support to get the mess corrected.

When you pre-order an item, you may not be able to download it at the exact moment it becomes available for regular purchase. You’ll receive an email the same day to let you know when you can download the item.

My question: If the album itself is available for download, why isn’t the pre-order? And what part of the “same day” are they referring to?

It’s now 3:30PM and my pre-order still isn’t ready. Is this standard? Does it take all day to get the download? Or does iTunes just fudge it up sometimes? Have you had this problem? What time do you normally get your pre-orders? Another sentence that ends in a question mark? Vent your anger (at either iTunes or me) in the comments. That’s what it’s there for.

[Update:] Of course, ten minutes after I post this, I get an e-mail from Apple saying my pre-order is ready to download. Lovely.

[Update 2:] It seems the pre-orders are released about the same time Apple issues the “New Music Tuesday” e-mail. Anyone subscribed to that will tell you: it’s never on time. I think once I got it Wednesday morning.

Adobe CEO Chizen wants some Leopard. Hey, us too!

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 1:00 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

The Leopard, she’s a comin’. But just because we’re still expecting to see Apple’s next kitty cat next month doesn’t mean that all parties are as sanguine about the prospect. Today Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said that the Adobe’s Creative Suite software has not been fully tested with Leopard, and as such may experience a period of incompatibility when the OS is released.

“CS3 hasn’t fully been tested under Leopard,” Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Chizen told Reuters in an interview. “If it doesn’t work, we will make the necessary adjustments.”

He said Adobe has not received a final copy of Leopard with which to test its software.

Yeah, we know Creative Suite is mission critical software for a large portion of the market, but it seems to me that this is kind of a big ol’ non-story. Presumably they’ve got access to development builds like everybody else, and while they’re at the whims of Apple in terms of changes, it’s not like Apple can magically conjure a final version of Leopard up just for Adobe to use.

Ordinary People

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 11:40 AM PT by Andy Ihnatko

Category | Ihnatko

When the new edition of iLife came out a while back, I made some noise about my disappointment with iPhoto ‘08. Big surprise. My complaints about iPhoto tend to come out about as frequently as new Harry Potter books. The only real difference is that J.K. Rowling seems to have lost interest in her subject after only 5,000 pages. And (I wish to add, by way of insisting that I’m way, way better than she is) I didn’t need $1.2 billion dollars’ worth of motivation.

My motivation was a timeless, pure and holy one: smug self-righteousness.

“The glass ceiling is still way too low,” I sniped. “A great app like iMovie inspires and motivates the user to become more passionate about a task that he once considered to be dull drudgery. But with iPhoto, managing and editing photos is still utterly mundane.”

Fortunately, I’m a regular on several podcasts, so there was absolutely nothing stopping me from completely contradicting myself the very same week.

“I know that lots of hardcore iMovie users are really upset about the latest version,” I said. Upset? Users keep driving to the home of iMovie’s lead developer and rearranging his lawn ornaments into lewd positions. “But you know, I find that when I approach iMovie as a brand new app, I rather like it. iMovie ‘08 is a terrific upgrade when it comes to the simple task of turning 60 minutes of raw footage into a five minute video that friends and family will happily watch without text-messaging Amnesty International halfway through.”

I got lot of emails that were more hurtful than your earlier opinions about what my clothes say about my personality. Oddly enough, most of them made an identical charge: that I don’t know what I’m talking about, because I’m not a normal user.

Freeverse sale: everything must go

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 11:20 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

When I was a kid, there used to be this carpet store that would advertise going-out-of-business sales every few months. I never quite figured out why the store didn’t go out of business: maybe they made so much every time they had a sale that they could afford to stay open? Then again, maybe they were just fronts for those suburban Boston mobsters.

I’m pretty sure that Freeverse software isn’t some sort of shady mobster front outfit, but you can never be sure in these days of sketchy websites everywhere. Still, with discounts like these, maybe you, like me, just don’t care.

Through Thursday the 20th, you can net a 30% discount on anything that you buy from Freeverse’s online store: that means games like Burning Monkey Solitaire and Heroes of Might and Magic V or fine apps like Comic Life Deluxe and Sound Studio 3. Just remember to add the code “montyrules” at checkout to save a bundle.

I’m just bummed that they don’t have a good selection of wall-to-wall.

[via Daring Fireball]

Carbon Copy Cloner turns 3

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 10:37 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software » Updates

Backup tools are like chocolate croissants: you can’t have too many. While we’re big fans of the SuperDuper!, we like to think that backup software is a very personal thing; it’s not just one-size-fits-all. Those looking for an alternative might consider the venerable Carbon Copy Cloner, which has today been revved to a spiffy new version 3.0.

It’s been a long trek to this newest of versions for CCC’s creator, Mike Bombich, but the result is worth the wait. Carbon Copy Cloner 3.0 has more features than your local multiplex, including advanced scheduling, the ability to backup to another Mac on your network, full-blown synchronization, and support for block-level disk-to-disk clones. The interface has also changed a bit, taking on a simpler, more efficient interface that makes it clear what your actions will do.

Best of all, the new version is a Universal Binary and, as with prior versions, it’s released as a full-featured trial. If you like it, be sure to drop a little cash in Mr. Bombich’s tip jar.

We want to know how many iPods you can power

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 7:40 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPod

Bodies produce electric power. Apparently, the amount your body produces can be determined using a simple mathematical formula that uses your resting heart rate, weight, height, body type, and age. Witness my power!

321 WATTS Body Battery Calculator - Find Out How Much Electricity Your Body is Producing - Dating

That’s equivalent to about 80 iPods. That’s a lot of music. I could bring music to the world. Your assignment for the day is to take the time to measure your resting heart rate and put the number of iPods you can power in the comments. Go.

[via Digg]

Parallels teams up with Intel for virtual domination

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 6:31 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Windows

SWsoft (Parallels parent company) and Intel have announced a partnership to work on virtualization technologies together. In particular, they’ll be working on Intel’s VT-d and TXT. VT-d is Intel’s technology to help give virtual machines better access to hardware items such as network and graphics cards. Clearly, Mac users looking to do some Windows gaming are most excited about the second aspect of that.

The former technology is designed to improve the security of virtualization technology being built into Intel’s hardware, to help avoid things like Blue Pill. It’s in both companies’ interest to partner because it enhances performance and functionality for Parallels while making Intel’s wares the choice for those interested in virtualization (which is a rapidly growing market both in the corporate and consumer spheres).

Before you start trumpeting SWsoft’s foresight, VMware has been in a similar agreement since last year. The real loser as time wears on seems to be AMD. Intel’s recent success at keeping power consumption low, performance high (independent of clock speed), and strong support for virtualization makes it the clear winner in my book.

Confirmed: Woz is a ladies man

Posted on Sep. 18, ’07, 5:46 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » People

We previously told you that Steve Wozniak was seeing Kathy Griffin. We got further proof Sunday as Woz and Kathy went to the Emmy’s arm in arm. Hey-ay! I’m not sure what else can be said about this. Maybe we get all entertainment on you and suggest that maybe she made him sell the car. We at MacUser will believe Kathy’s intentions are pure if, and only if, she and Woz are seen riding Segways together.

Doing the DVR Dance

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 8:33 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple TV

I learned something in all my years (oh so many!) of writing — when you can’t think of a good title, take the easy route: alliteration! Does dancing have anything at all to do with DVRs or the topic of this post? No. But it still sounds good. “Style over substance” — that’s always been my motto. (Er, well, I mean, after my English teacher in high school suggested it. Several times.) It’s like music from Fall Out Boy: Does any of it make sense? No. Do people care? Apparently not. So that’s how I like to think of myself: The Fall Out Boy of the Mac web (or at least of MacUser).

Speaking of Fall Out Boy, do you think Apple TV needs DVR functionality? (Swoosh!) That’s one of the common complaints among Apple TV nay-sayers: Apple TV just adds; it doesn’t simplify (a staple feature of Apple products). All it does is append another box to your already four-box-high TV set. DVD player, TiVo, surround sound deck, cable box…some people have these doohickies called “VHS” player…things…with tapes (don’t ask me), etc. Why can’t Apple make a box that not only does what Apple TV does…but what all those other devices do, too (except the tape thing), to save us a little space and hassle?

For once I’m in the same boat as Paul “Marketshare Matters” Thurrott: DVR could really add to Apple TV.

If it sounds like I’m harping on an old topic — the Apple TV has been out for ages — well, I am. But since this latest Forbes piece (the one I tore apart, ruthlessly, with my bare hands, and fed it to the rats in the alley out back, who spit it out because it tasted awful even to them), the iPod for your TV is once again garnering some attention. Which is great: the product is still on the market, people are still thinking about it. So I want to revive the topic.

I’m a huge fan of the Apple TV (if you haven’t already noticed), and I don’t want the discussion to stop. So before I write more about what I think may be a huge component of Apple’s media future, I want to get a feel for what you guys think: Should it be the Apple TVo, the all-in-one that some of us imagine? Or should the Apple TV be a focused device, used solely to put media from your computer onto your TV screen, allowing you to watch movies, TV episodes, and Fall Out Boy’s music video for “Dance, Dance” (Hah! Dance!) without worrying about other features bloating the interface?

What kind of potential do you see in this mini Mac mini?

The Trouble with Trebles [Updated x2]

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 6:42 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iPod

A few days ago I wrote about my iPod Classic, and how I and several others are a little grumpy about the album-art-intensive, slow-for-the-hell-of-it, why-oh-why-Apple-did-you-do-this-to-us? interface. Before I typed up that gem, The Original Dan wrote briefly about crashy/freezy glitches in the ‘Pod software that are crippling some Classic users.

Not in the mood to be merciful towards the media monstrosity (and loving an opportunity to kick something — anything — while it’s down), I now point you in the direction of this Apple discussion thread, where several iPodders of the Classic variety are complaining that the device’s sound quality took a noticeable hit with the “upgrade.”

It also has less energy in the lower mid-range (200-800Hz), so it misses some push and harmonics. Overall this results in a less harmonic sound, less spatial (the scene is inside your head instead of around your head), a bit too much emphasis on high treble, and “less silence between the notes”…I suspect there is a mismatch in the group delay of the treble, where the treble arrives “faster” than the lower frequencies. That’s a typical error in DA-conversion and filtering, that can be fixed by FIR filtering, or masked by a slight attenuation (0.1-0.3dB of treble starting from 8kHz).

If that makes sense to you…well la-dee-da. What do you want, an award? How about I set up a whole congratulatory ceremony just for you, since you know what “treble,” “faster,” and “attenuation” mean. Mr. Genius Audio Guru. Yeesh. Learn some humility.

In my humble opinion, that simply means one thing: it doesn’t sound as good as the old 5.5G iPod, at least from an audiophile perspective. The original poster, Marc, did a ton of fancy comparison studies and created colorful graphs (because he knows not all of us are audio know-it-alls) to illustrate the problem.

There’s obviously some debate about the whole issue, so take a look at the thread and Marc’s blog, do your own scientific studies, then relay your conclusions back here in the comments. Does it sound as good to you? Worse? The same? Who-gives-a-damn? Let us know. I can tell you that my Classic sounds just fine. Then again, my comparison criteria only included “Can you hear music?” Not as advanced as Mr. “Decibel” Marc over there, but that just goes to show you: for some people, these nearly-inaudible differences don’t really matter.

…Vinnie from Red Wine Audio, a company that upgrades iPods with higher-end components, has said that the classic actually sounds better than the 5G/5.5G models:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=259258

Addendum: Also take a look at this thread:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=260271

The thread started with another “horrible sound quality!” post, but ended up with lots of good info, including what appear to be more accurate measurements, as well as opinions of people with good headphone setups.

There you have it. Now, go forth and formulate your own thoughtful conclusions, dear members of the Mac Elite. For it is you the world depends on to solve this dire mystery!

Or, uh, something.

[via TUAW]

iTunes gets bug-fixed, others to follow?

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 4:02 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | iTunes

Right on the heels of this weekend’s nano and classic software updates is iTunes 7.4.2. Apple is really cranking out those music-related revisions at a quick pace, therefore forcing me to crank out haiku after haiku. On the other hand, everyone likes getting bugs fixed, right?

What you’ll get from this 38MB download, apart from the usual bug squashing, is the fix for an issue that involved creating ringtones from iTunes Plus tracks. Judging by the number of ringtone problems people have encountered, this update was pretty necessary.

It may have been equally necessary for a second reason: to plug the loophole that allowed free ringtones creation, or even to try breaking third-party apps like iToner or MakeiPhoneRingtone. Good news for iToner users though: version 1.0.1 brings compatibility with the iTunes update — update: even though Ambrosia claims this on their website, I wonder if they didn’t mean 7.4.1, as iToner 1.0.1 has been out for a while. If you rely on those tricks, I recommend waiting to see if 7.4.2 breaks them. And now, it’s haiku time:

New iTunes version:
A fix for Apple ringtones
Custom ones still here?

We’ll keep you posted as we discover further details, and feel free to post your ringtone experiences in the comments.

Update #2: MacRumors reports that iToner does work, while MakeiPhoneRingtone doesn’t. They’ve also discovered another free ringtone trick.

Pay no attention to the store behind the curtain

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 12:01 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

Of course, Apple would decide to hold a press event in London, just while I happen to be an extra 3000 miles west of my usual location. Since I don’t really plan on staying up until 3AM to cover the Regent Street event, I’ll find out first thing in the morning like the rest of the sensible plebes.

But something is most assuredly going down at the Regent Street store. Reader Thomas pointed us to some pics he snapped of the London retail outlet, which is now shrouded in mysterious black curtains that tell me just one more thing: Steve Jobs will personally unveil his iDoomsday device in London tomorrow morning.

A sign in the window also informs passersby that the store will be closed until 4PM on the 18th. Londoners are directed to Apple’s retail site, but those in the know will be aware that the only other London-located store is in Brent Cross, which is kind of a hike just so you can pick up an iPod cable. Hope you don’t find yourself too put out: let me know if I can get you anything in these trying times. Until then, it’s curtains for you.

iTunes Plus songs not ringing in the new year

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 11:31 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Making ringtones via iTunes isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. For one thing, the selection is about as appealing as a picked-over thrift store; for another, I don’t exactly relish the idea of shelling out another $0.99 just so that I can hear “Don’t Stop Believin’” every time my phone rings. But beyond that, it appears that some users are having technical difficulties with the process. And I should know, because I, yes, I am one of them.

I spent some time putting together a first look at iTunes 7.4 for our overlords at Macworld, and I noted rather diplomatically that “I did experience some errors when trying to purchase ringtones created from songs that I already owned, but purchasing new songs and creating ringtones from them worked fine.” To elaborate on that, I got a mysterious error -42160 every time I tried to buy a ringtone for a song I’d owned prior to upgrading to 7.4. Another twist: on the computer where I tried the operation, all those tracks just happened to be iTunes Plus songs. Coincidence? It seems not. I even double-checked by buying a brand new iTunes Plus track and trying to convert it to a ringtone: no dice.

I’ve been in touch with iTunes Support since first noticing the problem, and they assure me that they are “working toward a resolution of the issue.” Of course, I’m by no means alone in my plight of being unable to ring out to my Coldplay tracks (don’t judge me); several readers wrote that they were experiencing the same problem, albeit probably with better musical taste than yours truly. It seems kind of odd to me that the tracks without DRM are the troubling ones here, and it does raise at least one nagging question, namely: if I spend the extra money to buy a song that’s not encumbered with digital rights management, why do I have to spend another $0.99 to turn it back into a DRM file, just so I can use it as a ringtone on my phone? Get back to me, RIAA, would you?

Can touch this: iPod touch gets ripped apart

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 10:53 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

More iPod guts, coming your way. The iFixit crew is at it again, this time taking their screwdrivers, prybars, and wicked claws to a brand new iPod touch. Hey, most of us haven’t even gotten our hands on one, much less inside. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Interesting things that they discovered while elbow-deep in iPod components? The size of the iPod touch’s battery is actually smaller than the iPhone’s, ringing it at about 81% of the volume of its big brother. Apple also used contacts instead of wires to make connections between components in the back and front halves of the touch. Removing the display on the touch proved to be much easier than on the iPhone, which used adhesive to attach the display to its glass covering.

Also worth noting is that, despite rumors to the contrary, there’s no evidence of a Bluetooth chip in the phone. Looks like Apple deep-sixed that in entirety, which makes sense, given their apparent reticence to embrace Bluetooth’s A2DP wireless music profile on Macs or in the iPhone. So, no wireless first-party headphones on the iPod touch any time soon folks; sorry about that.

Being sent to Mordor

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 7:41 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

Given I couldn’t resist a Star Trek reference in my last post, a chance to introduce a Lord of the Rings reference had to be used. You can be in the know about where Apple employees are going when they speak in code.

According to Double-Tongued, “sent to Mordor” is code for being sent to Apple’s factory in China.

Hardware techies at Apple are regularly sent from California for intense two-week shifts to the city-sized FoxConn factory in Shenzhen, China where iPods are made and tested. Internally at Apple this is known as “being sent to Mordor.”

Dark visions fill my head instantly. Is Steve Jobs the Eye of Sauron?

[via Daring Fireball]

NYT thinks Apple dropped the ball on the Vista bobble

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 6:28 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Business

It’s a pretty well documented fact that Windows Vista hasn’t been received well by the tech community at large. Gamers don’t like it because it’s slow, despite having fancy new game APIs. Corporations don’t like it because it doesn’t run well on older hardware and they’re loathed to change any software. Consumers are thrown off by many of the new features and driver conflicts. In short, given how long it was in development and how much it’s gotten bashed, Apple had a prime opportunity to pick up market share.

New York Times writer Randall Stross doesn’t think they capitalized. He focused in on global market share, completely ignoring other sources that actually show Apple undergoing strong market share growth. No, instead all of his sources are very bleak, showing either small gains or a small loss.

Look, I’m not sure I can blame Randall. Based on talking to a single one of his sources (Roger Kay), the story writes itself.

The Mac’s worldwide market share was 3 percent as of June 2007, according to Roger L. Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a consulting firm in Wayland, Mass.

From Massachusetts? For shame! Dan and I both live here. Stop dragging us into this.

Mr. Kay noted that Apple’s share was as low as 2 percent as recently as early 2004. He said the increase to 3 percent may be a result of the “halo effect” produced by the success of the iPod. It could also just as easily be attributed to Apple’s simply offering better products at more competitive prices, he added.

Translation: I really don’t have an explanation for why market share changes. I can’t even be bothered to do real analysis (even though that’s my company’s focus). I’ll just throw a few theories out there and see what sticks.

However, the opportunity for Apple that has been opened by Vista’s introduction is temporary. Mr. Kay, of Endpoint, described a Microsoft operating system and its thousands of certified supporting hardware vendors and the two million device drivers as forming an enormous flywheel.

“It takes a lot of energy to spin it up,” he said, “but once it gets going, it’s virtually unstoppable.”

I can’t resist another translation from a favorite source.

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that Apple missed out on releasing Leopard at a prime time, but that doesn’t make this article insightful or well done. It’s another fluff piece recycling opinions by “consultants” and “analysts” who are fast becoming the main source for rumors.

[Hat tip: Michael]

Lightroom 1.2 and Camera Raw 4.3 loosed

Posted on Sep. 17, ’07, 5:14 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

If you’re a Lightroom or Adobe’s Camera Raw plug-in, it’s time to update them. Chances are, the update you care more about is the Camera Raw Update which sports support for 14 more cameras, including Canon’s EOS 40D.

Lightroom 1.2, on the other hand, is primarily a bug fix update. I’m personally used to seeing at least one new feature in a second digit software update, but alas, nothing sticks out as shiny and new. I will give Adobe credit for actually listing what specific issues were fixed. Apple? Please? Can we have this with your products?

Apple fixes 3G iPod nano bugs

Posted on Sep. 15, ’07, 10:25 AM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | iPod

Happy owners of third-generation iPod nanos might want to update the player’s software: Apple released version 1.0.1 (description: “bug fixes”). The 57 MB download is much needed, as I’ve been experiencing some pretty annoying issues with my new iPod: the play counts and ratings recorded on the device wouldn’t be reflected in iTunes, and it had trouble with remembering playback position for some podcasts.

In my quick 5-minute testing, those issues seemed to be resolved. I would think the iPod classic software will also see a similar revision soon, as it’s pretty much identical to the nano’s. Oh, and I also have some poetry for you:

My 3G nano
No longer acts so funky
Install the update.

Get the software via your iPod’s syncing screen in iTunes’ source list, and enjoy!

“iFlop” iArticle is iLame

Posted on Sep. 14, ’07, 5:33 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple TV

This was totally brilliant: A writer for Forbes penned an article calling the Apple TV an “iFlop.” Get it? He added an “i” to the front of the noun because Apple has a lot of products that start with the letter “i”! I don’t know how no one thought of this before. I mean, honestly, it’s, like…iAwesome!

OK, yeah. I’m being a little iHarsh and iCranky. But that’s only because it seems like this Forbes guy (Woolley be his name) lost a game of high-stakes poker prior to writing his take on the Apple TV and its apparent failure to take the market by storm.

How did the storied Steve Jobs and Apple botch it so badly?

Jeez. Bitter.

I, for one, love my Apple TV. I’ve called it my gadget love affair. I don’t even watch regular TV anymore: All the works of art and profane cartoons that receive the blessing of my eyesight have either been purchased from iTunes or acquired through other…entirely legal…means. I browse YouTube all the time (friends love that part), listen to music on my home theater speaker system and, for the first time ever, I’m actually watching video podcasts (instead of just subscribing to them and enjoying the little blue dots next to all the downloads).

The reason people aren’t buying — if that’s the case — Apple’s living room wonder, I think, is that they don’t really know what they’d do with it. I talked to a friend yesterday who said he’d never buy one…until I told him all the ways I use mine. If it weren’t for the $300 — which is Main Problem #2 — he’d have one by now. But to say the Apple TV was “botched”…well that’s just crazy talk.

Woolley makes one point that really throws me:

Many newcomers, far less threatening than Apple, have had better luck luring the studios online. A startup named Vudu in Santa Clara, Calif. has deals with all six Hollywood heavyweights and a score of international distributors, in part because it doesn’t try to dictate wholesale prices. (A download of Syriana from Warner Bros. goes for $20.) The studios also let Vudu users rent movies for 24 hours, not an option on Apple TV.

$20?! So giving into distributor’s insane demands is what makes Vudu a winner? Has anyone even heard of Vudu? Anyone? Besides, (widely-publicized) rumors say that Apple will soon offer movie rental downloads — which, hopefully, will work on the Apple TV, making it the best home-movie-solution on the market.

But the whole tone of Woolley’s article — and his failure to appreciate the fact that, as MacDailyNews aptly notes, “there’s nothing wrong with Apple TV that software updates and open-minded content providers couldn’t fix” — makes it seem like he has a real axe to grind.

Apple, which declined to let Forbes interview Jobs and other execs for this story…

Ah. That would do it.

A look at one of Apple’s new Best Buy mini stores

Posted on Sep. 14, ’07, 12:06 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

How nice it is to have a legion of readers, eager and willing to do our bidding. Okay, in truth, we didn’t ask for pictures of the new Apple mini stores that are popping up inside Best Buy outlets around the country, but reader Andrew wasn’t about to let a detail like that stop him. He fired us off a couple of pictures of the Mac displays in the new Best Buy store on Newbury St. in MacUser HQ’s own Boston. Here are his impressions:

I snapped these real quick (with my iPhone, no less) at the new Best Buy on the corner of Newbury Street in Boston. The whole store is still so new that i walked in and I wasnt even sure if it was actually open for business, or if i had just followed in someone who worked there. the Apple MiniStore is on the third floor with all of the other PCs, but there are cardboard cutouts on every floor advertising its existence. Its Very nicely set up, with 2 MacBooks, 3 iMacs (one is previous gen on clearance) and a MacBook Pro hooked to a Cinema Display, they also have a nice little bar area (not pictured) with some MacBooks hooked up to printers (don’t know why). It’s nice to see the video adapters in the accessory section, and they had the new Wireless Metal Keyboards. This is all a very far cry from the Fenway Best Buy about a mile away that has, quite literally, laminated printouts of Apple computers sitting on a shelf, not a single physical model. Not sure how this part of the store will fare when the flagship Boston Apple Store opens in a few months a couple blocks away, but it will definitely turn some heads of the people shopping PCs.

Either way, I’m glad Best Buy and Apple have kissed and made up. These new mini stores certainly beat the swank blue polo shirts off the old stores. Click on the pics for larger versions, and peep another shot after the jump.

Now, if any of our other willing horde would like to go out and grab me a cup of tea and a scone, that’d be swell.

[Thanks again, Andrew!]

Funny lawsuit of the day: company sues over playlists

Posted on Sep. 14, ’07, 11:34 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

It’s Friday, and we know you don’t want to strain yourself, so we thought we’d provide you with a little end-of-the-week entertainment from our legal affairs department. A company called Premier International Associates has leveled lawsuits against almost twenty technology companies, claiming that they infringe upon Premier’s patents for, and I quote, an electronic “List building system”:

A system implementable using a programmable processor includes a plurality of pre-stored commands for building an inventory of audio, musical, works or audio/visual works, such as music videos. A plurality of works can be collected together in a list for purposes of establishing a play or a presentation sequence. The list can be visually displayed and edited. A plurality of lists can be stored for subsequent retrieval. A selected list can be retrieved and executed. Upon execution, the works of the list are presented sequentially either audibly or visually.

Notably absent from the list of companies being sued is Apple, who was the target of two separate suits by Premier in 2005 over iTunes and the iPod. In a coincidence?-I-think-not moment, Premier dropped its suit against Apple today, saying that “the matter has [been] settled in its entirety and all necessary costs and expenses have been paid.” ORLY? I guess the trolls had to move on to other goats sooner or later.

You know, I can’t decide whether to have a hearty chuckle or cry into my MacBook. Pardon me as I fire up my iTunes “Tearjerker” playlist.

[via Ars Technica]

iMacs: now with, let’s say, 20% fewer bugs

Posted on Sep. 14, ’07, 11:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software » Updates

Really, Apple can keep producing software updates basically forever. We realize that, and we would, of course, not wish them to stop. Just today, for example, they’ve issued iMac Software Update v1.1 for the brand new all-in-ones. What does iMac Software Update v1.1 do, you might ask? Here’s Apple’s take:

This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors.

If I may?

Update fixes bugs
What bugs? We’re not sure we know.
But we hear they’re fixed.

[via Macworld]

Stampede warning: iPod Touch in stores

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 3:48 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iPod

Looks like I was a little off when I said the iPod Touch wasn’t scheduled to ship until the 28th (hey, I get my info from Apple.com — if you can’t trust them who can you trust?).

Turns out some stores already have them in stock. Reader Phil Hartley first informed us of the device’s availability at the Apple Store Soho (he bought a nice 16-gigger for himself), and Jason Snell confirmed its availability at the Apple Stores Union Square and Valley Fair. A quick call to the Apple Store Michigan Avenue reveals that they too have a stock of 16GB Touches on the shelves, waiting for touchy paws to scoop ‘em up.

Now, remember: Take your time, they probably have plenty…ahh, who am I kidding? Run like hell, you don’t have much time!

Mysterious Event II: Apple Goes UK

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 3:28 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Events

Man, it feels like just last week when Steve Jobs took the stage of Moscone West and announced a whole new line-up of iPods, bringing joy to the hearts of many. I’ll never forget that day; it was like the moon landing, or when Britney Spears shaved her head.

What? It was last week? Oh, well then what’s up with this other media event, oddly headlined with “Mum is no longer the word” (and even oddlier located at an Apple Store), scheduled for next week in the UK? Did they feel left out when all the cool stuff was announced across the pond? Or is Apple’s obsession with media dominance finally starting to go a little overboard? Maybe it’s developed some sort of media event OCD.

Or, perhaps, they’re going to announce the iPhone’s availability in Europe?

Pfft, no way. It totally has something to do with The Beatles. Or mothers.

We’ll see.

Master the Touch before you can touch it

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 2:20 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iPod

Apparently the iPod Touch is the best, most awesomest digital media doohickey ever created. And even though it isn’t slated to ship until the 28th, Mac users are mentally lining up at Apple Stores and authorized retailers across the globe, cash in hand, ready to sell their souls to their future mobile masters.

We’re getting bits and pieces of info about it every day, holding over eager future-purchasers so they can better simulate the experience in their obsessive minds. But the best chunk of particulars came out today, in the form of the 80+ page iPod Touch Features Guide, straight from Apple themselves.

I’d read it and give you all the juicy details, but I’m way too lazy (except to point out that Gruber points out that you must register the ‘Pod to actually activate it). So check it out yourselves; study the features and nuances. Then impress your friends by mastering every detail and using the device for the first time like you’ve owned it for years.

[via MacRumors]

Updated to clarify Gruber’s reference.

MacUser’s newest blogger: Dan Pourhadi

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 1:25 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | MacUser

Alright, alright: I’m coming clean. It’s not an illusion; do not adjust your monitor (especially if your choice method of adjustment involves a swift whack). We have, at painstaking cost and dedication, acquired a brand new blogger for the MacUser team. There was some confusion at first, as, like myself, he’s a member of the Secret League of Dans, but I assure you, he’s not just me in disguise. I mean, come on: imaginary Phil Schiller won’t even talk to me in my own head, much less in totally fake interview format.

You may recognize Dan Pourhadi’s name from such fine publications as MacAddict, TidBITS, and Macteens, but you probably recall him best as Troubled Teen #2, the runaway youth who battled an addiction to internet gambling in an episode of Law & Order a few years back. Wait? Okay, apparently we’re confusing him with someone else. Must be that kid wosshisname. You know. The famous one. Oh, never mind.

We kid, of course. Dan did a stint with our friends over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, and we’re psyched to have him onboard at MacUser. Please give him a warm welcome, and direct all trolls and flamers to his comment threads, just so he feels at home. Thanks.

Layin’ the visual smackdown

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 12:35 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | iPod

I just bought a black 80GB iPod classic. I’m not having that wacky crash problem, and aside from the fact that the name implies I bought it from an antique shop, I like the thing. It’s curvy. And like every new Apple gadget I buy, I spend more time staring at it than I do using it. The curvature and the touch of the black metal makes the media monster feel like an enlarged 2G black nano. And I loved them 2G black nanos.

In fact, I decided I like the look of the device more than I like the actual software running on it. And if what I’m reading on the intertubes is any indication, I’m not the only one.

Take Kirk McElhearn, for example, who penned a piece bluntly titled “It’s Official: Apple’s Stupidest Interface Innovation Ever.” He rails against the “random album art” feature on the right side of the screen:

But the whole concept here is stupid: first, it chooses random art. Why do you want to see your album art at random? Perhaps if you could choose one album to use as a kind of wallpaper, that might be useful. But even if you could, this stuff is moving. Nothing is more distracting than a moving image, especially when you want to read text.

The part about this feature — and the new iPod software in general — that bugs me? It drags down the whole interface. The thing’s as slow as…uh, something noticeably slow. Clicking through the menus is like flipping channels on a digital cable box: Click the button. Wait a second. Click the button. Wait a second.

It’s no longer the clean, to-the-point simplicity that defined The iPod Of The Past. It’s still as functional, it still works. And there are a lot of new things I like: the name of the band under the song title, the quick-access Shuffle option…the other…cool…stuff.

But it’s getting bloated, crammed with eye-candy at the expense of performance (and apparently stability).

The interface will probably grow on me. But until then…. Well, you know. It sucks.

[via DaringFireball]

Getting burned by a MacBook

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 11:30 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Huh?

Internet scholar Danah Boyd reports that her laptop is burning her — you guessed it — lap.

Danah:

Much to my horror, a burn started emerging on my lap this summer. It’s just like the woman who reported this last year. It’s kinda creepy actually. The burn is all blotchy and it shows where my laptop clearly sits. I didn’t feel it happening, but it’s noticeably there and very much in the shape of my Mac. (And it makes it clear that I angle my Mac funny on my lap.) In fact, when it first started to appear, I ignored it because I thought maybe I had done a bad job with the suntan lotion on my thighs. But it got worse and then it dawned on me. I had heard about this problem, but I thought they had fixed it with some firmware upgrade. But it is distinctly the shape and size of my Mac. And it most definitely happened this summer and I have done all of the upgrades requested.

Of course this isn’t the first time that something like this has been reported, as Danah mentions.

Perhaps Danah should invest in Dan’s favorite $13 computer item — a lapdesk.

Oh wait, she did that:

The eerie part is that it’s not going away. I went to Burning Man (which meant 5 days without the laptop) and when I returned, I found a wooden lap-seat to place the machine on, but it still hasn’t gone away. (In the meantime, the burn I got from getting seared by the Temple embers has gone away, as has the slight sunburn.) I’m starting to get a wee bit creeped out. What kind of burn is this? Did my laptop cause more damage than I thought?

Uh oh.

Your pacemaker is now safe from your iPod. Or is it?

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 10:15 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | iPod

In our continuing saga of how well iPods and pacemakers play well (and by well, we mean, they don’t) together, we bring you this little story from Heart Insight (haven’t you ever wanted insight unto your heart?), the trade mag published by the American Heart Association.

The AHA is confirming what we’ve known for months now, which is that iPods do seem to cause some sort of interference with pacemakers, saying that: “Researchers found that MP3 players, such as Apple’s iPod, interfered with pacemaker function in half of the 83 patients who participated in the study; none of them experienced symptoms.”

But Wired Science points astutely points out:

“The iPods ‘interfered with pacemaker function,’ but nobody actually experienced symptoms. Instead, recordings made by the pacemaker were skewed when the iPod was held two inches [from the] heart. That’s a legitimate problem — a careless physician could conclude that something is wrong the device — but it’s a long way from ‘haywire.’ As for scanners stopping hearts rather than shoplifters, two isolated case reports are not reason for alarm.”

It seems like further study is in order here. AHA, your thoughts?

iPod classic perhaps not a work of art

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 9:46 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

It appears that the iPod classic may be running into a few glitches, courtesy of its brand new user interface. A reader pointed us to a discussion thread on Apple’s site where some owners of the 6G iPod have reported issues with the devices restarting regularly, and intermittently freezing. One of the participants has actually chronicled his problems with the classic on YouTube, showing the classic freezing and rebooting itself.

At the moment, the suggestion seems to be that the issue has something to do with cover art. Some users have said that disabling all artwork syncing seems to solve the crashing problem for now. A software fix from Apple is supposedly in the works; I’d expect to see a nice firmware upgrade in the next week or so, probably sooner rather than later.

How about it, readers: any of you have trouble with your iPod classic? Drop a line below.

PC Magazine gets in touch with the latest iPod

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 8:56 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Despite the fact that the iPod touch doesn’t hit shelves until the end of the month, PC Magazine got themselves ahold of the latest in iPod technology, and put it through its paces. The verdict? It’s a heck of a lot like the iPhone—and that’s a good thing.

…factor in the slick interface, elegant Web browser, the beautiful glass display, the seamless integration of the WiFi music store, and the iPod touch is worth the price. No portable media player has ever done this much so easily, or looked so good doing it.

We did learn a couple things though: double-clicking the touch’s home button, for example, always brings up a music control panel, even in sleep mode (which we particularly noted over at iPhone Central). And while, as we heard earlier in the week, you can’t edit Calendar events on the iPod touch, you can apparently edit your contacts. That’s a pretty weird distinction to make, if you ask me, but I trust the hackers will be hard at work.

All in all, though, it seems like the iPod touch may be once again the best iPod ever built. Though perhaps only because they have not yet constructed one out of pure chocolate.

Apple may get all up into Blockbuster’s business

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 8:22 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

On Monday, we saw a slip-up that suggested that movie rentals may be on their way to the iTunes Store. The Financial Times says they’ve got more info on the subject, alleging that iTunes rentals will last 30 days and cost $2.99. DRM would, naturally, be included (at no extra charge!), allowing you to watch the movie on your iPod or iPhone, but not copy it elsewhere.

What say we? This could be the killer app for online video at the iTunes Store. While Jobs has long made a point of saying that people want to own their music, I think fewer people want to own their movies, and those that do are more content to go the now-traditional DVD route. Video rental is a long-established practice, and one that will put Apple in competition not only with existing vendors like Blockbuster and Netflix, but burgeoning markets like video on demand. The 30-day window may not be as long as Netflix’s “keep it however long you like” policy, but it definitely exceeds most brick-and-mortar stores, and 30 days should be long enough for pretty much anybody to watch a movie, though the question remains as to how many times you can watch said video.

The key integration, though, is really devices. The iPhone and iPod are the most popular media players around, and with the video ability now rolled out to an entire line of iPods (sorry, shuffle!), this could be the kick-in-the-pants to widespread adoption. And let’s not forget the Apple TV. Put rentals together with some version of the Wi-Fi store, so people can choose a movie and start watching it immediately from their Apple TV, and we have something that looks very much like the future.

Colloquy IRC for your Mac and your iPhone

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 7:12 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Long before there was AIM and other instant messengers, the way to talk with your friends online in real time was to use chat and more specifically, IRC. At the time, Ircle was the way do it up. It got a bit long in the tooth. There’s been a mini resurgence of IRC use in some circles, and being that I want to be popular, I had to find a new client to join the crowd. Colloquy fit the bill. It’s open-source, free, feature-filled, and has a great modern interface.

On Tuesday, version 2.1 was released. It has more than its fair share of bug fixes (it’s a really long list that overloaded the clipboard or I would have so pasted it into the text of this post). Now, I’ve been hearing whispers of accessing IRC on the iPhone through this software, but until this release, that component wasn’t included. It is now. You have to admit that it’s pretty nostalgic to chat that way.

The Woz remakes car commercial, sells car

Posted on Sep. 13, ’07, 5:56 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » People

You remember when we pointed out that at one point Woz was in a commercial for Datsun. It’s entertainment value is nearly as boundless as its humor. Woz is a good sport about it, and has remade the video to sell his 2005 Nissan 350Z Anniversary Edition.

Hi, Woz here,

Some friends and I decided it would be fun to make a parody of this old commercial I did and give the proceeds to charity: http://video.google….

Here’s the deal.

1. This car is in great condition, I love it and I’m gonna sell it.

2. When you pick up the car at my house, we can have lunch together. I’ll sign it and we can talk about anything that interests you.

3. All the profits from this sale are being donated to charity!

On a global scale we are seeing America losing it’s competitiveness in engineering and technical skills. That is disappointing. All the profits from this sale will be donated to the IEEE lab at U.C. Berkeley for education and equipment.

Feel free to leave a best offer if you like. Disclaimer: This car is only available at Hotswap.

Looking forward to meeting,

Woz.
“tv is wake zone”

Watch the video. Watch it all the way through. The last few seconds are priceless. And yes, Dan, he rides a Segway in it.

[via Digg]

iPod nano: my impressions

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 6:39 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | iPod

When Apple launched the new iPod nano, it didn’t take me long to decide the silver 8GB model was to be mine as soon as possible. It arrived today, so I thought I’d share my impressions from the point of view of an average iPod user.

First, the new nano is really small. The rectangular end of the USB cable that plugs into the dock connector is not only thicker than the iPod, but also almost as wide as the Click Wheel. As soon as it’s turned on, however, the screen draws your attention: it’s very, very sharp and plenty bright too. Text, images, and videos look smooth and detailed, and it’s a pleasure to look at.

As for the much touted new interface, it’s quite nice, but definitely evolutionary, not revolutionary. Overall, I found the small details really made it better, like touches to the Podcasts and Videos sections: album art, release dates, numbers of episodes, etc. The Ken Burns-style previews of album art, photos, videos and podcasts are nice, but can be pretty annoying sometimes; the split screen is mostly useful in the Settings, providing extra information about individual options. At the end of the day, it’s the same interface we know and love, with some pretty good usability and elegance enhancements.

Oh, and you old Mac owners out there will be happy to know it syncs OK over USB 1: it took roughly two hours to transfer 5.5GB of data from my trusty eMac. Not fast at all, but bearable. (Of course, over USB 2.0, it syncs way faster, as most of you know.)

Verdict? The new nano is a great iPod, perhaps offering the best features/price ratio of the new line-up. The screen is really the highlight here, along with the ability to play video on it. And let’s face it, it looks pretty sweet.

Apple uses Shuffle to determine ‘Top Ringtones’

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 2:55 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Humor

Apple today added a “Top Ringtones” section to the iTunes Store, seemingly displaying the most-frequently purchased songs iPhone users convert to ringtones.

But the section uses an all-new algorithm to determine the list, said Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, in an exclusive interview with me, Dan Pourhadi, a no-name newbie at MacUser, not even Macworld itself, which didn’t even cover the majorly awesome news.

So how does iTunes determine which songs make the cut?

“It’s on Shuffle,” boasted Schiller.

When asked why, the veep waved his hand dismissingly. “The iTunes ringtone feature is great. Everyone loves it.”

When asked why again, Schiller gave a more direct answer.

“OK. No one can get them to work. So we just added a bunch of songs to the Store library’s Party Shuffle and the first 100 get added to the list.

“Hey, look at it this way: the record labels aren’t stealing more money from you. That’s a good thing. You should be thanking us for this crappy feature.”

John Moltz, Editor-in-Chief of CrazyAppleRumorsSite, a popular Mac rumor blog, praised Apple for its genius. “What the hell?!” he growled.

“Lay off my beat man!”

Cabel vs. the three pixels

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 9:40 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

If you’ve never had the chance to listen to or read anything by Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser, then you are dead to me. Dead. I know, it’s serious stuff. I had the pleasure of hearing Cabel speak at this year’s C4 conference about the development of Coda, Panic’s web development application.

In his latest blog post, Cabel elaborates on one of the details he touched on in that presentation: the way they wanted to draw Coda’s toolbar was incompatible with the way that OS X handles toolbars, because of a 3 pixel gap. They tried, tried, and tried some more to hack a way of making the toolbar look like their mockups, but they could never find a way to get it to work.

So they wrote their own toolbar from scratch instead.

I highly recommend the full entry if, for no other reason, it gives you an idea of just how meticulous and passionate Mac software developers can be about their products. When’s the last time you heard of a Windows developer who decided to rewrite an entire toolbar because of three pixels? That’s thinking different, my friends.

[via Daring Fireball]

Logic Express 8 is like Logic Pro 8 except, you know, cheaper

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 9:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Drooling over the improvements to Logic Pro in the shiny new Logic Studio, but don’t quite have the $499 to pony up? Fear not: Apple’s also introduced a brand new version of its Logic Express software that goes for just $199. A number of the new features in Logic Pro 8 have made their way into Logic Express 8 as well, such as the new single-window interface, new instruments, and new audio-editing tools.

Logic Express also features the ability to back up your preferences to your .Mac account, should you need to work on a project on multiple computers. If you’re really looking to pore over the entire technical specifications for the project, you can find them on Apple’s site. Thanks; it spares me the trouble of having to claim my ignorance of things like “Support for active control surfaces via CS plug-ins” and “High-end POW-r dithering algorithm.” Really, “POW-r” just makes me think of the 1960s Batman television series.

If you’re upgrading from most previous versions of Logic Express or Logic Audio, you can do so for just $99. But if you’re thinking of what to get me for Christmas, may I say that cash never goes amiss?

Apple announces Logic Studio; Spock would be proud

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 8:07 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Video pros got their due back in March at NAB, when Apple held a special event that focused on the new Final Cut Studio. But what of audio enthusiasts? Were they cursed to endure a lifetime of sniggers and derision from their video counterparts?

No, sir. This morning, Apple threw back the curtains on Logic Studio, a full suite of audio programs centered around Logic Pro 8, which features a new single-window interface and brand new features like Quick Swipe Comping and dynamic channel strip creation. No, I have no idea what either of those mean, but they sound awesome, right?

Besides Logic, the package also includes Soundtrack Pro 2 (moonlighting from Final Cut Studio) and a brand new application called MainStage which lets you lose your Mac as “a powerful live performance rig” by linking onscreen software controls to hardware thingamajigs like knobs, sliders, and buttons. Finally, there’s Studio Instruments, Studio Effects, and the Studio Sound Library, an extensive collection of instruments, plug-ins, and loops that you can include in your composition.

The price for this wonderment? The whole studio goes for just $499, or $199 if you’re upgrading from Logic Pro 7. If you happened to have picked up Logic Pro 7 on or after August 1st of this year, you’re eligible for a free upgrade ($9.95 shipping and handling).

A robust interference

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 7:37 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

Perhaps the most mysterious entry in the ever-so-useful Airport menu is the option called “Interference Robustness”. Naturally I first visualize a football player covered in tomato sauce first. However, it’s speaking to how well Airport cards handle noisy wireless environments (ones with 2.4 GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens). If it makes it handle those situations better, why isn’t it on by default? And what does it do?

While Apple has left us in the dark, Macinstruct has got a great article on the details. And we all know the devil is in the details. Therefore, Macinstruct is bringing us the devil. How devious. Anyway, it’s informative. Did you know it won’t work with third party wireless routers? The real meat of the piece is the explanation of how it works.

The 802.11 protocol was designed to essentially adjust itself to protect itself from interference. More specifically it adjusts packet size. The idea is this: send smaller packets at higher speeds, and the access point will more securely receive the packets. So when faced with interference, this option will literally adjust the transmission of packets to ensure the access point receives more packets.

The theory behind smaller packets is that because things are noisy, you may lose more data, but because they’re smaller pieces, it’s quicker to resend. In a good environment though, it’s slower because more packets means more overhead (due to the extra headers). Unfortunately, you either need to guess or test extensively whether you can benefit. At any rate, I can sleep easier tonight knowing what lurks in my menubar.

Report from the field: Keyboard Software Update 1.2

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 6:33 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Troubleshooting

I got one of those fancy new Apple keyboards a little while ago. It came in a ridiculously large box. I nearly convinced myself that they’d sent me a gross of keyboards. But I digress, it was just the one. Anyway, the Expose and Dashboard buttons did nothing, and that was using Keyboard Software Update 1.1.

Those buttons sat there, silently, mocking me. I could almost hear the aluminum whispering my name melodically. Very frustrating. Keyboard Software Update 1.2 changed that. Expose and Dashboard now respond to my beck and call. From my web perusal, this was a common problem, so be sure to install this update if you decided to pick up that new shiny input device.

Google Summer of Code changes coming to Adium

Posted on Sep. 12, ’07, 5:15 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Adium is, quite simply, my favorite IM client of all time. It doesn’t have high-falutin’ features like video conferencing, but when it comes to text chat, it’s king. It supports more services than I’d ever realistically want to use. Its interface is also nearly infinitely customizable.

Being an open source project, it’s also possible for students to be paired with it as part of Google’s Summer of Code program. They’re given an opportunity to spend their summer writing code and getting paid for it. Really, it’s a wonderful program that Apple should either copy or contribute money to.

Anyway, five students contributed their own improvements including improvements to libpurple’s Jabber support, improved Bonjour support (including file transfer), baseline changes for multi-user chat support, improved Applescript support, and snapping/detachable groups in the buddy list. I’m a big fan of the last feature.

Anyway, these changes will be rolled into Adium 1.2, to be released at some time in the future. I’m looking forward to it.

Parallels 3.0 Feature Update released

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 5:04 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Software » Updates

When VMWare Fusion got released, many Mac users were excited that this new competitor in the Mac virtual machine space would cause both the newcomer and the old giant, Parallels, to create better features in their software and release them more quickly. Well, it seems that the newly released Parallels 3.0 Feature Update proves that to be true.

The new Parallels 3.0 Feature Update includes some really cool new features that were in the betas and release candidate, including Coherence window compatibility with Expose, “Mirrored Desktops, Documents and Media” which mirrors the contents of your Mac’s Desktop, Music, Pictures, Documents, and Movies folders to their Windows equivalents (Desktop, My Music, My Pictures, My Documents, and My Movies, respectively), and a better Parallels Explorer for browsing the contents of your VM’s virtual drive. And of course, the new Parallels update uses less CPU power and system resources than before. While this statement pretty much comes up in every Parallels update, this time is for real. For the first time ever, I can actually run my Windows XP VM and use my Mac at a normal speed at the same time. This update also really helped the CPU load during processor-intensive tasks, such as booting up and shutting down.

This update for Parallels is available for free to owners of the 3.0 version, $49.99 for people who have previous versions of the software, and $79.99 for new purchasers. And after this update, I’d definitely say that Parallels is really worth the price.

Two lil’ updates for your Mac

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 4:37 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software » Updates

Tuesday seems to be the new release day for Apple’s little and largely unexciting software and hardware updates; today brings not one, but two of those (we’re pretty lucky, I know). The lucky winners are QuickTime and the new slim silver Apple keyboards.

Compatibility Update for QuickTime “delivers increased compatibility with iLife”. I guess if you video has been acting quirky in iMovie, this is good news. In more poetic terms,

QuickTime video:
Now compatibilified
with your new iLife.

Meanwhile, Keyboard Software Update 1.2 also landed. The description for this is basically the same as the 1.1 update, so we assume this one is here to fix problems some people were still having with regards to the special keys on their new shiny keyboards. What, you want a second haiku? I’m happy to oblige.

Keyboard Update drops
For the good of your keyboard;
Enjoy those cool keys.

Double update release, double haiku serving. That’s how it works.

Mac users to be big damn Guitar Heroes

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 1:35 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Games

If you’re not familiar with the Guitar Hero franchise, then I’m afraid we’re going to have a little chat. You’re going to need to stop surfing the web, walk/run/bike/drive to your nearest game store and pick up a copy of any Guitar Hero game you can get your hands on. I’m not jok—do I look like I’m joking, son?

What, no video game console? Well, it just might be your lucky day. Aspyr’s announced that they’ll be porting the forthcoming Guitar Hero III to the Mac, the first game from the series to make the leap. Aspyr will also be doing a PC version of the game, and there’ll be cross-platform multiplayer for the game’s “battle mode.”

Of course, there’s little good to having the game without a guitar, so it’ll ship in a box that also contains a USB guitar controller modeled on a Gibson. No price has been announced yet, but you’ll be able to start rocking out sometime in October, within weeks of the game’s launch for consoles. System requirements aren’t available yet, but Aspyr says they’re working hard to make Guitar Hero III available to “the greatest number of PC and Mac owners.” That’s good news for Mac users and would-be rockstars everywhere.

[via Macworld]

Apple + News Corp. = BFF?

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 11:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

The internets are reporting that News Corp. (that’s every Fox show, like “24”) will not be pulling out of iTunes, à la NBC.

But it doesn’t sound like Steve & Co. have the coziest relationship with Rupert & Co., according to this quote:

“Right now we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple,” [President Peter Chernin] told Reuters. “But let me say this, we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”

Maybe we do need Jack Bauer for this one.

Apple eyes 700 MHz spectrum?

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 10:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Legal

There’s been a lot of chatter going on lately surrounding the freeing up the 700 MHz spectrum. For those of you who haven’t been keeping score at home, the television broadcasters are handing back that part of the spectrum to the guv’ment in 2009, when analog television broadcasts will be shut off in the US.

Big companies (read: Google) are interested in throwing up a lot of cash (minimum bid: $4.6 billion) to acquire this prime spot in the electromagnetic spectrum. According to BusinessWeek: “Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today’s cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.”

So, to cut to the chase, BW reports that Apple is eyeing bidding on this spectrum, according to two anonymous sources.

Why would Apple be interested in ponying up such scratch?

BW: “For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn’t with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T.”

But our cousins over at ComputerWorld don’t seem to think this is likely, quoting three named analysts, including Gene Munster, who said: “Not only is that not where they know what they’re doing, but that’s also not where they want to go. It’s pretty clear that Apple wants to be a device and a software company, not a network operator.

Discuss.

iTunes is in the Spotlight too

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 9:26 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Just yesterday, Derik noted that Apple had added Spotlight-like search capabilities to their website. But that’s not the only place to benefit from everybody’s favorite search technology. I popped over to the iTunes Music Store this morning to do some searching (for ringtones, if you must know), and found that Apple’s also added search-as-you-type to the iTunes Store.

Works pretty much like you’d expect it to: as you enter a term, suggestions for the most likely hits pop up in a little white box. I found that it worked for artist, album, and track title. You can arrow through the suggestions, or select anyone with a mouse, and while it won’t take you directly to the page for that album or track, it’ll act exactly as though you just searched for those terms. And it’s wayyyyyyy faster than the real Spotlight, which is nice.

Get your Macs furbished…again!

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 8:33 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

You know what word doesn’t get enough play? Furbish. Sure, its friend “refurbish” gets love all the time, but have you ever thought about furbish’s feelings. I mean: it sounds like a poor little fuzzy alien or something. No wonder nobody wants to use it. Despite the fact that it means pretty much the same thing as refurbish. Shame.

Why these linguistic perambulations? Well, it’s not as though I need a reason, but mainly it’s because there’s a whole truckload of furbished Macs now available at the Apple Store. If you don’t mind picking up previously loved computers, you can score quite a deal. 15” MacBook Pros are going for $300 off; a 17” model for $600 off; and the ever popular MacBooks can be had for up to $200 off. iMacs, Mac minis, Mac Pros, displays, and peripherals are available for similar discounts as well. As always, these deals come with the standard one year warranty and are available only for a limited time, so act fast if you’re looking to save some cash.

JollysFastVNC has an accurate name

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 7:42 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

I like to use VNC to remotely control my Macs (because I’m far too lazy to get out of my chair and take that multi step hike). Until recently, Chicken of the VNC was always my client of choice. It’s fast and works as I expect a VNC client should.

However, that “fast” qualifier is a comparative measure, because really, VNC isn’t fast. Other protocols are far more efficient and responsive. As such, JollysFastVNC really piqued my interest. After some experimentation, it lives up to its name. My VNC connections suddenly have new life, and feel more responsive than I thought possible.

It works particularly well on my Mac Pro when controlling my Powerbook 12”, but I’m not sure I can say the reverse, where that speed would be most appreciated. Chicken of the VNC allows you to control a computer with a much bigger desktop through a window with scroll bars, but JollysFastVNC doesn’t. It either creates a window far too large for my screen (that you can’t pan through), or it scales everything. That could be useful in many cases, but I’d at least like the option of a scrollable window.

At any rate, with a low, low price of free, if you need a fast VNC client, definitely check Jollys out.

A gold, diamond encrusted MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 6:36 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Geekery

As Mac users, we have a rep. We’ve got the cheese. The green. Moolah. After all, who else can afford this overpriced Apple gear? Its a wonder that Macs aren’t flashier/blingier.

Computer Choppers has the right idea. They’re in the middle of constructing a MacBook Pro with a gold case with a diamond encrusted Apple logo. It’s not even a one time thing.

As far as customizing these logos go, the sky’s the limit. We offer the service for any logo (custom or otherwise) on any laptop. Aside from the Macbook and Macbook Pro logos, most laptops covers will have to be laser cut to fit the new logo. The base metal and stones are your choice so anything from gold to platinum and diamonds to sapphires. Call or email for a proper estimate. Turn around time is about 2-3 weeks depending on the detail of your logo.

In case you’re wondering, this particular logo allows the light behind it to shine through.

Now, when will Apple release a MacBook Pro with a sapphire option?

[via MacNN]

Apple finally does the right thing, refunds Lisa buyers

Posted on Sep. 11, ’07, 5:28 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

Oh, sure, you may think that dropping the iPhone’s price $200 (1/3) in a couple months was extreme, but think of the Lisa owners, who bought a computer for $9,995 only to have it obsoleted the next year by a $2,495 machine. That’s $7,500! Over 3/4!

Thankfully, Apple has heard your pleas and responded.

Early adopters of the iPhone weren’t the only ones receiving in-store credit from Steve Jobs. In an overlooked announcement, Jobs said that early adopters of the Apple Lisa would be receiving a $7000 in-store credit.

“I’ve felt bad about people who bought the Lisa for a long time. Anybody who bought one of the first Apple Lisas really got screwed,” said Jobs. “Now that we’ve got some cash, I think it’s about time we made it right.”

It’s about time.

[via Digg]

Quick! LanchBar is on sale at MacZot

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 4:24 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software

In my humble opinion, MacZot’s software deals have become somewhat uninteresting in the past few months, and I can’t really blame them: how many good pieces of Mac software is there to discount? Today, however, their offer is a good one.

If you act quickly, you can get the excellent LaunchBar 4.3 for 50% off, bringing down the $19.95 price to a mere $9.95. Quicksilver is very widespread, mostly thanks to its expandability and price (free), but LaunchBar has some excellent features wrapped into a very well-rounded and user-friendly interface.

So if you’ve been somewhat disappointed with Quicksilver or haven’t yet tried a so-called “app launcher”, you’ll probably want to check out LaunchBar. Decide quickly, though, as MacZot’s deal is only available today.

Apple may be dialing down iPod touch features

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 9:26 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

We lowly bloggers have yet to get quality hands-on time with the new iPod touch, but we hear the whispers in the field like everybody else. Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has removed the ability to add and edit events in the iPod touch’s calendar, a feature that you can find on the iPhone.

iPods have long had the ability to sync calendar and contact data with your Mac and display it, though they’ve never had any mechanism to input text (discounting the 5.5G’s cumbersome search interface). Clearly the iPod touch does, since it’s based on the same exact technology as the iPhone. Seems like this is just Apple’s way of imposing feature differences between the iPhone and the iPod to prevent cannibalization of sales.

On the one hand, it’s damned annoying. We know the ability is there—holding it back seems mercenary and penny-pinching. On the other hand, I can see the philosophical reason behind: with perhaps the exception of Safari, the iPod touch is very much a consumer device—and I mean that in the literal sense of “consuming information.” It’s not meant to be a PDA or handheld computer in the same way that the iPhone is: it’s meant to be a media player, an iPod. Note that on the features breakdown of the iPod touch page, they list Video, Photos, Music, YouTube, and Safari—no Calculator, Contacts, or Calendar. Maybe they simply hate the letter “C,” but I think it has more to do with what they intend people to use their iPod for. The major reason they included Contacts and Calendar is because otherwise people would throw a flaming fit that those features were available on the iPod classic and nano and not on the touch.

I’m not condoning any of the above, but I think that’s how Apple sees it. And those of you who are prepared to rail against the heavens for this injustice should at least consider this: while the iPod touch may not be meant for a life as a PDA or handheld computer, there’s little doubt in my mind that industrious hackers will figure out how to start porting features and software to it from the iPhone about, oh, five minutes after the touch is released.

We can’t live with or without the U2 Special Edition iPod

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 9:03 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

When Apple reshuffled its iPod lineup last week, there were plenty of changes. The nano got short and squat, the fullsize iPod went classic, and the iPod touch was introduced. Everybody present and accounted for, right?

Well, almost. Reader Darren put a simple sentence to us that caused us to reevaulate everything we thought we knew: “I noticed on Apple’s site that the U2 iPod is no longer listed. I assume this means that it’s been discontinued.” Say it ain’t so, Bono. Say it ain’t so.

Sure enough, the U2 Special Edition iPod is nowhere to be found. A search for U2 on the site yields a broken link to the QuickTime VR of the iPod, and that’s it. Trying to go to the U2 iPod page redirects you to the “Which iPod are you?” page.

Is this the end for the Apple/U2 alliance? Maybe, maybe not. The fact that the PRODUCT (RED) iPods are still in evidence lends credence to the theory that Bono and Steve maintain close ties. And this isn’t the first time that we’ve wondered whether or not the U2 Special Edition was doomed: the 5G version of the U2 Special Edition iPod was launched several months after the 5G debuted. Perhaps a U2 version of the iPod classic is just waiting in the wings.

Flying Meat seeds Acorn 1.0

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 8:22 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

My image-editing tasks are usually limited to constructing amusing pictures to accompany blog posts. When all I really need is layering features to composite two pictures together, firing up Photoshop is the equivalent of using a chainsaw to cut wrapping paper. Not to mention that in the time it takes to launch, I could probably perform a rendition of the Gettysburg Address.

So, thank you Gus Mueller of Flying Meat software for putting together exactly what I’ve needed: a lightweight, simple, layer-based image program. Acorn is just that. Taking advantage of the Core Image technology built into Tiger, the program is essentially Photoshop for the rest of us. You can use filters, create vector shapes, add text, even take screenshots or easily grab an image from your iSight. Gus has thrown in a couple of other neat additions too, like the ability to resize your image or canvas by just dragging the window while holding down a modifier key. Not to mention there’s an entire plugin architecture so you can extend the program’s capabilities via Objective-C or Python.

I’ve only played around with Acorn a bit this morning, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen. Over the weekend, Gus posted an “interview” with an unnamed developer, that’s certainly very illuminating now that Acorn has been released. At the moment, Acorn 1.0 is priced at $40, but you can download it and give its shiny filters a spin for nothing.

Apple.com now with Spotlight search

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 7:36 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple

Call me a dork, but I use the search functions of most websites so infrequently (site:whatever.com on Google usually works far better) that I hadn’t noticed that Apple’s homepage now has a searchfield that has a Spotlight-esque search result drop down.

It’s a lot smarter than your average search too, listing only the major stuff that most people care about rather than all the random data on the website. Categories of data like Products, iTunes Store, The Apple Store, Downloads, and even Movie Trailers are presented as headings with results below.

As cool as it is, the success of the search is hit and miss. For example, “Lennon” brings up a single movie trailer (Balls of Fury), but not a single iTunes Store entry. Something’s not quite right with it. I’ll probably use it for quick access to the Mac product pages but nothing else.

[via The Apple Blog]

iTunes movie rentals, HD, the iTunes WiFi Music Store, and the Apple TV

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 6:28 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple TV

The Apple TV hasn’t lived up to the ideal that Apple presented when it was first revealed. Maybe I read too much into it, but as an HD device, I saw so much more potential. I don’t think I was expecting too much. Considering how the device won’t work on most standard definition televisions, I expected that high definition to go with it would be forthcoming. What’s the point of creating what is essentially a high definition only device that doesn’t have a lot of high definition content to go with it?

There’s a ton of standard definition content that one can put on the device. You can rip DVDs you own using any of a number of tools (and most of the video conversion software has a preset for Apple TVs) and get a lot of content off the iTunes Store. Sure, there are a several HD videocasts that you can watch, but there’s no way to rip HD video discs (either flavor) yet.

I’ll admit that this problem is one of the main reasons I never got an Apple TV. I have the HD TV to go with it, but nothing to back it up. A recent discovery by David Watanabe suggest one piece of the puzzle may be in the works: movie rentals. I don’t often buy movies, but I regularly rent them (Netflix anyone?) and the addition of this feature would substantially increase my iTunes usage (particularly because I don’t care about DRM on content I rent).

The next piece is HD content in the store. Imagine glorious HD on the Apple TV. Of course you imagine because save a few video podcasts, there is no HD content. Apple needs to work with its partners to get this going. As I’ve written before, the current state of HD disc formats (ie, war that benefits no one) is shameful and studios should be looking to partner on more On Demand video services.

That last sentence is a nice lead in for the last thing we need to see on the Apple TV, the iTunes WiFi Music Store, except with video. Apple, with the iPod Touch and soon the iPhone, has proven that it’s possible for them to give devices direct access to the store to purchase and sync back content to the host computer later. The Apple TV is designed to be permanently attached to either a WiFi or ethernet connection, which fits in with the requirements of the newly designed store.

Rather than a loser, the Apple TV could be turned into a winner with three features. Suddenly, it’s a subscription free HD On Demand device. Rather than shoulder a $50-60 subscription with a cable/satellite/FiOS television provider, you pay a one time fee of $299. Suddenly you can buy television shows (which Apple wants to reduce in price to 99 cents) and rent movies on your terms. Even if Apple charges on the high end of the rental spectrum, the lack of a subscription cost more than makes up for it.

Gaming Google Adwords for teh funny

Posted on Sep. 10, ’07, 5:17 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Humor

You may have noticed that a few blogs, like Gizmodo and TUAW, pointing to a Google Adwords ad that seemed to be from Apple gloating over early adopters of the iPhone. The ad read:

Congrats, Late Adopters
iPhone drops $200. Now you get all
the iPhone for 2/3 the price.
store.apple.com/

Problem was, it wasn’t actually from Apple. It was from Didn’t You Hear…. Just for a few giggles, he placed the ad.

I set up the ad so that it would only display when a user searched for “iphone price drop” (the search string from the original story that I had written about), capped the ad to $20 per day, put in $.05 per click, figured that it would get a few views from people who wanted to see the Nokia ad for themselves, and left for work.

Boy was I wrong.

He caused quite an uproar and all for less than $20. For the record, I would have found it hilarious even if Apple had placed the ad. Schadenfreude my friends, Schadenfreude.

Growl gets bumped to 1.1

Posted on Sep. 8, ’07, 1:54 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software » Updates

Growl, a global notification system for OS X, has really enhanced the user experience for many third-party apps such as chat and FTP clients. It’s free, it’s discreet, and it’s getting used more and more. That’s why I was happy to find out version 1.1 was just released. The revision doesn’t bring revolutionary features, but it’s certainly welcome.

First, the notification customization on a per app basis is greatly improved, adding the option to play sounds, for example. The notifications windows get a couple of new styles, but most importantly now display a close button when moused-over. I also think the ability to choose one of your screen’s four corners as the starting point for notifications is new — update: it is. Chris Forsythe explains on his blog it’s part of Growl’s new “global positioning system” feature.

Apart from that, the Growl team also did some good work behind the scenes, fixing bugs, memory leaks, and other performance problems. The update also promises improved localization.

Check out the full version history for more details, or head to the Growl homepage to download your copy.

[via Daring Fireball]

iTunes already updated to 7.4.1

Posted on Sep. 8, ’07, 9:35 AM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | iTunes

It didn’t take long for Apple to update the latest version of iTunes: 7.4.1 is already out. This truly is a minor update, as Apple is completely mum on what changed (not even the usual bug fixes statement).

One change that was quickly discovered by the blogosphere, however, was that it disabled the little trick to create free iPhone ringtones, detailed here on iPhone Central. (Turning an AAC file into a compatible ringtone was just a matter of changing the file’s extension to from .m4a to .m4r) The interesting twist, though, is that Joe Maller discovered a workaround: to simply change the extension back to the original .m4a.

It’ll be interesting to watch how this develops. Will Apple want to push out another iTunes revision in the near future?

[via TUAW]

Peacock-a-thon: NBC may have left over proposed price cuts

Posted on Sep. 7, ’07, 9:40 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

Like a private eye digging into the sordid tales of a recently-ended relationship, Variety has come up with some information that might shed light on the dark crevices of NBC and Apple’s recent breakup. According to “three people familiar with the proposal,” Apple is considering lowering the price on their TV offerings from $1.99 an episode to $0.99. NBC balked at the suggestion—their position on pricing is pretty clear—and the conflict precipitated the messy end to an otherwise profitable relationship.

Now, I know there are definitely people who always want things to be cheaper. I guess the question for me is: what is a “fair” price for a television episode? People are used to subscribing to their TV content; breaking that down into a per-show cost is hardly straightforward. Plus, as the Variety article notes, the bread-and-butter of TV right now is DVD sales. Pricing iTunes’s content at $0.99 and episode would, for most shows, significantly undercut the price of season boxsets. Though, I have to point out, I think there’s a substantial value difference between the two. For one thing, DVD sets don’t take up hard drive space, and they usually come with special features. And, for that matter, despite the Apple TV and the prevalence of video-capable iPods and iPhones, it’s still easier for most people to just pop a DVD into their home theater. Still, it seems to me the two can continue to exist side-by-side, even with a price difference: Apple uses the same principle to differentiate its hardware lines. You pay more, you get more features.

I won’t say that the extra dollar is what keeps me from downloading TV on the net—especially when so much of it is freely available, legally and illegally, elsewhere. But while, as Variety suggests, networks seemed to be convinced that digital downloads are the future, they’re not quite ready to embrace that future yet.

Deconstructionism and the iPod classic and 3G nano

Posted on Sep. 7, ’07, 8:45 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

The squeamish amongst you might want to avert your eyes, while the technologically prurient should probably make sure to fasten their bibs securely. As with any time we get a brand new Apple product, the folks at iFixit have decided that in order to fully appreciate the iPod classic and iPod nano, they’re required by their own strange code of ethics to take each and every little piece apart until they’ve fully rendered them into their component parts. If they could, I think they’d take it down to the atomic level, but science—and righteousness—prevents them.

So what do we learn from the dissection of Apple’s newest iPods? The classic shares much in common with its predecessor, the iPod with video, but both hard drive and display are thinner than the 5G’s, explaining how they manage to make the 80GB classic thinner than the 30GB video (jeebus; and I think back to how much thinner my 30GB is than my original 5GB iPod). In terms of construction, the faceplate secures via metal instead of plastic tabs, the display is now backed by a metal plate, and the logic board is secured to the chassis by screws (it wasn’t attached in the 5G iPod).

What about the infamous fatboy nano? The crew managed to take it apart and put it back together again without breaking it (always a plus). They noted a heavy use of adhesive for securing parts, but by and large the construction seemed to be similar to the second-generation nano, down to the soldering of the battery to the logic board.

We’re sure that iFixit is rubbing their greedy little hands together for a chance to pick up the iPod touch when they ship at the end of the month. Is there nothing that can be done to stop these monsters?

iTunes 7.4 makes folders more than folderol

Posted on Sep. 7, ’07, 8:05 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes

A little birdie wrote in to tell us about a feature of iTunes 7.4 that we missed in our roundup: when you connect your iPhone (and probably iPod, though we haven’t verified) to your Mac, you’ll notice something new about the Music tab: It now displays a hierarchical list of your playlists including folders.

I know some people use folders to keep track of their massive collections of playlist, but I’m just not that organized. And I know that others don’t even know that such a thing is possible. So for those of you who’ve been living a flat life of playlists, you’ll find the “New Folder” item under the File menu in iTunes. You can even make folders of folders. You could have lots of folders. Say, 43 of them, to pick an entirely arbitrary number with no significance whatsoever.

And now, with 7.4, you can use those folders to manage your playlists on your portable music device. You may commence your torrents of gratified weeping…now.

[Thanks, Scotty]

Apple Pro Application Support 4.0.2 released

Posted on Sep. 7, ’07, 6:04 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

Another day, another minor Apple software update. They’re sparing no expense for writers to craft such a carefully worded description that it’s one mere sentence.

This update addresses issues with keyboard interface reliability for Apple’s professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio.

Show’s over folks. That’s all she wrote. Well, I guess that means it’s time for the haiku.

Keyboard interface
reliability for
Final Cut Stewed Yo

I had to get creative at the end. It couldn’t be helped.

iPod Touch guy different than iPhone guy

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 4:51 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Video

We all know Bob, the guy who does those iPhone feature overview videos (and who’s the head of iPhone marketing). Well it seems Apple must have liked those informative little clips, because they’ve created one for the new iPod Touch. The only difference is good ‘ol Bob has now been replaced by a new guy.

This new “Guided Tour” guy does the exact same types of hand gestures and demonstrations as Bob, though Macenstein notes one interesting difference:

[It’s] really interesting is how Apple managed to match the look of the iPod touch Guy to the device itself. When using the iPhone and the iPhone Guy as a reference, you can see that, just like the iPod touch, the guy seems a little off – a little more awkward and out of proportion. He has a little more forehead as well, just like the iPod touch. And of course, he has less icons as well.

Steve Jobs is Teflar: smoother than Teflon, bulletproof as Kevlar

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 12:49 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPhone

Steve Jobs is at it again. The latest open letter from the Apple CEO is responding to the fallout from the iPhone’s $200 price cut yesterday. Yes, this is the real Steve Jobs, not that Forbes dude. Says Steve:

…even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

And $100 worth of credit at the Apple Store.

That’s…that’s…great googly moogly. Okay, I’ll admit it: I was in the midst of penning a piece on how the iPhone price cut uproar is ridiculous when this news broke, and like the rest of Steve’s open letters, I gotta say I didn’t see this one coming. If I were a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I’d say this whole thing was staged to perfection. But since I’m feeling a little more rational today (hey, it happens once a week or so), I’m really just taking Steve at his word.

Apple’s already sold close to a million iPhones, which means that they’re offering up almost $100 million worth of credit at their stores. Sure, not everybody will take advantage of that the credit, but that’s less important than the gesture itself and, I dare say, far more than you’d get were people to not only launch but win a class action suit (tenuous at best).

Some people will no doubt still be peeved at the perceived slight, but come on: when’s the last time you saw a company do this of their own volition? Cheer up.

Real Steve Jobs gets snarky with USA Today

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 11:13 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Steve Jobs

Real Steve doesn’t always do many media appearances, but here’s a few choice quotes in his recent interview with USA Today:

Q: What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?

I own every Bob Dylan album ever, but I buy a lot of it on iTunes, because I guess I’m just too lazy to rip it from the CD.

[via TUAW]

As Business 2.0 shuts down, whither the Apple 2.0 blog?

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 10:15 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Internet

It was announced yesterday that Business 2.0, a magazine that this writer can count amongst its alumni, is shutting its doors. This issue will be its last.

While B2 hasn’t done so well in print, this year it aggressively pursued a blog network, including the Apple 2.0 blog in February, which was a welcome addition to the Mac/Apple blogosphere. Apple 2.0 is/was penned by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, a newcomer to B2, but a longtime veteran at B2’s sister pub, a little rag called Time.

The AP is reporting that some of B2’s staff, including editor-in-chief Josh Quittner, were offered posts at Fortune — an offer that we’re assuming extends to Mr. Elmer-DeWitt as well.

Here’s to hoping that Apple 2.0 just changes URL.

Philip emailed me to say: “Fortune says they want me to keep blogging for their site. Whether its name changes hasn’t been determined.”

iPhone Central Roundup: Calling all cars

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 9:45 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPhone

We don’t spend too much time on iPhone news here at MacUser. For that, we have our sister site iPhone Central. But giving how much of yesterday’s news had to do with iPhone improvements, we thought you might be interested in what’s going on in the world of Apple’s shiny cell phone.

• iTunes 7.4 kills iToner ringtones For now, the workaround is to sync the iPhone, fire up iToner, and reinstall your custom ringtones. After doing so, your iToner ringtones will be back in place.
• Apple’s 10-day price guarantee
  So if you’re a very recent iPhone buyer and you’re feeling burned, call that number (or visit the store where you bought it, if you bought it in person) and see if you can get some relief.
• iPhone video out forthcoming?
  Interesting quirk on the Apple store: both the Apple Component AV Cable and Apple Composite AV cable for the new generation of iPods also list themselves as iPhone compatible.
• iPod touch lacks recessed headphone jack
  In fact, it took me a minute to find the headphone jack at all, because it’s not on the top, like either the current iPhone or iPod model. Instead, Apple’s moved the jack to the bottom of the unit, next to the dock-connector port, where it resides on the nano.
• 4GB iPhone dead, Jim?
  Wayyyyy down at the bottom of the Apple Store’s front page, there’s a little box that says the 4GB iPhone will go for $299 “while supplies last.” So if you’re not pining for an 8GB model, that’s your cheapest iPhone option.

And if that doesn’t quench your thirst for iPhone-related news, just take yourself right over to iPhone Central for your recommended daily allowance.

Pop-pop gains Universal appeal

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 9:18 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Games

This will hardly be the first time I’ve declaimed my love for Ambrosia Software’s food of the gods games, but I was especially pleased this morning to see that they’ve updated one of their slightly older games with Intel compatibility. If you’re a fan of puzzle games, and especially brick-bashing titles in the vein of Breakout and Arkanoid, you owe it to youself to check out pop-pop—now, I am assured, with fully 20% more pop.

I played this on my iBook G3 and PowerBook G3 back in the day, and managed to get a few of my cousins hooked on it as well—to the point where they still ask me if they can play it, despite the fact that I never got around to installing it on my MacBook. If you’ve already bought Pop-pop, this update is totally free for you; for the rest of us, the app’s cost remains at $25.

The crew at Ambrosia has also tested the game with preliminary versions of Leopard, hopefully meaning that it’ll be all set when the final version ships next month (wow, is it almost October already?). But don’t worry: the game remains backwards compatible with G3s and later running at least 10.3.

[via Macworld]

Peacock-a-thon: Steve Jobs still willing to take NBC back

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 8:50 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

No, I’m not expecting NBC CEO Jeff Zucker to show up outside 1 Infinite Loop, with a set of iPod speakers blaring “In Your Eyes,” but there’s a chance that should that extremely unlikely event occur, that he might not find Steve Jobs too hard-hearted.

“We hope they’ll reconsider their decisions over time and maybe find out that iTunes and iPods are a great way to digitally distribute their content to tens or maybe hundreds of millions of customers around the world,” Jobs said in an interview.

You know what, I’m going to go out on a limb here. NBC’s fall lineup starts in earnest around September 24th, and I’m going to say that I’ll be surprised if the two companies don’t come to some sort of reconciliation by then. Neither of them really wants to lose out on the potential revenue from a brand new season of shows, and let me tell you: Unbox is not going to cut it. So I guess the only question is: deal or no deal?

[via The iPod Observer]

iTunes 7.4: what is it good for?

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 8:17 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes

As updates to iTunes go, 7.4 whelms in an underly sort of fashion. The marquee feature might be ringtones, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find any in the iTunes Store or your personal collection, as Apple hasn’t rolled them out yet. You can always turn on the Ringtone column in the Music Store (right-click on the column headers and check off Ringtone), but you won’t see any little bell icons for your auditory amusement.

Ringtones aren’t the only new functionality in 7.4. Apple’s also revised iTunes’s video playing capabilities, thank heavens. If you choose to play video back inside the iTunes window, it will now blackout the entire window to show you a video, instead of just playing in the postage-stamp sized frame in the bottom left. Smart money’s still on viewing in a separate window or in QuickTime, if you ask me, but some will appreciate it, no doubt.

And for those Ratings fiends among you—and I know you exist—, iTunes 7.4 lets you not just rate individual tracks, but albums as well. You can either do that by switching to the “grouped” view (the middle view button), or by enabling the Album Rating column (right click on any column header. And this is kind of cool: if you’ve rated individual tracks on an album, it looks like iTunes will actually calculate the album rating for you, based on those ratings (you can override it, if you feel like it).

Finally, 7.4 brings one last improvement for those who’ve spent a little too much time with their volumes cranked to the max. The new version of iTunes now supports displaying closed captioning on video, where available. Go to Preferences -> Playback and check off “Show closed captioning when available.” At last! Movies I can read. My librarian (and hard of hearing) parents will approve.

Beat goes on: A few quick reactions

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 7:44 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Huh?

So yesterday’s presentation brought me back to the days of the really intense Apple event. Announcement after announcement. There’s so much that rather than drag out of each of my thoughts, I’ll give you the quick rundown.

First, I’m still a little taken aback that those leaked photos really showed what the new nano looks like. It’s ugly. Strike that. Oogly. Part of the appeal of the nano was how thin it was. Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions about the way the new one would feel in my hand or pocket, but I find it hard to believe it’ll be nearly as comfortable as the previous version.

Next, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the classes of the iPod. The shuffle makes sense. The iPhone makes sense. The rest is a bit confusing. None of the rest are dedicated to pure music enjoyment, which the nano really excelled at. Adding the video and distorting the form factor aren’t a big problem. The real confusion is why there’s both the iPod Classic and the iPod Touch.

It makes far more sense to me that the two should have been integrated, or the Touch should have featured hard drive storage. Keeping the iPhone trim and reducing battery consumption by using flash storage makes sense. Keeping the iPod Touch trim just doesn’t make as much sense to me. It’s the premier iPod to watch video on, yet its storage is a mere tenth of the corresponding iPod Classic model. It would add girth and require a larger battery, but think about the ability to store enough movies for an intercontinental flight. I kid you not, I had someone ask me this just this afternoon.

Finally, where are the rest of the apps on the iPod Touch? Where’s the email application? Why should I have to use webmail just to read my email? Where are my stocks? Where is the weather? Where is Google Maps? Why, oh why, is the iPod Touch lacking so many buttons?

Ok, so I may seem really whiny about the changes announced today, but I will admit that there was one thing that I really liked. It’s one thing that, if the rest of the Mac web is any indication, is something that has a good portion of you rather riled up. $399 for an 8 GB iPhone is a killer price. I’m still happy with my Treo, but it’s hard to overlook a price drop of a third.

Good bye iPod Hi-Fi

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 6:23 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iPod » iPod Accessories

With all the fanfare, it’s easy to have been distracted from the fact that the iPod Hi-Fi seems to have been discontinued. If you visit the product’s web page (which still exists, oddly enough), you’ll find a link supposedly pointing to it in the online store which leads to nothing. Further, searching for “Hi-Fi” at the store yields two third-party products, but not the iPod Hi-Fi.

It’s gone. Truth be told, it was about time. So many Apple observers are jumping on the “Apple TV is a failure” bandwagon that they’re missing the really big failure, the iPod Hi-Fi. It was released last year during an event that announced the first Intel-based Mac mini and… overpriced leather iPod cases. I remember at the time thinking that both the Hi-Fi and those cases were doomed for failure. Turns out, I was right.

In particular, the Hi-Fi was a bit overpriced and didn’t have the customer demand to back it up. For some reason, Apple’s never had good luck with creating iPod accessories, save the socks, the socks. Anyway, iPod Hi-Fi, it was real, it was nice, but it wasn’t real nice. Bon voyage.

Watch the how the beat went on

Posted on Sep. 6, ’07, 5:17 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Events

You may have cooled down from the excitement of yesterday’s event and discovering the announcements as they played out on the web. We’ll have none of that. It’s time to get amped back up, drooling, and ready to shove that credit card at any willing (or maybe even unwilling) Apple store clerk for hot new merchandise.

Witness the master as he does his thing. There was a time that you could watch this live. Of course, I was living with a 56k modem at the time. I know you’ll want to watch this presentation over and over again. Well, some of you will probably want to skip a little section near the end. You know who you are.

Beat goes on: One more thing is iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 11:01 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

“You might have noticed there’s an empty spot on that dock of the new iPod touch,” said Steve Jobs. “What could that possibly be for? Well, it’s for a new app we’ve written called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.” You know what, Steve? I’ll forgive you just this once for that mouthful because I am psyched.

Inside, you’ll find four buttons: features, top tens, search, and downloads. Top Tens lets you pick the top tens from all of iTunes or just specific genres. If you see a track you like, tap it to preview, and if you want to buy, tap it and hit the Buy Now button and it’ll download the song. The next time you dock it with your computer, it’ll sync to iTunes. There’s also a downloads playlist on the iPod, so you can easily go through tunes you’ve purchased. You can search for anything in the entire iTunes store and you’ll get the same prices and the same exact selection. Plus, the store will be available in all twenty-two countries where iTunes is currently available, and Apple will be rolling it out to the iPhone later this month in a software update.

Apple’s also struck a deal with Starbucks. “We love Starbucks. What we want to be able to do is combine our great iPods and love of music with their great coffee and love of music.” Wait, wait…iPod coffee? Not quite. In the iTunes Wi-Fi store, when you get near a participating Starbucks, a fifth button will appear in the store: a Starbucks button. You can use that to find out the last ten songs they’ve played in Starbucks, and you can buy them with a tap of your finger. “So,” said Jobs, giving it a demo, “they’ve just built a Starbucks backstage…” I don’t think he’s even joking: those things are everywhere.

Anyway, this, my friends, is portable music done right. Apple’s trademark simplicity means that there’s no hoops to jump through and it seems like this will work exactly as you’d expect a portable version of the music store to work. The Starbucks thing doesn’t really do that much for me, but at least it won’t bother you if you’re not near a Starbucks. Personally, I’m literally itching to give this a run through. Or maybe that’s hives.

Beat goes on: Reach out and touch an iPod

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 10:48 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Yes, Virginia, there is a touch-screen iPod. The new model, which is nearly identical to the iPhone with the exception of the receiver speaker at the top is fully 8mm thinner than Apple’s cell phone, and brings all the interface design you’d expect: multi-touch interface, Cover Flow, 3.5” widescreen, et cetera.

“If you used an iPhone, you’ll feel at home,” Jobs said, and sure enough: the demoed interface looks pretty much identical to the iPod features found on the iPhone. “When we introduced the iPhone in January, we said it was the best iPod ever…and people have been wondering when are we going to bring this technology to the iPod?”

Like the iPhone, the iPod touch will not only play back your tunes, but will also display photos and play video. Apple’s also loaded a bunch of the iPhone’s other apps on the iPod touch: photos, calculator, contacts, clock, calendar, YouTube, et cetera. According to Jobs, the touch will get 22 hours of audio playback, and five hours of video.

And, it’s got a surprise inside: 802.11b/g wireless. Jobs pointed out the difficulty of using ubiquitous Wi-Fi: it might be fine to use when you’re at home, but when you’re out on the road you might need to login to a webpage in order to authorize your device on a network, or enter a password. The solution? Add Safari to the iPod touch. And so, just like the iPhone (I can already tell that “Just like the iPhone” is going to be the catch phrase for this device), you can pinch, zoom, double tap, etc all across the entire web.

Unlike the iPhone—and this may be one of the few differences between the two—the iPod touch will be available outside of the US, making it the first touchscreen device Apple’s localized for use outside of the US.

The iPod touch will come in two capacities: 8GB and 16GB, costing $299 and $399 respectively, positioning these perfectly between the iPod classic and the iphone. Both models will be available in September, in a few weeks.

Beat goes on: The iPod goes classic

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 10:42 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

And, for those of you keeping track at home, that leaves the full iPod. “It’s a funny name,” Jobs said. “It’s just called the iPod because it was the first one, and we thought: it’s time to give it a name. We’re going to call it the iPod Classic.” Oh, man, I just love my classic iPod from 2005. Even cars have to be a wee bit older than that to be called classics.

But the new version sports a design that’s largely inspired by the iPhone: silver and black. They’re even thinner than the current iPods, and they start off with 80GB and 160GB of storage: that means the high end puts 40,000 songs in your pocket. Apple’s quoting 30 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback for the 80GB, and 40 hours of audio and 7 hours of video for the 160GB, meaning a lot of that room must be going to battery. They’ll cost $249 and $349 respectively, and should both be available this weekend.

As opposed to the touch-interface expected by many, Apple’s keeping around the traditional Click Wheel for the iPod classic, though it will share the same “enhanced” user interface that he demoed on the new nano. Of course, there’s a reason they’re calling it the classic, and that’s to differentiate it from…

Beat goes on: Honey, they shrunk the iPod nano

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 10:35 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Working his way up the line, Jobs has also announced a revamp of the iPod nano. The nano is the most popular music player in history, Steve said—and, of course, the nano itself replaced the previous most popular iPod, the mini. But Apple likes to kill things off at the height of their popularity, so they’ve designed a new version of the nano.

This version is even smaller than the existing nano, and it loses a bit of weight in the thickness and height departments. It’ll be available in five colors: red, black, silver, blue, and green. But the big news is a brand new 2” screen. It’s got a resolution of 320x240, and the highest pixel density that Apple’s ever shipped: 204 pixels per inch.

They’ve also changed up the iPod’s traditional interface a bit, adding a preview of what you’re selecting, and—depending on how you feel—the love-it/hate-it Cover Flow interface. And, the nano has also gained some new abilities previously found in the full iPod: games (three titles come bundled with the nano) and videos. As with previous versions of the nano, this one is also compatible with the Nike + iPod Sports Kit.

Jobs also bragged about the battery life of the new version: twenty-four hours of audio and five hours of video. The new nano will come in two versions, a 4GB, silver-only model, for $149 and a 8GB version of any of the five colors for $199. The nanos are “on planes,” according to Jobs, and should be available this weekend in stores.

Beat goes on: iPod shuffle sees (RED), other new colors as well

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 10:26 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iPod

Jobs announced that the entire iPod line would be seeing revisions today, starting with a fairly minor one for the shuffle. As with its big brother the iPod nano, a PRODUCT (RED) shuffle has been added, some portion of the cost of which will go to help fight disease in Africa. It’ll cost $79, like the other shuffles, and come in a 1GB flavor.

That’s hardly enough to qualify as a refresh, so Apple’s also changing up the colors slightly. The shuffle will now be available in silver, purple, green, and blue. Alas, pink fans, you’ll still have to do without. And it seems as though orange never really caught on. Oh well.

Beat goes on: Apple rings in new version of iTunes

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 10:14 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

Chalk this one up for the rumor sites: Apple’s getting into the ringtone game. At today’s special event, Steve “Don’t call me, I’ll call you” Jobs announced that new version of iTunes shipping today would have, as its marquis feature, downloadable ringtones.

“We’re going to do ringtones in our own special way,” said Jobs. For the iPhone, natch. They’re shipping a custom ringtone maker built into iTunes that will allow you to make tones from songs available to iTunes, including, Jobs said “some songs you’ve already purchased.” There are 500,000 participating songs, suggesting that there are licensing details to be worked out with some content owners.

iTunes will add a ringtones item in the source list, and valid songs in your library that are “ringtonable” will have a bell icon placed next to them (we saw this icon leaked a while back, in iTunes 7). Click that, and the ringtone maker appears, letting you select which portion of the song you want to use, and automatically adding a fade in or fade out. The resulting file is added to your new ringtone folder and a tab in iTunes, where you can select what to sync to your iPhone.

Not that they’re doing this entirely out of the goodness of their hearts. Converting a song to a ringtone will cost you $0.99 on top of the $0.99 you pay for the song (or $1.29 for the iTunes Plus song, we presume). Jobs compared this to the $2.49 pricetag offered by many competitors; but assuming you make ringtones out of iTunes Plus tracks, that’s only a savings of $0.20.

And, assuming nothing breaks with the iTunes update, you can do the same thing with iFuntastic or Ambrosia’s iToner with somewhat fewer limitations.

Our verdict: thumbs down, unless the ringtone editing experience is truly phenomenal.

Almost nearly live coverage of today’s Apple event

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 9:41 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Events

Oh, yeah, we’re, er, outside of Moscone West right now. And it’s let me just check sunny? Yeah. And, er, crowded. Very crowded. Hey, there’s Steve Jobs, eating a donut and wearing…clown shoes.

Okay, fine. You got us. We’re not at Moscone. We’re not even on the West Coast (more’s the pity). We couldn’t quite scrape together the dosh for a last minute trip to SF, so we’re sitting back in Eastern time, watching the web with the rest of you mere mortals.

We will, however, be getting a live feed from an operative in the very heart of the event, so you can expect to see coverage on here as the news breaks. And if that just ain’t fast enough for you, son, well, you can always check out the live update from our “professional” siblings over at Macworld.

Under the gavel: Europe gets all litigious

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 9:17 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

People say that America has become a culture of lawsuits, but that doesn’t mean that the US is alone in that regard. The folks in Europe have their fair share of legal action, especially when it comes to dear old Apple.

First up, we’ve got a little news on the antitrust charges that the European Union had leveled against Apple and the iTunes Store. Apple, as you may recall, had sent a response to the EU, which was being studied “carefully.” Now, the two parties, along with several of the major record labels, are sitting down for closed door talks on September 19th and 20th. At stake: whether or not Apple and the labels are illegally forcing European residents to purchase songs depending on where they live. There hasn’t been this much excitement in Europe since the Reformation. Am I right? Eh? Eh?

As if the ongoing spat with the EU isn’t enough, Apple is once again facing legal action from another corner of the continent: Denmark. Earlier this year, that country’s Consumer Complaints Board declared the iBook G4 to be defective, based on an issue with a faulty solder connection. This week, the board ruled against Apple, saying that the company will be required to compensate owners of faulty units; they’ve given Apple two weeks to comply or they will be “face public exposure on the boards list of ‘unwilling companies’.” Oooooooh. What next, make them stay after school?

Seriously though, it sounds like the iBook G4 complaint is valid—they really put their tests through the ringer. Though I’m not sure why only Denmark seems to have taken the time to investigate the problem. As for the EU, I’d love it if there was some way we could get the record companies to let us buy music from other countries, but I’m not holding my breath just yet.

Peacock-a-thon: NBC rebounds into Amazon’s arms

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 8:31 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

The must see drama continues. NBC, having fired back at Apple’s retaliation for long-term contract negotiations, has decided to seek solace with one of Apple’s rivals: Amazon Unbox. As of today, the NBC shows that so recently graced the virtual aisles of the iTunes Store are now to be found in Jeff Bezos’s empire. What does Amazon have that Apple doesn’t, you might ask?

The media conglomerate, part of General Electric, said yesterday that Amazon had agreed to give it something that Apple would not: greater flexibility in the pricing and packaging of video downloads.

Well, it’s a good theory. So far, I’m not seeing much in the way of variable pricing: Heroes, The Office, and 30 Rock all still seem to be at the same $1.99 price point as they were on iTunes, but the Times says ” Amazon is still working to determine pricing.”

However, what you get along with that price (absolutely free of charge) are irritating restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your content. While Unbox lets you download videos to your TiVo or WMA-compatible device, Amazon’s DRM enforces a strict limit of two different computers or TiVos and two different portable devices. Not that it really matters for most of us, since the system as a whole is not compatible with the iPod or the, and I quote, “Apple/MacIntosh hardware and computer systems.” Touché, Amazon, touché.

Who’ll win this game of video download chicken? Well, much of that depends on what Apple rolls out at its special event, just a couple of hours for now, but I can tell you what Bruno, my very pleasant bookie in Las Vegas, is putting my money on.

Another Apple event, another set of rumors

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 7:29 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Events

I’m being generous about having a new set of rumors for each Apple event. While it’s a new set, it’s really the recycling of unfulfilled rumors with a mix of new ones (to replace the ones that actually get fulfilled). Considering the recent Mac-focused event and the iPod ad silhouette on the invitation, it’s a safe bet that today’s Apple event won’t have the mythical mini Mac Pro or mini MacBook Pro (as much as the latter is a wonderful idea).

That leaves iPods and related services like the iTunes Store. We have the obvious predictions like the phoneless, hard drive based next generation iPod (which I would be very excited for) and the Beatles coming to iTunes.

Quick aside: I probably spend far too much time paying attention to technology news, but I got real tired of everyone and their brother repeating the conclusion that the inclusion of the phrase “And the beat goes on.” in the invitation means the Beatles are finally coming to iTunes. It’s obvious. Stop beating it to death. Even if it’s true, it’s a boring rumor. Think about it. Yawnsies.

Then there’s the ugly fat iPod nano rumor. I love this one because it shows how easily rumor sites can be manipulated. By claiming the original pictures as Apple’s property, the company’s lawyers got every rumor site to proclaim the rumor “confirmed”. They were all far too busy patting themselves on the back for their cleverness that they couldn’t be bothered to give Apple legal even a bit of credit.

Anyway, it’ll all shake out tomorrow. My money is on a “Yellow Submarine” iPod with Beatles music already on it.

Apple PR is the sweetest job of all

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 6:31 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Advertising

Ad Age is telling everyone how Apple’s PR is unresponsive, making it a desirable job.

But that’s not the main reason it’s easy. It’s a cushy job because as a public relations person at Apple, you don’t have to deal with the media at all. While it’s no scientific measure, if you Google “Apple did not return calls,” you’ll come up with 2.35 million hits.

The job — as I see it from the point of view of one of those reporters who’s had to write that line a few times — is simply to sit at a desk. Or don’t sit at a desk! Because it’s easy enough to say you’re at a meeting. Not that it matters really, because you’re not expected to answer the phone.

I’m not a member of “the media” (as it’s more traditionally known), so maybe this is true. Reformulate the title of this very post and you’ll see why they don’t need to be actively campaigning. “Apple’s Jobs is the sweetest PR of all.” Steve Jobs is a force of marketing. When he speaks, people listen, even if he’s just saying “boom” repeatedly.

Yet another reason I’m sure they ignore a lot is the media’s propensity to have that ultimate scoop. How many voicemails left for Apple PR are comprised of “Can you confirm rumor x?” I’d get tired of responding to those, especially when the company policy is pretty clear.

What can I tell you about Apple PR? I wrote to Apple’s director of corporate PR and I got a personal response less than six hours later. I’m not sure I did anything special other than ask a relevant, worthwhile question.

[via Valleywag]

Chax 1.5 is still the best iChat add-on out there

Posted on Sep. 5, ’07, 5:22 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Chax 1.5 was released yesterday. For those that refuse to use Adium or want to use iChat for its superior file transfer capabilities (or, I guess that AV conferencing thing, I guess), this software gives you tabbed chat windows, a log viewer, and a buddy status log among many other features.

This latest version is basically a bug fix release, but it’s a prime opportunity to remind you of its existence. As slick and pretty as iChat is, I find it barely livable. With Chax, I could probably use it daily without tearing my hair out.

Besides the features I’ve already listed, it delivers a couple things that keep me sane. When you receive IMs, it can use Growl notifications and even display the messaging buddy’s name in the dock icon. Without Chax, you just get a bouncing dock icon. If you’re a fan of surprises, I’m sure that works just great, but I like a bit more information. Anyway, at the low, low price of free, there’s no excuse to not download.

Dan’s prediction? The beat stops here.

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 1:49 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Humor

As with every day preceding a Steve Jobs Keynote, the Internet is alive with rumors and speculation. And, as per usual, most of these so-called predictions are nothing more than Ouija-board-induced ramblings that are no more likely to come true than I am to suddenly complete my life’s dream of writing, directing and starring in a production of Ingmar Bergman’s Weekend at Bernie’s III (because there were just so many unanswered questions from the first two installments).

But I think we can all agree that when it comes to predictions, I have a unique record of what I like to call uniquity. Anybody can predict things that turn out to be true; it’s just a matter of odds. But predicting things that nobody else is predicting? That, my friends, takes real talent.

In the announcement sent out by Apple last week to promote tomorrow’s special event, there was a picture of a dancing iPod silhouette couched in a Cover Flow-esque layout, subtitled with the words “The beat goes on,” a reference to either the final press release issued by the Beatles or a hit single by Sonny & Cher, leading some to believe that this either marks the long-awaited appearance of The Beatles on the iTunes Store, or that Steve Jobs has finally successfully achieved his long-standing goal to reanimate the late Sonny Bono.

None of the above, I say.

No smoking sign on a Mac?

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 10:42 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Troubleshooting

This morning I was greeted with the pleasant disaster of my girlfriend’s iBook suffering a kernel panic. Once I went through the standard arsenal of troubleshooting tools, and during one of the myriad of restarts was alerted to this symbol at right.

Thankfully, Apple’s tech documentation was extremely helpful and utterly descriptive in telling me what was wrong:

- A kernel panic occurs during startup.
- A miscellaneous startup issue occurs.

Both of which, especially the good ol’ “miscellaneous startup issue” I had already considered.

Still though, is this symbol a common occurrence during a kernel panic?

Watch out Apple, here comes Sony

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 10:06 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Rivals

We’ve seen a bevy of “iTunes killers” over the past couple of years, and none of them have made any sort of respectable dent into Apple’s territory.

But heck, if Sony wants to try, let’s get ready to rumble, m’kay?

Wall Street Journal:

People familiar with the situation say Mr. Stringer [CEO of Sony] is planning to use Sony’s technology-packed PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable videogame machines, along with its Bravia high-definition televisions, to develop products and services to let users download television shows and movies, similar to the way they download music and videos using Apple’s iTunes store and iPods. A Sony spokesman declined to comment on the company’s strategy.

Apple’s response?

And we quote: “We’re the No. 1 video download store.”

That pretty much sums things up right there.

Akamai announces global delivery of HD video; iTunes HD in the wings?

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 9:44 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

File this under “Not Really Sure How We Missed It, But…” Internet bandwidth provider Akamai announced that it can now distribute high definition content on a global scale. To be fair, stuff like this is often just PR hyperbole, but it’s worth noting because Akamai does a fair amount of work for Apple, both for things like their movie trailer site as well as the immense traffic of the iTunes Store.

From there, it’s a hop-skip-and-not-even-a-jump to wondrous daydreams about high-def content on the iTunes Store. Sure, it’s still in the realm of speculation right now, but with a special event looming just twenty-four hours away, can we resist a little guesswork? We’ve been wondering about the lack of HD content on the iTunes Store ever since the release of the Apple TV at January’s Macworld Expo. Why, we asked at the time, would you include an HDMI video connection if you weren’t planning on using it for HD content? Makes no sense.

If this does turn out to be the way things are going, it could present a serious challenge to the ongoing format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray, and it could very well leap digital distribution of video into the next phase of its existence. Which is really just a very pompous way of me saying “oooooooooh, shiny.”

MacUser growing pains (now with more Kirk Cameron)

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 9:07 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | MacUser

You may have noticed a few minor changes around the blog in the last few days, but it’s nothing to be afraid of. We haven’t been taken over by some strange extraterrestrial entity bent on the enslavement of humankind, of anything like that. Of course, if we were, we wouldn’t exactly tell you, would we? Sleep well, fleshlings.

On the other hand, it might just be that we’ve bumped up our version of Movable Type to the spiffy new version 4.0. As always, with changes come glitches, and we’ve certainly been experiencing a few of those, primarily with the comment system. Previously, we’d relied on TypeKey authentication to prevent the insidious intrusions of spam bots bent on the enslave—whoops, someone must have turned on that new AutoJoke feature. Crap. Anyway, we now have our own built-in registration system, so if you register for that (you’ll find a link to the totally harmless process on any individual post page), you’re assured of having your opinion heard by all. We’ve left anonymous commenting on while we work out some of the kinks, but we may go to a mandatory registration system in the future; we’ll let you know if we do.

Also, we’ve been having some problems with our tags, so you’ll notice that those have disappeared for the time being. Fret not; they’ll be back soon enough. We’re also playing around with some more of MT4.0’s nifty new features, so don’t be surprised if the site fluxes a bit in the next week or so. It’s all part of the show, folks.

Update: Due to problems with our configuration, we’re axing the built-in registration. Which means, we’ll be sticking with the same combination of TypeKey and anonymous commenting that you know and loathe. Er, love. Right.

Original Mac manual is blast from the past

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 8:14 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Hardware

And now for a trip down Retro Boulevard. Blogger Peter Merholz picked up an original Macintosh manual on eBay and scanned it for the whole world to see. Revel in the full-color photographs that introduce each chapter; chuckle nostalgically over the quaint diagrams of how to click-drag and scroll; and raise an eyebrow at the total and utter lack of diversity in the models used (hey, a bunch of yuppie white guys!).

The first Mac I can remember using was my friend’s SE/30, and this manual definitely brings back recollections of the old black-and-white program icons, reliance on floppy disks, and hours of MacPaint experiments. But what really strikes me about the manual is how different it is from what you’ll find in a Mac box today. No full-color pictures, or spiral-bound notebook-style manuals: just a small pamphlet that pretty much gets you to the point of turning the computer on.

As Merholz says, he was “struck by how it had to explain a total paradigm shift in interacting with computers.” It’s a good point, and one we take for granted nowadays, when it seems like pretty much everyone from a one year-old up can use a computer. There was a time, after all, when these things weren’t so easy, and the manual was the only recourse people had.

Eudora is back… kinda

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 7:39 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

Some of you may remember a little email client named Eudora. As time has worn on and better and less expensive (read as “free”) competition has appeared to challenge the once very popular email client, it slowly faded from people’s memories. I must admit the whole “advertising supported mode” probably accelerated that death. More recently, many users are dropping real email clients in favor of webmail. I won’t pretend that it’s a better solution (I believe it’s not). However, the trend was started and Eudora dropped off most people’s radar.

Qualcomm stopped selling the software and vowed that it would return as a Thunderbird variant known as Penelope. To quote the notice on their website:

The Paid mode commercial versions of Eudora are no longer available as of May 1st, 2007. The Sponsored mode versions of Eudora continue to be available for download. An open source version of Eudora® is being developed by Mozilla and will be free of charge.

It’s being developed by Mozilla? But wait, they’ve already made it clear they want to dump Thunderbird. Given that news, I thought the Penelope project was dead. Apparently not as they’ve released Eudora 8.0.0b1 for our examination. Thus far, the changes are primarily cosmetic. Reports on MacUpdate seem to suggest the release is incapable of importing old Eudora data, which kinda defeats the purpose. It also feels very much like Thunderbird (despite different toolbar icons, ooooh).

I’d like to be more positive about the future of this product, but given Qualcomm’s desire to dump Eudora and Mozilla’s desire to dump Thunderbird, I think we’ll end up with some that’s worse off than either of the original products. It’ll be something that two companies want to dump.

NBC tries to fight back; digs hole deeper

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 6:28 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

When we last left the Peacock Saga (I can feel a long, drawn out series of posts coming on because the way NBC is acting is just too horrible to pass up), Apple called out NBC to a fight in the parking lot… err… issued a press release describing why Apple wasn’t going along with NBC’s demands.

NBC has now shot back with its own statement. The Macalope has a great response as always. Let me give you the executive summary in he-said-she-said format.

NBC says: We never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV shows.

We say: You wanted to get 2.5 times the price.

NBC says: In fact, our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers.

We say: You want to shove more stuff down our throats that we don’t want. We want a la carte. Deal with it.

Finally, as everyone else is doing, allow me to close with a brilliant quote from Michael Gartenberg:

Sometimes I think God put video content guys on the planet to make the music guys look progressive and visionary.

MarsEdit 2.0 lands

Posted on Sep. 4, ’07, 5:16 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

We’ve been talking up MarsEdit for a long time as an essential blogging tool here for a while as well as gushed all over Dan Jalkut at Red Sweater Software when he took up the development. Dan and I have been thrilled with his progress in the 1.x updates he pushed out, fixing all those lingering bugs that annoyed us. Luckily, we’ve both been privileged enough to use the beta versions of MarsEdit 2.0 (little secret, we’ve been using it under cover of darkness to post for a while now).

Today is the day of its release. Set your browser to go download MarsEdit 2.0 now. The new version sports a great new interface (it doesn’t look like it’s stuck in Panther days anymore), Flickr integration, HTML markup macros, and a new editor window that lets you customize what fields you want to see as well as use a swell new sidebar.

MarsEdit 2 is $29.95 ($9.95 upgrade for existing users, and free for those who bought after July 1st). It requires Tiger. I suggest all of you bloggers in the audience (I know you’re out there), give it a try.