Macs in the enterprise? Heck yeah, says the EDA

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 4:59 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Business

Just after news that Macs are not the loners they once were in the enterprise market, a few prominent software companies (Parallels being the most well-known) have created the Enterprise Desktop Alliance to promote our favorite platform to organizations everywhere.

So how is the EDA planning to showcase the Mac’s advantages and facilitate their integration into IT departments? For one, the various founding companies offer software that supposedly helps enterprises “achieve the same level of control, security, policy compliance, and services that they currently have with their Windows platforms”. Also, the alliance plans to educate companies through webcasts and seminars.

All in all, this seems like an honest effort to push Mac acceptance in large corporations, which can only be good, especially for Apple-loving employees.

10.5.4 hits store shelves…er, Software Updates

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 3:07 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software » Updates

Open System Preferences. Click on Software Update.

Hit the Check Now button.

If you followed those Missing Manual-worthy instructions, you no doubt see that, among the other updates you have callously forgotten about over the months, is a new listing for Mac OS X Update 10.5.4, which Apple released today to hold us over until Snow Leopard viciously meows its way onto our Macs.

You’ll want to download it, too, because 10.5.4 is loaded: It includes a slew of fixes for minor issues with AirPort (two fixes), iCal (seven fixes!), Safari (two fixes), Spaces (two fixes), and Exposé (one fix). There are also a few non-specific updates, like improvements to L2TP VPN reliability, an X11 installer fix, more RAW image support for several cameras, and more.

Among the gems is a new checkbox in iCal that “enables information-only calendars to be transparent from free/busy lookups,” and a Spaces tweak that “addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.”

The 10.5.4 upgrade also includes a new security update, which is available as a separate download for users of OS X 10.4.11, and 10.5 users who aren’t upgrading to 10.5.4. (Doesn’t look like it addresses these issues, though.)

You can view the full deets of the update at the 10.5.4 Knowledge Base article, as well as at this easily-digestible Mothership piece. Download it from Software Update using the instructions above, or as a standalone installer from Apple’s site…once they post it. (We’ll update this post with the link when it’s available.)

Your Mac would rather…just…sing!

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 9:58 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Humor

You probably didn’t even know that your Mac could carry a tune (well, outside of your music playing app of choice). I mean, it’s not about to win American Idol or anything, but it’s got a few musical tricks up its sleeve that you can coax out of it with some well-placed terminal commands (you can accomplish these tricks using the Speech preference pane as well, but it’s actually little easier to just cut and paste).

The UsingMac blog gives an example of a few songs you can have your Mac sing, with the help of some extra Text-to-Speech voices that you might not know about (they’re accessible under Speech if you go to the drop down menu and select “Show More Voices”). They’re not like the hyper-real Alex voice that Apple spent so much time perfecting, so these probably aren’t the voices you want reading you your morning news feed—unless you’re a very special brand of odd—but they might be worth a moment or two of amusement in your otherwise dull and boring day.

Now if only my computer could vary its repertoire a little bit. Would it be too much to ask for the occasional track by The Who, or The Four Person British Band From Liverpool That Shall Not Be Named?

[via Lifehacker]

Putting the ‘DRM’ in ‘drama’, day…er: Rhapsody no longer blue about lack of iPod support

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 9:02 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Music

The march towards DRM freedom continues apace. Joining the ranks of Amazon, Napster, and parts of iTunes is Rhapsody (home to the country’s largest subscription-based service). The joint venture between Real Networks and MTV has finally launched their MP3-based store (first mentioned about a year ago, though they appear to have ditched the bleedingly awful “Rhapsody America” moniker in favor of the marginally less ridiculous “Music Without Limits”) with over 5 million tracks from all four major labels. Strangely enough, my first two searches for songs—AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and The Fratellis’ “Flathead”—yielded only bluegrass covers of the songs; perhaps it should be called “Music With Some Limits, But Not That Many, Really”.

Rhapsody’s plan to take on the iTunes Store comes in a number of prongs: they’ve partnered with Yahoo! Music, the iLike Facebook application, and Verizon Wireless. And, of course, adopting MP3 means that they can finally sell tracks that work with the bajillion iPods already out there. Not unlike Amazon’s store, Rhapsody is even including a Windows downloader application that’ll automatically add your download tracks to iTunes—Mac users can apparently download their songs as ZIP files (thanks, guys).

How does this play with Rhapsody’s current subscription plans? In exchange for continuing to fork over their monthly fee, members get some nicer benefits—they can listen to an entire song before buying, for example. Non-members can, as usual, listen to a 30-second preview, though they also get 25 free full song plays every month. Most songs will go for $0.99 and albums for $9.99—Rhapsody also claims they’re “bringing back the album”—was the album really gone?—and songs are encoded as 256 kbps.

Rhapsody’s deal with Verizon allows subscribers of the mobile service to purchase and download music over the air to their handset—for a slightly pricey $1.99, admittedly—but they get not only the copy on the their phone, but a DRM-free version is downloaded to their computer as well.

Despite all of this, Apple’s not exactly quaking in their boots. Even with the rise of DRM-free music, iTunes still maintains an uncontested stranglehold on the market, due primarily to the ease of use, superior interface, and seamless integration between software and hardware. It’s going to take more than just a change to DRM-free music to get these other services to make up the market share they’ve lost in the last five years.

[via Macworld]

El Diablo! Blizzard brings latest game to Mac/PC simultaneously

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 8:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Games

Dungeon crawlers, rejoice! Over the weekend, Blizzard announced plans to bring the latest game in its Diablo series, Diablo III to Mac and PC simultaneously—they’re just nice that way. So if you’ve been looking to dish out some damage to demons and fiends of the underworld, your time is nigh.

The long-awaited sequel to the much-ballyhooed Diablo II, chapter three picks up twenty years after the events of its predecessor. You can play through the action role-playing game as one of five distinct classes, only two of which have been revealed at present (barbarian, witch doctor) in your quest to defeat the nefarious hordes.

Pricing, availability, and system requirements have not yet been revealed. Me, I’ve never been a huge Diablo fan—I deal with plenty of demons, dungeons, and nefarious hordes every single day. Nothing new there for me.

Rebel Alliance forms to promote Macs in Enterprise; lacks X-Wings

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 7:13 AM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Business

The group, whose founding members include Atempo, Centrify, Group Logic, LANrev, and Parallels, plan on hosting a series of events, webcasts, and seminars, in addition to providing various paper resources, on how to incorporate Macs into a Windows-run IT system.

While this may seem like a very difficult task to undertake, it can’t be denied that Macs are becoming more appealing in Enterprise. So, with any luck, you may begin to find that corporations around the world will begin to run on Xserve’s Macs, and even iPhones.

Solver shall return

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 7:10 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

One of the many casualties in the Office 2004 to Office 2008 transition was Solver in Excel. It was dumped from Excel because it depended upon VBA. Another great result from Microsoft’s decision to get rid of VBA.

Solver is used for data analysis and business modeling. While most home users don’t use it, it’s a very powerful tool and many businesses cried out for it’s return.

Microsoft has promised its return:

However, we have been hearing loud and clear from our customers – particularly in education – that the side-by-side solution is suboptimal. For many people, Solver is a critical and necessary tool for coursework, and they want to work with Solver natively in the Excel 2008 environment.

We definitely hear you, and we’re working on it.

The Excel team is actively working to bring Solver to Excel 2008 as part of a future update. We have two distinct technical approaches and are exploring both. Once we have established which is the best option – and have code that meets our quality bar – we will announce a timeframe for availability here on Mojo.

Good, but it should have been included from the beginning.

[via Mac Observer]

Me, me, me, me! at me.com!

Posted on Jun. 30, ’08, 6:00 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Internet

The fingers of your correspondents will thank you: your .Mac email address is now—optionally—one character shorter.

MacRumors reports—and I can confirm—that (most) users with @mac.com addresses can now receive email from their new @me.com equivalents. Basically: send an email to yourawesomename@me.com, and it shows up in your yourawesomename@mac.com inbox.

This is just the kick-start step in the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Your @mac.com addresses will still work once MobileMe takes over—sort of like an alias—but now that the @me.com names are up and running, it wouldn’t be a bad time to start transitioning yourself.

You know, if you choose to.

I guess it depends on what you like more: your computer…or yourself?

Do you have a computer fetish…or a narcissistic personality?

Are you a nerd…or a diva?

Are you a fanboy…or an attention whore?

Are you a bragger…or…uh…

Well. You’re a bragger either way.

This kind of Tofu doesn’t taste like paper, but it acts like it (ooh!)

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 3:45 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software

Reading lots of text on your computer screen is hard—not only are you constantly distracted by Twitterific Growl notifications, annoying IMs, the constant beeping of your email client, and YouTube, but it’s also just plain difficult for your eyes. There are so many words, and you’re always losing your spot and constantly needing to scroll up and down and readjusting your view after a scroll, and then dealing with the inconsistency of text—format, size, distribution, etc.—from different sources. Totally unnatural. Makes me yearn for the days of printed text and paper books.

But those days are long gone, so we must embrace methods of improving our ability to read on-screen text without gauging our eyes from their sockets. So today I point you to Tofu—not the disgusting wannabe “food” poser yuckiness, but the app that makes reading on the computer screen not such a miserable task.

Amar Sagoo, Tofu’s dev, tries to understand and explain why this is such a problem:

Text is usually very wide on the screen, which makes going from the end of one line to the beginning of the next difficult. That’s why newspapers have narrow columns: It makes them faster to read.

So why not just take a normal window and make it narrower, scrolling down as you need? Well, there are usually a lot of lines in a text, and all look more or less the same, so if they move past your eyes vertically, they are difficult to keep track of. The text doesn’t feel stable, and you get lost easily.

Tofu attempts to solve that: text you copy into it is formatted into columns, only as high as the Tofu window, and you scroll through it horizontally instead of vertically. And there are a slew of neat features: voice control of scrolling, full-screen mode, an OS X Service that lets your grab text from other apps, letter-jumping through text, and easy scrolling with the keyboard. It gets a little slow and choppy when there’s a massive amount of text, but other than that it works pretty darn well.

It’s free (yay!) and can be downloaded at Amar’s website. And check out this Macworld piece for more Tofu info.

CD lovers smile as Rogue Amoeba releases LiveDiscKit for developers

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 3:12 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen

Category | Software

Back in January, on the verge of Macworld Expo, Rogue Amoeba (makers of Audio Hijack Pro and Airfoil) introduced an interesting system for distributing software on good ol’ CDs: Live Disc. Here’s the lowdown on its usefulness, as our own Derik wrote six months ago:

The application actually takes a look at the contents of the disc, compares the version number that’s resident, and will download the latest version transparently when the user either double clicks or drag and drop installs any presented application. You get the latest and greatest not just the day after you get the disc, but even months, or years down the line.

It’s totally free and open source, but the good folks at Rogue Amoeba would appreciate a mention if you do take advantage of it. Download it and read instructions here.

Apple throws wrench in iPod Mechanic’s schemes

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 1:23 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Legal

Let me put forth this modest proposal: if you plan on running a company that fixes iPod, may I suggest you not be so bold as to use a trademarked word like “iPod” in the name? Also, while you’re at it, you’d probably better not (allegedly) commit fraud while carrying out your repairs. Because that would be bad.

Nicholas Woodhams, who runs Michigan-based iPod Mechanic, has found himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit which claims that not only did he fail to stop using “iPod” in his business’s name in 2006, after he’d agreed to do so, but furthermore engaged in fraud by taking advantage of Apple’s warranty service. The suit says that Woodhams got Apple to repair broken out-of-warranty iPods by swapping their back cases with units that were still under warranty. He also supposedly took advantage of a replacement program for iPod shuffles by writing the names of his customers on the appropriate forms, receiving new replacement units, then denying credit card charges from Apple when he failed to ship the old units back to them.

Apple claims that they suffered damages of $75,000 as a result of Woodhams’s actions, and the company is seeking triple dog dares damages on the basis of the acts being deliberate. Dastardly! If only this alleged criminal mastermind had turned his genius to the powers of good—think what he could have accomplished.

Verizon CEO: “Steve Jobs will get old.” Er, duh?

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 11:19 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Rivals

Let’s say you’re the CEO of a large mobile phone operator in the US. Your livelihood, your industry—your very way of life—is being threatened by some tech company upstart. What do you do?

Take potshots at your rival, naturally! That’s Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg’s approach, anyway. In an interview with the Financial Times, Seidenberg shared his deepest, darkest, truest feelings about Steve Jobs.

As handsets become banking tools and games controllers, he argues, mobile operators can up-end other companies’ business models. “It’s very cool. And Steve Jobs eventually will get old … I like our chances.” [emphasis added]

Er, Ivan—may I call you Crazy Ivan?—I know you look all youthful and handsome, but let me just remind you that Steve’s actually nine years younger than you. Has Verizon one-upped Ponce de Léon and finally unearthed the Fountain of Youth? Actually, come to think of it, that “Can you hear me now?” guy never seems to age…

Seidenberg also rejects the contention that Apple is a major player in the industry.

While describing Apple as a “great company”, Mr Seidenberg highlights its small market share of global handset sales. He scoffs at suggestions that the iPhone is about to become a mass-market handset because Apple has accepted mobile operators’ pleas to subsidise it.

“There goes the conspiracy again,” he says of Apple. “You’re declaring them a winner before they’ve earned it on the field.”

Conspiracy! You heard it here first! Just like fluorine in the drinking water and cattle mutilations on the moon! I’ll tell you this, as long as we’re starting conspiracies, here’s my contribution to the mix: psst, did you hear? Ivan Seidenberg’s a robot.

Well, we’ll see what tune Ivan is singing when Apple hits that 10 million sales mark later this year.

Billy G bids us bye-bye

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 8:56 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Rivals

Today is Bill Gates’s final day at Microsoft, and it’s a bittersweet moment for us Mac aficionados—perhaps best encapsulated by my trip to Microsoft’s website this morning. Upon clicking on the big Bill Gates banner on the front page, I found myself confronted by a blank blue page featuring only an “Install Microsoft Siverlight” button.

Yeah, I’ll pass, thanks.

Gates has long been perceived as Apple’s archrival, an image that I think Steve Jobs has tacitly supported and even benefited from—exemplified by Gates’s Big Brother-like appearance at Macworld 1997 (seriously, like Steve didn’t know how that would play given the famous 1984 ad). The identity built around Gates was one of conformity and assimilation, the very things that many Mac fans saw themselves as fighting against. Never mind that in recent years, that Gates’s identity has become more and more complex, especially with the advent of his influential and, yes, admirable charity efforts.

But even as Bill slowly stepped away from the Microsoft limelight and Microsoft’s outward face became instead the bumbling, confrontational persona of Steve Ballmer, Gates remained the iconic representation of Microsoft.

So now that he’s gone, now what? Last year, I suggested that Apple had perhaps managed to defang all of its most prominent enemies, leading me to worry that an Apple with no one to rebel against would find itself directionless and disadvantaged.

All this talk of Apple supplanting Microsoft, or Redmond crushing Cupertino is foolhardy and misplaced. Microsoft is Apple’s last rival of any import and Apple needs them, just as they need Apple. The two have a symbiotic relationship; not just in business or software, but in ideology. The loss of Microsoft’s dominance—or even just its relevance —could very well be the worst thing ever to happen to Apple, prompting Jobs and company into a lax complacency that would be their undoing.

But with Gates stepping down, I can’t help but think that this could be a great time for Apple to embrace a new image: one where they don’t even bother caring about Microsoft. Apple has shown that it’s capable of holding a stable, successful position in the tech marketplace, and maybe that’s enough.

All of this talk of Gates’s retirement has also led to an increasingly focused look at what will happen when Steve Jobs inevitably leaves Apple: will the company survive without being propped up by his sheer force of personality? If the company is going to continue then perhaps it’s time for Apple to start defining themselves not merely by what they’re against, but by what they’re for.

Put it in iCal, Apple’s third quarter earnings call is scheduled

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 7:16 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Money

One of Dan’s most favoritest things to do ever is get into Apple earnings calls and listen to the driest of details. He wants to hear all those big numbers that we’ll never see. Millions of dollars. I’d like a few hundred thousand of that. I’m not greedy. Much.

Anyway, the call is coming July 21, 2008 at 2 PM Pacific. That’s 10 days after the release of the next iPhone. Think it’ll get mentioned? I think it’s a safe bet. If you’re real nice to Dan, or really mean, maybe he’ll cover the event for us.

Macs (kind of) conquer business: 80% of companies using Macs

Posted on Jun. 27, ’08, 5:58 AM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Business

According to a Yankee Group Research Inc. survey of over 700 senior IT admins and executives, 8 in 10 business said they have Macs in-house. Considering that only about two years ago, in early 2006, only 47% of IT professionals used Macs in their business, this is huge news.And, if you’re wondering whether these business “using” Macs have only one or two Apple machines, 21% of the surveyed firms said they were using more than 50 Macs. According to Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Yankee Group Research, “This isn’t Mickey Mouse; it’s not just onesies and twosies anymore. Apple’s graduated into the big league.”

With all the statistics on how business are using Macs, the question now becomes why? One answer to that question is the ability run Windows, either XP or Vista, on Macs. With 28% of the surveyed firms saying that they ran Windows in virtual machines on their Macs, it seems that companies like VMWare and Parallels have a new and expanding market in the corporate world, not just the consumer one. Apple’s own Boot Camp utility isn’t cut out of the fun either, with 22% of businesses saying that they use the dual-booting technology on their Macs.

It seems, at least according to the information provided by Yankee Group Research, that the era of a PC-dominated enterprise world is ending. Whether it be because of support for Windows, better reliability (80% of the surveyors rated Mac hardware reliability as “excellent” or “very good”), or something else, Macs are sweeping up the business world. And, it’s not just Macs. With MobileMe and the new enterprise features in the iPhone 2.0 software update, Apple is beginning to challenge Microsoft as the undisputed leader of computing in the corporate world.

Pro Applications Update 2008-02 released

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 5:10 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Software » Updates

Apple has released a brand spankin’ new update to their Pro Application support for Mac OS X. This update improves reliability for Apple’s professional apps and are recommended for all—got that?—all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio.

The Update addresses installation issues, compatibility updates, and “general performance issues and improves overall stability”. Woot!

Get the download from Apple’s support page, and check out the release notes here.

MacHeist offers Parallels and more for $49

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 2:03 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

For you, dear readers, such a deal. If you’re in need of a little virtualization, you can now snag Parallels 3.0 for the super low price of $49 (it usually goes for $80) courtesy of MacHeist. Heck, they’ll even throw in a copy of system-tweaking software MacPilot just for being such a lovely person.

Even better: if you’ve bought a MacHeist bundle in the past, you can even swing another $10 discount. And the MacHeist team says they’ll be adding another application for the first 1000 people who purchase the bundle. Though they haven’t revealed what it is—and won’t until tomorrow night—they have said that it’s a Apple Design Award-winning application that costs $80 (admittedly, we have our theories).

The deal’s only available until the end of June (holy cow, that’s just a few short days away). While we don’t generally like to inundate you with software bundles (there are just so many these days; where would we begin?), this seems like a pretty nice deal.

Linksys love late for Macs

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 12:36 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Is there some sort of affective disorder that explains why certain words and phrases trigger songs in your head? Take “Linksys,” for example. As I flipped through my email this morning and saw an email announcement from the company, my mind immediately launched into:

Hey Linksys, you’re so fine
You’re so fine you blow my mind
Hey Linksys, *clap clap* Hey Linksys

Okay, maybe it’s just me.

Anyway, bizarre song renditions aside, there was some surprising Mac-related news today from the Cisco subsidiary: the company has at long officially begun to offer Mac support by releasing its Linksys Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA) Setup Wizard for OS X 10.4 and higher.

Crazy. That’s a long way from my last support experience with Linksys back in 2000, when the customer service rep sighed in exasperation at my explanation that the network switch we’d bought didn’t appear to be working, since my Mac couldn’t get an IP. “We don’t support Macs,” he said patiently. (He was no happier when we tried it with another computer in the apartment, which was running an *ahem* pre-release version of Windows XP—that yielded a brief silence, followed by an exasperated protestation of “That’s not even out yet!”).

Anyway, for many of us, setting up a router is a pretty simple procedure, but for those times you don’t want to have to go over to Mom and Dad’s to get them setup with their new Internet connection, you’ll be glad to know that Linksys won’t just hang up on them.

You can grab the setup assistant for the WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT110, and WRT54G2 model routers from Linksys’s website, and future routers will ship with the assistant on the disc. Good for you, Linksys. You’re only eight years behind the times.

No Vista upgrade for Intel, no joke

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 11:40 AM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Apple » Huh?

No, that wasn’t a misprint. Let me say it again: No. Vista. Upgrade. For. Intel. Yup, Vista is so incredibly ridiculously bad that even Intel, longtime partner of Microsoft, has decided that upgrading its 80,000-some employee computers to Vista just wouldn’t be worth the hassle and heart-ache.

According to an anonymous source with “direct knowledge of the company’s plans”, Intel conducted some serious cost-benefit analysis, which we can only assume resulted in the conclusion that the sheer amount of Excedrin, Aspirin, and possibly even Morphine that would be required by their employees to cope with Vista would overwhelm their budget. Not to mention the dramatic increase in psychiatric care which would put great strain on their employee medical coverage plans.

All joking aside, I find it fascinating that a massive technology company with such a close, long time working relationship with Microsoft would not find the benefits of switching to Vista compelling enough to make the plunge—not that we’re surprised or anything.

Of course things could change, and Intel could eventually be pressured by the massive force that is Steve Ballmer to make the upgrade, but until then, it looks like Wintel will remain Wintel XP.

BillG: An email portrait from 2003

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 11:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Rivals

So the good people at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (what is an Intelligencer, anyway?) have been digging through old Microsoft court documents to try to glean some insight into Bill Gates himself, as he concludes his reign as head of day-to-day operations of Microsoft this week.

Todd Bishop dug up this gem from 2003, where Bill Gates admittedly flames other top Microsoft officials to tell them how horrible his experience was with downloading Moviemaker.

Exhibit A:

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

…

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

Still, my hunch is that Steve Jobs’ emails are about 10 times angrier.

Why can’t I watch Aussie TV?

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 10:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

So while Dan told you about the new Aussie version of iTunes TV shows — that got me wondering — why can’t I get my Summer Heights High on?

If you were to look at my iPhone you’d find a lot of music that is simply unavailable here in the US of A. I’m talking about Aussie hip-hop, Senegalese rap, Estonian techno, Turkish pop, Polish hard rock and Japanese rock-pop. (Read: I’m curious about the rest of the world.)

So in the age of the Interwebs, how come I can’t legally have access to these potentially awesome (or potentially craptastic) foreign shows? My guess is that it has something to do with distribution rights or some such nonsense. Now, I understand why American broadcasters are reluctant to take foreign products due to limited airtime, but why oh why, when that restriction is gone, would foreign network like ABC and SBS (not to mention other foreign networks in Europe) not want to distribute their stuff to expats and curious Seppos like me?

Internet access from your car: thanks, America

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 9:26 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Internet

If you, like me, have ever been jammed into the backseat of a cramped car and made to suffer through a 6-hour road trip, replete with family sing-alongs, then you have probably also longed for the sweet embrace of Internet access. Unfortunately, unless you had yourself a 3G wireless card for your laptop, it wasn’t much of an option.

However, if Chrysler has their way you’ll soon be able to log onto a Wi-Fi network from the comfort of your own car—the auto manufacturer plans to start building Wi-Fi routers into their cars next year. Of course, since Wi-Fi is a short range solution, the system will instead rely on a 3G-to-Wi-Fi router, cleverly secreted somewhere in the car (we hope it is perilously close to the self-destruct button). While you won’t get full Wi-Fi speeds, Chrysler optimistically thinks that you ought to be able to pull down 600-800kbps and upload at 200kbps.

Naturally, this will all come at a cost to you, the consumer: you’ll have to shell out a monthly fee for the Internet access. As well as force yourself to buy a Chrysler. Hey, you want Internet access in your car, it ain’t gonna be cheap, capiche?

Also, there’s that whole safety issue. Can we please get around to building robot cars that can drive themselves, so we don’t have to worry about whether people are talking on their cellphones, watching TV, or surfing the web? That’d be swell, thanks.

[via Engadget]

Adobe Creative Suite, now with fresher Acrobat

Posted on Jun. 26, ’08, 6:12 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software » Updates

It’s not even July, which means that Adobe beat their original estimate. Adobe Acrobat 9 (now with genuine acrobats) was released, as was the update to the suite containing it, Adobe Creative Suite. But what’s new besides the version numbers (3.3 for the suite)? Fireworks CS3 is now included in the package.

As for Acrobat itself, it now includes the ability to embed Flash video right within the PDF. Terrific. I’m plagued with browser crashing content on every corner of the internet (no, seriously, I really enjoy the ads that are full movie trailers with full autoplay), now my documents can have it too.

Upgrade pricing is the same whether you’re upgrading just Acrobat or the suite, a mere $159. More Flash video, and go.

Reluctant Reminder: Get your XP now, if you really truly want to

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 7:56 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Windows

Rob Griffiths at the Mothership offers a reminder to masochistic readers who intend on some day running Windows XP on their Macs: Your opportunity to get a copy is quickly coming to a close, as Microsoft plans to stop selling XP after June 30th.

“But,” you say, disregarding my groans that I have to talk to someone who wants to soil his Mac with the stench of Microsoft’s diseased operating system, “can’t I just run Windows Vista instead?”

Well sure you can, bub. But even masochists draw the line somewhere. And Griffiths gives three explanations as to why you might prefer XP over its questionably-bootable successor:

First, XP runs faster than Vista in both Fusion and Parallels. …

Second, XP offers the widest support for third-party hardware and software—there are still quite a few programs and/or pieces of hardware that either don’t work quite right, or don’t work at all, with Vista. …

Third, XP is a solid, stable OS that’s had any major issues addressed via service pack releases over the years.

He goes into much more detail in the article itself, which is worth reading if despite my strongest objections you really intend on committing this crime against elegant technology. And remember: June 30th. Get it done if you must.

But, as an alternative, may I suggest jabbing yourself in the eye with a pen, instead? You’ll still get the pain, but at least you can avoid the self-loathing that will inevitably come from installing Windows on your Mac. Just a thought.

(Note: I know I’m gonna get flak from people if I don’t clarify this: It’s all a joke; I know some of you have very good reasons to abandon virtue and make Steve Jobs cry. I totally understand.)

Elephants rejoice: The Mouse Is Dead

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 6:15 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Speculation

I’m all for gross over-generalized sure-thing blanket-assumptions about the future, especially when it comes to making one myself—no one can really say you’re wrong right now, since it’s a personal theory, and if you are wrong not many are going to remember you said anything anyway (except maybe John Gruber, who gets some kind of sick pleasure from pointing out other’s inaccurate predictions).

So Mike Elgan’s quite unequivocal claim that The Mouse Is Dead is right up my alley—he uses present tense, cementing his confidence in the prediction; and he expresses his theory in terms of broad concepts and technology “phases,” which de-emphasize the specifics of his argument (which are disputable) and focuses instead on his general philosophy of technology interfacing (which isn’t).

He lists these four developments as evidence his theory that we’re in a constant push to get “closer” to our interface is still the driving force behind interface innovation:

1. Apple’s giant trackpad with multi-touch.
2. Gaming pointing devices.
3. “Brain-reading” devices.
4. Apple iPhone and the “iPhone killers.”

Those are examples of hardware tech that allows for mouse-less interaction, but Elgan’s claim doesn’t click until he brings the argument to software and operating systems—he points out that Microsoft has already said Windows 7 will be optimized for use with their Surface technology, and makes the not-unreasonable assumption that Apple’s next-gen OSs will emphasize the touch tech they’ve been patenting and perfecting for some time.

And it’s all in the software: It’s easy for someone to claim the mouse can’t die, because there are too many things that are much more efficient and much easier when using a mouse. But what they forget to include is the phrase “right now.” Modern interfaces are optimized for mouse control, and that’s why a mouse works best; a future interface optimized for something else will obviously work best with something else. That’s where Elgan’s claim shines—how can we dispute it when any opposing detail can be shot down as temporary and variable?

Well, he has me convinced.

Remembering George Carlin in an iTunes sort of way

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 5:45 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

In the wake of George Carlin’s untimely death (ok, so the guy was 71, but the death of a genius can never be considered “timely”), iTunes has added a special page that includes a wealth of his legendary stand up routines.

If you’re daunted by the man’s prolific amount of available material, his “seven dirty words” routine is a good place to start, although I’d make sure the kiddies aren’t within listening distance for that one. In fact, I’d keep most of Carlin’s work away from the younger ones—there’s a reason Apple has included a red “explicit” box next to every single video of his.

And now, in remembrance of this departed legend, I shall recite, in a family friendly manner, the famed “7 words you can’t say on TV”:

1. S***
2. P****
3. F***
4. C***
5. C***S*****
6. M*****F*****
7. T***

RIP, to a man whose essence lives on in every comedian to come after him.

What’s on Obama’s iPod?

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 5:15 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Apple » Huh?

What Obama may lack in political experience (so the right-wing political pundits accuse), he makes up for with a solid, eclectic taste in music.

According to The Examiner, Obama’s iPod is packed with a wide array of music ranging from classic folk (Dylan), classic classical (Yo-Yo Ma), contemporary female singer songwriter (Sheryl Crow), and booty-shakin, dirt-brushin’-off-yo’-shoulda hip-hop (Jay-Z). He also embraces his jazzy side, with legends Miles Davis, Coltrane, and Charlie Parker earning their own spots on his playlists.

“Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is ‘Maggie’s Farm,’” Obama said of one of Dylan’s tracks. “It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric.”

This happens to by one of my favorite Dylan tunes as well, and so my endorsement of Obama is further reinforced. Rock on, Obama. Rock on.

All Apple Stores are not created equal

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 9:40 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Stores

The industrial design of the Apple Stores—and, for that matter, retail chains in general—has led to a certain degree of expected homogeneity, both in available products and in service. But that’s not always the case, as Consumerist reader Adam points out. He took his MacBook Pro in to the Orlando, Florida store in the Millenia shopping center (they couldn’t apparently afford that second “n”, huh?) to have the Bluetooth module fixed—a problem that the Genius told him was Apple’s fault, since they had messed up when fixing his top case earlier in the year.

But like many of us, Adam depends on his machine for work, so he arranged to have it dropped off when he was going in for a week long vacation, expecting it to be done when he got back. I trust you can see where this is going: one week later, he returns to find that not only is his machine not fixed, it hasn’t even been looked at. After a discussion with the store manager, who refused to budge, Adam left with his still broken computer.

Then, for kicks, he took it to the other Orlando store in the Florida Mall, where his tale of woe was greeted with effusive apologies and a promise to have the computer fixed in an hour, which it was.

We all expect Apple Stores to be Apple Stores to be Apple Stores, but in my experience, that differs greatly depending on the staff at any given store. If I can spare the time, I often take my problems to the Chestnut Hill store in the suburbs instead of the closer Cambridgeside store—just because I’ve had better experiences there (for one thing, the wait is usually shorter). How about you guys? Which stores would you single out for praise? Which ones would you avoid?

Buy (or donate) Mac software for charity

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 8:49 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Apple » Events

Given that MacUser HQ is located in the fair commonwealth of Massachusetts, we can’t resist pimping a cause close to our heart—geographically close, anyway. The first weekend in August, Seth Dillingham will be participating in the Pan-Mass Challenge, riding his bike across the entire state, along with about 5500 others. Seth’s raising money for The Jimmy Fund, an excellent charity dedicated to researching and treating cancer.

But, being a Mac user and programmer, Seth has decided to try and raise that money in a rather unique fashion: by auctioning off software bundles. He’s gotten a number of Mac software houses to donate licenses for their apps. Should you wish to participate by buying a bundle, you have two options. You can buy a CD of the bundled software off eBay, or you can make him an offer for a bundle of two or more of the apps, then make a corresponding donation to the Pan-Mass Challenge. Either way, all the proceeds go directly to charity. For details, check out Seth’s website above.

At present, the app list contains 63 applications out of a target of 150, from some of our favorite Mac devs both in Massachusetts (Bare Bones, Red Sweater) and elsewhere (Flying Meat, Shirt Pocket, and Many Tricks). Seth’s still looking for more devs to participate, so consider dropping him a line if you want to donate your software to a great cause.

Report says Apple could be greener still

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 8:05 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Business

It’s time once again for our favorite quadrannual event: the latest Greenpeace environmental scorecard for the tech industry. Cast your mind back, if you will, to a happier, more innocent time: March of this year. Apple had scored a 6.7 on Greenpeace’s scale, putting them in 9th place amongst the 18 electronics companies ranked.

Unfortunately, these latest standings show them dropping to 11th place, with a score of 4.1. They’re not alone, however: all the companies in the ranking have taken a rather substantial hit, due to the fact that the scorecard now incorporates categories for energy efficiency, both in their products and in their production lines. While Apple does well in the former category, they provide little information about environmental concerns in manufacturing.

Their position at 11th place means they’re near the middle of the pack, though they could stand to gain a few points. For the most part, it’s a pretty tight race, however, as most of the PC manufacturers are grouped in that 4 to 5 point range.

In other environmental news—or, more specifically, the lack thereof—we still haven’t heard an update from Steve Jobs on the state of Apple’s practices. What gives, Steve-o? You promised annual updates last May, and we haven’t heard a peep out of you. I know the iPhone 3G is pretty cool, but if you could put it down for just a second, we’d appreciate it.

Dino Dai Zovi discusses securing Mac OS X

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 6:25 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Security

Security expert Dino Dai Zovi earned my respect when he revealed a Mac OS X security flaw without trying to attract attention to himself. He has written a piece about the future security of Mac OS X releases and it’s rather informative.

He lists five things he’d like.

• Full address space layout randomization instead of just library randomization.
• Full use of non-executable memory instead of just the stack.
• 64-bit native execution for security sensitive processes.
• Sandbox policies for Safari, Mail.app, and third party apps.
• Mandatory code signing for kernel extensions.

All of these are reasonable measures. We should hope that Apple takes these to heart and implements them.

Woz never got down or euphemisms

Posted on Jun. 25, ’08, 6:04 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » People

Kathy Griffin, speaking with US Magazine, reveals that she never spent the night with Woz. The entire time the two were dating, it seems to have been platonic. It was all for show.

My respect for Woz as a man had increased several fold during the entire Griffin saga, though I couldn’t really respect his choice in women. That respect is gone now and I feel a bit bad for him. It’s one thing to be rejected, but quite another to have the woman talk about it in US Magazine.

It’s like we’re back in high school at a school assembly and Kathy is standing on the stage telling the entire student body that she was never attracted to him that way. Ouch dude.

Old school Office 2004 users in for an update as well

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 6:30 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Software » Updates

Office 2004 11.5.0 is available today for those of you in the old school trying to keep it real by not upgrading to Office 2008 (a program that also received an update today).

This update addresses stability and printing/page setup fixes for Word, Powerpoint stability issues with large documents, adds better paste compatibility with Office 2008 for all apps, and adds read/write compatibility for Open XML Format files if installed with the Open XML Format Converter.

Check out Microsoft’s support site for more info and to download the rather hefty 59 MB update.

Office 2008 for Mac goes to 12.1.1

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 5:45 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Software » Updates

Our best friends at Microsoft have released a “critical” Office 2008 update, 12.1.1, which addresses a number of stability and performance issues.

Issues fixed include charting problems, Entourage crashing when your Mac awakes from sleep (how obnoxious!), and issues involving the conversion of documents to and from the Open XML Format.

Visit the Microsoft Knowledge Base for a complete list of improvements. The update can be installed with the Microsoft AutoUpdate or from Microsoft’s download center. Get the behemoth 153.3 MB download now if you want your Entourage to wake up with your Mac again!

One thousand million PCs and counting

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 3:04 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Business

Billion is one of those numbers that you figure probably exists, but can never truly wrap your head around. Wikipedia tries to put it into perspective:

• 1b seconds is about 31.7 years.
• 1b centimetres is about the distance from Chicago to Tokyo.
• 1b inches is 15,783 miles, more than halfway around the world and sufficient to reach any point on the globe from any other point.
• 1b kilometres is over six times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Now add one to the list:

• 1b is the number of PCs in use in the world.

So says Gartner Research, a number I can only imagine they determined by traversing the globe and counting each and every computer they found plugged into a power source. Or they did what I normally do in math class when I have to solve a really long equation with parentheses and subtraction and those weird numbers with tiny numbers at the top right that I’m supposed to sign with a temperature or something: just closed their eyes and guessed. Which sounds reasonable to me.

After consulting their on-staff soothsayer, Gartner is also able to predict that there will be twice as many (two billion) in-use PCs by 2014, suggesting that number will surpass the population of earth itself in only a decade or two.

Why does it matter? Well, Apple’s been selling a hella lot of Macs lately—growing faster than most other PC manufacturers—and a computer install-base skyrocketing as Gartner predicts means Mac sales will likely just continue to go up as well (assuming nothing goes horribly awry). Which means: more Mac viruses and the migration of more crappy Windows developers to our generally-crappless platform! Yay!

Check the Gartner release for a breakdown of the stats—by country, etc.—and then spend the rest of the night trying to count to one billion. Frankly, I’m not even sure that number’s real—but I ain’t one of them mathmagicians, so what do I know?

Apple’s 2nd San Antonio store to open this Saturday

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 12:00 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Stores

It’s official, folks — time to give the 14th Texas Apple store a Texas-sized welcome. I’m assuming that means steaks in the shape of the Apple logo are in order.

This Saturday, June 28 at 10 am will mark the opening of the second Apple store in San Antone. There’s gonna be giveaways, so giddy-up!

No word yet on how it will compare to Apple’s recent international offerings, including the Sydney and Beijing stores.

CNET’s first month with a Psystar Open Computer

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 11:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar

Category | Apple » Rivals

While this isn’t exactly a Psystar Open Computer in a blender, it just might be the next most interesting thing.

CNET’s Tom Krazit has just spent a month with his Open Computer and has kicked the tires, took it for a spin, and yes, in the craziest move of all — left it under his desk as his primary work machine.

It seems to have worked more or less as expected — he complains about the long boot time — but basically everything works well.

He also notes:

One other interesting development is that Software Update now works; it was disabled by Psystar in the early days of Open Computing. Pedraza declined to get into specifics, but apparently when Software Update automatically runs depending on the schedule you choose, the Open Computer contacts Psystar’s servers to make sure you’re downloading updates from them, not from Apple directly. I downloaded two iPhoto ‘08 updates as well as a Garage Band update without incident through the Software Update process. UPDATE 12:30pm - [Rudy Pedraza, Psystar’s CEO] wanted to clarify this part; the Open Computer does contact Psystar when Software Update runs to check the available updates against a list maintained by Psystar, but the company does not host the updates for products like iLife, those are downloaded from Apple. It does, however, host files for Mac OS X updates, and recommends that Open Computer owners download those updates from Psystar.

HP may Envy Apple, but they won’t breathe its Air

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 9:59 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Business

The French have a saying: “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” For those uncultured among you who never bothered to learn the subtle nuances of the French language, allow me to translate: the more pocket change you have…the, er, more…mime…you choose? Chose?

Look, it’s got a certain je ne sais quoi to it, okay?

Anyway, that phrase came to mind as I perused Brian Bober’s piece over at Seeking Alpha (I know I said I’d stop reading it, but I just can’t quit). Bober had been thinking about buying a MacBook Air—until, that is, he fell head over heels in love with HP’s new Voodoo Envy 133 (which, by the way, is a brilliant stroke of marketing genius: naming a computer after a deadly sin—hey, it totally worked for movies, right?). Bober seems to think that this says something about Apple’s business model, but the way he approaches it is more of a business muddle.

There’s nothing I like more after a nice relaxing vacation than a teardown analysis. So, without further, ado, let’s take a look.

Apple don’t get no respect?

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 9:14 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Business

Oh well, you can’t win them all, I guess. Despite topping more lists than we can reasonably count (we’re wearing shoes today, you see), Apple’s reputation falls far below that of archrival Microsoft’s, according to a new survey from Harris Interactive. Using their patented Reputation Quotient™©®, Harris has assembled a list (PDF link) of the 60 most visible companies in America, ranked by their reputation.

Apple falls in at number 19—not too shabby, to be fair, but they’re topped by a number of rivals in the technology field, such as Google (#1), Intel (#3), and yes, even Microsoft (#10). Apple also came in at #5 in the Vision & Leadership section, though they trailed Microsoft at #3. The survey questioned thousands of consumers and showed a declining trend in companies’ reputations overall, though the Tech Industry as a whole actually went up a couple notches.

Could be worse: at least they’re not Halliburton, who not only continued to hold onto last place in the list, but actually saw their reputation drop further—bummer. Apple did do somewhat better in the ranking of the public’s perception of sincerity, coming at #8, just above HP, and sixteen slots ahead of #24 Microsoft. That counts for something, right?

Anyway, I guess Apple will just have to go home and cry into its “Most admired company in America according to Forbes” commemorative mug. Don’t worry, buddy—everything’s gonna be all right.

[via Computerworld]

TV shows are up Down Under

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 8:24 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Video

So, it’s kind of difficult to write a post about Australia without slipping into some sort of Australian cliché. I’m warning you off the top: we won’t instruct you to “throw another shrimp on the barbie” or crack jokes about kangaroos or boomerangs. We will, however, warn you not to get too close to koalas, because as cute as they look, they’re vicious little buggers.

We’ll also let you know that Australia has joined the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, and France as the sixth country to feature television content. Shows are coming from the Australian Broadcast Corporation, the Disney Channel, Nine Network, MTV, and American’s own ABC Network. You’ll find perennial American favorites like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and Scrubs as well as Australian programming such as McLeod’s Daughters, Sea Patrol, Summer Heights High, Sleek Geeks, We Can Be Heroes, and more.

Shows go for AUD$2.99 apiece (about US$2.85), but unlike some of the other more recent country additions, there doesn’t seem to be any variation—they’re all priced the same. Seasons vary in price depending on the length, with some going as high as $65. The launch itself has been pretty quiet—Apple Australia doesn’t even have a press release up yet. I blame the International Date Line. I don’t know how, but I’m sure that it’s at fault here.

Photo gallery showdown: Firefox 3 vs. iWeb

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 7:48 AM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Internet

If you’re not sure of which program to trash on Firefox or iWeb help forums, it turns out that, according to Joshua Ochs, neither app is at fault. He writes:

The problem originates in a common JavaScript library called Prototype, which is used by many sites - including iWeb-generated ones. In a nutshell, they implemented a draft standard, and extended it in non-standard ways. When that standard was implemented in Firefox 3 their custom version was overridden, and thus sites using Prototype broke. Including every iWeb site out there.

Apple dodged this by allowing JavaScript to override native methods in Safari 3.1. A bit of a hack, but a good one to implement, at least in the short term. Firefox sees this as an evangelism issue - I think that’s a bit too idealistic. Most people will simply see that Firefox 3 breaks on a large number of sites, whereas every other browser works.

Basically, this means that neither app can be held 100% responsible for the problem. In any case, neither Mozilla or Apple have released a fix for the photo album issue, though Ochs did make a script that fixes this. It should make iWeb sites and Firefox 3 play nice, but it would be nice for an official solution to come out.

Find out about Steve Jobs’s other success

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 6:54 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Apple » Steve Jobs

The New York Times has reviewed the Pixar Touch, a book about Pixar and its history. It describes how a tiny neglected company got turned into the powerhouse it is today. Additionally, it describes the way Steve Jobs scooped it up.

After Jobs’s $5 million offer was rejected, the team attempted to do a deal with Disney, then a bastion of hand-painted cel animation. […] Kinsey wanted Disney to buy Pixar outright for $15 million, but he was overruled by Jeffrey Katzenberg, then head of Walt Disney Studios. “I can’t waste my time on this stuff,” Kinsey says Katzenberg told him.

Jobs then swooped in and bought Pixar for the same $5 million he had originally offered. A bountiful future, as Jobs saw it, lay ahead in three-dimensional rendering, the process by which a computer could conceive and print 3-D images. “This whole thing has the same flavor as the personal computer industry in 1978,” he told BusinessWeek in 1986.

What vision! This is why we love or hate the man. At any rate, the book should be a fascinating read. Just don’t expect Toy Story in book form.

Logitech’s best webcam is Mac only

Posted on Jun. 24, ’08, 5:40 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Hardware

Since the quiet disappearance of the iSight, many Mac users have been searching for an alternative. Yes, Macbooks and iMacs have webcams, but Mac minis and Mac Pros still don’t. A new version of the webcam has been a popular rumor. The market is primed.

Logitech has pounced with the QuickCam Vision Pro. The USB device works with all your favorite webcam using applications like iChat, iMovie, Photo Booth, and Skype. It’s got fancy Carl Zeiss optics, autofocuses, and has a microphone.

All in all, looks like a decent piece of equipment. It costs $130 and requires at least a 800MHz G4 Power PC with Tiger or Leopard.

Free arrows and shapes and graphics, oh my!

Posted on Jun. 23, ’08, 3:45 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software

On an oh-so-boring news day such as this, Monday, June 23rd, 2008, we take a moment to celebrate the Little Things in Life™, like crappy musician stuff, crappy copycat computer stuff, Firefox stuff, and, of course, free stuff!

Today’s Free Stuff comes from the iWork mavens at iPresentee, who released the free! Keynote Objects—a free! bundle containing 100 free! graphics designed specifically for Apple’s Keynote, iWeb, and Pages software.

The background of all objects is transparent and can be used on any colored background. Each object can be changed in size, rotated, increased or decreased in opacity, fitted with shadows or even overlapped with one another to create extra effects. Keynote Objects are compatible with Keynote, iWeb, Pages, Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.

Yummay.

In the free! package are free! graphics of all kinds: arrows, buttons, arrows, icons, office and workshop graphics, arrows, and arrows.

iPresentee makes tons of iWork goodies, priced between $10 and $50—Keynote and iWeb themes, animations, 3D graphics, business stuff, etc. Check their website for more info, and for the free! Keynote Objects download.

(Note: As of this writing, the iPresentee site is pretty flaky—pages are slow and the package download isn’t working consistently. They’re probably bogged down by too much traffic; I’d check back in a little bit.)

[via Macworld]

JVC shows us why two iPods are better than one

Posted on Jun. 23, ’08, 3:00 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | iPod » iPod Accessories

JVC, consumer electronics producer extraordinaire, has released an iPod docking station with a twist: It charges and plays two iPods at the same time! This would be great for when you have your buddy or significant other over and you want to take turns playing your own music without having to constantly switch iPods.

It also works as a radio tuner and alarm clock, letting you set a song on each iPod to go off at a different time. You know, in case you and your darling have to get up for work at different times or what not. It also provides a traditional analog input for your non-iPod music playing devices (as if you have one of those), as well as video output so you can watch your iPod vids on a larger screen.

You can cop one of these bad boys for $149.95, so go ahead and double your pleasure, double your fun. Er, wait, I think that’s for another product.

[Via Engadget]

View PDFs from the comfort of your own Firefox

Posted on Jun. 23, ’08, 2:14 PM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Internet

I’m not much of a Firefox man on OS X—I prefer the relatively comfort of Safari, with Camino serving as my backup and Firefox as more of a backup backup. Still, I know plenty of people have love for the ‘fox, and I respect that. However, it does mean I’m a bit disadvantaged when it comes to answering people’s questions about Firefox—such as how you can get a PDF to open in the browser window rather than downloading and launching a separate application. Annoying, right?

Fortunately, I can now solve that issue for those of you who have been shaking your fist in frustration (including my ultimate frisbee teammate Phil). With the release of Firefox 3 and the help of a simple extension for Firefox, inline PDF viewing can now be yours—for the low, low price of free. I gave it a whirl myself and it seems to work a treat. Maybe it’ll help you out, too.

He wants to be a cowboy, baby: Kid Rock boycotting iTunes Store

Posted on Jun. 23, ’08, 1:31 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Apple » Huh?

Well he’s packin’ up his game and he a headed out of…er, the iTunes Store.

Kid Rock’s apparently throwin’ a hissy over music revenue, saying record labels and now digital music stores are hoarding the bulk of the money from record sales, robbing the musicians and sabotaging La Révolution Digitál entirely.

To fight The Powers That Be, the Rock is turning to ‘cowboy’ (baby) diplomacy—he’s boycotting th