The latest updates to all DVD Studio Pro 4 applications: DVD Studio Pro 5, Compressor 2, Apple Qmaster 2, and DVD Player 4 for standards compliance. DVD Studio Pro 4.0.3 updates compliance for the 1.0 HD DVD Video standard content specification to Tiger and Panther based users. Users with DVD Studio Pro 4.0 or later need to install this update to ensure their projects are compliant with the 1.0 HD DVD Video standard content specification
Analysts for UBS Investment Research this week emphasized confidence in Apple's long term strategy and updated their predictions on forthcoming products to include the possibility of a 1GB iPod nano digital music player. -- AppleInsider.
Move over, Jack Welch. From Apple to Pixar, Steve Jobs is showing why he's the model CEO for the 21st century. -- Fortune.
If you only have a few files then you could copy the files to some removable media but if your needs are greater you need better media and a dedicated backup program.-- Low End Mac.
Apple is working with Intel on UDI (unified display interface). The In-Stat research says that HDMI technology is phasing out DVI (Digital Visual Interface), the technology used to connect the current line of Apple Cinema Displays. Obviously, changes are in store for the world of computer displays in the coming years. -- Macsimum News.
If you're having difficulty entering a serial number when activating your professional software product, keep these tips in mind. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
It seems like everyday there is a new extension created for Firefox. Although some of these are quite cool, I try to avoid rushing to install them, as at the end of the day I don't actually need them.
It's a shame that everyone seems to focus on the newest and shiniest extensions, so I've decided to take it upon myself to promote some of the lesser known extensions that I believe really make Firefox a joy to use, rather than just something to show off to non-Firefox users who haven't seen the light yet. -- Everton Blair.
Many articles have been written about the grail, and several good templates exist. However, all the existing solutions involve sacrifices: proper source order, full-width footers, and lean markup are often compromised in the pursuit of this elusive layout.
A recent project has brought my personal grail quest to an end. The technique I'll describe will allow you to deploy the Holy Grail layout without compromising your code or your flexibility. -- A List Apart.
No, you haven't missed a joint announcement from Apple and Griffin. However, you might have missed this post on Make which links to ZapWizard's Flickr set detailing how he put a Mac mini, with accompanying LCD screen and mouse/keyboard, into his car. -- .
This video was made to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Apple computer making insanely great products. This is not a dupe, as the old link went offline. I've now increased bandwidth, etc. and it should run smoothly for quite a long time. -- unirrelevant.
Most of you know about the news page but you may not be aware that this news is also available as an RSS feed. Just click on the RSS link at the top of the news page, then bookmark the page or point your news reader at feed://oit.utk.edu/macvolplace/rss.xml. Then every time you go to this page you will see the latest news. In addition your news reader will work in the news archive as well. This makes news more searchable and accessible. Enjoy.
To get the most out of one charge of iPod's battery, install the latest iPod software, use the Hold switch, and keep iPod at room temperature. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
This battery firmware update is required for PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers. You will find instructions below on how to determine if your PowerBook requires this update. This firmware update is required to keep your battery life up to specification, may recover battery life in some batteries that have developed short run times, and in some cases can recover batteries that are not recognized by the system. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
On Jan. 26, 2006, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed a patent titled "Methods and apparatuses for operating a portable device based on an accelerometer." Although no assignee was presented in the patent application's template, a clear reference found under "description" does in fact provide patent number 6768066, which is an Apple patent published in 2004.
Just for the record, this patent presents 13 illustrations of a tablet PC and only 1 of a notebook. So make no mistake about it, this patent's focus is on an Apple tablet! -- Macsimumnews.
Keeping your old e-mail is useful for finding contacts that you don't have in your Address Book, referencing information, and leaving something for historians to piece your life together when they write your biography. But having a mail file that is too large can make things a little slow, so try this to keep less-frequently referenced (older) mail in a safe place, while not letting its presence effect your enjoyment of reading your new mail -- David Kadavy.
Congratulations! You have taken a brave step, left Windows and chosen Apple's OS X. Only, now what? What do you do? Where's the Start Menu? The any key? This is a straightforward guide to aid your move. -- Creation Robot (pdf).
As you're probably aware, using Mail's Bounce command (Message > Bounce) isn't effective against spammers because nearly all the spam your receive carries a forged "from" address-meaning that you'll likely bounce the message to an innocent address. Bouncing can be effective, however, when dealing with creeps and cranks who won't leave you alone. Yet if you're plagued by Cs and Cs, it's a bother to have to manually invoke the Bounce command. Here's a way to automate the process. -- Macworld.
Meet some former "think-different" company designers and engineers who've moved on -- and taken a lot of its innovative culture with them. -- BusinessWeek.
Just over a decade ago, Steve Jobs was considered washed-up. Now, given the astounding success of Apple and Pixar, he's setting a new bar for how to manage in the Digital Age. -- BusinessWeek.
Leveraging the power and simplicity of iCal, Apple's calendar software bundled with Mac OS X, High Priority allows you to create, edit, and remove your To Do items directly from the menu bar, without having to have iCal open. -- Stopdesign.
Investors think there is a battle raging for control of the digital home. They're wrong -- Apple has already won. -- CNNMoney.
The now biggest shareholder at Disney, Steve Jobs, is described by Business Week as redefining the job of being a CEO. -- BusinessWeek.
More Internet is a preference pane that allows you to change your preferred "helper application" for any of the Internet Protocols your machine is aware of. For example when you click on a mailto link on a Web page I know want Entourage instead of Mail to come up. This lets you set that option.
Apple's Macintosh personal computers are becoming an increasingly popular choice for consumers, especially for those shopping online at mea-retailerAmazon.com, which this week lists Mac systems as occupying nine out of ten positions in its frequently updated "Top Sellers" listing for personal computer sales.
Due to the lack of developer interest, build machines, compilers and testing resources, the last mozilla.org software built for Mac OS 9 was Mozilla 1.2.1, released in December 2002. However, versions of our software that old are not recommended for security reasons. Therefore, for Mac OS 9 users, mozilla.org recommends iCab - which is, as far as we know, the only graphical browser currently maintained for Mac OS 9.
Bob gets into the nitty-gritty of wiretapping, and takes a moment to address the Pixar-Disney deal. -- I, Cringely.
Among 14 popular TV shows now available for download from the iTunes service under new deal between Apple and MTV Networks. -- c|net.
The merger agreement between the Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios rests, in part, on whether Pixar's award-winning creative team agrees to work for the combined company, according to a securities filing made Thursday. -- c|net.
While Wall Street's reaction to Disney's purchase of Pixar has been mostly positive, BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl warns in his latest Byte of the Apple column that Steve Jobs, Disney and Apple "should be mixed only carefully and in small doses, lest the resulting combination prove volatile.".
I finally found the secret: a bit of user data buried in the chapter track of the movie. If you really want the details on how to fix this issue by hand (it's quite complex), I wrote about it on my site. But I also reported my findings to the creator of the free Metadata Hootenanny which is, among other things, the easiest way to add chapter markers to a QuickTime movie. Within hours, he had updated the program to generate the magic atoms that make the chapter markers work in iDVD 5.
VersionTracker as developed a list of Mac Intel Universal applications. Of course a some point the list will disappear since everything will be universal and then the list of interest will be what is non-universal. Which will be very short indeed.
MacFixIt has posted some material on solutions to problems people are having with Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger and Active Directory:
Over the past few days we've been covering a series of issues with Active Directory in conjunction with Mac OS X 10.4.4. There now appear a number of issues with Macs bound to Active Directory services and Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger).
Most of the issues center around login and password issues --- either rejection of correct login information or unexpected logouts from the Windows (or Mac) Active Directory service.
MacFixIt reader Jason Westlake describes an issue where pre-existing Macintosh-based Active Directory accounts have issues with login after the Windows Active Directory Server begins to enforce password restrictions -- such as a time-limit on static passwords (requiring the password to be changed in a certain number of days). Jason writes:
Our company's password policy says that passwords must change every 90 days and that an account will become locked out after three incorrect login attempts. I have approximately 45 Macs currently on a Windows 2000 Active Directory. At random times for no reason whatsoever, every user's AD account becomes locked out (not all at the same time). We know it happens when Entourage 2004 (with Exchange accounts) suddenly becomes unable to receive email. It gives the user a message saying the username or password is incorrect. All the Mac accounts have been created for a long time, but with no password policy enforced because Macs were not on AD and had no way to change passwords. Now that we're moving to AD, we're turning on the password policy for all the Macs (all PC users have it turned on from day
"They have all exhibited this problem. We created a new test account with password policy, which I logged into an Active Directory-bound Mac and left running for days with no such lock-outs. There's something with our Active Directory and the Macs that's causing this lock-out for all the previously created Mac accounts. It's not feasible to recreate all our Mac accounts in the Active Directory. All Active Directory-bound Macs are running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.3 and Entourage 11.2.1. I've tried Mac OS X 10.4.4 on a couple machines, but it did not change anything."
Another user notes a strange issue with file transfer over Active Directory networks:
"The user logs into his Tiger machine with an Active Directory username and password, and an AFP server volume hosted on a Panther-based Xserve which is linked to an Active Directory server for usernames and passwords is auto-mounted via a login item and the same Active Directory password info. Any attempt to upload nested folders will fail with an error stating something to the effect of the user does not have sufficient access privileges to complete the operation.
"They can upload any number of files within the first level of the main folder being uploaded, but loading any folder that contains anything else halts the upload with the error message (not sure if this includes folders that are empty). The balked nested folder does get uploaded but nothing is in it. Funny enough, the user can then proceed to upload the contents of the balked folder directly into it on the server, so it's not like they don't actually have permissions to write to it, they just can't write multiple levels at one time. I have heard this same issue discussed on MacWindows regarding SMB volumes on Windows servers, but again this is an AFP share hosted by a Panther-based Xserve.
"If I create a local user on the Tiger machine the problem goes away, even though they are logging into the same server using the same Active Directory authenticated username and password. The only difference is the login process to the local machine is to a local account instead of an Active Directory authenticated account."
Another reader, Bruce Penno, reports issues with printing through Active Directory services. He writes:
"I get the 'Connection failed with error 'NT_STATUS_NO_MEMORY' error when trying to print to a printer queue requiring authentication hosted on a windows server and the printer has been set up on the Mac by choosing it from the Printer Browser and is listed as an Open Directory Connection.
"It seems that the Printer Browser mechanism does not allow for authentication.
"If the printer is chosen using the Windows Printing option found when you click 'More Printers...' you are given the opportunity to authenticate to the server. You can also set up an lpr printer with authentication."
In some cases, these issues can be resolved by simply unbinding the Mac OS X system from the Active Directory Server using Directory Services (in Applications/Utilities and an administrator account), restarting the problematic Mac, then re-binding it.
As noted in our separate Mac OS X 10.4.4 coverage, fix involves deleting then re-adding the Active Directory domain in Directory Access (located in Applications/Utilities). MacFixIt reader Allan Marcus writes:
"When I upgraded my Mac OS X Server to 10.4.4 (from 10.4.3) my Active Directory bound users could not authenticate either. I opened Directory Access, clicked on the Authentication tab, removed the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply, then added back the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply, and now it all works."
Confirmation for Active Directory fix
We've received confirmation from a number of readers that our initially posted fix for Active Directory issues wrought by Mac OS X 10.4.4 -- click on the Authentication tab, remove the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply, then add back the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply -- is a success in many cases. One reader writes:
"Good News! I can confirm that Allan's suggestion did fix our problem of not being able to change Active Directory passwords after the 10.4.4 upgrade. Before I tried Allan's suggestion, I tried 'unbinding' and 'rebinding' the machine to Active Directory which didn't work either."
A possible Active Directory fix
Over the past few days we've reported on problems using Active Directory services after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.4 (see our separate coverage) -- particularly with authentication (logging in).
MacFixIt reader Allan Marcus reports a fix that involves deleting then re-adding the Active Directory domain in Directory Access (located in Applications/Utilities). Allan writes:
"When I upgraded my Mac OS X Server to 10.4.4 (from 10.4.3) my Active Directory bound users could not authenticate either. I opened Directory Access, clicked on the Authentication tab, removed the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply, then added back the Active Directory Domain, hit Apply, and now it all works."
There is another source you might check. MacWindows has a Special Report: Integrating Macs and Microsoft Active Directory and it has a section on Tiger and AD.
A MacSpeedZone benchmarking article disputes earlier claims by Macworld that the machines are only 10-25% faster than their G5 predecessors.
When you are running two or more audio applications on your PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) or PowerBook G4 (17-inch Double-Layer SD), the audio may intermittently stutter, echo, or skip backwards. This can happen even if one audio application isn't playing or you have the sound muted in the application (such as when playing a game).
This can involve any application that uses audio, such as QuickTime, iTunes, iDVD, and many third-party applications like games and audio applications.
To avoid this, run only one audio application at a time. If it looks like you only have one audio application running but the sound is still skipping or stuttering, check for hidden login items or startup items.
This document will be updated as more information becomes available. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Logo Design Studio is a new suite of creative design tools includes over 300 customizable logo templates, 1200 unique logo objects, a slogan/tagline library, and other object and text tools.
Many reviewers have given Apple a pretty good thrashing over its new professional photography software, Aperture. After delving into Aperture, Scott Bourne has come to some conclusions about where the critics went wrong, and he puts forth his ideas in this article. -- O'Reilly Digital Media.
All hail the CAT-5 killer! When 802.11n wireless hits the street, it should be stable and speedy enough to transmit full-motion HDTV throughout your home. -- Wired.
Ready to ramp up your multimedia empire? Get priceless videoblogging tips from the experts. Podcast by Webmonkey Radio.
Recent attempts at installing Windows XP have left users scratching their heads. Hopefully a $6000 prize will inspire creative thinking. Maybe Steve could do it? -- InformationWeek.
With his eyes completely covered with a seamless blackout blindfold, Jamie Dresser took iPods from audience members and went through the intricate technical process of opening the iPod casing without damage, removing the fading manufacture's battery, installing a higher capacity NewerTech NuPower replacement battery, and sealing the casing to a like-new appearance in perfect working order. -- Applelinks.
Belkin Corporation took the iLounge "Best of Show" Award for its new TuneTalk Stereo, a new voice recorder for iPod video. -- Applelinks.
Reviewing the new MacBook Pro, Yuval Kossovsky writes for Computerworld, I can tell you this laptop is fast. Really fast. I am hesitant to say it's exponentially faster than the G4 version, but subjectively this baby cooks.
Moore's Law is on track, the chip maker says, and it shows off 45-nanometer creations to prove it. -- c|net.
I cart my 700MHz G3 iBook to work everyday because I prefer it to the provided Wintel machine. One task that I occasionally do is batch image processing with GraphicConverter. These processes--and even image browsing--often slow my machine to a crawl. Out of curiosity, I decided to see if reading and writing the images with RAM Disk would save me time. Within a few minutes, I'd downloaded the freeware app Esperance DV, set up a disk image, and copied over the images to be processed from my hard drive. The increase in speed was amazing. -- Mac OS X Hints.
The new version of Keynote (found in iWork '06) adds some great features, including some new transitions between slides and builds for the way content enters a slide. Curiously, this new version seems to omit some too. Here is how to get them back. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Just an FYI, in the new MacBook Pro line Apple uses the ExpressCard/34 standard NOT the ExpressCard/54 standard. So when and if you buy/order an ExpressCard make sure to get the right one.
Apple could be leaving its Mac OS X users prone to attack if many newly and previously discovered bugs are not fixed. Software security specialists at Suresec recently dug through the coding of Mac OS X to find bugs that persist in current versions of both Intel- and PowerPC-based versions of Mac OS X--many of which were fixed in other companies' operating systems years ago, according to ZDnet Australia.
We've been waiting for this product ever since WiFi signals began flowing through the Mansion several years ago. The AuraGrid is a two part system which pumps your Internet connection from the router through your home's existing coax cable infrastructure and terminates in an antenna that eliminates those pesky dead spots in your WLAN coverage.
An excellent read detailing 30 ways to be more creative! -- gapingvoid.
In case anyone missed the switch during the last several years, Disney's acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios serves as the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the era of digital animation. And Steve Jobs is the smiling man holding the scissors. But can the two outfits take each other to infinity and beyond? -- c|net.
...other than the processor info detailed under "About This Mac" there was no way to tell these "new" iMacs from the old ones. They looked identical, right down to the built-in iSight cameras. Even Mac OS X looked identical -- all the familiar iApps running, the Dock, Finder, etc. It was a Mac. A fast Mac. Apps launched instantly, Safari browsed the web quickly. Everything just worked.
I'll confess, I was slightly disappointed. I'm sure that's completely wrong. Transparently switching an entire platform to a new CPU is a major engineering feat and I should have been in awe. But the cold truth is that an Intel Mac is still just a Mac, regardless of the brain inside actually doing the calculations. -- MacOPINION.
Forbes reports on an interesting service called Stanford on iTunes which made its debut in October 2005.
In an unprecedented move, Stanford University is collaborating with Apple Computer to allow public access a wide range of lectures, speeches, debates and other university content through iTunes U.
There are presently 500 tracks available for free to all iTunes users. The Stanford iTunes section is only available from a direct link on the Stanford iTunes site.
Of interest to Mac users, they have recently added the full video of the Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford (iTunes link). A transcript of the speech was previously posted in June 2005.
The Stanford service appears to be a part of a larger initiative by Apple called iTunes University. The service from Apple offers universities the ability to deliver educational content for free.
It's the most powerful way to manage a broad range of audio or video content and make it available quickly and easily to students, faculty, and staff.
Macworld UK reports that it's 22 years since Apple first screened its epoch-defining 1984 ad for the original Macintosh at the Super Bowl. "On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984," the ad declared. "The $2,495 Mac introduced an all-new innovation: 'Users tell Macintosh what to do simply by moving a 'mouse' - a small pointing device - to select among functions listed in menus and represented by pictorial symbols on the screen,' the company said."
ComputerWorld reports on a major shift in IBM's Notes for Mac strategy. The company unveiled plans at the Lotusphere 2006 conference for a vastly improved Mac version. IBM's Lotus Development Corp. unit has offered its Lotus Notes collaboration application for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh hardware for years, but the software never included the depth of features available to Microsoft Windows users -- and it lacked much of the familiar Mac desktop look and feel. Those shortcomings, however, may soon be history.
JNI libraries built for PowerPC-based Macintosh computers are not loaded under Rosetta because the Java Virtual Machine has already launched without Rosetta. Java applications fail on Intel-based Macs when trying to load PowerPC-only binaries.
This means that if an application is both a native launcher of the JVM, and loads JNI libraries, which per that Q&A are the two things which will cause a Java app to fail on an Intel Mac until it is recompiled.
So on day-one everything may not run on the Intel-Macs. The updates are on the way, since the entire line will be moved by the end of the year, software companies will be very motivated to get the fixes out.
Apple today added more exclusive Disney content to the iTunes Music Store, following the announcement of Disney buyout of Pixar.
It's official. The first Intel Macs were announced on January 10 at Macworld Expo. An Intel-based iMac is already shipping and a 15" MacBook Pro will ship next month. Perhaps you are already chomping at the bit, anxious to get one of these new speed demons for yourself. I understand. In fact, I ordered a new iMac the same day they were announced. But it's my job to jump into the deep end of the new technology pool. Before you rush out and order a new Mac, take a deep breath, pause and consider the following. -- Ted Landau.
Apple has improved its iTunes U service that lets colleges and universities take advantage of the iTunes Music Store's content management system to distribute educational recordings to students and faculty. -- The iPod Observer.
Got a new computer? Because your iPod contains a high-capacity hard drive, you can use it to move all your music from your old computer to the new one. Note that you can't transfer songs from the iPod library to iTunes, so you'll need to follow the steps below to use iPod as a hard disk to transfer music files from one computer to another. Once you have the files transferred, you'll need to authorize any iTunes Music Store content. If you won't be using your old computer, you'll want to deauthorize it. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
On Jan. 19, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed two patents granted to Apple: "Method and system for discovering a power source on a peripheral bus" and "Publishing, browsing, rating and purchasing of groups of media items." Patent 20060015378: Publishing, browsing, rating and purchasing of groups of media items. -- Macsimum News.
Now researchers are looking at ways to exploit lasers with chaotically fluctuating signals, to add an extra layer of privacy to messages sent over fiber-optic lines. -- Technology Review.
Smart folders disguise Tiger's convenient and dynamic Spotlight searches as good old-fashioned folders. You can use a smart folder to keep track of almost anything-from all the documents you've opened this week to every Excel file you've highlighted with a red label.
Even better, smart folders give you access to hidden metadata and advanced Spotlight features, so you can find files that would elude conventional searches. Learn to set up a search string just right, and smart folders can reduce your need to organize. -- Macworld.
If you work with any kind of sensitive material-from trade secrets to love letters-you've probably wished for a way to block access to your Mac the minute you stand up. There are many ways to do this, from the obvious to the obscure. -- Macworld.
David Pogue over at the New York Times says the reasons Apple switched to Intel chips for its Macintosh computers: speed, heat and the death of the Megahertz Myth.
Spam, spyware and identity theft are only a taste of how exposed we have all willingly become as we enjoy the benefits of the networked world. -- New York Times.
An article in The Orlando Sentinel by Linda Shrieves asks if the iPod generation has effectively isolated themselves from society and potentially done irreparable harm to their communication skills.
Like many of you, I too am a paid .Mac user, and I have been for a couple of years now. But if it weren't for all of the pain involved in transitioning from one e-mail address to another, I wouldn't renew it. Heck, I might just chock up the loss of time and people I may never get back into contact with again and still not renew it -- but I'll just be totally honest here and tell you that I haven't decided yet. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
There's some pretty interesting stuff on Google Video. In this article, Erica Sadun shows you how to download videos, convert them to an iPod-friendly format, and load them onto your new 5G video iPod. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
IBM unveiled new speech recognition technology today that can comprehend the nuances of spoken English, translate it on the fly, and even create on-the-fly subtitles for foreign-language television programs.
USA Today is reporting on a trend of selling iPods on eBay which are preloaded with music and movies. This raises interesting questions about the legality of the files, including those that offer seemingly legitimate services of transcoding DVDs for the iPod video (while selling you the DVD disc as well).
Major figures at Sun and Google -- including Vinton Cerf, one of the inventors of the Internet and now Google's Chief Internet Evangelist -- are backing a new academic anti-malware initiative that aims to spotlight spyware purveyors and ultimately give besieged computer owners simple technologies to guide their Web surfing and downloading decisions. -- MIT Technology Review.
Steve Jobs is worshipped and admired like the cultural icons he's used in his marketing campaigns. But on the face of it, he's little more than a greedy tycoon. -- Wired.
Some of you may just be reading the news and are not aware of what is on the site. So I plan to take you on a tour of MacVolPlace showing you what is here.
Under the UT link are University of Tennessee Resources for Mac users. Among them are:
So you might want to take a look.
Apple claims that its new Photocasting feature uses "industry standard" RSS, but what do they really mean by that? -- Ars Technica.
"Journaling" is a feature that helps protect the file system against power outages or hardware component failures, reducing the need for repairs. Journaling was first introduced in Mac OS X Server 10.2.2, then to the non-server OS in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. This document explains some of the benefits of using this feature and how it works. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
You can choose to have a playlist automatically created from specific songs in your library using Smart Playlists. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Here we'll describe the external ports and connectors on the iMac (Early 2006) computer. You can find them on the bottom right side of the back of the computer, known as the Input/Output (I/O) panel. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Corel bills its WordPerfect Office software as "the world's leading alternative to Microsoft Office." But when it comes to U.S. retail sales, Corel lost the No. 2 spot in 2005 to a somewhat unlikely competitor: Apple Computer's iWork. -- c|net.
Apple has now announced the PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz) Memory Slot Repair Extension Program -- a worldwide program covering repair or replacement of the memory slot in PowerBook G4 models manufactured between January 2005 and April 2005 (2005-01 through 2005-04) that are experiencing specific component failures. This article answers the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding the PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz) Memory Slot Repair Extension Program. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
The process for removing the Classic environment from your Mac OS X startup volume.
The steps are relatively simple, and are as follows (generally you can save about 1 GB of disk space by eliminating Classic, dependent on a variety of factors):
First, make sure Classic isn't running via the Classic pane in System Preferences.
Next, drag the "System Folder" folder at the root level of your hard drive to the trash. If Mac OS X won't let you delete the folder, open it and trash all of its contents. Restart, and you should now be able to delete the folder itself. (Alternatively, type the following in the Terminal: sudo rm -rf '/System Folder' -- you will be prompted for your administrator password. )
You'll also want to delete /Applications (Mac OS 9) after rebooting.
You can also delete the following files:
/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Classic.prefPane to remove the Classic preference pane from System Preferences
/System/Library/CoreServices/Classic Startup.app.
One of the most consistently successful workarounds for eliminating a broad group of problems under Mac OS X is the creation of a fresh user account.
The problems that can necessitate creation of a new user account are many, but usually involve corruption or some other conflict caused by a file in the User Library folder (~/Library) -- particularly a problematic .plist file, font, or kernel extension. -- MacFixIt.
Verizon plans to offer cable television over its high-speed fiber optic network. The Boston Globe offers a description of the service -- available in test markets and coming soon to Boston.
I Can Animate 1.1 is an animation program designed with education in mind. It supports layers for combining video with images drawn in the application, can capture from a DV camera or webcam, and offers features such as onion-skinning, time-lapse, and chroma-key. This release is now a Universal Binary. I Can Animate is priced starting at £35 for Mac OS X 10.3 and up.
For those that have to be shown that ice is slick, there are a number of sites doing benchmarks on the new Intel based Macs saying that software running under Rosetta (in emulation) runs slower than native complied software. DUH! And rain falls is wet too.
If you want a benchmark get a native application on a G5 and the same application native on an Intel Mac and then talk about performance. Saying applications running in emulation are slower than native applications is like saying elephants are bigger than mice or that Steve Jobs can create a reality distortion field.
And one more thing, it will take (IMO) the second release of the Intel versions of software for the bugs to be squashed. So until that happens we will be living in interesting times. Been there! Done that!
Adobe Systems debuted Adobe Acrobat 3D for UNIX variants and Microsoft Windows, but not for Mac OS X. The new desktop software designed to help extend document-based 3D design collaboration, allowing users to easily convert 3D models from a wide variety of major computer-aided design (CAD) formats and embed them into Adobe PDF files-regardless of whether they have CAD software.
Acrobat product manager, Patrick Aragon, has told Architosh that nothing is precluding them from developing a version for Mac OS X and that if the market responds by requesting a native Mac OS X version of Acrobat 3D, Adobe is willing to produce one.
My MacBook is shipping on the 15th of February. I told my boss that this would replace my IBM desktop and I could boot Windows XP on it. I am still confident it can be done. I am pledging $100 of my own money and offering anyone else who would like the instructions on how to Dual boot these two operating systems the ability to donate some of their money into the pot as a reward for the person / group that can make dual-booting Mac OS X and Windows XP happen on an Intel Mac.
Apple Computer's video iPod may not be the first portable movie player, but it is by far the best. -- c|net.
From February 6th to 8th, executives from seventy companies will do a six-minute demo of their products to an audience of venture capitalists, analysts, and journalists. Guy Kawasaki (he does venture capital these days but he used to know something about Macs) tells How to Be a Demo God for anyone who has to demo a product to raise capital, make a sale, garner press, or recruit an employee.
Just because Apple is promoting themes as iMovie's most important feature doesn't mean it's the only addition to the digital-video editing application that deserves attention. Jeff Carlson shines some light on what else is exciting about this release. -- Macworld.
To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: "Do what you love." But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. -- Paul Graham.
LiveScience has an interesting piece taking a look at how genius is rarely developed in a vacuum.
There was a day when telephone companies provided a dial tone, cable companies offered television stations and specialty channels, and Internet companies offered service over telephone line-based modems. Recent events make it clear that those days are long, long over. -- TidBITS.
All signs point to 2006 as the year consumers become intimately familiar with "digital rights management," as Microsoft, Apple and Google all push their own copy protection schemes. Can revolution be far behind? -- Wired.
The O'Reilly Hacks Series provides some clever solutions to interesting problems.
Common Criteria Tools is an internationally approved set of security standards which provides a clear and reliable evaluation of the security capabilities of Information Technology products. By providing an independent assessment of products and the ability to meet security standards, Common Criteria gives customers more confidence in the security of Information Technology products and leads to more informed decisions.
Run entirely with Macs, the New York Guitar Festival brings together some of the world's finest guitarists for over three weeks of performances all over Manhattan.
As part of its exhibition at National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show this week in Anaheim, Calif., Apple Computer could be seen demonstrating a new version of its Logic music composition and production software designed to run natively on the first Intel Macs. -- Macworld.
Acrobat 3D, which can display CAD images in PDF documents, is Adobe's first Acrobat product aimed at a specific industry. -- c|net.
Apple Computer's announcement of new Macs based on processors from Intel raises an interesting question: Since both the Mac and Windows operating systems now run on Intel-based hardware, shouldn't it be easy to run both on the same computer? -- c|net.
Despite the fact that Stuffit Deluxe and Stuffit Expander are capable of opening more archive types than most people are even aware of, sometimes these tried-and-true Mac tools get things wrong. If you use Stuffit to expand files that are compressed with the .Zip format, you may find that your uncompressed files are damaged and unusable. Try double-clicking the .Zip file instead, and let the Finder uncompress it for you.
Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 can create and expand .Zip files in the Finder, and in most cases are capable of expanding the .Zip archives that Stuffit just can't handle.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is a full-featured office productivity suite. The new release uses the open standard OASIS OpenDocument XML format as the default file format.
James Reinders, Intel's director of marketing for software development products, told TG Daily that incorporation of Intel architecture, coupled with the increased use of Intel compilers by Mac developers, may lead to a long-overdue rethinking of the methodologies developers use to write Macintosh applications, mentioning the new Intel compilers as the catalyst for that change. "The Intel compilers are the best at extracting the performance of the processor," professed Reinders, and his argument seems sensible enough. Intel is in the best position to interpret how machine code can be optimized for execution in the microprocessors it produces. "I think it will re-emphasize people thinking in an event-oriented nature, which I'm very fond of," he added, "and it does free people up to think in parallel very cleanly."
MacInTouch lists programs that have been released - or promised - in "Universal Binary" versions compatible with both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macintosh computers, or in specific Intel Mac versions.
My first impressions were not of a people ruled by irrational fervor, but of sharp minds and a passion for their work. That impression was, admittedly, prior to Steve Jobs' keynote address, David Pogue's MacWorld Live keynote, and attending several training sessions with a less technical attendance. Regardless, that impression still holds. -- Jeremiah Fisher.
Are you still using ancient Macs? No, this doesn't mean who has an SE/30 set up as a printer server or who's got their Quadra 840av doing router duty. It means who's still using antique Mac as their primary system for daily stuff like email, chatting, finances, web browsing and (if the system allows it) iTunes? Real pre-Digital Hub stuff here, MacSlash. If you think you're the person whose system is outliving its expectations (and Apple's support policies) the most, share here with specs and what version of Mac OS you're running, and why you've stuck with it. -- MacSlash.
Nielsen//NetRatings, a leader in Internet media and market research, have announced that traffic to Apple's iTunes web site and use of the iTunes application has skyrocketed 241% over the past year, from 6.1 million unique visitors in December 2004 to 20.7 million in December 2005, reaching nearly 14% of the active Internet population. -- I.T.Vibe.
Nothing lasts forever, certainly some day the iPod/iTunes duo will be challenged and soundly defeated. That day isn't today and unfortunately, if you're Microsoft, it isn't even this year. -- Apple Matters.
When you boot the Mac, hold down (and keep holding) the Option key. When you do, a mauve screen appears that displays icons of all the bootable volumes attached to your Mac (this WILL take a while.) Click on the drive you want to boot from, click the Right Arrow icon, and the Mac will boot from that drive.
Lost in the hoopla of Macworld is a cool new feature available to users of Apple's Airport Express. Previously, you could only use the AirTunes feature to broadcast music to a single AirPort Express base station, but in the AirPort Express Firmware Update 6.3 Apple has quietly added the ability to stream iTunes to multiple AirPort Expresses simultaneously. -- O'Grady's PowerPage.
The only PC emulators on the Mac (that Jason O'Grady knows of) are Microsoft Virtual PC, and iEmulator. But what about VMWare?
When he enquired about a Mac OS X version of VMware their sales department replied saying that they "do not provide information in advance of an official press release."
If you're interested in such a product Jason suggests that you email sales@vmware.com encouraging them to write a version of VMWare for Mac OS X/Intel.
It looks like my suspicions were correct, Apple didn't put the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) into the final firmware for the iMac. If I had to suspect reasons why, it was probably to motivate Microsoft to continue supporting Mac versions of Office, and give them a market for Virtual PC. -- O'Grady's PowerPage.
Emacs 22 is Mac OS X aware, and can be built either as a Carbon .app double-clickable, or as a typical X11 program. Problem is, the information about how to build it is pretty scattered. Here's what works for me. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Because transient analysis is complex and not widely understood by computer users, a number of myths have grown up around the subject of surge protection over the years. -- totse.com.
IBM is ready to plant a big wet kiss on Apple Computer. At Lotusphere next week, the IBM Software Group is poised to announce updated Mac OS X support in the latest Notes client. In addition, the company will pledge big-time support for the new Intel-based Macs due later this year, sources said. -- CRN.
Learning to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts to reduce your trips to the mouse can lead to a much more fulfilling web browsing experience, especially at those times that your mouse just isn't doing the trick. -- LifeHacker.
On the last day of Macworld 2006 I revisited the prototype MacBooks and performed a series of tests to measure the new system's performance. I conducted four media-related tests on the new MacBook Pro and previous G4/G5 systems, including audio/video encoding and HD video playback. The goal was to evaluate the performance of the new MacBook Pro and compare it to previous Macs. -- Woodware.
Disney's new leadership is interested in buying Pixar, a move that would make Steve Jobs the largest individual shareholder in Disney, and you know what that means. Would The Steve give up control over Pixar? -- Ars Technica.
If you feel you aren't getting the most out of your iPod battery, perform the simple test below before considering battery service or replacement. This test will help you determine how much life (playback time) you are truly getting from your battery. You may find that all you need to do to increase your battery's performance is to follow the guidelines on the iPod battery website. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Recently I ran an item in this space that implied that Apple's new iPhoto 6 might not produce standard RSS code/feeds. I did not write this item, it was something being put forward by others. I have been told (and shown) by Apple that this is NOT the case and that IF there are any problems Apple will fix them. I hope this lays this issue to rest. I try to post only reliable information in this space. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa.
And if you know something is different than what has been said here, please don't hesitate to show me the error of my ways.
Businessweek reports on a breakdown on the costs of components in the new Intel iMac. They cite a company called iSuppli which took apart the Intel iMac and calculated the total cost of materials it takes to assemble. According to the company, the 17" Intel iMac which retails for $1299 costs Apple $898 before adding software and boxing it. They estimate that the most expensive component is the new Intel Core Duo chip which is estimated to cost Apple $265 a piece.
Jon Gunderson, of the University of Illinois, is teaching an on-line course "Designing Universally Accessible Web Resources," for improving the accessibility of web resources to people with disabilities. The course starts on February 14th. Some of you may remember that Jon gave a day long Web Accessibility Workshop at UT back on April 28. It was well attended and received.
Apple's new iMac Core Duo received 4.5 out of 5 stars from PC Magazine in its latest review, but the magazine says that machine is best suited for consumers due to software performance on the new Intel architecture (this will change as software is rewritten to take advantage of the new hardware.) The magazine notes that Apple's Front Row application is much more responsive.
Apple is showing an Intel-native version of its high-end audio application, Logic Pro 7 at the NAMM music show in Anaheim, Calif, according to a new report. Ahead of schedule in its development, Apple reportedly will release the new Logic Pro 7.2 update in February 2006, according to Macworld. The professional audio application was shown on the NAMM show floor with exceptional performance.
Traffic to Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music store surged by 241 percent last year, driven in part by its popularity among teenagers, a research firm said Thursday. -- TechWeb News
Everyone has been wondering about the potential speed of Intel-based Macs. Apple's Web pages suggest that the new iMac, powered by the Intel Core Duo processor, is twice as fast as its G5 predecessor. See how the 2.0GHz Core Duo iMac stacks up in Macworld's first round of lab testing.
Matthew Russell offers an AppleScript solution to improved movie viewing in iTunes, and it only took 5 minutes or less. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
iPhoto has reached a milestone with version 6. Apple's "consumer" photo management tool is beautiful, friendly, and powerful. Here's a quick look at my favorite features. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
Ready for a programming series? I have not one, but two authors writing tutorials for you. The fun begins on Jan. 20. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
My plan is to blog my experiences with the new MacBook Pro for the first few weeks. From opening the box and setting up the MBP, to transferring my data and reporting back on how Rosetta performs, since I have a feeling that I'll be using it quite a bit until my favorite apps are available as Universal Binaries (which could be a while). Of course, the app I'm dying to try out most on the new MacBook Pro is Aperture. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The Bush Administration is fishing for Google queries and has already obtained records from other search engines. What can ordinary web users do to protect their privacy? -- Wired.
Moo.fx is a collection of JavaScript behaviors that you can employ while designing layouts and page elements. Use the effects to give a "sliding open" effect to frames and text boxes, among other things. Check out how the page slides open when you visit their site.
In the words of the creators, "moo.fx is a super lightweight, ultra tiny, megasmall javascript effects library, written with prototype.js."
It's standards-compliant, and it works in Safari, IE, and Firefox. There's also some support for the effects in Opera, sans opacity. Remarkably, moo.fx is only 3K big. Or 3K small, depending on how you look at things.
Here is a picture (Flickr) of this guy's home setup. He has multiple 30" displays, a Mac mini dedicated to his music, this guy is without a doubt hardcore Mac. The graphic is mapped to tell you what each thing is and what it is being used for.
Bonjour for Windows 1.0.2 update is recommended for all Bonjour users to improve usability and compatibility.
Apple Wednesday announced financial results for its fiscal 2006 first quarter ended December 31, 2005, reporting the highest revenue and earnings in the Company's history. Apple posted revenue of $5.75 billion and a net quarterly profit of $565 million, or $.65 per diluted share, in this 14-week quarter. These results compare to revenue of $3.49 billion and a net profit of $295 million, or $.35 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 27.2 percent, down from 28.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter's revenue.
When you use Spotlight to search for a file, there's no need to have it bring up a list of ones that you know are totally unrelated. If you want to narrow your search right off the bat, you can add a category when you type the term in the Search field. For example, if you're looking for a song named "Vertigo" (by the band U2), there's no sense in having Spotlight bring you a list of email messages from your ear doctor, right? So if you give Spotlight a hint as to what you're looking for, you can get just songs as your Spotlight search results. Here's how: Type "kind:music" (with no space in between or quotations), then add one space and type "Vertigo" (again, you don't need the quotes). So your search will look like this: kind:music Vertigo. Now it will only search songs, and you'll only get song results.
Use Spotlight preferences to determine how results are displayed, define a keyboard shortcut for Spotlight, and set up private folders that are not searched.
Breaking new ground in the mobile computing market, Seagate Technology has announced the world's first 2.5-inch disc drive built on perpendicular recording technology - a 160GB notebook PC giant with 25 percent more capacity than the largest capacity notebook drive currently available. -- Applelinks.
Following a wave of privacy concerns last week, Apple Computer has begun prominently notifying customers about a new recommendation feature in its iTunes software, as well as spotlighting a simple way to turn it off. -- c|net.
Computer maker said some buyers waited for Intel-based Macs, but says the slowdown was less than it expected. -- c|net.
Our office network has a UNIX server which is backed up nightly, and I wanted to take advantage of this to back up the contents of my home directory on my Powerbook when I'm in the office.
I'm sure there are GUI tools that will do this but I wanted it to run in the background, and only when I'm on the office network and when the server isn't too busy. The prerequisites are that you have a UNIX server which you can connect to with SSH without a password (ie you're in the authorized_keys file). -- Mac OS X Hints.
For the utmost in physical security, currently shipping PowerPC-based Macs allow the user to set an Open Firmware password via the Apple Open Firmware Password tool. [Note that this linked version will not work with Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) systems. Instead, you must use the 1.1 version from your Tiger install disc.]
This protection disallows an unauthorized user to change the Mac OS X administrator password or format the startup volume by starting up from a Mac OS X installation disc or another boot volume by requiring entry of a password at the early stages of the boot process.
Fortunately, the new Intel-based Macs -- though including a new firmware mechanism, EFI, instead of Open Firmware -- allow a similar level of protection. The new firmware password utility located in /Applications/Utilities by default on the new Macs allows the user to set a firmware password. -- MacFixIt.
While users continue to lament the inability of Intel-based Macs to make use of the Classic environment for running Mac OS 9-and earlier applications, it should be noted that the lack of Classic support is actually an inadvertent security boon.
Several Mac OS X security guides recommend that users remove any OS 9 system folders and the "Classic" System Preference panel from your Macintosh because Classic applications may not adhere to the stringent security measures available in Mac OS X, allowing the user to delete potentially important files or providing unauthorized users access to otherwise protected information.
The gradual inability to boot from a Mac OS 9 volume (also enacted on recent PowerPC-based Macs) also provides a measure of security, because if your Mac is started up from an OS 9 (Classic) System Folder, there is no protection or security at all for the OS X files in the same disk partition. -- MacFixIt.
Early adopters of Intel-based Macs (only the Late 2006 iMacs are shipping as of yet) note a lack of compatible virus scanning software that will properly run -- in Rosetta -- on the new architecture. -- MacFixIt.
A ZDNN article indicates that applications converted to Universal Binaries may need to be re-compiled with Intel's newly released Xcode-integrated developer tools in order to take full advantage of the Core Duo chip.
One drawback of using the new tools may be that they don't support Objective C, which many Mac applications will be written in. Objective C is considered to be the native language for Mac OS X, and before version 1.5 there was little support for C++ in Xcode. Intel has no plans to support Objective C, so existing developers will almost certainly have to modify their applications to take advantage of Intel's dual-core processors. Mac developers also face different vector instruction sets in the two architectures: Altivec in the PowerPC and MMX/SSE in the Intel architecture. While the two instruction sets perform the same operations in general, the precise instructions are different. Reinders said that unless you've written directly to the hardware, the transition should be straightforward.
MacInTouch now has a "first look" iMac Core Duo Review from Robert Mohns, who examines performance and the technology behind it, as well as compatibility issues.
In the upcoming months, Apple will be launching a new service aimed towards higher educational institutions and Apple's iTunes Music Store. The new service dubbed "iTunes University" has already been piloted at a number of Universities like Duke, Univ. of Missouri, Univ. of Michigan, and Stanford. The service is said to enable university faculty members to post their Podcast's and have them accessible to students via the Apple iTunes Store. Apple's iTunes Music store will interact with each of universities authentication system to protect content. -- Revolutionmac.
We Test New Apple Desktop To Gauge Impact of Intel Chip; Will All Your Software Work? Is the new Intel iMac as good as its predecessor? Does the machine's raw power offset the translation slowdown? -- Wall Street Journal.
Mike Davidson has started a really good contest on his blog. Design a Steve Jobs Movie Poster. The winner gets an iPod. Make sure you look at ALL the entries. I wish I could do that.
Interviewing for podcasts is as easy as putting a microphone in a room and asking a few questions-as long as you're satisfied with your listeners turning you off after a minute or two. If you want your listeners to hang around for your conversation with a rising star, read on. In this article, I'll share a pod-load of tips on conducting and recording a killer interview. In the next installment, we'll get down to the waveform level as we polish that interview up for podcasting. Although you can do amazing salvage work with today's digital editing tools, it's faster, easier, and usually better-sounding if you begin with a great recording. -- O'Reilly Digital Media.
I got so impatient to try out my in-house applications, that I built Universal copies and posted them in a private section of my web site. I then went to my local Apple Store (after calling ahead to confirm that they got their Intel macs on schedule) to do a little test-drive. -- Red Sweater Blog.
Many are looking ahead to a day when something other than a transistor might serve as the workhorse of the computer processor. One candidate for such an alternative technology recently took another step toward practical reality. As reported last week in the journal Science, researchers at Notre Dame have combined magnetic nanoparticles into a logic gate that theoretically could be used to perform all the operations of today's computers. -- MIT Technology Review.
I'm ready to dump my dull little box, dutifully performing its dull little tasks for something different, something powerful, something better." How does one go from being a windows user to a Mac addict? Read the story of a boy and a powerbook. I'm switching and never looking back. -- backside 180.
Following this week's five-year commitment to the Mac platform, Microsoft said it is working with Apple to bring Virtual PC to the new Intel-architecture, although it didn't provide details about the release date. The company, however, said that it would not run under Rosetta, Apple's emulation environment that allows older PowerPC programs to run on Intel-based Macs. -- MacNN.
Remote Browser version 4 (RBrowser) provides access to files on the local host as well as remote UNIX systems with an easy-to-use graphical interface. RBrowser provides secure File transfers as well as Folder Sync that preserve HFS Metadata.
Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers. -- c|net.
These are the startup key combinations you can use on Intel-based Macs. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
It's official. According to AppleCare Knowledge Base documentation, starting with the intel based Macs, the Mac OS will no longer run even as Classic under OS X.
Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg on Tuesday published a new piece that addresses what he calls the iPod's "annoying shortcomings."
OpenOSX announced the immediate availability of WinTel 2.0 for the Mac on Tuesday. The emulator lets you use the open source Bochs software to install and run x86/Pentium-based operating systems on the Mac while booted in Mac OS X.
Trusted Network Technologies today announced availability of its Identity Driver for Mac OS X users. Identity allows organizations to see, control, and prove who's interacting with any server or application, from what computer, and when, which are requirements for IT operations. Identity establishes pervasive, permanent, and unalterable identities for every user, computer, server, and application, blocking users without an identity from accessing a company's assets. The Identity solution comprises three elements, the Identity driver (embeds a unique identity within each session by modifying the data packets), the I-Manager (establishes access and control policies), and the I-Gateway (enforces policies based on user identities). Pricing is available by contacting Trusted Network.
Bumper-crop expected/With sales well ahead of expectations, bets are Apple's earnings for its December quarter will soar. -- CNNMoney.
The Mac maker knows which side its bread is buttered on, and it's not the enterprise" -- InfoWorld.
Apple Computer has requested a set of trademarks for a mobile telephone service featuring music, video, email, and Internet functions, according to applications at the US Patent and Trade Office.
The maker of the iPod music players filed this month to trademark the name 'Mobile Me,' for devices and services combining features of the iPod with Motorola's ROKR telephone and the Blackberry portable communications device.
The Cupertino-based company asked to lock in the 'Mobile Me' name for handheld devices as well as accompanying mobile telephone service, according to the trademark applications.
The telephone service would provide 'digital music from local or global communications networks' as well as online databases 'in the fields of music, concerts, videos, radio, television news' and more, the applications state. -- Forbes.
Just in case the iPod is a bit too complex for you, and you don't quite fit in with the crowd at an Apple store, a UK department store is offering professional iPod survival lessons.
Apple has filed three new patents: for a method and apparatus for preventing loops in a full-duplex bus, for the generation and use of masks in MPEG video encoding to indicate non-zeroentries in transformed macroblocks and a keyboard with a lighting system. -- Macsimum News.
Not everything in my Apple experience has been great. After all, I wouldn't have had to bring the machine in the first place if it had been working. But the way in which they treated a customer with a problem was . . . genius. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
iDVD has come a long way since its early days, when it was a DVD-authoring application with static menus, staid themes, and limited burning capabilities. In Jonathan Seff's first look, he finds that Apple has made a lot of progress in the versions that followed. While iDVD 6 doesn't add a large number of features, it remains a worthy update. -- Macworld.
If you're in the market for a MacBook Pro to replace a PowerBook, you need to remember that Apple's new professional notebook requires a whole new set of accessories. -- The Apple Core.
For the first time in my life, and purely by accident, I have looked at the Apple website with JavaScript disabled. What I discovered surprised me. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
iTunes is turning into a slow, ineffective mess of an application. Surprisingly, nobody seems to notice these discrepancies, focusing instead on the brilliant iPod and the Music Store. Let's not forget iTunes is the center of the puzzle. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
What happens when you put two 20" iMacs next to each other, one Intel, one G5, and synchronize a boot cycle? The answer is, the Intel box wins.... Of course, this is viral video, so take it with a nice big grain of salt, the stats of each machine are unknown.
Past the rows of video games and rainbow iPod cases at Macworld SF, Adam Goldstein found his pick of the show. The product that got his Coolness Vote this year is a neat design tool called SketchUp. Here's how it works. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
I've mentioned a few times before in my essays that launchd simply rocks. It can slice, dice, and peel your tomatoes. As is already fairly well covered on the web, it can replace init and watchdog like processes all in one feel swoop. What hasn't gotten a lot of attention, however, are some of its other talents. In this essay, I'm going to focus on how it replaces cron. Yes, our venerable friend cron is due for replacement and launchd brings on the goodness. -- James Duncan Davidson's Blog.
So what happens when Apple's video iPod hits critical mass? And what happens when Apple offers enough video content on iTunes that it hits critical mass? And what happens when Apple's hardware fully integrates into your living room home theater system? We're looking at exponential growth. -- TheStreet.
It may not be the last laugh, but on Friday afternoon, after the close of the stock market, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, shared an e-mail chuckle with his employees at the expense of Dell, a big rival, reports the New York Times. -- AppleInsider.
The Big Switch has been publicly underway for a mere seven months, and it has borne fruit in the form of a new iMac and laptop, the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro is due to hit store shelves at some point in February. The iMac is available now, and we've had a 17" Core Duo iMac up and running at the Ars Orbiting HQ since we were able to get our hands on one. -- Ars Technica.
Strata announced the availability of Stata for Intel Macintosh: Small Stata, Intercooled Stata, and Stata/SE. Stata for Intel Macintosh has been completely adapted and recompiled for Intel hardware, meaning that it will run at full speed on the Intel processor and does not rely on any emulation. Our informal timings show that Apple's new Intel-based platforms run Stata substantially faster than did the previous generation of Macintoshes.
Robert X. Cringely's prediction average was down for 2005, but 2006 is looking better thanks to Apple and Burst. Among his predictions for this year:
To learn where the serial number is located on your iMac, first identify which model of iMac you have. Go to the linked document to find your iMac's serial number. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
My son has a bondi blue iMac G3 running 10.3.9. He tried to run Disk Utility to repair permissions and 1/3 of the way in got the error message below. I booted from the CD and got the same message at the same spot. The only fix was archive and re-install. Took a while but I could finally run Disk Utility without error. It could not find a reference to this error message anywhere. Anyone else seen it?
After his keynote address at Macworld Expo last Tuesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs sat down with Newsweek's Steven Levy to discuss the new Intel-based Macs as well as the iPod's runaway success.
Last week was Expo, of course, and many new products were introduced. iWork '06, though, had an immediate impact on my work, and as a result, I spent quite a bit of time using it (well, half of it!) last week. Despite the minimal amount of attention iWork received during the keynote, there are some truly substantive improvements in the package. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Kodawarisan has disassembled one of the new Apple Intel iMacs released at Macworld. A picture of the Core Duo can be seen here.
With Apple transitioning the entire Macintosh line over to Intel processors over the next 12 months, users will have to be familiar with Rosetta. Rosetta is the emulator (translator) that allows current Mac (PowerPC) programs to run under the new Intel processors.
Apple has posted some recent developer notes about Rosetta which may be of interest to users.
Rosetta supports "applications that run on the PowerPC G3 or G4 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the following applications:
As developers compile their applications for the new Intel processors, they will be releasing all new applications as Universal Binaries. Universal Binaries have both PowerPC and Intel code and can be used on either type of Mac.
You can tell if an application is is Universal or PowerPC by opening the Info window in finder.
Reports spreading across the web that Intel Macs can't boot Windows XP might be inaccurate, reports Dan Warne for APC Magazine.
MacInTouch has results of Xbench 1.2 tests of the new 20" Intel iMac/2.0GHz Duo and of an original iMac G5/1.8GHz, both running Mac OS X 10.4. A MacInTouch reader subsequently provided results from a 2.1GHz iMac G5 that has the same hard drive as the Intel iMac.
Intel chips will give Macs some new zip. But Jobs still cares more about your living room than your office. -- InformationWeek.
Why would an Apple-built, Intel based laptop somehow defy the laws of physics, common sense and exceed the capabilities of PC laptops that have been made by manufacturers using the technology for years before Apple got to it, somehow exceed by a factor 75% or more the battery life of existing Intel based laptops?
There's a finite amount of power you can squeeze into a battery, and there's a limit to how much you can reduce the power requirements of a laptop. -- The Apple Blog.
MacMinute is pleased to announce the MacMinute Showtime Awards for the 2006 Macworld Conference & Expo held in San Francisco last week. These are the editor's picks of 12 of the coolest, most interesting hardware and software products shown or announced during the Mac extravaganza. To be considered for an award, products had to either have started shipping or have been demonstrated during the event.
iPhoto 6, part of Apple's new iLife '06 suite, may not have as many revolutionary new features as past versions. But almost all of its additions make the process of working with your photos more enjoyable. From the program's new full-screen editing mode to the photocasting image-sharing feature, Macworld's Kelly Turner tells you what to expect from the latest version of iPhoto.
Ole Jacobsen pent a couple of days on the show floor of this year's Macworld Expo. Here are some of his observations. -- O'Grady's PowerPage.
Mike McHargue decided to see how much of a price premium exists between Macs and PCs. This is a much easier task now that you can match components exactly. Mike compares the MacBook Pro to the Dell Inspiron E1705 and his results are a pleasant surprise.
With Apple's announcement of the MacBook Pro they also obsoleted a popular notebook technology - the PC Card slot (formerly PCMCIA).
ExpressCard/34 is a blazing fast replacement for the venerable PC Card slot found on many notebooks, including several generations of PowerBook. ExpressCard is a serial interface delivering between 480 Mbytes/sec and 2.5 Gbit/sec/direction of bi-directional throughput, depending on the interface (USB 2.0 or PCI Express) while a CardBus PC Card is a parallel interface capable of only 33-132 Mbytes/sec. -- The Apple Core.
Did you know you can use your Video iPod with your TV? Best-selling author Derrick Story details how you can connect the Video iPod using standard cables and share your content on a TV any time you visit with friends and family. -- O'Reilly Network.
Though this is obvious to most of us, your PHB's might benefit from knowing that meetings are bad for you. Two psychologists have found evidence that the number of and the time spent in meetings has a detrimental effect on mood. -- Guardian.
For a few months now, I've been bitten by the desire for a Mac based 'Home Media Center'. I have all these scattered elements - music in various iTunes libraries, photos in various iPhoto libraries (We'd been using Old Faithful for downloading and keeping all the family photos), as well as DVDs and movies. I felt that I could bring these together somehow, but I also didn't want to buy lots of new kit in order to do it. What follows is my experience in setting up a basic media thingy. -- Jon Hicks.
It's time once again for TidBITS' annual look at the best, the worst, and the weirdest products from Macworld Expo. With over 361 booths, it's entirely possible they've missed some cool things.
A new technology stores data in a perpendicular arrangement rather than in a flat, horizontal fashion. The novel approach allows engineers to bump the capacity of hard drives, paving the way for future expansion of the storage industry. -- Wired.
The new chip will give up to 70 percent more listening time according to Wolfson. This means if your current iPod can play music for 14 hours (a statistic for a typical 5G iPod), with the new Wolfson chip and a similar battery the same iPod would be able to play for 23.8 hours. -- tuaw.
The ROKR didn't rock, leaving some to wonder if Apple was saving its best effort for another phone. A new trademark filed for by Apple points in that direction. -- Ars Technica.
Apple has said it doesn't care if people run Windows on their Intel iMacs and MacBook Pros. However, XP and earlier versions of Windows aren't supported. -- Ars Technica.
Still more companies, large and small, are plugging themselves into the booming market for iPod-related gear. -- c|net.
Apple's new notebooks: not necessarily for bargain hunters. One thing Apple Computer didn't address with the conversion to Intel processors is the price.
Apple notebook not for bargain hunters, part II. How we got the numbers in a price comparison between the MacBook Pro and the Gateway s-7510-S.
Mac OS X installation discs that came with a PowerPC processor-based Mac won't work with an Intel processor-based Mac, and vice-versa, even if both Macs came with the same version of Mac OS X. You can't start up an Intel-based Mac from a CD or DVD that came with a PowerPC-based Mac, nor a PowerPC-based Mac from an Intel-based Mac's discs, either by holding the C key at startup or by using Startup Disk preferences.
To start your computer from a disc, use the disc that came with the computer.
Learn the system requirements to install and use the applications with different versions of iLife. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Macworld magazine on Thursday revealed its Macworld Best of Show Awards. Fourteen products were honored, with Apple's MacBook Pro and iLife '06, as well as Adobe's Lightroom, leading off the list.
Some audio applications may change your computer's audio settings to a sample rate that is too high for other applications to use. In this situation, system alert sounds still work, and does iTunes, but other applications may have no sound (audio output). This document applies to Mac OS X 10.3 or later and applications that use QuickTime 6 or later for audio, such as Safari and Quicktime Player. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
If you own an EyeTV device and EyeHome, you are probably aware that you cannot view your live stream with EyeHome. I searched everywhere and couldn't find a solution, so I came up with one. -- Mac OS X Hints.
On Jan. 12, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple's new patent application titled "Integrated sensing display." This is certainly the year of the integrated camera, as this patent presents. -- Macsimum News.
Microsoft has officially halted development of its Windows Media Player for the Mac and plans no future Apple Computer versions of its music-playing software, c|net News.com has learned.
According to Apple representatives, booting from external FireWire drives will be supported on Intel-based Macs. One MacFixIt reader offers additional information:
"The Intel architecture requires a hard drive that has had an Intel 'boot loader' placed on the hard drive during the formatting process. Accordingly: Any hard drive that has been formatted from a PowerPC-based system (regardless of whether or not that system has been updated to 10.4.4 or higher) cannot be used to boot an Intel-based Macintosh."
"However, a hard drive formatted from an Intel-based Macintosh will contain both Intel-based and PowerPC-based boot loaders, and so will be capable of booting either architecture. So, the trick is that you will have to get your hands on an Intel-based Macintosh, then format your external FireWire drive when connected to that system (HFS+ Journaled remains the disk format). Your external FireWire hard drive can then be used to boot both architectures."
Since Mac OS X 10.4.4 will ship as a Universal Binary, booting both PowerPC and Intel systems with the same Mac OS X installation should be possible.
Research In Motion (RIM) and Information Appliance Associates (IAA) today announced a licensing agreement whereby RIM will offer 'PocketMac for BlackBerry' to Mac users, free of charge. PocketMac for BlackBerry is a desktop application that enables Mac users to synchronize data between their BlackBerry devices and Macintosh applications including core OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" applications and Microsoft Entourage. -- CCNMatthews.
Actual Technologies released Actual ODBC Driver Pack 2.0, a suite of its ODBC drivers for connecting to Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Access, and other databases. This update provides all the drivers as Universal Binaries that will run natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs.
I really liked the look of iLife 2006, but I was troubled by the ever-tighter integration with .Mac, which, it seems, is always just one click away in iPhoto and especially iWeb. Why drop $79 on a software suite that doesn't become really useful until I spend a further $99, PER YEAR, on .Mac? Dan Farber thinks you shouldn't have to, and proposes Apple give away the service for free. Despite throwing away the $100 million in revenue, Apple could take the approach of selling upgraded services, and probably wind up with more cash. And it would make iLife more useful for all of us.
Announcing the Intel Macs in January rather than June was a strategic wager. Unless Apple released the right products at the right time, some models would languish with buyers waiting for the new models to come. -- OSx86 Project.
The fashionable iPod has made Apple Computer beloved on Wall Street. But its success masks an erosion in the company's profitability. -- Forbes.
Why Steve Jobs is winning the digital download wars-and what his competitors are trying to do about it. -- Newsweek.
The Intel Mac FAQ, 2006 edition: What you need to know about the transition to Intel chips. -- Macworld.
Apple made a rather simple decision what to put in its new iMac/iBook machines. It chose M56 based Mobility Radeon X1600 simply because it was available and it could guarantee that ATI could ship those chips in quantity, time. Of course it also had to like the GPU and its design. -- The Inquirer.
The announcements made by Apple on Tuesday about the iMac, MacBook Pro, and the rest of the line moving to Intel I believe are an effort to avoid the Osborne Effect.
I believe that announcing that the two most popular Macs (iMac and laptops) were done and the rest are coming gives people confidence that Apple can and will do it. Having your most popular models available for sale will keep the pipe full while they move the rest. Hardware sales next year should be massive, not just from Mac-heads, but from those moving from the darkside as well.
It also takes all the wind out of every rumor site on the web. Since everyone knows Apple is going to have its entire line moved to Intel by the end of the year, what is a poor rumor monger to do? I guess they will have to speculate on features and Apple's patent applications.
It is obvious that we are in for another "interesting time" of transition, just as we were moving to OS X. Though it seems applications will come faster than they did because of the work already done for Mac OS X. The downside for all of us is that we will (of course) be charged for all these "upgrades."
Anyway, that's one man's opinion.
One of the most surprising things about the announcement of the the new MacBook Pro at Macworld Expo this week was Apple's dropping the 8x burning double-layer SuperDrive in favor of an inferior 4x single-layer mechanism. -- The Apple Core.
Intel has unveiled beta versions of developer tools for Intel-based Macs. The Development Support for Intel-Based Macs page announces a set of software development products, including highly-optimized C++ and Fortran (really?!) compilers, plus a math library and a primitives library that is said to make digital signal processing happy. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
Saving the best for last is the old saw Steve Jobs lives by when it comes to addressing his Macworld audiences. As Daniel Steinberg reports from Macworld SF 2006, Jobs spent the first 90 minutes of his keynote on Apple's sales revenues, additions to two of the iApps and the introduction of a new one, and more, before casually mentioning the PowerBook is being replaced by the Intel-powered MacBook Pro. As Daniel puts it, for Jobs, this is "pure theatre." Read Daniel's extensive report on all of Jobs' announcements. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
Businessweek has an article on the rise of maths and mathematicians in a world that is increasingly obsessed with statistics, advertising, search engines, and algorithms. The article also deals with issues of privacy.
MySQL has won a five year contract with the US General Services Administration office putting it in yet another government office on top of NASA, the Dept. of Def., Los Alamos National Labs & the Census Bureau. This additional win allows around 70 Government customers to purchase and deploy MySQL. -- eWEEK.
Alex Tew, the money-minded student has hit his goal of raising one million dollars for his college education. His Million Dollar Homepage features a page of one million pixels, which he sold off for a dollar a piece in blocks of ten. -- Wired.
This NeXT workstation (a NeXTcube) was used by Tim Berners-Lee as the first Web server on the World Wide Web. Today, it is kept in Microcosm, the public museum at the Meyrin site of CERN, in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. -- Wikipedia
Safari Update 1.3.2 for Mac OS X Panther improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications.
On Jan. 5, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple's new Trademark/Service Mark titled "MOBILE ME" filed under three separate applications numbers 78785943, 78785950, 78785959. -- Macsimum News.
On the heels of Apple's announcement that it sold 14 million iPods and achieved revenues of $5.7B last quarter, UBS Investment Research on Wednesday raised estimates and increased its target price on the company's shares to $100. -- AppleInsider.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, but how will Intel respond to Apple's marketing once it turns its sights to "dull" Intel-based Windows Pee Cees? -- Ars Technica.
At Macworld in San Francisco, ADS Technologies says its Instant Music system enables users to convert vinyl recordings into the most popular music formats and put it onto CDs. Ivan Randall of ADS explains how it works. -- c|net.
If you'd like to see the New MacBook Pro c|net has it here. No new info but you get a better look at the new Mac.
iTunes 6.0.2 and later contain an option called MiniStore. This MiniStore provides you with similar music choices based on the music currently selected in your library.
You can show or hide the MiniStore by choosing Show MiniStore or Hide MiniStore in the Edit menu or by clicking the "Show or Hide the MiniStore" button.
iTunes sends data about the song selected in your library to the iTunes Music Store to provide relevant recommendations. When the MiniStore is hidden, this data is not sent to the iTunes Music Store. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Mac OS X Hints has received confirmation from Apple directly (from a confirmed trusted source) that absolutely no information is being collected from the MiniStore (though clearly data is sent to make the feature work) as was reported yesterday.
Apple officials have informed MacFixIt that FireWire target disk mode is available on both the new iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro, eclipsing earlier speculation that this boot option would no longer be available.
Apple also told MacFixIt that startup keyboard commands -- such as holding C to startup from the optical drive, and holding option to pick the startup device at boot -- have been retained with the switch to Intel architecture.
Apple has informed MacFixIt that the new Macs based on Intel Core Duo processors (the iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro) will no longer make use of Open Firmware, which has been standard on all shipping Macs in recent memory.
Instead, the new Macs make use of Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which provides an interface between Mac OS X and the computer firmware.
Traditionally, booting into Open Firmware has allowed users to reset PRAM, NVRAM and other boot variables.
Most people have no problems upgrading their systems using the procedures I outlined yesterday or just letting Software Update do it. However, if you are having problems or if you anal-retentative you might want to look at MacFixIt's upgrade recommendations. No matter which you do you should always use the combo updater if there is one.
The biggest announcement at the Macworld Expo keynote was the one that Steve saved for last: the new Intel-based MacBook Pro, the replacement for the PowerBook (does this mean that the eventual Intel-based Power Macs will be called Mac Macs?). The lack of a PowerBook G5 has meant that Apple's laptops have been lagging behind PC laptops for several years now. With the MacBook Pro, it look likes like Apple is ready to gain ground, if not take the lead. -- MacFixIt.
MacInTouch has an in-depth special report on Day 1 of Macworld Expo from Henry Norr, who provides many details about the new Apple products, as well as various issues and impressions from the keynote and show floor.
If you don't have Entourage and you need to use the new UT mail server (Exchange) with Apple's Mail.app here are the settings:
Configure LDAP:
Archway Systems today announced that it will ship its newest product, VersaCAD 2006 for Macintosh, for the new dual-core Intel-based Macs. The version provides a design/drafting software for the Mac-based architect, designer, engineer or drafter. -- MacNN.
I was going to start a blog about various tech issues. I'll start with the software I started the blog with: iWeb, included in iLife '06. -- Fiddling with iWeb.
The Apple Developer Connection has opened a new section on their site, the Developer Transition Resource Center. It contains links to Universal Binary Programming Guidelines, and information about the Intel Core Duo chips.
Of particular note to those who troubleshoot Macs and can't go without their trusty firewire diagnostic tools, is information on disk partitions:
"The standard disk partition format on an Intel-based Macintosh computer differs from the disk partition format of a PowerPC-based Macintosh computer. By default, internal hard drives on Intel-based Macintosh computers use the GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme and external drives use the Apple Partition Map (APM) partition scheme. To create an external USB or FireWire disk that can boot an Intel-based Macintosh computer, select the GPT disk partition scheme option using Apple Disk Utility."
Looks like that FireWire drive I carry around is going to need to have separate partitions on it now. And what do these APM and GPT changes mean for things like Spotlight Metadata? It's going to be an interesting, that's for sure. -- MacSlash.
The E-mail client poll was interesting. Mail.app was of course #1 with Webmail #2. I would not have guessed that many of you used Thunderbird.
Well there is a new poll today. What do you think was the "best" announcement Steve made at Tuesday's Keynote of Macworld Expo 2006? Inquiring minds...
Why Steve Jobs is winning the digital download wars-and what his competitors are trying to do about it. -- Newsweek.
Apple Computer Inc., maker of the iPod portable music player, could be planning to launch its own mobile phone venture, recent federal trademark filings indicate. -- Chicago Tribune.
If you use Apple's Mail application, you've probably experienced the occasional crash due to some oddly-formatted HTML e-mail message (yet another reason I prefer plain text messages). This hints shows you how to fix the situation by launching Mail while holding down the Shift key. -- Macworld.
Jason D. O'Grady on O'Grady's PowerPage gives a list of the new and cool additions to the MacBook Pro as well as the things that are NOT there.
When Apple tried to prove that G5 was better than Intel, they used a generic non-optimized GCC compiler for the Intel machine. This time, they used an optimized Intel compiler to prove that Intel is better than the G5. How quickly we forget! -- ExtremeTech.com.
Unsanity, who brings us such OS X greats as WindowShade, FruitMenu and ShapeShifter has a blog entry about the new MacBook Pro (Lost in Transition: Overcane of Antflower Milk).
Even though there are aisle after aisle of iPod add-ons on display at Macworld, Erica Sadun went a different direction to accessorize her player. She made a visit to the Dollar Store. Here's what she found. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
The Register is running a story about Sun and Apple almost merging on three separate occasions. The information was revealed at a Computer History Museum event, where Sun's four co-founders spoke about the history of the Sun company. Bill Joy said that the two companies almost teamed on three different projects, including sharing a user interface and the SPARC architecture.
First: reassurance. The pages you've created and are publishing with HomePage are still available at homepage.mac.com/yourmembername and you can continue to use HomePage to create and publish new pages. But what iWeb (part of the new iLife '06) makes possible is so good - multiple websites and multiple kinds of web publishing, all made extremely easy - you'll most likely want to take advantage of it. -- .Mac Blog.
The new Intel-powered Macs are part of a larger Apple strategy. Steve Jobs wants you to "think different" about your home, entertainment, and PC. -- MIT Technology Review.
Apple announced a number of new products at Macworld Expo in San Francisco:
MacBook Pro-MacBook Pro is the notebook computer professionals have been waiting for-offering the biggest leap in performance in mobile Mac history. Featuring the Intel Core Duo processor, MacBook Pro is designed for those who want the power of a desktop computer in a form that is both portable and durable. Both the existing iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 models will continue to be sold for those customers looking for PowerPC-based systems.
iMac-Featuring the Intel Core Duo processor, the latest iMac is Apple's first Intel-based desktop computer. Perfect for the digital media enthusiast with enough power for the pros, the iMac is up to two times faster than the iMac G5. The new iMacs are available in both 17- and 20-inch configurations. iMac G5 computers are available in limited quantities for those customers looking for PowerPC-based systems.
iLife '06-The most significant upgrade to the iLife suite of digital lifestyle applications, iLife '06 includes numerous improvements to iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand and introduces iWeb, a new web publishing application. iWeb makes it easy to create websites, blogs and podcasts incorporating customers' photos, movies, and music, and then post them to .Mac with a single click.
iWork '06-iWork '06 features updates to both Pages and Keynote to make it easier than ever to create great-looking presentations and documents. Both applications share new powerful drawing tools, advanced image editing, 3D charts, reviewer comments, and tables with calculations. Pages now includes mail merge, enhanced page thumbnails, new search view, and new templates. Keynote now includes new cinema transitions, flexible build animations, a light table view, and even more iLife integration.
.Mac-.Mac members can now easily publish web pages using iWeb, share an iPhoto 6 album via photocasting, host podcasts, create web slideshows, and upload and download files to their iDisks via a web browser.
Major improvements in this release (see below for a full list of changes) include enhancements to:
As with all system updates I recommend:
I have been running this version of the OS here and at home for some time without any problems.
QuickTime 7.0.4 delivers numerous bug fixes, support for iLife '06, and H.264 performance improvements.
Aluminum PowerBook (15-inch) Battery Update aids the 15-inch Aluminum PowerBook battery in performing at full capacity.
Apple Tuesday announced the iPod Radio Remote which combines the convenience of a wired remote control with new FM radio capabilities for the iPod nano and fifth generation iPod. The iPod Radio Remote is a convenient way for music lovers to skip tracks and adjust the volume of their iPod even when it's in a pocket or backpack, and listen to FM radio stations while displaying station and song information on their iPod screen. The new remote works with the iPod nano and 5G iPod.
Multicore is all the rage, and in one form or another it'll turn up yet again at this week's MWSF. It's worth thinking about what "multicore" actually is... but let's not think too hard about it. -- Ars Technica.
Guitars had to be retuned manually after every song until Neil Skinn found a way to make it happen automatically. -- c|net.
Apple files patent application for technology that would allow iPods to wirelessly transmit audio files to FM radios. -- c|net.
Mac enthusiasts give company kudos for presenting faster Intel-based computers ahead of schedule. -- c|net.
Stay on top of the action with the latest pictures and audio from the show. -- c|net.
Usually, Apple's newly announced products replace its old ones. But apparently not this time. -- c|net.
This document describes the security content of QuickTime 7.0.4, which can be downloaded and installed via Software Update preferences, or from Apple Downloads. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Google on Tuesday released the Mac version of Google Earth. The long-awaited software enables Mac users to view the same animated driving directions, 3D buildings and terrain, zoom-ins and zoom-outs and other features available to Windows users. Users can also save and annotate the searches they make with Google Earth.
Google Earth for the Mac is currently in Beta and requires Mac OS X v10.4, a 500MHz processor (1.5GHz recommended), 256MB RAM (512MB recommended), 400MB hard drive space (2GB recommended) and a 3D-capable video card with 16MB of Video RAM (32MB recommended).
As mentioned during Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote, Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) formally announced Tuesday morning a new five-year commitment to deliver new versions of Office for Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The MBU plans to deliver improvements to Entourage 2004 and Messenger for Mac in March and will build converters that read Microsoft's new Office Open XML file formats.
Scheduled enhancements to Entourage 2004 include syncing Entourage calendars, address books, notes and tasks with handheld devices that support Sync Services. In addition, support for Spotlight searches in Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" will be added, and the MBU will enhance Smart Card technology for users who require digitally signed and encrypted e-mail.
Messenger for Mac 5.1 will enable secure file transfer with users outside a firewall, and it will offer an improved ability to figure out where a user is located if they are logged into Microsoft Office Live Communications Server at more than one computer. In addition, IT managers will have more options for saving IM chats at an organizational level.
Finally, the MBU's converters for reading Microsoft's new Office Open XML file format will be released after the next version of Office for Windows (Office 12) comes out. Office 12 is scheduled for release late in 2006, approximately the same time Windows Vista is expected to be released.
Steve Jobs announced that Apple's entire product line will be transitioned to Intel in 2006. This is earlier than previously announced at WWDC 2005. Jobs notes that over the coming months we will hear announcements as each product line is transitioned. All by the end of this calendar year.
Jobs demonstrated new software, called Rosetta, that will let owners of the new Intel-based Macs run older applications. But he did not comment on how the company will lock its operating system to its hardware.
With Intel processors inside the new Macs, users could technically and theoretically load Windows onto a Mac computer, although it would require some technical expertise to pull it off. That would allow a user to run both Microsoft and Apple's operating systems on the same Apple machine.
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won't sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines themselves. -- MSNBC.
At Macworld San Francisco 2006, Steve Jobs showed a new television advertisement for the new Intel Macs.
Apple has released iTunes 6.0.2 through its automatic Software Update mechanism. Apple says the new version includes stability and performance improvements over iTunes 6.0.2.
There's an interesting article at Kirkville pointing out that iTunes, in its latest version, sends data to the iTunes Music Store about what you are listening to, so the program can display "suggestions" in its "MiniStore". The article tells how to avoid having Apple eavesdrop on your music playing.
A statement from Microsoft indicates that the current Virtual PC 7 release will not run on the new Intel Core Duo based Macs. Roz Ho, the general manager for Microsoft's MacBU, told MacFixIt:
"Virtual PC 7 remains the top emulation software for Mac PowerPC users. However, applications like Virtual PC that are highly dependent on the OS will not run under Rosetta. These types of products require a dedicated team and a lot of work to rebuild them for an entirely new architecture. That said, we know that using Windows-based applications on Macs is important to our customers, and we're working with Apple to figure out the best way to bring this technology to Intel-based Macs. We'll have a better idea once we have the new machines and can accurately evaluate just what is required to transition the product."
While Apple's new MacBook Pro sports a number of features not found on its PowerPC G4-based predecessors, one glaring omission that will primarily affect digital video artists and editors is the lack of a FireWire 800 port. The new units sport only a single FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports. However, the new model does include an ExpressCard slot, which supports both the USB 2.0 and PCI Express interfaces.
An ExtremeTech article says that the new marketing mania for multicore is the latest example of the belated recognition for a CPU design methodology that already existed before it was popularized by Intel and AMD.
The new iMac Intel Core represents a great leap forward in processor power with the switch away from the PowerPC to the Intel processor. The memory is also a faster type of DDR2 running at 667Mhz, called PC2-5300.
Ramjet is the first to market with the memory upgrades for the new iMac Intel Core, and the MacBook. They have stock of both 512MB and 1GB modules that match the Apple spec exactly. They will ship as soon as they finish the timing and compatibility testing in a few days.
VersionTracker is stepping into the new world with its best foot, offering a Macintel-only page, where they will show software that's currently and newly-compatible with Macintel.
The lack of Classic support on the Macintel machines may spike interest in furthering development of Mac OS emulators such as SheepShaver and BasiliskII. You had to know this was coming. And honestly, if you have not moved your applications to OS X by now why would you buy a Macintel? So good by Mac OS.
Denim giant Levi Strauss has designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player. The Levi's RedWire DLX Jeans for men and women, which will be available this northern autumn, also have a built-in docking cradle for the iPod and retractable headphones. Pricing was not immediately available. -- Ananova.
Steven P. Jobs unveiled a new iMac computer and a new notebook at Macworld Expo and revealed that Apple's revenue for the quarter jumped 63 percent. -- New York Times.
An enterprising hardware guy known as JavaMoose on Flickr has created an amazing case mod for his iPod by modifying an old Geiger counter to house the iPod and remote.
Just finished a 20-minute tour of iWeb with a friendly Apple demo dude. Impressive product. -- Gizmodo.
Night vision, onboard radar, computer-controlled brakes and acceleration -- for $100,000, the new Mercedes S-Class offers everything but an ejector seat. -- Wired.
Promising speed increases of up to 400 percent, Apple's CEO lifts the lid on the MacBook and a raft of other updated products at Macworld. -- Wired.
With Windows Media Components for QuickTime, by Flip4Mac, you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a Web browser.
A new iPod firmware update was just released. Hopefully it fixes some of those annoying bugs. Changes include support for the iPod Radio Remote for iPod with video and iPod nano, bug fixes for iPod with video, iPod nano, iPod with color display, iPod mini, and iPod with Click Wheel.
The keynote should be available for viewing via webcast at approximately 6:00 p.m. PST (9:00 p.m. EST) Tuesday at http://www.apple.com. This is a delay of some nine hours since the keynote starts at noon EST.
Early Apple Computer evangelist Guy Kawasaki is looping his career back to the Mac once again--or at least revisiting the world of Apple to promote his latest pet project, photo-sharing start-up FilmLoop. -- c|net.
In this installment of Ted Landau's continuing series on preferences (.plist) files, he finally delves into the details of how to interpret and edit .plist files. He'll be primarily showing you how to do make changes using Apple's Property List Editor (PLE) but he will also briefly cover how it can be done using the defaults command in Terminal. -- MacFixIt.
his is the first in a series of posts for MacSlash by Jeremiah Fisher, covering his impressions as a first-timer at the MacWorld Expo.
Macsimum News points out some things to be aware of as we await the RDF.
It shouldn't come as a surprise: data storage requirements keep increasing. Many creative applications, such as video, audio, and photography dramatically increase requirements for storage capacities. Add to that compliance regulations and disaster recovery deployments in enterprise environments, and it is not hard to see that storage needs are still on the increase. -- IT.Enquirer.
CRYPTOCard, a Mac authentication technology developer, announced that it will be demonstrating its CRYPTO-Server 6.4 authentication solution at Macworld Expo 2006 at Booth 1642. CRYPTO-Server 6.4 protects LAN, VPN, web-based (Apache and IIS), and desktop access for OS X (Panther/Tiger). -- Macworld.
Flash memory, which allows for the thin design of the Apple iPod Nano, was one of the stars of the International Consumer Electronics Show last week. -- New York Times.
Who will win: Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture? -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Meet PhoneHerald, an automated outbound phone attendant. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Listen in as Jack Herrington, the author of "Podcasting Hacks", chats with pioneer podcasters, Doug Kaye and James Polanco. -- O'Reilly Network.
Karelia Unveils first public beta version of Sandvox, groundbreaking website builder application for Mac OS X.
Ultrawideband is an ultrafast wireless-networking technology that may lead to amazing products like wire-free flat-screen TVs and handheld radars that see through walls. It's been long hyped, but the first real products are finally on show at Macworld this week. -- Wired.
Thinking of a redesign? Your site a little too 1998? Want to get rid of those tables once and for all? Accessibility rules and plain old common sense dictate that you should be using CSS for page layouts. There are dozens of resources on the web where you can find bare-bones CSS layout templates for all levels of expertise. But for web programming, simpler always equals better.
Eric Costello of glish.com has compiled a set of basic and light-weight CSS templates for 2, 3, and 4-column layouts, both fluid and static. So speaketh Eric:
He also has links to tutorials to get you started, or to refresh your already expansive memory, whatever the case may be.
In addition you might take a look at:
We'll go over all the options you've got and how to convert absolutely anythingand everything: DVDs, TiVo video, messy AVIs, muted MPEGs and more to iPod compatible video - all within OS X. -- Plastic Bugs.
Nice piece of JavaScript and CSS to display a picture in response to a click on a thumbnail. More attractive than just popping up a window or loading the picture raw in the browser. Instead the whole page is shaded down and the image is loaded in the center of the page. -- Lightbox JS.
Applexnet received some secret photos from an anonymous source of the show floor of this year's Macworld.
The Chrysler Group on Sunday announced that it will be the first American automaker to provide full iPod integration as an option in most of its 2006 models, with over three million 2006 Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge models offering seamless iPod connectively beginning this spring. Chrysler joins 16 other auto makers that currently offer iPod integration in their vehicles. -- Apple PR.
When you got to my age and have done what I have you come to believe that the world holds few surprises. At that's what I thought until this weekend when I saw this.
Adobe answers Apple's Aperture with a public beta of its new workflow application, Lightroom. -- Ars Technica.
In spite of the fact that Yonah and its successors are going to be great CPUs that will deliver industry-leading performance/watt numbers, Intel has one giant hole in its '06-'07 lineup: interconnect technology. Intel has failed to deliver on a next-generation multiprocessor FSB spec, and that's why AMD's plans to license coherent HyperTransport to other chip vendors could spell trouble for Intel in the coming year. -- Ars Technica.
Apple Computer's big trade show kicks off Tuesday in San Francisco, but signs of the Mac maker's influence were omnipresent at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. -- c|net.
I, Cringely reports that Apple Computer filed a lawsuit this week asking for a declaratory judgment against Burst.com. The two companies had long been in negotiations for a license to Burst's many digital media patents, a possibility I mentioned here several weeks ago. "I can understand why they did this," said Burst CEO Richard Lang. "It's an attempt to get the suit on their turf, though since both companies are from Northern California it is really all our turf. Apple is doing so much business in this area that (the royalty) is inevitably a very large number. We were willing to continue negotiations, but they decided to pull the trigger. Of course we are confident that we will prevail."
Burst will shortly file a counter-suit for patent infringement. With Apple remaking itself into a media company that is highly dependent on Burst-type technology for video distribution, this should make Next week's MacWorld even more interesting than we already expected.
Readers report that Apple's .Mac service will be undergoing scheduled maintenance during the Macworld Keynote speech, spawning speculation that .Mac updates are in the works:
Mac will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All .Mac services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Previous rumors had suggested that Apple was revamping its content delivery system to offer feature-length content. Rumors pointed towards the use of .Mac storage for delivery of these products.
Actual Technologies today announced its ODBC Driver for Microsoft Access Databases, which allows a Mac user to retrieve data from Access databases with applications such as Excel and FileMaker, using queries to populate spreadsheets, charts, and graphs with live data. The native Mac solution for connecting to Access databases does not require the use of a separate Windows machine to communicate with the Access database.
The buzz before a Steve Jobs presentation isn't always based in truth, but it offers a pretty accurate picture of products people want" -- BusinessWeek.
It won't be easy for Steve Jobs & Co. to meet investors' lofty expectations as the company moves into uncharted products and possibly new markets" -- BusinessWeek.
Recently Jonathan Gennick's niece, who is a senior in high-school, asked him for some advice on buying a laptop to use at college. Below is his response to her, a sort of brain-dump of the different trade-offs she should consider. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
Jason Kottke's Web site has compiled a list of 50 fun things to do with your iPod besides listening to music with those white earbuds.
My recent cover story for Electronic Musician magazine, "The Art of Podcasting," is now online for free. Apple was pretty tight-lipped when I was writing it, though, which made me wonder: What podcasting surprises does the company have up its sleeve? -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
I'm somewhat "old school" when it comes to my e-mail messages. I like to see them in plain text, without any Web page (HTML) markup, fancy colors, background images, font changes, or other garish effects to distract from the message itself. Besides toning down your HTML mail, this also takes away one of the spammers' favorite tools. -- Macworld.
So many of the misconceptions about Aperture stem from users thinking that Apple's presets are the only options you have throughout the application. Not true at all. And once you see how to edit them, your world changes. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
To many people, Voice over IP is an extension of the familiar, either as a cool instant-messaging feature or as a cheap way to make phone calls. But there's a lot more to VoIP just beneath the surface--especially the potential for a host of amazing new services that weren't possible five years ago. -- O'Reilly Emerging Telephony.
This article has what to do step by step, with examples. You'll learn a lot. This is for everyone who doesn't have $2500 to spend on a camera. -- The Switchboards.
Because of the time difference I will not have coverage of the announcements until the Wednesday issue of MacVolPlace.
Intel at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Thursday unveiled two platforms and several content alliances that provide the foundation for new experiences from digital entertainment and wireless laptops -- and include the new high-performance, low-power Intel Core Duo processor. -- AppleInsider.
NetApplications, a provider of Web-based applications that measure, monitor and market Web sites for Small to Medium Enterprises (SME), has announced its monthly Web site browser statistics for year-end 2005. -- Applelinks.
A message in Apple's Mail app can be permanently removed by cutting it (Command-X) instead of deleting it via any of the usual methods. This is a pretty basic hint, but when I'm clearing out mailboxes, it saves a trip to the Trash mailbox to delete them again. Cut also works in the usual way -- you can cut a message or messages from one spot, switch to another mailbox, and then paste to move the message(s). But if you skip the paste step, the cut messages are indeed gone as soon as you do anything else that changes the clipboard. -- Mac OS X Hints.
Motorola's RAZR v3, when used in conjunction with T-Mobile's wireless network, can provide Internet access to Mac OS X through a Bluetooth link. However, users working with the service have experienced a number of problems with stalled downloads, inability to access certain Web sites (Google's Gmail for instance), and more. -- MacFixIt.
Mike Evangelist describes behind the scenes preparation for Steve Jobs "keynotes" like the one scheduled for next Tuesday.
Micromat today announced TechTool Protege, a compact, bootable diagnostic and repair tool that contains the full-featured Macintosh troubleshooting program TechTool Pro, Micromat's disk partitioning program DiskStudio, as well as several other utilities on a compact, 1GB FireWire flash drive.
Vast deposits of personal information sit in databases across the internet. Terms used in phone conversations have become the grounds for federal investigation. Reputable organizations like the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, and the Vegan Community Project, have come under scrutiny by FBI "counter terrorism" agents. This article describes how anybody in the world can develop sophisticated profiles of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens, using only free and publicly available resources. -- Applefritter.
A story in this morning's edition of The Wall Street Journal has me wondering if Google has inadvertently become Apple's best friend in the computer industry. -- MotleyFool.
MyMac offers 15 tips for making better use of iPhoto.
RedHerring reports that Security Vendor McAfee has agreed to pay a fine of fifty million dollars stemming from false SEC filing. McAfee cooked its books, overstating its revenues one year by 131%, or half a billion dollars. The method employed was 'channel stuffing' in which compliant re-sellers are effectively paid to buy and hold inventory they may never sell. The shipped goods are booked as revenue and the payments disguised in the books. When it caught up with them, McAfee's stock price crashed, wiping out a billion dollars of shareholder capitalization. The story quotes an analyst saying this maybe the swan song for the once dominant vendor.
High-tech gadgets have become some of the biggest nuisances at schools in recent years, especially right after winter break. But slowly, surely, instead of shunning such devices, some teachers are finding ways to use them in the classroom. -- The Arizona Republic.
MetaFilter has a discussion on improving the display "resolution" on an iMac which should apply to any Mac LCD. Yes, I know LCD resolution can not be changed but there are things you can do to improve readability.
Did you know that you can assign automated actions to your folders? Say, for example, you're on a network and you have a drop box folder in which your colleagues place files for you; you can assign a script to that folder that automatically alerts you anytime someone leaves a file for you. -- Apple.
PC World magazine on Wednesday announced its 2006 PC World Innovation Awards, naming Apple's iPod nano one of 25 products and services that its editors believe "set the standard for ingenuity, creativity and vision."
This week's pick is a bit odd in that I'm not even sure I can tell you everything it does. The developer is Japanese, and the product is "mostly" translated into English. What that means is that the documentation is somewhat sparse, and some features may be hard to understand. With that said, however, SafariStand is an amazingly useful plug-in. -- Mac OS X Hints.
A recent post reminded me of a trick I've been using for the past year or so with great success, so I figured I'd share. Being a Mac specialist, I find myself having to do OS installs on a pretty regular basis. I carry around a couple of 2.5" FireWire hard drives loaded with installers, diagnostics, and other goodies.
I wanted to be able to install the OS from one of my hard drives, like in the old days of OS 9, instead of having to boot the the machine from a CD or DVD. So here's what I did. -- Mac OS X Hints.
It is time, once again, to honor the recipients of this year's MacFixIt Toolbox awards. As we near the transition to Intel-based processor platforms, these utilities have presented themselves as indispensable for eliminating problems that occur on current PowerPC-based systems and will likely remain that way after the switch.
Macsimum News reports on a patent application from Apple for a new wireless VHF/FM/RDS transmitter will presumably be added to select future iPods. The new iPods will remotely communicate with in-vehicle radios/stereos equipped with RDS receivers. The end result will be that your stored iTunes on your iPod will not only play on these in-vehicle stereos, but also present corresponding data such as the artist's name, iTune title and so forth on the RDS stereo's mini display.
A look at the speculation running up to next week's Macworld Expo -- where CEO Steve Jobs usually has a few surprises up his sleeve. -- MIT Technology Review.
Gus Mueller's and Brent Simmons' own stories on how they achieved indie Mac software development as a day job finally inspired me to write down my own path to getting to live "The Life," as John Gruber of Daring Fireball calls it. -- Musings From the Software Underground.
The iRAM was never really distributed beyond Japan. However the passion for this product has lead some clones to make their appearance.
Here is The DDRdrive. Since no information is given on the site, one can see that the card has a PCI-Express connection, that there are 4 slots for RAM, that there is a SATA connector at the bottom, and that it has an external power connector, which is probably to save the memory contents when the computer is shut off, as there is no battery visible. On the other hand, we cannot tell whether the RAM is DDR or DDR2.
What is it with mainstream media writers these days? If they need more hits to their dinosaur newspaper or magazine, all they have to do is bash Apple, bash iPod users, bash the Mac. -- Mac360.
With a few simple adjustments, you can improve the picture on your TV set, whether high-definition or standard. -- New York Times.
Everyone has certain apps that they diligently cover, and one of mine is NeoOffice. Since writing an overview of NeoOffice and announcing the release of NeoOffice 1.2 Alpha last month, I'm posting again to make sure you're keeping up with the latest. If you haven't noticed, this project continues to make solid improvements -- a very good sign indeed. -- O'Reilly Developer Weblogs.
In addition to the little blue magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of your desktop, Tiger provides the mdfind and mdls commands for searching. Andy Lester discovered them while working on his updates to Mac OS X Tiger In A Nutshell. Essentially, they provide the power of Spotlight in the Unix shell. Here's how it works. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
No Luddite worth the name should ever admit this, but I really like my new computer. It's an iMac G5. -- Wired.
AirPort Extreme Firmware Update 5.7 for Mac OS X addresses reliability and resolves issues with AirTunes, AirPort compatibility, and issues with some third party Routers.
AirPort Extreme Firmware Update 5.7 for Windows addresses reliability and resolves issues with AirTunes, AirPort compatibility, and issues with some third party Routers
AirPort Express Firmware Update 6.3 for Mac OS X addresses reliability and resolves issues with AirTunes, AirPort compatibility, and issues with some third party Routers
AirPort Express Firmware Update 6.3 for Windows addresses reliability and resolves issues with AirTunes, AirPort compatibility, and issues with some third party Routers
In an effort to leverage its creative content, Walt Disney Company announced on Tuesday that it has added a slew of new programming to Apple's iTunes Music Store, including content from ESPN and ABC Sports. -- AppleInsider.
IBM is teaming with Infineon Corporation to develop Magnetic RAM chips, which have the potential to replace all computer memory RAM technologies in use today and can lead to instant-on computers and longer battery life for pervasive devices. Magnetic RAM chips use magnetic rather than electrical structures to store information, so they do not need to be constantly powered to retain data, like current RAM technologies. They are also much faster and less expensive to make than today's nonvolatile Flash memory.
Feel like you are living on an island when it comes to calendaring on OS X in a company running Exchange? Introducing Groupcal. Now you can take full advantage of the all the group calendaring features of Exchange directly from Apple iCal. Finally, view and share your calendar schedules quickly, easily, and transparently with your coworkers running Outlook. All with no need to install additional software on your Exchange server. The Groupcal 2.5 Beta is now available for download. Version 2.5 is designed to address many of the issues seen with OS X 10.3.9 and provide initial compatibility with OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Apple has not offered a live streaming feed for their Macworld Keynote addresses for a number of years. One reader forwarded an email from Apple's Investor Relations which confirms that Apple will again not be providing a live feed for Macworld.
Thank you for your email. A replay will be available on http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html, but there are no plans for live streaming.
MacInTouch's Mac Laptop Reliability Reader Report offers a detailed analysis of iBook and PowerBook repair histories, based on 10,000+ responses to our recent survey.
MacInTouch's Mac Desktop Reliability Reader Report for iMac, Power Mac and Mini models.
A FileMaker 8.0v2 Update is now available for the Mac (previously available for Windows) and a FileMaker Server 8.0v2 update is new for both platforms, fixing a variety of bugs.
Steve Tannehill delved further into a hack to get Final Cut working on Apple's newest Power Macs. Since my new G5 is far beyond the required G4/350, it is a rather ridiculous that the software would not run. While it is safe to assume that these 2004-vintage applications have not been certified to run on the late 2005 G5, it is nice to know that I can save $$$ on another upgrade.
A followed up on the problem of the iMac G5 iSight camera's incompatibility with iMovie. To record to QuickTime using the built iSight camera, use Conference Recorder. Conference Recorder is an add-on for iChat AV which automatically transforms your conference sessions into QuickTime movies.
MacInTouch reader Rod Paine offered a tip for people using Verizon's Mac-unfriendly web page builder:
Verizon's web page tool, "Trellix SiteBuilder" is a fairly decent web page creation tool for those of us using PCs, but using it with current Mac OS X and various Mac browsers, it appears that only one Mac web browser displays the Trellix creation pages the same way Windows XP and Internet Explorer do and that's by using OmniWeb 5.1.3b2. Otherwise, the Trellix page is not a combination of graphics and text blocks, but simply html code. Hardly supportive of the new Verizon DSL customer, using a Mac and attempting to create a web site, with no html experience at all.
I've recently tried Trellix under Mac OS X 10.4.3 using Firefox 1.5, Deer Park, Camino 1.0b2, iCab 3.0.3b, Opera 8.51, Safari 2.0.2, IE 5.2.3 and Netscape 7.2, all of which exhibit this Trellix display problem when attempting to create or edit a web page. Use OmniWeb 5.1.3b2, so that you can see the intended web page creation interface and not simply HTML code.
Apple said last summer that it is switching to Intel microprocessors from the IBM and Motorola PowerPC chips that have powered the Mac for the past decade. Wait for more information about the shift to Intel chips before buying a new Macintosh. -- Fortune.
Looks like Apple has given their support site a face lift. It's become a bit more condensed and organized, with prominent links for checking on repair status, requesting DIY parts and a clearer selection of support sections such as Hardware, Mac OS, iPod iTunes and Software. Overall, their already pristinely organized site became even easier to use, just in time for all those new users switching over to the new Macintel machines.
If you buy the hype, the new iMac G5 is more than just a computer. But is there substance beneath that hype? To find out whether it can replace your television set, TiVo, home theater receiver, and 5.1 audio system with a remote-controlled Mac-centric media center, Chris Breen tricked out an iMac G5 with a select group of third-party peripherals and committed himself to using nothing but the iMac for all his media consumption for a week. -- Macworld.
Jason O'Grady details his experience using ProSoft Data Rescue II to recover photos on a digital camera's memory card.
You'll drool over Geneva's boomin' iPod sound system, Tavo's groovy ski gloves and Garmin's dashboard GPS system. -- Wired.
This is a Google map of unprotected/open camera streams obtained from Google searches. The IP addresses for each camera has been mapped to it's Geolocation.
With some Apple LCD displays, if you leave an unchanging image (like a login screen or the same desktop picture) on the screen for a long period of time, you may see a faint remnant of the image even after a new image has replaced it. This is called "persistence".
You can prevent image persistence by using the Energy Saver sleep feature to turn off the display when it is not in use, or by using the Screen Saver to make sure that a static image isn't on the display for long periods of time.The Energy Saver sleep feature is very useful because the backlight bulbs are turned off during periods of inactivity, which may prolong their useful life. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
High quality sound recordings are generally made today by using "binaural" recording techniques - a two-track recorder is connected to two microphones that are contained within a fuzzy "head". But there is another kind of sound recording that is even more realistic - Holophonic Sound. Developed in the 1980s by Hugo Zuccarelli, Holophonic Sound uses the same "multiple exposure" premise as that used to create holographic images ("holograms"). Here's and example.
The White House said Friday its Web tracking technology is consistent with federal rules because it only counts the number of visitors anonymously and doesn't record personal information. The White House's site uses what's known as a Web bug - a tiny graphic image that's virtually invisible - to anonymously keep track of the number and time of visits. -- Associated Press.
The Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2 improves Bluetooth performance and reliability.
The InfoWorld Test Center Staff awarded Mac OS X Tiger the "Best Client Operating System" and Mac OS X Server Tiger the "Best Server Operating System" of 2006. Additionally, the Power Mac G5 Quad earned the title as the "Best Workstation."
KDE developers have added Canvas element support to the KHTML renderer and plan to implement a complete OS X Dashboard compatibility layer. -- Ars Technica.
As more and more metadata gets saved regarding your files, you should be aware of what's happening. I'd wager that most users had no idea this kind of file source tagging was taking place on a file system level. And not knowing can lead to all kinds of security gaffs. -- The Mac Observer.
Apple Computer has applied for patents covering metadata management, according to Bill Slawski, who uncovered a series of Apple related patent applications in commenting on this writer's most recent column about spotlight tracking your file transfers in metadata. Two of the patents in particular seem to provide broad coverage. -- The Mac Observer.
On Dec. 29, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple's patent application 20050289468 for a "News feed browser." What I found most interesting in this patent was a single patent-point entry which may actually shed a little light in respect to a future Apple Safari micro browser. This report zero's in on that specific point and provides a case for such a scenario. -- Macsimum news.
Sync Entourage-iCal synchronizes Entourage 2004 [ONLY!] and iCal. It allows you to maintain Entourage as your centralized Personal Information Manager while at the same time taking advantage of the direct access provided to iSync, iChat, iPod, .Mac online, and more by OS X's iCal. Almost all Entourage fields sync to iCal and back, with any unmapped fields recorded in event Notes. You can also sync Entourage reminders to iCal alarms, including Email alarms. You can keep both applications in constant synchronization by running the script at any time, or automatically every night if you wish.
Let's be honest...even as great as iSync is, it's limited. If you have one of the numerous devices it supports and you only want to sync using Apple's native OS X Address Book or iCal, you're all set. However, if you depend on Entourage for your contacts, calendars & tasks, you were stuck...until now.
That's why we created PocketMac GoBetween for Entourage. It's the first automated iSync plug-in to sync Entourage data to iCal & the OS X Address Book, allowing you to have your data fully supported & synched by your iSync-supported devices.
For several years, there's been a major hole in our iLives; integration of our Entourage Contacts, Tasks and Calendar with OS X, and being able to sync with portable devices. Now that's all changed thanks to e2Sync. e2Sync plugs into OS X Tiger's iSync to bring us the connectivity and system-level integration with OS X's technologies we've been needing.
iCalShare is the largest directory of shared calendars on the web. The site, launched in September 2002, contains over 2500 calendars in more than 35 different categories. Calendars are free to download and can be used with applications like Apple's iCal, Mozilla Calendar, Novell Evolution, and Microsoft Works.
Sync Entourage-iCal synchronizes Entourage 2004 and iCal in OS 10.4 (Tiger). It allows you to maintain Entourage as your centralized Personal Information Manager while at the same time taking advantage of the direct access provided to iSync, iChat, iPod, .Mac online, and more by OS X's iCal. Almost all Entourage fields sync to iCal and back, with any unmapped fields recorded in event Notes. You can also sync Entourage reminders to iCal alarms, including Email alarms, even for To do's which are not directly scriptable. You can keep both applications in constant synchronization by running the script at any time, or automatically every night if you wish.
MacDevCenter reports that Apple has quietly raised the monthly bandwidth limit for .Mac accounts 1 TB.
Apple has posted hundreds of Aperture tips in its public Knowledge Base database, while another support page includes a list of top Aperture support issues.
You can capture live video from your iSight camera directly into iMovie HD. This is only true if you have a standalone iSight-the iSight built into an iMac G5 (iSight) is not able to capture video into iMovie. To use iSight with iMovie HD, you must have iChat AV on your computer. If you can't use iChat AV, then you can't use IIDC cameras such as iSight with iMovie HD. -- AppleCare Knowledge Base.
Every OS Sucks is a pretty funny video from Dead Troll (Rated PG-13 for strong language.)
A Macworld reader asks for some help fixing or deleting corrupt image files in her iPhoto library.
The state government official who had been moving Massachusetts away from Microsoft's digital document formats has resigned. Peter Quinn, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, will quit his position, effective Jan. 9, according to an internal memo obtained by the IDG News Service. -- Macworld.
If you spend a lot of time working with text you are probably always looking for ways to clean up that text. For the ultimate in text cleaning, one tool of choice is Unmarked Software's textSOAP. However, the author recently discovered Pozytron's free PlaintextPaste. PlaintextPaste is a simple SparkPlugin that adds a "Paste Plain Text" item to the Edit menu of all Cocoa applications. -- Macworld.
Technological convergence may now be in the offing, but some fear the industries have not yet made connecting all those devices simple enough for the average user. -- New York Times.
A couple of weeks ago, my article 'Managing MySQL on Mac OS X' was published, detailing some of the best Mac options for interacting with the popular database management system. There were some good tidbits in the comments of that article that I'd like to pull out as a followup. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
When you read the articles and weblog posts by prominent Mac users and Mac pundits, do you ever find yourself wondering what kind of computer setup they're using? Giles Turnbull does. He recently contacted a spat of Mac professionals and asked them what they depend on. Here's what they had to say. -- O'Reilly MacDevCenter.
You probably already know that there is a master equation for all life processes based on metabolism. Now, physicists from Duke University have applied the so-called 'constructal theory' to explain how running, flying and swimming modes of locomotion are similar even if they're apparently unrelated. This single unifying physics theory explains how fast animals get from one place to another and how rapidly and forcefully they step, flap or paddle in relation to their mass. In other words, these scientists argue that the characteristics of animal shape and locomotion are predictable from physics.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter is reporting that eMagin, a company that makes video display products for military and industrial uses, has a new headset accessory for the iPod that projects video on to a screen smaller than a quarter that is mounted in front of one eye. Its makers say this creates the illusion of watching a 105 inch screen from a distance of 12 feet." The only problem is that the expected retail value of the EyeBud is around $600, about $200 more than a 60 gigabyte iPod.
This will be remembered as the year when Apple got the respect -- and the stock price -- it deserves. For 2006, bring on those Intel chips. -- BusinessWeek.
Samsung and LG.Philips are already producing the next generation of LCD sets, so the price of flat-panel TVs should drop. In the wake of the best-ever year for flat-panel TV sales, Samsung and LG.Philips have already begun production of the next generation of LCD sets. -- Reuters.
Most trackpads suck, and carrying an external mouse around everywhere you go can be a pain. But the MoGo MouseBT lets you take a wireless mouse along without taking up extra space in your bag. When you're on the go, store the MoGo in your PC Card slot so it can recharge. Then pop it out and pop it open to use it as an ordinary mouse. While the MoGo MouseBT appears to have roughly the same dimensions as a conventional mouse, that steep forward slope may take some getting used to.
Part 2 of our Backstage flood touches on some noteworthy Asian gadgets and trends that have the potential to influence the course of the iPod's evolution in 2006. -- ilounge.
How to fix your monitor if someone messes it up with a magnet. If someone would like to explain the theory behind this I would love to post it.
