I continue to stare at the continuing reviews and developments on issues surrounding the Macbook Pro.
Apple has issued some possible fixes for the whine emitted from some Macbook Pros. The whine might be fixed by resetting either the Power Management Unit or the PRAM and NVRAM.
Jason O'Grady says that the Macbook Pro's Airport reception is better than that of the Powerbook's.
Stuff Magazine's review is without the gobbledygok and is easy to read.
Impressions from a first time switcher after a long time being with Windows. His gripes include the missing right-click and no hibernate. Links I found in this blog include: Loud Thinking ("The MacBook Pro simply rocks."), Rob William's blog ("...this machine is very fast ...Apple says 4x over the G4. I was kind of skeptical about that. Not anymore."), Riable Designs ("The MacBook Pro is one of the best machines you can buy (laptop or desktop) for Java development.") and, Ben Skelton's blog ("I'm really happy with the computer (minus the weird fan noise). It is super fast.")
David Pogue calls the 15" Macbook Pro "the finest laptop in the world, with a small serving of disappointment on the side." His 'disappointments' include: absence of the S-video connector, FireWire 800, 8x dual-layer SuperDrive, and modem port; the expansion slot won't accommodate older expansion cards and; Virtual PC and Classic programs won't run on the new Macbook Pro. Old complaints just being echoed here.
Ars Technica reviewer gripes about the Magsafe coming off too easy, that the Macbook Pro doesn't quite fit in her old Powerbook bag, and that the built-in iSight will deter government people from buying the Macbook Pro. These are the reasons why the Macbook Pro gets a 7.5 rating.
Walt Mossberg says that the Macbook Pro is 'better than the PowerBook and better than the H-P (H-P Pavilion dv5000t),' but adds that the speed ups are not as great as Apple claimed.
PC World gives the Macbook Pro a four out of five rating and the reviewer's main complaints have to do with the one button trackpad and Apple choosing to go with the new Express Card slot. The reviewer suggests media professionals and enthusiasts hold off until their favorite multimedia apps are available as universal binaries. Otherwise, your typical user can go ahead and get a Macbook Pro since the applications like Microsoft Office runs well even under Rosetta.
In his latest write-up in InfoWorld, Tom Yager said he received his Macbook Pro on February 28, Tuesday, and things are going well for the two days he's been using it.
According to HD Beat, the Macbook Pro plays H.264 movies well using 50% CPU on average. Ben Drawbaugh considers it as the ultimate portable HD machine,
Apple Matters writes a eulogy for the 15" Powerbook.
The LEDs illuminating the Macbook Pro keyboard is much, much brighter than on the Powerbook. As comparison, the Macbook Pro's backlight setting at one bar is much brighter than the Powerbook's when set at full brightness.
More Macbook Pro
Week 9! Here's your Apple and Tech News Mash-up
Jason Snell gives the rundown on what Intel inside Macs mean.
Apple's been recognized as a leader in innovation and in a bold move, they switched to Intel last year. But the switch would be more difficult to Apple if two large companies didn't support it: Microsoft and Adobe. This is why the two companies are perceived to hold the cards when it comes to switching of some companies to the Intel Macs. No company would like to buy the Intel Mac is their business is dependent on Microsoft Office or Adobe's Creative Suite. It is therefore perceived that Apple's move to Intel might looked at as a move into the corporate world, with Microsoft and Adobe's blessings, of course. But still, Apple is more committed in the consumer space proven by the iPod's huge success, from which Apple's hopes to splash the iPod halo effect. "Innovation is Apple's DNA," Jobs said and in a world where mobility is key and the Internet is a growing, powerful force, people are more concerned on how and where they get their content rather than what box the content came in. This is where innovation comes in. Apple could be poised to grab people's imagination with products that can stimulate the senses and be functional at the same time.
I agree with John Martellaro, a columnist for MyMac.com, that Apple flamers and naysayers are doing it to make money off Apple fanatics. They just write something shitty and like flies, Mac zealots go to their site and flame him. Of course, he doesn't mind a bit since all those clicks generate money. So please, don't click on the writers that write shit.
Steve Wozniak claims that Peter Nowak was putting words into his mouth. Wozniak said the he felt Peter Nowak used him and that Nowak 'pushed' him to say negative things against Apple and Intel. (Update: Peter Nowak issues a rebuttal to Wozniak's denials and provides readers the audio file of the interview with Wozniak. Will this become a word war between the two and between Wozzies and un-Wozzies?).
Rob Enderle criticizes companies like Sophos and Symantec for telling hackers how to exploit computers by telling everyone about vulnerabilities. He said that these companies see money-making opportunities by making the Mac OS platform look bad and telling everyone about security exposures.
Paul Murphy of ZDNet says that George Ou's analysis that Mac OS X is less secure than Windows was wholly erroneous.
Meet the creator of the recent Mac OS X 'viruses'.
A Detriot News columnist advocates the use of hacked versions of Apple's latest operating system and it might just entice you to buy a Mac.
An actor from Fox's hit show, 24, is unhappy with Apple.
Apple trademarks "Macbook" and "FrontRow".
The Sun Online said that the iPod made it to the list of the 21st Century's Wonders of the World. The iPod is ranked second to the Glastonbury Festival. The festival is called as the "greatest music event in the history of mankind," while the iPod is recognized for "revolutionising the music industry and long-held preconceptions of how we listen to music." The list came from a poll conducted by a radio station which had 25,000 respondents.
People at the Music 2.0 conference are betting on mobile phone companies, on Yahoo! and on Sandisk to dethrone the iPod. They're a bit put off that Apple didn't bother to send anybody to their conference.
Samsung will release the YP-Z5 on March 5 and touted as the "iPod nano killer." While Sony struggles to keep up with Apple in Japan.
The iPod has just become a whole lot bigger in the movies.
What if Microsoft decided to re-design the original iPod box? A hilarious spoof shows what the Microsoft-inspired design would look like. It's nicely done and impressive.
Mad Dog in the Fog plots on a graph the number of songs the iTunes Music Store has sold, from the 1 millionth mark on May 15, 2003 up to the billionth song last February 24th.
The newly-independent UK metal band, Anathema, has asked fans to support it go through difficult times by buying their songs from iTunes.
By 2010, there will be 15 million active podcasts listeners, according to an estimate by e-Marketer.
More universities are jumping into podcasting, or as some of them would like to call it, 'Course-casting.' Some critics say that although providing courses as podcasts is a good idea, locking them into one software and one device isn't. Case in point is Stanford's podcasts of which the format can only be played only either in iTunes or in an iPod.
David Czespanski initially felt that iWeb felt "un-Apple-ish" when he encountered some problems at the start. He likes iWeb though except for the missing keyboard shortcuts. Read more of his review at Apple Matters.
John Patterson, the guy who can't read and sued Apple for it, is an idiot, and here's why.
Some think Apple's latest Intel ad is a mistake and that it further alienates people who are thinking of switching to a Mac.
Napster creator and Grokster's former president say Apple and Steve Jobs will be toast.
Apple offers crossgrades for their pro applications.
How to...
... Boot up your Intel Mac from your iPod or FireWire drives.
... do more with drag and drop.
Mac OS X browser showdown. Test the webpage you built on how it would look on Safari using SafariTest.
Make iChat more fun with Chax.
OnScreen DNA is a tool for teach about DNA.
Cool apps from Improv, Pastence.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Jobs
Today, Steve Jobs turns 51.
Happy birthday, Mr. Jobs. Thanks for the great ride so far.
Macbook Pro pictures, reviews, and issues
With every new gadget or device, the first few days or weeks are bound to be really busy. This entry will be for this week's Macbook Pro buzz.
The Macbook Pro cometh
MacBook Pro pr0n are now being shown on the Internet. One from Jason O'Grady, one from UneasySilence and another from some guy who I think uses iWeb. Dan Pourhadi is also celebrating the arrival of his MacBook Pro, though no pictures yet.
How's the juice?
O'Grady has posted benchmark and battery updates. On initial testing, the MacBook Pro went to involuntary sleep just after 2 hours and 38 minutes. This is with the wireless options on and the screen a near full brightness but pretty much nothing else was happening. O'Grady said he will perform more real world tests. He's also noticed that the MBP is generating as much heat as his old Powerbook.
Macworld's Jason Snell posts his impressions on his new 15" Macbook Pro after using it for twenty-four hours. He first transferred his files from his old Powebook using Migration Assistant. He then noted that his new system was bogging down. This turned out to be the fault of Spotlight, which at that time was still indexing all his files. After Spotlight has done, the Macbook Pro was much more responsive as compared to the Powerbook. Applications like Microsoft Office and Eudora which were running under Rosetta seemed to suffer no perceptible slowness when being used. Tests using Adobe Photoshop CS 2, however, revealed the Macbook Pro lacked speed as compared to the Powerbook doing the same task. O'Grady also had the same findings with his Photoshop CS 2 tests. Macworld also tackled one of the hot issues regarding the new Mac portables: battery life. A quick test of playing a DVD on both the Macbook Pro and the Powerbook with the Energy Saver preferences turned off, showed the former lasting 2 hours and 3 minutes, while the latter died four minutes later. More tests and benchmarks from Macworld soon.
Update: Macworld gives the 15-inch Macbook Pro a four out of five mice. Battery life remains at par with the 15-inch Powerbook. Issues include Migration Assistant transferring some unwanted files, the same uncomfortably warm underside, video and Front Row quirks, and the humming, whining noise. Overall, for Jason Snell, the Macbook Pro is a Powerbook all throughout. It's just the Intel inside that's different. Macworld editor Phillips Michael, he's not worried that Adobe has not decided to jump in the Universal Binaries band wagon this year.
Geek Patrol compares the benchmarks of the new Macbook Pro 2.0GHz and of the Powerbook 1.6GHz. Geek Patrol used Geekbench Preview 2 for their benchmarking. Geekbench showed the Macbook Pro outperforming the Powerbook in all but one benchmark. TUAW disregarded the one benchmark where the Powerbook outperformed the Macbook Pro, averaged the rest of the figures, and the results showed the Macbook Pro, on average, was 4.26 times faster than the Powerbook.
Apple has stopped selling the 15" Powerbook G4.
Whine, whine, whine.
Dan Pourhadi has noted something wrong with his Macbook Pro. One, is the a stripe of the LCD at the bottom which is brighter than the rest of the screen and two, a persistent hissing noise located at the back of the unit which is first attributed to the LCD but he is no longer quite sure where it's coming from. The whine or noise are also discussed in the Apple discussion forums and in MacInTouch.
Update:
Pourhadi thinks he might have figured out where the noise is coming from. Using Apple's CHUD tools, he found out that when he disabled the Core Duo's second core the noise went away. Is this really where the problem is? Can this be fixed with a software update or are several Macbook Pros doomed to have to go back to Apple to be replaced?
Barely a week has gone by and problems with some Macbook Pros have begun cropping up. Macfixit.com lists problems like the noise, poor sound quality and some Macbook Pros arriving dead.
Open wiiiide...
Other World Computing (OWC) has posted pictures of a dissected MacBook Pro. More reviews and tips from OWC here. Tom Bridge does an analysis of the pictures.
Ifixit has a guide for performing a complete disassembly of the MacBook Pro.
Just a piece of advice
O'Grady's written tips and strategies on migrating your files from one Mac to another.
1,000,000,000th download!
Congratulations go to the lucky one-billionth iTMS downloader. He or she wins a 20" iMac, 10 60GB iPods, and $10,000 worth of iTMS downloads (any media).
The one-billionth song downloaded was Coldplay's Speed of Sound. The winner is Alex Ostrovsky of Michigan.
Christopher Breen sums it up with one word: Wow.
King of New Entertainment
A college drop-out who became a millionaire before 30, Steve Jobs has faced many successes, as well as failures, in his life. Once, he's even cheated death. At 50, he is co-founder and CEO of Apple Computers, a company the rules the digital music landscape with the iPod, iTunes and iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Music Store currently counting up to the one-billionth music download with big prizes to the lucky one to download that song. The iTMS is also trying to reign over video downloads with shows from ABC, NBC, Disney, Nickelodeon and others. New TV shows are being added almost weekly now. Aside from TV shows, iTMS also offers music videos and short films.
Steve Jobs is also chairman and CEO of Pixar, a company that has produced blockbuster hits such as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Just recently, Disney bought Pixar for $7 billion in the hopes of maybe Pixar will help save the sinking magic kingdom. Some have speculated that if anyone can turn around Disney, Jobs will be the one best to do it.
In an article written by Bob Keefe, he asks several people about Jobs and what the future holds for him. Rather, what future does Steve Jobs have envisioned for us. It his company's recent moves, the future seems to be pointing to moving entertainment seamlessly across devices. From computers to handheld media players and perhaps soon, to a living room media center and cellular phone.
Steve Jobs pretty much has most of his fingers in the digital music pie, getting eighty-plus per cent of the world's digital music player market and pretty much the same percentage in the music download business. Podcasting, the new radio, has also gotten a boost from Apple's iTunes last year. With the iTMS slowly expanding its library and with Disney acquiring Pixar, this year, Steve Jobs will be taking more than just a toehold in the video industry. The Mac community is also abuzz with reports of an event at Apple's HQ in Cupertino, with invitation to a select number of journalist to 'come see some fun, new products from Apple.' Whatever this 'fun, new product' may be, Steve Jobs seems to be on his way to soon become King of New Entertainment.
Post-Oompa loompa frenzy
The Inquirer sets the record straight and tells you what the differences are between a virus and a trojan.
Ars Technica downplays the fears surrounding the new malware threat the Mac universe was exposed to last week. It was neither the first malware discovered for the Mac OS X nor was it seriously destructive. The distinction of being called the first malware for Mac OS X goes to a trojan discovered in April 2004 and like Leap-A, it was called as a proof-of-concept malware. A malicious script got out in May 2004 that deleted home directories as soon as it was executed. Ars Technica advices people to practice skeptical computing. I also would like to recommend reading Mac Geekery's article on how to make your Mac more secure. Mac Geekery also has a feature on backup strategies.
The best reaction on this entire Mac 'virus' hoopla is from Leander Kahney of Wired.com who called the whole ballyhoo a 'load of crap.' He surmised that the reason why all there are news all around about the Mac 'virus' and security hole is that these things are a novelty for the Mac. He then goes on to say that security against malware just takes some common sense: do not open files that you didn't ask for.
Symantec and Sophos have had the distinction of spreading false information when it comes to potential threats to the Mac OS. It should be noted that both companies called the Leap-A as the 'first virus for the Mac OS X.' Apple has refuted this claim. Symantec even calls the Inqtana-A, which appeared almost a year ago, as a "beginning of a trend."
Update: Sophos said made a mistake in the Inqtana-B 'virus' signature. Users who ran their software was informed by Sophos' software that they had one-thousand infections. Sophos' mistake identified various Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Reader files as being infected. Speculations abound that companies like Sophos sensationalizes reports of Mac 'viruses' so that they can sell more of their software.
An un-informed FUD'er from a company called Datamonitor likened the Leap-A trojan to the Windows I Love You and Kournikova worms in the 1990's that infected hundreds of thousands of Windows PCs.
A Philippine Honeypot Project analyst made several misleading statements in an article on Inq7.net. Mr. Mark Ryan Talabis said that: (1) the Leap-A trojan was spread via the Internet; (2) that they have been conducting research on Mac viruses and; (3) the switch to Intel will make Mac users a 'more enticing target' for hackers. The first statement is just plain ignorance, the second is a plain lie, and the third, if based on the assumption that Intel-based Macs will be more prone to viruses, which is simply not true since the Apple's computers are secure because of the OS, not the hardware. Mr. Talabis obviously is way over his on this one.
Deep Thought has revealed a more sinister, more malicious malware than Leap-A, Inqtana-A, and Inqtana-B. Intego also wishes to profit from the FUD they are feeding.
An eWeek article says that the majority of Mac users are 'unprepared' for an outbreak of malware that will target Macs. The writer said the small size of the Mac community is what protects it from getting malware and that malware writers prefer to go after the larger audience. He goes on to say that the Mac 'counter-monoculture' will make naive users more vulnerable and an easier target soon.
Kirk McElhearn lambasts some writers who are blaming Mac users for getting infected with whatever malware an anti-virus decides to 'discover' for the week. He said that Mac aficionados and Mac-oriented writers shoud not trump around calling those who have become infected as gullible, imprudent and unsophisticated, because in reality they are. The vast majority of computer users are like that and the Mac community is best served if they stop criticizing and start educating.
The Lowdown on Apple and Tech News for Week 8
To celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday, a website is offering free downloads of nine symphonies. Each symphony is available at 192 and 256 kbps.
Apple's unveiling 'fun, new products' on Februay 28
After several fake Apple Special Event invites were posted on the Web, Apple officially sent out e-mail invitations to selected journalists to go to Apple's headquarters at Cupertino on February 28. Sent out on February 21, the e-mail teaser said, "Come see some fun, new products from Apple." The email showed a picture of iCal's icon with the date "February 28" shown. (I don't think Apple knows my site exists so I won't get into trouble. A poster at a forum I participate in already hinted last week that Apple has something big planned for the end of February or March. When prodded, he simply said that 'time will tell.' When today's mysterious email invites from Apple were made public, he again showed and said that this was the 'thing' he was hinting at and further added '(The) living room will never be the same.' This perhaps may indicate the much rumored Apple Multimedia Center. In my mind, it's perhaps a beefed up Mac mini with Front Row, Apple remote, TV connector, and DVR capabilities. Heck, throw in a built-in iPod dock.) Ihnatko rants about the 'fun' event. Apple has stopped accepting bulk orders for the Mac mini, but you can still make individual orders.
A picture of the supposed 'real' video iPod is being hotly debated. Is this real? Is this like what happened last year with the leaked pictures of the 5G iPod? As Apple fans (and haters) continue to debate about the existence of the video iPod, MobileMag is just so happy that Acer has beaten Apple to the punch in announcing a touchscreen PMP (I'm assuming that PMP means "portable media player." The idiotic author seems to think everyone knows what he's talking about.) Michael Kwan is so happy that Acer has outdone Apple in the announcement that he failed to realize Acer has yet to say when the unit will start shipping or how much it will cost. Michael Kwan, you're an idiot.
Update: The 'real' video iPod photo is a fake.
Shaw Wu predicts new consumer-oriented Macbooks and Mac minis, both of which will have Front Row and the remote. He also doesn't discount the possibility of full-length videos for the iTMS. He is not sold on the idea of the 'real' video iPod, saying that it's not yet ready for the prime time.
Safari's security hole
Another security problem on the Mac OS is again discovered, this time involving Safari. The problem lies with the option "Open 'safe' files after downloading" in Safari. 'Safe' files examples are those with '.jpg', '.pdf' and '.mov' extensions. The problem lies in a malicious shell script that is disguised as a 'safe' file, downloaded and then launched automatically by Safari. The shell script would then be executed in Terminal without the user's permission. People are advised to uncheck the check box in the General Tab under Preferences. People can also move the Terminal application to another location additional precaution. This security problem is also known to affect Apple's mail application. Apple is said to already be creating a fix for the hole.
Use your iMac as a reading lamp
InfoWorld claims that you can use the 20-inch Intel iMac as a reading lamp and still save on electricity. Apple rated the iMac's power consumption at 120 watts but the writer for InfoWorld found out that even when the iMac was utilizing 100% the Core Duo's core, power consumption was rated at a steady 95 watts. However, the writer took it a step further. He surmised that the LCD monitor was consuming 32 watts of power and subtracting that to the original value, the Intel iMac was just consuming 63 watts. This is with the two 2 GHz cores at 100 percent, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth active, 1 GB of RAM and 128 MB of GDDR3 graphics RAM running at full steam. (A follow-up test on the iMac's GPU will soon be posted.)
IMac reviews for the week:
The Intel iMac has just been launched in the Middle East while in France, Macs own 15.4% of the French education market. There has been an increase of 37% in Mac sales between 2004 and 2005. Last month, Apple's website was rated as the world's tenth most popular website.
Several problems have come up and are being discussed at Macfixit.com.
Now, for the rest of the news...
Mac mini in a Toyota Prius. This is an ongoing project. The owner's got a touch screen and a has the Front Row working. He's going to fiddle with the audio next. Other cars that has been fitted with a Mac mini are: 2006 Infiniti M45, Audi A6, Ford F-150 and, 2005 Jeep Grand Cheroke. These Mac mini cars and other automobile related stuff can be seen on Leftlane News.
It's hard to imagine for something other than a Japanese company to dominate the digital music player market in Japan. You'd think the Japanese will only choose something from Sony or Toshiba or Panasonic. But that's not really the case. As of the end of 2005, Apple's iPod has 51.3% of the digital-music player market in Japan. This is up from 32% in 2004. The success of the iPod has been attributed to its design, ease-of-use, and the seamless integration with the iTunes application. The local competition may have the design and other pieces of hardware down to pat, but so far have missed the software part of the equation. Slick advertising campaigns and Apple's Japanese version of the iTunes Music Store also helped in the iPod's success in Japan. But the iPod's dominance is being challenged by mobile phones that double as digital music players and by carriers that allow music tracks to be downloaded using 3G. The music tracks use a compression method that are deemed to be better than the MP3 format. Creative wants to try to take on the iPod again.
Samsung has released their version of the iPod nano. It comes in 2- and 4GB models, does 3D audio, has a 1.8" inch coloured screen and a 35-hour battery life, and has one of those barcode names. But it doesn't have an FM tuner! Gasp! An iPod competitor without an FM tuner!
Dan Frakes asks: "Where's autofill for the rest of the iPods?" while Jeremy Horowitz of iLounge begs Apple not to move their tech support to India. Heh.
Apple's iPod gets free press in the Winter Olympics in Turin. The Baltimore Sun reports on iPod-using Olympians listening to metal when making up a new routine or to a heart-break song to win gold in snowboarding. A spokesman for the US Olympic Committee thinks that the whole thing with the digital music player is a sponsorship waiting to happen. At the end of the artice, the Baltimore Sun lists some players and the favorite tunes they like listening to.
IPod Garage's Zack Littleman wrote 'Seven days without an iPod makes one weak.' It is a narration about the week Littleman ignored his iPod.
TUAW asks readers on feedbacks regarding BrokenPod, a company that will buy broken iPods. They also posted a funny take on Apple's latest Intel ad. (Another funny clip.)
Another blatant knock-off of the iPod nano is again spotted. It even placed Apple's logo and the word 'iPod' in front of the unit. What's missing though is the screen. It's labelled as "4GB" but in only actually has 128MB of flash memory.
The University of Wales' department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences will start offering their lectures as podcasts.
NBC and iTunes is offering a free download of an episode of Conviction, a new legal drama. Get it here. Other new shows are: America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC), The X's (Nickelodeon), Project Runway (NBC), select episodes from Inside the Actor's Studio (NBC), and new sketches from Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC).
Thomas Hawk of eHomeUpgrade.com calls customers of Apple's iTunes Music Store as suckers, and advises readers to go to record stores, buy a CD from them, rip the CD and then return it to get 75% of what you spent back. Doesn't that sound like cheating? (I just made the mistake of clicking on this bait-boy's article. Damn.)
David Every of MyMac.com thinks John Dvorak has been tripping on acid (Others think Dvoral has been missing is medications). Every writes sound arguments in his rebuttal against Dvorak's conspiracy theory-filled ramblings.
OSx86 is 'back.' They explained that the site was not intended as a community for hackers but instead was for discussion on Apple's switch to Intel. Of course, for such a well-meaning website they posted links to hacks of the Mac OS. They maintain that they are innocent and they have removed the links to Maxxus's website. But another website was not as lucky. Last week, I mentioned AppleKeynotes.com, a repository for various Apple Keynote addresses. Unfortunately, the website has been shut down by Apple's Legal department. This must be due to the website violating Apple's copyright. TUAW reported on this. Apple should make these keynotes available in their website or perhaps on iTunes. (Maxxus launches a new site after Apple purportedly took action against him. And no, I'm not going to post it here.)
Steve Wozniak says Apple's switch to Intel is "like consorting with the enemy," and that the iPod is "distracting Apple from its focus on computing."
Gene Munster of Piper-Jaffray says that concerns about the impact of Apple's switch to Intel is unfounded. According to Munster, only 20% of Apple resellers have seen a slow down in Mac sales because customers are waiting for the news Intel Macs. The rest of the retailers said their Mac business has not been impacted. Post-holiday season sales of iPods have been expected to go down but resellers said the decline was just 'slight' as compared to being 'significant.'
Sir Paul McCartney loves mash-ups and gave everyone who toured with him last year a 5G iPod.
Cameron Moll passed up the chance to work at Apple so he can spend more time with his family and still do blogging.
Adobe's CEO still considers the Mac platform as 'still critical.'
Yahoo!'s digital music service wants record labels to allow them to offer DRM-free downloads. They said that this will help combat piracy. How desperate is that?
Google is discriminating againstMac users using Safari and do not want them to use their web page creation tool, Page Creator. (See what you can do with Gmail.)
"Death on the high seas" or "don't pass show your iPod shuffle when there are geeks about."
Windows running on Intel Macs... under VMWare.
List of freeware for the Mac.
MacRumor has a gallery of pictures of a virtual input device on a touch screen may look like. Several patents have already been applied by Apple on alternative modes of input and interface on a touch-screen.
Engadget calls Apple adding a "touch finger LCD" as the latest crackpot rumor."
Apple in The Incredibles.
How to...
... backup your Mac's entire harddrive.
... deal with multiple iPods and multiple computers.
... combine colors for great webpage design.
Is it the time for the electronic book? Will Apple be the one to bring it mainstream?
A company named iTab is turning iBooks into tablet PCs and selling them on eBay. They are selling 100 units for $1,500 each.
The inventor of the MP3 is now developing a tool that will help reduce software piracy. They plan to use digital watermarks to track how many times an audio file has been uploaded and downloaded in a peer-to-peer network.
JCurtis hates the idea of people coming into his cubicle to hover over his shoulder. They also scare the bejeezus out of him because he sometimes doesn't know they're there. So, he created a small program he calls Rearview Mirror, which uses his iMac's built-in iSight to see who's sneaking up behind him. The application takes the video input from iSight and displays it in Quicktime.
From Heading East: 10 Mac softwares that you shouldn't be without.
Q: Windows and Linux emulator for the Mac. Another emulator is OpenOSX's WinTel. It's now version 2.1 and costs $25.
GrApple has downloadable Aqua-ese Firefox themes.
The Paper CD Case website will create a PDF file that you can make into a paper CD case after printing and folding the paper. Doug Adams has created a script that will import your iTunes playlist into papercdcase.com. Adams also made the iTunes script that makes audio files bookmarkable. Visit Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes for more scripts.
Is it still worth it to go watch a movie in the US these days?
Look! It's a virus! No, it's a worm. No, it's a trojan.
Early this week, reports started appearing about the emergence of a Mac OS X worm/trojan/virus. Nobody at that time realy knew what to call it. They just had a name for it: Oompa Loompa or Leap-A.
However, Sophos would really like to call it as the "first Mac OS X virus." Symantec refers to it as OSX/Leap, calls it as a worm, which according to Sophos worms are "a sub category of the group of malware known as viruses." So, Symantec is also calling Oompa Loompa as a virus. Ambrosia sofware and Intego call it as a trojan horse, not a virus. So who's right?
Sophos and Symantec are wrong according to a statement issued by Apple, that in part read: “Leap-A is not a virus, it is malicious software that requires a user to download the application and execute the resulting file.”
What can Leap-A aka Oompa-loompa aka OSX/Leap do or can't do? It can't self-propagate. Which means a user with administrative privilages has to click on the package the trojan came in. The package is named as latestpics.tgz and the compressed archive is supposed to contain screenshot pictures of the next OS X. When uncompressed, a file masquadering a JPEG file is seen and when double-clicked, the trojan then jumps into action. The trojan horse does two things: first, it sends copies of itself using your iChat's buddy list and second, it infects Cocoa applications. Macworld has a FAQ, which details what Leap-A is and what measures you can take to rid of it and protect yourself in the future. There's a follow-up article where they infected two computers with the trojan and observed what it did to both systems. ZDNet tells Mac users that getting infected by a real virus is only a matter of time.
A second OS X malware emerged this week but according to Macworld the risk is low. Inqtana.A is a "Java-based “proof of concept” worm" which can propagate thru bluetooth. However, Apple has long since patched up the hole the worm could potentially pass through. If you're Mac OS X is updated then there's nothing to worry about.
Oompa-loompa and Inqtana.A are "proof of concept" malwares, which means that somebody out there is working on a working virus for the Mac that someday may start running wild and infect Macs.
Living in the digital world
I am bothered by people who uses short-cuts when typing in an SMS. "N" for "and." "U" for "you." The list goes on. In my short stint as a Radioogy resident in training, I was appalled at an entry made by a radiology technician. Instead of putting in "forearm" she actually wrote "4arm." If that's not stupidity I don't know what is.
I was fascinated with an opinion coumn written by Steve Kolowich. Writing for The Bowdoin Orient, he talked about how the "E-" generation are sacrificing quality for quantity which started as omissions of certain conunctions, then disregard for grammar, then finally dropping of letters off of words. People are garbling up their message and come out as incoherent for the sake of being able to send off as many SMS or email as possible. Perhaps taking out some letters in a word means shaving off 5 seconds in typing out a message, and that extra 5 seconds is just enough to close off that multi-milion dollar deal they have been working on for the past 6 months. Then again the extra 5 seconds you spend might do a better job in helping communicate your ideas effectively and keep a convenience from becoming a bad habit. To illustrate the last point, Kolowich mentioned that his teacher sent back a friend's English report because his friend used "u" instead of "you." Ah, yes. The marvel of e-stupidity.
So if you are one of those people who like cutting off conjunctions and dropping letters from words, don't bother sending me an email or SMS. You are just wasting your time and mine. I don't want to have to decipher your stupidity and incoherence.
Architecture in a Box
I have an interest in design and architecture. I sometimes would scour the Internet for websites that showcase products and structures that are both functional and are seen as works of art. I always like to see pictures of openings of Apple stores since these stores looks so clean and minimalistic.
Several weeks back, I was channel surfing and a came upon a programme that featured a cube-shaped house. What was fascinating about this was how small the house was. The feature was at its end so I didn't get much information. All I could remember was that this was some sort of project or initiative and it was somewhere in Europe. I actually thought that it was in the Netherlands. I think I have been listening to Adam Curry way too much. I tried to look it up on the Internet using "cube" "house" and "Netherlands." The hits weren't what I wanted.
It was only lately that I chanced upon the website Inhabitat. Inhabitat is "a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future." As far as I can remember I chanced upon Inhabitat when I was reading someone's blog about environmentally-friendly vehicles and houses. I saw the term "miniHome and I thought I finally found the cube-house that I was looking for. It turned out to be something else. But the link did bring me to Inhabitant of which finally lead me to Micro Compact Home or m-ch. The m-ch measures 2.6 x 2.6 x 2.6 meters and can accomodate one or two people. The tiny cube house is designed around the Japanese tea house, has a folding double bed on the upper level and working and dining area that can fit to up to four or five people. The entrance lobby doubles as a bathroom and drying area for clothes.
Seven students were recruited to take part in the first micro-compact home village experiment, sponsored by O2 of Germany. After living for two months in the m-ch, two complaints were surfaced. First, there was the problem of moistness after bathing, indicating a need for ventilation in the mini-bathroom. Second complaint was about the fire alarm in the kitchen that had to be removed each time a meal was to be prepared because it keeps going off. These are going to be taken into consideration in the next version of the m-ch. I will keep looking for resources on the m-ch.
Rocio Romero aims to deliver affordable high-end modern design for prefab housing. Products include the LV Home and its larger version, the LVL Home.
Other interesting websites: Ding3000, Loftcube, and Golgo73. I'll add my impressions soon. I'm starting to run on empty.
MacBook Pro officially ships. Faster than announced.
The new MacBook Pro was introduced last January on Macworld San Francisco 2006. Steve Jobs presented a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo processors, the 1.67 GHz model selling at $1999 and the 1.83 GHz model at $2499. Jobs then announced that the new Mac portables will begin shipping on February 7. However, February 7 came and went but no MacBook Pros were in sight. The rumor mill spewed out that the MacBook Pro's availability is pushed to March.
However, Apple pulled another surprised after the release of the 1GB iPod nano. MacBook Pro portables will start shipping today and not only that, the two models were each given a speed bump without any added costs. So, those who were expecting a 15-inch 1.67 GHz MacBook Pro will instead get 1.83 GHz, and those expecting 1.83 GHz will get 2.0 GHz. Potential buyers can also upgrade to 2.16 GHz for $300. The rest of the features and configurations remain the same. Shipping is back to 3-4 weeks. I earlier saw 1-3 days. Apple is really having a fun time keeping people off-balanced. TUAW reports that MacBook Pros are already shipping. Some readers have confirmed it, with one that is set to arrive at Shanghai on Feruary 18.) Someone has put up photos of the MacBook Pro and its packaging on Flickr.
One question still remains to be answered: How's the battery life? Scrolling down to the bottom of the page of the "What's Inside" page, it states "Battery life depends on configuration and use." I guess I will have to wait for real world testing from those who will be getting the MacBook Pro within the week.
I think Apple will be releasing new stuff every two weeks or at the very least, every month. What's next? MacBooks? I don't think there will be any iTablet soon since Apple is still looking for an engineer who will be responsible for advancing gesture and handwriting recognition in Mac OS X.
With the speed bump and official release of the MacBook Pro, analysts see a potential increase in the PC market share for Apple. However, the Expresscard/34 slot may deter 3G or UMTS subscribers from buying the MacBook Pro.
Apple and tech lowdown for Week 7
The new Intel iMacs have been reported to have a "video tearing" issue when using Front Row and there are accounts of "odd behaviours." The blog ConsumerMachine is the "official" website that talks about the video tearing issue and the latest news about it. Apparently, the issue is software related. The new build of the software seems to fix the video tearing in Front Row. Apple is said to be already investigating this. If no other problems arise, I just might get the Intel iMac soon. (Mac OS 10.4.5 has just been released. I'll see this will fix the video tearing problem. ConsumerMachine readers confirms that the latest OS X update does indeed fix the video tearing and other video-related issues.) TUAW is asking readers whether their Macs feel 'zippier' after upgrading to Mac OS 10.4.5. There has been a lot of reports from users that there is some noticeable 'zippiness' after upgrading and applications open faster.
Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press says "Apple (Intel) iMac is simply the best." He made a video of simultaneously booting up an Intel iMac and a G5 iMac, showing the Intel iMac booting up much faster. He doesn't go into any benchmarks or show any graphs. According to Mr. Wendland, the Intel iMac is faster and more nimble. Period. He also boldly proclaims the MacBook Pro runs cooler and has a longer battery life. He really is sticking his neck out on this one since even with the MacBook Pro officially shipping, Apple's website does not mention how long the battery life is. All they say is that "battery life will depend on the configuration and use." How vague is that?
According to Tom Yager of TechNewsWorld.com, the iMac "rates as the ideal desktop," commenting of how easy it is to use the iMac. Just drag, drop, connect, and use. He liked how easy it was to transfer the files from his Powerbook and how much of an eye-candy the 20-inch iMac is. He added that if the iMac shipped with either Windows or Linux, he wouldn't even touch it.
The Star Online, a Malaysian online tech magazine, also reviews the 20-inch Intel iMac. Chris Chong gives a positive response to Apple's latest desktop offering but advises pro users to wait until the next release of the iMac.
It's one of those Mac vs Dell comparison. George Ou of ZDNet says that the Dell is the better deal. But Dan Frakes of Macworld says Ou is spouting nonsense and does his own comparison. (After the announcement of the start of shipping and speed bump of the MacBook Pro, Dan Frakes did another piece updating his comparison chart. It now shows the MacBook Pro is very, very price competitive. Ou couldn't help himself and had to write another piece that tries to offhandedly brush-off the omissions he made when he did his comparison. The follow-up article was a response to Dan Frakes' own MacBook Pro vs Dell comparison on February 13. The thing with Ou is he again conveniently ignored the updated comparison Dan Frakes did, which showed the Dell Inspiron 9400, after coupon rebates, being cheaper by $18. But, pre-coupon prices, the MacBook Pro is actually cheaper! Dell's price also does not take into account the software that has to be bought or downloaded in order to make it useable and protected against viruses and other nasties. )
Deep Thought has its own price comparison with "iMac vs The World" series. Part one of the series compared a 17" Gateway Profile with a 17" Intel iMac. The Gateway Profile is about $200 more expensive than the iMac Core Duo, and that's without the software! The iMac wins this round.
Apple's shipment of desktop and portable PCs is said to hit the 10 millionth mark this year, benefiting Taiwanese companies such as Foxxconn Electronics, Quanta Computer, and Asustek. It's reported that 6 million of the projected 10 million will be portables.
Top 10 things every Mac switcher should know. It's funny but still manages to get the point across: Switching may not be that easy for some.
Know what the dual-core processors are and what they aren't. Learn what the hype are all about.
Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post says it doesn't pay to upgrade from iLife 05 to iLife 06. By the way, upgrade for iLife 06 is now available for download.
Though Dan Pourhardi calls iWeb a "piece of crap," a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald likes it, calling it "loads of fun for ordinary folk who want to get their stuff up on the web, to communicate and build an online community."
Apple's resource of Universal applications for the Intel Macs. Currently, there are 705 applications listed as of February 14, 2005, 3:28PM. A list of Web 2.0 products and services. Currently, there are 117 listed resources. And if you have there's something you want done but don't want to browse through growing list of Web 2.0 applications, just go to the "I want to..." list, type in what you want done, and it will try to help you locate the application that will do the job. The 122-page guide to the iPod can be downloaded for free from iPod Garage.
Exposed: the 5G iPod. Informit.com dissects the 5G iPod and replaces the screen with that of the PSP.
More roadkill under the iPod's Click Wheel. Telegraph and The Independent report the demise of Sony's Walkman Bean less than six months after it was released. Sony will discontinue the Bean in April. Both reports look into the speed of which "new" digital devices become obsolete. Obsolescence is attributed to the pace of innovation and to inability to compete with other companies.
"The sounds of the piano was cut by an eerie silence. Thomas watched dumbfounded as the events slowly unfurled right in front of him..." A suspense-thriller? Hardly. Thomas Beller of the New York Times recalls his experience as his iPod fell through his pocket and fell onto the subway tracks. Read his light-hearted account of what he did and of the aftermath. The story is filled with drama, comedy, action, and a twinge of incredulity at the end.
New shows are added to the iTunes Music Store. The shows are: "Schoolhouse Rock," "Saved By the Bell," and "The Biggest Loser." Sports Illustrated swimsuit videos are now also available.
Seagate announces a 12GB hard-disk drive measuring at 40mm x 30mm x 5mm. Why would this matter? Smaller iPods, of course.
Nearing the 1 billionth song download and with prizes at stake, Macworld reports that in ten days 30 millions songs were sold. That's a download of 3 million songs per day.
In early 2004, Daphne Kalfon decided to join a contest in making a love song about the Mac. She composed and arranged the "I Love My Mac" song using GarageBand. Then weeks later, she won the contest. She posted the song in Macjams. Then on March 2005, a fan of the song from Switzerland translated the lyrics into German. A Swedish version is also avaiable with Japanese and Italian translations in the works. The song is now available on iTMS and Daphne Kaflon promises that if the song reaches the top 10 song downloads list she will donate 10% of the proceeds to music download charity.
Warner Music saw a near one-hundred percent increase in quarterly profits as compared to the previous year, mostly fueled by a surge in sales of digital music particularly from the iTunes Music Store.
Researchers from Columbia University found out that iTMS shoppers tend to download music that are popular and that has been downloaded by a lot of people.
Amazon and Google are going up against Apple's iTunes Music Store. (Update: Amazon plans to sell their own brand of digital music player that will be pre-loaded with songs and to also have a subscription-based music download service. Insiders say that the service and the device could be launched as early as summer. Amazon could have an advantage as the one to challenge Apple with its huge customer base. But The Street.com columnist Tony Wolverton downplays the threat Amazon poses to Apple, saying among other things the subscription model Amazon plans to have has had a hard time gaining acceptance from the consumers and Apple's iPod-iTunes compatibility is very hard to beat.)
Victory Records's founder says that the iTunes Music Store cheapens music and urges other recording labels to pull out of iTMS. Victory Records refused to put any of their music into Apple's online downloading service. Their boss, Tony Brummel is demanding a cut from the sales of the iPods and kickbacks. If you think that's stupid and greedy, the Recording Industry Association of America claims copying music from your CD to your computer and iPod is illegal; it is not considered "fair use." This means they want people to buy a CD for their car or CD player and another for copying into a PC or an iPod. Some more stupidity: the British are blaming the death of a Australian woman bicyclist to the iPod. Apparently the woman was wearing headphones while riding her bike and she didn't hear the truck the killed her coming. This shows an utter lack of common sense in both the victim, the authorities, the victim's friend and the newspaper that reported this. A Boston Herald writer says that Apple's iTMS is committing suicide because of greed and lack of customer focus and he is waiting to jump in the Google Tunes bandwagon as soon as it leaves.
BBC is going full steam ahead in bringing their contents as podcasts, like radio programmes and music shows.
Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape number 10 is available. Download here. BMW has also gotten into the free downloads bandwagon with their BMW Audio Books. Be sure to allow pop-ups in Firefox for these downloads.
Apple sends out a poetic warning to would-be hackers as OSx86 Projects reports of Maxxuss releasing a patch for the hack of Mac OS 10.4.4. (Update: OSx86 Projects just got served a notice of DMCA violation. Their forums have been taken offline until further notice. No word of who filed the complaint for the DMCA violation. Another site, Win2OSX.net was compltely shut down).
TUAW tip: hover the mouse pointer over a truncated file name in column view while holding down the "option" key and a tooltip will show the entire file name. Release the "option" key and the feature stays.
Some more tips. For hot spot users, Macsimum News posts the "Do's and Don'ts of Hot Spot Usage" from Rescuecom. The list aims to protect users from identity and security theft when in a public hot spot.
I am a big fan of Quicksilver and for me, it's an indispensible tool. But I know that I am fully utilizing all its features. 43 Folders explains what a trigger is and gives five examples to give a Quicksilver user a head start in using one of Quicksilver's feature. Dan Dickinson has a Quicksilver trigger tutorial up.
Micheal Gartenberg claims that the key difference between Apple and Microsoft is that Apple knows how to sell to the consumer who buys one thing at a time, while Microsoft only knows how to sell to big business. Another difference between Apple and other computer makers is that the competition focuses on features while Apple focuses on the benefits to the consumer. Apple also helps save marriages.
Apple Matters has a good piece on the five mistakes Apple made that Apple isn't repeating with the iPod. I highly recommend reading this if you have the time. Failure is not a bad thing as long as you learn from it.
Snapshots of John Krasinki and Jon Stewart in an Apple Store. John Krasinki plays Jim in The Office and Jon Stewart is well... Who doesn't know Jon Stewart. I wonder what happened to his iMac?
Apple Keynotes is a site dedicated to comprehensively list Apple Keynotes and made them available for download.
Apple Insider says that the new Intel Mac minis won't have the rumored integrated iPod dock. I do not see why this an integrated iPod dock is such a big deal. Putting a dock in the mini will drive the cost of the unit up. Why do you think Apple removed the chargers and Firewire cables from the bundled accessories in the latest iPods? Because it makes the iPods more expensive and it doesn't make sense to have more than one charger in a house that has 2 or more iPods. Removing the charger and Firewire cable, in my opinion, was a smart move by Apple since it made their iPods really competitive. They also report that Apple will have 17-inch MacBook Pros by June this year. One drawback might be that it will only have a 4x SuperDrive like the 15-inch since the 8x SuperDrive is too thick to fit in the very slim profile of both Mac Book Pros.
Dvorak is predicting Apple will move to Windows, saying that ditching Mac OS X and selling "jazzy and high-margin" computers to Windows users would be better for the company. I can't imagine the amount of emails he'll be getting. Paul Murphy from ZDNet thinks Apple's decision in switching to Intel would mean the ultimate demise of Apple and Apple should instead partner up with freescale. This guy is also the one that wrote the piece that said Intel cheapens Apple's Macintosh brand. I'm not putting up a link to the original articles since I consider these as create-a-lot-of -stink-to-attract-flies kinds of comments.
How to...
... make an Apple script.
... download movie trailers off Apple's Quicktime Movie Trailers site.
Access, the company that bought PalmSource last year, introduced the Access Linux Platform for Palm devices. The new platform will be compatible with existing Palm OS applications and Samsung has already expressed interest in using the platform. In the same article, PLDT will use an open-source product from Funambol to offer mobile e-mail to PLDT's users.
Speaking of Linux, the Mactel-Linux group has managed to boot Linux on a 17-inch iMac Core Duo.
Apple Matters calls for IT Managers to take responsibility for security breaches instead of blaming Windows. Goes on to say they better think hard of the alternative OSes available.
Read the Technologist's Manifesto.
Camino version 1.0 (stable version) is out.
One device that I would like to have is Panasonic's Toughbook Wireless Display thin-client. Saw this at Engadget It would be sweet if Apple made something like this. Then again I don't think that's ever going to happen.
Adult Swim "Fix" will go 24/7 on March 27, 2006.
Veoh: what happens when you cross the internet with television.
The US wants to extradite a bumbling nerd from the UK for hacking into the computers of the US Navy, Air Force, Department of Defense, and NASA. In his defense, the hacker said that it was not his fault that these US institutions were easy to hack. It was their fault because they were using Windows without adequate password protections or firewalls. If extradited, the hacker faces years in prison and fines amounting close to $2 million.
The coffee here sucks!
My brother makes a great cup of espresso. He bought an espresso machine last year and gets his beans from Manila. The first time I tried out his espresso it was really, really good. It didn't have the bitter, burnt aftertaste that most espresso have here in Davao but instead it was sweet. It was like drinking a liquid 80% dark chocolate. Which brings me to my rant.
Where can I get a great cup of espresso or cafe americano here in Davao?
The barristas here doesn't know jack about making coffee. The coffee are either burnt or just taste awful. There's even one cafe where their coffee have put on a decidedly ammoniacal smell. The cafe where I am a frequent customer used to make a decent cafe americano. Decent, not great. "Used to" as in "not anymore." The coffee they served me this morning was just damned awful. It smelled bad and it tasted horrible. It's like an old, used grind was used to make my coffee. I would probably have tolerated burnt better. To make another comparison, it's like they boiled some water, dumped an old leather, and served me what came out of the steep.
Is there any hotspot here that serves great coffee?
I am tempted to tell my brother to open up his own cafe. He definitely makes real good coffee. I think I'm going to crash his place and make me a cup or two.
Week 6 in review
Apple releases 1GB iPod nano! They also bring down the prices of the 512MB and 1GB iPod shuffle to $69 and $99 respectively. The 1GB nano by the way cost $149. It was reported last week that Dell quietly killed its hard-drive based digital music players and left their DJ Ditty standing alone against the iPods. With the new 1GB nano and the lower-priced shuffles, Ditty might also be on the way out soon. Apple is slowly choking its competitors and might be in the position to start invading your living room. Asian chipmakers' stocks took a hit following the release of the 1GB nano, as fears of a steep decline in chip prices were expressed. Apple's competitors such as Creative and Reigncom are said to be pressured to lower their prices in order to stay competitive with Apple.
1GB iPod nano reviews: ILounge is quick to the draw. They already have a review of the 1GB iPod nano and they noted that the new nano's screen is less brighter when compared to its higher capacity brethrens. Macsimum News rates the latest nano a 7 out of 10 saying the 1GB nano is "sweet, if you can live with the 240-song limit."
A ZDNet writer thinks that the iPod shuffle is on the way out and forecasts 8 to 16 GB nanos by second-half of this year. I'm personally looking forward to it. Article also explains why only the 5G iPod can play videos.
The Billion Songs Countdown is on. The lucky billionth song downloader will get a 20" iMac, 10 60 GB iPods, and $10,000 iTunes gift certificate. For every 100,000 download a prize package awaits consisting of a 4GB black iPod nano and a $100 iTunes gift certificate. Let the mad rush begin!
After his first look at Garageband 3, Bob 'Dr. Mac' Levitus reviews the rest of the applications in the latest version of Apple's multimedia suite, iLife 06. New features are added in all the applications; themes, and being able to see effects and transitions real-time in iMovie HD, making widescreen format using iDVD, and a faster iPhoto with a capacity of up to 250,000 and photcasting. The latest addition to the iLife suite, iWeb, lets you effortlesly mash up all the things you created in the other iLife apps and put them into your very own website. You can easily add music, movies, and photos as well as a blog or podcast. If you have a .Mac account, publishing is just a click away. If you don't have a .Mac account, just export it and load it up via ftp. Dr. Mac highly recommends iLife 06 and the $79 price is a steal.
Business Week's slide show entitled "The Revolution Will Be Podcast" shows Steve Jobs and Bob Iger with the things that Disney-Pixar might be able to bring to thehe dynamic duo world of the media. An associated story talks in length about how Steve Jobs is as a CEO and as an entepreneur, and how he could shake up the entire world of entertainment. (Picture is from Business Week Online)
The young and hip choose Macs and in a cafe in San Francisco Apple portables out number their Windows counterparts 22 to 7.
After revolutionizing podcasting and bringing video podcasting to new heights with the 5G iPod, Apple is now set to bringing Macs into the homes of iPod users. In what is called as the iPod "halo effect," non-Mac iPod users are drawn to Apple's other hardware, curious as to what Apple's portables and desktops can do. People may also find other reasons, such as Windows inherent insecurity and the Macs' design that are easy on the eyes and easy to use, that will make them decide to get a Mac. MacBook Pro availability is pushed back 3-4 weeks. Which means the newest Mac portables won't be available until March. Might this mean that there are some issues like battery life that they are having difficulty resolving? Or it might mean that production is slow and they can't keep up with the demands. Late or not, the first to get the first MacBook Pro will be Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini.
Apple Insider reviews the 20" Intel iMac. Users will only feel the increase in speed when using native apps like iLife 06 or iWork 06. There are still few applications that are complied to run under Intel Macs. Rosetta is a memory hog and it is advisable that users upgrade their RAM if they plan to use many non-native applications on the new Macs. Perhaps it is better to wait before buying an Intel Mac until such a time more of your favorite third-party apps can run natively on these new Macs. Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus, however, highly recommends the 20" Intel iMac and says that the non-Universal Binary applications ran acceptably, contrary to what Macworld said. Dr. Mac advises people who regularly uses Adobe Photoshop or applications that are sluggish to run under Rosetta to hold off purchase and instead stick with their PowerPC. Macworld has a review of the iMac Core Duo from a Computerworld writer and it basically says the same things as other reviews have: spring for more RAM and don't buy one if you need to run non-native apps like Photoshop. TUAW reviews the reviewers. The piece tells us to always take a grain of salt on what these whiny geeks write.
Macworld's Dan Miller took a deep breath and then cracked open the new Intel iMac. Well, perhaps "crack open" is such a strong word. What he did was to ease out the innards with a spatula. The gory details and pictures will be posted soon.
Bill Shein is not buying a Mac, so stop pestering him, you Mac heads! (Funny piece. Read it if you have time.)
Apple is investigating problems in the new Intel iMacs related to video playback problems when playing videos in Front Row.
Just what is the real deal behind the Power PC vs Intel power struggle? Did Apple lie to its faithful about the Power PC being faster and better than Intel a few years back? MacSlash offers an insight on the events that forced Apple to do their own switch.
A car is probably the most expensive iPod accessory that I can think of. The new website, iPodCarParts.com, features mobile solutions for your iPod like mounting systems, factory and aftermarket stereo systems, and many others. It's good site to get an idea on what you need for that seamless integration of car and iPod.
Speaking of cars, Lexus buyers who are not getting their cars yet because of a recall received surprises in their mailbox. A buyer who had to wait for another week to get the car he purchased and instead got a loaner car, was surprised to see a package on his doorstep. Inside was a 2GB iPod nano. Lexus sent out the nanos to their customers (old and first-time) for "appreciation of their time and understanding as well as for being a valued member of the Lexus family." Wow. I mean, wow. Where can I get a Lexus?
You listen to your iPod while you walk, work, and drive. It's safe to say that you live an iPod life. Now, why not take it a step further? Why not make the iPod the last thing you hear before you go to sleep and the first thing you hear when you wake up. You've heard of iPod-compatible vehicles. Well, there's now an iPod-compatible bed. Pause features an iPod universal dock and Bose speaker system that's built into the design of the bed. The dock also acts as a charger for the iPod. (Picture is from Design Mobel's website)
Enteprising university students are selling iPod nano skins with university logos. 
DLO releases new transparent cases for the nano, the nanoshell. They come in five different colors. (Picture is from the DLO website)
The iPod is creeping into education with podcasts from the likes of Stanford and Harvard. Now, a Nebraska professor is putting his lectures online which can be downloaded as podcasts. Aside from that, all his home assignments are now online. Asked whether he was worried about class attendence, he said he wasn't, saying he thinks he puts on a pretty good show. What's next? Video lectures by the end of the semester.
A new magazine on podcasting is out. PodcastUser Magazine is geared towards the podcaster, the listener, and for those who uses podcasts for business. Download the first issue and in it you can find news, reviews, articles, and tutorials related to podcasting. I seem to have a problem viewing the PDF. I would see the spinning beach ball before a page would load. Must be my machine.
One of my favorite podcasters, Ken Ray, has teamed up with Macsimum News and The Apple Groups Team to bring Mac OS Ken: the Macsimum Podcast. This is after a brief hiatus by Ken Ray from Inside Mac. I still don't know what really happened on why Ray left Inside Mac. He said he grew tired and weary from podcasting but later realized he missed doing shows. Ken Ray's associate, Laura Burstein, will also do special features in the new show. Great development for Mr. Ray and I wish him the best. Oh yeah, I got to remember to vote for him at Podcast Alley. I'm going to subscribe to Small Dog Electronic's Pawcast and see if I like what I hear.
Networks are reaping benefits from putting their shows in iTMS with ratings increase on shows that are available for download in iTMS. Showtime Networks (owned by CBS) has jumped in the band wagon and is now offering three of their shows on iTunes. "Weed," "Sleeper Cell" and "Fat Actress" are among the more than 50 shows being offered in iTunes for download with a $1.99 price per episode. There has been 12 million video downloads to date. But TVPredictions calls 12 million video downloads in four months as "a big disappointment." Download and view the latest Superbowl commercials on your PC, iPod or TV. (Can't believe the Seahawks lost. Too many bad calls, in my opinion).
According to IDC, Apple came in ninth in the list of the top-10 notebook vendors for 2005. Apple managed to ship 2,171,000 million units, experiencing a 36% growth and getting 3.32% of market share.
Though Mac and iPod sales figures look good, Apple stocks have fallen hard since reaching its all-time high of $86.40 last January 12. As of February 6, Apple's stock is valued at $67.30. This is amid concerns that though Apple continues to grow as a company, they are perceived to be slowing down. Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray calls the idea of slow Macintels sales due to lack of third-party software as "absurd." Other concerns raised include whether Disney buying Pixar will distract Jobs from his work in Apple, and issues like lawsuits claiming the iPod nano cannot be used normally without sustaining scratches severe enough to make the screen unreadable.
Apple has applied for patents on a user interface for devices such as a tablet PC. It is difficult to imagine the ideas behind the patents. The World of Apple has posted a link and a movie that shows what could be the possible future for Apple computers is. Hrmpf.com again features a patent filed by Apple, again naming Jonathan Ive as one of the inventors. The patent figures show an iPod user interface using a touch-sensitive screen. The user will be able to control aspects of the iPod through a virtual onscreen click wheel and will also be able to choose an item directly through the touch sensitive screen using a finger. The same user interface is again shown on an iTunes- and iPhoto-like application.
Intel Power Macs by September? There are reports from the wild that Intel Macs can boot from USB 2.0 drives. Portal Player, the supplier of audio chips for Apple's iPods, intends to put bluetooth and Wi-Fi support into their chips. Wireless iPods by 2007?
Think Secret says according to reliable sources Apple will be releasing a true video iPod with a 3.5" touch screen screen and get this, the click-wheel will be digital and can be accessed when a finger touches the screen. The click-wheel will then hide itself when the finger is removed. This and the wireless iPod are the loudest of the rumors circulating among the Apple faithfuls. Incidentally, Think Secret also mentions that last fiscal quarter, Apple sold 3.9 million 5G iPods and 8 million iPod nanos.
Needham & Co. takes things further. Analysts from the company says the 'real' video iPod is coming and it's coming earlier than expected. Apple is said to unveil the video iPod with a touch-activated click-wheel, along with the new single core Intel iBooks, on April 1, Apple's 30th anniversary. Two things hinted the possible release of the video iPod: the fast expanding video library in iTunes and Apple reducing 5G iPod component orders from Asia. The 'real' video iPod will maintain the size of the original iPod but sport a much bigger screen.
Should Apple consider buying Palm? Forget it. What can Palm do that Apple can't? I think Palm is living on borrowed time. Apple had a PDA called the Newton. The road from the inception of the idea to the release of the actual product was rough and bumpy. Low End Mac recalls the story on how the Newton came to be.
How to...
... move your podcasts from iTunes to other applications.
... have high quality movies at low bit rates.
... make triggers in Quicksilver.
... easily open a folder or location using the title bar and find yourself in Mac OS X.
... create 3D models using the open-source software Blender.
... create pixel art.
... fix a stuck pixel on an LCD (Not a dead pixel. There is a difference).
... take a caffeine nap.
The National Ledger just printed a story that mentioned "Microsoft's Apple Computer, Inc.." (It has since been edited. Thanks to MDN for catching it.) Anyway, the article talks about the "useless iPod lawsuit" filed by a Microsoft retainer in behalf of John Kiel Patterson of Louisiana who allegedly had hearing loss because listening to loud music in his iPod. Americans are getting more stupid everyday.
A columnist for the Chicago Tribune blames the iPod nano for installation problems instead of blaming Microsoft for not being able to handle device drivers well. He has posted another column of which he is giddy from all the attention he got. I didn't put the link anymore since it has become quite obvious some 'columnists' have resorted to write 'complaints' on an Apple product knowing they will get reactions, and hence clicks, from angry Mac zealots.
Contrary to what some might believe, the Mac OS X platform being unaffected by viruses, spyware and malware should make it a bigger target. The challenge to write the first virus for the Mac platform is too good to pass up for hackers. But even though there may be exploits within programs like Quicktime and iTunes, malicious programs simply cannot install themselves since the Mac comes with security features enabled by default, unlike in Windows where the features will have to be turned on first. The threat, however, is real, and the popularity of the iPod, iTunes, and the Mac OS itself will make Apple's OS a bigger target. Read more of Thomas Zizzo's article here.
An online guy backs off from his claims that the Mac OS X is "relatively free" of viruses. Mac fans (or zealots. It's all relative.) politely told him that he used the wrong term since there never has been a reported case of a virus of the Mac OS X. The not -so-relatively-free Windows system will get an additional protection from all the bad things floating in the net... for a fee. "Cough up $50 for additional protection", Microsoft says. "You don't want anything to happen to your nice computer, do ya?" So instead spending a bit of their billions in making Windows more secure, Microsoft instead tells people that it's their fault why there are viruses in their computers and users should pay Microsoft for the hurt they have caused them. I wonder how long before somebody pounces on Microsoft for this? If people will pay $50 as protection money for their computers from the mistake Microsoft can't correct, then what will motivate Microsoft to improve their operating system? Not only is Microsoft running a protection racket, it is also killing the competition. As it turns out, Microsoft's own anti-spyware software renders Symantec's anti-virus unusable. Of course, the program is still in beta so Microsoft cannot be held reliable for systems that have gone haywire. I wonder what's Symantec's take on this. Another thing, Gates mulls over an iPod killer.
Mariah Carey appears in a new Intel ad. Will try to look for a link of this ad. Clovertown to hit shelves by 2007.
Freeware galore. I am a great believer in Quicksilver and apparently, so does Chris Barylick of The Mac Observer. Though Spotlight is a wonderful feature in Tiger, he thinks that it still has weaknesses. Quicksilver might be able fill in some of the shortcomings. Senuti lets you copy your iPod's contents to a computer. EnzymeX lets molecular biologists determine which restriction enzyme to use to cut DNA. Measure software performance with Apple's CHUD.
Cool 3D street art.
