Dec 18, 2007 Dec 20, 2007 Wednesday December 19, 2007
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Symantec talks Mac security
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, SecurityWhat might Apple's surging sales of Macs have to do with the security of your computer? Possibly, a lot. In a recent CIO interview (conducted by our very own Lisa Hoover), Ollie Whitehouse, an architect for Symantec's Advanced Threat Research Team said that as the Mac keeps growing in popularity, so will the exploits. This theory has been around for as long as OS X, if not longer but lately it seems to be gaining some credibility. There was the Mac "virus" last year, though it actually managed to infect less than 50 Macs in the wild. There was the report of a "dramatic increase" in OS X malware recently. And just yesterday ZDNet posted an article on vulnerabilities found in three operating systems: Leopard, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. They said that Mac OS X had the most vulnerabilities of the three (though it is worth noting that they are "vulnerabilities," not actual exploits. Windows still reigns supreme on that front).Could these analysts be right? Should we be worried about the continued security of our chosen platform? Should Apple start focusing on OS X's security rather than simply adding more features? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: it is a scary world out there.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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My iPhone Wish: Delicious Library on the iPhone
As more and more developers get ready for the official iPhone SDK in February, I am hoping Delicious Monster is ready. With the iPhone’s built-in camera, bluetooth support, and access to the internet via phone data connection or Wifi, the iPhone is the perfect…
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iClipBoard 1.0
Filed under: SoftwareChronos has just introduced a new product called iClipBoard 1.0. This clipboard manager keeps track of what you've copied to the clipboard and makes it available in an attractive side shelf. Not only does it track the current contents of your clipboard, but it keeps a history of everything you've copied (defined by parameters you setup, and if you copy something you don't want people to know about don't worry, you can delete something from the history). The shelf also has a quick preview so you can easily find that picture or snippet of text you copied days ago.iClipBoard will go for $29.99 but is available for $19.99 until December 31st.[via carpeaqua]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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SunSpider 0.9
Filed under: Internet Tools, Open SourceIf there is one thing geeks like to do it is benchmark things. From how fast their code runs, to how quickly their Mac renders video, the geek has an insatiable need for metrics. The geeks behind the WebKit project (that's the open source HTML rendering engine that powers Safari) wanted to measure how fast Safari's JavaScript Engine really was. They looked at the existing JavaScript benchmarks and decided none of them did what they needed, so they built SunSpider. At the moment SunSpider is at 0.9 but it has been released so people can fiddle with it and give feedback. Test it out with your favorite browser and see how it stacks up.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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TearDrop iPod Water Resistant Bathroom Speaker
Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and endsI don't know how many iPods I've ruined by accidentally showering with them. Picture it, there I am grooving to my jams (usually something by Paul Anka or They Might Be Giants) and I work up a healthy sweat. I immediately hop into the shower and before you can say, 'Goodnight, nurse,' my iPod shorts out. I thought I was doomed to lead an iPodless shower existence, but then I found the TearDrop iPod Water Resistant Bathroom Speaker. These droplet shaped speakers are the perfect accompaniment to any shower, and they only cost $58. When you add in the lovely colors and the fact that they are 'big in Japan,' I think you have a real winner here.[via Krunker]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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10.5.2 Fixes 76 Bugs and Apple Hiring Multi-Touch Engineer
CNBC still loves Apple and Android hits a few snags
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PocketMoney To Your Financial Resque
Have you ever used PocketMoney? If you haven’t, try it on your iPhone! Catamount software has released a beta for PocketMoney for the iPhone. “PocketMoney was designed to do one thing and do it very well - track…
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Cake Mania
Have cake and eat it, too.
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DoCoMo to carry iPhone in Japan?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhoneThe iPhone continues its trek across the world-- the next country to have a rumored release is Japan, and sources there say that DoCoMo will likely be the company to release the Gadget of the Year there. But both NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile have spoken with Apple, and DoCoMo, says a local news agency, might not want to be as generous with sharing the subscriber revenue as some other companies Apple has worked with before.Then again, is Japan really that excited about the iPhone anyway? They've had some pretty awesome personal communication devices for years, and while the iPhone is definitely a quality device, my suspicion is that it won't stick out nearly as high above the rest of the options over there. Of course, on the third hand, Apple may consider the Eastern market all bonus cash anyway, and may take a dive on the subscription rates just to get what they can.All speculation at this point, of course-- it's up to DoCoMo and Apple to decide what they want to do and how they want to do it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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NPD: Mac users saving music business
According to a survey, Mac users are much more likely to have purchased a song online in recent months than their Windows counterparts, but does that really mean Apple's growing market show will translate into booming business for music companies?
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'Macsimum News On Demand': Dec. 19
Posted by Dennis SellersYours Truly is doing a daily video update of Apple news at YouTube. You can catch the Dec. 19 segment here.
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Columnist: Microsoft could learn from Apple's Family Packs
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, LeopardNewsflash: Microsoft messed up. Yes, I know, that doesn't come as news to most of you (that's why you're here), but Joe Wilcox over at eWeek was surprised by the fact that while Apple's Leopard Family Pack pricing lead to some nice sales numbers, Microsoft instead decided to discontinue their family pack prices. Basically, you could buy OS X 10.5 as a single copy for $129, or a "family pack" (installations for 5 Macs) for $199. And a whopping 33% of Leopard sales were of the family pack version, even though OS X doesn't require any validation at all-- users could just have bought the $129 version and installed it five times.What's the difference? Wilcox says that Apple trusts their customers, and as a result, users who feel the family pack is worth it are willing to pay. Microsoft, on the other hand, demands validation from their users. Wilcox also quotes an analyst (which in this case is Latin for "he who states the obvious") saying that Leopard had a blowout launch, much better than Vista. But that's a big duh, so I won't even bother comparing OS X to Vista-- I'll leave that to the Mac commercials.What else do you need to know? Clearly, Microsoft is just plain doing it wrong.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Peggle and Bomberman keep the good iPod gaming times flowin'
Already done with Sonic on the iPod? Good, here are two more excuses for why you didn't get that report done.Read More...
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Mac OS X 10.5.2 is packing hefty fixes, due January-ish
Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsAs much love as Apple's Mac OS X Leopard has received in the press and from users, there are still plenty of bugs that need ironing out. Lucky for those users and those not-easily-embarrassed members of the press, Apple seems to be addressing most of those remaining bugs with its 10.5.2 update, which it just seeded to developers. There are apparently 76 fixes listed in the release notes, ranging from fan-faves like MacBook AirPort funkiness to obscure gems like Rosetta PowerPC compatibility memory leaks. This is just the first distribution of the update, and a release to users is rumored to hit mid-January, coinciding with new hardware at Macworld. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple Aims iPhone at Japan
Following launches in the U.S. and Europe, Apple has reportedly turned its attention to bringing its touch-enabled iPhone to one of the world's most competitive markets -- Japan. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been shopping around to find a Japanese carrier for the iPhone, according to a Wednesday report. Citing sources familiar with the situation, the report asserted that Jobs recently met with executives at NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading mobile carrier, and made several trips to chat with officials from Softbank, the No. 3 carrier.
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Two new Mac games: Bomberman and Peggle
Filed under: Gaming, iPod Family, Software, Odds and ends, Universal BinaryBoy, it seems like everyone was waiting for me to write up my gift guide before releasing some interesting Mac games this year. First Horde of Orcs comes out, then Sonic of all things appears on the iPod, and now here's two more fun gaming experiences appearing on the Mac.First, our sister gaming blog Joystiq reports that PopCap's crack casual game Peggle has appeared for OS X, and just like most of PopCap's games, it's so addictive it should probably be regulated by pharmacologists. It's a universal binary, too, and right now it's only $10 (50% off from a sale on PopCap's site). Be prepared to disappear from your relatives for long stretches of time over the holidays, though-- anyone who can only play one round of this at a time is either not human or just in serious trouble with their spouse.And MacNN reports that Bomberman has now appeared on iTunes as well. Hudson Software has produced an official port that features an "intuitive control scheme" (that I'd be interested to see), an exclusive boss stage for the iPod, and the option to play the game's music or your own during gameplay. Wild. That game is $5 and available as a download from iTunes.It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for Mac gamers-- turns out there may be more underneath the tree than we hoped earlier in the year.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Damn you to hell, John Gruber!
John Gruber finds a glorious nut of stupidity before the Macalope and gives it the appropriate treatment.
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Article: The iPod + iPhone Year in Review 2007
We ended our 2006 iPod Year in Review with some predictions: 2007 would be the year when the 100 millionth iPod was sold, iTunes Store sales would grow in the billions rather than millions, and the year would start with exciting new hardware and accessory releases. We also called out two possible iPhone release scenarios, suggested that Apple TV (then iTV) would need some help at its $299 price point, and discussed good and bad potential outcomes…
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Apple Gazette Daily 174 - Mac users are honest, and more
Are Mac users more honest than PC users? Apple updates and more You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or… you can listen to the episode right here: In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
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News: Mix: iToner, Quicken, Voyager, NPD
Ambrosia Software has released iToner 1.0.4, the latest version of its custom iPhone ringtone software offering support for iPhone software version 1.1.2. According to release notes, iToner 1.0.4 also offers “more robust iPhone OS 1.1.1 support to fix non-playing ringtones, fixed a bug with the playlists being updated when a ringtone was added from iTunes, and other bug fixes and enhancements.” Intuit has announced plans to launch a version…
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Parallels vs. VMWare: Benchmark results
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, SwitchersLike it or not, lots of us who own Intel-based Macs have to run Windows from time to time. Although Boot Camp is pretty fantastic if you need to run a processor intensive application (or you want to play games), virtualization is the more attractive solution for users who need to access productivity applications, like Microsoft Office 2007, but don't want to have to live in the Windows environment. The two big players in the virtualization field are VMWare's Fusion and Parallels' Parallels. Both applications let you install a Windows XP or Vista virtual machine on your Intel Mac without having to leave OS X, both offer a level of integration between the two operating systems and both retai for $79.99 (USD). So, which virtualization program is the fastest? Well, that's what MacTech attempted to find out in their exhaustive benchmarking trials, comparing Fusion 1.0 (build 51348), Parallels 3.0 (build 5160) and Boot Camp head-to-head-to-head in a variety of different computing tasks.So what's the bottom line? Because of how the software if designed to integrate between the two platforms, Parallels came out ahead in many of MacTech's tests. For certain more processor heavy uses, VMWare, thanks to its ability to take advantage of both cores, came out the best. For networking performance, Boot Camp was king. While I found the benchmarking tests very interesting - and useful - prospective buyers should be aware that in the middle of MacTech's testing procedure, all three Windows options for OS X were upgraded. With the release of Leopard, Boot Camp came out of beta and VMWare is now at version 1.1 and Parallels was updated on December 5 to build 5582. I know just from my own unscientific experience, Fusion 1.1 improved significantly in speed and overall performance from version 1.0 and while I was a big fan of Parallels under Tiger, I have "switched" to Fusion for Leopard.Trial-versions are available for both programs. Remember that in order to use Windows XP or Vista, you need a valid user license.Thanks, Rich.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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★ Yet Another in the Ongoing Series Wherein I Examine a Piece of Supposedly Serious Apple Analysis From a Major Media Outlet and Dissect Its Inaccuracies, Fabrications, and Exaggerations Point-by-Point, Despite the Fact That No Matter How Egregious the Inaccuracies / Fabrications / Exaggerations, Such Pieces Inevitably Lead to Accusations That I’m Some Sort of Knee-Jerk Shill Who Rails Against Anything ‘Anti-Apple’ Simply for the Sake of Defending Apple, and if I Love Apple So Much Why Don’t I Just Marry Them?
From Adam L. Penenberg’s December cover story for Fast Company, “All Eyes on Apple: Will the gray light of January cool the world’s hottest company?”: Yet this is also a dangerous moment for Apple. In a way the company has never seen, the barbarians are massing at the gates. “Never” is a long time ago, but I’m sure that’s exactly the case and isn’t in the least bit an exaggeration just to frame the entire piece in epic terms. From hardware to software to services, major competitors with serious R&D and marketing budgets are laying siege to the House of Jobs. Calling Apple the “House of Jobs”, or some such, is like using verbs other than “said” when writing dialog. Just use “said”, and just call Apple “Apple”. A good rule of thumb, by the way, is that the more a writer attributes the actions of Apple, an enormous corporation with thousands of talented employees, to Steve Jobs, who is just one man and neither an engineer nor a designer, the more likely the writer is an idiot, a hack, or both. As Apple moves into new markets, it has made powerful new enemies, some working in concert. Nokia, for example, is banding with telecom companies to offer its own touch-screen hardware in an effort to sway subscribers from the iPhone and Apple’s exclusive partner, AT&T. (a) AT&T is only Apple’s iPhone partner in the U.S.; and (b) Nokia has been “banding with telecom companies” forever, because, uh, Nokia’s core business is “banding with telecom companies to sell new phones”, right? MP3 players from the likes of iRiver, Microsoft, SanDisk, and Toshiba are getting slicker all the time, targeting the iPod at a fraction of the cost. iRiver?; Microsoft’s Zune players costs exactly the same as corresponding iPods; SanDisk’s second-place success is not new and doesn’t seem to be hurting the iPod at all, but rather seems to be coming at the expense of all the various “other” player manufacturers; and, as for Toshiba, their top-selling MP3 player clocks in at #97 — ninety-fucking-seven — on Amazon’s current bestseller list. (Even Sony has better-selling players than Toshiba.) Empirical evidence indicates that Apple’s iPod franchise is doing better than ever. iPod sales growth can’t continue unabated — eventually, at this rate, they’ll run out of people who don’t already have one. That seems to me the biggest threat to the iPod — or at least to the iPod’s effect on Apple’s stock value — on the horizon: that Apple will saturate the entire potential market for handheld media players and growth will slow, even if profits remain strong. That’s a problem Apple is willing to accept, I’d say. It’s weeks before Christmas, and all through the house, there’s an iPhone, a touch screen, and no need for a mouse. But Jobs, the “brilliant,” “visionary” “genius” with a knack for creating “insanely great” consumer products, may well be wondering whether next year will be different. Merry Christmas, Steve. Enjoy it while it lasts. Those unattributed quotes lead me to suspect Penenberg is an “untalented” “hack” and that Fast Company’s “copy editing” amounts to little more than right-clicking the green squiggly grammar-checker underlines in Microsoft Word. Seriously, what’s up with the quotes? But none of that will stop a growing number of adversaries from doing all they can to pare Apple down. Nor does it dimÂinish the fact that at $185 a share, its stock is far more vulnerable to a stall or even a fall than it was when it was $50 cheaper. That Apple’s stock price goes through seemingly irrational swings, both up and down, and is outside the control of the company’s executives, and is just how the market works. It’s also a far cry from this article’s premise, which seems to be that Apple’s products are set to suffer in 2008. It’s entirely possible that 2008 could be a better year for Apple’s sales and profits than 2007 and but that its stock price could fall; say, if the growth isn’t as fantastic as some investors anticipated, or if the entire economy goes into recession and investors panic. Jobs declined to speak with us for this story, but on the eve of the iPhone’s debut, he deployed a simple metaphor to chart Apple’s future: “We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today,” he told USA Today. “We have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music — our iPod and iTunes business — which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day, Apple TV will be the fourth leg.” In essence, Jobs was describing a hermetically sealed system, the central premise of Apple’s business model: If a customer buys one Apple device, she’ll buy two, three, even four more — at a premium price — rather than dilute the experience with other brands. This isn’t what Jobs described at all. It doesn’t follow from the plain meaning of the words attributed to Jobs in the quote, and doesn’t make any economic sense. The entire key to the iPod’s success is that Apple has sold them by the boatload to Windows users who don’t own any other Apple products. And, for those customers who do purchase multiple Apple products — say, an iPhone, an Apple TV, and a Mac — it’s probably more because they work well together than “brand dilution”. In an age increasingly defined by interoperability and technical collaboration, Jobs still refuses to license Apple’s operating system. Because there are so many companies making so much money “licensing their operating system”, other than Microsoft. Worked out great for Apple the last time they tried it a decade ago, and it’s worked out great for Palm now, right? (Note also that all these decisions are, again, solely attributed to Jobs’s personal whim, rather than to Apple as a company.) He won’t allow music and videos downloaded from iTunes to be played on other MP3 players. Except for all those iTunes Plus tracks that have no DRM, and which Jobs has stated explicitly, in a widely-publicized open letter, he’d like to see the entire iTunes Store switch to, if the music labels would allow it. He won’t permit music downloaded from competing stores to play on the iPod. Except for all the music from any store that sells DRM-free music, like Amazon’s or eMusic’s. Otherwise what’s being argued here is that Apple should support Microsoft’s DRM platform, formerly known as PlaysForSure, recently renamed to “Certified for Windows Vista”, which Microsoft itself doesn’t support in its own Zune players. There’s a lot of stupid packed into the above 13-word sentence. And in enforcing his exclusive deal with AT&T for the iPhone, he went so far as to disable or “brick” the device of anyone who dared “jailbreak” it for use with another carrier, or who downloaded third-party applications for features Apple hadn’t built in. (a) Again with the “Jobs did it”; (b) only iPhones that were SIM-unlocked wound up bricked by the 1.1.1 update, not iPhones that were “jailbroken” to run third-party apps; and (c) there’s no proof that Apple deliberately bricked unlocked iPhones. Apple has thus far ridden this exclusionary strategy to riches, power, and glory. But what does Steve Jobs know that Albert Einstein didn’t? Einstein posited that a closed system would become stagnant over time. Well, if Einstein predicted Apple’s business is doomed, it must be so, because we can all agree Einstein was one smart dude. (Perhaps Nostradamus foresaw this as well?) As McCourt, the Morgan Keegan analyst, points out, “Each SanDisk generation of MP3 players is getting closer to iPods; the handset manufacturers are arguably making more impressive music-enabled handsets than the iPhone; and try out a new HP laptop with imbedded Altec Lansing speakers — it’s half the price of a MacBook, with a far better audio experience.” Wow, better speakers in an HP notebook? No wonder MacBook sales are tanking. Sell your Apple shares now. Samsung already sells a touch-screen phone. So does Motorola. Chevy already sells a sedan with a V8 engine. So does Ford. Sprint has a touch-screen phone that runs “thousands” of third-party applications And they’re all great. And the king of search [Google] has banded together with Apple foes such as Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Samsung to form the White Space Coalition to push the Federal Communications Commission to open up part of the broadcast spectrum. If successful, Americans would be able to use any Wi-Fi-enabled device to access the Web anytime, anywhere, and at zippy speeds — a direct threat to AT&T and Apple, which have a five-year exclusive contract. Because Apple doesn’t sell any other portable devices than the iPhone. There’s nothing like, say, an iPod that’s just like the iPhone but without the phone, and which would be a perfectly positioned product for some sort of ubiquitous wireless networking that comes from a provider other than the existing phone carriers. Apple is at a moment of choice: If it can stay hot and produce breakout couture hardware indefinitely, it can hold onto its closed model, elite pricing, and huge margins. In many ways, the world would be a prettier place if it did. But in an age of convergence and simplification, customers are ever more insistent that computers, phones, TV, and music systems work together. So (a) customers are “ever more insistent that computers, phones, TV, and music systems work together”, and (b) Apple’s entire product strategy in a nutshell is to produce computers, phones, TV, and music players that work really well together, and the conclusion Penenberg draws from this is that Apple is in trouble. Jiminy. Jobs may have to accept that Apple’s next wave of growth — or energy, as Einstein might have put it — depends on syncing up his products and platforms with those of his competitors. Sure would be swell if iTunes ran on Windows, and if iPods and iPhones could work with PCs, and if Macs could dual-boot into other PC operating systems now that they’re using Intel processors. Again, though, perhaps I’m overlooking something, given that Penenberg’s argument is backed up by a reference to Einstein. Yet there are risks, too, in tearing down this wall. If the company’s success has flowed from the trendy, gleaming exclusivity of its machines, then diluting that quality could erode the very foundation of the franchise. Unless, instead, Apple’s success has flowed from the fact that its products are simply better designed, easier to understand, and provide better experiences — i.e. that Apple products are popular because they’re good, rather than popular because they’re “trendy” — in which case the only serious problem the company faces is that it needs to keep making new products that people want to buy, and their success isn’t really precarious at all. Or, as Albert Einstein actually did put it, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
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Parallels, VMware Fusion, Boot Camp battle in real-world tests
A fresh review of Windows virtualization products for Mac OS X machines reports that Parallels was faster in accomplishing a wide number of common business and user tasks with Windows XP, as VMware Fusion moved ahead with Windows Vista.
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Firefox 3 beta 2 is out and about
Mozilla fans can now download Firefox 3 beta 2 for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The new version sports a wide range of improvements over the first test version of the browser upgrade, most notably plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a download manager that includes improvements previously available only through plug-ins. ...
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Apple test 10.5.2, releases Macbook updates
If you've been having trouble with your Macbook or Macbook Pro keyboard, Apple has finally fixed the problem, and you can download the update via Software Update on your Mac right now. Apple has also sent 10.5.2 out to testers. It will not have a tremendous amount of new features, but should have some serious bug fixes that are desperately needed on some machines. Look for it soon.
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Apple sends OS X 10.5.2 update out for testing
The latest version of Leopard, 10.5.2, has apparently been given to developers for testing. Don't expect anything shiny and new, but do expect a lot of bug fixes.Read More...
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Refurb Mac Pros back on the Apple Store
Filed under: Mac Pro, DealsDealmac reports this morning that the Mac Pro towers have returned to Apple's refurb clearance stock, with the Octocore model available for $3399, a full $600 below new retail. The rest of the line shows up as well (scroll down through the refurb page for all the choices); shipping is also free, which is a big help for those heavy, heavy machines.It may be a smidge late to pick up a tower for Christmas, but the good news is that if you were planning to pick up a hefty Mac before Macworld Expo in January -- since laptops are more likely to see revisions than the big iron -- you can now pick up a pre-owned model for less.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The 23rd Annual Editors’ Choice Awards
Macworld’s Eddy awards are out; software winners include a bunch of apps that I use: Red Sweater’s MarsEdit, Alsoft’s DiskWarrior, HandBrake, Ambrosia’s WireTap Studio (and Leopard and iLife). ★
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iPhone: Same ol’ Story in Japan
The Associated Press is reporting that Apple is currently in talks with Japan’s top mobile phone carrier to release the iPhone. But big surprise: there is disagreement over the cut of subscriber revenue that Apple will receive. Where have we heard this before? Hmmm. Try every country that the iPhone…
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Tidbits Publishes Monster Book On Taking Control Of Your iPhone
Tidbits is realeasing an eBook that thoroughly goes over the inner workings of the iPhone and ways to manage the OS. The eBook will be released for a special price of $10 which later will rise to $15. A Print version is expected soon. Book link.…
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Take a Stroll Through iPod's History
Using a dogged style of reporting, Steven Levy traces the emerging technologies and cultural phenomenon central to the iPod, Apple's portable music and movie player, in his new book, The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness. Dispelling the notion of perceived flawlessness regarding the book's title, Levy discusses "the perfect thing" in terms of its success from an "alignment of technology, design, culture, and media."
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Mac users out-spend PC users on digital (and physical) music
New data from NPD Group says that Mac users are significantly more likely to buy music than their PC-using friends, both digitally and in physical formats. Read More...
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RIMM Considering iPhone Rival - Globe & Mail
Research In Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry has long been the corporate phone of choice, but a report in Canada's Globe and Mail says the company has launched an important move to grab market share in the consumer cell phone segment in the U.S.
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iWork '08 one of the 'most important products of 2007'
Posted by Dennis SellersApple's iWork '08 is one of the “Most Important Products of 2007”, according to eWeek. The update of Apple's productivity suite added the Numbers spreadsheet component (although eWeek mistakingly calls it Charts, not Numbers).
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Apple censoring discussion threat on faulty iMac displays?
Posted by Dennis SellersIn what appears be the first move toward censoring discussion of the issue, Apple Support has locked the discussion thread “Bought new iMac 20” Faded Screen,” which began on August 7 (the day the new iMacs were first sold), reports Tom's Hardware site. The thread had, until it was locked...
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Thursby Software releases Leopard upgrades for DAVE, ADmitMac
Posted by Dennis SellersThursby Software has released upgrades to their Mac networking products, DAVE and ADmitMac. Both products have received enhancements for compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”).
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Mac Users More Likely to Pay For Music and Quicken on the iPhone
New York gets another Apple Store and Apple releases keyboard fix for notebooks.
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MacTech releases virtualization benchmarks

Posted by Dennis SellersMacTech Labs, part of MacTech Magazine, has released an extensive benchmark study of virtualization solutions running on Intel-based Macs. MacTech's goal was to see how well Parallels and VMware Fusion perform compared to each other, Boot Camp and a PC, according to Neil Ticktin, publisher/editor-in-chief, MacTech Magazine says.
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Portable Reading launches platform for mobile marketing of books
Posted by Dennis SellersPortable Reading, a provider of the iPhone books application TextOnPhone, has announced a platform for readers, authors, and publishers. The TextOnPhone social network connects authors with a new audience, while providing consumers with entertaining books and stories to read on their mobile device, the company says.
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2008 Macworld to feature new training, educational programs
Posted by Dennis SellersIDG World Expo, the producer of tradeshows and events, has announced what it says is the largest selection of in-depth training and educational opportunities ever presented at a Macworld Conference and Expo.
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iPod Solo
Just because you plugged in your iPod doesn't mean you want iTunes.
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JoeSoft releases Stox, stock portfolio software for the Mac
Posted by Dennis SellersJoeSoft has released Stox, a stock portfolio management software title for the Mac. It costs US$49.95 and is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. Stox requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
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Ambrosia updates iToner and more
Filed under: Software, iPhoneThe busy bees at Ambrosia Software have cranked out several updates this week, including the $15 iPhone ringtone tool iToner 1.0.5. (improved support for iPhone OS 1.1.1 + bug fixes); the free envelope printing utility EasyEnvelopes 1.0.6 (unspecified fixes and enhancements); the $15 menubar search enhancement iSeek (Leopard compatibility); and the $19 file transfer streamliner Dragster 1.0.5 (Leopard fixes). All can be demoloaded from Ambrosia directly.Now that there's a blessed method for using GarageBand (not free, but bundled with new Macs) to create custom ringtones, it will be interesting to see how iToner continues to evolve and extend.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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News: Proporta announces Shine, Mini Mod cases for iPod nano 3G
Proporta has introduced its Shine and Mini Mod Alu-Leather cases for the iPod nano (with video). The Shine is a flip-style patent leather case with magnetic closure, internal mirror, removable lanyard, and cut-outs for access to the nano's ports and hold switch. It sells for $40. The Mini Mod Alu-Leather case features a leather exterior with a white stripe that is wrapped around a thin sheet of aluminum for added protection, as well as a magnetic…
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Apple finally releases Java 6 Developer Preview for Leopard
Apple has finally released a sought-after implementation of Java 6 for OS X, but it's only a Developer Preview (for now).Read More...
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A look at 'unbelievable iCrap'
Posted by Dennis Sellers“MacBKLYN ,” the official blog of the Mac Support Store, offers a look at “unbelievable iCrap.”
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SunSpider 0.9
New JavaScript benchmarking test from the WebKit team. ★
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Fake Steve calls shenanigans on Fortune mag item
Filed under: HumorPity the editors of Fortune's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business list, who thought to include an item at #51 on this year's countdown calling out Apple's dumb move. The rainbow fruit was taken to task for a cease-and-desist letter sent to nine-year-old Shea O'Gorman, who was told in no uncertain terms to stop sending suggestions for improvements to the iPod Nano via a letter from Apple's legal team.Was this a dumb business moment? Undoubtedly. Did it take place in 2007? Uh, nope -- 2006. Fake Steve calls Fortune on the carpet (link headline NSFW) for the mixup, which is a little disingenuous considering who pays for the gas in his Gulfstream... but it's all in fun.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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NY employees continuing with options backdating suit
Despite its previous failure in suing over Apple's stock options scandal, the New York City Employees' Retirement System has now amended its request and is pursuing further legal action against the company.Read More...
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First Looks: JAVOedge iPhone Port to 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Adapter
This simple OEM adapter, called the iPhone Port to 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Adapter ($11), resizes the iPhone's headphone port to work with any standard 3.5mm headphone plug. It's sold in black or white, and made from inflexible plastic, extending the headphone port out by an inch....
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Is Apple in danger of becoming Microsoft?
With Microsoft's reign as the world's Evil Empire drawing to a close, Don Reisinger believes Apple will fill that role. Just don't expect him to agree.
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Is Apple in danger of becoming Microsoft?
Approximately 10 years ago, Microsoft was easily one of the most hated companies in the world. With monopoly-oriented questions swirling around, and Bill Gates acting as the benchmark for just how bad big business can be, public perception of the company couldn't have been worse. Of course, the most vexing issue surrounding that time was the fact that Microsoft was extremely successful at sitting atop the tech mountain, and much of its competition faded due to poor business practices and not necessarily as the result of product pricing. If we fast-forward 10 years, the technology industry landscape looks much different. And while Microsoft is still hated by hard-core tech gurus, it has become an aging empire that may be on the verge of a huge collapse. To make matters worse, its figurehead--Bill Gates--is poised for his departure at the Consumer Electronics Show, and the future of his legacy is in doubt. And with possible turmoil facing Redmond, a new company has emerged that could be in danger of taking the top spot as the world's most hated tech company. Only this time, the company was once an underdog that people hoped could turn things around. Well, it did. And with the help of its deitylike leader, some believe that Apple is on the verge of becoming this generation's so-called evil empire. Of course, whether it really is an evil company doesn't matter. In this business, the court of public opinion will determine Apple's fate, and if it continues to do what it's doing, it may become one of the most hated tech companies in the world within the next 10 years. ...
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First Looks: JAVOedge JavoSkin Cases for 2007 iPods & iPhone
Sold in separate versions for the iPod nano ($15), iPod classic ($20), iPod touch ($20) and iPhone ($22), JAVOedge's JavoSkins are commodity-class generic rubber cases with front screen and control holes, top or bottom headphone and Dock Connector holes, and rear slits for armband mounting. They all include fabric necklaces -- gray for the iPods, white for the iPhone -- and the iPhone version also includes a ratcheting belt clip and nub, while the…
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IDC: Worldwide computer shipments to increase by 16.7 in fourth quarter
Posted by Dennis SellersThe IDC research group thinks that worldwide computer shipments will increase by 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter of this year, spurred by strong laptop sales, notes ComputerWorld.
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Apple to have 'major presence' at BETT show in UK
Posted by Dennis SellersApple UK will attend BETT, the UK's leading technology in education, reports Macworld UK. The show will run Jan. 9-12 at London Olympia.
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Dragon Web Surveys roars to version 8.0
Posted by Dennis SellersFM::Nexus has released Dragon Web Surveys 8.0, a redesign of the survey solution for the modern FileMaker database software platform. It's completely rebuilt with the integrated PHP capabilities in FileMaker Server 9.
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Samsung ships high capacity 2.5-inch hard disk
Posted by Dennis SellersSamsung has announced a high capacity 2.5-inch hard disk drive, the new Spinpoint M6 featuring 320GB of storage capacity. The new Spinpoint M6 HM320JI is a SATA hard drive designed for notebook computers, as well as slim desktops and blade servers.
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Apple Hires iPhone SDK Creator
Lucas Newman, one of the developers who made an unnoficial SDK possible for the iPhone has been hired by Apple to work on an official version that will be released sometime in February. In addition to Lucas, several other key developers have been hired to craft an official…
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10.5: Allow the system.log file to be rotated daily
Rotation of system logs is no longer managed by the daily script. Apple, in their wisdom, have assigned this duty to newsyslog, run by launchd according to the com.apple.newsyslog daemon instructions.The default (as of 10.5.1) is that newsyslog is run by launchd at midnight every day. You might see where I am going with this one -- if your machine is off or asleep at this time, the rotation won't be run.Now launchd will run newsyslog when you wake your machine in the morning, but the newsyslog.conf file instructs newsyslog to only rotate the system.log within an hour of the allotted time, ie midnight. All other logs (eg ftp.log, ipfw.log etc) are set to rotate when they reach a certain size, but system.log has no size limit so could grow and grow...The easy solution is to change the following li...
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10.5: Automatically restart a crashed program
This older hint described a method by which to auto-restart a crashed application automatically by monitoring the crash log for the app. This was done by watching the log file with a LaunchAgent. As WCityMike notes in this forum thread, Leopard writes multiple crash logs with a date and time-stamp in the filename for each crash, rather than appending to one log file as in Tiger. For example: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/gimp-2.2_2007-12-10-100248_G4.crash ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/gimp-2.2_2007-12-10-091933_G4.crash etc... So watching a single file will not work in Leopard. Read on for my solution. I wanted to keep true to the original tip and use Lingon to create the LaunchAgent (launchd) plist file, and ...
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Make a partition of an exact size for cloning
It is very difficult to create a disk partition of the exact same size as an existing partition of another disk using Apple's Disk Utility. Whenever I try this, I always find the size of the partition created by Disk Utility is slightly different from the partition I'm trying to clone. Here's a way using the command line that allows you to get the size exactly right. The standard warning applies: Be very careful. This will wipe the entire disk that you are repartitioning. One small typo could result in the wrong disk being wiped! Open Terminal, and if your account doesn't have administrator privileges, su to the administrator user. Type diskutil info /Volumes/partition_to_clone/ to find the size of the partition you want to clone. The output should include something like this: Tot...
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10.5: Disable dictionary and calculator results in Spotlight
You can prevent Spotlight from showing dictionary results by typing the following into Terminal: defaults write com.apple.spotlight DictionaryLookupEnabled NO The same goes for calculations: defaults write com.apple.spotlight CalculationEnabled NO Note that for either of these changes to take effect, you need to restart Spotlight. Use Terminal to do so: sudo killall Spotlight I'm not sure why anyone would want to disable either of those features, but it is possible. [robg adds: To reverse either of these settings, repeat the commands but replace NO with YES, then kill Spotlight again.]
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Custom keyboard shortcuts and code completion in BBEdit
In BBEdit, you can assign a keyboard shortcut that will 'complete' a function for you (so you don't have to go fishing for it with your mouse). The 'complete' command is under the Clipping menu (the circled-C in the menu bar), and it's named Insert Clipping. To assign a keyboard shortcut, follow these steps in BBEdit: Go to Preferences » Menus Expand the Clippings menu by clicking the little triangle Click the Insert Clipping... menu item to select it Click the Set Key... button Press a key combination that works for you and click Set (in the dialog) and you're done. By assigning a keyboard shortcut, and then using the PHP BBEdit Clipping Set, you'll never have to remove your hands from the keyboard. For the time being, it's the closest we'll ever get to the code-completion options found in other code editors (and it's good enough for me).
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10.5: Read and rip hybrid SACDs
After making a clean install of Leopard on my 1GHz 12" PowerBook, I am now able to read the regular redbook CD layer on hybrid SACDs. As has been reported by several users, these discs would previously not even show up in the Finder (or they showed up as an empty CD/DVD etc). It seems like Mac OS X is finally able to recognize these discs, which is useful for anyone who would like to rip the redbook layer on their SACDs!
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10.5: An AppleScript to link iCal events to Mail messages
I use mail and iCal at work, and often need to refer to agendas and other files which were sent by email. The new Message ID URL allows you to link to an email using the URL property of an iCal event. However, this involves displaying the header, copying and pasting. The following AppleScript automates the process. Just select the email message, change to iCal, create or select the event, then run the script. You can then move the email out of your inbox and retrieve it later by a single click on the url link in the iCal event. -- Script to read mess...
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10.5: Safari's RSS feature remembers search terms
If you bookmark an RSS feed with Safari, and then enter some terms in the Search Articles box, Safari will remember what was in the box and hold that search, after navigating away from that feed and back to it, and even between restarts of Safari. This could be useful for only ever seeing RSS articles from a feed with certain specific keywords. This can also be annoying as you may wish to view new articles in a feed, but they don't show up because the last time you viewed the feed you left some search terms in the box. [robg adds: I tested this one, and it only works in the 10.5 version of Safari. I'm not sure if it's a bug or a feature, but it could be useful.]
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10.5: Drag from stacks directly to other applications
This may seem obvious, but has not been mentioned anywhere that I have looked. You can drag items off a stack to open them in a different application than usual (i.e. Neooffice instead of Microsoft Word). This is in addition to dragging items off the stack to remove them from the folder. This solved one of the most annoying issues about stacks for me! [robg adds: You can drag them onto docked applications, or onto applications in a Finder window, in the sidebar, or in the toolbar.]
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Use the contextual menu in the Spotlight search window
In the Spotlight menu's search box, you can control-click a word and use the contextual menu to spell check your search term, or run a Google search with that term, etc. [robg adds: This may be obvious to others, but I'd never thought to try control-clicking in the Spotlight search box. I'm not sure I'll ever use the feature, but now at least I know it's possible. Obviously, this hint is for 10.4 and 10.5 only, but I don't have a category for "10.4 or newer." As such, I chose to leave it uncoded, given that the vast majority of users here are on at least 10.4. That's how I'll probably treat all such hints going forward, too, unless someone has a better suggestion.]
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Hudson releases Bomberman for the iPod line
Well, if Sonic and Peggle didn't do it for you, there was another iPod game released late yesterday - Bomberman from Hudson Software. Bomberman is one of my favorite franchises of all time - even though some of the games have strayed pretty far from the path of the original formula. This game is actually pretty packed with features. It has two modes of play, Normal and Challenge, over 20 stages including 1 Original Boss stage that is an iPod exclusive, 3 mini games, resumable gameplay, and you can even listen to your favorite tunes while you play the game. Not bad for $4.95. Click Here to check it out.
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Moka5 brings enhanced virtual computing services to Mac OS X
Posted by Dennis SellersMoka5, a desktop virtualization services company, has announced a preview of its Moka5 for Mac OS X, available via free web download here. Mac users running VMware Fusion can now also run Moka5's LivePC virtual machines, which include virtualization features such as self-healing, user data protection, and automatic updates.
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News: iPhone second in Q3 smartphone market share
According to figures provided by Canalys and published by Symbian, the iPhone accounted for 27% of all smartphone sales in North America in Q3, besting the entire lineup of Windows Mobile-based smartphones, as well as others running Symbian, Linux, and Palm operating systems, and placing second only to the RIM Blackberry. The iPhone's debut in second place (Q3 was the first full quarter of sales for the handset) is particularly notable because…
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News: iPowerRush offers extended life to iPhone, iPods
Fusion Audio Technologies has introduced the iPowerRush, a portable, battery-powered charger for the iPhone and Dock-enabled iPods that claims to increase the run time of the devices by “more than 50 percent.” The unit is comprised of the main charger body, which holds six AAA batteries and features a sliding power switch and a push-button power indicator, and a short cord with a Dock Connector at the end. “This is a great holiday…
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Presidential candidates finally address important issue: their gadgets
Filed under: Misc. GadgetsSure, it's important to know Candidate A's position on the environment or how Candidate B plans to handle our international affairs, but when it comes to the issue of character, we'll suggest that there is no single attribute more telling than a presidential hopeful's electronics devices of choice. For instance, an Xbox-lover might engage the country even more deeply in the gears of war, while a Roomba owner would likely work to ensure the cleanliness of our national roads and parks. So what, then, does the AP's poll of the 2008 presidential candidates' favorite gadgets say about this current crop of potential world leaders? Unfortunately, that they're a pretty boring bunch: six of the nine respondents could only manage to come up with run-of-mill iPods and BlackBerries (and couldn't anyone at least give us some model names to work with -- we can't live without knowing if Hiliary prefers the 3G nano to the 2G). Only Republicans Giuliani, Huckabee, and McCain strayed from the pack here, although America's Mayor seems a little behind the times with his "CD player," and Senator McCain certainly won't be getting much work done with one hand on his cherished TV remote. Anyway, all of this has got us wondering: what do you think that some of today's popular gadgets might indicate about their owner's character?[Thanks, Mike T.] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Will the Next Decade See the End of the Dominance of the Windows PC?
Apple has proven one thing: even in the computer industry, despite what is believed, there is room for proprietary systems. Why is it that when it comes to any other technology, compatibility is less of an issue? Sure, there’s media compatibility, but all these things can run any…
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Apple releases patch for MacBook keyboard deafness
On 14 November I posted a piece from the PowerPage about a “keyboard deafness” bug on MacBooks and MacBook Pros running Leopard. After installing Mac OS 10.5 Leopard numerous MacBook and MacBook Pro users’ keyboards and trackpads would spontaneously stop responding to user input. Some would awake after a minute or two, but most users were [...]
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Wil Shipley spills a few more details on Delicious Library 2: pricing, pro version, and more
Pricing, a private beta, and whether you'll have to shell out to go pro—we got it all. Just don't ask us to get more right now; we're still not sure how we feel about what we had to do just to get these details.Read More...
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Woman leaves Lawyer for iPhone on “Boston Legal�
Yeah, I can't believe I'm typing that headline either. While watching “Boston Legal” last night I was very surprised to find that Jerry, the lawyer with asperger's syndrome on the show was dumped by his girlfriend who has objectophilia. She left him for an iPhone. Because they're “sexy”. right.
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First Looks: Boomwave Diablo and Bearaphim Cases for iPod nano 3G
Based on its earlier Diablo and Bearaphim silicone rubber cases for second-generation iPod nanos, Boomwave's new devil and angel bear cases have been simplified from their prior versions. They still include distinctive ears and tails -- Diablo's devil-like, and Bearaphim's angelic -- but the cases no longer come with inked front graphics, differently-colored Click Wheel protectors, or biographical faux trading cards; now they're just sold with detachable…
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News: JayBird unveils Bluetooth headset, iPod adapter
JayBird Gear has introduced its JB-100 Bluetooth Stereo Headset and JB-BA-100i Bluetooth adapter for iPod. The JB-100 Bluetooth Stereo Headset is designed for listening to music and for taking calls, featuring noise and echo suppression technology. JayBird claims the JB-100 is the “smallest Bluetooth stereo headset ever made,” and it also features water and sweat resistance, along with an included charging dock and carrying pouch. The…
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Are You an Investor or Gambler?
The primary mission of any casino is to get you to the tables. They make it fun, they make it exciting - anything to get you to put some money down because they know that, over the long haul, they WILL get your money.
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Java 6 Developer preview now available for Leopard
Filed under: OS, Apple, DeveloperMerry Christmas Java developers - from Santa Steve! Java SE 6 Developer Preview 8 is now available for Leopard via the Apple Developer Connection. You need to be an ADC member to access this download, but registration for the basic online membership is free and provides access for the Java SE 6 preview.As some of you may recall, in the immediate aftermath of Leopard's release, Java developers were a little upset about the exclusion of Java 6 from the shipping release of Apple's latest operating system. Until now, there has been little to no information about the Java 6 time line for Leopard, aside from some independent community-driven open-source projects. This version Java SE 6 Developer Preview requires a 64-bit capable Intel-based Mac (a Core 2 Duo or Xeon) and Mac OS X v 10.5.1 or later. See the release notes (linked from the ADC download page - it requires a login so I'm not hotlinking from here) for more details.Thanks Will!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MacNotables #776 - Tonya Engst on the Challenges of Covering the Mac Industry and Working With Vendors at Macworld Expo
Tonya Engst of TidBITS and Take Control delivers an inside look at the challenges of being an Apple-focused journalist, especially over the past few months. Tonya discusses the top 3 “time sinks” of that time period and the impact they have had on TidBITS, Take Control and even MacNotables. Keeping up on all the new products and upgrades from Apple can be difficult, but it is an even bigger challenge for those in the business of providing the references we all use. Tonya talks about why it is so hard to let opportunities to by, and starts the MacNotables' discussion of how vendors can work with Mac journalists to more effectively cover their products in the information maelstrom that is Macworld Conference & Expo. (more…)
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Aigo rolls out Patriot P882 PMP
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video Aigo's certainly no stranger to nondescript PMPs, and it now looks to found room for one more in its increasingly crowded lineup, with its new Patriot P882 offer plenty of the usual features in a package that's sure to stand out. Unfortunately, this one stands out for all the wrong reasons, as it apparently measures over an inch thick. On the upside, you will get a fairly hefty 80GB of storage, along with a "high-resolution" 4.3-inch touchscreen, A/V in and out ports, and a 2300 mAH battery that promises four hours of continuous video playback or 16 hours of music, not to mention support for just about every file format one could want. If for some reason you're interest is still piqued, the device's price will most certainly have you looking elsewhere, with it setting you back 3,999 yuan (or about $540).[Via PMP Today] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Verizon's iPhone Clone: Close, but No Cigar