Mar 30, 2008 Apr 1, 2008 Monday March 31, 2008
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Maccast 2008.03.31
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 221. Case of the missing iPhones. Apple sales up in down market. Safari 3.1 and Webkit rocked the ACID test. Macbook Air hacked. Apple releases v2 of iPhone SDK. Apple TV Update 2.0.1. Some follow-up on music sharing. Google map hack for older iPods. CDs with labels are unreliable. Automator and iCal, the perfect auto scheduling pair. Mac log file maintenance. My experience hacking the AppleTV. My thoughts on Apple refurbished products Special thanks to our sponsors: Circus Ponies - Free 30-day Trial of Notebook New music, Routine and Dollar Signs by Goodnight Sunrise These humans are dangerous, don't you understand that? They think that they're as good as we are! -- Planet of the Apes (1974) Shownotes in: HTML or OPML Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3
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Apple: Street Getting More Bullish on March Quarter
There were a flurry of research notes on Apple (AAPL) Monday; not a lot of new information, but in general they show a continuation of a recent more bullish tone on the stock from the Street. Here’s a rundown:
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Remote Desktop Connection beta expired, new version still weeks away
Filed under: Beta BeatFor Mac-centric sysadmins in a Windows-flavored world, there are a few essential tools: patience, humility, and RDC. Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection client is the easiest way for anyone on OS X to manage Windows servers near and far, and the truth is it works pretty well -- not perfectly, but capably. You can trade clipboard contents, print to your Mac-connected printers, and even share your Mac's local hard drives back to the Windows host for speedy file transfers. The last full release of RDC, however, was 1.0.3 back in 2004 -- sans Universal Binary, doesn't play well with Vista, and generally lacks pizazz.A shiny new version 2 of RDC, rewritten from the ground up as an Intel-native app, has been in beta for months now, and it shows great promise; it's got full compatibility with the latest rev of the RD protocol, and it's downright snappy. One problem though: the beta officially expired today (March 31), and on each launch users are being prompted with the download dialog above (good luck downloading the "Lastest Version"). There isn't a new build yet, according to the Mac BU, and it's safe to keep using this beta; the nagging is annoying but not functionally problematic, and the team is working to quickly deliver a final edition.Meanwhile, if you're being driven batty by the repeated and futile update dialogs, check out my favorite RDC stand-in: CoRD, the Mac OS X version of the open-source rdp tool. It may not have all the bells and whistles of the official tool (no clipboard sharing, print/disk forwarding just released in the 0.5 beta), but for managing a handful of simultaneous sessions to a bunch of servers, it's fast and fabulous.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The Unavoidable Malware Myth: Why Apple Won't Inherit Microsoft's Malware Crown
Daniel Eran Dilger According to the Unavoidable Malware Myth, Microsoft's Windows security epidemic of viruses, spyware, and adware will be passed on to the next major computing platforms as an inevitable symptom of platform popularity. Were this to be true, it would be bad news for both Apple's Mac platform, which is growing several times faster than the PC average, and for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which appear to have an early lead as one of the most promising mobile platforms of the future. But malware isn't unavoidable. The myth is wrong, here's why. (more…)
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Wave for iPhone, a pretty new case from Griffin
Griffin Technology today announced a new iPhone case they call Wave. Wave allows full access to audio jack, volume controls, connectors and touch screen. The form-fitting case protects with durable polycarbonate at all corners, and is available in six interchangeable coordinated colors: red, orange, pink, green, blue, and black. Griffin's Wave for iPhone sells for USD$24.99. [read more at MacMerc.com]
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BeLight Live Interior 3D reviewed
Jordan Satok has taken a quick look at BeLight Live Interior 3D, a virtual interior design program, and has posted his review. Check it out. [read more at MacMerc.com]
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Would a weekly TAB summary podcast be useful?
I've been throwing around the idea of doing a weekly podcast basically covering the previous weeks posts. There would be extra dialogue in there so it's not just me reading the posts, but I figured it might be a good way for people to get an overview of news and articles that were covered. Let me know in the poll below if you'd be interested in something like that.
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Video Demonstration of the iPhone 2.0 Beta
With the introduction of an Interface Builder and revised APIs, developers have a more complete set of tools to work with to make our experience just a little bit better. Below is a video demonstration of PhotoBoard, an application that looks amazing. The program presents a grid surface…
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iPhone Dev Team cancels pwnage, sells IP
Filed under: iPhoneThis posting on iphone-dev.org states that the iPhone dev team has withdrawn their pwnage tool and sold all their intellectual property rights to an unnamed third party. No further details are available about the settlement and I'm assured this is real and not an April's Fools joke. Update: I am also assured by other parties that this is fake and is an April's Fools joke. Which is real? I have no idea.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Update 2: Yeah, apparently just a April Fools joke. Apologies to all our readers.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhone DevTeam Calls it Quits
UPDATE: April Fools' joke
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iPhone Dev Team claims to be dismantled, Pwnage tool dead for good?
Filed under: Cellphones April Fool's day joke? Could be, but we're hearing it might be real: the long standing bastions of iPhone hacking, the iPhone Dev Team, posted a note to their site stating that "[today] the DevTeam was approached by an unnamed party to sell all of the intellectual property and related applications. After much consideration [What, hours? -Ed.] the offer was accepted and the [Dev Team] has ceased." Seems a bit outlandish, sure, but for those not in the know, the Dev Team is the same group that posted jailbreaks to 2.0 (before it was out), 1.1.3, 1.1.1, developed the AnySIM unlock, and are thiiiis close to releasing the Pwnage tool (which promised total unsigned firmware control of the iPhone). So yeah, it may well be a prank, we wouldn't put it past them. Funny thing about the hacker community though, one goes down and 10 more spring up -- we're sure the iPhone Elite team is having quite a day.[Thanks Andrew, Erica] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Bank of America analystL 3G iPhone coming in May
The evidence for a 3G iPhone is really building up now. The latest analyst to predict a 3G launch is Scott Craig, analyst for Bank of America. Craig reports that Apple will be producing 11 million iPhone for the year of 2008, and that a portion of those would be…
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News: Hot News: It's April Fools' Day
Welcome to iLounge—we're still here! Every year, pranksters use April 1 as an opportunity to disseminate fake news stories, press releases, and reviews. Some people (including certain iLounge editors) enjoy the spirit of April Fools' Day; others (we're looking right at you, U.K. editor Bob) don't. Rather than trying to fool readers, we decided to use today as an opportunity to parody Apple.com's “Hot News”…
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Unity Comes to the iPhone
3D game development tool to support iPhone platform.
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News: Apple posts three new iPhone ads
Apple has posted three new iPhone advertisements on its website, including one which was featured in this evening's broadcast of “CSI: Miami.” Alongside ”Bet," which focuses on the device's Internet features under the premise of winning a bet, is ”Music Store,” which shows off the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store's music browsing, previewing, purchasing, and downloading features while the narrator speaks about…
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Palm Centro hits the magical one million mark
Filed under: Cellphones Palm's miniscule and wallet-friendly Centro has managed to reach one million units sold since its launch last September. It got its legs working as Sprint and AT&T's gateway smartphone at that fantastic $99 pricepoint, and now it's making a bid for world domination in major markets in Europe and Asia. The one million sales have it nipping at the heels of recent superstar smartphones, the two million plus HTC Touch and the four million plus iPhone, not bad company in the least. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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3G iPhone: If They Build It, Will You Buy?
After conducting a "channel check," Bank of America analyst Scott Craig said in a research note that Apple is gearing up to begin manufacturing the next generation of its iPhones this summer, with 3 million coming off factory lines in May. An additional 8 million iPhones are expected in June. The 3G iPhones -- if Craig has assessed the situation correctly -- will come to market as the first-generation 2.5G iPhone is updated sometime this summer.
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Unity engine to power iPhone gaming
Filed under: Gaming, iPhoneAt this time of year, every press release must be taken with a grain of salt, but sometimes products announced on or around 4/1 can prove to be real even when they seem a bit unlikely (1GB of free email? Must be a hoax). It's in the vein of strange-but-true (I hope) that Unity Technologies announced a beta program for Unity 3D on the iPhone.Unity's dynamic game development system (used by some fairly big names), if it makes the leap to the iPhone and iPod touch successfully, will give game creators a spectactular platform for rapid development. Hopefully that will include the unique interaction modes (multitouch, accelerometer & maybe even location awareness) that we saw at the SDK announcement. Can't wait!Thanks fursundRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Misu 1.0 is availble
Filed under: iPod Family, SoftwareLast week, we mentioned Misu, a nifty little application that allows you to share music between iPods. Basically, you connect two iPods (in disk mode) to a Mac running Leopard and let Misu do its thing, blending their contents across both iPods.At the time it was in private beta (though we had an "in" for TUAW readers). Many of you downloaded Misu and provided feedback to the developers. So much so, in fact, that they were able to issue the 1.0 release in less than a week. Cool!Head on over and grab your copy. Misu requires Leopard and a single license will cost you $19US.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MacBook Air, Vista Box PWNd - Ubuntu Stands Alone
After three days of attacks by leading hackers, a laptop running Ubuntu remained untouched while two others, running Mac OS X and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, succumbed. The attacks were launched at the CanSecWest PWN 2 OWN contest in Vancouver, Canada. This was sponsored by security firm TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, and held March 26-28, under its Zero Day Initiative. ZDI is a program for rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.
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Apple TV Take 2 On Your Mac
Replace Front Row on your machine.
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AT&T refurb iPhones arrive with incorrect warranty coverage
Filed under: iPhoneDoug Toombs from Howard Forums tipped us off that those refurb AT&T iPhones many TUAW readers bought a few weeks ago might not have properly issued warranties. He sent me over to Apple's warranty self-checking site and sure enough my new iPhone's limited warranty is due to expire on July 22nd.I gave Apple a call at 1-800-694-7466. I was given the standard Apple line: they do not offer a full year warranty on refurbs. Your warranty ends a year from when the iPhone was originally sold and activated. She then connected me to AT&T, which promptly hung up on me.So I called back. The sticker on the AT&T box says clearly: "Refurbished iPhones have a full 1 year warranty. You must retain receipt for warranty claims through Apple."Second time around, I got the most fabulous agent. She contacted the agreement administrator and within a few minutes my warranty was extended to 03/2009, no fuss, no muss. I'm kicking myself though that I did not check into whether I could extend the warranty after that year through AppleCare--so if you find out, do let us know in the comments. Thanks!Anyway, to summarize: I did need to confirm a valid AT&T account, explaining that I was upgrading from my 4GB to my new 8GB. I offered to send a picture of the sticker on the AT&T box but the agent said this had to be a known problem and that she didn't need either that or the receipt. I also took advantage of the Apple call-you-back service. Instead of waiting on line, they automagically take your number and call it back when you're ready to hit the head of the queue. Very convenient.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple hit with new, colorful lawsuit over iMac displays
Apple got busted for taking the cheap route with some MacBook and MacBook Pro displays, but settled the suit quietly. This new lawsuit takes the same gripe to the iMac.Read More...
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News: Mix: Unity, Marathon, Apple brand
3D game development tool provider Unity Technologies has announced the company will support game development for the iPhone. “With iPhone support, Unity is poised to become the single source for game developers who want to create best-of-breed, 3D-quality games that can be easily and quickly ported to all platforms, including consoles, devices, PC/Mac, and now, the iPhone,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. The company…
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HTML5 Client Side Database Storage + iPhone = ???
Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, iPhoneWill the next iPhone firmware release support client-side database storage? That's what TUAW reader Jorge believes. Way back in October, we saw the HTML5 standard promising client-side persistence for Webkit-based browsers. Jorge apparently ran a client-side SQL check on the new Simulator-based Safari and found that it ran properly. Of course, simulator tests do not mean actual 1.2/2.0 implementation and we have no way of verifying whether this functionality extends to the actual iPhone firmware.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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LiMo Platform Release 1 gets loosed, R2 to come later this year
Filed under: Cellphones Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008. [Via PhoneScoop] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Student developers can get full ride to WWDC
If you're a college student and looking to attend WWDC, you could get a free ticket. But you've only got until April 10 to apply.Read More...
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Flickr Find: Working iPhone, Destroyed Screen
Filed under: Flickr Find, iPhone When iPhones fall Onto cement Sparrows cry And angels weep The voice of Jobs thunders "Drop it not!" Although the phone Still appears to work,(Albeit oddly reversed) Oh no. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Now there's a surprise. Inside Northern Rock, there is a perfectly viable business
Forget Adam Applegarth's payoff, and the furore over the fact that Northern Rock is footing the bill for security around his home. Forget also the £41m of City fees expended in seeking alternatives to nationalisation.
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Apple Gazette Daily 237 - Big Privacy News, At&t ETF, and WWDC Scholarship
podcast sponsor link:http://www.audiblepodcast.com/applegazette Click the link above to get your free audio book from Audible, and help support Apple Gazette at the same time! Today's Show: Virgin Internet in the UK is making some big moves against privacy, At&t to pro-rate early termination fees, and the info for the WWDC scholarship is now online. 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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iPhone beta screen-shotting
Filed under: iPod Family, Developer, iPhoneTUAW reader Scott writes that he's discovered how to grab screen shots from the iPhone or iPod touch running the new beta developer release. While attempting to reboot the phone, he noticed the "infamous" white flash I wrote about a few weeks ago. A little experimentation revealed the magic key combo was Power Button followed by Home Button. Unknowingly, he had shot about 5 of these due to several lockup-reboots.We have no way to confirm this because none of us are running 1.2/2.0 but let us know if this magic key combo works for you.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Peter King on the Air
Filed under “Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week”, here’s Sports Illustrated NFL beat writer Peter King on the MacBook Air: “Can I hold that for a second?” I’ve heard that question, or some derivative of it, a dozen times in the past month, when I’ve traveled with my feather-light MacBook Air. The other day, on my flight to Fort Lauderdale, a women holding a 5-month-old baby in her left arm, gently bouncing her up and down, admired the little laptop and I said, “Here — you can even hold it while holding the baby.” The woman took it with her right hand and held it like it was the new Grisham book, shaking her head in amazement. It’s almost that light. ★
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Microsoft Word 2008
Microsoft’s popular word processor follows the trend forged by Apple’s Pages.
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Introducing the OS X Hints Superguide
We scoured not just MacOSXHints.com, but also Macworld.com, to find the most useful tips and tricks for OS X 10.5 users. We’ve also rewritten them all in a clear, easy-to-read fashion, complete with screenshots, to make them as easy to use as possible.
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Is the Multi-display Mini finally about to debut?
Filed under: Accessories, Mac mini, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook AirMac Mini users have been waiting a long time for a true dual-monitor solution. Sure there are a bunch of work-arounds out there that let you run more than one screen at a time but a real multi-screen solution hasn't yet been available as far as I know. (Honestly, I haven't been looking all that hard--so if there's one I missed let me know in the comments.)Display Link has finally decided to let the mini come to the multi-display party. TUAW reader Nick tipped us off to these new beta drivers for Mac OS X.The DisplayLink hardware supports up to 4 USB-based monitors. You're limited to Intel Macs but minis and MacBook Airs are supported. The beta does not support OpenGL acceleration so Keynote and iPhone slide shows will not properly function. From what I could tell from the site, Display Link seems to be sold with third party branding. The Kensington USB docking station (model 33415) for $140 is apparently the product in question.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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10 iTunes Add-ons Worth Checking Out
With the 3,700 songs of my iTunes library constantly pushing some sort of noise out of my speakers, iTunes is easily the most used app on my computer. It literally never gets closed. With it being my most used app, I've taken quite a bit of time trying out different add-ons to make the most of iTunes. Below is a listing of 10 apps that I've used and feel comfortable saying they're worth the price you pay for them. CoverSutra CoverSutra (previous coverage) is one of my favorite add-ons. It is packed with little features that aren't immediately apparent when you first start using the app. A few features include music search, a mini-player, Last.fm integration, keyboard shortcuts, and album cover display. The $22 price tag seems a tad much, but I'd suggest giving the free trial a run and then deciding for yourself if you can live without it. Moody I tend to listen to music based heavily on my current mood, or the mood I'd like to be in. Moody (previous coverage) makes that a piece of cake. Moody lets you tag your music based on color. The app has a spectrum of 16 different colors to classify your moods. From there, you can pick a combination of colors to create a dynamic playlist based on your mood. What is even better about this is the fact that it is completely free. Tangerine In the same vein as Moody, Tangerine (previous coverage) creates playlists based on the BPM of your songs. So say you wanted to create a playlist for a workout (something more intense with a higher BPM), Tangerine can whip up a playlist for you right on the spot. Tangerine will set you back $24.95 after the 15-day free trial. Awaken I find the sound of a regular alarm clock to be one of the most abrasive and painfully horrible ways to start my day. Awaken helps change that by turning your mac in to an alarm clock. By tying in to your iTunes library, you can now wake up to something soothing like Sunrise instead of that horrendous, ear-piercing buzzer. Awaken is well worth the $12.95 (with free updates for life). Give the 14 day free trail a run for the next few mornings and see how you like the change. Simplify Media One of the really nice things about living in the dorm rooms back in college was that I had access to the iTunes libraries of hundreds of other iTunes users…effectively expanding my listening options exponentially. Now that I live in suburbia with no one else on my network except for my wife, I've lost that easy access to other music. Fortunately, Simplify Media (previous coverage) has created a really cool add-on that basically gives you that access back. All you do is add the username of other Simplify users (who have approved your adding them), and you'll then be given access to stream their iTunes library just as if it was on your own local network. Simplify Media is free in every way possible. Synergy Synergy is a “classic” iTunes add-on. It has been around for over 5 years and is probably one of the most widely used apps for iTunes. The latest major release (3.5) was a complete rewrite for Leopard. Synergy basically adds 3 small buttons to your menubar to give you immediate access to controlling iTunes. It is an affordable $8 and includes a free trial. Be sure to check out the tour. The Filter The Filter (previous coverage) is another playlist-creation add-on that almost seems magical. Simply select a few songs that you are interested in, click on The Filter and an entire playlist is created with other songs you'd probably want to listen to at that point. The Filter uses “advanced recommendation technology” to create these unique playlists by tying in to The Filter community of other users. The Filter is free to download and use. DiscoBrick I don't use the iTunes visualizer that much, but sometimes it's just fun to check out what what your music visually creates. DiscoBrick takes that one step further and creates some seriously amazing visual effects based on the beat of the music. DiscoBrick is $10.95 for a single, personal license and up to $55 for a public-use license if you want to use DiscoBrick at parties or other events. TuneBar TuneBar picks up where Synergy leaves off. On the surface it's just a simple iTunes controller. Past that…it's still an iTunes controller. Ultimately TuneBar is more customizable than Synergy and lets your create your own themes by editing simple HTML. Is it worth the $4 extra over Synergy? Maybe not. Just depends on how much you'd like to customize your player. iWow The iTunes equalizer is quite capable for the majority of iTunes users. But if the sound controls are quite what you're looking for, or if you're looking to make those small headphone or desktop speakers sound better, I'd suggest you check out iWOW. iWOW is an audio “enhancer”…which basically means it uses different settings and effects to make the audio larger, fuller, and more crisp than what iTunes can do. iWOW is currently on sale for $19.99 here.
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First Look: Outspring Mail for Mac, a client with a "brain"
We could definitely use some management innovation in the world of e-mail. Outspring Mail offers Mac users some great promises, so we took it for a spin to see if it really speeds up productivity.Read More...
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iPhone pwnage tool delayed
Filed under: iPod Family, Cool tools, Hacks, iPhoneI've been looking forward to the iPhone pwnage tool for some time now. When released, pwnage will allow you to load pre-customized iPhone firmware bundles via iTunes. This means that instead of jailbreaking your phone after updates, you can install already-jailbroken systems. Yesterday, the iPhone dev team announced that the pwnage release has been delayed for at least a week. The team is responding to possible legal issues about the "validity and legality of the contents of the tools". The team promises they will not release third-party copyright materials. When released, pwnage should work with 10.4, 10.5 and Windows. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Analyst: Apple on track to sell 45 million iPhones next year
Analyst reiterates prediction and lays out how he thinks 45 million iPhones will be sold annually, beginning next year.
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Analyst: Apple on track to sell 45 million iPhones next year
In order for Apple to sell 45 million iPhones next year, it would have to quadruple its sales from 2008. Yes, that's more than a bit optimistic. The analyst who originally made that sales prediction for Apple back before the phone was even launched is at it again, though, ...
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What is the rate of Mac OS X Leopard adoption?
Back at the Macworld Expo in January, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that some 20 percent of the installed base was running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. But do we have any sense of the current adoption rate for Leopard?
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Apple sued for 'iMac deception'
Posted by Dennis SellersAnother day, another lawsuit. Apple deceptively marketed its new 20-inch iMac in a way that grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor, which is vastly inferior to the previous generation it replaced, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed today by Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP, a consumer law firm.
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Online petition pushes for iPhone in Canada
Posted by Dennis SellersThere's a new online petition for Canadian customers who want Apple and Rogers Communications to know that they want the iPhone in Canada.
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Apple brand dominates brandchannel.com survey
Posted by Dennis Sellers The Apple brand has the biggest impact on the world's consumers, according to a new poll by brandchannel.com an online exchange about branding that asked its readers to identify the brands with the greatest impact on their lives.
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Apple TV on Mac
Filed under: Apple TVEver wanted to run Apple TV on your Macintosh? ATV4mac 1.4.3 lets you do just that--with a few limitations. It's a Tiger-only, Intel-only release. You'll need OS X 10.4.8 and higher and Leopard is a no-go at this time.With it, you can run Apple TV take 2 as a Front-Row style Macintosh application, which can be a very nice thing if you plan on using a spare mac mini as an Apple TV replacement. Your mileage, as they say, will vary.
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Apple number six on 'BusinessWeek 50 Rankings'
Posted by Dennis SellersApple comes in number six on the “BusinessWeek50 Rankings,” the BusinessWeek list of “the star performers in each of the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500.”
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WWDC Student Scholarship Info Posted
Filed under: WWDC If you're hoping to go to WWDC on a student scholarship, better get applying soon. The deadline is fast approaching. Get those applications in by the 10th of April. Scholarship winners will be notified by email by the end of April. The WWDC scholarship offers a free ticket to WWDC with complete access to all tech sessions and special events, saving you somewhere roughly in the neighborhood of $1600. (We previously wrote about the scholarship here.) What's more, there's usually an all-day event just for student developers plus a career fair where you can meet hiring managers from many Mac development companies. Thanks Joseph AgredaRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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DisplayLink releases beta drivers for OS X
Filed under: Displays, Peripherals Folks hanging on the Mac side of life have surely been waiting in tense anticipation for DisplayLink to become OS X friendly, for like, ever. As promised, the first drivers have emerged in order to give Intel-based Macs (yes, MacBook Air and Mac mini are included) the ability to connect with up to four monitors over USB. Granted, the beta software has no 2D acceleration and no OpenGL 3D acceleration, but both limitations are known and will hopefully be ironed out in the final release. So, what are you waiting for? Tap the read link below to get your download on -- but be sure to read up on the documentation before forging ahead without a care in the world.[Thanks, Mike] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Community Activity: March 31, 2008
iPhone and Transmit Help With iTunes Time Capsule Router & Game Consoles Office 2008 PhotoShop Elements 4.0
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Working the security drama queens.
Unless you're too busy doing the rickrolling that's so popular with the kids these days, you probably saw that a MacBook Air got hacked at CanSecWest last week. In a repeat of last year's "PWN 2 Own" contest, organizers this time offered three different laptops running three different operating systems. David Maynor says: I hope this puts to rest the myth that OSX is more secure but I am sure the zealots will have a million reasons why this is a fixed or rigged contest. Well, the Macalope for one has already acceded to his contention that Vista is more secure based on the technical merits, if not the practical ones. So the brown and furry one's not really sure what he's on about. But he's sure David will find a Slashdot comment somewhere that will validate his Artie MacStrawmanism. There's certainly no denying that, as ZDNet's Larry Dignan says (no "Mac zealot" he), the MacBook Air was certainly the more coveted target: [The Fujitsu running Vista and the Sony Vaio running Ubuntu] are still standing, but that may be because there's more hacker glory in taking down the MacBook Air. Plus, you hack it, you keep it. So, sure, everyone's trying to hack the Air. (The Vista laptop was later hacked, but only after the rules were relaxed.) But putting it all down to the Air metaphorically having a big red X painted on it is ultimately just sour grapes -- it got compromised, and that's a frowny face in the Apple column. So the Macalope will reiterate his call -- again! -- to Apple to get more serious on security. There are several reasons these security "professionals" are spending their waking and non-waking hours targeting Macs. First, they're lashing out at what they think is a "smug attitude" by Apple on security. Frankly, Apple's corporate position on security is so lame that the only thing these people are basing this on is the "Get a Mac" ads. Yes, really. These people have the emotional maturity of a cup of fruit salad. That's all territory we've covered already. Second, thanks to the resurgence of Apple, most of them have only just discovered the Mac. It's virgin territory for them and, like when Columbus "discovered" the New World, their first inclinations is to immediately start shooting the natives and giving them all kinds of horrid diseases. Third, Apple simply has not implemented a comprehensive security policy (see: Leopard firewall, Back To My Mac defaults). It may very well be that it's easier to exploit certain vectors on the Mac. The Macalope's not qualified to make that call. Finally -- and this is the issue that would the easiest for Apple to solve -- the members of the hacker community just don't know anyone at Apple. They know people at Microsoft because the company shmoozes the hell out of them. If it wanted to, Apple could probably make serious inroads to this community and at least reduce its PR problem by hiring someone they know. Now, many of these people are not exactly the corporate citizen type. They often dress and smell funny and, if you've been paying attention, have the emotional maturity of a cup of fruit salad. So maybe Apple would want to poach someone from Microsoft or look to those who write about security -- your Rich Mogulls, your Ryan Naraines -- and tap someone like that. Sure, journalists still dress funny, but they fare slightly better on the olfactory and fruit salad scales. See, the easiest thing in the world to do is to get someone who will take these people golfing and tell them "Dude, we are totally going to do that. Next release. I swear." "Now watch this drive." The company could defuse a large part of this without changing a line of code because it's less about the relative merits of the various platforms -- which are valid concerns -- than it is about emotion (see: salad, fruit). And, really, this is exactly the kind of game that Apple has gotten wrong for 30 years. Shmoozing is not exactly the company's forté (just ask any Apple developer how the lunches are at WWDC). The Macalope certainly wants to see Apple come up with a comprehensive strategy for implementing sound security in its software, he's just saying that there's more than one aspect to this issue. One requires coding, the other requires grease.
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Research In Motion Earnings Review
Right now the world is being increasingly split into two groups: Crackberry Users and iPhone Phanatics. These two companies are at the forefront of the wireless revolution and will maintain their positions for the foreseeable future due to innovation and consumer loyalty.
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Leopard Love: QuickLook Apps
Last night, Mike Rose pointed me to this great Leopard tip that allows you to turn your Application folder into a full-screen app viewer. Here's what you do. Navigate to /Applications and select the entire folder (Edit > Select All or Command-A). Next, tap the space bar, click the full-screen arrows and click the Index Sheet button. Bingo: instant full-screen viewer goodness. Update: My bad. It won't launch the apps--just displays their info quicklook-ishly.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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45 Million iPhones in 2009, Apple Tops in Brand Identity and Next-Gen iPhone News and Rumors
iPhone announcement expected in June, Apple lags with security fixes and OS X Trojan horse emerges.
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The Inside Wire: Apple dots its 'i's' on Leopard, part two
Posted by Dennis SellersBy Jeff Graber Overall, Apple just makes things easier with every release of Mac OS X. With the Apple Leopard OS 10.5.2 release, Apple has dotted all its “i”s making this former feline a roaring success.
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for March 31
Posted by Dennis Sellers“Thom Holwerda of OSNews Calls 'Mac Shot First' Misinformation and Slander. Oops!”—RoughlyDrafted Magazine
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Mac software updates for March 31
Posted by Dennis SellersFTPortal—an application, contextual menu and preference pane combo that facilitates uploading files to specific folders on your FTP server(s) has been updated to version 1.7. The upgrade can now display a directory listing of the directory it'ss connected to.
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Scribbles now available with new features
Posted by Dave MertenScribbles is a drawing tool designed for everyone. It throws away the rule book and offers a fresh approach to creative software for Mac. A new user interface allows artists of all ages to bring their imaginations to life.
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Totally pwn your iPhone... sometime next week
iPhone Dev Team's Pwnage Tool will completely unlock and jailbreak an iPhone or iPod touch. But it's not yet ready for prime time... yet.Read More...
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Exploring Time Capsule: WiFi 802.11n and the 5GHz band
Earlier versions of the WiFi specification all used the 2.4GHz radio spectrum. The new 802.11n standard, supported in Time Capsule, the square AirPort Extreme, and recently shipping AirPort Express units, allows users to alternatively select the use of 5GHz channels. This segment, the third of six, compares the pros and cons of using this new section of frequencies, which can be both problematic and provide a major boost in speed. Continues: Exploring Time Capsule: WiFi 802.11n and the 5GHz band Previous articles related to Time Capsule and its AirPort Extreme cousin: Exploring Time Capsule: theoretical speed vs practical throughput Exploring Time Capsule: how it fits into Apple's AirPort family An in-depth review of Apple's 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station Apple Time Capsule unboxing and preview A Look Inside Apple's New Time Capsule Answers to Time Capsule reader questions Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Mac, Review, Software
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Magic 8-Ball Says: iPhone/iTablet Rumor round-up
Pipar Jaffary is at it again. These companies love to talk about Apple, and predict what's going to happen in the future. They do this a lot - and its rarely accurate. Doesn't stop them from coming up with stuff off the top of their heads though. It seems like these analysts, who admittedly used to matter, now simply scrape the rumor sites and cobble together a list of whatever is the popular rumor of the moment. Since they're busy pulling things out of their butts, I thought I'd consult a REAL source on some of the most burning questions from apple rumor mongerdom - THE MAGIC 8-BALL. I've consulted the 8-Ball once before, and got some decent results. All of these are actual results from a Magic 8-Ball when I asked it these questions - so you KNOW the answers must be accurate. Will the 3G iPhone come out in June? Magic 8-Ball: My Sources Say No. Will there be a sub-$200 iPhone in the next 3 months? Magic 8-Ball: Concentrate And Ask Again Magic 8-Ball: Outlook Not So Good Will Apple release an iTablet device in 2008? Magic 8-Ball: Don't Count on it. Will Apple release a touchscreen Mac in 2008? Magic 8-Ball: My sources say no. Will Apple rumor sites continue to talk about these products in 2009 anyway? Magic 8-Ball: Yes Does Pipar Jaffary have any credibility with Apple predictions what-so-ever? Magic 8-Ball: Don't count on it. Do you have Apple related questions for the Magic 8-Ball? If so, feel free to leave them in the comments below - I'll add good ones to the post.
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DisplayLink releases beta drivers for Mac OS X
Posted by Dennis SellersDisplayLink has posted beta Mac OS X drivers that let you add up to four additional monitors to any Intel Mac through USB. Even a Mac Mini can have four additional monitors for a total of five.
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Microsoft’s RDC beta expires; no new release available
Apple promised to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007 and Microsoft released a Universal Binary version of Office in January 2008, but a Remote Desktop Connection Client that runs natively on Intel Macs is still in beta. Except now that beta has expired… sort of. Microsoft released RDC 2.0 Beta 2 on October 25, 2007, with the release note that it would expire on March 31, 2008. Users launching it today will receive the message shown here: You might think that the insistence to upgrade to the final release version means there is a final release version available. Yet clicking the default button simply takes the user to the Mactopia home page. Clicking on the Remote Desktop link there reveals that the “lastest” version is still 2.0 Beta 2, which, according to the message given on launch, is “out of date.” Here's how I see Microsoft's options for this situation: Ideal Option: Release the final version of RDC 2.0 for download Near-Ideal Option: Release Beta 3 with a future expiration date Acceptable Option: Continue to let us use Beta 2 and stop telling us it's out of date Worst Option: Beta 2 stops working completely and nothing new can be downloaded Oh, and maybe someone over there should double-check the spelling in the dialog boxes.Â
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Microsoft joins MIT Kerberos Consortium
The a security authentication and authorization group, which launched in September with Google, Apple, Sun Microsystems, and a collection of universities, says Microsoft is coming aboard as a founding sponsor.
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Microsoft joins MIT Kerberos Consortium
The MIT Kerberos Consortium, a security authentication and authorization group, announced Monday that Microsoft has joined its shindig. The consortium, which launched in September with Google, Apple, Sun Microsystems and a collection of universities, noted Microsoft is coming aboard as a founding sponsor. Kerberos aims to offer consumers the same ...
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iPod Minis on sale at Woot
Filed under: iPod Family, DealsRemember the Mini? If you're in a retro mood today, you can pick a 4GB iPod up at sellout.woot for just $79 + $5 S/H. It's not a bad deal on an outdated iPod. In contrast, new 2GB shuffles are selling at Apple for $69 and refurbs 4GB nanos for $129 (including $15 gift cards). TUAW reader Greg writes that it's the perfect iPod for leaving in the car.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MacBook Air first to fall in hacking competition
The MacBook Air was the first laptop to fall in the CanSecWest hacking contest. Hacker Charlie Miller took home ther MacBook Air and a $10,000 cash prize Thursday after breaking into the machine at the CanSecWest security conference’s PWN 2 OWN hacking contest. Conference organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and MacBook Air (running [...]
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iTunes and the Social Contract of Fair Use
I was busy working on a present for a few close friends recently when an alarming message popped up on my computer screen. The iTunes message informed me that "my" license permitted me to make only seven copies of the playlist I was burning. Unfortunately, the gift I was putting together was for eight of my friends. I'm all for supporting the performing arts, and I agree with the constitutional notion that artists and inventors have a right to earn a living.
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Jumsoft releases new iWeb and RapidWeaver themes
Posted by Dave MertenJumsoft announced the release of three new Web site themes – Sensitive Steel, RWB Forever, and Sky Butterfly. Each Web site theme contains eight basic page layouts for your personal, business or leisure Web site creation: Welcome, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movie, Podcast, Blog, and Blank.
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yFlicks now has Coverflow and iTunes integration plus TubiTunes
Posted by Dave MertenMany Tricks has released yFlicks 3.3, an update to its movie manager/viewer for Mac OS X. With yFlicks, users can download, tag, organize and of course view their movies.
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This Day: March 31, 1999: Apple Releases First Open Source Contributions
There is a lot of Open Source goodness in Mac OS. Safari is based on an Open Source project and the underlying core of OS X is based on Darwin, an Apple Open Source project. What seems commonplace and unavoidable today wasn’t always such an accepted and unremarked…
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Unlocked iPhones available at Apple Stores? (video)
Posted by Dave MertenWell, not yet folks, but I did find this video of someone unlocking an iPhone at Apple's 5th Avenue store in New York. It's priceless. I wonder if Zipone's iPhone/iPod touch unlocking software is still on that black MacBook?
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Adobe to change terms of use for Photoshop Express
Posted by Dennis SellersAdobe announced a public beta of Photoshop Express last week, but is changing the terms of use after user complaints.
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Unity coming to the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersUnity Technologies, a 3D game development tool provider for creating console-quality games for the desktop and web, has announced that the company will support game development for the iPhone platform.
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FlickrBooth 2.1 adds YouTube uploading from Photo Booth
If you're a FlickrBooth fan on the Mac, you may be interested in some new features that came with this weekend's update to version 2.0 (and subsequent update to 2.1). YouTube uploading is at the top of the list, but auto-update checking is in there too.Read More...
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News: U.K.'s Telegraph: iLounge amongst '101 most useful websites'
British newspaper the Daily Telegraph has named iLounge in a new list of ”The 101 most useful websites.” iLounge appears as the third site on the list, and is cited for its “hints, tips, and troubleshooting for your iPod and associated software.” The list, which covers categories such as technology, entertainment, advice, house and home, shopping, and more, also points to useful sites such as Google, the BBC iPlayer, the Internet…
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Can Apple Sell 45m iPhones By End of 2009?
While most Wall Street types have come down from their aggressive targets for iPhone units, one analyst, Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray, is sticking to his guns. Munster is predicting that Apple (AAPL) will ship 45 million iPhone units in calendar 2009.
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.Mac syncing, YouTube plugin among 2.0 firmware discoveries
After digging around in the iPhone 2.0 Beta 2 firmware, the iPhone developer community has uncovered references to .Mac syncing and a YouTube plugin for Safari.Read More...
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The Greatest Threat, and Opportunity for iTunes
The best way to understand the situation facing iTunes is to look at other business models for distribution that don't require the ownership of music. Take terrestrial radio, for example. One can live off this as a source of music forever and for free. Because the advertisers pay to have…
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Drag Safari Bookmarks Bar items directly into folders
After switching from Camino to Safari (temporarily; I'm still not really convinced that Safari is really "the better browser"), I was quite annoyed by the fact that you're unable to directly move a bookmark from the Bookmarks Bar into one of the folders on the Bookmarks Bar. When you drag an item, you can only reorder it. Finally I discovered the following trick: If you first drag the bookmark off the Bookmarks Bar area (by dragging down first, instead of horizontally -- but keep dragging; if you release the mouse after dragging down, your dragged bookmark will vanish in a poof), and then drag it back onto the Bookmarks Bar, you're able to move it into a folder. I don't know, whether this is a bug or done on purpose, but at least it works.
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10.5: Speed up initial AirPort - Time Machine backups
I found the initial Time Machine backup to a disk hooked up to my AirPort Extreme to be painfully slow. This procedure sped the process up enormously. The only tricky part about this is that you don't have to tell Time Machine you're moving the drive. I'm using an external disk with one partition formatted with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)," and sharing it with a disk password. First hook your USB drive up to your AirPort Extreme and configure the disks for Time Machine. Add the disk to your time machine and start the initial backup. Once Time Machine is past the "preparing" stage and is actually copying data, cancel the backup. This step creates the sparsebundle image that will contain the backup on the drive. Unmount the disk. You'll probably also want to disconnect all users using the AirPort Utility. Disconnect the drive from the Airport Extreme and connect it direc...
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Create sets of desktop images without duplication
I like the way Mac OS X lets you choose any album from iPhoto to use as a set of desktop background images. In particular, using iPhoto albums to create sets of images saves disk space because the same image can be displayed in multiple sets ("albums") even though it's only physically stored on disk just once. I had a number of images that I didn't want to store in iPhoto, but that I did want to use as desktop backgrounds in some sets and that I didn't want to duplicate. The solution turned out to be to simple but a little tricky. Using the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences panel, you can select any arbitrary folder to use for desktop backgrounds. If you fill this folder with Unix symbolic links that all have an absolute POSIX path specified for the link, Desktop & Screen Saver finds and follows each image. However, only symbolic links with an absolute path (or hard links, of course) work. Notably, Mac OS X "aliases" do not work. So, by way of examp...
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How to print to a PC-connected HP Photosmart 7960
My partner is a Windows guy. I am a Mac guy. He was on site with a customer trying to get a new MacBook Pro (MBP) to print to a shared HP PhotoSmart 7960 which was connected to a WinXP Pro SP2 PC. Should have been a five minute job. The printer works just fine when directly connected to the PC or to the MBP using the HP drivers. It simply would not work via the shared printer queue. We tried everything! Reviewed all of the online literature, etc. After an hour of this, we finally decided to try the Gutenprint drivers (the new name of Gimp-Print) that come with Leopard. Worked like a charm!
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Remove anti-aliasing from accessibility zoom
Normally when you use the zoom feature it interpolates pixels so that at high zooms it looks incredibly blurry. However, the key-combination option+command+ will turn off this feature so that you can zoom fully without blurriness. [robg adds: This is documented in one of the choices on the Options screen of the Zoom section of the Seeing tab of the Universal Access System Preferences panel. But I'm not sure how many folks have ever drilled down into that panel, so I decided to run this one...]
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AppleTV 2.1 software update released
Apple has released a minor update to the AppleTV. Version 2.1 of the AppleTV software is a slight update that primarily adds a “Genres” category to the Movie menu, allowing viewers to browse titles based on their genre preference. It also includes the standard vague “bug fixes and stability” improvements that often come with Apple software updates. The update can be downloaded now by going into your system preferences on your AppleTV and selecting software update. If you notice any other changes to the AppleTV interface, feel free to mention them in the comments below.
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Many Happy Returns: The State Of Tax Preparation On The Mac
Apart from accounting professionals who make their living interpreting government economic legalese, I suspect tax season in the United States is the least favorite time of year for anyone required to �le, or – in the case of this year’s “rebate� – anyone who wants to cash in on some government overspend. Using your Mac to prepare your taxes has always seemed like a hit-or-miss endeavor to me, either from a lack-of-choices perspective when it came to actual software or just compatibility problems when using purely online e-filers. Up until 2006, I still used tax software written for Windows when we weren't letting an accountant handle everything for us. There were just too many horror stories about differences in outcomes between on Macs & PCs when using the same program from a single vendor. This year I did the same and wanted to give last-minute filers an overview of their options for getting returns in on time using a Mac. On Your Mac Both H&R Block's TaxCut & Intuit's TurboTax are available for use on either G3+ & Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.4. (Tiger) or better (TaxCut actually supports OS X 10.3.9+). They both offer different packages depending on the type of tax-situation you are in (whether you are filing just Federal or both Federal+State) and Intuit provides two extra titles that are more tailored to users with investments, run a small business or manage rental properties (TaxCut Home & Business only runs on Windows). Both packages will require updates upon first launch, so be prepared for an initial delay in preparation. I prepared and filed my return with TurboTax Deluxe 2007 and did not purchase a copy of TaxCut just for this review, so I'm going to make a preemptive request to any TAB readers who have used TaxCut to definitely speak up in the comments with your experiences & opines. TurboTax begins by asking if there is data you would like to import from either previous returns or other programs, such as Quicken. I had it import our 2006 return and began my editing. They programmers definitely tweaked the user interface more than just a bit this year with the whole program feeling much more solid (save one experience you'll see in a bit). While I always choose to let the program interview me and provide guidance, at any point during the filing you can jump to the fields in on-screen versions of the printed forms if you feel that direct-entry would be faster/easier and then return to the prompting. TurboTax knew about this year's economic stimulus package and provided thorough information on how to handle the deduction of moving expenses. When you are finally done with entry, the error checking stage ensures that no mandatory fields go unfilled and points out inconsistencies between different parts of the return(s) that require attention & correction. It even gives you an idea of the likelihood of an audit based on what your return looks like as compared with Intuit's database of returns that have been audited by the government and information gathered from IRS sources. Once the Federal return is finished, the majority of the data is then used to populate your State return (if you are required to fill out a state return and have purchased a version that includes State filing). While my experience with the program was good it did crash on me three times when I tried to switch into manual-form-entry mode during the tail end of my Federal return. While that is a somewhat-scary experience – is the file corrupted? – I save & copy often and reverted back to a known, good version of the data file before continuing with data re-entry. E-filing is simple and quick and I'll be starting the program again daily to have it check on the status. TurboTax also provides the option to encrypt your data file with a password which I used even though I store it in a secure disk image. I have to admit not being thrilled with the security-question override to the password protection, but that may allay the fear of forgetfulness for some users. For TurboTax, you'll end up paying between $19.95 & $89.95 (many bargains are out there, tho) with e-filing being an additional charge of $17.95 per eFile for up to five Federal returns and $17.95 per eFile for up to three state returns (charges apply to downloaded product only). TaxCut charges $24.95 for just their Federal program and $44.95 for their Federal+State package. E-filing is a separate charge for either version, but they have bundled Federal+State & e-filing into one final option for $74.95. For either TaxCut or TurboTax, it is very important to remember to keep a copy of your old software and save a copy of your return as a PDF document! You cannot rely on newer versions either being available or reading older formats correctly and the government will not accept that as an excuse when attempting to retrieve information for an audit. Remember to store the PDF copies as either secure PDF documents (my version 4.1 of Preview.app allows for encryption) or store them in a secure disk image. Despite my attempt t