A MacAddict's Page

Is Apple Frances Scapegoat?

2006-03-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

Is France trying new laws and using Apple to test the waters?

It sure seem like they are to me.
Scapegoat-The word also refers, in modern parlance, to one who is blamed for misfortunes, often as a way of distracting attention from the real causes.

This French bill, which would be the implementation of a European Union directive, calls for digital songs to be playable on all devices. As part of the law proposal, companies that use copyright protection measures (like Apple’s DRM) would have to supply the information essential to interoperability to those interested at no other charge than the cost of delivering the data.

But why? Like I said before, Is France not wanting iTunes in France? or is there a different agenda we don't know about?? Because forcing this opens up a lot things to consider. Does Microsoft and Sony fall under this law also? Will Halo be forced to come to the Playstation and vise versa with Playstation and NES games? Why go after just music? Why not also software just written for just windows? In each format there is a form of protection management being done. If this goes through what’s next?

Apple does have the most to lose because of its large portion of the digital music market. France lawmakers has a lot to gain if this law passes with it attacking the big boys of digital music market. But what about French consumers? What will they gain? They have more to lose.

For days Apple said nothing, But, late Tuesday Apple said such a law would "result in state-sponsored piracy."
"If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers," Apple said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. "iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with 'interoperable' music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy."

But is piracy the only part of this equation? Who else may gain from this?
Well the new interoperability rules were welcomed “in principle” by recording companies.
John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Recording Industry has said:

"It is important to consumers to have the ability to move songs between their various listening devices."

Is he not part of the same group of people who want various prices for different albums or songs? Of coarse the interoperability rules are welcomed in principle by them, These guys have often complained that the iTMS has deprived them of any control over music pricing. Oh how they forget how much Apple and the iTMS has helped the music industry, and how little Apple makes from selling the music. In the long run they don’t see the large loss as well.

Jim Prendergast, of the public policy group American For Technology Leadership, derided the French decision, calling it a

"direct attack" on Apple's intellectual property, and saying that one of the ramifications could be Apple pulling its iTunes store out of the French market.
"Once governments force companies to give away their innovations, their intellectual property rights there will no longer be an incentive to create new products that will benefit consumers," Prendergast said.

Analysts have said that Apple would have to choose between sharing their secrets of the exclusive online music technology or stop selling music downloads in France. According ARS Technica

Analysts estimate that France is responsible for around 5 percent of Apple's global music sales, so the financial blow from exiting the country would not be severe. However, if the French legislation is adopted across all of the European Union—which is the stated goal of France's Cultural Minister—the company would find itself in a much tougher situation.

But what I want to know is with this new legislation how will they find the hackers and pirates across all of the Europe? O.K., so those caught pirating music or movies or who disable copy protection systems are going to be fined to a sum over $350,000. So what? How well has that worked in the US so far?

There are far too many questions not answered, and much loss to the French consumer.

The new Macmini

2006-03-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

O.K., Steve came on stage today talked about some iPod leather cases for $99...

Then he finally shows something cool, the new iPod Hi-Fi

Which according to Apple:

*Compatible with all iPod models with a dock connector through the integrated Universal Dock (dock adapters included)
*Compatible with iPod shuffle and iPod models without a dock connector through the audio input port (audio cable sold separately)
*Charges iPod via dock connector
*Tone Control in speakers menu provides additional EQ settings specifically for iPod Hi-Fi
*Input port accepts analog 3.5 mm stereo minijack or S/PDIF optical digital miniplug
and can also run on six D-cell batteries.
All for just $349 and is availible today.

Now we get to my headline.... the Mac Mini. Now I don't have my hands on one, but reading the spec's I was smiling for a while:

*1.5GHz Intel Core Solo($599) or 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo processor ($799)
*60GB hard drive(1.5GHz)--80GB hard drive(1.66GHz)
*Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive(1.5GHz)--8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)(1.66GHz)
*2MB on-chip L2 cache
*667MHz frontside bus
*512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two DIMMs; supports up to 2GB
*A new infrared port designed to work with the Apple Remote and support for a enhanced version of Front Row. The new version of Front Row (Front row with Bonjour) allows customers to access shared iTunes and iPhoto libraries and video throughout their home via Bonjour.

Then I got to the specs on the graphics card. Hold on, there is none, well not one you want anyway. It has a Intel integrated graphics processor. A GMA950 graphics processor to be exact, with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory. Ya shared. According to Apple's website, Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available.

Meaning when you buy this Mac, you better max it out with memory (not from Apple unless you want to pay $300) because working with iMove or iDVD will bring up that beach ball we all hate if you don't.

But, lets look deeper into the GMA950 chip.

I thought about this computer possible for my kid till I read Extreme Tech's review of this chip. They did a test on a PC, but you get the point. This chip could only run Doom 3 at 16.20FPS in (640X480) and got worse at 1024X768 when it dropped to 10.4 FPS. Unreal Tournament 2004 was not much better barely making 30FPS at 640X480 and only 18.2FPS at 1024X768. Toms Hardware has Mark Rein, vice president for Epic Games, the developer of the Unreal graphics engine and game series is qouted as saying "What is the point of shipping multi-core CPUs, if they are only going to have integrated graphics?" I guess that line itself makes my point.

Bottom Line

If all your gonna do is surf the web or watch and share pictures, movies and music, this mini's for you. If you want a intel based Mac that can play games also, get a iMac.

Newest AppleXnet Writer

2006-02-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

I have bee given a great opportunity to write the news for AppleXnet.com. So to Read any further news about Apple or anything Mac related, hop on over to AppleXnet.com to get the rest of a MacAddict's flava!

Smile

2006-02-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday.... Smile :D

It's Friday Baby!!

2006-02-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

You know what that means! It's time to Frag everybody in sight!! But before we go there, here's the news.....

Happy 51st Birthday Steve!
Found this pick of the old Apple logo cake which brought back memorys of the old Apple logo.

I always saw it as showing how bright the future can be when you work on a Apple computer.

Looking at it in the twenty first century,
one might think somebody was showing gay pride.

but I'll leave that for another article.

Searching the net I even found one of a Mac 128k cake showing off it's 20th birthday.

The Web is a wounderful thing, and with Apple and Steve's help it has been a joy. With the new intel Macs out even a hardcore-PC user is willing to say:

"Once you've driven a Ferrari, it's hard to go back to your Toyota Corolla.

Not that I've ever driven a Ferrari, nor do I own a Corolla. But I imagine that's what it feels like now that I'm back on my crappy HP laptop after a few weeks of test-driving Apple's new iMac.[...]Over all, the iMac is something you may not want to try because if you do, you may never want to go back to your crappy old Toyota. "

But now some have begun to ask for all Web companies, such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., to help pay for the billions of dollars required to build and maintain high-speed Internet infrastructure.

According to MacWorld:

“Customers should not be the only ones to pay for this new world,” CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke (Deutsche Telekom AG) said in an interview published Thursday in the German weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. “Web companies that use this infrastructure for their business should also make a contribution.”

the article continues on saying:

"The German CEO’s remarks echo those made earlier this month by John Thorne, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Verizon Communications Inc.

Speaking at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996, Thorne said telcos are spending “a fortune” to build and maintain high-speed data highways that Google and other Web companies intend “to ride on with nothing but cheap servers.” The executive demanded an end to what he called a “free lunch.”

Well they do have a point, now I may not know all of what companys do pay, but if I pay just to look on the net, billion dollar companys need to step up as well.

With that said, I also see this may increase the cost of music downloads, or future movie downloads as I am sure online companys will pass on the cost back to consumers. It's just a vicious circle.

but put away that thought, and look foward to the good things that will come on the 28th of this month. I mean stuff like this so called leaked picture of what Apple's new "true" video iPod will look like.

This picture is making it's rounds around the net. People are even looking at the model number for some sort of verification. Is the part number "M8719Z/A" the same part number as Mac OS X 10.2 Server? Or is that really a "B" and not an "8"?. You be the judge. Some like the Apple Insider think it will be the first Intel-based Mac mini desktop computer that will be unvailed.

Of coarse the Apple Insider also talks about a 13-inch widescreen Intel iBook consumer laptop and an iPod Boombox audio system. We will all have to wait and see.

Gaming News
It seems Blizzard Entertainment has released some new information about World of Warcraft.
According to IGN:

"The Priest class talents are scheduled to be updated in version 1.10 and Blizzard is offering an interactive preview of the planned changes. The company also unveiled a new Calendar which will allow players to keep track of all the upcoming in-game events. Finally, for those who just can't get enough of the misunderstood Murlocs, Blizzard is offering a new lore section focusing on the antisocial fish-men."

I'm sure my son, and the {RA} clan with the rest of you WoW feaks out there (you know who you are) will be happy to lose more sleep over this. ;)

For those not addicted to World or Warcrack, Hop on the Darkside Server for some CTF Fun!!

Say It Together, 1 Billion!

2006-02-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

So here it is, the Big land mark, the Billonth song downloaded from the iTMS. The user? Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan. As the grand prize winner he will recieve a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. Plus Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School of Music in his name to commemorate this milestone.

10.4.6
Well while we deal with all the hoopla and rumors of what may come on the 28th of this month, Apple it seems has began providing to its developers the first external pre-release builds of Mac OS X 10.4.6. The first seeds of Mac OS X 10.4.6 are builds Intel (build 8I1102) and PowerPC (build 8I109).

According to The Apple Insider:

"While the Intel build places emphasis on the ongoing improvements to the company's Rosetta emulation environment for Mac OS X for Intel, the remainder of the enhancements are common amongst both builds.

Specifically, Mac OS X 10.4.6 is said to focus on Automator, Bluetooth, Cocoa, Carbon, Core Graphics, graphics drivers, hard and optical disc management, .Mac, Printing and Safari.

The builds, which weigh in at approximately 131MB and 166MB in Combo Updater form, already include over four dozen enhancements and bug fixes over Mac OS X 10.4.5, which Apple released just last week."

We shall see if this update plugs the safari hole. But for now you can uncheck download "safe" files or/and install Safe Terminal. After Safe Terminal is installed, the Terminal utility will not execute any file, even if "Open safe files after download" option in Safari is enabled. However, the usage of the Terminal to type and run commands is not effected in any way.

While Apple closes this hole, Microsoft is ready to charge PC users to plug theres. Microsoft is a software company, and Bill gates is beginning to see another way to get money instead of giving it away to Norton or any other ani-virus, spam blocking, trojan /worm killing company.

According to C|net:

"not everyone is keen on the idea of paying Microsoft to help secure the products it created. Businesses, in particular, are questioning the move, Gartner analyst John Pescatore said."

"'Wait a minute--Microsoft's software is causing the problem, and now they want me to pay extra to fix the problem?'" Pescatore said, summing up the reaction of some corporations to Microsoft's move toward selling security software."

I can't help but giggle to myself when I think of 2 trojans/worms that need user interaction on the Mac OS and the mountain of viruses and other problem that the Microsoft's own OS is the cause of. But of coarse MS has already had to patch its' flagship upgrade Vista which addresses the same vulnerability that led to the WMF (Windows Metafile) malware attacks in January (a remote code execution flaw in the Graphics Rendering Engine).

Well I think the only thing Bill gates see's is the $15 billion in possible revenue he can gain. But I think he better try plugging the many holes in his OS new and old before trying to sell this to business and home consumers.

Oprah Says Use a PC !!

I was surprised, yes surprised when I saw this when I wanted to donate to Oprah's Katrina Homes online.
Hold on, one of the richest women in the world can't find web builders and programmers that can make a program to be able to collect money from mac users?? I don't want to mail money, that's why I have a computer! This is outright insane!

I first got note of this when a fellow mac user brought it up in a Mac forum. I thought to myself, this can't be true..... not Oprah!!

One mac user very upset, wrote a letter to Oprah's staff ( I don't think she reads them herself):

"Wow. That's absolutely malicious.

- It's downright discriminatory, since HTML is HTML whether it's on a Mac or on a PC. They actually had to code their website to detect the OS and then write an extra page to tell you that you can't donate.
- It's counterproductive, since it's stopping you from using the easy method of donating.

If I were you I would not only find some other organization to send my money to to assist, I would send a pissed-off letter to Oprah to protest her biased, discriminatory exclusion of the Mac communtiy's charitable contributions for a cause as important as helping the victims of Katrina. I'd also question her choice of web administrator and whether she knows that through her choice to employ someone who choses to code like that she's helping to oppress a minority - the Mac community.

I had absolutely no opinion of her website or of her charities before I heard of this. Now I'm not only determined to never donate a cent to anything she's involved in, I'm going to spread this to as many Mac users as I can."

Hmm, sounds like Oprah "oppresses a minority". So the minority (in this case Mac users) who fact has proven Mac users make more money and are smarter are left to mailing (snail mail) because of some laziness. I know money can't be the reason. Because we all know she has buckets full.

When my son and I where on the show a few years ago ( my son saved my life), I thought I saw a woman with compassion for all, to make things eaiser for all. But trying to search on Oprah.com I could not type anything in the first time, I had to use Firefox just to be able to type in for a search (re-loading the page in Safari 2 times for me finally did the trick).

So I guess Oprah, when people are not looking and there's no TV show ratings to worry about you have to be the majority to get access.

How Sad, But she has a partner... well sort of (google atleast lets you run theirs in Firefox). Google's Web Page Creator has been launched without Apple Safari support. It seems when you launch the web page creater you get this error

Well Google I found a comic from Wulffmorgenthaler that made me laugh after seeing that error.

I'm Maxxuss I'm a Theif! Let Me Prove It To You
I'll just post a qoute from his site that says it all:

"Mirror Sites are up!
February 22nd, 2006
For a start, I’ve set up some mirrors of the original contents as of Feb, 21st. The mirrors will have the contents and links as usual. Do not bookmark the mirrors, as they are also temporary (since not ad-free). If you have any safe webspace, just PM at forum.osx86project.org.

However, I will not link patches etc in this blog, just textual announcements and general information. So hopefully, it would be easier to hotlink it. I have also put a safety-net in-place: maxxuss.tk will be a pointer to this blog, no matter if it will move again."

Sounds like a thief on the run to me.

I Don't Know How to Review
Some people want to run and be the first to review. They knew from MacWorld in January that programs like Microsoft Office and Adobe and even Apple's own Pro Apps would be working under Rosetta. So why PC Review would post a lower review on the Intel-baced iMac vs the G5 Based iMac and blame that lower score was because of Rosetta?

How the hell do all these people get hired and payed to do these piss poor reports and reviews? You can't rate a computer you know (at this time) is not running this software natively. The computer is not slower, the software is not ready. It's not the computers fault? So why not rate it with the software it can run natively?

I just wonder, when they do finally run natively will you boost the score? This review was a waste of time. A 76... pfft.

**Rumors**
With the 28th just around the corner you know somebody had to post a so-called new product Apple will unvail.

This is a Nokia N80i with iTunes. Ya, we shall see, I'm guessing.. not!

But you do get to see a lot of Photoshop users at work!

Good News On The Horizon

2006-02-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

With all the so called "reporters" out there just reporting news without looking to see if it's correct, and anti virus companys like Sophos jumping to post worm reports but calling them "viruses" in there report:

"A report issued by Sophos yesterday revealed that 79% of people believed that Apple Macintoshes would be targeted more in future, following the discovery of the first Mac OS X worm.

"This means two real viruses have emerged for the Mac OS X platform in less than a week," continued Cluley(Graham Cluley). "The question on everyone's lips is - when will we see the next one, and will it have a more malicious payload? "

Then to find out their own software is generating false positives, and wreaking system havoc just puts up a red flag saying "why should I trust anti-virus companys?!" According to MacFixiT:

"In yet another case of AntiVirus software causing serious issues while purporting to be identifying infected files, it appears that Sophos' AntiVirus software is generating false positives for the "OSX/Inqtana.B worm", invoking users to delete critical application and system files and causing serious issues."

Well Sophos put out this statement:

"SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, issued an update at 14:43 GMT on Tuesday 21 February to detect the OSX/Inqtana-B worm for Mac OS X.

Unfortunately, this update was flawed, and Mac OS X users may have been mistakenly warned by Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X that some files on their computers were infected with the worm.

SophosLabs quickly discovered the problem, and issued a revised update less than two hours later at 16:40 GMT, Tuesday 21 February. Customers who take advantage of Sophos's automated updating facility will have been automatically updated from this time, and will no longer experience the false positive.

Additionally, an email was sent to customers who are subscribed to Sophos's email notification list informing them that the IDE had been updated to correct the detection issue.

Sophos apologizes for any inconvenience that this problem has caused. Measures have been put in place to ensure that the problem does not occur again. Any customers who require further guidance are recommended to contact Sophos Technical Support."

"Sophos apologizes for any inconvenience that this problem has caused?" Hmm, I feel better now. That helps me feel better, now that your software had me dump vital parts of the OS to the trash and made it unusable.

(I take a deep breath) But then again, I'm hearing more and more about flaws in OSX. From Safari to Apples mail program. Every anti-virus software company or PC writer has something to say, and some rightly so, but I have a problem when they headline one thing and say another, or anti-virus company's who speak like they are the super hero's here to stop all Tojans, worms and viruses.

So it brightened my day to see this picture taken in New Yorks Times Square

Knowing that Microsoft goes out of it's way to prove they are the king of error's. The person who took the picture said it best, "the world's largest Windows error message - on a two-story high e-billboard ". Bill Gates would be proud.
*thanks IGM

What even made my day brighter was to see a editor write a level headed article.
I love this part:

"I'm not going to be running any anti-virus software anytime soon, just as I haven't run it for many years.

Also, I'm not going to turn off any preferences that make my daily computing habits any less convenient (the browser takeover is protected against by disabling the "Open safe files after downloading" preference in Safari).

The smuggest of smug Mac users is right: the platform is more secure, and these new security threats are no more threatening that a paraplegic kitten.

The Leap-A malware was a poorly-programmed Trojan horse that relied on "social engineering," or trickery to perform its nasty function. There's a simple way to protect against this kind of threat -- common sense -- and in testament to this, a lot of people didn't fall for it.

I'm not going to catch a virus this way any more than I'm going to send money to the honorable Dr. Mobuntu, head of the Central Bank of Nigeria."

That's right people use common sense, that's all it takes. Sounds too good, it's not true.

So you say, where's the good news?
Right here! Apple is hosting a media event on February 28th at Cupertino, CA. The invitation sent out to the media simply says join Apple as they introduce "fun new products." Now you know, that's a casting call for rumors.

So here's a couple:

The Apple Insider has overheard American Technology Research Analysts saying:

"We believe Apple will take the opportunity to round out its Intel Mac portfolio 6 - 9 months ahead of plan with a new widescreen consumer notebook (likely called "MacBook") and entry-level Mac mini, both of which will include a remote control and Front Row software," analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a research note released to clients early Wednesday morning.

Wu believes some of the strong selling points of the new consumer notebook will be its unique design, small size and widescreen display. He believes pricing should fall in the $1299-$1499 range.

The analyst also sees the possibility that Apple will announce that its Pro software applications like Aperture, Final Cut Pro, and Motion are now Intel native and may be ready as early as March. "We believe this is a good time to let its professional customers know," Wu wrote.

Rounding out his predictions, the analyst also thinks there is a "greater than 50 percent chance" that Apple will roll-out the first full-length feature films that will be available for download from the company's iTunes Music Store. He also sees Apple reaching the 1 billion iTunes downloads milestone by the time the Feb. 28th event rolls around. "

Go ahead grab you napkins and wipe that drool, because while Apple will has discontinued making the 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4, according to reports, Apple also plans to replace the 17-inch PowerBook G4 model with a 17-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro by June.

But those who already ordered their MacbookPro, thay are smiling as they open there boxes. Of coarse some can't wait to take them apart. OWC has some pictures of a 15" 2.0ghz taken apart!

You can see more pictures here.

YML Time!
It's wednesday, Time for Your Mac Life. Today's topic? what else "Speeding Up Your Mac and Virus? What Virus?"
Guests tonigt are:
Joe Kissell who has 34 software speedups that can help you get the most out of the Mac you have.

Rob Griffiths who has been digging deep into the Leap-A malware to get to the bottom of how serious a threat it is. He's discovered that while tricky, it's not nearly as malicious as it could have been.

And of coarse Your Mac Life's Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week

Also Peter Cohen of MacCentral.com and Macworld magazine will be on to talk about all the latest Mac Gaming News.

You can watch the streaming video, or just listen to the audio. It all starts this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET!

Oh, By the way for those who went crazy reading those iPods causing ear damage report, here's a joke from PC Weenies

Enough With The "First Mac Virus"!!

2006-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

It's all ready a fact that this is not a virus. Want more information? read here. But that does not stop guys like Gerard Hickey who writes for ManineToday to have a headline that reads "Virus " hits Mac OSX. What this dumb ass is doing is just trying to get hits to the web site. Now you ask, I how can I say that?? here's a quote from his article:

"Strictly speaking, Oompa Loompa is not a virus but rather a trojan or a worm. Quite a bit of difference in how both operate."

Wait I thought when I clicked the site I was gonna read about a Mac OSX "virus"?. What a rip off, but he got you to come to his page anyway. He knew from the start there are no Mac OSX viruses so far. If your woundering why no link to the site? I not going to give him more people for more hits on that site.

But of coarse he's not alone The News Tribune has dumb asses who don't investigate more into the story eaither. With lines like:

"Worms, viruses finally find their way into Apple computer systems

News Tribune staff and Newsday
Published: February 21st, 2006 02:30 AM

Apple Macintosh computers – long viewed as more secure than PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows – are finally facing virus problems."

As there headline was "Wake-up Call for mac Users". Now that headline I understand. The rest of their story just proves they just don't know what a virus, worm, or a tojan are. A wake-up call for Mac users? yes. But tojans attack all users, Mac and PC . We all must use common sense, Do not install and run applications from untrusted sources and if you on a Mac Do not run Mac OS X as "root."

It's not just PC users who can be victims of their own stupidity when it comes to Internet security. Mac users are not immune from malware that requires user interaction. Malware has always been out there. Someone can write a simple script to dump all your music to the trash and empty it. If you have a lot music, that could be costly.

arsTechnica put it best:

"Mac OS X has a solid record so far when it comes to viruses and other malware, and many Mac users don't bother with antivirus software. However, as sales of Macintosh computers continue to increase, the platform may become more attractive to malware writers."

Now a virus that a whole nother story.

Safari can get you in Trouble
Now, they have found a problem with update 10.4.5 and Safari. It seems after the update the option "Open safe files after downloading" in Apple's Safari web browser is activated by default.
What's this function, and how do I turn it off?

*Its function is to automatically display images and movies after they are transmitted to the user's computer, using the application assigned to that particular document format. Safari will also unpack ZIP archives and display the documents within if they are considered "safe."

"Safe" being the operative word. The thing to do to stop this is to launch Safari, go to Safari's preference's, click general, then uncheck "open safe files after opening".

This was a bad mistake by Apple by making this on by defualt. This needs correction!

ProCare
Yesterday Apple revised its ProCare program, which offers special perks to users who pay an annual fee. The cost is $99 a year for the premium program. The ProCare now adds a Yearly Tune-up and they have changed the name of the priority service, it is now called Fast Track.

The yearly tune-up is where Apple will run system diagnostics, update your Apple software, and clean your Mac's monitor and keyboard. The service also includes hour-long one-on-one training sessions, priority service at the Genius bar, and Worldwide support.

It also includes Complete Setup for transferring files/folders to a new Mac computer, advance reservations at Apple's Genius Bar up to seven days in advance.

Doom goes Binary
Aspyr Media has released a Universal Binary version of Doom 3.

According to MacWorld:

"The 1.3 Rev A patch enables Doom 3 to run natively on Apple’s new Intel-based Macs. The update results in greatly improved performance and much higher frame rates on those machines. The patch has been available as a private beta for several weeks, but now it’s in general circulation and available to the public.

Other changes have been made as well. Aspyr claims improved performance on some PowerPC-based Macs equipped with ATI graphics hardware. The minimum supported operating system for this release is Mac OS X v10.3.9."

You can get the patch here

*from heise online

Mix Feeling on President's Day

2006-02-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

While I set here on President's day, I read about the dumb ass site forums that are back up.
So my first feeling is pissed off that this crap site's forums are back up.
I'll just quote a post I made in the MacObserver:

"OSx86project's site is the slime that grows on the shit stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

Their poem back to Apple and posted for the world to read tells all. They can play blind and dumb if they want to. But we all know all they deal and promote with is a bunch of haxors who want a Intel version-OS they (when all this started) that they did not pay for to run on a dumb PC box.

All they did is play innocent when they saw Apple lawyers coming. The site is a just a "watercooler for hackers" as CNet posited. As they said "We welcome everyone. Hackers came (as we knew they would) but as long as they accepted the rules" Ya, the rules... just don't post the link here to the hack. But you can post a link to the Hackers site.

So I'm the get-away driver to a theft, but as long as I didn't go inside the store and take anything I'm innocent?. Try that with a judge."

I would post a link to their site and what they wrote, but I don't post crap here. :)

Tojan aimed at Mac Users
By the way, you want some real information about the tojan/malware called "the first Mac virus" in the media check out this article from MacWorld. My feeling? Helpful.

**Rumor**
Think Secret is posting that

"Apple will roll out ProCare 2.0 at its retail stores this Tuesday[...]The collection of services, which costs $99 a year, includes Personal Training, Fast Track, Advanced Reservations, Yearly Tune-Up, and Complete Set Up.

Personal Training allows ProCare members to schedule free one-hour training sessions up to once per week. The training covers Apple hardware and software, although Pro Apps training will not be supported at all locations. Fast Track gives ProCare members priority repairs and access to the Genius Bar. Fast Track repairs are moved to top of the repair queue, and while this frequently will mean same-day or next-day repair, Apple is guaranteeing neither.

ProCare members will also be able to book reservations for the Genius Bar or Studio up to one week in advance online through the Concierge Web interface for their store. A new Yearly Tune-Up will also be offered to ProCare members once per year. The Tune-Up, which normally costs almost as much as the ProCare membership itself, involves a Mac Genius running anti-virus and disk repair utilities on the system, as well as other maintenance tasks.

Lastly, Complete Setup gives ProCare members the opportunity to have a Mac Genius transfer data from their old computer to their new Mac free of charge. The older system must be running Windows 98 or Mac OS 8.5 or later and have an Ethernet port.

Apple is setting attach rate goals of 20 percent for the new ProCare; that is, a store is expected to sell ProCare for at least 20 percent of customers who buy Macs.

My feelings? Meh, neutral.. we will see.

Severe Delusions and Intense Psychosis!
On Febuary 16, 2006 I posted about John C. Dvorak who thinks Apple will ditch Mac OS X for Microsoft's Windows. Well The Joy of Tech is also having some fun with that story. I leave you with my last feeling... Laughter and joy! :D

A Happy MacAddict!!

2006-02-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hello readers, if you can't see it, I'm smiling from ear to ear. Why do you ask?? {Fire Marshal Bill Voice} WELL LET ME SHOW YA SOMETHING!!

Seeing that makes my heart go pitter-patter.... the Joy (one single tear slowly comes over my cheak). It seems Apple has served DMCA notice to OSx86 project. Oh Happy joy. According to Mac News network(MacNN):

"Apple is moving to prevent further discussion of running its Mac OS X operating system on generic Intel-based machines. Apple's legal team has notified OSx86 Project--a site dedicated to getting Mac OS X running on machines not non-Apple-branded machines--that it is in violation of the US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), forcing the site to close down its user forms and post notice[...]Apple has gone through extensive efforts to develop and install technology to prevent users from running Mac OS X on computers other than Macs; however, hackers have been able to successfully work around many of the security mechanisms in the operating system and recently posted instructions and discussion of how to alter Mac OS X 10.4.4 to run on generic Intel's"

Sadly, although the site remains online, its forums have been taken offline. If you don't know the DMCA is a United States copyright law that criminalizes the release of technology developed to circumvent copyright protection.

The OSx86 Project’s coordinators have claimed their site “is fully compliant with the DMCA,” and “intends only to provide a forum for those interested in running OS X on Intel hardware.”

Ya right, try to sound innocent now. What happened to the praise of hacker God Maxxuss?
What, no poems today???

All in all they are not the ony dumb asses out there, The iPod Observer has posted that the "RIAA is once again trying to assert that ripping a CD and space-shifting it to your iPod is not a noninfringing use (fair use) of the music you have bought."
Bottom line of what they are saying is putting music from a CD you paid for to your computer is fine, but putting that music on a iPod after putting it on your computer is illegal.

So you wanna play a disk on you home system and also your iPod? They want you to buy 2 CD's. This helps stop the illegal downloads how?? This makes people want to download music because nobody is gonna buy 2 copy's of the same CD.

Damn, more people that get paid for dumb ass idea's.

Well it's Frag Friday!!
SO COME ON OVER TO THE DARKSIDE SERVER FOR SOME CTF FUN!!!

MAC VIRUS RUUNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

2006-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

Well if these two pieces of junk, what some people get paid for, and call reporting, these two sites should get pulitzer's for the worst ever in reporting.

It's bad enough we have crack pots like John C. Dvorak who think Apple will ditch Mac OS X for Microsoft's Windows! In which this dumb asses "evidence" is mostly based on claims that no one's switching over to the Mac. Hmmm, where does this crack pot get his info?? Apparently, he didn't see that Apple has doubled its U.S. market share last year, and is trying hard to keep up on all it's Mac orders. I mean if nobody is switching, then why are Mac unit sales and market share rising?

Also why would Apple want to trash OSX to go to a OS that the government can't even use and keep secure?

"The US government alleges that between February 2001 and March 2002, the 40-year-old computer enthusiast from North London hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers," Boyd reports. "It says his hacking caused some $700,000 dollars worth of damage to government systems. What's more, they allege that Mr McKinnon altered and deleted files at a US Naval Air Station not long after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and that the attack rendered critical systems inoperable. The US government also says Mr McKinnon once took down an entire network of 2,000 US Army computers. His goal, they claim, was to access classified information."

McKinnon admits "that he hacked into dozens of US government computer systems. In fact, he calmly detailed just how easy it was to access extremely sensitive information in those systems. 'I found out that the US military use Windows,' said Mr McKinnon in that BBC interview. 'And having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly.' Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So, he simply hacked into them," Boyd reports."

Doesn't that story want you to run out and get windows XP? There are a lot of columnist's who sound like they know what's best for Apple or any other large corporation, but while they sit there with there $40,000 a year jobs, and hand out 2¢ opinions like this, and Steve has a major multi-milion dollar corparation to run, and is doing it successfully I might add. I'll go with Steve, till he proves other wise.

But lets get back to the headline, which first started in the MacRumors forums.

"On the evening of the 13th, an unknown user posted an external link to a file on MacRumors Forums claiming to be the latest Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 screenshots. The file was named "latestpics.tgz"

The resultant file decompresses into what appears to be a standard JPEG icon in Mac OS X but is actually a compiled Unix executable in disguise. An initial disassembly (from original discussion thread) reveals evidence that the application is virus-like or was designed to give that impression. Routines listed include:

_infect:
_infectApps:
_installHooks:
_copySelf:

The exact consequences of the application are unclear, but according to the users that originally executed the application have noted that it appeared to self propogate:
If anyone remembers last night, when lasthope spread that picture that opened in terminal. I just turned on my other computer and it said it had an incoming file, from my computer, which was the latest pics file. Any help. I have already secure deleted it off of my harddrive, but how do i know that it will not come back.

Andrew Welch who had done some of the initial disassembly is posting updates to this thread.

According to the initial investigation, the application uses Spotlight to find the other applications on the infected machine and subsequently inserts a stub of code into each application executable.

Update: It appears that there is some debate about the classification of this application, and as it does require user activation, it appears to fall into the Trojan classification, rather than self-propogating through any particular vulnerability in OS X.

Update #2: The most recent updates show that the file does send itself to other users in your AIM/iChat buddy list."

This really was just a terminal executable disguised with a different icon. It seems it just types "suspicious words"
_infect:
_infectApps:
_installHooks:
_copySelf:

but I think Andrew from the Ambrosia explains it best here. I think MDN says it best "This is what it's come to: making up a Mac OS X "virus" where none exists".

But that doesn't stop knuckle heads like John Leyden from The Register UK from writing junk like this:

"Antivirus researchers have discovered what's claimed to be the first computer Trojan to infect Apple Mac OS X computers. The malware, dubbed Leap-A, spreads via the iChat instant messaging system as a file called latestpics.tgz that infected machines send to contacts on an infected user's buddy list.

The malicious file, which poses as a set of pictures, is a compressed Unix shell program. The user is prompted for admin credentials to launch the malicious code, which is better described as a Trojan than a virus. Mac OS X users who do this will find their machines infected.

Mac viruses were relatively common at the dawn of personal computing, but these days the overwhelming majority of viruses are Windows specific. Leap-A shows other platforms are also vulnerable."

Mac viruses were common? what the hell is this guy smoking??

You want the short version of what Andrew wrote?

You cannot be infected by this unless you do all of the following:
1) Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the "latestpics.tgz" file
2) Double-click on the file to decompress it
3) Double-click on the resulting file to "open" it
...and then for most users, you must also enter your Admin password.

It does not exploit any security holes; rather it uses "social engineering" to get the user to launch it on their system. It requires the admin password if you're not running as an admin user. It doesn't actually do anything other than attempt to propagate itself via iChat. It has a bug in the code that prevents it from working as intended, which has the side-effect of preventing infected applications from launching. It's not particularly sophisticated.

Remember You cannot simply catch a trojan as you would a virus. This is not the first Mac OS X trojan and I'm certain it won't be the last. Use common sense, Do not install and run applications from untrusted sources and Do not run Mac OS X as "root."

Sophos, Symantec, McAfee and Intego have all added the code’s description to their Mac anti-virus software files.

There are always malicious people out there looking to harm or misguide people, weather it be a PC or Mac user. Look at the Fake invite sent out by a user in Germany to Mac News reports.

Macnn reports:

"A fake invite today was sent out by a user in Germany. The hoax invite, which read and looked like a real Apple-sanctioned event, was sent to several Mac websites and touted a 'special event' with U2 lead Bono. The fake red invitation said "Please join Steve and Bono" for an "invitation-only event" at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco on March 1st at 10 am. The invite also offered the words "Together we can fight it." Several reports had speculated on a special red iPod from Apple to help Bono's fight against AIDS. "U2's Bono may partner with Apple on a new red iPod in the near future to help promote a new project to battle AIDS. The charity is designed to raise money to help finance the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in Africa, and hopes to convince the world's largest companies to release special red-branded products while offering a portion of the profits to the fund." [updated]

The invite came with the following headers:

Received-SPF: neutral (216.22.45.54 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of webmaster@felixbruns.de)
Received: (qmail 63576 invoked by uid 89); 15 Feb 2006 16:53:36 -0000
Delivered-To: xxxxxx@macnn.com
Received: (qmail 63346 invoked from network); 15 Feb 2006 16:53:13 -0000
Received: from s169.evanzo-server.de (62.67.235.169)
by macnn.com with SMTP; 15 Feb 2006 16:53:13 -0000
Received: (from wwwrun@localhost)
by s169.evanzo-server.de (8.11.3/8.11.3/SuSE Linux 8.11.1-0.5) id k1FGrDl09934;
Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:53:13 +0100
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:53:13 +0100"

This is the pic of the fake invite

As quoted form Macnn "Many websites that initially reported the event have since pulled their stories without any correction, retraction, or other note." LoopRumors was one of them.
I give praise for a reporter to "man up" to any mistakes that may come from bad information.

Apple Updates 10.4 Plus More!

2006-02-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Apple released 10.4.5 for the Power PC(PPC) and Intel-based Macs. The update is a small one, weighing in at 6.4MB. The PPC version comes as a small standalone updater and a as a combo updater that allows you to completely update from any version of 10.4

Improvements

This update offers many improvements, including:

Internet, iDisk, and networking

Safari no longer quits unexpectedly when deleting AOL mail messages via AOL webmail.

Apple's IPSec VPN client now works with Cisco servers whether or not NAT is used.

Addresses an issue in which you could not sync with an iDisk larger than 4 GB.

Files copied across a network via Portable Home Directories are now copied as temporary files until the transfer is complete, in case the network connection is interrupted before the transfer finished.

Addresses an issue in which some Epson printers could not successfully print via AirPort Extreme.

Other

Allows the rotating cube effect to appear as expected on both a primary and a mirrored display, when switching users via Fast User switching.

Addresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.4.4 in which background columns of text within the RSS Visualizer screen saver are sometimes superimposed over one another.

Dragging a widget out of the widget bar while the desktop picture is changing (automatically, for example) no longer stops the animation on an Intel-based Mac.

On an Intel-based Mac, Telestream Flip4Mac now installs correctly.

Prevents the Setup Assistant from unexpectedly quitting if Kotoeri is selected as the keyboard type following an English language installation of Mac OS X.

Allows applications that run using Rosetta on an Intel-based Mac to successfully open files that are located via an Open window's "search" field.

Addresses an issue in which Rosetta-translated applications running on Intel-based Macs would not correctly receive Keychain notifications.

Console no longer reports a series of "Quartz Composer QuickTime Component" messages for iMovie '06 when applying a Ken Burns clip or image.

Addresses an issue for iMovie HD and Mac OS X 10.4.4 in which iMovie could unexpectedly quit when switching themes.

Updated the rules for time zones and Daylight Savings Time to conform to changes in the law for the United States, Australia, and other locations, for 2006 and later.

Addresses a potential issue that could cause the system process "configd" to unexpectedly stall.

Addresses an issue when viewing streaming media behind a firewall on Intel Macs.

Eliminates some potential video redraw issues when using Front Row on Intel-based Macs.

Apple also released a PPC standalone server updater.

As always I say before updating

1)Boot your computer from the 10.4 DVD (holding down the "C" while computer boots up)

2)Go to Utilities and do Repairs on the Hard drive and repairs on permissions

3) restart your computer

4) install update and restart

5) Open Disk Utilities from your Hard drive (not the DVD) and Repair permissions.

6) Restart computer

Apple Special Event March 1st?

Loop Rumors is quoted as saying

"Apple announced a special event today with 'house band' U2 lead singer Bono. "Please join Steve and Bono" for an invitation-only event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on March 1st at 10 am. The event also offers the words "Together we can fight it." On January 30th LoopRumors told you of a special red iPod that was set to be announced for charity"

I will look further into this....
*update*
loop rumors has deleted the post. Guess ther ws no truth to it

More Speed For PowerBooks!
Well if you have a G4 PowerBook, Daystar Technology announced the availability of 1.92GHz and 2.0GHz processor upgrades for the Aluminum PowerBook G4. The XLR8 MAChSpeed G4 Aluminum upgrade service includes a box for shipping, factory installation and testing, and return shipping of your PowerBook. The service is available for 15 and 17-inch PowerBooks with original processor speeds ranging from 1.0GHz up to 1.5GHz, and is priced starting at US$499.

But now you ask, why should I upgrade my Aluminum PowerBook G4 and not just get a new MacBook Pro? Well maybe because

1) The software you need is not native yet
2)You have everything just like you like it on your Powerbook
3) Or maybe it's because the MacBook Pro has not been tested to -50C (-58F) like this one.

The photo shows Nicolas Vanier testing the limits of his PowerBook in a industrial fridge in order to validate his notebook before bringing it with him towards Siberia and its polar temperatures. This is of course way below the official certifications provided by Apple (from 10°C/50F).

Thiefs At It Again
Of coarse they are some that just don't get it when it comes to OSX and owning a Mac. Those of you who read this blog know how I feel about the osx86project. Bunch of asswipe thiefs trying to get OSX to run on a PC (windows) box. So now hacking guru Maxxuss has announced preliminary patches for Apple's latest release of OS X for Intel, version 10.4.4.

From Maxxuss's site:

"This is a preliminary release of my Patch Solution for the official Mac OS X on the Intel platform. Consider it a work-in-progess for now. Ultimately, it would allow you to run this Mac OS X release on a generic x86 computer (SSE2 required).
There's still a lot of work to do, like support for SSE2-only CPUs, a proper installation procedure and a PPF patch. However, if you like to play around, this will get you started."

Of coarse the guys at the osx86project where eating this up:

"What this means is that Apple’s best attempts to secure their OS have, ultimately, failed. For its best efforts, the company is unable to lock OS X to their hardware. Without doubt, this will have profound impacts on the company’s future as running OSx86 on a PC becomes less a hacker’s trick and more mainstream. When all it requires is the downloading of a DVD, that’s certainly the future we’re looking at.

This also opens a host of new questions for Apple, OS X, and the PC users who love it. Will this mark the beginning of Apple’s legal endeavors to keep OS X locked down? Will it persuade Steve Jobs that releasing his OS is an insanely great idea?"

For years I have heard the sound of some PC users always saying how Mac's suck, now all of a sudden we have "PC users who love it"? Where all this love come from?

First, let me tell ya, most users are not willing to go through all the hassle, plus with also no support from Apple there is a great possibility of crashes and data loss. And to top it off, a patch slash hack, that is made from a hacker that could have a it's own type of rootkit able to steal your credit card numbers. If I was a PC user I would be super suspicious and leave this alone. Just buy a Mac!

But I also find it funny how the same guy also says:

a few pieces of OS X look for a secret message in “commpage” that gets decrypted via the TPM… basically a decoder ring for geeks. It seems that Apple wasn’t just content with sending an obvious message – they wanted one that sounded pretty too.

Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he'd do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don't steal Mac OS!
Really, that's way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc."

But then again the guys at the osx86project prove how all they are, are thiefs & hacks who praise themselves with thier poem,

"Rime of the Ancient Hacker
There once was a hacker named Maxxuss
who Steve did not think was a genius.
But Steve pondered awhile,
grabbed the phone with a smile,
and said “Bill, there’s a thing to discuss…”

How sad.

YML
It's wednesday, time for Your Mac Life! Today
iStockphoto.com, Blackberrys & an iPod nano Prize!
iStockphoto was recently purchased, lock, stock and photo frames by Getty Images of Seattle. Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto's VP of Marketing, will join Your Mac Life to talk about the takeover and what it means for their users.

Jim Dalrymple is the head honcho at MacCentral.com and a fellow Gadget Geek. His latest toy is the Blackberry and he'll be on Your Mac Life to compare and contrast his new Blackberry with is old Treo 650.

Your Mac Life's Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week.

Your Mac Life's favorite "Anonymous Donor" has appeared again. This time, he or she wants to give away a brand new 1 gig iPOd nano to a lucky listener. Tune in tonight to find out how you can win!

You can watch the video or just the plan audio feed.

YML starts at 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET. See you guys in the IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

MacBook Pros on the Way!!

2006-02-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

Apple today announced they will be shipping Macbok pro's next week! But as a added bonus they will get a speed bump at no extra cost. The specs on the MacBook Pros go from 1.67GHz and 1.83GHz to 1.83GHz for the low-end and 2.0GHz for the high-end model. You can also have a build-to-order MacBook pro with a processor as fast as 2.16 GHz .

So that means that everybody's orders will automatically be upgraded to the higher specs.

In addition to being able to upgrade the processor as a build-to-order option, customers can also upgrade to several other components including a 120GB (5400 rpm) or a 100GB (7200 rpm) hard drive. the can also get up to 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, and a Apple USB modem. Also if you buying a MacBook Pro, make sure to get the AppleCare Protection Plan, it's worth the money.

Some think they can resist from buying a Mac. But in the end you know you want one. Shoot advertisers like Macs so much they are willing to pay someone to show a powerbook with a windows OS on it.

Or just plan altering the computer itself, like this iBook with only one USB connection on the left side

*pics from jackwhispers.blogspot.com

But with the possibilty of seeing a quad-core chip, (codenamed Tigerton) in a Intel-based Mac Tower would make anybody drool. So far Intel CTO Justin Rattner told reporters on Friday that Intel will release a quad-core chip (codenamed Clovertown) which will also be manufacturered on a 65-nanometer processes, in early 2007 -- possibly starting revenue shipments as early as late 2006.

Things like this can make windows user do a double take and consider more towards buying a Mac. I mean you already love your iPod, This New York Times writer was willing to take his chances with death to get his iPod back. Some people are willing to go this far. Guys will go further if they have Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue on their video abled iPod. You will be able to get any of the eight specially produced videos from the iTunes music store for $1.99 each. Or even download content to a cellphone.

Since I mentioned phones, let me mention the release I'm sure you all have seen the ad on TV about, the new Motorola SLVR L7.
You can get your hands on the latest motorola phone with iTunes for the price of $200 plus a two-year contract. Jim Puls of The Tartan online (carnegie Mellon's student newspaper) says:

"For an incredibly slick gadget, though, there are some shortcomings. First and foremost is the ridiculously slow speed of music transfers. The phone uses USB 1.1, a standard at least five years out of date, and it’s limited to 12 megabits per second. Transferring 100 songs — an already small number by most standards — takes nearly an hour, compared to two to three minutes on a real iPod... A second shortcoming is the lack of integration between the iTunes player on the phone and the rest of the phone’s software. iTunes is, very literally, an add-on program to this phone."

"People who want a nice phone that can secondly play small amounts of music, however, will find it hard to go wrong with the SLVR L7. This phone, despite its shortcomings, adds very nice functionality to an almost unbeatable physical form,"

Too bad the SLVR costs as much as a 30 gig iPod (without a contract) and gets you a rather lackluster iTunes experience. Even iLounge gives the SLVR a B-, saying:

"Pros: An aesthetically sleek and thin combination of wireless phone and 512MB iTunes music player that boasts better-than-average battery life, and in-call performance. Like its predecessor ROKR E1, plays back MP3 or AAC tracks without complaint, offers partial Bluetooth compatibility, an integrated camera and limited data features. Played music for more than 20 continuous hours in our testing.

Cons: Other than phone’s much-improved body, there’s nothing new here: its software looks and feels almost identical to what came with Motorola’s phones two years ago. iTunes experience continues to suffer by comparison with all screened iPods (including $149 models) on many levels, including slow/poor features, interface, file transfer speeds and equalization. Storage is artificially capped at 100 songs regardless of their actual size - fewer than any iPod, including shuffle - though the phone costs as much as a 30GB iPod unless you simultaneously commit to a phone contract. "

You see everybody wants a piece of Apple's music program( music store, mp3 players, etc..). Everybody knows the iTunes with it's Music Store is a awesome app. They like it so much some will even copy it, add a little here and there and call it Songbird.

Sorry just looks like a iTunes wanna be. If it's something fresh & new, use your own ideas. Copying stuff like Microsoft does shows how un-imaginative you are. Open source or not.

Microsoft wants to follow now a days, not lead. Look how they now will have Motorola use Windows Media technology from Microsoft in a new range of music phones that would sell alongside its iTunes phone developed with Apple.

Microsoft is now trying to break into the digital media market with their Windows Media software which is incompatible with Apple's. So far the other music stores are failing, and doing this now just looks like a very steep uphill battle for Microsoft. Microsoft does have deals with both Nokia and Motorola, and they will need them both to compete with Apple in the moble music market.

It's Frag Friday!!

2006-02-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

My headline reminds me of the Unreal Tournament 99(UT 99) days when the writers of MacAddict magazine would play UT 99 with their readers. MacAddict had it's own clan [MA], and the server was packed everyday with good players like HellSpawn, Caveman, MoofMeal, Candyman, NoX, and even my son Driven. It was a blast! A time when there was no aimbots (atleast not on that server), guys where civil, and it was all about having fun.

It's sad to see now how the aimbotting, bad additudes and fowl mouths has grown. Some players want servers and admins to be like burger king and "have it my way". All they wanna do is bitch about the server or admins when they (the player) do dumb shit like camp, use aliases, stand around and bitch about other players instead of playing the game.

Some players now a days wanna stand in a corner and bitch while taking a spot that a player wanting to play could be using. There are some "good" players out there that wanna whine when told to use a nick. I ask you why not use your real nick you would use on TeamWarfare League™ (TWL)?, I only see one reason, so they wanna alias, do B.S. stuff on servers, say it was not them because most players don't wanna stop, type "mutate antitcc whois (persons nick) " during a match to find out who the player is. So when they get kicked, (because I do take the time) they bitch.

They want to be able to camp spawning spots or weapon spots near where a person spawns so they can get a easy kill then bitch when they get told to stop or get kicked. Then try and rally people behind there bullshit cause who most likely did not see what happend or where kicked themselfs for pulling the same crap.

There are some players who have made botting a art by being able to turn it on or off at will. So because nobody likes multiple checks during the game because it can delay you from preventing a cap in capture the flag (CTF), the checks are only in the beginning and in the end of the game leaving a match open for presistant haxor botter.

Me for the most part am a thick skin and forgiving person, most people first get kicked or get banned for a day. but I can also be the biggest hard ass if pushed too far. So it's always in a players best intrest not to mouth off to any admin on any server if you want to continue playing on that server. And to talk about hacking a server:

Pipo:Heres the to do list:
hax darkside killing it for a week
have everyone go play on aua
bann all the trash that should've stayed on darkside
win.

just because you don't like the rules just proves how childish some players have become. So far there are only 3 people banned from the Darkside server I admin on, and one of those may be a mistake and may be unbanned soon. So the player who's nick is "Cafe'" needs to stop with the lies:

Quote from: emc.johnnie on Feb 09, 2006, 05:23 pm
who got banned that a thread was made?

cafe':Well obviously I did, as well as 6 other people in one fucking day. Hes a bad admin and seems to have total confidence in his playing ability, because to him everyone is a cheater.

I have seen a lot of very good players (Esco, Zipknob, Candyman, RIP, etc) I have speced them and played against them as well, they make some eye opening shots and moves, but I never called them cheaters. So all the BS talk "because to him everyone is a cheater" is the bullshit you talk to get people to back up your lies. I hear some people say "I know that player does not cheat". Well I say half you guys don't know whether you best friend eats pussy or sucks dick! So if you don't know what's in a players .ini file... shut the fuck up!!

I'm sorry the AUA server is not full a lot, but I would guess when and if it does on a constant basis your admin zach will find out how much of a problem some players who don't even pay for the server can be.

I remember guys bitching about paragon's server when he had his rules, calling him "hitler". Some people like I said wanna be childish and have things "there way". Sorry life is just not that way and if you don't pay for the server, your Shit Out of Luck(SOL). But sorry, when a player comes in gets over 200 kills, a plus net of 75, in less than 20 minutes match, on a non-spammy map I get suspicious. Sorry I'm from N.Y.C. that's just how I am.

I also always find it intresting when I see such good players unwilling to mix teams up to make a match more enjoyable. That's one of the points of trying to get players to use their real nicks, and players using good sportsmenship in the match willing to change teams to make a match more enjoyable. Reather then having one sided beat downs.

The game was made to have fun, not to boost you personal ego, and give other players a hard time. That's why I miss the MacAddict [MA] and Cains Lair {CLR}UT servers. Good players with the attidude the game was ment to be played in.

Me, I'm just a admin trying to make the game fun for everyone.

This Rant was brought to you by {RA}CG5Addict which got it's start from Cafe's post found here. Ah, the internet, the place some guys like (Pipo, Cafe', and VipaDawg) can talk shit and not worry about a 6'3" 245 pound Puerto Ricen knocking at there door.

/end rant

Anyway, for those good players who want to play on a good server...
Come to The Darkside. (69.93.100.55:7777)
Frag on Baby!!

Rumors, News, & Updates

2006-02-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

I'm diiffernt, so i'll start with the updates.

Apple yesterday released the latest version of its backup software for .Mac users, Backup 3.1 through Software Update. You can also get it here from Version Tracker. According to the release notes, the update delivers added support for some backup destinations and addresses file restoration and other issues. Backup 3.1, which is now a universal application, is recommended for all users of Backup 3.0.

Significant areas addressed in the release include: improved support for iDisk, local hard drives, and some network destinations (Mac OS X Tiger only); new iWeb QuickPick and updated iLife plan; and fixes to issues with restoring files.

Adobe updated Acrobat 7.07 and Acrobat Reader 7.07. The Acrobat 7.07 update is available for both Professional,Standard editions, and also for it's free Reader, bringing new functionality, bug fixes, and security updates. You can Update through Acrobat's internal updater or here for the free version, or here for the Pro & Standard versions of Acrobat 7.07.

Postal 2

Ryan Gordon has updated Postal 2, it's also been patched to support Apple's new line of iMacs. The patch fixes a number of other Mac-specific issues with the game and adds support for the Apocalypse Weekend expansion pack.

Postal 2 is a crazy game, or as MacWorld has put it

"The game has been widely reviled — even banned in some countries — for its ribald, irreverent sense of humor and its lampooning of everything from anti-video game violence groups to racial minorities. But it’s also rich with tongue-in-cheek satire and pop culture references. (Former child star Gary Coleman even makes an appearance.)"

Here's a breakdown of the changes:

• Postal 2 is now a "Universal" (PowerPC and Intel) binary.
• Stencil buffer support added (fixes mirrors not reflecting).
• Other rendering fixes and enhancements from UT2004.
• Fixed some memory corruption crashes.
• Updated OpenAL (again) with several (more) fixes.
• Disabled mmap() for file i/o (fixes out of memory issues).
• Fixed karma crashes, usually seen in Apocalypse Weekend.
• Updated OpenAL with several fixes.
• Launching a dedicated server from the game now works.
• Apocalypse Weekend support (expansion pack sold seperately!)

You can get it here.

Apple has posted the video trailer (Quicktime 7 required) of Blizzards upcoming expansion to it's massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. With more then 5.5 million players the expansion called Burning Crusade is sure to please it's users. It has a lot of extra's it's bringing to the game.

Here is just a partial list of what you can expect from the World of Warcraft expansion:
•An increase in the level cap to 70
•Two new playable races, including the magical Blood Elves
•New starting zones in Quel'Thalas and beyond
•The entire new continent of Outland, reachable through the Dark Portal
•Many new high-level dungeons to explore in Azeroth, Outland, and elsewhere
•New flying mounts in Outland
•Many new and dangerous monsters, including epic world bosses
•Hundreds of new quests
•Hundreds of new items
•A new profession: Jewelcrafting
•Socketed items
And much, much more...

O.K. time for....
Rumors!
Think Secret has posted that Apple is nearing completion of a completely revamped video iPod that will shed the ubiquitous mechanical click wheel for a touch screen and will sport a 3.5-inch diagonal display.

"This video iPod, which has been in development and on the table since before Apple released the 5G iPod last year with video playback, will feature a display that will occupy the entire front face of the device. Sources who have seen the device report that it features a digital click wheel, one that overlays the touch-sensitive display and appears when a finger touches it and disappears when the finger is removed."

People like Charles Wolf of Needham & Co. seem to think that Apple may be planning a birthday bash (April 1, Apple's 30th birthday) as a time and place to release exciting new products, like an Intel-based iBook as well as the "real" video iPod.

To support his predictions, Wolf said his conviction that a Video iPod will be introduced stems from two events. The first is that the company is rapidly increasing the video content available at the iTunes Music Store. And reports coming out of Asia that Apple has materially reduced its orders of the iPod with video viewing capabilities that it introduced last October.

Wolf also noted that products Apple might introduce at its April event could extend beyond the Intel iBook and video iPod. The analyst noted that an Intel-based Mac mini destine for the living room may also be in the cards.

Think Secret is also saying that "Apple's upcoming midtown Manhattan retail store will mark a first for the company as sources report the location will be open 24 hours a day. The store, located in the underground retail plaza of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Street will also be among the first stores to offer customers an iPod Bar.

The 25,000-square-foot store will dwarf Apple's SoHo location and will be capped by a 32-foot glass cube that will stand in front of the building and house the stairs and elevators that will take customers underground to the Apple retail store."

By the way, if you are looking into getting a Intel-based Mac, Ted Landau has wriiten a article on MacFixit.com on software side of using a Intel-based Mac, not like most out there based on hardware.

Lastly more talk about Apple possibly buying palm from ARSTechnica. "Further driving the rumors of an Apple-Palm buyout are the recent spate of patents that Apple has been furiously acquiring in recent years. From failed attempts to patent the iPod interface, to integrated cameras in laptop latches, as well as a mysterious application last year for an

"electronic device" that looks suspiciously like a Tablet PC, Apple has been busy thinking about the next generation of its consumer devices. A few years back, Apple stirred the rumors of a reintroduction of the Newton by including an updated version of its handwriting technology, now called Inkwell, in OSX."

Also for those of you who can't get enough of vaporware, wired.com has given Duke Nukem Forever the No1 spot...again! From their page:

It's back! By popular demand, the winner of the 2005 Vaporware Awards is 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, the loooooooooooooong-awaited sequel to its popular Duke Nukem game.

What else could we do? Readers overwhelmingly voted the MIA title the vaporware champion.

The game came second in the 2000 Vaporware Awards, and won in 2001 and 2002. In 2003 we gave it a Lifetime Achievement Award, just to get it off the list.

But incredibly, the company says it's still in development -- nearly nine years after it was first announced. The official release date is "when it's done," according to the company's website.

I just love some of the comments from readers on the wired.com webpage about Duke Nukem Forever!

"Reader Greg Gemignani wrote: "Announced in 1997 and promised every year since, this game takes vaporware to new heights. Think about it, in just 13 months this game will have been in one form of development or another for a decade. This project started with a game based on the Quake 2 engine, then in 1999 it moved to the Unreal engine and has been stalled ever since. The 3D Realms site still lists it as the first game on its products page, the site still claims it will be released, and the FAQ on the game was updated early this year. Shouldn't Duke Nukem Forever get some place of honor for maintaining vaporware status for nearly a decade, particularly in the fast-paced market of FPS video games?"

Reader Tomas Björklund asked: "What other product can really compete with a product that was supposed to come out last millennium?!"

And reader Robert Danzinger said: "It's been in development for almost a fucking decade now. Give 3D Realms a medal or something."

*thanks Peek for the heads up

Did I miss the News part? naw it's mixed in there ;)

Things To Look For

2006-02-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well today I was surfing and found a few things to look out for. As you all know there have been rumors about Apple possibly making a tablet. Well this video shows several images showing some of the touch screen patents that Apple owns.It contains some interesting footage on just how these patents could be used and also shows what you could possible do with it.

The Power6
IBM it seems is kicking speed bumps high, like up to 6GHz in their labs. IBM thinks that some process technology breakthroughs have allowed them to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.

IBM claims to have made major performance gains by stretching and squeezing silicon and using insulation techniques.Internal IBM roadmaps once showed that the chip might arrive in 2006, But a mid 2007 delivery date looks most likely.

Oxford Analytica:Apple Broadcasts Into The Future
Apple has been doing great with getting the iPod & iTunes to help get new users to the Mac platform. Yesterday Apple said its iTunes Music Store had sold 12 million videos. Recently networks even began crediting iTunes with increasing viewership.

Now Oxford Analytica has some opinions to express:

"Over the past 18 months, Apple Computer has introduced the concept of podcasting on an enormous scale. While in itself this was not a new method for delivering digital content over the Internet, when combined with growth in the popularity of Apple hardware and the success of its iTunes software, it may signal a shift in the market for digital entertainment and home computing.

The iPod has helped Apple recover from a battle it largely lost with Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) and the PC industry. While it accounts for only around 5% of desktop and laptop users, the popularity of the iPod may fuel rising demand for its other systems. Podcasting is possible with both PCs and Apple computers. However, Apple systems are likely to become increasing popular for home users for various of reasons:

-- Security issues that have plagued Microsoft in recent years tend not to affect Apple software.

-- Apple has always led the way in the design of computer hardware and software.

-- Apple's design approach ensures ease of use and hardware/software compatibility for consumers.

Competition for the iPod may come from a number of quarters:

-- Sellers of competing MP3 players have caught on to the design appeal Apple offers and have redesigned their products, with varying degrees of success.

-- More serious competition comes from mobile-phone manufacturers, who already offer music and limited video content to users.

Competition is likely to intensify in this market, and Apple's continued success and growth will depend on its ability to access the home-entertainment market.

Technological changes, sophisticated timing and branding, and increased consumer receptiveness to high-quality designs of hardware and software have fueled Apple's resurgence. Continued innovation is likely. The interest in podcasting will only increase Apple's market share in the coming years."

Apple also helps out while bring new things to your living room, Apple's iTunes is offering a new exclusive single to raise money for victicms of hurricane Katrina. On Tuesday, Apple began promoting a new Exclusive Charity EP by members of REM (Michael Stipe) and Coldplay.

"Michael Stipe and special guests including Chris Martin of Coldplay and Justin Timberlake have re-recorded Joseph Arthur's song "In the Sun," and the only place you'll find it is on iTunes. All the proceeds from sales of this exclusive EP will be donated to the In The Sun Foundation, which was established by Stipe for the purpose of helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina."

Of coarse some always look for flaws in Apple or OSX. I'm skeptical when I see people say something and are unwilling to give there names.

Board Games
For those who like to play board games on your computer, Freeverse updated Big Bang Board Games to version 2.2.3 as a Universal Binary. This updates Big Bang Checkers, Big Bang Chess, Big Bang Backgammon and Big Bang Mancala so that they can be run on Intel Macs.

Big Bang Board Games are recipients of an Apple Design Award, and integrate fully with GameSmith, iTunes, Mail & Address Book, iChat and your iSight camera.
You can download them here.

Lastly
It's Wednesday! Time to tune into You Mac Life! This week on Your Mac Life,Etymotics, "Where is Ben?" & an iPod nano Prize!"

Dr Mead Killion is the Founder of Etymotics Research. Etymotics has developed and patented some of the most innovative hearing technology available today. Their products are used worldwide by scientists, hearing practitioners, hearing-impaired consumers, professional and amateur musicians, and others who insist on superior sound quality. Dr Killion will talk about how their products work and Your Mac Life will have a set of Etymotics' earphones to give away to a lucky listener!

Ben Willmore describes himself as a "traveling Photoshop hack". He is so much more than that. Instructor, author, trainer and Inductee into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, Ben will be on Your Mac Life to talk about his latest adventure - selling everything he owns and traveling the US by motor coach for the next 2 years. Tune in tonight to hear how and why.

Your Mac Life's Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week.

You can watch the video feed or just listen to the audio feed.
You can listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET. You can also listen to past shows here.
Also if you don't know they also have a YML widget!
******************************* Click the picture*************************

Apple Billion in Music

2006-02-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Say that with me "Bil--lion" !
Apple has launched their iTunes Music Store Billion Songs Coundown!
As Apple gets to one billion, the person who downloads every 100,000th song will receive a black 4GB iPod nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card.

"If you're the lucky grand-prize winner who downloads the billionth song from the iTunes Music Store, you'll receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 60GB iPods, and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card to jumpstart your digital music collection. In addition, Apple will create a full-ride scholarship in your name to a world-renowned music school."

So get to buying!! :)

Also Apple has unveiled it's new 1GB iPod nano for just $149, offering the same features as the 2GB and 4GB iPod nano models and holding up to 240 songs or 15,000 photos.

The pricing for the iPod shuffle drops to $69 for 512MB & $99 for the 1GB.

It's all good now especially now that Corporation’s Showtime Networks (CBS) and Apple today announced that premium cable programming from SHOWTIME, including recent Golden Globe nominees “Sleeper Cell” and “Weeds," is now available on the iTunes Music Store.

Rosetta Compatibility listings & Speed issues
MacFixit has posted their latest update on Intel-based Macs running Rosetta "(#5)Latest application compatibility listings; Speed issues"

VLC Media Player -- compatible
Splinter Cell -- compatible
Adobe GoLive -- compatible, but slow
Change Desktop -- incompatible
iTerm -- compatible with cavea
Office applications slow to quit
Marine Aquarium -- incompatible
Adobe InDesign -- display bu
Azureus -- Universal release now available
MT Newswatcher 3.4 -- compatible but unstable
RCDefault -- incompatible

They also note that extra RAM is crucial to performance when running under Rosetta to get acceptable performance. Sayin that "1 GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot for most Rosetta-reliant applications."

Also World of Warcraft has gone Intel-native!
Blizzard has today released the eagerly anticipated version 1.9.3 of World of Warcraft. The new version is a Universal Binary capable of running natively on PowerPC or Intel-based Macs.

According to MacWorld:

"Other changes in the 1.9.3 release include improvements to individual character classes including the Paladin, Rogue and Warrior; changes to Items, Professions, Quests and Reputation; improvements to Battlegrounds, Raid and Dungeons; and changes to the World Environment itself.

Blizzard cautions Mac users that World of Warcraft v1.9.3 requires Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later; the game will not launch on older versions of Mac OS X. World of Warcraft users will automatically be updated to the 1.9.3 version the next time they log on to the World of Warcraft servers."

Lastly
Intel unwrapped details of their next server chip at the International Solid State Circuits Conference taking place this week. The new chip called "Tulsa", is a dual-core Xeon server chip coming in the second half of the year.

They say the chip is all about performance. The chip will run at 3.4GHz, faster than the 3GHz Xeon chip (formerly code-named Paxville) on the market today. Tulsa also comes with a 16MB unified cache, a large reservoir of memory on the chip for rapid data access. This means that each of the cores can access data from the entire cache. Presently, Intel and AMD dual-core chips sport segregated caches; dual-core chips from IBM come with a unified cache.
(Homer Voice) Hmmm, Quad-core 3.4GHz Tower......

I'm Back!!

2006-02-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

O.K. After a small hiatus, not a fun one to say the least (moving). I'm back! Changed from Verizon DSL who said after over 4 years with their DSL service said they had no space for me in a home only 3.2 miles away. To Adelphia Cable internet. So I want from 1.5mbps(megabits per second) download/348kbps(kilobit per second) upload (on a good day), to 6mbps download/ 768kbps upload.

*Note:Many people confuse mbps with megabytes per second. A megabyte is just over one million bytes of data (1,048,576) and is abbreviated as MB/sec. It takes eight megabits to equal one megabyte. So 8 mbps (megabits per second) = 1 MB/sec (megabytes per second). So now I'm getting a lttle over 1/2MB/second.

Plan english, it's way faster!!

Well while I was offline I have seen a couple of things have happened, let's get to it.

MacSoft on Friday announced the release of an update to its first person shooter Unreal Tournament 2004. It provides a Universal Binary which runs natively on Macs equipped with Intel CPUs.

The patch was developed by Epic Games programmer Ryan Gordon, who handled Unreal Tournament 2004’s Mac conversion. The 199mb update (version 3369.2)can be downloaded here.

From the Read Me:
"NOTABLE CHANGES OVER 3369 PATCH:
MacOS-specific:
• 3369.2: UT2004 is now a "Universal" (PowerPC and Intel) binary.
• 3369.2: Closed a dedicated server exploit.
• 3369.2: Added UT2004 Mega Pack.
• 3369.2: Fixed UseStencil.

So there is something there for PowerPC users.

In Apple news

Apple's online store as of Friday no longer lists the 17-inch 1.9GHz iMac G5 for sale.
Apple also cut the price of the 20-inch 2.1GHz iMac G5 by $200.

10.4.5 news?
Well it seems that Apple is now distributing to developers both Intel- and PowerPC-native versions of its upcoming Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update. It appears that builds in the "8Hx" are PowerPC-native and those in the "8Gx" are Intel-native.

The most recent known builds according to the Apple Insider are of build 8H12 for the PowerPC and build 8G1445 for Intel.

The potential for hearing loss lawsuit against Apple is getting more press then it deserves. Useless lawsuit like this just wastes taxpayer money. Plus this lawsuit is so dumb and is just a guy wanting to get money from a large company he see's has deep pockets. Plus many think something smells foul here. According to iPodding.com the attorney hired for this lawsuit is Steve W. Berman, who is on retainer at Microsoft.

But then again, there is always somebody doing something or just spreading bullshit about Apple just to get attention.
I read a couple of pages from consumeraffairs.com readers, they make it sound like Apple computers and service is crap. Of coarse they start off with saying

"The earnest entreaties of Apple adorers have been overwhelmed by the ripened stench emitted by the more than a few bad Apples we've been hearing about. As a consequence, we've hurled Apple out of the Good Guys paradise and into the Dellish Rogues Gallery."

A complete 360 to what is said by Consumer Reports, a place I trust more. In the December issue Consumer Reports had once again looked at the computer industry and rated hardware companies on their products. Apple Computer Inc. topped the charts in a couple of categories, including repair history and tech support.

Consumer Reports notes that satisfaction with tech support in the desktop computer market is one of the lowest rated services they measure. Since 2001 consumer satisfaction has continued to dwindle, but the report singles out Apple as providing its customer with above average support.

"In this atmosphere of low expectations, Apple Computer has actually raised its support satisfaction for the desktop computers over the past three years to levels well above all competitors, while offering the most reliable desktop hardware," the report says.

With so many of the other companies falling in tech support satisfaction, Consumer Reports concludes, "companies aren't investing enough in their support operations."

In contrast, for Apple the organizations says, "Apple's superiority in all aspects of support, including waiting on the phone and Web support, suggests that it invests its support resources wisely."

Overall, Apple scored 76/100 in tech support with Dell and Gateway tied for second with 57/100 -- HP and Compaq pulled up the rear with scores of 52/100 and 47/100 respectively.

For repairs and serious problems reported by consumers, Apple again had the best score with just over 10 percent of respondents reporting serious issues. Gateway had the worst record with slightly over 20 percent. Sony, Dell, IBM, HP and Compaq fell in between.
*sections of consumer reports article from Macworld.com

In any case we all know those guys are all dweebs because you gotta be hip to own a Mac!
Because this is the only way I will ever see a blue screen of Death

Who's Right?

2006-01-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well we have all seen and read about Macworld review (first look) at the iMac cure duo's. But Mac Speed Zone has a couple of questions about MacWorlds tests.

"In the first test, where there was just one file being encoded, the Intel iMac, on average, was using 87% of its processing capacity ... 13% was sitting around with nothing to do

On the other hand the Quad G5 Power Mac was using less than half its capacity, 42%. A full 58% was waiting for its dance card to be filled.

When we ran the two QuickTime encodes at the same time, processor usage moved to 87% for the Power Mac, and 100% for the Intel iMac. In other words the iMac was maxed out, and the Power Mac had 13% capacity left before it would really start to sweat.

This is where the Macworld "First Lab Tests" article falls a little flat ... obscuring the processor capacity vs processor usage problem inherent with mutiprocessor machines (or multi-core ... same difference). Using Macworld's logic we could argue, given the data above, the Quad G5 Power Mac is only 14% faster when running some of Apple's own applications. We think that this is misleading, as we pointed out."

The differance between a 1.8% faster and 194% in certain tests

"Below you will find our results of a comparison between an iMac G5/1.8GHz and the iMac Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz. Times are in seconds (except where noted), and the processor usage of each machine, for each test, is also given. Scores in dark orange are from applications that run natively on both Intel Macs and G5 Macs. The processor clock-speed difference between these two machines is 11%. The processor capacity difference is 122%."

WoW
All you World of Warcaft fan can read a article by New York times Seth Schiesel about Blizzards upcoming level called Naxxramas. Before the release of the expansion pack.

"Q. What can you tell me about Naxxramas?

A. Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring."

More Sports On iTunes!
There isnew programming from ESPN and ABC Sports. The new additions featured include Best of the X Games, featuring highlights from Winter X Games 9 in Aspen, Sports Century Shorts, featuring short clips about Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, Jeff Gordon and Dan Marino, some of the commercials from ESPN’s “This Is SportsCenter” campaign, and five episodes of Street Ball. This also gives a new home for the four BCS bowl game highlight videos that were added earlier this month.

Moving
I won't be online to post any updates for atleast 4-5 days, I'm moving (new home). So next monday I should be back with all your Mac news to give, with a little attitude!! See You Soon!!! Dont forget to Vote for my blog!! look to right top of the page and click that button!!

It's Friday Baby!!!!

2006-01-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

O.K. I was looking for new news in the Mac world when I came accross this by eweek called "Apple's Switch to Intel Could Allow OS X Exploits News Analysis". A news analysis?? Does this guy have a combination of "Stockholm Syndrome" and "cognitive dissonance? I was just ready to dig deep into Paul F. Roberts a-hole because even windows users know how Macs can save your ass when your in a pinch. But then I came across Tera Patricks (from mac360) article called Oprah winfrey needs to challenge eweek it spared me the ulser. Read it ya'll, good article!

O.K. like I said in the title, it's Friday baby, lets get on with some gaming news!
With "The average "gamer parent" spend(ing) 19 hours a month playing video games, and spend(ing) roughly half that time playing alongside kids," Macs taking 9 of the 10 spots on Amazon's Top Sellers list, (looked at 8am and 10am 1/27/06) UK's biggest retailer setting aside an area of its superstores for selling Macs, iPods and accessories. It's Nice to see software game makers making a grand move on making universal binaries of their games.

Also if your a Unreal Tournament 2004 player like myself, but have just brought a Intel based iMac, a universal binary version of ut2004 is on the way.
From Ryan Gordon website:

"Stop emailing me for a Universal Binary version of ut2004...my iMac will be
arriving soon, and I'll be finishing up the Intel version from there. So
if everything goes smoothly, you'll have it in a few days.

I love your enthusiasm, but please, stop emailing to ask for preview builds.
The answer is no.

But when it's available, this will be the first place I post news. Soon,
honest.

--ryan."

Sorry for a lot of link reading today, but it's Friday! So don't forget to join me on The Darkside Server! Frag On Baby!

Who The Hell Are You??

2006-01-26T00:23:00.000-08:00

That's what I kept saying out load everytime I read the commentary by Wired's Leander Kahney in their Cult of Mac section. Let me start by saying
1) I hate the word cult used for everybody who uses a Mac, and
2) I for am not a I bow down before you kind of guy. So if your sons not named Jesus Christ, it ain't... sorry Donna (my wife the professor) "is not" happening.

So forget the "Steve Jobs is my god" view you think you see because I love Apple products. But this "commentary" had me a little pissed with someone telling another how they should live their life and spend their money. I think that anyone who holds some lucritive job has the right to run his business and his personal life the way he sees fit. If they want to keep all their wealth, pour honey all over their body and jump into a pool full of $100 dollar bills that's just fine. They made it, "who the hell are you" to say what he should do with it??

But then again your "commentary" doesn't know which way to go does it?

"Of course, Jobs and his wife may be giving enormous sums of money to charity anonymously. If they are funneling cash to various causes in private, their names wouldn't show up on any lists, regardless of the size of their gifts.

For a person as private as Jobs, who shuns any publicity about his family life, this seems credible. If so, however, this would make Jobs virtually unique among moguls. Richard Jolly, chairman of Giving USA Foundation, said not all billionaires give their money away, but a lot do, and most do not do it quietly."

Hmm, is the thought of one billionaire who does not need to show off to the world how rich he is that hard to believe? Or that he may give enormous sums of money to charity anonymously. For you even say yourself that he "shuns any publicity about his family life". But your commentary is like every other gossip tabloid writer who wants to poke and prod into people's personal business and tell them what you think they should do with their life and money.

You say Steve "skates away away from the responsibilities that come with great wealth and power." But I ask you Mr.Kahney, where were you this past Christmas? Were you helping feed the needy? Did you give up a week from Starbucks and donate that money to a needy charity?? Most likly not. So get off your humanitarian high horse.

Oh and by the way, you say "On the evidence, he's nothing more than a greedy capitalist who's amassed an obscene fortune. It's shameful. In almost every way, Gates is much more deserving of Jobs' rock star exaltation."

Gates is much more deserving? Sure, Bill Gates gives a lot of money away, and that's a good thing, but that doesn't change his "bad guy" tag because he is only known throughout the world for selling bad buggy software in a new box year after year, robbing the public blind. But it's all o.k. because he gave away some of that money he stole from you and gave it to a charity. Sounds like a person covering all his bad deeds by doing a few good ones. Is that money to help the needy or to help wash away the guilt?

Gates and Jobs are the same in the way that they are both just capitalist's, don't let the fact that Gates gives you roses with one hand and robs you blind with the other fool you.

Update
just wanted to post a link to a more balanced view of the subject by a non MacAddict, ARSTechnica.

New TV shows on iTunes!
Apple and MTV Networks on Thursday announced the availability of television programming from MTV, MTV2, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and The N are now available for purchase and download from the iTunes Music Store.

New video content available for download includes shows like “Punk’d,” “South Park,” “Dora the Explorer,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “Laguna Beach.” Stand up comedy performances are available for purchase and download, as are episodes of Comedy Central’s animated series “Drawn Together.” Man, Drawn Together on a iPod, that show is so funny, can't wait to download it.

And talk about iPod's, MacOSX hints has a tip to help police get your iPod back. Since they will ask for the serial number. Wanna know where to find it even if you don't have your iPod? Find out here.

10.4.5
Both The Apple Insider and Think Secret say that Apple has began distributing the first external builds of Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update. While the Apple insider says "the specific fixes and enhancements planned for the update are unknown, Apple is reportedly asking that its developers and partners put weight on Safari, Core Graphics intensive applications, Quartz Composer, and the Mac OS X Dock."

They also say "(Apple) reportedly asked that developers test networking, the Mac OS X crash report, File Sync, Software Update and the MSDOS File System." And the size of the file so far? 15mb.

But Think Secret thinks big, real big. They say

Build 8H5 delivers more than a dozen documented improvements for Mac OS X 10.4, including improvements to the Crash Reporter and XInstall Framework, and fixes for issues with CoreGraphics and Widgets, RSS Visualizer and background columns, WebCore, Quartz composer, and FileSync and PHD. The update also improved iDisk synchronization and corrects a problem where Mac OS X would fail to connect to a Cisco server if NAT was not used."

The also say it's currently only available as a combo update, and get this, it's 120.2MB! You pick on who wanna believe.

While I'm on rumor patrol, LoopRumors says Apple maybe planning a special media event. They say they have

"Sources close to Apple have informed LoopRumors that Apple is planning a Special Media Event in the next few weeks. It is unknown at this time what will be unveiled, but there was speculation that a last minute change was made to the keynote address given by Steve Jobs on January 10th. Rumors of newere iPods, a boombox, an in-home media center have all been candidates for this upcoming announcement."

We shall see.

Other News
Only a month into the core duo, Intel has announced it has become the first company to reach an important milestone in the development of 45 nanometer (nm) logic technology. Intel has produced what are believed to be the first fully functional SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) chips using 45nm process technology, its next– generation, high–volume semiconductor manufacturing process.

Intel’s 45nm process technology will allow chips with more than five times less leakage power than those made today. This will improve battery life for mobile devices and increase opportunities for building smaller, more powerful platforms.
The 45nm SRAM chip is said to have more than 1 billion transistors.

If your one of the critics that just don't get what Apple's Aperture is all about. Then you may want to read this article.

Scott Bourne says " Right on the heels of its release, nearly a dozen reviewers gave Apple a pretty good thrashing over Aperture, Apple's new professional photography software. Not all of the reviews are bad. Some offer very positive insights. But many focus on perceived problems. After delving into Aperture, I've come to some conclusions about where many of the critics went wrong."

Happy 22nd Birthday Macintosh!!!

2006-01-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well Today's the 22nd anniversary that Apple Computer unveiled its much-anticipated Macintosh computer. That January 24, 1984 was the day Apple introduced the computer that changed everything forever. A ad that played during the 3rd quarter of the 1984 super bowl. A ad that in 1999 TV Guide ran a cover story on the "50 Greatest Commercials of All Time." Apple's "1984" ad was #1 on the list. I mean even someone PC users know had something positive to say about Apple in 1984.

At launch the suggested retail price for this Mac was $2,495. I'm also sure there was a grand sales pitch.

But lets advance to the year 2006. The news media sometimes seems to use words to make things worse then they actually are, and look to use your own words to bring you down.

Example: Steve said at Macworld that the new iMacs where 2x faster. I'm sure some reporters filed those words in the "we will see" file. Some filed them in the "ya right" file and others in the "I'm gonna make you eat those words" file.

Well if you look at this review you will see that it's not 2x faster. Really 1.1-1.3 times faster. O.K. so Steve exaggerated, what sales person doesn't? Shoot Bill Gates says Vista will be a more secure OS. We know that's a lie. Remember this quote I posted here on the 17th?

"A Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK that the Vista patches address the same vulnerability that led to the WMF (Windows Metafile) malware attacks earlier this month," Naraine reports. "Microsoft's out-of-cycle security update for the WMF vulnerability makes no mention of Windows Vista being vulnerable, but with the release of this weekend's patches it is clear that the poorly designed "SetAbortProc," the function that allows printing jobs to be cancelled, was ported over to Vista."

What about the Toyata TV ad where a giant meteor falls from the sky hitting the ground with earth shattering force lands on the truck and the truck comes out without a scratch?, the announcer says "Toyota Tundra, Meteor proof"!. Ya right, where are the reporters bashing Toyota? I don't even wanna get into all the slicing and dicing does it all products that say they do it all 10 times faster.

I mean as a Mac user I knew Steve might make it sound faster then it is, He's a salesmen, he will do that. He's there to "sell" the product. but performance benchmarks can be tricky anyway, many times companies use programs that are designed to test chip throughput using approximations of how applications behave rather than using benchmarks from running the actual software. They will display what looks best for the company. They are true benchmarks, just not benchmarks that really show how that computer will work for you, with the software you have and use everday.

Nothing new, But some go too far on how they bash Apple and what they call a review, and what they tell consumers. That's when I get pissed, when I see guys like this corn-hole editor who says things like this:

"We won't be able to recommend the iMac for general use until apps such as Photoshop are released for the new design. For workstation-class performance today, check out the Power Mac G5 Quad, but know the architecture will soon be obsolete. "

Hold on how the hell do you use "general use" and "workstaion-class performance" in the same sentence? One is personal computer I would use to surf the web, check e-mail, save and edit my digetal pictures and home movies. The other I would use at a place like " UK’s largest advertising agency" or for some professional who needs top of the line power for video, music, and photo editing. None of which would be even looking at a iMac.

Also what are you talking about when you use the word "obsolete"? He makes it sound like that chip is dead and you will have no future software to look forward to which is all not true.
By the time you don't PowerPC software, you will need a new Mac. I'm sure My Duel 1.8ghz G5 tower has many years to look forward to.

but reports like his may be what also contribute to sluggish sales. Not to say Intel and Apple don't have there problems. They do, (like these 34 known problems) But not to the point that some "reporters" make it sound.

But I'm sure Apple has plenty of new products and updates up their sleeves. One of which I hope is the availabilty of video cards like this ATI Radeon X1900XT hopefully getting made for a Intel based Mac Tower.

Apple is aways working on things to make life easier. They already have given college students a podcast lecture option. Apple has expanded its iTunes U program, which allows colleges and universities to post audio and video educational content online using a content management system based on iTunes. So all college professors across New York City have to do is ask students to turn on their iPods, tune in to Internet "podcasts" and take notes.

Other News
Apple's iWork is now the No. 1 competitor to Microsoft Office after grabbing a "2.7 percent unit share, while Corel took only 1.6 percent share with its WordPerfect Office suite"

Lastly, it seems the bounty has gone up! As of 12:17pm (PST) the person who gives the instructions on how to Dual boot 10.4 & XP now gets $4357.

Major C|Net Writer lies to Readers!!!

2006-01-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

My Headline true??... I think so. You know, I don't get paid for what I do. But there are some out there with better grammer then I posting articles like shit and getting paid well to do it.

Case in point, this review by Rich Brown. It seems like he takes off many points off his review because of multimedia software that runs slowly which is non-native to sart with. What kind of dumb ass is this guy? Of course a non-native software of any type is gonna run slower. Are you that dense??

The iMac, whether it be G5 or Intel based was not made for Photoshop professionals. so why review it using this software?

Then you write:

"But if you want to run Photoshop or a nonnative video-editing program such as Sorenson Squeeze, we highly recommend you wait until the software catches up before purchasing a new iMac Core Duo."

Are you really that dumb?? You run a Professional App on a non pro computer, knowing it's not running natively then deduct points because of it?? They pay you to be this dumb?? Shoot, I need to get a job at C|Netso i can get paid to write crap like this and get paid for it.

You want to test the video editing ability of this iMac of it's target user?, test it with with it's native iMovie HD, which is already Intel ready. Why would you test this computer with a non-native, pro app and then base your score so heavily on it? Why would you not test these computers with the same amout of memory? Even with the Intel mac haveing the most, what type of nim-rod does a test like that?? I mean users using the software he's testing here are using PowerMacs Towers, not iMacs.

This just seems like a review looking to make the iMac look bad from the starting gate.
"Don't edit video on a Intel based iMac it sucks" is what you are telling your readers and that's just a lie.

Your giving a unfair review that gives far too much weight to the performance of Rosetta.
7 out of 10.? You rating Rosetta or the iMac? You can't be rating the iMac if deduction of your score is based on pro apps that are running on Rosetta. Bottom line, Rich Brown is lying to you. And C|Net is also for posting this article.

Want XP on Your Mac?
Well a guy by the name of Colin is willing to pay you to give him instructions on how to Dual boot these two operating systems(OSX & XP). So far it's up to $878 (as of 3:04pm pst).

The Rules
1. Instructions must boot Windows XP (at least), not Vista or any other version of Windows.
2. Windows must be able to coexist with Mac OS X and each system may not interfere with the operation of the other (basically a traditional dual boot system where one OS is running at a time)
3. Your method, upon starting the computer, must offer the user to boot either OS X or Windows XP (hint: GRUB)
4. The first person to email complete instructions, including pictures of the boot process to contest@pintmaster.com will be the winner. Instructions will be peer reviewed once they are received and once the solution is guaranteed working, the prize money will be transferred via paypal
5. You give this website the rights to post your solution
6. If it is determined impossible to boot Windows on the Mac by March 23, 2006, all donations will be donated to a charitable cause (please send suggestions to charity@pintmaster.com). If you donated prior to 2006/06/23 2:10pm CST, and you do not wish to donate to charity, I will return your money minus the paypal fee.

No More OS9!
Don't need OS9 for anything? or need the hard drive space? or both? MacFixit has posted a article on how to remove Classic from your computer for good. Get it here

Fridays News

2006-01-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

Today there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good? Apple- Both Time Magazine and PC Magazine gave praises to Apple's new iMac Core Duo. Time names it "gadget of the week" and PC magazine a 4.5 out of 5 stars saying "Thanks to the Core Duo processor, the new iMac is much peppier."

The Bad? The alternative rock band The Postal Service- They posted on there web page this note:

A Note from Ben
It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent. -Ben Gibbard, The Postal Service

Now I spoke on this before, Apple did use the same director. But let me tell you, I have never heard of this band until all this controversy came up, and with looking on the web very few other have also.

Plus video concepts are rarely created by the band. They are mostly made from the directors vision, with the band really only seeing the video when it's done. Plus the band should be happy with all the exposure they are getting from the online press and the fact that their song and video of Such Great Heights is also on the iTunes Music store.

Bottom line is they need to stop complaining and be happy about all the exposure they are getting!

The Ugly! AOL- "Time Warner's AOL unit is planning to launch a pay-for-download video service by the end of the year, as people grow more accustomed to watching content on the Web." AOL will allow downloads to personal computers and would like to enable people to use its service to interact with Apple Computer's popular iTunes site if Apple will permit it, Kevin Conroy said."

Bottom line, AOL sucks, they are going down the tubes. They are only good for re-supplying me with new coasters for my desk from the CD's they send out. Why the hell would I pay for broadband, then pay them also to get on the net? Screw that!

Other News
Apple Matters has a intresting article on what Apple should do with that $7 Billiion they have.

It's Frag Friday Time! Time to boot up Unreal Tournament!!!

So Get your CTF frag fest going on The Darkside Server! 69.93.100.55:7777

What's In A Mac??

2006-01-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

A lot of people ask what's so special about a Mac that I should switch? Now my normal answer could go with no spyware, viruses and easier to use etc... But there are some that spend their whole time just looking for something negative to troll about. Some that no matter what you tell them, they don't get it.

It seems I've seen this one writer (John C. Dvorak) once to many times doing childish things like trolling. His article for PCMag.com shows the bias on how he sees things. Now let me start by saying that yes, I do like the Mac OS better. But I have used a Windows OS also (95 and XP). My preferance is for the Mac OS, but that's not what (now) he's trolling about.

Now he wants to call Jobs a lair about what he told Mac users about hardware. Like I said, trolling looking for something. A quote from the article:

" I couldn't resist going to the MacWorld Expo especially after Jobs finally roiled out a couple of the Intel-based Macs. The two most talked about aspects of these new machines were their blazing speed and the fact that some of the top apps still need to be ported over. This includes Photoshop.

The speed of the systems begs the question as to the apparent BS that the Mac community was fed for years regarding the natural superiority of the PowerPC chip. As far as I'm concerned Apple's credibility is now suspect on all levels. More interesting were the rather insulting ads Apple showed regarding these chips indicating that any use before Apple was essentially a crummy loser. This, of course referred to Windows I guess. Apparently Apple is unaware of the fact that Linux runs at blazing speed on these chips too."

O.K., lets get this straight, PowerPC chips "were" faster then Intel when it first came out, You can't accuse Apple of lying back when they were comparing G4 and G5 chips to Pentiums. Over the years, Intel like any other company has made improvements. Just like the new core duo iMacs are faster then the G5 iMacs, why? for one, they are duel core.

The fact that your saying "Apple's credibility is now suspect on all levels" just shows your lack of logical thought. Apple has now chosen to use a brand new Intel chip that didn't even exist a month ago.

PowerPC was the best option and faster at some tasks than anything from Intel back when Apple was selling PowerPC. The fastest Mac is still PowerPC-based, Apple's Power Mac G5 Quad has four processors, and for video and photos you can't beat it.

You see, Apple puts a lot of effort into their computers and software:

In an exclusive interview this afternoon with TG Daily, Apple Computer's senior director for desktops, Tom Boger, dispelled rumors that its new hardware partner, Intel, manufactured more components for the company than just the CPU and on-board chipset for his company's new iMacs and MacBook Pro models. Saying Apple is responsible for the architecture and assembly of the Macs' new hardware, as it has been for all prior models, Boger stated that the three factors that distinguish Apple's new systems from Core Duo-based PCs designed to run Windows, are form factor, operating system, and applications.

"We build the whole widget," Boger told us. "We don't take off-the-shelf parts, [and add to them] huge, major components from other companies, then throw our operating system on it. We build the whole widget from the ground up. We start with the industrial design, we do all the electrical engineering, every single aspect about a Mac has been designed by Apple."

You see Apple is making a lot of chages to make things easier and faster and you Mac experiance better. Look at the The X1600, a the mid-level entry in ATI's new X1000-series of graphics processors that utilize the company's AVIVO technology. This is easily the most powerful graphics chipset that the iMac or any Apple laptop has ever seen. Lots of 3D horsepower for games and OS X's Quartz Extreme user interface and high bandwidth for video playback.

So Mr. John C. Dvorak what you need to do is open your eyes and "C" the bias crap flowing from out your pie hole then read it. Find out if your facts are true or if the facts your using is your bias. If you can't see how bias you sound you really need to find a new job. I think a poster in your reply section put it best "sorry...the only credibility to be questioned here is your own. "

"For some reason people need to attack Apple, which offers premium quality and user experience, for not being the cheapest. These same people will not hesitate to pay thousands more for a car that they see as better than the cheapest Hyundai, or jeans that are cooler than the cheapest at Walmart, or Nike sneakers over an unknown brand. Why Apple is always attacked for being what it is, a premium quality company that offers a better experience, better design, freedom from viruses, free creative software that is unparalled anywhere else, and so, is beyond me."

Other News
Apple has confirmed that Final Cut Pro and other applications within the Final Cut Studio will no longer be available individually. A note from there websie: "After January 10, 2006, the individual applications in Final Cut Studio will only be available as part of the suite.[...]"To make it easy for our customers to make the move to Final Cut Studio, we're offering amazing deals to current owners of Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro 4, Motion 2, Soundtrack Pro, and Production Suite. When you take advantage of this offer, you'll get the Universal version of Final Cut Studio when it becomes available."

The Universal version (a version that runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel processors) will ship by March 31. Also if you want to know which software will run on both platforms, Apple introducing a new logo that developers can add to their programs. The logo can be used on product packaging, advertising, Web sites, and marketing materials.

Think Secret is reporting that "Apple has delayed the roll-out of ProCare 2.0, its premium retail store support service, due to unknown reasons. Sources report that ProCare 2.0 was originally scheduled to the launch around the beginning of the year.

At present, Apple's ProCare service allows computer purchasers to reserve time with a Mac Genius up to seven days in advance, score a one-hour training session, get priority repairs, and free transferring of files from an old Mac to a new one.

Among the new features in ProCare 2.0 are support for multiple Macs per account and a free annual system "tune-up". ProCare 2.0 will cost $99, the same as the current service."

And lastly, something for a laugh from Mother Goose & Grimm

Apple 1st Quarter Predictions

2006-01-18T17:03:00.000-08:00

O.K., posted this late waiting for the conferance call.
Lets start this,

Macintosh computer sales where up 20% year over year. Apple sold 1.254 million macs, 667,000 where desktop systems and 587,000 where laptops in quarter 1 (Q1) and saw lower than expected Intel shift effect on Mac computer sales.

Apple's new Laptop called the MacBook Pro will ship in February, but Apple said they may not be able to meet the "overwelming" demand. Apple hopes to meet demand of the new iMac Intel Core Duo which is now shipping. When asked if Apple will discount non Intel-based Macs? Oppenheimer replied, "we will continue to ship iMac G5, Power Mac G5 at this time".
Apple will sell iMac G5 and PowerBook G4 15-inch as "while supplies last".

Also Tim Cook added "we saw a pause in sales as we approached Intel transition. But Mac sales exceeded expectations in 1st Quarter".

It seems Apple is also getting plenty of orders for both Intel based iMac and Macbook Pro. It seems Apple is transitioning to Intel already, and will continue to open retail stores and make "the best personal computers on the planet".

And WALTER S. MOSSBERG seems to agree saying

"It's still the best consumer desktop on the market. It still runs crisply, still is free of viruses and spyware, still has the best operating system and the best built-in software of any desktop we've tested. Given how smoothly the new machine works, and how likely it is to get even better, we would prefer it today over the iMac G5, which Apple is still selling for the same price until inventories are gone. The G5 is still a fine machine, but the Intel model has a brighter future."

With all the positive being said, Apple will be opening Retail Stores in U.S., Canada, UK, and Japan in 2006. Apple is said to be investing in long-term growth. And for us to expect Apple to invest in advertising, marketing, engineering, and more retail stores.

Apple quarterly revenue surpassed all of fiscal 2002. Making $565 million in profits $90 million from retail on over $5.75 billion in revenue. 49% of Apple revenue was from Web and Apple Retail Store sales, with Apple saying Web sales were "significant" in Q1.

iTunes music and video sales have exceeded Apple's expectations. Apple says the iTunes Music Store operated "above break-even." The iTunes Music Store which is in 21 countries covers over 90% of worldwide music market and Holds 83% share of the market.

This could not be said about the failing Napster. Reports are coming out from digital music news that "a dire company situation have emerged". According to their sources inside the organization, a substantial round of layoffs is expected within weeks. and their sources also noting that executives at the company are also reportedly considering various exit options, including a fire sale or liquidation.

All that happening while iTunes gift certificates/cards and direct purchases are selling at 3 million per day. With iPods in over 35,000 outlets, Apple sold over 14 million iPods in 1st quarter. This was accomplished while at the same time replacing two of three iPod lines. iPods are in over 35,000 outlets. Apple could not keep up with supply and demand in certain channels at certain times in Q1 2006.

Apple is targeting a second-best quarter ever of $4.3 billion in Q2 2006, 33% year over year growth. I can see this happening with Apple now will be making a Arabic version of the iPod that will hit the market soon, officials have revealed.

"Apple is working on this. A prototype has already been made available to us," said Elias Abou-Rustom, general manager of Arab Business Machine, Apple's independent marketing company for the Middle East.

"This could be launched in the Middle East in the coming months."
*source gulfnews.com

By the way of those wondering about came out as a controversial feature in Apple’s recently updated iTunes (v6.0.2) with it's iTunes MiniStore, which tries to make suggestions for what to buy from the iTunes Music Store based on you’re listening to. Now the MiniStore will only operate if you give it permission first. Now there is a button that provides users with the ability to activate the feature. An arrow also shows users how they can turn the MiniStore on or off whenever they want by clicking a button on the iTunes interface.

The MiniStore now gives an explanation of what it does before you activate it:
The iTunes MiniStore allows you to discover new music and videos right from your iTunes Library. As you select items in your Library, information about that item is sent to Apple and the MiniStore will show you related songs or videos. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music Library.

With Lots of New and good things coming down the pipe, 2006 will be "The Year of the Mac"!!

Don't forget to watch or listen in to Your Mac life tonight and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET.
Tonight there will only be a audio feed as their video equipment comes home.

Apple's Up, Up and Away

2006-01-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

You would think that Apple's new hardware would be boosting Apple higher.
Well your right. Not to mention how it's also helping other companys with it's iTunes music store(iTMS). It seems Apple's iPod and the iTunes Music Store have been credited as a contributing factor to the rise in popularity of NBC's "The Office", which delivered a rating of 5.1 last Thursday...its highest ratings among adults 18 to 49. In fact, the series is NBC's top-performing video podcast available on Apple's iTunes, where it has been available since Dec. 6.

*"The iTunes offering is bringing new audiences to the show that would not otherwise have watched", said Frederick Huntsberry, president of NBCU Television Distribution. "Consumers have choices, and we are not reaching all consumers with one technology," he said.
*qoute from TV.com

Plus it seems it's new iMac with Intel's Core Duo chip is getting good reviews. ArsTechica gave it a 9 out of 10.

With ARS saying " does the move to a dual-core Intel CPU mean faster performance? [...]I'll do you a favor and answer with a qualified "yes."

Plus ARS also showed how Blizzard had a iMac with a Intel chip and how well the frame rates where in their Hot Game, World of Warcraft. The iMac with it's new Radeon X1600 graphics chip help push the frame per second (FPS) at some points to 100fps.

But the iMac is not the only one looking good. Craig Wood did a preformance Analysis on the MacBook Pro with the 1.83 core duo chip.

"The new MacBook Pro proved to be far more adept at encoding video, at rate of 1.3x. The MacBook Pro is 260% faster than the previous PowerBook, which encoded video at 0.5x."

You can see his full list of results here.

Also At the each fiscal quarter Apple has a conference call with analysts to discuss the previous quarter's financial results. So tomorrow (1/18/06) Apple will be streaming the broadcast of the call at 2pm PT/5pm ET. I think it will be good ;)
You will need Quicktime.

Warnings
1)Jack Whispers has a report saying:

" The Register UK is reporting that people have started to receive emails asking them to verify their Apple ID ... this is an attempt to steal your information and purchase computers and music with the credit card you have registered with your iTunes or Apple store account.

Just know this ... it would be national news if something like this happened AND Apple (or any other large corporation) would never send you an email asking you to visit their site and type in details.

Remember, online sites such as Apple, Paypal, eBay, Amazon, and your bank ... all have this information ... they have it backed up twice over ... they just don't have the need to ask for additional "verification" and they would never publicly announce that they had a security breach ... the national news would announce that for them.

PS - don't confuse this phishing scam with Apple's ID resetting emails ... if someone has tried to log into their Apple ID account 3 times - you are sent an email requesting that you reset your Apple ID."

He also posts links to the Erica Sadun report on the subject, as well as the original report and information from Apple about their ID's.

2)If your a PC user waiting for Microsofts new OS Windows Vista, think about this.

"Microsoft Corp. has shipped the first critical security update for Windows Vista, the next version of its flagship operating system," Ryan Naraine reports for eWeek. "Over the weekend, the company released patches for beta testers running the Windows Vista December CTP (Community Technology Preview) and Windows Vista Beta 1, and warned that the new operating system was vulnerable to a remote code execution flaw in the Graphics Rendering Engine."

Did you read that carefully? It's a beta that already has a flaw!! So while trying to copy the Mac OS looks (and doing a bad job I might add), they still have not found a way to protect it's users better.

"A Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK that the Vista patches address the same vulnerability that led to the WMF (Windows Metafile) malware attacks earlier this month," Naraine reports. "Microsoft's out-of-cycle security update for the WMF vulnerability makes no mention of Windows Vista being vulnerable, but with the release of this weekend's patches it is clear that the poorly designed "SetAbortProc," the function that allows printing jobs to be cancelled, was ported over to Vista."

That is so sad. You can read the whole story here.

Lastly

If you wanna see more wedding pictures of Shawn and Lesa King From Your Mac Life look here.

Homage For A Great Man

2006-01-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

I would like to give homage to this very special man. For very few Americans have had as great an impact on our nation as an eloquent Southern Baptist minister from Atlanta, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A national leader in the civil rights movement, Dr. King gained worldwide prominence with his "I Have A Dream" speech and in 1964 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his unwavering commitment to equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, creed, national origin or religious belief.

In Georgia, Dr. King holds the honor of being the first African-American to have their portrait hung in the halls of the State Capitol. The portrait was dedicated by then-Governor Jimmy Carter in 1974 and is in a prominent location adjacent to the Office of the Governor on the second floor of the Capitol.

I'll be back with all you Mac news tomorrow!!

A Happy Mac Life

2006-01-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

First I would like to start out by saying "Congratulations to Shawn & Lesa King! May you have a long and happy marriage!!"

*picture courtesy of AppleXnet

For those who don't know Shawn & Lesa King host a great internet show with Jay Curtis called Your Mac Life. Shawn & lesa (then Snider) first met three years ago at Macworld, and is also the place where Shawn proposed to her last year. The couple got married after the show closed at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall Thursday.
You can watch the best part( for us at least ;) ) click here.

While MacWorld was doing great, Apple was doing better.
I grabbed this from MDN:

"On October 6, 1997, in response to the question of what he'd do if he was in charge of Apple Computer, Dell founder and then CEO Michael Dell stood before a crowd of several thousand IT executives and answered flippantly, "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

A little more than a month later, on November 10, 1997, new Apple iCEO Steve Jobs responded, speaking in front of an image of Michael Dell's bulls-eye covered face, "We're coming after you, you're in our sights."

Today, after a little more than eight years of hard work, Apple Computer, Inc. passed Dell, Inc. in market value. That's right, at market close Apple Computer ($72,132,428,843) is now worth more than Dell ($71,970,702,760). Got any snappy responses for that one, Mr. Dell?

Luckily, Apple has had the right man in charge since July 1997; a man with the vision and the ability to do what lesser men think impossible."

How sweet it is! So sweet because also research and investment firm Piper Jaffray today raised its target price on shares of Apple Computer from $80 to $103. Piper Jaffray maintains an "Outperform" rating on Apple shares.

but then again Steve did warn you! In more ways then one. Oh you didn't know??
Well if you have read this page for any amount of time you know how much I hate the OSx86 Project and what they stand for.

But Apple took it a step further. That's why I did find this very funny to find this posted on their web page:

"We’ve received some information regarding Apple's newest portable, the MacBook Pro, and with it a hidden message for would-be hackers. We were made privy to a text dump from the System Profiler of one of the new MacBooks and, naturally, couldn’t wait to sort through its contents. What we didn’t expect to see was a warning from Apple to those that would hack OS X, presumably to those wanting it to run on beige-box PCs:

--------------------------------------------------

_name
Dont Steal Mac OS X
[...]
Copyright (c) 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrighted
materials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify,
reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense,
transfer or redistribute this file, in whole or in part. If you have
obtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid license
from Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete it
from your computer.

--------------------------------------------------

The most interesting part of this message? It’s placement, found in /System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext Despite being a lighthearted jab at hackers, it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4. Is this simply a hidden message for the interested parties, or is it a new tounge-in-cheek implementation of OS X’s TPM security? Details are sketchy at this point… watch this space for more news as we get it."

What amazes me is them saying "Despite being a lighthearted jab at hackers, it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4."

What it should read is: "Despite being a stab to my hacking and thieving webpage and it's readers,it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4."

Of coarse Apple knows the PPC version won't get hacked and end up like Intel chips, getting "trapped inside PCs - dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks" as Apple puts it in their latest Tv ad.

Of coarse some are fuming that people can buy Duo Core machines from Apple now, while consumers will have to wait for weeks for Yonah based notebooks from Dell & HP.

But is that the only thing on there minds?? Maybe not. The Apple insider is saying " Apple's legal trail points to mobile product". Qouting analysts Steve Lidberg and David Niederman:

"Any move by Apple to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) could strengthen the company's bond to its growing customer base that includes 32 million iPods and 4.7 million Mac systems sold in 2005."

But others like Aspyr Media's Glenda Adams are looking at what's in plan sight. IMG had a chance to interview her at MWSF and here's a small bite:

"MacIntels were the first topic of conversation, with Glenda’s prediction being that the new machines will have a positive influence on Mac games. For the first time, Apple’s boxes will finally have matching hardware specs with PCs, eliminating any reason for the current game performance discrepancy between the Windows and Mac platforms. The move to Intel sets the bar higher for Apple technicians and for developers to really push the boxes to get the same frame rates as PC users. The new Macs are also garnering a lot of attention from PC users, and if speculation of Apple’s market share growing past the 10% prove correct, Glenda expects to see a many more gaming titles coming to the platform.

Further, Glenda is very excited about the new, Intel-powered iMacs and MacBook Pros that were announced on Tuesday, noting that she ordered a new machine for herself only a few hours after the keynote. Impressed with the speed and price of the new machines, she noted that the powerful new ATI Radeon X1600 graphics cards installed in all the new machines, combined with the huge performance jump of the Intel chips will make really powerful rigs for gamers."

You can read their full interview here.

Also If you want some questioned answered about the new Chips that run the new iMac and MacBook Pro, MacWorld has some answers for you at these links:
Core Duo
iMac
MacBook Pro

If you wanna know what was best of show at MWSF 2006, here they are:

Adobe Lightroom

Apple MacBook Pro

Apple iLife '06

Browseback from Smile on My Mac

Docktopus from Startly Technologies

Elgato's EyeTV 2

JBL On Time

Google Earth for Mac

iSee 360i from Advanced Technology Office-ATO

LightZone 1.0 from Light Crafts

Marware Project X

MemoryMiner by GroupSmarts ($60)

Micromat Techtool Protégé

Suitcase Fusion from Extensis

Want more info on a product? click here

What's New and What's Not

2006-01-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

What's New?
Bear Stearns has upped their rating on Apple Computer to "outperform" and set a year-end Apple Computer price target at $105. Also Apple is primed to pass Dell in market value. You can watch it happen here.
Hopefully this will put a final end to the media's description of Apple as the "beleaguered" computer company.

But after watching the keynote you see why . Apple has brought us new hardware, software and TV ad.
While for me the new Mac ad brings back the feeling I got back in the day when Apple had bold Mac TV spots, some it seems are looking for hits on their sites with headers like "Another Apple Ad Ripoff?" from wired.com, cult of Mac section.

Where they compare the Apple ad, to The Postal Service video.(realplayer video)

This is where the "What's Not" comes in. Some writers search deeply, and for some crazy shit. In the 2 videos the only things that are the same is that they are in bunnysuits, and there is a man and a women who look at each other, That's it. The the article writer does not even know if at any point this ad was made with permission of The Postal Service or its record company, or may have hired the same director, or licensed the work.

No lets just stir the pot. There's alraedy reports that Intel did not sign off on the ad either. Saying they were kept in the dark about the true nature of the ad and so cooperated with making some of the footage, but they didn't know about it being anti-PC until the last minute.

"Never would we characterize our customers that way," Intel Vice President Deborah Conrad said in an interview.

Conrad said that Intel cooperated with Apple for some particulars of the TV spot, but added, "We didn't know what the end result was going to be."

The company did get a peek at the ad before Tuesday's keynote, but it wasn't too much earlier.

"It's probably a good thing that we didn't see them earlier," Conrad said."
*qoute from CNet

But maybe that Ripoff lead was to also invite you to also read their other article where they talk about that "the keynote that Jobs gave was not the keynote he had planned. Some of the speech had been cut out. Key products were missing. "

Where he also mentions "There was some stuff, "some very, very cool stuff," that Jobs couldn't unveil because of "supply issues." (not enough Core Duo chips)
He also asks if there would be MacBook replacements for the 17-inch and 12-inch PowerBooks, and his inside source says "Oh, it's much cooler than that. Much cooler."
This quote should to me should be taken with a grain of salt.

But anyway most users are happy that the bottleneck bus, pegged at 167Mhz for so long, is now replaced by a 667Mhz bus. Also that the MacBook Pro includes a Radeon X1600 which brings Apple up to date. You can find a full interview with ATI at MWSF from IMG here.

Also, MacFixit was told by Apple officials that FireWire target disk mode is available on both the new iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro, eclipsing earlier speculation that this boot option would no longer be available.

Apple also told MacFixIt that startup keyboard commands -- such as holding C to startup from the optical drive, and holding option to pick the startup device at boot -- have been retained with the switch to Intel architecture.

What will not be retained is the use of Open Firmware. new Macs based on Intel Core Duo processors (the iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro) will no longer make use of Open Firmware, which has been standard on all shipping Macs in recent memory.

Instead, the new Macs make use of Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which proviedes an interface between Mac OS X and the computer firmware.

There are other things some pro mac users are more concerned about. Like the new MacBook pro having no Firewire 800 port or the slower, less capable DVD burner. Also why Steve did not mention how long the new 60-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery would last.

what's not a big deal for me but maybe for others is Virtual PC 7 release will not run on the new Intel Core Duo based Macs. Oh and if you haven't heard yet, Despite pledging its support for the Apple's platform for at least 5 years, Microsoft has backed out of future releases of Windows Media Player for Mac. The company's Web site now directs visitors to download a third-party application from developer Flip4Mac.

Now who else screwed up? Google! Ashlee Vance writes a review on the Googles video store.

"This is a truly historical meeting of the established and new media," said Les Moonves, the head of CBS, about his network's new video partnership with Google. Um, no, Les. So far, it's just a really crap web site.

If, like us, you expected the new and improved Google Video service to rival something like Apple's iTunes store, then do yourself a favor and don't visit the Google shop for a few months. Google has done nothing to celebrate its unique access to shows such as CSI, Survivor and Star Trek. Instead, the company has buried CBS's shows beneath a dismal interface wrapped in a shambles of a delivery mechanism.

Think we're being too harsh? Have a look for yourself."

All I have to say is, "What a shit looking store!"

Other News
Micromat has announced TechTool Protege, a compact, bootable diagnostic and repair tool. The utility contains TechTool Pro, Micromat's disk partitioning program DiskStudio, as well as several other utilities on a compact, one gigabyte FireWire flash drive.

WireTap Pro 1.1.4 was released with MacOS X 10.4 ("Tiger") compatibility. This program allows you to record any audio, saving it to a file for later listening or processing. Streaming Internet audio, sound snippets of a DVD movie, voice notations/narration, audio from a game, digitized audio from a line-in... WireTap Pro does it all.

Cocktail 3.7 is the latest version of the general purpose utility for Mac OS X. Cocktail allows users to clean, repair, optimize their system, and more. This release contains updated Automator actions and addresses compatibility issues with Mac OS X 10.4.4 and Intel Macs. Cocktail 3.7 is distributed as a Universal Binary and is fully compatible with both PowerPC and Intel Macs. Cocktail requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and is priced at US$14.95.

Freeverse on today revealed that it will publish the Macintosh version of Heroes of Might and Magic V under an exclusive worldwide license from Ubisoft. The game is currently in development for the PC by Nival Interactive, and Freeverse said it will publish the Mac version after the PC edition comes out this March.

Freeverse has not posted a product page on its Web site yet, but gamers can visit UbiSoft's product page to learn more. Freeverse did not disclose pricing nor system requirements.

Lastly Apple has released Safari 1.3.2 for Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther), which brings some of the improvements built into the latest Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) version of Safari (2.0.3) to Panther.

According to its release notes, Safari 1.3.2 for Mac OS X Panther improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications.

Safari 1.3.2 installer requires the user to have Safari 1.3.1 in order to install.

The new release is available through Software Update or as a standalone download [3.77 MB].

Who's Heading Apple's Direction?

2006-01-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

The answer to that question is me! I'm no big wheel in the computer industry, but I am a consumer, A very important part of what keeps Apple doing what they are doing, and going where their vision takes them. These visions are what make things in my computer life eaiser.

Some think that in the process of making things easier for me (the consumer), Apple is making new enemies. Out with the old hardware enemies, in with the software ones. Should software companys worry because Apple is using Intel processors and there is a possiblity That Apple may make software better then a PC counterpart??

Apple so far is riding high. "UBS raised its price target on Apple Computer to $100 from $86 and kept a buy rating on the stock, citing Apple's revenue guidance," Dow Jones reports. Apple shares were up 3.6 percent at $83.74 on the Nasdaq, after rising as high as $84.18 yesterday.

On top of the hardware released, the software made news as well. 10.4.4, iLife '06 with iWeb and Garageband 3 which now can be used as a podcasting tool gives you more of a reason to get a .mac account. iTunes was updated to 6.0.2 with a new feature some see as "a bit of spyware to the iTunes interface." A new feature called the MiniStore. A small window on the bottom of your iTunes main window. (shown below)

Turned on by default, the MiniStore displays iTunes Music Store links to the selected song’s album, others albums by the same artist, and albums purchased by listeners to that song or artist. The store only updates when you select a song, not as playlists play. Also iTunes doesn't continue to send the data when the mini store is hidden. But some still have Sony's fiasco in their minds, so this may be a problem for some. If your one of those I would recommend hiding the ministore. (the button is the first one on the lower right and looks like the button to hide the art work on the lower left).

Also released was a updater for your iPod.
iPod Updater 2006-01-10

iPod Updater 2006-01-10 delivers:
iPod Software 1.1 for iPod
iPod Software 1.1 for iPod nano
iPod Software 1.2.1 for iPod with color display
iPod Software 1.4.1 for iPod mini
iPod Software 3.1.1 for iPod with Click Wheel
For all other iPod models, iPod Updater 2006-01-10 contains the same software versions as iPod Updater 2005-11-17.
Features of iPod Software 1.1 for iPod, and iPod Software 1.1 for iPod nano:

Support for the iPod Radio Remote
Bug fixes

Changes to iPod Software 1.2.1 for iPod with color display, iPod Software 1.4.1 for iPod mini, and iPod Software 3.1.1 for iPod with Click Wheel:
Bug fixes

Apple is making a lot of changes and some "reporters" and "analysts" want these things to happen in their time frame or when they say Apple should jump. All I can say to them is, get off your high horse. I think Apple has come a long way, and is heading in the right direction. Would I have liked to have seen a duel duel-core 5.0ghz laptop with every bell and whistle? Sure! But I think watching Apple this year will be awesome and will bring some nice surprises.

Their newest iMac Ad brings back that 1984 ad feeling. And that is a step in the right direction.

Other News
Google released Google Earth for the Mac.

Minimum configuration for Mac:
Mac OS X (10.4)
500Mhz
256M RAM
400MB disk space
Network speed: 128Kbits/sec
3D-capable video card with 16Mbytes of VRAM
1024x768, "16-bit High Color" screen

Recommended configuration for Mac:

Mac OS X (10.4)
1.5GHz+
512M RAM
2 GB of free disk space
Network speed: 768 Kbits/sec or better (DSL/Cable)
3D-capable video card with 32 MB of VRAM or greater
1280x1024, "32-bit True Color" screen

New, New, New!!

2006-01-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

Well Aple did it. A New laptop called a "MacBook Pro"
both with 15.4 inch TFT display with 1440x900 resolution
667MHz frontside bus(PC2-5300) and Slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)

MacBook Pro also features a full-size backlit keyboard, AirPort Extreme wireless networking (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, ExpressCard/34 slot, dual-link DVI video out, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and optical digital and analog audio in/out.

The main differances are: one has a 1.67GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 Cache
512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory
and only costs $1,999.00(U.S)

The other is a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 Cache and comes with:
1GB (single SO-DIMM)
100GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory

The New Intel Based iMac still comes comes in 17" and 20". but now the 17" comes with:

17-inch widescreen LCD with 1440x900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 cache
512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
and is $1,299.00(U.S.)

The 20" comes with:
20-inch widescreen LCD with 1680x1050 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 cache

512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
and is $1,699.00

iLife '06

iPhoto 6
The easiest way to import, organize, edit and share your digital photos.
New Features
• Enjoy blazing performance and support for up to 250,000 photos.
• Use Photocasting to share albums with other iPhoto users through .Mac.
• Edit and compare images in full-screen mode.
• Create pro-quality greeting cards, calendars and books with your favorite photos.
• Enhance your photos or give them a unique look with one click.
• Easily build photo blogs and photo pages to share your pictures with iWeb.

iMovie HD 6
Turn your home video into a Hollywood-style hit and share it with others.
New Features
• Create amazing movies quickly using Apple-designed iMovie themes.
• Stunning new video effects with no waiting.
• Fantastic text effects and titling with instant results.
• Use new sound effects and audio enhancement tools such as noise reduction and graphic equalizer.
• Switch and share clips among multiple open movie projects.
• Easily share movies and video podcasts with iWeb.

iDVD 6
Author and burn movies, photos and music to standard and widescreen DVDs.
New Features
• Use Magic iDVD to create a complete DVD that’s ready to burn.
• Author DVDs that fill your widescreen TV.
• Choose from 10 new Apple-designed themes.
• Add your videos and photos with one click using autofill drop zones.
• Reorganize even the largest projects with enhanced map view editing.
• Enjoy support for an array of third-party DVD burners.

GarageBand 3
The best way to record music on a Mac is now the best way to record podcasts, too.
New Features
• Easily create podcasts in the new Podcast Studio mode and publish them with iWeb.
• Add radio-style sound effects and jingles to your recordings and podcasts.
• Sound like a professional radio host with the built-in expertise of an audio engineer.
• Create a talk show podcast and interview one or more remote guests simultaneously via iChat.
• Create a music score for your iMovie even if you’re not a musician.

iWeb
Easily create beautiful websites and blogs and get them online — fast.
Key Features
• Choose from 12 professionally designed themes and templates.
• Add photos, movies and music with the iLife Media Browser.
• Create web pages using a flexible text and graphics canvas.
• Build and update your own blog with ease.
• Produce a podcast in GarageBand and publish it with iWeb.
• Publish to .Mac with one click.

iWork
New in Both Pages 2 and Keynote 3
• Perform basic spreadsheet-like calculations and formatting in tables.
• Display your data in beautiful three-dimensional charts with life-like textures.
• Add stars, polygons or draw freeform custom shapes with Bézier curves in any document or presentation.
• Mask photos and images with any shape.
• Adjust photos just like you’d adjust them in iPhoto.
• Add comment “stickies” to any document or presentation to capture to-do’s or reminders.

Pages 2
It’s the easiest way to create great-looking documents for yourself, your group or your business — from simple letters and flyers to professional-quality newsletters and brochures.
Highlights
• Start with any one of 66 templates, including 27 new designs.
• Import documents created with AppleWorks or Microsoft Word — from both PC and Mac.
• Export as a cross-platform PDF, Word, HTML, RTF or text-only file.
• Build form letters with drag-and-drop simplicity using your Address Book.

Keynote 3
The only way to create cinema-quality presentations and interactive slideshows with ease. Keynote puts you in the director’s chair and gives you complete control over how you build and deliver your presentation.

New Features
• Choose from 32 themes, including new HD themes up to 1920x1080 pixels.
• Add gorgeous cinematic transitions, animations, slide builds and more.
• Import presentations created with AppleWorks or Microsoft PowerPoint on from both PC and Mac.
• Export your presentation to PowerPoint, or to iDVD or iPhoto.
• See all your slides at a glance in Light table view and easily reorganize them.

.Mac
Here’s what you get with a .Mac membership.
Easily publish your web site, blog or podcast
Using the new iWeb in iLife ’06, you can easily create your own personal web site and publish it to your .Mac account with one click.

Key Features
• Create beautiful web pages using the themes included with iWeb.
• .Mac slideshow viewer generates stunning slideshows that play automatically.
• No configuration necessary — iWeb automatically uses your .Mac settings from System Preferences.
• Publish pages with HomePage, .Mac’s online web publishing tool, when you’re away from your Mac or use .Mac to host your own HTML pages.

Share full-resolution photos with new Photocasting
Share an album in iPhoto 6 and it magically appears in iPhoto on another person’s Mac just like any other album.

Key Features
• Any iPhoto 6 user, even non-.Mac members, can subscribe to photo albums (requires Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.4).
• Windows and Mac users can subscribe using any photo-compatible RSS reader.
• Shared albums are automatically updated when the owner changes adds or edits photos.
• Images are full-resolution for printing, slideshows and more.

Exchange documents using iDisk
Store files on your personal online storage space that’s now accessible any time from any computer — Mac or PC.

Key Features
• Access your iDisk through the Mac OS X Finder or a web browser.
• Easily share files with both Mac and PC users
• Enjoy 1GB combined storage for both your iDisk and email.
• Expand your online storage to 4GB for an extra charge.

Protect your precious memories with Backup 3 software
Create custom backup plans for all the important files on your drive.

Key Features
• Automatically back up iLife files and others in a single step.
• Back up files to your .Mac iDisk, external drives or CDs and DVDs.
• Quickly save only what changed since your last backup.
• Easy file restoration puts files back right where you want them.

Communicate Apple style with .Mac Mail and iChat
Keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues with ad-free email.

Key Features
• Mail is accessible from your mail application and from a web browser.
• Virus protection is built into .Mac Mail for messages sent to your Mac.com address.
• Use your Mac.com member name to chat and video conference with iChat AV (compatible hardware required).

Stay in sync with .Mac Sync
Synchronize your personal data to .Mac and have the same contacts, bookmarks, calendars and more on all your Mac computers.

Key Features
• Sync your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks between your Mac computers — Mac OS X Tiger users can also sync Mail accounts, rules and smart mailboxes.
• Access your contacts or bookmarks through a web browser.
• Set schedules for automatic syncing, or sync manually.

Organize group activities with .Mac Groups
Communicate, coordinate and stay connected with your club, team or organization.

Key Features
• A private, ad-free web site serves as the control center, complete with message board, photo slideshow and easy file sharing.
• Publish calendars from iCal for group members to view on the group page or subscribe to in their own iCal.
• Invite members directly from your .Mac Address Book.
• With iWeb, publish web pages and blogs directly to .Mac Groups.

Hone your skills in the Learning Center
Realize the full power of your Mac with step-by-step tutorials on the applications you use most, especially useful for new Mac users.

Key Features
• Receive expert instruction on Mac OS X Tiger, iLife and more.
• Follow along with QuickTime movies and text instructions.
• Try out your new skills on sample files.
all for $99.95(U.S.) single user or $179.95(U.S>) for the family pack

He did also anounce 10.4.4 today but as of this posting it's not on Software update or Apple's support page.
What did come up is QuickTime 7.0.4. It's not on Apple's page but did come up on Software update.

Radio Remote

Also Added was a Radio Remote
Which lets you Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. You also get a set of earphones with a shorter cable that’s a perfect fit for the remote.

Update to OS 10.4.4 is up on Software update as well as iTunes 6.0.2! Also The WebCast is up and new iMac Ads.

MacWord 2006!!!

2006-01-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Keynote will be at 9am PST. Stay tuned for all the Mac News!!

Rumors, Guesses, and Analysts

2006-01-09T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, a day before Steve announces what is comming from Apple. Of coarse Bill has his at CES, which to some was hum-drum and just looked like M$ coping Apple like always. Your not sure? Well take a look at the 3 video's here and you will be.

But to any Mac user this is nothing new. But last week and today there are so many writers guessing on what they think will happen to Apple this year, and writing these articles like they are written in stone, like if Apple does not follow what they have said to the letter, Apple will fail.

Hmm...your $45,000 a year Job to Steve's multi-million dollar a year job, his life should be put in your hands... ya right. I've heard the doom of Apple for too long. Apples on a high road now and some writers still wanna place their bets on Apples doom. I'm really beginning to see the very broad definition used by people in their use of calling themselves "analysts".

Some seem to be doing less then a guess, or stating the obvious. One "analyst" says "Apple will be doing something with .Mac". Duh, lets see, I searched just a simple forum to find out that Apple had posted to .Mac users: ".Mac will be undergoing scheduled maintenance from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST on 1/10/06. All .Mac services will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience." The one thing we won't know is besides iWeb, what else will come on .Mac.

But you see everybody gets into the Rumor blitz, Some talk about a 42" or 50" plasma or LCD display from Apple. Of coarse we have our villege idiot Brett Arends who writes

"Whatever Steve Jobs unveils at next week’s Macworld powwow in San Francisco, it had better be spectacular.
For Jobs, the CEO of Apple and high priest of the computer maker’s bizarre cult, his company’s soaring stock price is both a blessing and a curse. "

Listen buddy, I'm a Mac computer user, A cult would be more of a M$ follower who really walks through all hell (viruses) and lies (believing windows is better) and is blinded by the bullshit. Brett you must be really dumb ( or just write this for web hits) not to realize when your being a out right Mac hater. I don't hate people who use M$, I just feel sorry for them having to deal with all the BS and listen to people like you who continue the lie.

You see, Apple is not going to fall as fast as some think. With companys like Chrysler who now also join other car makers who have iPod connections to their cars. Plus all new iPod like products follow a path Jobs has been clearing for a while now, and the have to measure up to Apple's standards in the consumers eyes. There is a reason "the seven-day stretch between Christmas and the new year, millions of consumers armed with new MP3 players (primarily iPods) and stacks of gift cards gobbled up almost 20 million tracks from iTunes and other download retailers, Nielsen SoundScan reports."

So it's easy to say that 85-90% of those downloads where for iPods. Other companys want to change that. But sorry, there is a standard set, and URGE does not meet it!

*issue 241 from applegeeks

Who in the hell thought of this name anyway???

Back to the point, Apple and iPods are not leaving anytime soon. "This product will fail", was also said about walkmans back in the day also, and look at the run they had. Every week we hear about a iPod killer or new music service that will take iTunes down. Easier said then done. People have seen a good player and music service, so like I said, the standard has been set. People want to get out of Virus & spyware hell, and computers like the new iBooks & iMacs will be the way.

Let me not even get into products not made by Apple for the iPod, like the iSee, which turns your iPod into a video recorder. So keep in mind when you analyze Apple, that your now talking about more then one companys investment.

One thing some like Cliff Edwards really need to get in their heads is that just because Apple will be using Intel processors, does not mean they will be called "MacTels". Get over it.
He writes for Business Week saying:

"Is the world ready for Mactel? It better be, because come Jan. 10, that name could very well become synonymous with the historic shift taking place in the PC industry."

It was not called a "MacRola" when they used motorola chips or a "MacBM" when they had IBM chips, so MacTel is not going to happen.

Also, Peter Burrows, why the hell did you interview The Innovator's Dilemma author Clayton Christensen?
Just the first question and answer leaves doubt in my mind.

Peter's question:
Apple is doing phenomenally well these days. It seems it's doing a textbook job of maintaining huge market share in digital music players, long after most experts thought that share would erode. And it's doing so with the same proprietary strategy that many thought would never stand up to an onslaught from the likes of Microsoft , Wal-Mart , and Yahoo!. Can Apple keep it up?

Christensen's answer?
I don't think so. Look at any industry -- not just computers and MP3 players. You also see it in aircrafts and software, and medical devices, and over and over. During the early stages of an industry, when the functionality and reliability of a product isn't yet adequate to meet customer's needs, a proprietary solution is almost always the right solution -- because it allows you to knit all the pieces together in an optimized way.

But once the technology matures and becomes good enough, industry standards emerge. That leads to the standardization of interfaces, which lets companies specialize on pieces of the overall system, and the product becomes modular. At that point, the competitive advantage of the early leader dissipates, and the ability to make money migrates to whoever controls the performance-defining subsystem.

Then the thing that catches my eye is how he ends this answer...

In the modular PC world, that meant Microsoft and Intel, and the same thing will happen in the iPod world as well. Apple may think the proprietary iPod is their competitive advantage, but it's temporary. In the future, what will matter will be the software inside that lets users find exactly the kind of music they want to listen to, when and where they want to, with minimal effort."

What?? "Apple may think the proprietary iPod is their competitive advantage, but it's temporary. In the future, what will matter will be the software inside that lets users find exactly the kind of music they want to listen to, when and where they want to, with minimal effort." The one thing that keeps Apple on top is their easy to use software. So what the hell is this guys talking about?? Slap this man with a large trout!

Tomorrow I'll bring more news after MWSF, and will also give you my first thoughts on Lightroom, Adobe's answer to Apple's Apurture.

iLife '06 & iWeb!!!

2006-01-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Well it seems Apple may have a boo-boo on their hands as some readers of Mac Rumors forums gave everybody a link to this webpage

Where to the right of the page you see iWeb and iLife '06.
Hmm, iWeb could this be a blooger tool? or a easy web page maker?
Guess we will have to wait and see.

Seems like HP does another dumb ass move. After dropping the selling of HP brand iPods, now the are dropping pre-installing iTunes on all HP computers. And their replacement you ask?? Rhapsody service from Real Networks. How dumb can you get? From what I have read " Real Rhapsody is hard to use, difficult to install, and songs only work intermittent with the iPod." Having iTunes on a PC is always a plus, taking it off dumb move.

RealNetworks is also expected to announce a deal with the Cox Communications cable company, which will allow Rhapsody's monthly fee to be included on a customer's cable bill. There goes that cable bill through the roof for music you won't own. How sad.

But the compitition is not just with Real Networks (if you wanna call it that), Microsoft is also worried about Front Row, and worry they should as Front Row will evolve and take on Windows Media Center.

The Wall Street journal reports:

"The Apple threat seems menacing, in part because of recent history: Its iPod was a late entry in an established field of digital music players but soon stole the lion's share of the market. At Microsoft, Front Row is already causing ripples: Mr. Gates in an email to Mr. Belfiore asked why Apple's remote control had just six buttons. The standard Media Center remote from Microsoft has 39 buttons. (Mr. Belfiore's explanation: Front Row computers don't have TV or digital video recorder functions and thus don't need as many buttons.)

At stake is more than just another piece of software for home computers. Both companies, and others, are trying to build the foundational technology for all home digital entertainment."

Of Coarse those are not the only thing on peoples minds, what about Apple bringing out a notebook using Intel Robson cache technology this month.

DigiTimes is reporting:

"Although Intel only demonstrated its Robson cache technology in the fourth quarter of last year, sources now claim that Apple Computer will launch a notebook computer in the middle of this month that utilizes the NAND flash based cache memory technology.

The sources did not say which line of Apple notebooks would implement the technology, and Apple Taiwan was not available for comment at the time of publication."

And lastly I see I'm not the only one who see's some so called "Journalists" who write about they know little or none about, but want to report about just for the hits. Mac360 is giving out their first 2006 Journalism Village Idiot Award to Brad King for Technology Review. Enjoy the laugh.

Apple Secerts and Rumors

2006-01-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Well did the headline catch your eye? Did you get here by Googling "Apple Secrets" or " Apple Rumors"? Well I'm not much for trash can searching, but I do post some rumors, especially during this time when so many are flying around.

Think Secret has one such rumor but their inside sources go beyond January show, and talk about April's National Association of Broadcasters trade show this year.

According to Think Secret:

"Apple will take advantage of the April show to demonstrate Final Cut Pro 6 to the public for the first time. Even more significant, Apple will use the stage to unveil Final Cut Extreme, an extremely high-end version of its video editing software designed to grab marketshare away from rival Avid.

Sources note that Apple's Final Cut Extreme announcement will coincide with Red's upcoming 4K digital cinema camera, a revolutionary piece of equipment that is said will be priced upwards of $200,000. Pricing for Final Cut Extreme is said to be similarly up-market, approaching $10,000 a seat, and will require the latest hardware from Apple."

In the article the also talk about Apple releasing "an even larger Cinema Display than the company's current flagship 30-inch display, one capable of supporting all 11+ million pixels a 4K camera (4520x2540 resolution) will be able to capture."

But remember this is the biggest rumor season of the year, so remember to take it with a grain of salt. Just as On2 Technologies Inc. today announced its On2 Video for Macintosh Software Developer Kit for Mac. The kit enables Macintosh software developers to build video encoding and decoding into their own applications using On2’s VP6 and VP7 technology. One claim I'll do a wait and see is if can really offer better video quality and compression ratios that exceed H.264 and MPEG-4. As On2 claims its TrueMotion VP7 technology is “the world’s best video compressor”.

I'll wait for live tests on the product before I believe their rumors on how great their product is.

The one thing not a rumor is Apple hitting a all time high in shares again! Shares of Apple Computer, Inc. (AAPL) rose $0.83, or 1.11%, in early NASDAQ trading to hit a new all-time high of $75.58.

MarketWatch is saying that "Apple's Macworld unveilings will come barely a week before the company is scheduled to report its first-quarter results on Jan. 18. Analysts estimate Apple will earn 53 cents a share, on $5 billion in revenue, up from 35 cents a share, on sales of $3.5 billion in the same period a year ago." plus the fact that Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Michael Olson have picked Apple as one of their top stocks for 2006 according to Jeff Gamet.

So what does all this mean?? more Rumors of coarse. Look as I had a written here that Apple quietly raised the monthly bandwidth limit for some .Mac accounts to 1 TB. Which disappered just as quickly and quietly.

MacFixit is writing about a posting by Apple which reads:

"The .Mac Account Settings page is displaying incorrect Data Transfer (bandwidth)/month information for all .Mac accounts. Apple is currently investigating this issue.

"Keep watching http://www.mac.com for more information about this and all future enhancements to .Mac."

Is this true?, or is Apple trying to hide something. You don't make mistakes like this at this time of year. And what about the new firmware updates to the Airport Express Firmware Update 6.3 for OS X, and the Airport Extreme Firmware 5.7 so close to MacWorld? Is this new updates to work with newer hardware? Well we be able to stream those new sports video's ( ESPN and ABC sports) that where announced yesterday to your TV for a Tivo like experience?.

We will have to wait and see what Mr. Jobs has in store for us.

BTW ESPN and ABC Sports are the first to offer sports programming on the iTunes Music Store. Condensed versions of all four BCS Bowl Games from ABC Sports will be available on the iTunes Music Store. So you woun't miss the Rose bowl today.

Well according to Mac Rumors this year again will have no live streaming of the keynote from Macworld.
This was posted on their site:

"One reader forwarded an email from Apple's Investor Relations which confirms that Apple will again not be providing a live feed for Macworld.
Thank you for your email. A replay will be available on http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html, but there are no plans for live streaming."

A sad thing, but the stream did get choopy or drop-off even with a good broadband connection some years.

More to come...

In Other News

Engaget got there hands on a Motorola SLVR at CES sporting a Cingular start-up screen, a screen which also happens to confirm that the phone "may be" (they say "will definitely") be running iTunes when it hits the States sometime later this year. Things change, we will see. Motorla is a funny company.

PC World has given Apple's Nano a 2006 PC World Innovations Award saying

"Overnight, the svelte iPod Nano irrevocably altered the landscape for portable audio players. Not only did this model take clean design aesthetics to a new level, but it brought us the first high-capacity (4GB) flash-based player--and one priced within reach of the masses, no less."

Apple Jack has been Updated to version 1.4.2
For those who don't know, AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Using AppleJack, you can repair your disk, repair permissions, validate the system's preference files, and get rid of possibly corrupted cache files. In most cases, these operations can help get your machine back on track. The important thing is that you don't need another startup disk with you. All you need to do is restart in Single User Mode (SUM), by holding down the command and s keys at startup, and then typing applejack, or applejack auto (which will run through all the tasks automatically), or applejack auto restart (which will also restart the computer automatically at the end of the process).

Of Coarse get ready for another Your Mac Life!
Your Mac Life's video gear is en route to Macworld Expo so there will be no live video feed for tonight's show, You can listen in to the plain old audio feed at here.

On tonight's show, the Your Mac Life crew will be discussing their plans for CES and Expo and talking about the "Apple Year in Review" - what were some of the important events and announcements, product introductions, cool software and hardware and anything else that affected Mac users in the past year.

They will also look ahead to prognosticate what they think will happen at next week's Macworld Expo.

Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week brought to you by iStockPhoto.com and Peter Cohen of MacCentral.com and Macworld magazine will be on to talk about all the latest Mac Gaming News.

Lastly I desided to enter the top 100 blogs, to find out where I stand. So if "You", the reader thinks this blog is a good blog, click the graphic below that says top 100 blogs. Thanks!

2006 A "Leap Ahead"

2006-01-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Well intel formally unveiled a new brand identity today which they call "a significant milestone in the company’s history" which they say " further signifies the company’s evolution to a market-driving platform solutions company."

It's new slogon is "Leap Ahead",

"the new tag line, “Leap ahead” is meant to express what the company has made possible in the past in terms of technology, and what it intends to continue doing going forward", said Bill Calder.

Some compare it to the "Think Different" Apple uses. But I don't see it that way, to me leap ahead just seems like the process it infers to, jump ahead of the rest, or Oxfords dictionary definition of to spring a long way, to a great hieght. Where Think Different, asked you to put yourself outside the normal thinking and set yourself apart from the "normal".

Maybe that's too much deep thought, but eaither way, for now Intel and Apple seem to be heading in the same direction. My hope is that the user base go up, quality stay the same or go up, and prices go down a little. My biggest hope is the availibilty of more hardware upgrade from different manufactuers at lower prices.

And while Apple shows off it's best of 2005 list, others like motorola want to take on Apple... (in a way) with starting up their on music service that will not include Apple Computer's iTunes software. Motorola's forthcoming ROKR E2 will instead will use the phone to promote its own proprietary subscription-based music service.

The New York Times reports:

"the world's No. 2 cell-phone maker, on Tuesday revealed details of its plans for iRadio, a subscription music service that will go on sale this year. It also unveiled a new home phone that consumers could link with cell-phone and Web phone services[...]The iRadio service, in some respects, puts Motorola in competition with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., which sell radio subscriptions for car and home radios. Sirius also sends music to Sprint Nextel phones.."

So is motorola setting to be in compotition with Apple?? Kinda, sorta. But I think motorola is just fighting back, and so does The Apple Insider, here's a quote from their site:

"Many Apple watchers and analyst believe Apple may have deliberately withheld its hand in the design of the original ROKR because it has aspirations of making inroads into the cell phone market with its own handset. Analysts have dubbed the potential Apple cell phone project "iPhone" after the iPhone.org domain name which Apple appears to have registered.

The iPhone rumors received a further shot in the arm in late September when Motorola CEO Ed Zander, exhausted by questions about Apple's nano during a leadership conference, erupted by saying: "Screw the nano. What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?"

"We have the ROKR, and they have the nano. They are a competitor as well as a partner," Zander said. He was quick to add: "And we know that they are going to build a smart phone--it's only a matter of time."

The "iRadio" is a cheezy rip off of names (i.e. iTunes,iMovie,iPhoto, etc) just to get iPod users listening. But I'll give Ed a break, you put somebody under too much pressure you never know what they might say. He's not the only one trying to bet on music or even in movies, Starz Entertainment Group who will be woking with Sony is introducing a $9.95-a-month subscription service called Vongo. It will allow people to download movies from the Internet and watch them on their computers.

Now according to the New York Times "

Since 2004, Starz has offered a movie download subscription service, called Starz Ticket, using technology from RealNetworks. But the RealNetworks software does not allow movies to be downloaded to hand-held devices. With Vongo, Starz will shift to technology from Microsoft that will allow movies to be downloaded and watched on portable video players using Microsoft's software.

Until now, portable players have been costly and have found few buyers. But that is starting to change. Lower-priced players are expected to be introduced later this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And of course, interest in portable video has soared with the Apple Computer video iPod, and the popularity of $1.99 episodes of TV shows sold at the iTunes online store.

Microsoft will promote the Vongo service in a coming release of its Media Player software. Separately, Starz will also offer Vongo through Sony's Connect download service. Until now, Connect has mainly sold music, but executives involved with Sony's plans say that this week the company will announce an expansion to video downloads as well.

Starz, which is offering a test version of the service at Vongo.com, has so far not been able to work out an arrangement for Vongo to run on iPods."

and that is where the major problem is. Best selling mp3 player with video is the iPod and Vongo doesn't work with it? not a good move. plus it's a subscription service, as we all know subscription services have not been doing very well. People want to own the movie, not just rent it, just like their music.

Of coarse some people would rather just have their CD not work anywhere just to protect it. ARS has a article on a CD by Coldplay, their most recent album, X & Y, now comes in some regions with an insert that warns users not to expect the CD they just purchased to work with just any old CD player (the following exemplar is from India).
Now here's the insert which you can't read till you buy and open the CD, then find out you that you can't return the merchandise because you just found out it won't work in your CD player.

Funny thing is as ARS noted and I also looked (doing research :D), the album is still available all over P2P networks, without DRM. Proving also it was a waste of time and money for this DRM. These guys trying to one up on Sony?. Also one user who ended up with the CD found out that he could rip it anyway.

O.K. so those guys where corn-holes, but while some try to take a bite out of Apple, some join in and find the positives with owning Apple products, like the makers of South Park, who had to handle its growing storage needs.

"J.J. Franzen, technology supervisor at South Park Studios in Los Angeles, said the show was simply running out of storage space on its digital linear tape (DLT) library and direct-attached disk storage from Plymouth, Minn.-based Ciprico Inc. So in May, a new linear tape open (LTO)-2 tape library from Exabyte Corp. in Boulder, Colo., and three Xserve RAID disk arrays from Apple Computer Inc. were installed."[...]“We were looking for something with a bit more functionality and less cantankerousness. We had to wrestle with Networker to get it to work,” he said.[...]Franzen said he chose Apple hardware based on a “gut” feeling that its technology would be good, and so far, he has not been disappointed. Franzen said he now expects to add two more Xserve arrays for a total of 15TB of storage and place his disk storage behind a couple of switches from Cisco Systems Inc. in order to make managing his storage easier."

Updates
Apple has released the Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2, which Apple says "improves Bluetooth performance and reliability issues."
The version number is confusing people since 1.2 was released in 2004 for 10.3.6.

The new update which supports D-Link USB Adapters and Apple internal Bluetooth modules on the following CPUs:
iMac G4 (Gooseneck)
12" Titanium PowerBook
15" Titanium PowerBook
iMac G5
Mac Mini

Happy 2006

2006-01-02T12:43:00.000-08:00

Another year has come and gone. This year in California it started with rain and high winds. I live in the hills of moreno valley in California and today the high winds blew off the solar heating panels for my pool off the roof.
* BTW solar panels where mounted on the backyard side of the roof, this is the front yard*

As well as knock down my lamp and turn my canopy into a pile of metal

O.k. so my 2nd day in the new year wasn't the best, but what the hell, there's good things to look forward to and Apple started off well with IDG's InfoWorld, the leading integrated media brand for strategic technology decision-makers, today officially announcing the recipients of its 2006 Technology of the Year honors, which recognizes 46 products across 45 categories.

Apple clinched the OS category, and the Quad G5 got best workstation!

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Best Client Operating System: Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger
Best Server Operating System: Mac OS X Server v10.4

SYSTEMS
Best Workstation: Apple Power Mac G5 Quad

There's praise coming from all ends. Apple already displays Wall Street Journals Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret qoute of "The gold standerd of desktop PC's" on their homepage.

Now also Gannett News Mike Wendland is putting the iMac G5 20" on the top of the list on computers to buy saying:

"This is the latest evolution of what, for two years, has been hands-down the finest personal computer available anywhere."[...]"Who this is for: Mac users. Also Windows PC users who want to switch. This is a powerful computer that will be all you need for years."

I have to agree, for those people using windows and want to switch to a virus free easy to use (and recipient of its 2006 Technology of the Year honor for best Client Operating System) OS with included software to import and edit your pictures(iPhoto), movies(iMovieHD), and easy to use DVD software (iDVD), Garageband (for those who want to make music),and of coarse for those who just want to listen to music, you have iTunes. You can't beat the iLife pakage which comes included with every new mac which includes the iMac G5.

But it seems lots of people have praises, even Good Morning America had a segment called "Then vs. Now: The Next Big Things for 2006". 2005 it was the nano, 2006 it will be the iPod with video. Hmmm, what was hot last year?, a iPod, what will be hot this year? another iPod. Sounds good to me. Shoot even Jonathan Ive, the designer of the iPod, has been made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

So keeping that in mind it seems "a company that makes video display products for military and industrial uses is setting its sights on a new market -- the iPod." Seattlepi.com is reporting about eMagin Corp. which has developed a wearable headset system that plugs into video capable iPod and displays video from it in front of one eye, using optical technology designed to give the picture a higher resolution and make it appear to the user like they are watching a 105-inch display from 12 feet away.

Scheduled to debut in the first half of this year, the EyeBud is expected to retail for as much as $599. This is for those who have money to burn, as noted in the article costs $200 more than a 60-gigabyte iPod.

but what is to come with the iTunes music store(iTMS) in the future?? Will a couple of web sites are reporting on Dec. 31, 2005 Apples .Mac service had increased the data transfer capacity from 10GB per month to 1024GB (a terabyte) per month.
This pic taken by a .mac user and was posted on Om Malik's blog
Shows the upgrade, The upgrade quickly disappeared from the account settings page. Could this be so .mac users can save their videos they got from the iTMS? We will have to wait for MacWorld to find out, stay tuned!

Other News
It seems a eager beaver reader of xlr8yourmac.com has gotten OS X Tiger Core Image to work on a B&W G3 350. It seems he flashed a PNY PCI FX5200 with a Mac BIOS.

It seems Apple Matters and sponsor MAKE magazine have a contest where First prize is a custom-engraved brand-new white 60GB 5G iPod engraved with the original Apple logo.
Second prize: A used Apple Newton. Own a piece of Apple history.
Third prize: A used Apple II
*Note, the Newton and Apple II is not guaranteed to function.

If you like a little more info on your downloads, Andrew's Mac Tips has found a small free hack for you.
DownloadComment is a tiny Safari hack."Once it is installed, files downloaded using Safari have their URLs added to the comments field of their info boxes.An added bonus is that DownloadComment also adds the comment to images dragged off websites and dropped into the Desktop."

Lastly The latest Hints & Tips has been posted.

May You Have A Happy 2006 Year!

2006-01-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Here's To The Crazy One's

2005-12-30T08:55:00.000-08:00

*Click image for full size
Well this has been a year full of news for Apple. New iMac and iPods, TV shows on iTunes along with iPods being able to play video. New duel & quad core G5's, Front Row and of coarse the switch to Intel Processors. Shoot even RadioDailyNews.com has named Steve Jobs as the recipient of the "Radio Person of the Year" award as well as Steve getting Times Person of the Year 2005.

So is Steve Jobs still a "crazy one" that "thinks different"? I think so. While so many predict his next steps, his steps are already pre-planned. But do I say it's all because of Steve Jobs? No. He is a major player, but it takes a whole team of players to make this work.

So I wanna take this time to thank all of the people working at Apple for all their dedication to the Mac platform. All of those people in all sections of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA. For Thinking Different and making this a great year for Apple. 2006 is right around the corner, and some people are doing some gussing, some are hoping, and others out right praying for certain things to happen with Apple hardware and software.

This year has brought Apple the respect and the stock price it deserves and I hope 2006 brings those geeks who favor the Windows platform to look upon the Mac and feel envious. I would like to see a Intel-based PowerMac be able to run the Mac OS and Linux on it, thanks to Intel's virtualization technology, which allows a computer to run multiple operating systems independently. I'm still not on the bandwagon for seeing windows on my Mac.

But I am at seeing Apple move in to the living room. ( my couch is more comfortable) The Front Row app we see on the iMacs I think is just the testing ground for a continuation of the "digital hub" Steve spoke about.

The next step is to bring the pieces together. Intel's new Viiv chip set is designed to make it easier to manage all your video,music, and photos. The upcoming Intel-based Macs will make it even easier to integrate Viiv into new home theater.

Of coarse the question has been brought up of the "Intel inside" sticker. Well the Economic Times has posted a article about Intel changing it's tag line:

"Motherboards don’t look, I’m changing! ‘Intel Inside’, the iconic logo of the world’s most dominant semiconductor manufacturing company, which has imprinted itself on the consciousness of consumers across the globe, is likely to undergo a transformation early in the new year, according to industry sources.

The new identity is expected to be unveiled in the first week of January, most likely with a new advertising campaign. The change will be announced worldwide simultaneously.[...]Some sources in Intel whom ET spoke to say that a change is in the offing, and internal documents are learnt to have already started using the new logo. "

Mac Rumors says these are pictures of the new logo's.

I would take these with a grain of salt.

What we do know for sure is Apple will bring some fresh and awesome new changes in 2006!

Because they are The crazy one's, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

because they change things.

They push the human race forward.

While some see them as the crazy ones, I see genius.
because the people crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Thank You Apple!

BTW I got these pics of the Cooling system of a Quad processor PowerMac G5 that James DuBois posted for ARS.
Note the dual cooling pumps and massive heat exchanger. Even the cache has a huge heatsink

And lastly
Mac News World why in gods name would you guys republish old garbage articles 2 days in a row? The report from USA Today's Kevin Maney called "2006 Could Be the Year of Steve Jobs' Downfall" and Brett Arends from Boston Herald's story called "Apple Should Plant a Palm for Next Christmas". Total waste of peoples time.
Also for those guys out there playing World of Warcraft, stay out of the gay bar. (funny video)

I'll Talk to you all after New Years!
Come and sing along, I Love my mac
cuz its so dependable, so sensible so beautiful
oh it's the only one for me

*thx Micromancy for the link :)
Have a happy and Safe New Years!!

* click here for full 1280x1024 desktop pic

Where is Apple Going??

2005-12-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here we are, 13 days away from the keynote, the day all Mac users wait for. The 2006 MacWorld is very special. New chip/architecture, new OS, new computers.

The speculation is off the charts and everybody has their thoughts on what they will be able to do with the new Intel-based Macs. Notice I didn't say "MacTel" because Intel does not own Apple and no previous Apple computer has ever used the chip makers name as part of what the computer is called. So lets's get over this MacTel nonsense.

Second, I was going through my Mac news when I came across the CIO website with a article by Steven Warren called Mac OS X on Intel?!?. After reading and saving the link to write about it here I ran across MDN writers had also seen and written about this same article yesterday.

but here's where MDN and my views differ slightly. In the article by Steven, he say's:

"In June 2005, Apple announced a brilliant strategy. They decided to abandon the IBM PowerPC processors to move to the Intel engine. Can you imagine the possibilities? We could live in a world where you could now buy a brand- name computer or clone and load Apple OS X Tiger on it or dual-boot your computer with OS X and Windows. You may even be able to run Windows on an Apple computer. Seriously."

Brilliant is a matter of opinion, IBM makes awesome chips, but the heat factor, speed upgrades, and not being able to bring a laptop version of the G5 plus the fact that Apple was not on IBM's top list of to do's was a big factor on changing chip makers. But what does make me think is how Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are now using IBM G5 chips in their next generation gaming consoles. Even how Microsoft at E3 2005 used 2 G5's to show off their XBox games.

*pictures from AnandTech
Microsoft is not a hardware maker but it does make you think about the reasons Companys like MS and Apple give for using a particular chip, and what the real reasons behind them are.

but lets get back to this quote. He's dreaming of the cloning era coming back. Didn't do so well last time for Apple, I just don't think Steve want's to take this chance at this point and time. So guess what "Seriously", NOT!

He goes on to say:

"Why the sudden change of heart? It is a known fact the IBM chips Apple is using are lagging in the ability to keep the processors cool. Combine this with Apple having trouble matching the lightning speed of x86 (Intel) competitors and you can see why they need to make a change."

Here's where the battles between Windows and Mac users collide. "Apple having trouble matching the lightning speed of x86 (Intel) competitors" Hmm, so what are we talking about here? graphics?, word processing, video?, games?

When it comes to speed, lots of things come into factor, so a 3.2 AMD or Intel chip may not be the "lightning speed" chip that Steven makes it out to be. One place( for now) that the x86 chips do come out on top all of the time is gaming. And with so many windows users out there manufacturers make also many great graphics cards and sell them at lowers prices.

Now with Intel-based mac coming, Apple using PCI-Express slots these same video cards may be availible for these new Macs hopfully bringing down the price of your next Mac. Hopefully bringing more computer users sick of windows problems to the Mac platform.

Now the one worry for me is the thought or reasoning behind having the windows OS on a Mac. Lets look at the Pro's and Con's.

Pro's:
Able to have a larger software library to choose from.
Being able to connect smoothly over PC networks and with other windows users
Cheaper (in price) hardware and software

Cons:
Virues
Trojons
Maleware
Spyware
Crashes of Windows OS

Am I destined to look at a screen similar to this if Apple does make XP or Vista a bootable OS on a Intel-based Mac????

Something about windows being on my computer just makes me feel vulnerable. Because I don't see "Windows within the secure Mac OS X environment". I see a Windows environment that has had many years of hackers breaking in. I see layers of protection taken away having the windows OS on my Mac.

Now these are my personal opinions, but how safe a person feels is a factor on how they work and do business online. This same feelings are why some don't use Virtual PC on their Mac and rather find a Mac alternative. These feelings of insecurity are the reasons some computer users (Windows and Mac) don't use credit cards online.

And until windows finds a way to patch all these holes, I will feel insecure with a windows OS on my Mac. Having "Windows within the secure Mac OS X environment" means Apple has to have some hardware or part of OSX running in the backround protecting my computer, and the hope that that layer is not the weakness hackers concentrate on breaking through.

I'll just hope for the lower prices and availiblity of hardware and software for the Mac OS in 2006 and beyond and let Microsoft keep it's B.S. OS.

Other News
John Kheit, a writer for The Mac Observer writes a article called The Devil's Advocate - Spotlight: Is Your Mac Going To Rat On You?. A article every Mac user should read.

"Spotlight the File System Snitch
For example, when you download files from Safari or transfer them via iChat, and you select the file and "Get Info" from the File menu in the Finder, you will see a "Where from" entry that shows the file source.As you can see, the Get Info panel shows not only the mode of the transfer, i.e., iChat, but it also shows the full name and contact information of the person that provided the file. When you download files via Safari, the source Web address is stored. If I were a content/media company executive, I know I would ask Apple "pretty please with sugar on top" for such file tracking."

You can read the whole article here.

The Apple Insider say's they have inside info saying

"In a move that may surprise some Apple watchers, reliable sources tell AppleInsider the Mac maker has contracted the design duties for its next-generation Power Mac motherboard over to industry heavyweight Intel Corp."

And lastly a link to a blog called Writers Block live getting lots of hits. The writer is a former director of product marketing (Mike Evangelist who is also writing a book called "Mike's Book - Jobs I've Known.") from April 2000 to July 2002 responsible for Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, iDVD and few others. who went from "merely being a fan of Apple’s products, living far away from Cupertino, to actually working for the company and for Steve Jobs himself".

Apple In Top 3

2005-12-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

Before I start I would like to hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and got everything you wanted.

Most it seemed wished for a iPod and got it. It seems "iPods ruled the holiday season in Electronics, owning the top three slots- the Apple 3 GB iPod Nano (Black), the Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback (Black), and the Apple 512 MB iPod Shuffle were the top sellers."

"Holiday sales worldwide set a record this year on demand for Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players, video games and jewelry." (For Amazon.com)

"Shoppers bought more than 108 million items between Nov. 1 and Christmas, the Seattle-based retailer said today in a statement. The company did not provide revenue figures. The busiest single day was Monday, Dec. 12, when customers ordered 3.6 million items," Bloomberg reports. "iPods were one of the top three-selling items in electronics for Amazon.com. Overall, online sales in the U.S. are expected to jump 24 percent to about $19 billion in November and December as the convenience of Internet shopping and free shipping lures consumers, according to ComScore Networks Inc. The most popular goods on the Web include clothing, electronics and toys." according to Bloomberg reports.

So if your one of the ones who recived a iPod, but want to add a little more flare, it seems Gucci and Emilio Pucci have something for you. According to The Birmingham News

"Luxury-goods merchants Neiman Marcus and Coach are getting a boost from Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player by offering designer covers costing as much as $840.

Neiman's "Christmas Book" catalog features seven iPod cases made by designers such as Gucci and Emilio Pucci. The retailer's Valentino Swarovski crystal-studded cover is more than double the $399 price tag of most expensive iPod."

I'm pretty sure you might see one of these covers on a star during a catwalk of some award show.

This year even PC (windows) writers could not avoid the popularity of the iPod. PC World even named the iPod the 2nd most greatest gadget (out of 50) of the past 50 years!

With all this good news for Apple, the iPod and increased sales of Apple computers, Some try hard to make themselves look good using Apples iPod as part of their prop.

It seems a anonymous email sent to Jack Whispers on friday about a site called iPod Garage.
Here's the e-mail-

"Hi [Jackwhispers],

Wow, this Palmer guy is outrageous. Now he's claiming that his iPod nano PDF was downloaded over 100,000 times in 1 week. That is a total lie... it's not possible. His site doesn't even get the traffic to warrant it.

Someone needs to stop this guy with the lies and deceptions."

This is post from bill Palmer from his site.

Feel free to post in this comments section how full of BS he is. I have to agree with Jack here, 100,000 downloads in a week?!! If Jack's stats are right and iPod Garage "barely pushes more than 600,000 unique page viewers a month", There is no way he got 100,000 downloads unless he had a computer set up to continuously download and re-download the 7.1mb PDF file. Which I would have to say the ones from iLounge are so much better.

But I have to say, thanks for the laugh Jack, I love the end of the article

"Just remember ... this is the guy who claimed he pioneered transferring songs from your computer to your iPod!"

(Laughing Out Loud) Pioneered transferring songs from your computer to your iPod, (Rolling On the Floor Laughing) that's priceless.

Then I started to read may I say, another virus threat story. But this had a odd twist. Symantec on 12/19/05 admitted that all versions of Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) contain a security vulnerability that could allow a malicious user to remotely take control of the computer.

What?! a Anti-Virus software with a security flaw?? Hold on, if I buy this product that is designed to protect me from threats that do not seem to exist, (execpt for company's like Symantec or Secunia who seem to post these vulnerability's but usually post that they are not confirmed or post the risk higher then they really are. It's almost like hearing about vaporware) I am at risk?? What the hell is going on!

Is it better to just take precautions like being behind a firewall and staying up to date with all Apple's patches? I mean when my Anti Virus software (which is Nortons) catches a trojan and I look at the file, it ends up just being a .exe file (windows) which would do nothing expect take up hard drive space.

But this section of the article made me think

"But how long will the OS X platform remain safe? That is a question nobody seems willing or able to predict."

Predicting is one thing, scaring people is another. But then again who is behind all this?? Well Aladdin Knowledge Systems had a theory, which MacNewsWorld choose to write about. Alladin says according to their studies the mob is involed.

"A separate study points out that hacking is evolving from a mischievous hobby into a full-time criminal venture, meaning that Apple will no longer get a pass because it is perceived among many in the computing community as a white hat company, battling Microsoft on behalf of the rest of us. The study, by Aladdin Knowledge Systems, found that 70 percent of virus writers work under contract for organized crime syndicates."

O.K. I thought I heard it all, so are they saying some top exec is paying the mob to have a hacker make a virus?? I laugh when I think of some geek getting paid by a mob strong arm to make a virus so companys like Symantac can sell more software. How can this be?? Does the Casso or Russo Family have shares in Symantec??

Because according to the article the rise of common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) has pushed the cost of the hacking problem, costing corporate America a wopping $100 billion (U.S.)last year, according to the CERT & Mi2g Intelligence unit.

That's big money for the mob. Sorry I can't stop snickering, I just can't get a picture of
<--Lucky Luciano and John W. Thompson -->
doing business together. It just makes me laugh. But in this world you never know. Peope do come up with new ideas to make money and the mob is no exception.

But this kind of story makes for a good made for TV movie, or a Discovery Channel story "Inside the back rooms of Symantec: The Mob Story".

Sorry still snickering.

In Other News
Think Secert talks about a report by the Wall Street Journal on Spitzer investigating online music pricing.

MacFixit has a report on a permanent "fix for problems with text input boxes" for FireFox version 1.5. It now appears that this issue can be permanently fixed by installing an updated version of the JEP (Java Embedding Plug-in) and deleting the old Java-related plug-ins that come with Firefox 1.5.

Click here for the fix.

Christmas Time!!!

2005-12-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well this blog first was built in February, but I didn't really start fully writing daily till August. It's been so much fun (and work) to bring this blog full of the latest info on Mac news to you, my readers.

I wanna give a sincere Merry Christmas to all my Family, Friends, and you my readers.

To help view those pics you take this Christmas e dot studios has released a new widget today for Mac OS X 10.4's Dashboard called iPhoto Mini. The widget lets you browse your iPhoto library, browse individual albums, and see how many photos each album contains.

Also Apple has posted two new video clips on the iTunes Music Store which are available as free downloads. The two new video clips include

Saturday Night Live Short - Lazy Sunday - 2m 31s (funny as hell)
Sci Fi Inside: Battlestar Galactica - 21m 03s

Enjoy! and Merry Christmas

Oh, and for all you Windows users who still think Macs Suck, here's my merry christmas to you!

Apple like News On the Web

2005-12-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

So, I look today on the web and if I skip the iPod articles where they talk about iPod Interfaces for autos to reach 73 million worldwide by 2011, or how the 2005 is the year of the iPod in Japen or even how where they talk about how Apple seems to be doing a better job of providing iPod supply for the Apple specialist stores than they would have expected.

You can get to some news Aperture users have been waiting for. A update to the software that can help to address some issues with the software.

Key areas addressed by this update include:

•White balance adjustment accuracy and performance

•Image export quality

•Book and print ordering reliability

•Auto-stacking performance

•Custom paper size handling

The Aperture 1.0.1 update “addresses a number of issues related to reliability and performance. It also delivers improved image export quality and metadata handling,” according to Apple.

We all know no company can go with out having a flaw or two. Even so in seems some look for flaws in Apple hardware or software more and more lately.

We as Mac users know that Apple is not perfect. That's where sites like Macfixit help us along the way. Talk about Macfixit they are reporting about

"some PowerBook G4 Double-Layer SuperDrive models may be shipping with problematic Mac OS X installation media (and the copy of Mac OS X installed at the time of shipment) that can make the units more susceptible to system-wide freezes."
"It now appears that this issue may actually be caused by a flaw in the copy of Mac OS X shipped with these systems -- both the included Mac OS X disc and the system software that comes pre-installed."

according to the site.

but it seems even with these small flaws it hasn't stopped some Linux users from switching to OS X.

Low End Mac is saying

"something unpredictable happened. Even before Windows users started switching to Macs, Linux users were coming to OS X in masses."

But not all users are just switching OS's. Some like the guys in my clan {RA} which used to be a awesome UT CTF clan have been sucked in to World of Warcraft like a bunch of crack users. Of coarse they are like the other 5 million who also addicted.

iPod, iPod, iPod,iPod, iPod, iPod, iPod, iPod

2005-12-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

Man, what the hell is going on lately?? It seems some people are doing anything to get hits on their websites. I used the keyword "iPod" as a headline to make a point.

O.k., Apple.com made it as a top website of selling products (along with Walmart & Amazon). And yesterday Apple also nabbed top spot in the Nielsen//NetRatings as the fastest growing Web site among the top 10 Web brands for November 2005.

But does that mean you have to put "iPod", "Steve Jobs" or "Security flaws in Apple(insert product here)" in your headlines, or write a negative article about Apple, iPod or iTunes like this is sweeps week for the net, just so you can get more hits on your site?? I see more and more as the holidays drew near, and more as the holidays are here.

Case No.1- WCPO.com, reporter ( I use that word reporter loosely) John Matarese who's headline is in Large letters CHEAPER IPOD?. Then goes on to write a real dumb article which only at some point, points out the obvious.

"Here at hh gregg's Florence store... Digital music expert Chris Benzinger says if you can live without the iPod name ...You'll find lots of cheaper alternatives.
Chris says this imitation iPod from Toshiba has the same bells and whistles for a lot less."

The same bells and whisles huh?? I love the use of imitation in his qoute, lol. Does anybody also think?, I can buy a Kia Spectra instead of a BMW 760Li, they both have 4 wheels and a motor. They both have a radio and a steering wheel. But which one is better? And while I maybe able to get to my destination with maps printed by map quest, A built in navagation is better.

My overall experiance will be better, and all-n-all I know I will have a better product. Better product, that's the obvious point right there in a nut shell. Better product.

So save your line of "They're just not as cool. As I always say, consider the Pros and Cons of every product, and "Don't Waste Your Money." for some dumb ass who doesn't see what your really after, "hits" for your website, not to be the protector of consumers your article clams to portray.

Case No.2- USA Today's "2006 could be year that Apple CEO Jobs falls off pedestal"
Big headline, draws in the anybody who types in "Apple" in Google, and starts the article with nothing more then "Sometime in 2006, Steve Jobs will probably get hosed". Wow did that get your attention?? Wanna read more?

Lets's see, he talks about cellphone with camera's and their usefulness, wow, big news there. RSS becoming a big thing, hmm safari already has RSS, so what's this part all about?.

The digital living room, O.k. still waiting for the part Steve jobs falls off. Google will help Microsoft get its groove back. Hmm, just gives some banter there.

then add's:

"New game plan in Silicon Valley: launch start-up in the morning, work through lunch, sell company before happy hour, retire."

"Entrepreneurs stand to make just as much money in a near-term $30 million acquisition as they might in a much larger acquisition after three-plus years and substantial VC dilution," (Steve) Hall says."

O.K. and this has what to do with Apple?? Does he think Steve Jobs will sell Appleor will be taken over in 2006??

Then we get to the very end of the article

"And finally, there is Apple's Jobs — tech's celebrity superstar. He seems due. Maybe he'll humiliate a bumbling underling on stage at Macworld, unleashing a torrent of stories saying Jobs is the Lord Voldemort of managers. Or someone will discover malicious spyware hidden deep inside iTunes.

The only sure thing is that society, as if striving for equilibrium, will then knock Jobs as far down as we boosted him up. It's just what we do, no?"

O.K. does this article really deserve such a headline as "2006 could be the year Steve Jobs falls off pedestal"? I don't think so. To much egg nogg at the office party while writing, with a pinch of "I need hits".

Case No. 3- Apple Seen Moving Away From Mac, Building On IPod Now really I expected better from Forbes.com. You quote a analyst about how well Apple is doing

"2006 will undoubtedly mark another major year in Apple's transformation, but its new markets bring together tougher competition".

O.K. competition is always there in the Tech industry, tell me some thing new, I came here because of that Google attracting headline.

O.K. so you go on to say

"The analyst (Goldman Sachs research analyst David C. Bailey)believes Apple could announce its first real move into the digital entertainment hub market as early as Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld on Jan. 10, in the form of an updated Mac mini that includes a remote control and Front Row software. Front Row is an interface for music, video, photos and DVDs."

O.K., one guys opinion thinks that the bottom line is, Apple is going to drop the Xserve, PowerMac, and iMac line just because everybody is buying iPods? Does this analyst not know that the who Hub connection was to help sell Macs to work with TV's and your iPod.

This one guys opinion is the reason for this headline? because he thinks Apple will drop the growing money coming from education, the growing income from people switching and buying Macs to match the great "ease of use" product they see in the iPod they got?

One guys opinion about the growing sales of iPods and what he thinks is the reason Apple will drop these computers that power users, and also news writers buy, all for a all one media center? All of the work into OSX for what he sounds like he's describing as a TiVo like system that plays DVD's? Give me a break....

" he said he would reassess his valuation if Apple announced new products over the next few months that could shift its center of gravity further into the consumer electronics realm. "

I bet he would. but does this deserve such a headline? Or is it just to have the "Apple" and "iPod" keywords in you headline?

Case No.4-iPod earbuds can cause hearing loss
Now I put this in here because I wanted to show I was not bias to mac news sites, plus this type of news is as old as reporting about Sony coming out with a portable CD player.

the article starts with:

"A Northwestern University professor and audiologist claims that the earbud-style headphones which ship with Apple's iPod and other MP3 players can cause serious, permanent hearing loss."

Let me get this striaght, playing music loud will cause hearing loss. Well duh...

"the professor, (Dean Garstecki) says the large storage capacity of iPods also contributes to problems: "not only do you have a signal that is likely to be more intense, you're likely to be using this device longer than people have been using CD players and Walkmans in the past. This increases the likelihood of hearing loss down the road."

What about the youth who have 1000 watts in their car stereos with 2 to 4 15" sub-woofers in their cars playing at high decibels? I can feel that bass a block away, what does that do to a users ears or anybody else around them??

This playing music too loud will damage your ear drums has been reported on when I was in high school, (I'm 40 now). Let me add, when you turn off your music, if your ears are ringing, you where playing the music too loud!! Can somebody quote that on their webpage?.

Let me point out, I still play my music loud and I know the risks.

"The professor said that rock and rap music are the most dangerous, since they're typically played at a higher volume than other genres"

I guess they have not heard my dad play salsa music.

Bottom line, does this deserve a page and headline? I think not. put it next to the other million things I hear that will harm or kill you. Shit all these doctors almost had me at point where I could not eat or drink sanything because it would harm me or shorten my life.

Let me say I'd rather die with a smile on my face happy with tasty foods I ate then die a paranoid-worried person reading every nutrition label. Doctors have yet to agree, and when they do, 5 years later they find out they are wrong and want you to follow new findings they want to pushing on the public as scientific proof.

About the only thing here I agree on is exessive load noise will cause hearing loss. And that can come from many things. but does this deserve a headline, I think not.

Cases 5 & 6- Apple QuickTime 7.0.3 & iTunes 6.0.1 Heap Overflow two sites Security Protocols and Secunia both reporting on a flaw that is

"A heap overflow vulnerability exists within Apple QuickTime 7.0.3 and iTunes 6.0.1 which allows for an attacker to cause the application to crash, and or to execute arbitrary code on the targeted host."

it also says

"The vulnerability is caused due to an error in handling malformed ".mov" files. This can be exploited to cause memory corruption, which causes the program to crash. It has been reported that arbitrary code execution may be possible. However, this has not been confirmed."

"this has not been confirmed" nuff said, post the article when you have confirmed it, not before. Using this headline just scare people and get hits on your site using the "Apple" and "iTunes" keywords in the headline is B.S.

O.K. enough of that, JackWhispers has a couple of articles to really help you not become a victum this holiday season.

One is called "Stupidity Is Not Invisible ..." and the other is called "MP3 Shuffle: 99.7% Pure Copycat". Both have some very useful information.

Updates
MacNewsworld is reporting about audio and video search engine Blinkx yesterday introducing a new service that allows its users to sync video blogs and podcast with portable devices.

The Mac Observer reports about Apple introducing

"a new look for its support site on Tuesday. The pop-up menus are gone, replaced by boxes with links to the company's various product lines. iPod support features even more prominently than before, and most product support sections include a form for checking the status of repairs near the top of the Web page."

Talking about support, Apple updated SoundTrack Pro to version 1.0.2 which you can also get through software update.

Roxio has announced the release of Toast Titanium 7.0.2 a update to the company's popular CD/DVD authoring software.

YML Time!
Today is another YML day.
Today -
•Paul Kent the new Vice President at IDG World Expo.
•Your Mac Life's Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week brought to you by iStockPhoto.com.
•Peter Cohen of MacCentral.com and Macworld magazine will also be on to talk about all the latest Mac Gaming News.

Tonight being the last show before Christmas, Your Mac Life has a stocking full of good other to give out to lucky listeners too!

You can catch the video or the plain audio feeds this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET.

Apple on Top At Christmas

2005-12-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I wrote how reading a comic and a few articles kept a smile on my face. Today seemed the same as for some reason after looking at the comics using my "say Cheese" widget (a comic viewer) and getting a few laughs I went over to the Mac360 website and got another laugh. Seems they also found the article from Brett Arends, writer for the Boston Herald to be super dumb. As they write

"Obviously, Christmas came early for writer Arends who received an electronic hyperbole machine and a case Johnny Walker’s best. You know, for when he writes."

So I laugh some more and think to myself Apple right now is doing well,

•Apple nabbed the top spot in Nielsen//NetRatings as the fastest growing Web site among the top 10 Web brands for November 2005.

•They didn't end up on C|Net's Top 10 worst products of 2005 like the Toshiba Satellite M35X-S163, the Linksys WPS54GU2 Wireless-G print server, Dell's W3000 TV, or the #1 champion of wrost products Kreisen KR-320T TV.

•Steve Jobs is among Time's "People Who Mattered 2005" list. A quote from Time's page:

"If you could read this man's mind, you would see the future. He has sold more than 18 million iPods this year, more than doubled Apple's stock price (to an all-time high) and put Desperate Housewives in your pocket. Jobs' thoughts tend to become our reality. What will he think of next?"

•Some people think Apple is the new Sony saying things like:

"As many as 1 million of the 4.5 million computers Apple shipped in fiscal 2005 were from Windows users switching platforms - a sign of a "halo effect" from iPod sales and Apple's growing retail presence, said Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf."

"The iPod's continued success notwithstanding, Wolf thinks the strength of Apple's performance in 2006 "will depend on how well they convert Windows users to the Mac." Indeed, all eyes are on Apple. "Apple is moving faster than ever and we expect them to move at an even faster pace next year," analyst Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group said."

While others venture to say that this is the "Age of the iPod". The iPod does have a big following, and podcasting is a big part of it also. MacNewsWorld reports that "Godcasting" is a fast-growing niche which makes available downloadable messages from Christians, Jews, Mormons and even Pagans.

"An average of 488 people download Christian Fellowship Church's service, said Steve Gubbins, technical ministries director. And the number is growing.

According to industry analyst the Diffusion Group, the 800,000 consumers who used podcasting in 2004 is expected to reach 56.8 million people in 2010."

Now that's a lot of iPods, plus NBC today expanded there availible shows, now the iTunes music store also has "Commander in Chief". This all can bring in possible new Mac users, and with new Macs just around the corner with the possiblity of lower prices, Apple can pass the "sky's is the limit" and go to beyond the stars with Steve at the helm. But let's me continue with this list.....

•North Carolina (Greene County) Schools Board of Education voted to refinance its lease from Apple Computers. The school system will sell its 2,041 existing laptops to MacWorld before the company announces its new product lines Jan. 9, 2006.

Which means that the middle and high school students and teachers will trade in their used laptops and receive new laptops their first week back from the holiday break in 2006. Well Mac Daliy News thinks this is a "Confirmation of new Apple iBooks coming at Macworld".
They go on to say:

"This is excellent confirmation of the rumors of new Intel-based iBooks coming from Apple at Macworld Expo. Sometimes reports about Apple that come from oblique angles contain the most useful information. The reporter and the superintendent obviously don't grasp the secrecy that surrounds Apple's hardware announcements; they don't seem to know they're not supposed to tell certain things. Abernethy also doesn't seem to recognize the scoop he really has in his hands, but we do. To us, it seems pretty clear that Greene County Schools officials were told by their Apple rep(s) that new Intel-based iBooks were coming at Macworld "

Now will these new Macs have a "intel inside" sticker? I'll just quote Eric Bangeman of ARS Technica

"You might even see an Intel logo on the box. But on the computers themselves? Not as long as Steve Jobs rules the roost and Jonathan Ive is designing the hardware."

•Now Apple get's a lot of praise about it's OS. But I love a qoute from Apple's new IT Pro page. It was a section from there "U.S. Army reaches out to the public with Apple" article.

"In June 1999, a Wisconsin teenager breached the security of the Windows NT system that hosted the site, replacing the home page with a defiant message from a hacker group. The site was moved temporarily to a Mac OS — based system while the Army and its website contractor, CherryRoad Technologies, evaluated a number of platforms to ensure that such an incident could never happen again. After analyzing the security of a variety of platforms and reviewing security advice from the World Wide Web Consortium, CherryRoad recommended that the Army remain on the Mac platform.

Today, an Xserve server running Mac OS X Server and WebSTAR delivers the www.army.mil content to millions of visitors each month."

Or what Mark H. Wiggins, Lt. Col., U.S. Army, Ret. Former director, www.army.mil was quoted as saying

"I wanted high-speed systems that could handle any application we needed, keep the site available 24 hours a day, not be vulnerable to every passing virus, and fend off hackers without my staff having to spend all their time applying security patches."

Those are the things that keep me happy inside that my family uses Macs. High-speed system, handle any application we needed, not be vulnerable to every passing virus, and fend off hackers without me having to spend all my time applying security patches.

Just a few things that makes me happy to be a Mac User, well in my personal case, a "MacAddict".

But keeping the christmas spirit going, SpyMac has some holiday freeware, from winter icons, seasonal screensavers, to a humorous resizable widget version of the Xmas Advent Calendar which Every day, a new "door" opens and reveals another piece of the story.

Also Freeverse has announced it's free 3D Snowglobe available to Mac users for the Holidays. "Add your own pictures to the Snowglobe with drag & drop ease, give it a shake, and watch the snow gently fall on your favorite family picture.

Updates
Apple has updated it's Final Cut Pro 5 to version 5.0.4. It's a 84mb download.

Titanium Software's OnyX
has been Updated to 1.6.6.

OnyX is a maintenance, optimization, and personalization utility for Mac OS X. It also makes it possible to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, and Safari, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, and more.
OnyX is Freeware, gratis and freely usable; you may copy and distribute it at will. You can use it for as long a time as you want.

Skype
Has been updated to 1.4.0.33. For those who don't know,
Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers.

A Mac Christmas is Near

2005-12-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

Well I got up today and hopped on my G5 to see Todays latest Apple Geeks comic.

Got me a good laugh, then proceeded to find some Mac news. I run into this article from Brett Arends Boston Herald Finance Columnist. I read part of it and get to this quote

"There’s one easy step Jobs could take right now that would take advantage of his soaring share price to open up whole new fields of growth. Buy Palm.
The reason? IPods are not quite as invincible as they look.
They’re no longer clearly the best digital music player. They’re heavy and the battery life isn’t that great.Rival products the size of your thumb include a radio. "

I was about to lean into this dumb ass till I read a write up by MacDailyNews. The writer at MDN replys with

"Apple iPods are clearly the best digital music players. They are not at all "heavy." In fact, iPods are unbelievably small and light. iPod battery life is exceptional for the small sizes and light weights of the units (Learn how to maximize your iPod battery's life and lifespan here - a properly maintained iPod battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles). FM radio is obviously not important to consumers - just look at iPod sales for proof. Macs and Windows PCs will play iTunes Music Store songs and videos. You don't even need an iPod to enjoy iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. iPods can play AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF formats.

The iPod is not the Mac, so stop trying to compare them. The Macintosh platform required and still requires huge investments by developers to create compatible software. The iPod simply plays music that can be encoded, for very little cost, in any format the "developers" (musicians and labels) desire: AAC, MP3, WMA, etc. The music doesn't need to be rewritten, recorded, and remastered. It's like writing Photoshop once and then pressing a button to translate it for use on Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. To draw an analogy between Mac OS licensing and the iPod/iTunes symbiotic relationship simply highlights the writer's ignorance of the vast differences between the two business situations.

We could go on, but this is tiresome, silly stuff that we and others have already refuted many times over. When did Arends write this article, three years ago - only to see it published today? Yeah, we know, it's the Boston Herald, so don't expect much quality reporting. For Apple to buy Palm today would be almost as stupid and outdated as this article."

Saved me the time of getting myself worked up and kept a smile on my face. So I continue surfing and read again about Microsoft ending support of Internet Explorer for the Mac.
From the Mactopia website

"In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates.

Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari."

Personally, this gave me another laugh. O.K. so anybody who uses this P.O.S. browser for the Mac has 12 days left for support. If your still using IE for the Mac personally I don't know why. There are a lot better browsers out there.
Your stock Safari in 10.4 is a good start. FireFox is another. There are others like Opera which is free now, Camino, iCab X, OmniWeb ($29.95) and Netscape 7.2. (Netscape 8.0 is not available for Mac yet).

So this news still kept a smile on my face. Go over to the Apple store and find out if you want your gifts from Apple to arrive before christmas, Apple has added more Mac models that qualify for free overnight shipping.

Through December 21, Apple's offering free overnight shipping on standard or popular custom configuration orders of any Macintosh computer. Adding other items to the cart may change your eligibility for this offer. If one or more of the following items are added to your cart:

Custom Configuration Computers
Any Personalized iPod
Any 1 GB iPod Shuffle
Any 4 GB iPod Nano

it will no longer be eligible for Free Overnight shipping and the cart will display the next fastest shipping method available for the entire order. You may select from any displayed shipping option for no additional charge. So remember free shipping does not apply to customized models.

More Rumors
Think Secret says they have some "Reliable sources" who have

"further confirmed recently to Think Secret that new iBooks and Mac minis—as well as iPod shuffles—will debut at Macworld Expo San Francisco next month.

They say Apple's new Mac mini and iBook are expected to be among the first, if not "the first" systems to feature Intel's new mobile processor, code-named Yonah. The only thing they don't know is if it will be single or duel-core. Duel-core speeds are said to be slated at 1.5GHz, 1.66GHz, 1.83GHz, 2.0GHz, and 2.16GHz. Bus speeds and L2 cache are expected to remain the same between the variants, at 667MHz and 2MB.

All n All, A Happy, smiling day.
Chat with ya'll tomorrow!

Apple Shining Bright

2005-12-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

Well Apple Computer has been shining bright this year, and with Macworld(MWSF) around the corner things are looking even brighter.

There are many hopes of lower prices for the Intel based Macs and also for upgraded hardware like graphics cards which are always 4 times the price of the PC counter parts.

The other question is will Apple use the "Intel inside" label, Or as BusinessWeek asks "Is Apple going to accept "Intel Inside" money and all that goes with it? ".

It would be nice to see Apple computers on TV ads, but that's not on the top of the list.
I also think most of us just want a machine that runs Mac OS X as fast as possible and don't care if there's a gerbil inside doing it.

Right now the Apple is shining super bright, analyst Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group is saying

“In the consumer electronics world, there’s always talk now about Apple, the way people used to talk about Sony" [...] "At the water cooler or in boardrooms, they’re asking, ‘What is Apple doing next?’ or ‘How do we stay out of their way?”

As news reports of Apple’s momentum accelerated in 2005. With the likes of Companys like Time Warner Inc.'s HBO cable network wanting to put their programs on the iTunes store, the sky is the limit.

But some think this momentum will slow in January as they think Jobs will not announce any new Macs. One site TechWB says they know somebody on a "higher level" at Apple. They are saying:

"Apple says not to expect Intel at Macworld, in fact don’t expect any new computer hardware. I have contact with someone that works for Apple at a higher level, when asked if they were attending Macworld he said he is not attending this year however they were not told to go or even that they don’t have to go, instead they were told that they shouldn’t go. Typically if there is a big announcement they are expected to attend. My opinion is that this is a sign that they are not going to be releasing any kind of new apple computer hardware or else they would need to go. This means that for anyone hoping for the new Intel computers your out of luck, no hardware will be announced except for maybe the normal speed boosts since those wouldn’t be any reason for them to attend. The only announcements will be coming from the other non computer hardware departments such as new iPods, iSight, Monitors, Programs, and other software and accessories."

Don't know who his "Higher level" contact is, but he's betting against most analysts. Plus personally I hope he's wrong. I guess we shall all know on the 10th of January.

So for now we will just wait and see, and keep our current Macs up-to-date.
Speaking of up-to-date, Seems 10.4.4 may be on our Macs before years end according to the AppleInsider.

"According to sources and reports already present on the Web, Mac OS X 10.4.4 (rumored to be build 8G22) stands to deliver over 120 bug fixes to the Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" operating system. Targeted areas are said to include audio, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Dashboard widgets, DVD Player, graphics, graphics drivers, iChat, Safari, and Spotlight."

According to the site "If Apple's Mac OS X Update schedule in recent years is any indication, Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update should see a release just prior to the Apple's holiday break which occurs near the last week of December." now some say that "this build (8G22) only has one known issue in the form of possible leaks in OpenGL."
Sounds like fix that and it's good to go!!

Also in the news is Oklahoma City University becoming a Apple Digital Campus. It seems that students and faculty alike in OCU's School of Music will use Apple Computer's PowerBook line of laptops in their classwork.

"Students won't receive Apple products as part of their tuition, they will be available to them at deep discounts, said Susan Barber, vice president for academic services. Student also will use iPods and Apple's iSight streaming video camera as part of their coursework, she said."

Of coarse Everybody want's to use a Apple product right? And many men of power as well want a Apple product, which includes the most powerful man in the world President Bush. MDN has a link to a video of the pres showing his 4G iPod and reads some of the songs contained within. So you think he has a Quad Power Mac G5 in his oval office??

Hints & Updates
macOSXhints has a great step by step guide on how to install 10.4 on unsupported machines.

Adium X the free instant messaging client which supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Yahoo! Japan, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, and Lotus Sametime. Has been updated to 0.87.

ATI has updated their Display drivers.
ATI Displays Updater 4.5.7 this updater is for the following video cards:

•RADEON X800 XT MAC EDITION
•RADEON 9800 PRO MAC SPECIAL EDITION
•RADEON 9800 PRO MAC EDITION
•RADEON 9600 PRO PC MAC EDITION
•RADEON 9200 MAC EDITION
•RADEON 9000 PRO MAC EDITION
•RADEON 8500 MAC EDITION
•RADEON 7000 MAC EDITION
•RADEON MAC EDITION (AGP & PCI)
•As well as all Apple desktop and portable systems with preinstalled RADEON graphics
Requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher.

Games, Games, Games!!!

2005-12-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

O.K. I'm a First person shooter type of player. So I like games like Halo, Ghost Recon, Doom 3 and of coarse Unreal Tournament.

So with that said, it's nice to that Aspyer will be bringing out Quake 4 for the Mac.

Quake 4 is expected to be released in early 2006. Quake 4 is the sequel to Quake II,

(Quake III Arena emphasized arena-based gameplay and it didn’t continue the Quake storyline.)

Quake 4 is built on the same engine that powers Doom 3. Quake 4 begins only moments after the events of Quake II, with the Earth’s fleet launching a massive offensive to the planet Stroggos. You play the role of Matthew Kane, a member of the legendary Rhino Squad, which is sent to penetrate deep into the heart of the Strogg war machine and engage in a series of heroic
missions to destroy the barbaric alien race.

According to Glenda Adems, Director of Development, Aspyr Media, they are building a Universal Binary of Quake 4 from the start. So it will run on upcoming Intel Macs.

Still sad not to hear any anouncements of Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil for the mac yet.

Unreal Tournament 2007 Pics!
Shack News has these Screen shots of UT 2007

This is a game that I know I will need a ATI X800 or Nvidia 6800GT in my DP1.8 G5 to play it well. but I'm sure those who get a Intel Mac (tower) will have a lot of options to choose from which will cost less then the $400 cards I mentioned.

Other News
While there was a lot of iTunes/iPod news out there, I was tired of reporting these things because it seems that it is saturating the net. All you hear now is about iPod & iPod accesssorys, new music stores trying to battle Apple/iTunes and Apple stock.
It's almost seems like it's sweep week for net news writers and they are using Apple/iPod as bait.

So I'll just mention a post up from TUAW.com where they write about Apple being featured as a full-fledged category on Jeopardy.

"The episode that aired on December 13, 2005 offered a category called "The Apple of my eye" to contestants, featuring the following answers and questions:

An Asian feline that shares a name with the latest Mac OS X version: What is Tiger?
The type of computers the iBook and PowerBook are: What are laptops?
This man has a salary of $1: Who is Steve Jobs?
This product shares its name with a place where aircraft take flight: What is Airport?
A “speedy” product that works on the Mac or PC: What is QuickTime?"

Go Apple!!

Battles & Rumors

2005-12-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

So, today seemed kind of lame today. I looked around (taking much longer since my Verizon/yahoo! mishap) and found much of todays news was on music battles and rumors.

Well lets start of with

Battles
O.k. it seems M$ and MTV will team up to jointly develop a digital music service for users of the next-generation Windows Media Player and this service will be called "Urge".

According to MTV Networks, Urge will offer a much wider range of music to choose from than can be found on its traditional cable offerings, with a stated goal of helping its users discover new music. Now MTV is playing catch-up, starting this late could hinder the company and the service. MTV first announced plans for a music store back in 2003, it's 2005 now and this may not show till mid/late-2006, and with Apple selling 70% of the online music downloads this is a uphill battle.

Acording to MacWorld/UK

"the online music service will launch with a catalogue of two million songs across multiple genres, and will be heavily marketed across MTV's broadcasting assets, MTV, VH1 and CMT."

The site also states

"Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Jupiter Research isn't certain the plan will work: "The biggest paradox is the people who are most likely interested in an MTV-branded music experience are also probably the demographic that has the highest interest in the iPod," he said."

Oh did I mention that this service won't be working with the iPod? This will make it a tough sell. It's seems MTV is trying this by covering part of it's ass by doing double duty. It seems users will be charged according to their selection of individual song downloads or pre-paid subscriptions. So they are not titled as just a subscription service like the rest. (Napster, Rhapsody, etc..)

But shunning the iPod is not a smart thing to do according to Simon Aughton of PCPro:

Apple's dominance of the portable music player market is likely to continue for years according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
In a note to investors, Munster says that the iPod's huge market share gives Apple cost savings that its rivals simply cannot match. Apple's 30GB iPod, for example, is nine per cent cheaper per gigabyte than Creative's new Zen Vision:M.

Munster notes that the video-enabled Zen has impressive features that are absent from the iPod - such as built-in voice recording and an FM tuner - but all the evidence thus far shows that extra features do not generate extra sales.

'We believe that non-iPod devices must compete on price to gain adoption, but Apple has such massive relative shipment volume with the iPod that other MP3 player manufacturers are not able to replicate the economies of scale achieved by Apple,' Munster added. 'We believe this reality will allow Apple to sell iPods at the lowest prices in the market, thus retaining the iPod's pole position for years."

Good luck MTV, maybe if you hook up with Microsoft,Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo they may have a chance. Oh coarse well all know workers at Microsoft got a internal memo to stop bringing their iPods to work. But it seems according to MDN, Redmond will have a Mac store near by.

"Oregon-based retailer Computer Stores NW, owners of the regional chain called "The Mac Store," will open a new retail store just 3 miles from the world headquarters of Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington."

"With the popularity of the iPod, and the resulting growing popularity of the Mac and Apple in general, we thought it was time to see Redmond with a Mac Store in its backyard," said Kevin Anderson, CEO of Computer Stores NW in a statement. "Despite the presence of Microsoft as a major employer in that area, we know there are many Mac devotees in their ranks, and of course the area has great demographics for the iPod and all its accessories."

Man that's too funny.
The new Mac Store will launch Saturday December 17th in the Redmond Town Center, 7501 166th Ave. NE. Redmond, WA 98052 at 9am.

O.K. now the Rumors
It seems lots of different blogs, newspaper web sites, and Mac web sites seem to have insiders or globes that say "Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) may introduce Macintosh personal computers with Intel Corp. (INTC) chips in January, six months earlier than planned."

Also the buzz is that it may be laptops that are based on Intel's new "Napa" chips.
Some say the Napa platform that will enable the biggest upgrade in two years for portable technology, and an Apple laptop with the technology could address the demand that the Mac users have been waiting for.

Intel claims the latest notebook technology will boost average performance 68% beyond that of its current Sonoma platform, while reducing power consumption an average of 28%. But will Apple use Napa or a dual-core Yonah chip? that is the question we will have to wait and see.

Garageband Artist
Simig Media Records announced the immediate availability of Something, an album produced entirely with GarageBand. The album marks Peter Greenstone's debut, and is also the second record for the Mac Music Record label. The artist first heard on the MacJams.com website.

YML Time
This week on Your Mac Life:Dr. Ross R. Allen, who is also presenting a Macworld Expo Conference Session titled "The Future of Digital Photography".

Dick Dale who, invented surf music in the 1950's. he's a fellow Mac user, and he'll be on tonight's show to talk about then and now and how he uses Macs.

Graphics Guru, Lesa Snider of GraphicReporter.com will be on to talk about her Graphics Tip of the Week brought to you by iStockPhoto.com - this week it's all about the "Che Guevara Effect". Peter Cohen of MacCentral.com and Macworld magazine will also be on to talk about all the latest Mac Gaming News.

the video feed can be seen here
and the plain audio here

Not So happy With Verizon Yahoo!

2005-12-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Why do some companys do stuff to piss you off. Let me start from the beginning,
A month back, I was reading in a fourm about a guy who had a problem with Safari and Yahoo when updating to a new plan with Verizon.

Well I got a mail from them but through away the letter without opening it after reading that post.

Well me and bad memory just screwed the pooch this time. I got a new letter on Saturday about a free upgrade (a $200 value according to verzion) to their Verizon Yahoo! fo DSL.

According to the letter I get

•Award-winning protection with comprehensive security suite featuring PC anti-virus, anti-spyware, pop-up blocker and parental controls.

•The #1 email service in the U.S.* Multiple email accounts for family members, each with virtually unlimited 2GB of storage.

•A customized web experience. Personalize your home page with over 250,000 content choices such as weather, sports scores, stock prices-- plus exclusive on demand video news and entertainment.

•Your favorite music right on your computer with the Web's largest libary of music videos. Buy downloads, rip and burn CD's, listen to thousands of radio stations, or create your own.

•An award-winning instant messaging service that makes it fun and easy to share text, photos and files.

Bottom line: you'll get richer and more enjoyable internet experence.

To get this free upgrade, simply vist verizon.net/getyahoo7 today.

That's word for word on what's in the letter.

Now let me tell you, I didn't initially download this for the protection software (which when you down it you find out afterward there is none for the Mac anyway) Or for music part of it eaither.

I did want to find out how this would make my web experience better. so I went to the web page and downloaded the installer.

I click on the installer and let it run. I see the installer open a few apps, including entourage and internet explorer both which I don't use.

When it's done, it asks if I want to customize my home page. I click yes and Safari opens. When it opens it first loads this page

which as you can see at the bottome says

"CD Bookmark Application Error
The bookmark or custom link you've requested cannot be found. Either the location of this page has changed or there is a temporary server problem.

Try again later or use the search bar below to search for your page."

Hold on, bookmark error??!! I look at my bookmarks and bookmarks bar and it's empty!!! Nothing, nada. All my bookmarks that I have collected over the years are gone. Even the folders that came with Safari where gone. Also I now could not get mail through Apple's mail program or Entourage any more (password error). WTF????

Now on my desk top there was a icon that said rezume install. When I clicked that I got this

WTH??? Is this my "richer and more enjoyable experience"?? when I do get to the Yahoo home page it's nothing more then a homepage which I can remove or add what I want.. big f***ing deal. Scene it before. Music?, when I launch the radio player I find it won't work with Safari.

Well, so far let's see what it has done to me:
•Erased all my bookmarks
•Blocked me from being able to use my mail app in OSX

What it has given me
• A damn headache
•Stopped me from writing this blog yesterday.

My bottom line is, don't touch it with a ten foot pole!!.
Unless you want a "headache and less enjoyable experience"!

Unreal Tournament update 3369.1
O.K. for all of you Unreal Tournament 2004 players still using 10.2.8 and found out UT does not load after update 3369. Well here's update 3396.1. The update fixes it so the game will now run on Mac OS X 10.2.8 ("Jaguar") again and also 3D audio now correctly spatializes, and other OpenAL fixes.

Don't forget to jump on

The Darkside battlegrounds for some Great CTF games!!

Selfish plug :P

Other News
Think Secret says A 13.3" wide screen Intel-based iBook appears to be on track to deliver by early next year.

Think Secret and the Apple Insider are saying that 10.4.4 progress is going smoothly.

"Sources and reports already present on the Internet say Apple this week released to developers build 8G17 of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update -- a forthcoming maintenance release to the company's Tiger operating system."

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said

the PowerBook, iBook, Mac mini and Xserve will likely be the first models to go Intel because they are "weaker members" of Apple's product line that "would benefit moving to Intel."

Based on similar reasoning, Wu said he doesn't foresee the iMac being one of the first Intel Macs because "its current PowerPC G5 configurations already offers industry-leading price-performance."

What IS Apple News???

2005-12-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

As, you may or may not know, I'm a one man crew here. So I surf the web looking for Mac news, updates, and rumors and add my opinion with a little of my flava to it. The list is long of the news I find compaired to what I publish on this blog.

But as I surf and save, then read the news, then I ask myself "is this news"? Most of the product releases I leave for other Mac news sites to post. I try my best at posting the latest news and updates that I think is important to my readers.

But what is news and what is hype? I look at a lot of sites and the most news lately is about the iPod, it's accessories, and anything to do with iTunes or competition with the iPod or iTunes.
BTW: Griffen came out with a iTrip that fits the new iPods and nano's and comes in black. :)
hmm, I wounder if they will fit in my iBoxer underwear?

Anyway, there are two web sites that are a ugly thorn to real Mac news sites, be it normal sites or blogs. They are a pain in the ass like that piece of popcorn stuck between your teeth you can't get out.

One you all ready know if you have been ready this blog is the OSx86 Project. This site to me is just a bunch thieves and hackers trying to get OSX to run on there own PC's with the help of other thieves and hackers.

The thing is most people out there are willing to buy a Intel based Mac then go through all that BS these guys are up to. No support, no warrenty these hacks they put together are nothing but PC users at their lowest level. But what the hell, all they have to say is they like OSX and it's all good right? NOT!!

There getting developers copies how? You think these guys shelled out the cash to get a intel developer Mac? Ya right. Their just Bit Torrent watchers, downloading software illegally and trying to hack it to get it to work.

Then there's a website, a Mac website called Macsimum News..... Well what can I say, these guys are patent watchers. The site caught my eye a while back, but then as I read more and more, they think every little patent Apple goes after is headline news.

Every time I look these guys seem like guys looking through my trash to find a piece of paper that tells them what I brought from the store yesterday. Just hoping they can find out what my wife is making for Christmas dinner. Take these 4 links for example ( 1, 2, 3, 4) while they have some type of news value, they are not headline news worthy.

A new patent does not mean that next month or even next year Apple will use this technology. It just makes sure nobody else will use it in this exact form. So how is it news? Who and what determines what is news?

Well according to Trent Lapinski (writer for AppleXnet) not the writers at Macsimum News.
On his blog he writes:

"Since I'm naming names lets not forgot about Macsimumnews.com. They employee two fired AppleXnet employees, one of them being Pourhadi because we didn't want to run one of his articles about how technology apparently hates him, and the other the infamous "Neo." Neo's real name is Jack, we fired him after we suspected his motivation was to publish articles loaded with buzzwords and technical jargon to try and get investors interested in Apple to try and personally profit off of Apple's stock, for he admits he owns stock in the company. Our biggest issue with him however was the plethora of anonymous comments he would post on his own articles in an attempt to spur interest and hype in his articles. He literally would post anywhere from 10-50 fake comments having conversations with himself, coming up with fake names and everything. Hell at first we thought it was a glitch in our website code but realized it was no coincidence all these comments were actually from Jack...erhm, "Neo" himself. We contacted Dennis Sellers, owner of Macsiminmnunim and told him about "Neo" but he still continues to publish his articles to this day, of which "Neo" still posts fake comments to (just pick any of his articles and the writing style is clearly of the same person for many of the comments). This of course checks Sellers off my list of the ethical. I don't believe in misleading my audience."

Who is the writer of all these patent articles posting as headline news? None other then "Neo".

Now you want some real news and info and help with your mac and what is going on in the mac world? check out this MacFixit article. That's news. The MacDailyNews website, that's a news website. There are many more, but Macsimum news.com is not one of them.

"Hey CG5Addict, don't you think your being kinda harsh?? You only write for a small blog, these guys get plenty of hits on their sites."

Ya, and shit smells and lots of people can smell that also. You want to write about mac stuff, don't be like those 2 websites. Do news the right way, and you will be seen in the right light as a real reporter of news.

In Other News
According to ARS Technica Intel wants to move rootkit detection to the hardware.

"(Intel)has begun research on the possibility of hardware-level rootkit detection. Known as the OS Independent Run-time System Integrity Services project, the rootkit detections system would consist of a small chip on the PC's motherboard that would be dedicated to monitoring active processes."

They say the technology is a couple years away, but Intel hopes to be shipping systems with OS Independent Run-time System Integrity Services by 2008 or 2009.

While a new study released Wednesday by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance saying that 80 percent of PC users are exposed to common Internet threats, and 81 percent lacked at least one of three critical types of security. Wow that a surprise! (sarcasm)

But it seems help may be on the way as Symantec hopes to supply its consumer applications such as Norton Antivirus and Norton Utilities as a service according to ZDNet.

Lastly a Tip
TwisterMc has a tip on "How To Tell Firefox to Open a DMG". He goes step by step, so check it out if FireFox is your browser of choice.

Creative Not So Creative

2005-12-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

Well I'm sitting here looking at the pics of the Zen Vision:M mp3 player from Creative, but wait what is creative about this players? More colors?, adding FM and a buit in mic? Let me take another look....

hmmm, still doesn't look creative to me. Just looks like someone trying to piggyback on someone elses success. The new player is a 30GB video player which costs $330 which the company says will hold 15,000 songs and supports ahem, subscription servers like Napster and Rhapsody To GO and Yahoo Music unlimited.

They also claim the player battery will last for 14 hours playing music or 4 hours of video.
Creative says the player also supports TiVoToGo for free viewing of TV shows recorded on a TiVo personal video recorder.

Also it supports video formats in MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, and MJPEG, bla, bla, bla.
O.K. but I did find a few things funny from the press release as did MDN.

• "Creative... the number one manufacturer of MP3 players with music subscription support."
Who's dreaming here??
• "When people see the Zen Vision:M, they tell us it's incredibly cool."
I see a cheaply made knock off. It's not just the player but the ease of use with iTunes and my computer
• "We designed the Zen Vision:M."
LOL, this one is too funny, we did what? turn on my cheap copy machine. What need to coolect my self from laughing
• "The new Creative Zen Vision:M will be available this month for US$329.99."
A pieace of crap that costs more also, and is windows only and doesn't work with iTunes, oh this is too much.
•15,000 songs?
Music files depending on what bit rate you use will be a certain size. So their saying 15,000 songs using what, a 64kpbs or lower bit rate?? that will sound like shit.

O.K. and to get publicity for their player Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo goes out and say's he plans to aggressively "pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system," a US patent that Creative owns on a system used to navigate music on digital players.

That's on top of reports of Creative already accusing Apple of creating a shortage of digital music players due to its strategic flash-memory partnership with Samsung Electronics.

Funny thing was the quote from a BBC report quoting Hoo as denying the company had copied the design, saying "it had been working on the look for more than a year."

One whole year?? hmm, how long has Apple been using this basic design?
Man some guys are a pure joke when their companys are failing, what do they all do? blame somebody else for their failure.

Look at Rob Glaser RealNetworks chief executive, according to a CNET article Glaser told a packed hotel ballroom at the Digital Living Conference in San Francisco on Monday that Jobs & Co.'s refusal to make the iPod compatible with music services other than Apple's iTunes was "pig-headedness". And that Apple's unwillingness to co-operate with other online music vendors promotes piracy of copyrighted materials and will eventually draw the wrath of consumers.

"Promote piracy" and "draw the wrath of consumers," What is he trying to do, scare record lables and users into using his music service? Well one company is not caring as they have started to promote the iTunes-NBC connection with this ad which also shows Apple computers.

DivX 6

DivX 6 is out for Mac.

DivX 6 for Mac includes:

• DivX Converter:
- Drag and drop your videos to DivX in one step
- Batch encode multiple files to DivX
- Customize your videos with the advanced encoding settings of the DivX codec

• DivX codec:
- Get the highest quality, performance and compression from your digital videos
-Output DivX video from within QuickTime Pro or any application with QuickTime export capabilities (e.g., iMovie, Final Cut Pro)

• DivX playback support:
- Enjoy high-quality DivX video with QuickTime 6 or 7 on Mac OS X 10.3 or later
- Burn a disc of your DivX files to watch on any certified DVD player

DivX 6 for Mac comes with the DivX codec (with a free 6-month trial of Pro features) and a free 15-day trial of the DivX Converter. You must purchase DivX 6 for Mac (US$19.99) if you wish to continue using DivX Converter or the Pro features of the DivX codec after your trial periods expire. The ability to play and encode DivX videos with the DivX codec does not expire at any time.
You can download it here.

The Many Sides To Apple

2005-12-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

Everyday there is some news about Apple products or software that works with Apple, or some article from a writer with some crystal ball type of thoughts about what they think Apple is going to do next.

Now I do remember when Apple rumors(not the web site) on the net went wild about Apple possibly going to Intel for processors. Lots of people laughed, lots of others saying "BS", others wishing they would, while others giving us reasos why Apple will never do it.

Now CNet has a report out quoting Michel Mayer, chief executive of Freescale Semiconductor saying

"In my previous job, I ran IBM's semiconductor business. So I've seen both sides of the Apple story, because I sold the G5 to Steve (Jobs) the first time he wanted to move to Intel."

when asked about the discussions with IBM and Apple about using IBM's G5 chip. And yes, he said 5 years ago.

"I sold the G5. First I told IBM that we needed to do it, and then I sold it to Apple that the G5 was good and it was going to be the follow-on of the PowerPC road map for the desktop. It worked pretty well. And then IBM decided not to take the G5 into the laptop and decided to really focus its chip business on the game consoles."

Reading stuff like this makes me laugh at the fight some put up about why Apple is staying with IBM, and never going to Intel, one of those people included myself. Who would of thought? Well Steve did, and that just shows you how crazy some can sound when saying, Apple should do this or they they will "put quote here".

Tuesday UBS Investment Research raised its price target on shares of Apple Computer to $86, citing higher than expected video iPod sales and expectations of a rise in Mac sales due to an early release of Intel Macs. The last high was yesterday at $74.05 following the announcement that select NBC Universal video content had been added for sale at Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Which last nite NBC according to MacDailyNews,

"during "The Office" (which, by the way, heavily featured the Apple iPod as a "$20 Secret Santa" Christmas party gift exchange goes awry when Michael turns it into a "Yankee Swap" and everyone vies for the Apple iPod Michael bought for Ryan despite the $20 limit), NBC began running a lower-third graphic that announced to viewers that "The Office" is now available from Apple's iTunes Music Store. The graphic ran for about :05 seconds and ran at least twice during the half-hour program. It featured a rather large Apple logo as well."

Apple also sold it's 100 millionth song in Europe yesterday to Ken Reist of Steenokkerzeel, Belgium, making him the winner of Apple's promotion . Mr. Reist won a 17-inch iMac G5, a 30GB iPod, a 10,000-song gift card to the iTMS, and two tickets to see Robbie Williams in concert.

Making yesterday a great day for for Mr Reist, Apple and their share holders.

But when it comes to shares, the AppleInsider quotes UBS analyst Ben Reitzes

"We are excited about the prospects for further revenue contribution from iPods due to what we perceive as a positive mix shift to video iPods, which have a higher average selling price (ASP) than either the nano or Shuffle. "Second, we believe Intel Macs could come as early as Macworld and believe that the initial release could be a broad portfolio of products."

Pretty much saying their crystal ball says Steve Jobs will unvail new Intel based Macs in January. While seeing Apple shares go up is very appealing to me, this still seems like another group of guys saying what Apple will or should do.

Of coarse their thought behind this is partly based on news from Intel, which will be introducing its dual-core “Yonah” processor in January. But will Apple be using this processor is the question.

Well I'm not here to power up rumors or speculation, just bring you some Mac news with a little flava.

Talk about flava, it seems Warner, as in Warner/Chappell Music Limited have none. They have sent a cease and desist letter to pearLyrics, the freeware for finding lyrics to to songs that are playing in iTunes and automaticlly adding them to the lyrics section of iTunes.

A quote from the pearLyrics maker says

"As a freeware developer I can not afford to risk a law suit against such a big company, although personally I don't see where pearLyrics should infringe any copyrights handled by them. After all pearLyrics only searches and accesses publicly available websites, displays, and, at the users wish, caches its content. Something that can easily be done with any combination of search engine and webbrowser too. Well, but I'm just a developer and not a lawyer."

He also notes that "A quick check at Apple's widget download site also reveals that most of the lyrics widgets are gone now too."

I only found 2 there, Harmonic(version 1.0) and lgLyric(version 0.9). I just think it's insane that a company this large goes after a freeware maker, but leaves the websites that has the lyrics alone. The music industry is getting out of hand. Look at Sony's fiasco, now they say

"Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the Electronic Frontier Foundation digital rights group jointly announced Tuesday that they had found, and fixed, a new computer security risk associated with some of the record label's CDs." All for the sake they say to protect their music.

Shit is getting out of hand, some people are beginning worry about what the hell is Sony gonna put on their Blue ray movie DVD's. Is the security risk gonna be high if I load that DVD into my computer to see the online extra's? They may not be available to Mac users now, but what about when the Intel-based macs come out?

Will I have to worry about some new root kit I'm not told about that makes my computer vulnerable to hackers? Will I hav to worry about any other company making a DVD with some underlying code I don't know about?

just food for thought.

YML
It's wednesday again! time for Your Mac Life, this weeks special guest is David Pogue.

Remember you can watch the video feed or just the audio feed.

You can also join one of the two Chat Rooms that run during the live show - on the World Without Borders site or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.
Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET.

The iPod Attack

2005-12-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

Well here it is, another Tuesday, and here I am am apolagizing for not posting on Monday.
Well my Epilipsy, is acting up, and my pain in my lower back was beyond describing.

I Sat here for a 1/2 hour to a hour trying to write and could not take it. Just before saving the draft my Homer Simson slippers brushed the plug to my G5 and I lost all that I had written. (my dumb ass didn't save anything to draft mid-writing). But enough about poor ol' me, On with the what's going on in the Mac World......

Apple yesterday published a new section to the support area of its Web site entitled "iPod 101," Which Apple boosts the support page as

"If you're a new iPod owner or simply need a refresher course on how to get the most out of your iPod, you've come to the right place. Welcome to iPod 101: Your guide to rockin' out, gettin' down, and boogieing with your iPod, iPod nano, iPod mini, or iPod shuffle."

Of coarse you will need more then this coarse to try and get this afully bad fake to work with iTunes.
But maybe later on Apple will add info about connecting and disconnecting your iPod from your XBox 360. Which according to MacFixIt allows "full playback of stored music (included AAC files) and the ability to charge some models. "

Of coarse Microsoft is not the only one's letting us into their software this xmas. RealNetworks has opened up their Rhapsody music service to Mac users, which you can download their software here. But me I don't wanna rent my music like I don't rent my DVD's. I buy what I like. So I'm not down to pay ($9.99 per month) Rhapsody Unlimited or ($14.99 per month) for Rhapsody To Go.

But then again Apple up's the anti with announcing deals with NBC, Sci Fi, and USA and already showing them on the iTunes music store.

The iTMS now offers more that 300 episodes from 16 different television shows.
NBC added Law & Order, the US version of The Office, Surface, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It is also including the vintage programs Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dragnet, Adam-12, and season one of Knight Rider.

The Sci-Fi Channel added the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica mini series, along with every episode that has aired to date.

All of these shows for $1.99(US), only a few shows like the BattleStar Galacitica- Miniseries (for episodes) is sold as a set at $15.99 (US).

Of coarse there would be no positive without some bitching and whinnying. Man the way they go on you would think they where in these guys positions.

Sure, is the ad push mostly looking like iPod & iTunes? Yes, But more computer sales have risen as well.
Would I like to see a TV ad with the iPod connected to a Mac mini or the new iMac G5? hell ya. but come on, AppleXnet is saying

"the iPod frenzy has put business first and foremost and has infiltrated the core of the Mac community, using it as an easily-deployable market to influence the rest of the tech industry. However, this is slowly and surely pulling the Mac community apart as the individualistic "Think Different" nature that Apple once promoted is now turning into an Apple sponsored army of "One.""

When I read that I see the "1984 mac ad" with mac users being the ones sucked in to the windows users type of vaccum like zombies. And that is not true. Just because some writers don't see what's coming from Apple does not mean Apple is going down the wrong path in how they are promoting themselves.

What was your thought's when Apple was down to $11 a share? burn the share? or did you still have hope for this company to grow? well, if you had hope and brought 1,000 shares your a very happy man right now, for even when sock hit $72(US) you would have had a $61,000 profit, and I'm sure articles like yours or the one from Chrispher Hutsul- writer for the Toronto Star would not be wasting digital web space.

O.K. Game News
Last week patch 3369 came out for the PC, this weekend it came out for the Mac.

The patch offers a host of updates and fixes including render-to-texture support for OS X 10.4.3 users.

Patch 3369 contains several important fixes, but Mac users might be most excited about the availability of render-to-texture support (detailed shadows, motion blur, headlights, the DM-Morpheus scoreboard, etc). This requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later (but the game still runs on earlier releases as expected).

The package contains both the client and dedicated server. This will only patch the retail version (either the original UT2004 or the Editors' Choice Edition), and not the demo.
Some notes, first:
- Mac OS X finally has the GL extension we need for this! If you're using
10.4.3 or later, it'll work...the game will still run as before (i.e. -
without the cool effects) on older Mac OS releases...so the 3369 patch
and 10.4.3 will get you going.
...
- You MUST set "UseRenderTargets=True" in the "[OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice]"
section of your UT2004.ini, or it WILL NOT WORK.
You want more detailed info check here.
Want to download the patch click here

Also Sims 2 University for Mac has hit beta status and is expected to begin shipping this month.
According to Aspyr website the new features include:

New Young Adult Age Group
All-new university age Sims leave home and take over campus. Now they can relish their new-found freedom by setting a new life goal.

Become the Big Sim on Campus
Your Sims have all-new wants and fears tied to their social and academic life. Develop their ability to influence friends, classmates, and faculty.

Earn Degrees to Open Up New Careers
Choose from 11 majors for your Sims and keep their grades on track. Secure the final degree and open up four new career paths.

New "College Town"
Now your Sims can live the ultimate college fantasy whether it's living in dorms, rushing a fraternity, or shacking up with friends in their very own pad.

College Lifestyle
Join a band, crash parties, find a part-time job, or get initiated into a secret society, print money, and cheat on your studies. How will your Sims enjoy their college years?

Over 100 New Objects and Décor Items
Take a fun study break with the Arcade Game or polish your skills on the Drum Kit. Hustle your pals on the Pool Table, milk the cow plant and extend your Sims life span, or take a photo with the new Camera and use it as a wall-hanging.

See you guys tomorrow.. I hope!

Apple, The Speeding Locomotive

2005-12-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Well Apple which has been on a upward blast, shooting for the stars. Apple which soared 5.57 percent to $71.60 is on a roll this holiday season.

Barry Ritholz, chief market strategist for Maxim Group, cautioned against betting against them (Apple or Google) in the short term. "Apple is pricey and Google is pricey, but I don't want to be the person who is going to short them," said Ritholz. "I never step in front of a speeding locomotive."

Apple is so much on a roll that in Europe it's gonna be giving away

•One 17-inch iMac G5 to command an entire world of music, photos, movies and DVDs, all from your sofa with Front Row and the new Apple Remote.
•One 30GB iPod to take your music collection with you wherever you go.
10,000-song Gift Card for the iTunes Music Store to buy all the songs you want and fill up your new iPod.
•Two Tickets for you and a friend to see Robbie Williams live in concert on his 2006 tour.

for the person who downloads the 100 millionth song. So iTune music fans in those 17 countries around Europe.... good luck!!!

Maybe you can order this bed, the world first iPod compatible bed which optional accessories include a minimalist side lamp and aluminium tray.

RUMOR ALERT!
O.K. this is all rumors, from two differnt rumor sites.

One says:

"Earlier this week, Apple provided developers with the third external pre-release build of the update, according to sources and reports present on the Internet. With the build, reportedly labeled Mac OS X 10.4.4 build 8G14, Apple expanded developer testing areas to cover AirPort, iSync, Disk Utility, and others."

Improvements to Spotlight searches, AirPort, Bluetooth, and RAW camera support are a few enhancements Apple reportedly has planned for an early winter release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update, a routine maintenance update to the Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system.

The Apple Insider says

"It appears that Mac OS X 10.4.4 is on track for a release before the holiday break. The software update reportedly weighs in at 46MB in Delta form, or 113MB as a Combo updater."

While Think Secret is reporting that "Apple is planning to unveil a robust new content distribution system in January at Macworld Expo."

Which is supposedly will include a revamed Mac mini. the new mini will have new technology that will deliver content that it never actually reside on the user's hard drive.

The content will instead be purchased and will be automatically made available on a user's iDisk.

It also quotes Rob Chira, computer hardware analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners as saying

"I've always thought this Intel/Apple relationship was going to be much more than just chips in PCs. I think they're playing off of each others strengths and I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some part of this home entertainment/video content distribution model include some other technologies from Intel's Viiv project."

ROKR E2
Last month Motorola showed little details and a picture of the ROKR E2.

According to a brief description included in the presentation, the ROKR E2 will feature a Bluetooth stereo headset and "rapid USB2-enabled downloads." The phone is also expected to feature a "richer mobile music experience" and support for UMTS -- a 3G mobile system news and information provider.

"Expect a phone with a 1 megapixel camera, a 3.5 millimeter earphone jack (same as the iPod uses), and enough storage capacity to hold 1,000 songs -- all capabilities Motorola has confirmed."

The publication said Motorola plans to introduce a revamped version of the ROKR in the first quarter of 2006 according to the Apple Insider.

IRS Scam
It seems the IRS has put out a consumer alert about an Internet scam in which consumers receive an e-mail informing them of a tax refund.

The e-mails, known as a "phishing" scam in geek speak, exploit a loophole allegedly built into the real IRS Web site. but instead of getting money back from the government, those willing to click on the link could be giving away the contents of their bank accounts.

The messages, which started earlier this week, say that the recipient has only 12 days to claim a $572 tax refund and that the necessary forms can be accessed on the IRS Web site (tax refunds@irs.gov).

It then says that, to access a form for the tax refund, the recipient must use a link contained in the e-mail. The link then asks for the personal and financial information.

The IRS does not ask for personal identifying or financial information via unsolicited e-mail. Since you do not have to complete a special form to obtain a refund.

the IRS says:

"If you receive an unsolicited e-mail purporting to be from the IRS, take the following steps:

Do not open any attachments to the e-mail, in case they contain malicious code that will infect your computer.

Contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine whether the IRS is trying to contact you about a tax refund."

According to CNN

"Making the scam even more effective is that the address appears legitimate -- an extension of the www.govbenefits.gov site -- but the site is bogus.

It appears real because the phishers have found a flaw in the design of the IRS Web site, one that allows them to "bounce" people to the fake site, according to Sophos, a company that tracks malicious Internet programs."

The IRS is saying that its site is completely secure.

Friday Gaming News
In todays gaming news Blizzard Entertainment announced the opening of four new realms for World of Warcraft.

These new rewards are part of the new content upcoming in the 1.9 patch.

And for all of you not on WoW crack, come join me on the Darkside Server at 69.93.100.55:7777 for some UnReal Tournament CTF fragging with some cool players!

Apple A New Gold Standard?

2005-12-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

Is Apple's new iMac G5 the gold standard for PC's? Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret writers of the Wall street Journal think so.

For me the iMac and Mac mini are best for the PC(windows) user to get when switching to the mac platform.

But the iMac G5 does have a advantage by being a all-in-one computer in one slim, slick unit.

Mossberg and Boehret had this to say:

"We've been testing this new iMac, and our verdict is that it's the gold standard of desktop PCs. To put it simply: No desktop offered by Dell or Hewlett-Packard or Sony or Gateway can match the new iMac G5's combination of power, elegance, simplicity, ease of use, built-in software, stability and security. From setup to performing the most intense tasks, it's a pleasure to use. And, contrary to common misconceptions, this Mac is competitively priced, when compared with comparably equipped midrange Windows PCs; and it handles all common Windows files, as well as the Internet and email, with aplomb."

aplomb- noun- self-confidance or assurance, especially when in a demanding position

Ya, I had to look that one up, I'm a N.Y Daily News type of reader. But it does completly define what the iMac is. With all it's features, built in web cam, nice size hard drive, DVD burner and great software like Front row, and the whole iLife collection does make this Mac a great buy for any user.

Lot's of PC buyers are waiting for the new intel based Macs. Some who think may have a laptop by January. And with new builds of OS 10.4.3 (build 8F1111)for Intel going to developers, these new computers may be shown by Steve on January 10, 2006 (9a.m.PST). But I don't think they will be on sale till a few months afterward.

Some think the next Mac Mini will have a DVR functionality and a new version of Front row, and others like Ken Fisher of ARS Technica don't.

Stating:

"Apple's power in the market can be described as this: leveraging their influence and the iPod to build a big catalog of music that is made easily accessible for purchase online, with moderately "fair" DRM. The plans for the video market, so far, have mimicked this. The question, then, is where does the "record TV shows with your DVR and transport them to your iPod for free" plan fit in with the "pay us $1.99 for a show, while we build our catalog" plan? In short, it doesn't."

Fisher thinks "a Mac mini-based DVR will fizzle if it's announced this coming January". Hmm, somebody thought that about the original iMac and iPod. People are funny on what they like, and as much as the media tries to influance people's decisions you just never know.

Personally I think Apple needs to push more then just iPod ads. iMac and Mac mini ads with or without the iPod included in the ad would be a plus also.

Showing both of them together and showing a few features in the ads would be great! We know people love the iPod, Just look at Iops, the fifth largest MP3 player seller in South Korea and their Jock and Z3 mp3 players.
Do you see a lawsuit coming? just woundering if Veoh's new software will let you download the 3000+ videos and work on this rip off player which looks like a mini iPod with video.

BTW if you don't know yesterday Apple put out a iPod updater (2005-11-17) that has some big fixes. Apple notes that iTunes versions earlier than 4.7.1 are not supported and will not sync music properly with iPod shuffle. Mac OS X versions 10.3 through 10.3.3 are not supported.
So download it through software update or the 37MB standalone at the link provided.

Skype Update
Skype today atleast for windows users have updated there internet phone service to include video calls. But just don't have a need to call 911, because according to CNet "The deadline for Net phone providers to have their customers outfitted with enhanced 911 capabilities has come and gone". So far they say the FCC hasn't taken action against specific companies like Vonage, 8X8 or Skype which include also incudes a option to call phones on traditional landlines or to mobile phones.

According to CNet these VoIP Companies say they plan to continue marketing to prospective customers and signing them up for their service, but in doing so the companies risk racking up heavy fines.

"The FCC told VoIP operators that if they didn't comply with the rule by the deadline they would be forced to stop offering service to customers. But earlier this month, amid complaints from the industry, the FCC revised its position. Instead of being shut down, VoIP providers that don't comply will be unable to market their services to new customers in areas where E911 isn't yet available."

Other News
MacWorld has posted their second part of their 2005 Game Hall of Fame.

Best end to a series
Myst V: End of Ages

Best use of the Force
Star Wars Battlefront

Best example of art imitating life
The Sims 2

Best long-term investment
World of Warcraft

Best absurdly enormous trackball
X-Arcade Trackball

O.K. I'm done, It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!