Apple- Inside Blog.

Ipad

2010-01-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large, Multi-Touch screen. And they’ll work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps you can’t do on any other device.

Safari

The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one whole page at a time. With vibrant color and sharp text. So whether you’re looking at a page in portrait or landscape, you can see everything at a size that’s actually readable. And with iPad, navigating through the web has never been easier, or more intuitive. Because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. You can scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next.

Mail
See and touch your email in ways you never could before. In landscape, you get a split-screen view, showing both an opened email and the messages in your Inbox. To see the opened email by itself, you just turn iPad to portrait, and the email automatically rotates and fills the screen. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, on-screen keyboard, or delete messages, with nothing more than a tap and a flick. If someone emails you a photo, you can see it right in the message. You can also save the photos in an email directly to the built-in Photos app. And iPad will work with all the popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.

Photos
With its crisp, vibrant display, and its unique software features, iPad is an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos. For example, the new Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap or pinch to open the stack, and the whole album opens up. Then you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow. You can even use your iPad as a beautiful digital photo frame while your iPad is docked or charging. And there are lots of ways to import photos: you can sync them from your computer, download them from an email, or import them directly from your camera using the Apple Camera Connection Kit.

Star Trek is available on iTunes.

Video
The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows, to podcasts and music videos. You can also easily move between wide-screen and full-screen with a double-tap. And because it’s essentially one big screen, with no buttons or anything to distract you, the picture fills your line of sight. So you feel completely immersed in what you’re watching.

YouTube
The YouTube app organizes videos so they’re really easy to see and navigate. To watch one, you just tap it. When you’re watching in landscape, the video will automatically play in full screen. And with its high-resolution display, the latest YouTube HD videos will look amazing on iPad.

iPod
With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. You can browse by album, song, artist, or genre, with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it, and the now playing screen will show the album art at full size. Then you can listen to your music with either the powerful built-in speaker, or with wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.

iTunes
Just tap on the iTunes Store icon, and you can browse and buy music, TV shows, podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad. There are thousands of movies and TV shows (in both standard and high definition), along with thousands of podcasts, and millions of songs to choose from. You can even preview songs before you buy them. And you can sync iPad with the content you already have in your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.

App Store
iPad will run almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. Everything from games to business apps, and more. And new apps that have been designed just for iPad are highlighted, so you can easily find the ones that take full advantage of its features. Just tap the App Store icon on the screen and you’ll be able to browse, buy, and download apps wirelessly, right to the iPad.

iBooks
The iBooks app is a great, new way to read and buy books.1 Just download the app for free from the App Store, and you’ll be able to buy everything from classics to bestsellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich, color, so it’s very easy to read, even in low light.

Maps
See more of the world with high-resolution Satellite and Street View images. You can even see topography with the new Terrain view. You can also search for a nearby business type (for example, “Restaurant”) and then tap on that business to see the route and directions from your current location.

Notes
With its expansive display and large, on-screen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy. In landscape mode, you get not only a note-taking page but a list of all your notes. It even circles the current note in red. So you can see where you are at a glance.

Calendar
iPad makes it easy to keep on schedule by displaying Day, Week, Month or List views of your calendar. That way, you can see an overview of a whole month, or the details of a single day. iPad will even show multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family calendars at the same time.

Contacts
The Contacts app on iPad makes finding names, numbers and other important information quicker and easier than ever before. A new view lets you see both your complete contact list, and a single contact, simultaneously. Need directions? Just tap on an address inside a contact and it’ll open Maps.

Home Screen
The Home Screen gives you one-tap access to everything on iPad. You can also customize your Home Screen by adding your favorite apps and websites, or using your own photos for the background. And you can move apps around to arrange them in any order you want.

Spotlight Search
Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad, and all of its built-in apps. Including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It’ll even search apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store. So no matter what you’re looking for, it’s never more than a few taps away.

Nexus 1- The "Iphone Killer"?

2010-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

We've being waiting for this for a long time.
We've being waiting for an Iphone killer.

We heard rumors about Google developing a smartphone of their own.
We saw the Android come out and immediately jump into the highlights.

We waited and waited, speculation over speculations, rumors after rumors.

And then today it finaly arrived.

Nexus 1

Well..

I think we've waited to long.
The Iphone is, and will stay, the best smartphone out there.

mac OS X Snow Leopard- Security

2009-08-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Mac OS X doesn’t get PC viruses. And its built-in defenses help keep you safe from other malware without the hassle of constant alerts and sweeps.

Defense against viruses and other malware.

With virtually no effort on your part, Mac OS X offers a multilayered system of defenses against viruses and other malicious applications, or malware. For example, it prevents hackers from harming your programs through a technique called “sandboxing” — restricting what actions programs can perform on your Mac, what files they can access, and what other programs they can launch. Other automatic security features include Library Randomization, which prevents malicious commands from finding their targets, and Execute Disable, which protects the memory in your Mac from attacks.

The 64-bit applications in Snow Leopard are even more secure from hackers and malware than the 32-bit versions. That's because 64-bit applications can use more advanced security techniques to fend off malicious code. Learn more about 64-bit

Always on the alert.
Innocent-looking files downloaded over the Internet may contain dangerous malware in disguise. That’s why files you download using Safari, Mail, and iChat are screened to determine if they contain applications. If they do, Mac OS X alerts you, then warns you the first time you open one. You decide whether to open the application or cancel the attempt. And Mac OS X can use digital signatures to verify that an application hasn’t been changed since it was created.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

2009-08-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Quicker Time Machine backup.

Introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, the revolutionary Time Machine made backing up your hard drive easy for the first time. Time Capsule took backup even further with its wireless hard drive that works seamlessly with Time Machine. Now Snow Leopard makes Time Machine up to 80 percent faster and reduces the time it takes to complete your initial backup to Time Capsule.1

Faster to wake up and shut down.

With Snow Leopard, your Mac wakes from sleep up to twice as quickly when you have screen locking enabled. And shutting down is up to 80 percent faster, saving precious moments when you’re trying to head home or to the airport.1

Faster at common tasks.
Wake up 2x
Shut down 1.8x
Times faster than Leopard.¹

Faster, more reliable installation.

Upgrading your Mac has never been easier. For Snow Leopard, the entire process has been simplified, streamlined, and is up to 50 percent faster, yet more comprehensive and reliable.2 For example, Snow Leopard checks your applications to make sure they’re compatible and sets aside any programs known to be incompatible. In case a power outage interrupts your installation, it can start again without losing any data.

Smaller footprint.

Snow Leopard takes up less than half the disk space of the previous version, freeing about 7GB for you — enough for about 1,750 more songs3 or a few thousand more photos.

Another leap forward for QuickTime.

QuickTime X is the next-generation media technology that powers the audio and video experience in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It includes a completely new QuickTime Player application with a clean, uncluttered design, a new trimming interface, and easy uploads to YouTube and MobileMe. And it delivers more efficient media playback, HTTP-based live streaming, and greater color accuracy. Learn more about the innovations in QuickTime X

Innovative Chinese character input.

Until Snow Leopard, if you wanted to enter Chinese characters on a computer, you had to type in the phonetic spelling of Chinese words and the computer would convert them into proper Chinese characters. Snow Leopard offers a breakthrough new way to enter characters: You draw them right on the Multi-Touch trackpad in your Mac notebook. They’ll appear on the screen in a new input window, which recommends characters based on what you drew and lets you choose the right one. The input window even offers suggestions for subsequent characters based on what you chose.

Iphone 3G- Introducment

2009-08-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

Meet the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. iPhone 3GS features video recording, Voice Control, up to 32GB of storage, and more.
New to iPhone? Find out why you’ll love it

The Fastest iPhone Ever
The first thing you’ll notice about iPhone 3GS is how quickly you can launch applications. Web pages render in a fraction of the time, and you can view email attachments faster. Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too. In fact, everything you do on iPhone 3GS is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G.

Video

Now you can shoot video, edit it, and share it — all on your iPhone 3GS. Shoot high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape. Trim your footage by adjusting start and end points. Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube, or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.
Learn more about video recording

3-Megapixel Camera
The new 3-megapixel camera takes great still photos, too, thanks to built-in autofocus and a handy new feature that lets you tap the display to focus on anything (or anyone) you want.
Learn more about the camera

Voice Control
Voice Control recognizes the names in your Contacts and knows the music on your iPod. So if you want to place a call or play a song, all you have to do is ask.
Learn more about Voice Control

Compass
With a built-in digital compass, iPhone 3GS can point the way. Use the new Compass app, or watch as it automatically reorients maps to match the direction you’re facing.1
Learn more about Maps + Compass

Cut, Copy & Paste
Cut, copy, and paste words and photos, even between applications. Copy and paste images and content from the web, too.
Learn more about Cut, Copy & Paste

Landscape Keyboard
Want more room to type on the intelligent software keyboard? Rotate iPhone to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes, and Safari.
Learn more about the keyboard

Apple Aperture 2

2008-11-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

Aperture 2 is Apple new photo editing software.

Here are the features directly from the apple site-

Streamlined interface that’s more accessible and intuitive.

Aperture 2 includes an all-in-one Inspector that consolidates the Projects, Metadata, and Adjustments panes and lets you switch between them simply by pressing W. Another convenience, the simplified Viewer and Browser setup lets you maximize screen real estate for your images.

Powerful enough for the most exacting pro, Aperture 2 introduces a streamlined new interface that makes it easy enough for any photographer to use. Watch this tour to see how accessible and intuitive Aperture 2 is.

See some of the tools that make Aperture so easy to use.

Quickly locate images in the innovative All Projects view with project skimming (à la iPhoto Events). In fact, you can access your entire iPhoto library, directly within Aperture 2, to import selected events, albums, or individual photos using the iPhoto Browser. Choose Show iPhoto Browser from the File menu to reveal the browser.
Index Workflow One
Accelerated performance at every step of the workflow.

Thanks to an optimized database and a streamlined, more responsive user interface, Aperture 2 provides dramatically improved performance throughout your workflow.
Index Workflow Two

The new Quick Preview mode, for example, provides rapid-fire photo browsing, letting you quickly compare, rate, and select images. You can create custom keyboard shortcuts to speed up your work. Or use the significantly improved search tools to conduct fast, pinpoint searches with extended search logic. Aperture also offers enhanced performance when making processor-intensive adjustments, such as Noise Reduction and Highlights and Shadows.
Index Exporting

And because Aperture preps versions, masters, or whole projects for export in the background, you can save valuable time while continuing to sort, compare, or modify images.

Index Processing Enhanced image processing.

Leveraging the next-generation RAW image processing in Mac OS X Leopard, Aperture 2 delivers images of astounding quality, offering superb color fidelity, increased shadow detail, reduced noise, and advanced highlight recovery. Realize the very best results from every image by applying new RAW Fine Tuning controls, adjusting RAW rendering on an image-by-image basis.

Whether you shoot RAW or JPEG, Aperture 2 offers professional tools to create beautiful images. This tour introduces you to a number of those tools, including Recovery and Black Point, the Retouch brush, Vignette and Devignette, and Vibrancy and Definition.

QuickTour:
Adjustment Tools

Use adjustment tools to create beautiful images
Use the Repair brush to copy texture from a source area and maintain color and shading in the area you’d like to repair. Radius, Softness, and Opacity sliders let you fine tune your repair.

To improve and enhance photographs, use the new Recovery tool to pull back “blown” highlights. With the Vibrancy tool, you can selectively boost saturation without adversely affecting skin tones. Or pick up the soft-edged Retouch brush to quickly and easily remove blemishes, clean up sensor dust, or clone out unwanted elements.

For even more flexibility, take advantage of some of the plug-ins made possible by the powerful new plug-in architecture in Aperture 2. For example, make selective edits using the included Dodge & Burn plug-in (which supports a variety of brush effects). Or use third-party plug-ins, such as Nik Software's Viveza or PictureCode's Noise Ninja.

Thanks to unparalleled Mac integration, you can depend on Aperture to design and order beautiful bound books, create stunning online portfolios using MobileMe, include photos in iLife and iWork documents, sync photos to iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV, or access them systemwide in Leopard. Find out how in this video.

QuickTour:
Integration

Aperture works seamlessly with Mac software and devices.
Aperture also lets you sync your Aperture library to an iPhone or iPod. Or enjoy your photos on a widescreen TV in glorious high definition using Apple TV.

Tight integration with iLife ’08 and iWork ’08 means you can bring your photos to life in exciting ways: creating audio slideshows in iMovie, animated presentations in Keynote, or impressive digital portfolios in iDVD. In iLife, iWork, and applications such as Leopard Mail, you’ll find a media or photo browser that lets you browse the projects, albums, and Smart Albums in your Aperture library for images you’d like to use.

Summary: What We Know About iPhone 2

2008-06-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ever since Apple’s first-generation iPhone unexpectedly began to disappear from Apple and its partners’ store shelves, and supposed images of a next-generation device started to appear, discussion of the iPhone 2 has dominated the news. Unfortunately, many different reports, rumors, and proclamations are now floating around, so it’s hard for fans to keep everything straight. Today, to make things easier on our readers, we’ve gathered up everything we do know, may know, and don’t know about the next-generation iPhone. Here’s the big picture.

Name

The nickname “3G iPhone” has been used to refer to the upcoming handset since before the current-generation iPhone was released. Though this name is based on the “third-generation” cellular phone technology it’s expected to employ, it is unlikely that Apple will adopt this name for the final product. In years past, with products such as the iPod, the company has chosen to keep its single names intact, instead referring to newly-updated products as “The New iPod” or “The New iPod nano;” it seems likely to do the same with the iPhone. The one case in which Apple might add an extra tag to the new device’s name would be if it plans to sell two models. Speculation has centered upon whether Apple will sell both the original model and the updated version side-by-side in the same market, but industry sources have described this as unlikely, and repeatedly dwindling stocks of current iPhone models suggest that Apple is not making enough to last for even two months, let alone the rest of the year. However, two new models—a la iPod and iPod nano—are a possibility.

Features

The most well-established feature of the next iPhone is its move from dependence on “2.5G” EDGE cellular networks to the ability to use “3G” HSDPA and possibly WCDMA networks, which could conceivably provide between four and eighty times the data transferring speeds of current iPhones. Though these speed bumps are both carrier and infrastructure-dependent—you won’t be able to get these connections everywhere you travel within many countries—where they’re available, they could make for a much better web, e-mail, and streaming video experience. This feature has been more or less confirmed by everyone from the CEOs of carrier partners to Steve Jobs himself, and is a given to appear in the new device. It is unclear whether companies will charge extra for 3G iPhone data plans.

The rest of the iPhone’s possible new features remain shrouded in mystery. True GPS capability is a feature that has popped up in many speculative reports, and some evidence supporting its appearance has been found in beta versions of the iPhone’s upcoming 2.0 software. With the new software, Apple may also enhance its .Mac service to tie in more with the iPhone. Other user-requested features have not been supported by direct evidence. For instance, a front-mounted iSight video camera for video chats is possible, and what purport to be photographs of a new iPhone model show one or two new sensor-sized dots hidden near the device’s screen, but their purpose and legitimately are unclear. A chip called the S-GOLD3 or S-GOLD3H is very likely to be part of the new iPhone, and as discussed in this article, adds certain potential capabilities to the device. Based on what’s currently known and likely, additional feature possibilities rate as follows:

Beefed-up Camera - Possible; S-GOLD3H supports up to 5-Megapixel sensors
Video Chat - Possible; S-GOLD3H supports 30 frame per second full-screen telephony
Slide-Out Keyboard - Very Unlikely; Apple would likely only offer this in an enterprise-specific model
Removable Battery - Very Unlikely; Apple likes to make you replace the whole device
WiMax Wireless Networking- Extremely Unlikely; Apple doesn’t support this standard in any other device
802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 - Possible; 50/50% as Apple already sources chips for other devices that include these features

Form Factor(s)

Possibly the most-debated aspect of the next iPhone has been its form factor. A Taiwanese newspaper report suggested that the updated iPhone would be smaller in size, with a smaller, 2.8” screen to match. While this might represent the design of an iPhone mini, we don’t believe that these specifications would pertain to a true next-generation iPhone, and based on information we’ve heard from overseas, developers are betting that the new iPhone will look like this. Basically, the expectation is that the next iPhone will be similar to the original, with small cosmetic changes, including different curves and less use of metal in the casing. White and black glossy plastic versions are said to be a lock, with a red version also possible. These images may be elaborate fakes, but they track completely with what we have been hearing.

Carriers and Partners

Apple managed to expand the iPhone’s presence beyond the United States to the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria during the product’s first year of sales, but it is clear that the next iPhone will be going global—in a big way. Vodafone has confirmed it will begin offering the new iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey later this year, and with Telecom Italia also announcing its iPhone offerings, it appears at least some of those countries will receive the iPhone without single carrier exclusivity. América Móvil has announced it will sell the iPhone across Latin America and Mexico later this year, with coverage in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, and other nations. France Telecom, the parent company of French iPhone carrier Orange, has said it is in talks to offer the handset in Spain and Poland, Rogers Wireless has confirmed a deal for Canada, and Swisscom is said to have signed an agreement to offer the phone in Switzerland. This is in addition to confirmation from AT&T and O2 that they will sell the 3G iPhone in the United States and United Kingdom, with other existing partners likely to continue their arrangements as well.

Strangely absent from the list of partners so far revealed are countries in Southeast Asia. Given confirmation that Apple is willing to forgo carrier exclusivity agreements on the handset, and the fact that China Mobile, the largest carrier in the country, already claims to have 400,000 iPhones operating on its network, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple make a move in the massively populous territory soon. Japan has traditionally been the company’s top priority in Asia, however, and Apple is believed to be in talks with DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile for iPhone availability there. In South Korea, operator KTF was suggested as a possible partner in the country last year, but no recent developments have been reported.

Update: Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom, and SingTel subsidiary Optus have all been announced as iPhone carrier partners as well. SingTel will offer the phone in Singapore, Bharti Airtel in India, Globe Telecom in the Philippines, and Optus in Australia. Both Optus and Bharti will be joined in their respective markets by Vodafone, representing the second and third countries with multiple iPhone carriers.

Update x2: Orange has announced a new agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the company’s African markets later this year.

Update x3: TeliaSonera has announced an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

Rollout Dates

Most analyst research and speculation regarding the next iPhone suggests that the device will be released in at least the United States on or around the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone launch, June 29. Traditionally, Apple has placed US launches ahead of foreign ones when it believes that it will be difficult to gather a sufficient supply of a new device for a worldwide launch on the same date. Instead, we may see a launch on the existing carriers at that time, with rollouts continuing over the following months as more carrier partners and countries are added to the fold. It is also quite possible that Apple will target its initial rollout to the Americas and Europe, with Asia to follow later in 2008, but a nearly global rollout appears to be in the cards.

The pace and timing of these announcements points towards a June unveiling of the next iPhone, most likely during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address during the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference, scheduled for 10:00a.m. PT on June 9. The annual event, not always known for consumer product announcements, has been touted by Apple as “A landmark event in more ways than one.”

This language could simply be referring to the first non-beta release of the iPhone SDK, accompanied by the announcement of a release date for iPhone software 2.0. However, it appears more likely that the “landmark” announcement is a reference to Apple’s desire to see the iPhone touch ground in previously unconquered territories all across the world. It is also possible that the event will be landmark in the sense that the iPhone will be firmly established as a larger platform, operating on multiple devices. In any case, we’re betting that many questions regarding the next iPhone will be answered in the second week of June, during the keynote speech.

Iphone Nano? Iphone Shuffle? Can it be?!

2008-06-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Like always, the rumors speak out loud. Now we are hearing from inside apple sources that by the end of 2008 we are going to be introduced the the new Iphone Nano which will resemble the size of the ipod nano 2nd generation.

All we can do now is wait and hope for the best!

Bye the way, the nonstop rumors about the ipod shuffle, are more difficult to believe. But don't forget that what's hard for us to believe, is exactly what inspires Steve and the guys.

Apple iPhone 2 Software Beta (2/2)

2008-06-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

iPhone 2 Software
The Apple iPhone 2.0 software provides a configuration utility that allows IT administrators to easily and quickly set up many iPhones, including password policies, VPN setting, installing certificates, email server settings and more. Once the configuration is defined it can be easily and securely delivered via web link or email to the user. To install, all the user has to do is authenticate with a user ID or password, download the configuration and tap install. Once installed, the user will have access to all their corporate IT services.

Apple Store
The iPhone 2 software release will contain the App Store, a new application that lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch. The App Store enables developers to reach every Apple iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications - including free - and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues. Users can download free applications at no charge to either the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click. Enterprise customers will be able to create a secure, private page on the App Store accessible only by their employees. Apple will cover all credit card, web hosting, infrastructure and DRM costs associated with offering applications on the App Store. Third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.

Apple iPhone SDK
The iPhone SDK provides a reliable, fast and secure way to create innovative applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to the rich set of iPhone OS APIs, the iPhone SDK also provides advanced tools for creating native iPhone and iPod touch applications including: Xcode for source code editing, project management and graphical debugging; Interface Builder with drag and drop interface creation and live preview; Instruments to monitor and optimize iPhone application performance in real time; and the iPhone Simulator to run and debug applications.

Apple iPhone security features
During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple's new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing. The Standard Program costs $99 (US) per year and gives members an iPhone SDK and development tools; access to pre-release iPhone software; technical support; the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing; and distribution of applications via the new App Store. The Enterprise Program costs $299 (US) per year. In addition to these new Apple iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

Apple iPhone 2 Software Price & Availability
Apple plans to release the final iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and new enterprise features, as a free software update for all iPhone customers by the end of June. Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications. The free beta iPhone SDK is available immediately worldwide and can be downloaded at the Apple developer website.

Thanks to LetsGoMobile for the article!

Apple iPhone 2 Software Beta (1/2)

2008-06-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

A pple previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The Apple iPhone 2 software beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.

Apple iPhone Software
The iPhone SDK provides developers with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Starting today, anyone can download the beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac. Apple also introduced its new Apple iPhone Developer Program, giving developers everything they need to create native applications, and the new App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users.

Advanced software architecture
"We're excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone's enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device."

Apple iPhone SDK
With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone's groundbreaking Multi-TouchTM user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.

Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery. The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.

Iphone 2.0 Video

2008-06-03T15:42:00.001-07:00

Apple iPhone 2.0 Patent Shows Dual-Touchscreen Flipphone

2008-06-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

It's rare that Apple's patents actually show the exact form factors of devices they have in development, but this "dual sided trackpad" patent for a phone seems to definitely show that they've got some flipphone version coming up. The patent itself outlines a phone that has two multitouch sensors, both on the "bottom" part of the phone. When it's closed, the phone acts like your current model iPhone. When it's open, only the bottom part of the phone is touch-sensitive, whereas the top part is just a display.

The top/bottom touchscreen difference has the interesting effect of bringing some new features such as actually drawing out a number on the touchpad, rotating and old school dial (?), simulating a T9 dialpad, or even having both sides of the touchscreen active at once for some crazy control.

What's the point of this? Besides new features, apparently many people HATE the candybar form factor and won't even consider a phone a real phone unless it's a clamshell. Like Jack Bauer, for instance.

Thanks to Jason Chen for the news.

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Production Premium

2007-10-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

Achieve creative control with a complete set of professional video and audio post-production tools to take your ideas from storyboarding and acquisition through production and delivery. Work with all-new versions of Adobe’s powerful software components—now including Adobe Flash CS3 Professional for publishing to the web and new Adobe Soundbooth CS3 for audio creation and editing—to realize even the most demanding vision. Capture footage, edit efficiently, apply blockbuster visual effects, create and match compelling audio to your productions, deliver your creations virtually anywhere, and much more. From concept to delivery, Production Premium is the ideal creative vehicle to take your ideas wherever you want them to go.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium Includes:

Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Soundbooth CS3
Adobe Encore CS3
Adobe OnLocation CS3 (Windows only)*

Experience exceptional productivity offered by a highly integrated set of tools. Move smoothly among select components via Adobe Dynamic Link, which eliminates intermediate rendering so you can work fast and stay focused. Enjoy native Adobe Photoshop file support across the components of Production Premium, as well as all-new integration between Photoshop and Adobe After Effects to allow for even greater animation possibilities. Save time by exporting from After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Soundbooth with markers converted to cue points for easier project creation in Adobe Flash, and manage media more efficiently than ever with Adobe Br

idge, a single, intuitive interface that enables instant previews of video and audio files, batch processing, and image sequence previewing and scrubbing

Full new versions of Adobe’s video, audio, and design tools

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium includes all-new versions of Adobe’s professional video, audio, and design software components—a complete toolset for every aspect of your post-production workflow, including capturing, editing, effects, compositing, interactive authoring, and output.

Future-ready tools for delivery of video content anywhere

Meet today’s production demands and tomorrow’s challenges head on.
Broad support for leading standards and formats, an open approach to hardware and platform support, a rich ecosystem of plug-ins and other third-party solutions, and the ability to deliver video content to new types of devices—from mobile to Blu-ray Disc—give you a competitive edge.

Extensive integration for exceptional productivity
Unparalleled integration between the components of Production Prem

ium saves time at every step of the process so you can work at peak efficiency. A unified interface and integrated workflow make it easier than ever to move projects and files between components. In addition, Adobe Bridge offers new file type support and metadata previews.

No more intermediate rendering thanks to Adobe Dynamic Link

Enjoy greater freedom to experiment with new ideas without having to wait for inte

rmediate rendering. Exclusively available in Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, Adobe Dynamic Link allows you to edit a composition

in After Effects and view your updates instantly in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Encore.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

2007-10-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Capture, edit, and deliver high-quality video - to disc, the Web, or mobile devices / DVD-ROM

# With Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, you can tell your story with maximum impact. It's your start-to-finish solution for efficient Video production. Work with powerful Editing tools and experience unmatched Adobe Application integration. Save time with tools that take you from on-set capture using Adobe OnLocation through to output, and edit virtually any Format from DV to HD and beyond. Reach the widest audience by delivering your content to DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, the web, and Mobile devices. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Software is your choice for inventive storytelling and enhanced productivity. High-quality slow motion with time remapping

# Create DVD and Blu-ray Disc content with Adobe Encore CS3 software
# Direct-to-disc Recording with included Adobe OnLocation CS3 (Windows only)
# Multicam editing: View video from a multiple-camera shoot, sync via timecode, edit by switching between tracks in real time
# Adobe Clips: Embed video into an Adobe PDF file, E-mail the file to your Client to review and add timecode-specific comments
# Editing timeline: Generate slow motion and other time-remapping effects with precise keyframe control and Real-time feedback
# Make video viewable on mobile devices
# Export video as Adobe Flash Video (FLV) or SWF files
# Comprehensive video format compatibility, from DV through HDV, to HD and beyond
# Play video with nested Audio sequences in real time without rendering
# Accelerated client review and approval with Adobe Clip Notes: Embed video into an Adobe PDF file, e-mail the file to your client to review and add timecode-specific comments
# Create DVD and Blu-ray Disc content with Adobe Encore CS3
# Exchange project metadata with major video, film, and audio applications with Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) and Edit Decision List (EDL) files
# Broad range of supporting Hardware and software -- multiple Windows workstations and capture cards to build the editing system that meets your needs and budget
# Comprehensive VTR support - video deck control decks through RS-422 and RS-232 serial protocols or FireWire
# Superior integration with other Adobe applications - Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro CS3 and others

iPhone - from Apple

2007-06-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

High Technology

2007-06-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

iPhone features the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse. It’s an entirely new interface based on a large multi-touch display and innovative new software that lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flip through photos and email them with a touch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page — all by simply using iPhone’s multi-touch display.

iPhone’s full QWERTY soft keyboard lets you easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. And the keyboard is predictive, so it prevents and corrects mistakes, making it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones.

iPhone uses OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. So now you can have access to the best-ever applications and software on a handheld device, including rich HTML email, full-featured web browsing, and applications such as Safari, calendar, text messaging, Address Book, Weather, Stocks, Maps, Notes, and YouTube. iPhone is also fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background. This software completely redefines what you can do with a mobile phone.

iPhone uses quad-band GSM, the global standard for wireless communications. It also supports AT&T’s EDGE network, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, which links to Apple’s new, remarkably compact Bluetooth headset.

iPhone will automatically switch between EDGE service and Wi-Fi as you move between wireless networks to provide the fastest data connection possible. To set up your own Wi-Fi network, check out the AirPort Extreme Base Station.

iPhone’s accelerometer detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

The proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away.

An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

iPhone Commecial (Hello)

2007-06-30T06:14:00.001-07:00

iphone ad june 29th never been an ipod (old Ad..)

2007-06-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hidden Details from the iPhone Keynote

2007-06-30T06:08:00.001-07:00

iPhone Presentation

2007-06-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

A Closer Look At The iPhone

2007-06-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

iPhone- Internet in Your Pocket

2007-06-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device — which automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE.

With its advanced Safari browser, iPhone lets you see web pages the way they were designed to be seen, then easily zoom in by simply tapping on the multi-touch display with your finger.

iPhone uses a rich HTML email client that fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text.

With Google Maps and iPhone’s amazing Maps application, you can view maps and satellite images, or get directions and traffic information, all from iPhone’s remarkable, easy-to-use touch interface.

iPhone even has widgets: small applications that give you helpful information like stock reports, weather reports, and more.

iPhone has a special YouTube player that you can launch right from the home screen. So now you can access and browse YouTube videos wherever you go. And when you find a video you want to send to your friends, iPhone can even create an email with the link in it for you.

iPhone- Widescreen iPod

2007-06-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets you enjoy your content — including music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows, and movies — on a beautiful 3.5-inch widescreen display. It also lets you sync your content from the iTunes library on your PC or Mac. And then you can access it all with just the touch of a finger.

Music:
Scroll through your songs, artists, albums, and playlists with just a flick of a finger. Album artwork is dramatically presented on the large display. And now use Cover Flow to browse your music library by album artwork for the first time on an iPod.

Video:
iPhone’s stunning 3.5-inch widescreen display is the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies from the iTunes Store on a pocketable device. Just tap the touch controls for play/pause, chapter forward/backward, and volume.

iPhone- Revolutionary Phone

2007-06-30T05:47:00.001-07:00

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply tapping a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service. And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want — just like email.

With iPhone, making a call is as simple as touching a name or number. In addition, you can easily construct a favorites list for your most frequently made calls, and quickly merge calls together to create conference calls.

An industry first, Visual Voicemail allows you to go directly to any of your messages without listening to the prior messages. So you can quickly select the messages that are most important to you.

iPhone includes an SMS application with a predictive QWERTY soft keyboard that prevents and corrects mistakes, making it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones.

iPhone features a 2-megapixel camera and a photo management application that goes far beyond anything on a phone today. Sync photos from your PC or Mac, and you’re ready to browse or email them with the flick of a finger.

iPhone- Revolutionary Phone

2007-06-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

Adobe ships Creative Suite 3.0 Design and Web bundles, apps

2007-04-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Adobe said Monday that it has begun shipping Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard editions and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Standard editions.

Also available for purchase beginning Monday are new versions of the following stand alone Adobe creative applications: Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Adobe InDesign CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Fireworks CS3, and Adobe Contribute CS3.

The new Adobe CS3 applications and Adobe Creative Suite 3 editions are available as Universal applications for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs and support both Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. Adobe said customers should experience increased levels of performance and speed running Creative Suite 3 natively on Intel-based Macintosh systems and the latest Windows hardware.

The expanded Creative Suite 3 family also includes Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, a complete integrated post-production solution for video and rich media professionals, and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection, which combines all of Adobe's new CS3 design and development applications in a single box. Both of those Creative Suite editions are expected to ship in the third quarter of 2007.

Fully Integrated Design Toolkit Powers Creativity

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium delivers an essential, highly-efficient toolkit for print, web, interactive, and mobile design. The software integrates new releases of InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, and Acrobat 8 Professional for creating publications, websites, rich interactive experiences, and engaging content. Also available today is Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard software for designers and print service providers focusing on professional design and print production.

With Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, users can experiment with, save, and apply color combinations quickly and intuitively using the new Live Color feature in Illustrator; perform image editing tasks such as selecting image areas, compositing images, and applying filters faster and more flexibly with Photoshop CS3 Extended; master Flash more easily thanks to its new Adobe-standard user interface; and repurpose print content on the web by exporting InDesign CS3 documents as XHTML and the modifying them in Dreamweaver CS3 using CSS.

Innovative Web Design and Development Tools Maximize Productivity

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium edition is a comprehensive suite that combines the essential tools for web and interactive design and development including the new versions of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Fireworks CS3, Adobe Contribute CS3 - along with major releases of key design tools such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Adobe Illustrator CS3, and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard edition is also available today to serve the professional designer and developer focused on design, development, and website maintenance.

Loaded with new and innovative features, Creative Suite 3 Web editions offer users faster, more productive workflows across the applications. Now, for the first time, web professionals can import native Photoshop and Illustrator files directly into Flash and Fireworks with full fidelity. Users can also create consistent experiences across all browsers, operating systems, and a range of mobile and handheld devices with the new Spry Framework for AJAX, a pre-built, cross-browser compatible library of widgets and effects that make it faster and easier to build rich, interactive websites. Fireworks CS3 boasts new workflows for rapidly prototyping RIA layouts for websites and web applications, intelligent Photoshop and Illustrator integration, and a library of common and customizable graphics assets.

New and Enhanced Integration Technologies Boost Performance

Both the Creative Suite 3 Design and Web editions include Adobe Device Central CS3, designed to boost the productivity of creative professionals developing content for mobile handsets with essential tools to design, emulate and test content across a wide range of mobile device and handheld frameworks. These editions also incorporate an updated version of Adobe Bridge CS3, the hub of Adobe Creative Suite, which provides instant access to Version Cue CS3, Acrobat Connect and an expanded Adobe Stock Photos service.

iTunes hosts first album sale, new iPod game spotted

2007-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

On the heels of an announcement by the recording industry that sales of digital albums doubled last year, Apple has kicked off its first album sale on iTunes. Meanwhile, the iPod maker has tipped its hand regarding a new game for its iconic digital media players.

iTunes albums for $7.99

Just as the recording industry reported that a drop in sales of compact discs accelerated to nearly 13 percent in 2006, Apple has reportedly made a move to leverage the one bright spot in that report -- a doubling in sales of digital albumns.

The Apple 2.0 blog notes that on Wednesday, Apple's iTunes Store launched its first known album sale (though it is actually the second), offering nearly 100 albums for just $7.99 each. (An image link is accessible off the iTunes Store main page).

You won't find any current chart-toppers in the mix, but there are a number of albums listed from well known artists such as U2, Nirvana, Mary J. Blige, Smashing Pumpkins, Nas, Oasis, Prince, The Police, Beastie Boys, R.E.M., Guns N' Roses, and Jane's Addiction.

Slight older albums are available from the likes of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Jonny Cash, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and Pink Floyd (Dark Side).

iQuiz for iPod: Coming Soon

Meanwhile, Apple appears ripe to deliver at least one new game to the iPod in the short term, according to Electronista. The gadget site cites visitors to France's iTunes Store, who saw a game titled iQuiz briefly appear but then mysteriously disappear from their local iTunes Store.

The internally developed Apple game will reportedly expand on the basic Music Quiz program included with the fifth-generation iPod and the iPod nano. Its interface will be enhanced and the game itself will be the first to let players actively share information between each other through custom question lists, according to the report.

While Apple hasn't officially announced iQuiz, a description that briefly appeared stated the game will require iTunes 7.1 or later, quashing the possibility that it could be attached to a software update.

Apple, Cisco attempt to meld iPhone technologies

2007-04-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

Making good on an earlier pact, Cisco Systems and Apple have begun to explore ways in which their respective iPhone devices can work together.

The two firms ended a fiery dispute over the "iPhone" trademark back in February, avoiding legal proceedings with out-of-court settlement that granted each company the right to use the name on its products.

As part of the agreement, Cisco and Apple also agreed to investigate opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications.

Already there are about a half-dozen ideas on the table, according to Cisco Chief Development Officer Charlie Giancarlo, who revealed in an interview last week that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is discussing with members of his team ways in which to make the Apple iPhone compatible with Cisco's business and consumer equipment.

"We're optimistic, but it's still early," said Giancarlo, adding that ways in which the companies' products can work together "are now being investigated by both technical teams."

The discussions, however, aren't centered on making Cisco's iPhone, an Internet-based home phone, compatible with Apple's wireless device. Instead, Giancarlo said Cisco wants Apple's iPhone to work with its corporate phone systems, allowing users to get the same services, such as instant messaging and teleconferencing, on their Cisco desk phones and Apple iPhones.

Apple has said it will begin selling it's iPhone handset by the end of June. Cisco's vast array of iPhone branded devices were introduced back in December.

Running Vista Home on a Mac

2007-02-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hands On: Running Vista Home on a Mac
In spite of what its license says, you can run Vista Home via virtualization apps

By Christopher Breen

If you care about running Windows on a Mac, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the end user license agreement (EULA) for Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium forbids you to use these versions of Microsoft’s latest operating system release with virtualization software—software that allows you to run operating systems other than the Mac OS in a windowed environment within the Mac OS. Such virtualization software includes the popular Parallels Desktop for Mac. What the reports on this matter don’t reveal is whether this is simply a legal restriction or also a technical one.

I hoped to have the answer. And then, last night, it came to me in a dream.
The dreaming

In that dream, the boss OK’d the purchase of Windows Vista Home Premium for the purposes of testing its effectiveness when run both in Apple’s Boot Camp and in the latest beta (3150) of Parallels Desktop for Mac. It wasn’t an entirely happy dream.

For example, early in the proceedings (in the dream, may I remind you) I floated over to the local Costco to purchase said OS. Regrettably, Costco offered only the $159 upgrade version—one that required a valid key from a version of Windows XP Home Edition. In both my dream and real life I have a copy of XP Professional, and you can’t upgrade from XP Pro to Vista Home. The upgrade path from XP Pro is to Vista Business or Vista Ultra, both of which have been granted virtualization privileges by Microsoft.

So off I drifted to the local Staples, which sells the full version of Vista Home Premium for exactly one arm and one leg. (More precisely, the list price for the full version is $239.) To get a better sense of what Vista under Parallels could do, I also purchased an upgrade version of Office Standard 2007, as I had the previous Office XP Standard. (Good thing this is a dream, eh boss? I might have forgotten to mention that in the original expense request.)
Vista and Boot Camp

To get a sense of what Vista could do on a Mac without virtualization software, I installed the latest beta of Apple’s Boot Camp on my 2.66GHz Mac Pro with 2GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card with 512MB of RAM. I then created a Mac Drivers CD, and proceeded to install Windows Vista Home Premium and Office 2007 under Boot Camp. Everything went swimmingly until I attempted to install the Mac Drivers CD. Part way through the installation I saw this:

Error -1603 Fatal Error During Installation Consult Windows Installer Help (Msi.chm) or MSDXJ for More Information.

Although my dream-self understood there were ways to manually install these Mac drivers, I had bigger fish to fry and so let it wait for another time.

Under Boot Camp on my Mac Pro, Vista and Office 2007 performed nicely. Vista’s three-vowels-and-a-consonant-just-like-Aqua-transparency-effect—otherwise known as Aero—was in evidence. Right-click on my Microsoft mouse worked as it should, Vista recognized my AirPort network, and my HP LaserJet 1300n printer appeared when I attempted to print a Word document. The Windows version of QuickTime 7 installed properly and played back a movie preview I accessed from Apple’s QuickTime site. Windows Media Player was able to rip an audio CD and play back the resulting files reasonably well (though there was occasional stuttering when the Mac’s processor was taxed). All in all, I felt like I was running a living and breathing (and fast) PC.
Living in a Parallels world

One reason my dream-self initially installed Vista under Boot Camp was so I could employ the Parallels beta’s ability to use a Boot Camp installation rather than requiring its own installation of Windows. Regrettably, this was a non-starter. Even though I added the Boot Camp volume as a hard drive within Parallels, attempting to create a new virtual machine based on Boot Camp failed. If I told Boot Camp that I was attempting to use the Vista OS, the Boot Camp option was grayed out. If I told it I was trying to install XP from my Boot Camp volume, the Boot Camp option became active, but the installation couldn’t proceed.

That left installing Vista Home Premium directly into Parallels—the thing that the Vista Home EULA forbids. While my dream didn’t exactly turn to nightmare at this point, it certainly had its scary moments.

Cutting briefly to the chase, Vista Home Premium installed perfectly well. Once it was up and running I noticed that the Aero effect was nowhere to be seen—Parallels simply couldn’t emulate the kind of graphic card/power necessary to make it work. I then asked Vista to install the latest Vista updates—something I understood to be a problem for others who tried it.

Vista Home Premium running on a Mac via the latest Parallels Desktop beta

No problem. Vista downloaded the updates, installed them, I restarted, and everything continued to work. The Office install also proceeded according to plan—I first installed Office XP Standard so the upgrade would see that I had a legit copy of Office and then installed the Office Standard 2007 upgrade. I launched the various Office applications and they worked. Performance wasn’t nearly up to that of running Vista and Office under Boot Camp, but it was no worse than working with a Mac-native version of Office on, say, a late-model iBook.

Where things began to break down was with media files. I ripped that same audio CD in Windows Media Player as a 192kbps MP3 file and playback was dreadful—the tracks played slowly and stuttered constantly. I tested some of the audio tracks bundled with Vista and they exhibited the same problem. Shutting down Vista and bumping up the amount of memory allotted to Vista within Parallels (1.5GB) didn’t help.
Wide awake

I rose this morning with a mixed feeling of elation and disappointment. I like having Windows on my Mac. It’s useful for running the latest version of Office, and I do a moderate measure of cross-platform audio and media work where quickly moving between the Mac OS and Windows is handy. I’m elated because—at least according to my dream—Windows Home Premium does run acceptably under Parallels as does the latest version of Office, despite what the EULA may hint. But I’m disappointed that it doesn’t run as well as XP.

Happily, nothing in the EULA forbids me from running Vista under Boot Camp. As far as Vista and Microsoft are concerned, a Mac running Boot Camp is just another PC. But Boot Camp isn’t convenient for quickly moving files between operating systems. My hope is that Microsoft will back off from its EULA when it understands that one sale of an almost-affordable version of Vista is better than no sales of the “Wait, you want how much for this!?” spread. At the same time, I pray that Parallels will continue to explore ways to make Vista perform as well as possible in virtualization.

Then again, maybe I’m dreaming.

[Senior Editor Christopher Breen dispenses troubleshooting tips in the Mac 911 Weblog and offers iPod-related commentary in the iPod Blog.]

Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 4:20 p.m. PT to include specifications of the hardware used in this Hands On.

iPhone

2007-01-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

iPhone combines three products- a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching - into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Intempo Digital iFi-01

2007-01-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

Making your ipod look like a pimple on top of Mike Tyson, this dock is not making a play for lovers of minimalism. It stands tall, and pumps out a big and imposing sound to match.
Intempo claims it’s, “The most stylish music system to date,” but if they really believe that, they’re living in a Bang & Olufsen retro-world where all the clocks stopped in about 1992. Indeed, with its industro-aluminium styling, it’s crying out to be set against some exposed brickwork and have powder snorted off it by a young man in red braces.
Put asthetics to one side, though, and this is hard to fault. On spiky tracks like One Armed Scissor by At The Drive In, the side-mounted speakers (which can be rotated for directional sound) give the mid-range plenty of bite. Switch to the deep cyber-dub of The Orb’s Perpetual Dawn and the bass is suitably meaty, thanks to the large woofer that’s mounted in the central tube.
Add a remote for volume and track-skip (but nothing more sophisticated, like playlist selection) and USB for connecting to iTunes (it might be slightly easier to bring your iPod to your PC, but cheers anyway) and you have a whole lotta dock for your dosh.

The iPhone, made of electronics & zirconia

2006-12-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

A patent application made public yesterday showed Apple has been developing a new casing for a wireless device that can operate as an iPod and a cellphone — so the iPhone. The application, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in August, refers to a “radio-transparent handheld computing device” cellphone and media player combination.

It tells some possible eventual aspects of the iPhone. - The device shows “enclosure that surrounds and protects the internal operational components of the portable computing device, the enclosure including a structural wall formed from a ceramic material that permits wireless communications therethrough.” - The envelope might be made in zirconia, a ceramic that can transmit radio frequency signals.

In the same time, Piper Jaffray Co.’s Gene Munster and Benjamin Reitzes of UBS AG, reiterate the rumor that Steve Jobs may introduce an iPod merged with a phone at the company’s MacWorld conference in January.

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

JAVOedge has introduced a new case for the second-generation iPod nano and two new cases for the second-generation iPod shuffle.

The AlloyVision Crystal Metal Case ($26; shown) for the 2G nano features clear plastic and metal construction. Available in silver, red, green and black, the case comes with a screen and click wheel protector.

The JAVOClearCase ($8 for 7-pack) is a crystal clear case designed to protect the 2G shuffle. It comes in seven colors—magenta, blue, red, orange, clear, bronze, and green.

The JAVOShield Case ($16 for 3-pack) is an anodized aluminum metal case for the 2G shuffle. It comes in metallic silver, black, chrome, metallic blue, metallic pink, metallic green and metallic red.

Burning Multiple Times to the Same CD

2006-12-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Generally, when you burn files to a CD once, you’re done — you can’t burn to that CD again. Unless you use this little trick: First create a new folder and give it a descriptive name (something like “burn baby burn!” Kidding). Now put the files you want to burn into that folder, then go to the Applications folder and open the Utilities folder. Double-click on Disk Utility. When it comes up, go under the File menu, under New, and choose Disk Image from Folder, and then when the Open dialog appears, find that folder with the stuff you want to burn and click the image button. A Save dialog appears in which you can leave the name as is or choose a new name (leave the other controls alone), and then click Save. In a few moments, a disk image of your folder’s contents will appear in the list on the left side of the Disk Utility dialog. Click on that icon, and then click the burn button at the top left of the Disk Utility dialog.

When you click the Burn button, a dialog will appear asking to insert a disc. Do so, and then click once the blue downward-facing triangle on the right side of this dialog to show more options. Click on the checkbox for Leave disc appendable, then click the Burn button. Your data will now be written to that CD. To add more files later, just insert that same CD and then you’ll use this same process all over again, but when you get to that final burn dialog, the button won’t say “Burn” this time, instead it will say “Append” because you’re adding these files to the same disc. By the way, don’t forget to remove the files you already burned to this disc from your “burn baby burn!” folder (and the DMG file it creates) before you make your next disc image.

VersionTracker Pro 4.2

2006-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

VersionTracker Pro brings you everything you need to keep your software up-to-date. Whether you are an IT professional or just responsible for keeping a home computer up-to-date, it pays to use VersionTracker Pro. Application update features can alert you when new versions are released, but only VersionTracker Pro brings you all the information you need to know in order to make the right decision on whether to update your software or not, along with automated installation of the updates you choose to apply.

StatusMonitors 2

2006-10-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

StatusMonitors provides a desktop display of the status of your computer system as well as the status of other computers on the local network. The application includes a client for displaying the status information, a preference pane plugin for System Preferences, and a service to share status information with other computers. The client monitors volume/folder/file usage, memory usage, network load and processor usage. The service provides information about memory usage, network load and processor usage to networked computers.

The appearance of the client, the monitors to be displayed, and service sharing are controlled from the preference pane. Version 2 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

Stuffit Standard Edition 8.0.2

2006-10-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

StuffIt Standard Edition gives you a suite of tools that enable you to create and access e-mail attachments and other compressed files with ease. It includes StuffIt Expander, a free program that gives users quick and easy access to virtually any Internet downloads or email attachments. Expander handles all popular compression formats, including ZIP, TAR, RAR, SIT, and SITX. StuffIt Standard also includes DropStuff, which can reduce (compress) the size of files and folders by as much as 98% or their original size, reducing transfer times and saving disk space. In addition, you'll get DropZip, which can make ZIP files so users can send files to PC user who don't have StuffIt yet. Last but not least, this download includes DropTar, which allows users to create TAR-compressed files for easy transmission to UNIX machines.

Butler 4.1.2

2006-10-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Add some handy and clever shortcuts

Adding an unparalleled amount of functionality to your desktop, Butler is a file and application launcher, a bookmark manager, a Web-search utility, and a clipboard enhancer. The program adds several items to the menu bar, including an Internet search field, a shortcut to your computer's file system, and a bar that manages bookmarks from every browser you use. We liked the configurable keyboard shortcuts, which make launching files or Web sites a snap. Without a doubt, Butler is the most comprehensive launcher and desktop helper we've seen. Unfortunately, this is both a blessing and a curse, as the app's large number of features can seem overwhelming. As a result, we recommend Butler to advanced and midlevel users, though newbies should proceed with caution.

Studycard Studio Lite 2.5

2006-10-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Create, study, and memorize multimedia flashcards, tests, and tutorials, including picture and sound identification on Mac & Palm. Studycard Studio Lite s powerful features and simple tools make it easy to create and memorize flash cards. Studycard Studio Lite is for educators and students or anyone who has something to memorize. Students can create and study their own flashcards and track their progress. Educators can create quizzes or flash cards for their students. The full-featured text editor gives you the freedom to design your cards just how you want. Use colors, fonts, pictures, sounds, or video to make studying fun and memorable.

Guiffy 7.4

2006-10-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

If you develop software for a living, you know it isn't hard to find free differencing tools. But, if you do a lot of diff/merge work, especially across platforms, it can pay to, well, pay. Guiffy is a Java-based diff/merge tool with serious muscle and a much easier and more intuitive interface than you'll find on any freeware package. Not only does it work with more than 150 file formats from several platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS), it also provides a trustworthy three-way merge feature called SureMerge. Since merging sometimes forces developers to stop working until the postmerge code has been checked by hand, a "smarter" three-way merge can greatly reduce overall development time. In addition to using Guiffy as a stand-alone utility, you can incorporate it into your own change-management products. Still not convinced? Compare Guiffy with its competitors and see for yourself; it's easy to spot the differences.

Live 5.1

2006-10-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Take your music in a new direction

Ableton Live is one of several digital audio products that have genuinely transformed the music scene in the past few years. The software closely resembles a computer-based sequencer that can be played live, like a real instrument. Recording and arranging audio is effortless with the elegantly designed interface, and the Arrange window makes composition enjoyable. MIDI composition and editing can be integrated seamlessly into compositions that also use prerecorded audio. Adding effects and manipulating sound in radical ways, all on the fly, is a snap, and the software supports third-party plug-in technologies including VST. Rewire functionality helps connect it to other sequencing software or applications such as Reason. The package comes with a software synth called Operator, which takes its inspiration from vintage analog synths. Our only real objection is that, like many pro audio applications, Live's learning curve has gotten increasingly steep with every release. Even the step-by-step instructions left us scratching our heads at times. However, with virtually limitless capabilities, Ableton Live is one of the most captivating music-production packages on the market today.

Apple's New and Improved iPod

2006-10-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Updated player features crisp video, added storage--and a steep price.

Refinement: that's what you get out of Apple's latest iPod, which comes with a brighter screen and an extra 20GB of storage. I tested the $349 iPod--the 80GB flagship of the revamped line--and found a music player that's about as good as there is.

For music playback, not a lot has changed. The iPod remains an excellent MP3 player, and its sound quality continues to be among the best around. The latest version adds gapless playback, which eliminates the pauses between tracks for a smoother listening experience. In our lab tests, its audio quality earned very good scores. I did notice a slight hiss when listening to the iPod through a pair of Shure's high-end E500 PTH headphones, however.

Apple's familiar ClickWheel lets you navigate your music library with ease, scrolling through individual items and then through letters of the alphabet as you accelerate. A new search feature lets you scroll to select a few letters to pick out a song, artist, or album, a welcome feature since with 80GB of storage, this device features 20GB more space than most competitors.

The unit's enchanced 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen looks great. Videos were very watchable on the display--and they're easier to get. The new iTunes 7 features a movie store with an impressive array of releases available for $10 each, in addition to its growing library of TV episodes.

Many More Features in Aperture you didn't hear about!

2006-10-02T15:55:00.002-07:00

* Run Aperture on any Intel-based Mac. Any desktop, including Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. Or any notebook, including MacBook and MacBook Pro.
* Browse and present slideshows — even with images stored offline — thanks to the new Automatically Generated Previews stored in the Aperture Library. Aperture lets you customize both the size and quality of the previews.
* Use the new Drag-and-Drop JPEG Export feature to add JPEGs to Mac OS X applications. You control the size and compression quality of the images.
* Extend your workflow in exciting new ways by taking advantage of various output, storage, and publishing services available via third-party plug-ins. Learn how you can make Aperture a front end to advanced workflows by visiting the new Extensibility page.
* Rename actual master files and assign version names within Aperture using the improved File-Renaming tools.
* Automatically create folders and subfolders to hold photos as you import them or when you relocate master files by using the new Folder Name Presets.
* Take advantage of enhanced AppleScript and Automator support: operate on image selections (in addition to projects and albums); filter for the “pick” of each stack; automate the export of master files with associated XMP metadata.
* Pause, adjust volume, manually step backwards/forwards through slideshows using the Apple Remote that comes with most new Macs.
* Append additional metadata or entirely replace existing metadata using new Batch Change options.
* Sync to iPod: Take your photos with you by using iTunes to sync your entire Aperture library — or just selected albums or Smart Albums — to iPod.
* Add, maintain, and update keywords more easily using improved keyword management options — even lock the Keyword HUD to prevent inadvertent changes.
* Specify resolution in dots per inch (dpi) when printing individual images via the new Print dialog.
* Transfer cropping and straightening adjustments (in addition to other adjustments) using the improved Lift and Stamp tools.
* Choose HSB (hue, saturation, and brightness) or HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance) as basis of tonal values in the Color meter.
* Quickly find all images with “any” keyword assigned or with “no” keyword assigned when searching by IPTC info using the Query HUD.
* Search for images by file status — i.e., “offline,” “online,” or “referenced” — using a new Query option.
* Correct spelling, revise wording, or completely delete metadata/keyword entries using the new Autofill Editor.
* Assign ratings (1 to 5 stars) using the 1 to 5 keys on the keyboard and numeric keypad.
* Browse your Aperture library from the “Desktop & Screensaver” preferences dialog and select albums/images for use as your Mac OS X desktop picture or screensaver.
* • Work with RAW images from more than 50 camera models, including leading digital SLRs from Canon, Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Leica, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, and Sony.

What's New in Aperture 1.5?

2006-10-02T15:55:00.001-07:00

What's New in Aperture 1.5?

Aperture 1.5 delivers compelling new features, including flexible library management that lets you store images anywhere you’d like. The free update also introduces third-party export plug-ins that let you use Aperture as the front end to extended workflows. Aperture 1.5 offers RAW support for more than 50 camera models from a wide variety of manufacturers (including Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Sony, and others) and extends support to all Intel-based Macs — from the Mac mini and MacBook to the Mac Pro.

You can use the free Aperture 1.5 Update — now available via Software Update or from the Aperture Download page — to update any previous version of Aperture. In all, the update delivers more than 20 new features and feature enhancements, including:

1. Flexible Library Management

With Aperture 1.5, you decide how and where to store your images. Import them into a managed Aperture library and let Aperture take care of keeping track of your images. This option lets you keep all your images in one location and offers a simple backup mechanism via the Vault.

Or store your photographs wherever you’d like — on any number of hard drives, network volumes, CDs, or DVDs, and have Aperture “reference” them. No need to copy the entire collection into a single managed library, simply point to them and let Aperture catalog them in place. You can even reference the images in your iPhoto library, using them in Aperture without having to move or copy them anywhere.

However you store your images, Aperture 1.5 keeps track of all the metadata you add and versions you create. And because your RAW originals don’t have to be online for you to browse or search through them, you can take your entire library with you wherever you go. On your MacBook, for example.

2. Seamless Integration with iLife ’06 and iWork ’06

Now you can browse your entire Aperture Library — including both offline and online photographs — using the Media Browser in iLife ’06 and iWork ’06. That means you don’t have to leave iWeb, Keynote, iDVD, Pages, iPhoto, iMovie, or GarageBand to incorporate photos from your Aperture Library. You can also browse photos by Album or Smart Album, importing them with a simple mouse click. You don’t even have to be running Aperture at the time. That makes it quick and easy to incorporate your images in Keynote slideshows, a card or calendar in iPhoto, iWeb galleries, iDVD slideshows, and other Mac projects.

3. Export Metadata Automatically

When you export RAW images, Aperture 1.5 automatically exports the associated IPTC data and ratings, storing them in an industry-standard XMP sidecar file. That means any application that supports XMP files — such as Photoshop — can access and use the exported metadata.

4. Advanced Color Controls

The new Color adjustment controls in Aperture 1.5, let you fine-tune color with much greater precision than previously possible. Using them,you can adjust hue, saturation, and luminance on a color-by-color basis via separate Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow controls. And, thanks to the Range slider, it also offers significantly more adjustment flexibility. Using the new Color controls, you can intensify the blue in the sky without affecting other colors in the image and without exporting the image to an external image editor.

5. Hone Images with Edge Sharpen

When it comes time to sharpen images, you can now reach for Edge Sharpen. With luminance-based sharpening applied in three passes, it delivers results of the highest quality.

6. Speed Metadata Entry with Presets

A great time-saver, Aperture 1.5 lets you create pre-filled IPTC presets for copyright, captions, and other fields. Once you’ve created them, you can assign them instantly when you import images or perform batch changes. Aperture 1.5 lets you create different presets for different projects, and before assigning the metadata, you can decide whether they should be added to or replace existing metadata.

7. A Loupe...with Onscreen Controls

Making a great tool even better, Aperture 1.5 offers new Loupe options, including onscreen controls. Using the Scroll Button in Mighty Mouse, you can easily control loupe size and smoothly increase magnification from 100% to 1600%. The Loupe’s “centered” mode lets you verify sharpness in precisely the area you’d like to check. You can even position the new Loupe off-image, set it to “Focus on Cursor” mode, and move the mouse to the area of an image you’d like to check. The area you mouse over will appear in the loupe at whatever magnification you set and without the Loupe blocking any other parts of your image.

8. Create Adjustment Presets

Find yourself making some adjustments over and over again? Now you you can save individual exposure or white balance adjustments as presets in the Adjustments Inspector and Adjustments HUD. Once saved, they can be quickly applied whenever needed.

New iTunes 7 Trick

2006-10-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Did you download the new iTunes 7 already? I like almost all the new features. There's one cool trick you may not have noticed. If you launch iTunes 7 while holding the Option and Command keys you'll get the chance to pick your iTunes Library or create a new one. This will allow some creative solutions to storing large libraries in different locations.

Aperture 1.5

2006-10-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Aperture 1.5

The first all-in-one post-production tool for serious photographers, Aperture provides everything you need for after the shoot. Using its comprehensive collection of tools, you can easily import, manage, edit, catalog, organize, adjust, publish, export, and archive your images more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

Ipod Nano- Completely remasterd.

2006-10-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

A thinner design. Five stylish colors. A brighter display. Up to 24 hours of battery life. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the name. In 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models starting at $149, iPod nano puts up to 2,000 songs in your pocket.⁽¹⁾

Look like a rock star

Your music says a lot about you. So should your iPod nano. A super-slim design says you always have room for music — up to 2,000 songs, in fact. Durable anodized aluminum says you won’t let the rough and tumble of everyday life ruin your groove. And one of five colors says whatever you want. Choose your hue and make a statement.

Carry a tune (or 2,000)

Choose a 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB iPod nano and add a soundtrack to your life. Just use iTunes to import your CDs, shop for 99¢ songs on the iTunes Store, then sync them to iPod nano. Possibly the world’s coolest photo album, iPod nano holds up to 25,000 snapshots.⁽²⁾ iPod nano plays audiobooks and podcasts from the iTunes Store, too.

Play more encores

Imagine what you could do in a day. Fly around the world. Watch two sunsets. Listen to your iPod nano. Up to 24 hours of battery life⁽³⁾ means the hits just keep on coming. Whether you’re exercising, commuting, or rocking a road trip, iPod nano may just outplay you.

Light up the stage

While it can't stop the rain, iPod nano might make your day a bit brighter. 40% brighter, to be exact. Album art pops and slideshows stun on the iPod nano’s dazzling display. That means everything looks as good as it sounds.

Cool iTunes 7 trick..!

2006-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

While playing around with Cover Flow view I came across an album which I realised should really be added to one of my existing playlists. I took a notion to see if I could just drag the album cover to the playlist icon in the Source panel (why is this now un-named, incidentally?) — and, lo and behold, it worked! This is wonderfully convenient. I don’t remember being able to do anything like this before. Wasn’t it necessary to select all the tracks first and then drag the selection to the playlist icon?

Walkthrough: iTunes 7's big new features

2006-09-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Walkthrough: iTunes 7's big new features

In case you missed it, one of the big announcements of today's It's Showtime events was iTunes 7, a major update that brought changes on nearly every front. Organizing, shopping, syncing - everything got a lot of attention from Apple's software engineers and, as you'll see throughout this walkthrough, a lot of polish has been applied to make this one of the most significant updates in recent iTunes history.

First up are some of the basics: there has been a simple change to the iTunes ~~Music~~ Store's name; that's right, 'Music' has been dropped from the name, as the introduction today of movies (which we all knew were coming; more on those later), in addition to carrying TV shows for a year now, kind of begged the name change. As you can see, iTunes has also received a new, blue-ified icon. It has now gone from purple to green and now blue which, if you'd like a little bit of design trivia, is the human brain's favorite color to look at.

This should offer a good overview of just how much the iTunes UI has been updated and polished, though impressively without any major or unsettling changes. Dan Lurie noted that it all has a very 'web 2.0-ish' feel, and I tend to agree. Since the iPod was a major player in today's events as well, I figure changes to the iTunes + iPod relationship are as good a place to start as any.
Managing your iPod just became a whole lot easier
You can see what Mr. Jobs meant when he said you can now interact with and configure the iPod right from within the iTunes interface, instead of having to clunk around in the preferences. Underneath the display panel at the top of iTunes are now a series of tabs when an iPod is selected, offering the familiar options of choosing whether to sync the iPod, which podcasts to sync, etc.

TV show syncing now has its own configuration options, including '5 most recent' and '5 most recent unwatched.' I'm sure these will be welcome options to those chronically addicted to more than a few iTunes TV shows.

Also at the bottom of the iPod panel is a much-improved space meter that delineates between music (blue), video (purple), 'other' (orange - I guess this is any files/folders and possibly photos you have on the iPod) and, of course, free space (white). In an interesting change to Apple's fundamental UI behavior, they have added dedicated 'Cancel' and 'Apply' buttons in the bottom right of the iPod configuration panel, allowing users that last minute chance to decide whether they really want to commit a change.

New ways to view your library
The new viewing options for the individual library entries in the Sources list (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts and Radio) are really, really slick. As a clever touch, the List view, pictured below, shows album covers on the left (which iTunes can now grab automatically from the store for all your non-iTS purchases), with a list of each song, artist and album name (somewhat redundant) for each individual album. TV Shows works the same way in that it organizes episodes by season. Very, very well done.

The new Cover Browser, the third option of the new view buttons just to the left of the search box, is really a sight to behold.

This features definitely steps on CoverFlow's toes in a big way, and I'm sorry to say - it's done a bit better. A scroll bar at the bottom of the cover browser is easier to click and drag with, and the animation is incredibly smooth and, dare I say it, sexy.

[Update: we have since learned that CoverFlow was actually bought by Apple. So instead of having their toes violated, it sounds like they came out on top with a good chunk of change. Good show.]

Unfortunately, I was surprised to find that these new view buttons don't work for podcasts. They're still listed and organized in the iTunes 6 fashion.

All the rest
There are plenty of other big changes in iTunes, ranging from a UI bump to the preferences, the ability to toggle displaying any of the media sections in the Sources list (which, oddly, no longer has any kind of name/heading), parental controls that allow disabling various sections and the purchase of various content based on PG/TV rating, a new dedicated Store menu for managing your account and purchases, and an appetizing new "Transfer Purchases from iPod" option under the File menu, finally allowing users to sync (at least some of) their music between computers with nothing more than an iPod and a cable.

There has to be plenty more in this major update, but this is the rundown of the big stuff for now. We'll be sure to post even more goodies as we uncover them.

iTunes 7 with iTunes Movie Store announced!

2006-09-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

As if those spotlit "It's Showtime" Apple announcements weren't going to yield the iTunes Movie Store; just in time too, as CinemaNow and Movielink have been around for ages, Vongo's been kicking for months, Amazon's Unbox just hit the streets the other day, Microsoft's Zune video player is just around the corner, and Netflix's movie service is expected any time. With the iTunes Movie Store now available in Apple's new iTunes 7 you'll be able to download full res (640 x 480) movies at $9.99 apiece for most titles, $14.99 for new releases and $12.99 for pre-orders. The files are protected, of course, with FairPlay DRM; they'll play back on your iPod, but not much else, unfortunately, so if you want movies the iTunes way, be prepared to watch them in iTunes or to get yourself an iPod. Sadly, it seems the rumors were true of it being a Disney-only store: Apple so far has only managed to procure 70 movies for their launch, from the Disney-owned Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax studios. They're promising frequent updates, though, and they will be launching new movies at the same time that they're released on DVD. As for iTunes 7, there's plenty of good news to be had beyond the addition of movie downloads. Gapless playback (which is happenin' in all the new iPods) is the big winner, and iTunes 7 can go through your whole library and fix previously downloaded tracks to play gapless. The player has also gotten a substantial face lift, borrowing from WMP11 stylings for track listings, tossing in Cover Flow (a third-party OS X eyecandy favorite which Apple apparently bought), a good helping of whitespace and Apple's own design know-how.

Snapz Pro X 2.0.3

2006-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Record anything on your screen

When it comes to screen-capture tools, flexibility and accuracy are king. Snapz Pro X continues its reign as the most reliable solution, with its multitude of options and rock-solid performance. You can save captures in a number of popular file formats, such as PNG, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, and PSD.
Snapz Pro X hijacks the system-default Cmd+Shift+3 hot key to launch its options-heavy interface. We were impressed with the improved video capture, which performed flawlessly at a variety of frame rates and compression settings. Our only quibble is that, at first, the program seems too complicated. It took several trips to the help file for us to figure out its basic functionality. Though Snapz Pro X might be overkill for the average user, professionals will find it worth their time to learn to use the best screen-capture utility for Mac OS X.

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Mac- Awesome out of the box.

2006-09-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Sure, a new PC comes with software. It’s just not software you’d ever want to use. A new Mac, on the other hand, comes with lots of really great stuff. So you can make lots of really great stuff.

Unpack your new PC and you’ll be amazed at what it offers. A bundle of mismatched software and that nagging feeling that your desktop has just been sold to the highest bidder. Of course, it does have that cool calculator. Oh, and a clock. That’ll come in handy when you’re ticking off the hours it takes you to uninstall all the software you don’t want and buy all the software you do.

Bring home a new Mac and you bring home an OS with more than 200 built-in features — including Dashboard widgets, Mail, and iChat AV, among other cool things — and the award-winning suite of iLife applications.

All that makes the Mac the center of your digital life from get-go. Just ask Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal. “Out of the box,” says Mossberg, “the Mac has better photo, music, video, and DVD-creation software than any Windows computer I’ve seen.” That’s because Apple’s iLife applications are built upon the same technology as pro applications like Logic Pro and Final Cut Studio. And unlike some media management software that only offers cookie-cutter clip art, iLife features gorgeous, professionally designed themes and templates that truly complement your baby album, vacation movie, family podcast, pop culture blog — anything you create on your Mac.

And creating stuff on your Mac is a mere matter of plug and play. Connect your digital camera, and iPhoto automatically launches and begins importing your photos. Open iChat and instantly start your own videochat with your iMac or MacBook Pro’s built-in iSight camera. Watch crystal-clear, HD video — no installation required — with QuickTime. Compose your own songs using nothing more than your computer keyboard and GarageBand loops. It’s all there, right from the moment you turn on your Mac. (Before that, even.)

So forget the fine print. With a Mac, fun is not sold separately.

Spotlight. Expand your search.

2006-09-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

With Mac OS X Leopard, the search that finds anything on your Mac will find anything on all your Macs. Use Spotlight to search beyond your desktop across network-mounted folders on other Macs. Combine that with improved performance and the convenience of a Quick Look preview, and Spotlight for Leopard is one maximum-strength search.

Search party

More haystacks? No problem. Spotlight for Leopard finds what you’re looking for on other Macs, including servers running Mac OS X Leopard Server. Just set up your remote Macs for file sharing and Spotlight includes results from those machines in your search. That’s one-stop searching on any Leopard machine with access to your network.

Quick on the draw

Sometimes you just don’t want to wait. That’s why Leopard introduces Quick Look, a new way to preview a document, picture, or slideshow in a single click, without opening an application. Select a search result and Quick Look displays the result — an iPhoto snapshot, a PDF, an Address Book contact — in a graphic overlay. Quick Look even plays your QuickTime movies, right in the preview window.

Look deeper

In Leopard, Spotlight provides a richer syntax so you can search for more specific sets of things. Use new boolean logic to narrow search results by entering “AND,” “OR,” and “NOT” into a search request. You can also search using specific file attributes — author, type, or keyword, for example.

iTunes 7- Burn

2006-09-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

iTunes makes it easy to create your own custom music CDs to play in your car or home stereo. Unlike some applications that limit the number of CDs you can burn, iTunes lets you burn as many custom CDs as you like. And iTunes prints pro-quality inserts to accompany your mix.

Burn with a click

Select a playlist in your library and insert a blank CD or DVD. The Burn Disc button at the bottom right of the jukebox lets you know it’s time to burn. A quick click and iTunes burns your disc in as few as two minutes.

Print in tune

iTunes now downloads cover art for all the music in your library, making the perfect artwork for your CD covers. For whole albums, you can print the cover with song listings. For custom mix CDs, iTunes can create a mosaic of cover art, or print a listing of songs in a playlist or your library, sorted however you like, plus other options — in color or black and white.

Play them anywhere

Create audio CDs to play in CD players like the one in your car or home stereo. Or make MP3 CDs to play on Mac and Windows computers and in MP3-compatible car stereos and CD players.

Back it up

You can use iTunes to archive your entire music and video library on CDs or DVD-Rs for safekeeping. Just choose “Back Up to Disc” from the File menu, tell iTunes what you want to back up, and insert a disc. iTunes does the thinking for you — just keep feeding it discs till you’re done.

OmniGraffle 4.1.2.0

2006-09-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Omni Group

OmniGraffle helps you draw anything that can be represented by symbols and lines, such as flowcharts, org charts, network diagrams, family trees, project processes, and office layouts. This program gives you the graphing tools to create anti-aliased diagrams that print exactly as they appear on your screen, including new smart guides that facilitate quick and measured layouts. Export options include TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, EPS, PDF, and HTML formats.

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CandyBar 2.6.1 For Mac

2006-09-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

The art of customizing your icons has come a long way, thanks to CandyBar, a utility designed to customize everything from the look of the Finder toolbar, folders, the Trash, and everything in between. With CandyBar, nothing is sacred. The thoughtful interface makes swapping icons easy by simply dragging and dropping. We really like iContainers, which pack a set of icons into a single file. You even can save your current icon scheme to an iContainer to quickly switch among custom-created sets. Overall, CandyBar is a wonderfully simple application that makes dressing up your icons a joy.

Download Page

Apple phone on track for early ‘07 ?

2006-09-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Think secret has this article of Apple’s latest and soon to be release super toy for adults. Its a Apple Phone for the masses. Now, I can’t really imagine that, seeing that ipod is a run away success in the portal music player market doesn’t mean Apple’s phone will be the next Motorola Razr or the LG’s Chocolate. Apple’s product has this cool factor, like marijuana. Hooking a person into wanting more but when it comes to serious buyers, Apple lost it all. Just take a look at their ipod player. Every year they increase the capacity and shrink it a little, there is virtually no major improvement. Yeah, it plays video - so what? Sandisk Sansa music player doesn’t have the cool factor that ipod has, but interm of features, Sansa is loaded and the best part is it has a FM Tuner.

At the time, Apple was said to be encountering “significant technological hurdles” in its attempts to essentially re-invent the cell phone with an innovative ground-up design. Since then, Apple has scaled back its ambitions and has opted to go with several off-the-shelf parts for what will be the first of at least two or three different phones that sources say Apple hopes to deliver in 2007.

Apple’s product are usually over-price with limited features and locked into a whole of its own. Bill Gates was right when he predicted the death of mac during th 80’s and early this year, again he predicted that iPod will share the same fate, a slow and painful death. Let’s face it, to be able to lock a person into a single format is an up hill battle, for example the mp3 player format is the de facto of digital music, not even Microsoft with their WMA format can unseat it, let alone Apple’s AAC format - unless Apple open up their iTunes digital store and allow competitors with the ability to sell AAC format.

I’m thinking of getting a portal music player, flash based and there is a very high percentage that it won’t be Apple’s iPod. Sandisk Sansa is too good to be true, the smaller version runs on AAA battery meaning to say that I don’t have to buy those expensive Li-on battery like how Apple force their loyal customer replace an expansive battery.

Apple is good, but it could have been great if Steve Jobs were to run it like a business man, but then again, if Steve were to run it that way, then Apple would not have been what it is today - unique. Let us hope the next generation iPod comes with a FM Tuner. Forget about the video and games, I’m too old for that.

Apple iwork '06

2006-09-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Introducing Pages 2. Thanks to new text and image editing tools, it’s the easiest way to look good in print. Use Apple-designed templates to build stunning documents in minutes. Quickly add photos with the built-in iLife Media Browser. Format your text in minutes with elegant predefined styles. Add punch to your page with multiple columns, self-calculating tables, and engaging 3D charts. Whatever you write, Pages 2 helps you do it in style.

Add modern design

Start with a template in Pages 2 and your document is halfway to gorgeous. Choose from 25 new templates, including posters, flyers, scrapbooks, folding cards, technical reports, business invoices, proposals, screenplays, and storyboards.

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Top the charts

Pages 2 lets you add beautifully designed 3D charts to any document. Edit your chart, then position it perfectly using the 3D rotation wheel. From there, you can add even more depth and realism by applying multiple lighting styles, angles, reflections, and shadows.

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Get in shape

Explore your options with curves, shapes, and masks in Pages 2. Choose from new shapes, insert the one you like best, then customize it by adding points or sides. You can even create custom shapes using new Bézier curves. When you’re done creating the perfect shape, you can use it to mask any photo in your document.

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Put it on the table

Leave it to Pages 2 to make mere tables more interesting. Add text, graphics, and photos to tables, then get ready to do the math: tables in Pages 2 let you perform spreadsheet-style calculations without ever leaving your document — a perfect solution for adding numbers late in the game.

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Sign, seal, deliver

Never again fear the mail merge. Pages 2 boasts seamless integration with Mac OS X Address Book, so creating personalized documents for individuals or groups is suddenly simple. Stationery templates offer predefined Address Book links: all you do is drag in contacts and Pages automatically personalizes your documents to match.

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Thank you, notes

With new reviewer comments in Pages 2, you can take notes. Type reminders, to-dos, or revision notes right on your document. Every comment you make appears in a handy sidebar that won’t affect layout or pagination. Plus, you can easily hide comments so they won’t clutter up your document and keep you from the important business of writing, editing, and printing.

Ipod Shuffle- Put on some Music!

2006-09-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

The world’s smallest digital music player and just $79, the 1GB iPod shuffle lets you wear up to 240 songs⁽¹⁾ on your sleeve. Or your lapel. Or your belt. Clip on iPod shuffle and wear it as a badge of musical devotion.

One size fits all

You know what they say about good things and small packages. But when something 1.62 inches long and about half an ounce holds up to 240 songs, “good” and “small” don’t quite cut it. Especially when you can listen to your music for up to 12 continuous hours.⁽²⁾ In fact, iPod shuffle just may be the biggest thing in small.

Ready to wear

Clip it to your coin pocket. Clip it to your bag. No matter where you clip your skip-free iPod shuffle, you’ll have instant access to music. And iPod shuffle’s anodized aluminum enclosure goes with absolutely everything. Put it on, turn it up, and turn some heads.

Sync to fit

The first step to wearing 240 songs on your iPod shuffle is downloading iTunes — free. Then you can download 99¢ songs from the iTunes Store or import music from your CDs. When it’s time to sync, plug the included dock into your Mac or PC’s USB port and transfer your music from iTunes just by docking iPod shuffle.

Remix and match

Got more than 240 songs in your iTunes library? No problem. Let iTunes autofill your iPod shuffle and get a new musical experience every time. Pop follows jazz. Rock follows rap. iPod shuffle loves to improvise. Take the Shuffle switch, for instance. Even if you’ve synced a particular playlist, you can shuffle songs with a flick.

Konfabulator 2.1.1.0.0

2006-09-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Konfabulator allows you to use and develop cross-platform mini-applications using JavaScript and XML to do whatever you want. Using the time-tested Mozilla JavaScript engine, Konfabulator is a completely open and easy-to-learn environment, so creating your own widgets is an extremely simple task. You can change the look, feel, layout, and even the functionality of a widget so it matches your lifestyle, your desktop, or the pants or skirt you have on that day.

Download Now

Adium X 0.89.1.0

2006-09-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

The Adium team is proud to present to you Adium X, a multiple-protocol instant-messaging client. This is a culmination of a yearlong rewrite of Adium, which now utilizes Libgaim (the core part of GAIM) to connect to multiple protocols, and also is based on a new plug-in architecture. Partial address-book integration, cool-looking tabs, multiple protocols for instant messaging, and a compact contact list are some of the many features of the new Adium X. Some core features include support for AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, Trepia, Napster, and Gadu-Gadu; unlimited accounts; as many names on as many services as you want; draggable tabs; any number of tabs in any number of windows; highly customizable yet intuitive preferences; address-book integration; iTunes and other AppleScript substitution buddy icons and away messages in AIM; and the beginnings of file-transfer support for AIM, Yahoo, and Jabber.

Download

Quicksilver 1.0b49

2006-09-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone using a computer spends a lot of time locating files and applications and carrying out actions on those items. The Finder is a reasonably good tool for getting a visual overview of the contents of your disk, but it isn't ideal for quickly locating and manipulating files, especially if you have a deep and complicated folder structure, or if you prefer keyboard navigation to using the mouse.

Quicksilver allows you to find what you need quickly and easily, while keeping your hands on the keyboard. For example, if you want to launch an application hidden in the depths of your file system, simply activate Quicksilver with a keystroke, type a few letters of the application's name, then hit Return or Enter to launch it. When you don't need Quicksilver, it keeps out of your way, preserving precious screen real estate, yet you can summon it instantly with a keystroke.

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TextWrangler - 2.1.1.0

2006-09-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

A free text editor

Want a great text editor, for free? Look no further. For the moment, anyone can grab a copy of TextWrangler for nothing. If you don't require the sweeping feature set of BBEdit (from the same developer), TextWrangler offers an impressive alternative. This versatile text editor may lack some of the high-end features for scripting and Web-authoring, but it still delivers useful text-editing capabilities. The interface offers several features we found useful, including the documents drawer and navigation bar, which make it easier to switch between multiple documents while conserving screen real estate. Other features include syntax coloring and function navigation for several languages; a Shebang menu; SFTP support; enhanced multifile search and replace; and the ability to apply Text Factories created with BBEdit. For Markup Coders and programmers, TextWrangler is a simple, solid, and wonderfully useful program.

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Norton AntiVirus 9.0 Virus Definitions 09/15/2006

2006-09-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

This download will automatically update Norton AntiVirus 9.0 for Mac OS X virus definitions and engine files to detect and repair the most recently discovered Macintosh and PC viruses. Once downloaded and expanded on your hard drive, simply double-click on the Installer and the appropriate files will be installed on your computer.

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iTunes and the 7-burn limit

2006-09-15T02:16:00.000-07:00

More on iTunes and the 7-burn limit

Tuesday’s iPodBlog entry, iTunes and the 7-burn limit, seems to have inspired as many questions (and comments) as it answered. I’d like to round out that entry by responding to some of those questions and concerns.

If you make a change to a playlist after iTunes tells you that you can’t burn any more copies, then burn seven copies of the modified playlist, and then reverse those changes (subtract the track you added to modify the playlist), will iTunes still prevent you from burning additional copies of the original playlist?

In short: Is iTunes smart enough to keep track of the burn count of more than one playlist?

Yes, it is. Although Playlist’s accountants will shriek when they receive the bill for the blank media I’ve burned through in the past couple of days, it had to be done. I burned Playlist A seven times, altered it by removing a track, burned the altered Playlist B seven times, put the removed track back in place, attempted to burn Playlist A again, and iTunes gave me the “nuh uh” dialog box.

Ah, but what if you simply change the order of the tracks in the playlist?

Nope. iTunes doesn’t care about track order. Shuffle their order after you’ve burned seven discs and iTunes refuses to burn another copy.

What if you simply copy the tracks to a new playlist?

No joy here either. iTunes knows if you’ve been naughty or nice even if you delete the tracks, reimport them, and put them in a new playlist.

What if you change the names and/or the ID3 tags of the tracks?

No again. iTunes doesn’t seem to care what the files are called or what you’ve done to their tags.

Would adding a non-audio file—e.g. a PDF booklet—to a playlist make the playlist new in iTunes’s eyes?

That would be a negative. From all appearances, iTunes looks only at audio tracks.

If I wanted to burn more than the seven copies of a playlist that iTunes allows, couldn’t I just create a disk image with Apple’s Disk Utility and burn that image to as many discs as I like?

No. Disk Utility can create a copy of the CD from a disk image, but it will do so as a data disc rather than as a Redbook audio disc. Such a data disc won’t show up in iTunes nor will it play on a CD player.

Roxio’s $100 Toast Titanium 7, however, can create a disk image that you can then use to create Redbook audio CDs within Toast. This method puts an end to the seven-burn limit.

If I wanted to burn more than seven copies of a playlist and don’t want to use Toast, could I burn one CD, import the tracks on that CD with iTunes, and then burn more copies?

You could. This is a well-known method for getting around Apple’s (and everyone else’s) digital rights management (DRM) scheme. Some people suggest that converting the audio formats multiple times during the process—from AAC to AIFF (for the original CD rip) back to AAC (reimporting the burned CD)—degrades the audio quality. You could lessen the effect by reimporting the CD in a lossless file format—AIFF, .wav, or Apple Lossless.

What about creating a new user, copying those files to the new user, authenticating that new user (to allow them to play Apple’s DRM) and then burning new CDs with the new user’s account?

and

What if I delete iTunes’ support files (iTunes Library, iTunes Music Library.xml, .plist files, etc.)?

Both will work around the seven-burn limit because iTunes uses these support files to keep track of how many times you’ve burned a playlist. When you switch to a new user, that new user’s account uses different support files. When you remove iTunes support files it creates new ones that don’t contain the number-of-burns information.

What was the point of this article? This whole article was devoted to instructing people as to how to further violate copyrights, legally and ethically, using iTunes. There is no conceivable “personal use” or “fair use” that would require these methods.

I can’t think of a good reason why anyone would need to burn more than seven copies of the same playlist. The fact that so many people seemed to be in the dark about this subject makes it clear that very few of us have ever hit that seven-burn limit and I was largely interested in how iTunes goes about its business in this regard.

Just so you know where I stand on the non-technical issues, I believe that giving copies of purchased music to friends is both unethical and illegal if—and yes, Jeff, I’m talking to you—those friends don’t own each and every track on the CD you’ve given them. I know it’s common practice for people to create mix CDs and pass them out to friends (and I believe Apple accounts for that by allowing you six more burns than you really need), but just because everyone does it doesn’t make it right. Regardless of what you think of the RIAA, stealing their wares is one of those “two wrongs” things.

Then why write the entry?

Because I’m intrigued by these kinds of puzzles, because I couldn’t find this information elsewhere, because I believe in the free flow of information, and because anyone who wants to rip-off music by the metric ton can do so far more easily than by rejiggering iTunes playlists.

Steve Jobs was right on the money when he opined that “Piracy is not a technological issue. It’s a behavior issue.” It’s the dirty little secret of audio DRM that as long as audio travels down a wire it can be intercepted and copied.

You want to stop piracy? Watch your behavior.

Boot Camp Public Beta

2006-09-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

Macs Do Windows, Too.

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp, you can download a public beta today.

As elegant as it gets

Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.⁽¹⁾ Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.

Optional alt. At startup, hold down the option key (alt) to choose between Mac OS X and Windows.

Run XP natively

Once you’ve completed Boot Camp, simply hold down the option key at startup to choose between Mac OS X and Windows. (That’s the “alt” key for you longtime Windows users.) After starting up, your Mac runs Windows completely natively. Simply restart to come back to Mac.

What you’ll need

Mac OS X Tiger v10.4.6 or later (check Software Update)
The latest Firmware updates (check Support Page)
10GB free hard disk space
An Intel-based Mac
A blank recordable CD
A printer for the instructions (You’ll want to print them before installing Windows, really.)
A bona fide installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (No multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions.)

The Boot Camp course

Boot Camp Public Beta provides a straightforward means of letting your Mac run Windows. Here’s how it works:

Space maker. Meet the most elegant hard drive utility ever.

First, you need to make sure your Intel-based Mac has the latest version of Mac OS X and the latest firmware update. These provide technologies that make Boot Camp possible. It’s also wise to print out the Installation & Setup Guide.
The Boot Camp burns a CD with the drivers Windows needs to recognize Mac-specific hardware. It is very important to do this before starting the Windows installation.
The software also helps you set aside hard drive space for the Windows installation, without moving any of your Mac files around. Just drag the intuitive slider to choose the size that’s right for you. Boot Camp also helps you remove the Windows partition, should you so desire.
Next, insert your Windows installation disc, restart and follow the Windows installation process. The only tricky part is selecting the C: drive manually. Be sure to get this right, or you could erase your Mac files accidentally. Remember, Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.
After the installation process is complete and your Mac has booted Windows, you’ll need the Macintosh Drivers CD you burned previously. When you insert the CD, it will automatically install the drivers. Follow the instructions in the Installation & Setup Guide for helpful hints.
Don’t forget to follow best practices for updating and protecting your Windows system (see “Word to the wise” to right).

Quickly edit iTunes smart playlists

2006-09-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Do you use a lot of smart playlists in iTunes? Are you constantly tweaking them to get them just right? If so, here’s a quick way to edit them—quicker even than using the control-click contextual menu.

Just option-click on the smart playlist you’d like to edit, and the edit window will instantly appear. You don’t even need to select the playlist first—when you option-click, iTunes will move the selection to that item, and then open the edit window. Option-clicking on a standard playlist does nothing, as there’s nothing there to edit.

And before you ask—yes, this shortcut still works in the just-released iTunes 7.

Geo-Calc 2

2006-09-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

Geo-Calc works out all the measurements (area, perimeter, sides, angles) of common geometric shapes. A scaled drawing of each calculated shape is shown with a graph paper background in one drawer, while another shows a history of your previous calculations. A definition of each shape and the different ways to perform the calculations is also provided. Geo-Calc's shapes include an ellipse, rectangle, triangle, trapezium, parallelogram, polygon, prism, cylinder, cone, pyramid and sphere.

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Safari Enhancer 2.6.4

2006-09-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Safari Enhancer is an application for enhancing the functionality of Apple's Safari Web browser. Safari Enhancer has the following features: enabling the debug menu, removing underlines from hyperlinks, increasing the font size in the bookmarks sidebar, disabling Safari's Web content cache, changing the color of hyperlinks, switching between the Brushed, Aqua, and Unified title/toolbar application appearances, disabling the Web site icon cache, importing bookmarks from the Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, Camino, Omniweb, and iCab browsers, configuring of the history retention settings Safari uses, changing the search engine used in the Safari toolbar, disabling in-browser PDF support.
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LimeWire 4.12.6

2006-09-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

LimeWire 4.12.6 has a new, personalized spam blocker to get rid of junk results. Automatic updates will keep you sharing faster than ever with the latest version. With version 4.12 you can search for Creative Commons and Weedshare licensed files, and publish your own creative works with Creative Commons licensing. LimeWire continues its guarantee of no adware or spyware.

LimeWire is the world's fastest P2P file-sharing application, letting users share and search for all types of computer files, including movies, pictures, games, and text documents. The applications other features include dynamic querying, the ability to preview files while downloading, advanced techniques for locating rare files, and an extremely intuitive user interface.

Version 4.12.6 adds support for Intel-based Macs and provides several bug fixes.

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Google SketchUp 5.0.296

2006-09-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

This program moves beyond napkin sketching to communicating ideas in 3D. SketchUp takes what may traditionally be seen as a complicated task and adds an intuitiveness many design programs fail to achieve. On first impression, this sketch-based 3D-modeling program may look as if it has sacrificed function for simplicity, but that's not the case. Despite the extremely user-friendly interface, SketchUp offers a suite of powerful 3D drawing tools that lets you experiment and play with new designs. All actions are carried out using two button bars, one that runs down the left side and another that sits along the top of the work space. After you simply sketch and draw edges, the application fills in the objects to create 3D geometry. SketchUp handles perspective and alignment calculations automatically. You can then export these objects into CAD, 3D-modeling, image-editing, illustration, or animation programs for further manipulation and editing. Functionality and price mark this for professional use, but curious amateurs may enjoy exploring the demo.

Skype for Mac 2.0 Beta

2006-09-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

Skype for Mac 2.0 Beta

Make video calls to anyone on Skype, no matter what kind of computer they are using.
Say hello, smile, or even wave with anyone, anywhere in the world on Skype.
Great quality video that just works.
All for free of course.

iTunes 7

2006-09-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

Meet iTunes, your own personal jukebox. With all your music and video a mere mouse click away, you’ve got complete control over every single item in your collection. Import. Organize. Play. Watch. Burn. All from your Mac or PC.

Start at the source

The Source List in iTunes shows you everything you can organize, play, or sync — from music and movies to playlists and iPods. The Source List helps you manage your entire collection — along with all your iPods — and it gives you quick access to whatever you want to watch or hear, including shared music on a local network.

Browse cover to cover

Still like having that stack of CDs for visual reference? Then you’ll love Cover Flow, a new addition to iTunes that lets you flip through all your cover art just as you would a shelf full of CDs, DVDs, or books.

Put on a playlist

Creating a mix to match your mood is as easy as dragging music and video into an iTunes playlist. If dragging’s a drag, Smart Playlists automatically update according to criteria you set — say, music you downloaded in the last month or your highest-rated TV shows. And when it’s time to get the party started, click Party Shuffle and let iTunes play DJ.

Dare to digitize

You’ve spent time and money building that CD collection. Give it the respect it deserves by importing it to iTunes. You won’t have to strain your fingers typing song names: iTunes pulls ‘em all from a giant database automatically. And once all your music goes digital, you can play anything you want, anytime you want. With a click.

Satisfy those burning desires

You created the perfect playlist. Now you want to listen to it in your car or take it to a party. One-click playlist burning in iTunes puts it on a CD in minutes.

Ipod- Watch this space

2006-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

How much can your pocket hold? That’s up to you and your iPod. It holds up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and up to 100 hours of video — or any combination of each.⁽¹⁾ So you can browse movies on the iTunes Store, download the ones you want (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, perhaps?), then sync it to your iPod. Same goes for TV episodes, new iPod games, 99¢ songs, best-selling audiobooks, and an entire universe of free podcasts. Go ahead. Fill ’er up.

Suit yourself

From cases to car kits, customize your iPod with accessories made especially for it. Pick up an iPod Universal Dock for more convenient syncing. Add an iPod Hi-Fi for room-filling sound. Sync photos on the go with an iPod Camera Connector. Attach a voice recorder to take audio notes. And if you buy from the Apple Store online, you can even have your iPod engraved with your name or a message.

Ipod- Play all day

2006-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

With all that music at your fingertips, you may never want to stop listening. Lucky thing your iPod plays audio for up to 20 hours.⁽²⁾ Or, if you’d rather watch, you can feast your eyes on movies and TV shows for up to six-and-a-half hours.⁽³⁾

Pack light

It might be a miracle. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain exactly how 30GB of storage⁽⁴⁾ can fit into an iPod that’s over 30% thinner than the previous fourth generation. Or how an 80GB iPod can be the same size as the 60GB model before it. However it happened, it means you can carry your entire music collection — plus a nice selection of video — absolutely everywhere you go. And a 60% brighter, more vibrant display gives your album art, photos, and video extra oomph.

Search and enjoy

Finding what you want to hear among 20,000 songs could be quite a chore — unless you have an iPod. A new interface lets you search your iPod using the patented Click Wheel. And if you’re a fan of live albums, classical works, or anything that sounds best when it’s continuous, iPod supports gapless playback that seamlessly transitions from one song to another.

Technical Specifications

2006-09-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

Size and weight (30GB model)

Height: 4.1 inches
Width: 2.4 inches
Depth: 0.43 inch
Weight: 4.8 ounces

Size and weight (80GB model)

Height: 4.1 inches
Width: 2.4 inches
Depth: 0.55 inch
Weight: 5.5 ounces

In the box

iPod
Earphones
USB 2.0 cable
Dock adapter for use with Universal Dock
Case
Quick Start guide

Capacity

30GB or 80GB hard drive⁽¹⁾
Holds up to 7,500 (30GB) or 20,000 songs (80GB) in 128-Kbps AAC format⁽²⁾
Holds up to 25,000 iPod-viewable photos⁽³⁾
Holds up to 40 hours (30GB) or up to 100 hours (80GB) of video⁽⁴⁾
Stores data via USB hard drive

Display

2.5-inch (diagonal) QVGA transflective, over 65,000-color liquid crystal display with white LED backlight
320 by 240 pixel resolution, .156-mm dot pitch
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Audio

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV
User-configurable maximum volume limit

Video

Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Low-Complexity Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

Headphones

Earphones
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Impedance: 32 ohms

Mac system requirements

Macintosh computer with USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
iTunes 7 or later⁽⁵⁾

Windows system requirements

PC with USB 2.0
Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
iTunes 7 or later⁽⁵⁾

Languages

Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish
Additional language support for display of song, album and artist information: Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian

Environmental requirements

Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Input and output

iPod
- Dock connector
- 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
iPod Universal Dock
- Dock connector
- Audio and composite video output
- S-video output

Power and battery⁽⁶⁾

Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Playback time (30GB model)
- Music playback time: Up to 14 hours when fully charged
- Photo slideshow with music viewing time: Up to 4 hours when fully charged
- Video playback time: Up to 3.5 hours when fully charged
Playback time (80GB model)
- Music playback time: Up to 20 hours when fully charged
- Photo slideshow with music viewing time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
- Video playback time: Up to 6.5 hours when fully charged
Charging via USB or FireWire to computer system or power adapter (sold separately)
- Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80% of battery capacity)
- Full-charge time: about 4 hours

Dashboard. Where there's a will, there's a widget.

2006-09-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

Mac OS X Tiger introduced Dashboard, a wonderful world of widgets that perform common tasks and give you fast access to information on the Web. With Mac OS X Leopard, you get even more widgets, plus .Mac syncing that keeps all your Dashboard preferences on all your Macs.

Clips and flicks

Create your own website widget using Web Clip in Safari for Leopard. Just visit your favorite site and click the “Open in Dashboard” button in Safari. Dashboard launches a new clip of the site in a customizable widget. From there, you can resize your Web Clip and choose from a handful of window themes. And since your Web Clip is always live, it acts just like the website it was clipped from. Dashboard for Leopard also introduces a movie widget that finds movies and showtimes in less time than it takes to make popcorn.

Widgets wherever

Get yourself a .Mac account and your Dashboard preferences can follow you from Mac to Mac. With Dashboard syncing in Leopard, when you make a change to your Dashboard preferences, Leopard automatically keeps everything in sync across every Mac you use.

Ready, set, widget

Ever wish you could make your very own Dashboard widget? Say hello to Dashcode. With it, you can get a widget up and running in minutes, even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life. Choose from a handful of Dashcode widget templates — including a countdown timer, RSS feed, photocast, podcast, or gauge — or create a widget from scratch with a blank template. Drag in an RSS link and your widget populates with a full feed. Drag in a photocast URL and your widget transforms into a self-contained slideshow. Drag in a podcast link and you can start playing the feed right from your widget.

When your widget is ready for prime time, Dashcode packages up all the your files and the Apple-provided resources required to deploy your widget to Dashboard or submit it to Apple.com.

Help Choosing The Right iPod

2006-09-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

Choosing the right iPod can be a very tricky job these days when we have so many of the models to choose from. Generally, whichever iPod model you decide to buy, you wont go wrong with your choice as all the iPods provide you with an excellent performances. However, some iPod models are more suitable for some people then the others. To make sure you are gonna buy the right iPod, read this article as I am gonna go through every model briefly and try to help you with your choice.

iPod shuffle: is a smallest in the series of iPods and comes with 512MB and 1GB of a flash memory respectively. This model due to it's size doesn't have a display and it can play songs randomly or by a playlist. iPod shuffle is particularly suitable for athletes or people who are on the move a lot. As it doesn't have a hard drive it's more resistant to shake-ups especially if it's carried in the protective case or with an armband. Despite it's size, this lightweight player provides you with an extraordinary sound and a bass response is good.

iPod nano: is a one amongst the newest models in the iPod family and it's about to slowly but surely replace so popular iPod mini model. iPod nano is a flash based model, ultra light and it has a colour display which is capable of showing photos or cd artworks. iPod nano is available in 2 or 4 GB models, comes in two different colours, standard white or a sleek black (which I particularly like:). If you always wanted a compact mp3 player that has a colour screen and it's capable of showing photos as well, iPod nano would be the right iPod for you.

iPod: or as often called "regular" iPod is the most advanced iPod model available at the moment. iPod is available as a 30 or 60 GB model. It has a hard drive, 2.5-inch colour display capable of displaying photos and playing videos. It's slightly larger then the previous model due to a built-in hard drive and a larger screen. If you want all the features that iPod can provide and you don't mind it's a bit heavier then the models described above, this iPod is an excellent choice.

Now when you know what's on the offer, you are probably asking yourself "What about iPod colour,iPod photo and iPod mini models?" Well those models had been apparently replaced with the iPod nano and iPod colour is now just regular iPod. If the price matters to you, you can still buy previous models of iPods (ipod colour,ipod photo and mini iPods) via e-bay or your local Apple dealer. I hope you will be happy with your iPod just like I am with mine (iPod mini silver 4GB 1st gen). Good luck and happy listening:)

Ipod - Learn How It Can Solve Everyday Problems

2006-09-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

All over the world, people carry with them walkmans and other music devices so that they can play their favorite music as they move around from place to place. The latest thing in the portable music devices field is the iPod, which offers a higher quality of the music being played and one of the most compact design out there.

The iPod allows you to play your music for an very long time (up to 12 hours for most of them) and have a huge amount of storage (some have 30GB). You can store thousands songs within a standard iPod and have instant access to them wherever you are at the moment. This makes them the perfect choice for your nowadays music necessities.

With iPods, transferring music from a CD takes less than 5 seconds, assuming that you use the FireWire and USB 2.0 support and can be transferred in a rather wide variety of formats, such as MP3, WMA, or AAC. With the iPods, users have the ability of importing songs from CDs, shuffling through songs, or choosing specific playlists, to name just a few of the iPods' features.

iPods are also equipped with a calendar, contact lists, notes and a musical alarm clock, which makes them more than just a portable music device, along with their huge storage capability. With them, you can take your files anywhere at any time, use memos as reminders and even record whatever you want with their microphone option.

iPods come with a wide variety of language support for languages like English, Italian, German etc. and models, such as iPod mini, iPod, iPod Special Edition and iPod Photo, each with its own storage capability (4GB for the iPods mini to 30GB for iPods Photo).

In addition to the device itself, a wide line of accessories are available for iPods, such as camera connector, power adapter, auto charger, car holder, voice recorder and many more.

In conclusion, with their high quality of the music being played, high storage capability, high transfer speed and all their functions, the iPods make the perfect choice if you are a music addict or just need a portable storage device.

1000 song, impossibly small. Ipod Nano.

2006-09-04T02:38:00.000-07:00

Take everything you love about iPod and shrink it. Now shrink it again. With 1GB (240 songs), 2GB (500 songs) and 4GB (1,000 songs) models starting at $149, the pencil-thin iPod nano packs the entire iPod experience into an impossibly small design. So small, it will take your music places you never dreamed of.

Believe Your Ears

Call it astonishing. Unbelievable. Impossible, even. Then pick it up and hold it in your hand. Take in the brilliant color display. Run your thumb around the Click Wheel. Put on the earbuds and turn up your music. That’s when everything becomes clear: It’s an iPod.

It holds up to three days’ worth of music. It plays for up to 14 hours between battery charges.⁽¹⁾ It displays the color album art for the song you’re listening to right now. It carries your photos, podcasts and audiobooks. It syncs seamlessly with iTunes. It connects to a host of iPod accessories. Simply put, iPod nano is 100-percent iPod. And then some.

Touch and Go

iPod nano’s Click Wheel puts music under your thumb. Click to fast-forward, rewind, play, pause or access menus. Use the touch-sensitive surface to control volume or browse music. You can do it all without looking. But with an iPod this beautiful, who’d want to?

Song Stylings

Add accessories to your iPod nano via the Dock connector and headphone jack and your music will always keep up with you — at home, on the go, even in your car. Of course, in either signature white or sleek black, iPod nano itself makes the ultimate accessory.

Up to 4GB⁽²⁾ of skip-free storage on a featherweight iPod means you can wear almost three days’ worth of music around your neck. Or jog with 1,000 songs on your arm. Now that you can take your music everywhere, there’s no limit to where it will take you.

Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and the number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less. Song capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; photo capacity is based on iPod-viewable photos transferred from iTunes. 25,000 photos refers to 2GB and 4GB iPod nano. 1GB iPod nano holds up to 15,000 photos.

5 Mac Security Tips You Can’t Live Without

2006-09-04T02:32:00.000-07:00

So, you’ve bought a new Macintosh, and now you may be wondering how to make it safer. There are several things that you can do which will protect your Mac from viruses and hackers. Macs are already very difficult to hack, but don’t let that fact allow you to become lenient with your security.

1. Download all of the software updates available. This seems like a no-brainer, but some Mac users forget to download the newest updates. You can even set your computer to automatically download new updates. However, some dial-up users encounter trouble when trying to downloaded updates. If you are a dial-up user, the best suggestion is to leave your Mac on overnight and let it download. Apple releases many programs that fix bugs in iLife applications, and in Mac OS X. Probably the most important of these updates are the security updates. Apple periodically offers security updates for its operating systems (Panther and Tiger).

2. Be careful what you download. Some people use P2P downloads for Macintosh (I.E. Poisoned). Be careful when downloading using a P2P because you do not know where the music or file is coming from. Some P2P users specifically make corrupted files to send via music downloading programs. Generally, it is a good idea to stick to iTunes, because those files are ACC Protected and offered through Apple so they certainly won’t have viruses.

3. Choose the best and safest Internet Browser. Safari comes standard on all new Macs as part of iLife. However, some people do not enjoy Safari as much as others. Some say that Safari is not as safe from hackers as other browsers. Safari can also be a problem if you are going to a web page that requires a version of Internet Explorer or Netscape to view it. You can download Internet Explorer and Netscape for Mac, but again, some believe that these browsers are not as safe from hackers. Many people believe that Mozilla Firefox (my personal favorite) is the safest browser to use because of its customizable features. Firefox is available for downloading on the Macintosh.

4. Don’t be afraid to buy anti-virus software. If you have to download files from the internet as part of a job or hobby, then it is probably a good idea to have some sort of anti-virus software on your Macintosh. Apple provides a wide-variety of anti-virus software that is constantly updated.

5. Finally, keep an eye on those e-mail attachments and instant messages. Some hackers have programmed viruses to IM you from one of your friends’ screen names. Don’t click on any link without knowing what it is first. Most e-mail providers use virus scans automatically, but you should always be extra careful when downloading an attachment. If it is from someone you do not know, don’t trust it.

Apple computers are very safe from hackers, but they can always be improved. Keeping a computer safe, and running well requires a great amount of time and energy. Just remember that if your computer is safe, your Apple experience will be much more rewarding.

Hollywood-style movies.

2006-09-02T07:29:00.001-07:00

Any computer can play movies. But only one comes with all the software you need to make blockbusters. Every new Mac features iMovie HD, iDVD, and iWeb — three easy-to-use essentials for importing, editing, and sharing mouth-watering masterpieces. Part of the iLife ’06 software suite, these applications work seamlessly together. Try finding that on a PC.

No matter what you shoot — from MPEG-4 to HDV video formats — you can import everything to the Mac smoothly. How smoothly? They call it “plug-and-play” for a reason. Just connect your standard or 16:9 video camera to the Mac via FireWire and iMovie goes to work.

iMovie gives you moviemaking power you never imagined. Each iMovie theme contains consistent design elements, including backgrounds, motion graphics, titles, and effects. Acting as building blocks for your project, professionally produced scenes with drop zones allow you to easily add videos by drag-and-dropping them. Then just type in your titles and select optional visual or audio effects. iMovie does the grunt work. And thanks to iMovie’s seamless integration with the entire suite of iLife applications, it’s a snap to add photos from iPhoto and music from iTunes or GarageBand, too.

When you’re ready to share your jaw-dropping movies with friends and family, iDVD and iWeb have you covered. Make professional-looking widescreen DVDs with ease. The beautiful themes, polished menus, and smooth transitions in iDVD will dazzle and delight your toughest critics. Your friends will hardly realize they sat through vacation photos and home movies.

The sharing doesn’t stop there. Get your movies online. Fast. Just drag, drop, and design web pages using your choice of templates in iWeb. Access all your iLife content — movies, photos, music — without leaving iWeb. Drag an iMovie project into the template and with one click publish to .Mac. It’s that simple. You can even use iMovie and iWeb to create video podcasts, complete with chapter markers and live web links.

If you decide you want to move onwards and upwards to more complex video projects, only the Mac gives you a smooth transition from iMovie to Final Cut Express HD. You’ll be thanking the Academy in no time.

Rock star tunemaking.

2006-09-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

Who doesn’t want to be a rock star? Think of the groupies. The gold records. The limos. Sounds great, doesn’t it? So why wait to take the stage? Every new Mac comes with iLife ’06, including GarageBand, the perfect software to start you on your road to fame.

GarageBand gives you dozens of instruments ready to play the first time you start it up. Strings. Drums. Horns. “But wait, don’t I need a keyboard,” you ask. Nope. You already have one. Sure it’s got letters instead of sharps and flats, but turn on Musical Typing and your computer keyboard becomes a baby grand. Play the “white keys” using the middle row, the “black keys” with the upper row. Or use the resizable onscreen keyboard.

Of course if you want to add a “real” keyboard, you can. Take any USB or MIDI keyboard and plug it in. GarageBand knows a keyboard when it sees one. No searching for drivers. No changing settings. No traveling that twisted road of: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab before you can get going. It really is “plug and play.”

Since it’s hard for new artists to go solo, GarageBand comes with loops that give you an entire band. To add these loops, you’ll need to have mastered two skills: cut and paste. From there, you can stretch, shrink, and layer music to your heart’s content. By adding a microphone, or using your Mac’s built-in mic, you can record your own vocals. Then record yourself singing backup and use the Vocal Transformer to change the tone or gender of your voice to create a chorus.

Not into keyboards? GarageBand has lots of love for all you guitar players, too. Plug in your electric guitar, select a sound, and let it rip. What would it be like to play that big arena? Add some screaming rock distortion and find out. Or maybe try a little swamp blues twang or a cool, clean jazz sound — it’s up to you. After all, you’re the rock star.

Amazing Podcast.

2006-09-02T07:27:00.001-07:00

You’ve practiced your radio voice enough. Time to set up the recording studio. With a Mac, that’s as easy as opening GarageBand in iLife. With a PC, well, keep practicing your radio voice.

Recording your very own podcast on a PC may seem the stuff of dreams. After all, just getting started requires downloading the right recording software, buying a professional microphone, and compressing the audio yourself. By the time you do all that, you may be left speechless. With a Mac, you can go from zero to “on the air” in minutes.

GarageBand — included on every Mac as part of the iLife ’06 suite — requires no more than a built-in microphone and your sparkling wit to record a professional-sounding podcast complete with sound effects, jingles, and an artwork track. Provide color commentary on the baby’s first steps. Record your diary instead of writing it. Or just roll it stream-of-consciousness style. With a Mac, you can even record iChat sessions for an interview-style show. Virtual family reunion, anyone?

Start talking and you’re halfway there. GarageBand’s Speech Enhancer improves the sound of your voice, going so far as to simulate a professional mic — even if you’re not using one. Then you can browse the GarageBand jingle library to find the perfect theme song. A rollicking surf tune for your daily Tide Report. Or something a bit more raw for your rant against The Man. Don’t worry that the music will detract from your message. GarageBand also lets you add a dynamic “ducking” effect to automatically reduce music volume when you speak, so everyone can hear the talk above the tunes.

And if you want your listeners to see what they’re hearing, just drag in images to the podcast artwork track. You might choose your smiling (or smirking) face as the cover art, then show everything from your latest political cartoon to your vacation snapshots as you talk about them.

Of course, it takes more than a sound file to achieve podcast stardom. You have to get your message out. Lucky thing the Mac you recorded the podcast on, the software you used to produce it, and the largest repository for podcasts on Earth — the iTunes Music Store — were all devised by the same company. In just a few clicks, you can submit your podcast to iTunes for all the world to hear.

So, are you ready to become a podcast celebrity? Only if you have a Mac.

One Click Websites.

2006-09-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

With a Mac, you can create your very own website — complete with video, podcasts, and photo galleries — in the time it takes a PC to churn out a single text-only blog entry.

Say you want to create a video blog. Well, it so happens that a MacBook Pro or iMac comes tricked out with a built-in iSight camera. That’s right. A fully featured video camera, nestled right at the top of the screen. To film the first entry for your blog, just launch iMovie HD. Then record your latest rant, rave, or rumination. Or hold the cat up there for a few seconds. Whatever suits your fancy.

Once you’ve recorded your entry, export it to iWeb. Pick a website theme in iWeb to match your mood (or the cat’s eyes). Your movie appears in a brand-new template, all ready for you to personalize with clever commentary. And when you’ve wrapped up your entry for the day, iWeb lets you hit the web in stride. Click “Publish” and your brand-new video blog goes live, complete with index and archive pages.

And that’s only one example of how everything in iLife works together to give you a one-way ticket to webdom. Got a photo album you’re dying to share with the fam? Click the little iWeb icon at the bottom of your iPhoto album and voila! Instant photo gallery. Or start with a blank slate in iWeb and use the iLife Media Browser to drag in all your stuff. Add a graduation photo to your latest blog entry. Post the family reunion podcast you recorded at your grandma’s house. Everything you create in iLife appears in the Media Browser, ready to make its web debut.

Which is where .Mac comes in. Open a .Mac account* and you can publish your website with one click. iWeb and .Mac take care of all the heavy lifting. No html coding, no messy file transfer, no wrestling with web servers. What you see is what you get. And what you get is a great-looking website

More fun with photos.

2006-09-02T07:25:00.001-07:00

That’s what you get with a Mac and iPhoto. One place to find everything you need to create the photo books that set the standard for elegant simplicity.

Sure, you can create a photo book using a PC. If, that is, you can juggle. One application to manage your images. Another to edit them. And let’s not forget the time you’ll spend uploading or emailing your photos to the Internet. The hodgepodge of tools you’ll find there. Or the cookie-cutter approach to design that many offer.

Compare all that to the integrated and robust experience available on the Mac where iPhoto does it all. Easy to use, iPhoto offers an intuitive environment for everything you want to do with the photos you take. Even if you have thousands of them, iPhoto makes it easy to find just the ones you want to share. It also offers you a rich assortment of Apple-designed themes and a complete set of built-in tools that make it easy to customize your book from the first page to the last. Add pages, change themes, crop or rotate images, resize your photos, add effects, insert captions or other copy, drag photos from one page and drop them in another.

Suddenly remember a photo you’d like to include in your book? On a Mac, you simply drag it in from the library. Two seconds, tops, and you pick up right where you left off. On a PC, you’d have to stop what you’re doing, start up another application, find the photo you want, transfer it to an editing app for finishing touches, export it, then upload it to the website of the book vendor you’re using. What a hassle.

iPhoto, in contrast, offers a one-stop solution, even providing a simple formula for ordering books. Click one button, and your book is whisked off to the advanced digital presses where it’s professionally printed and bound. “Sensational” best describes the results. Tack sharp photos. Vibrant color.

With iPhoto, it’s so much fun to create a book — not to mention calendars, greeting cards, slideshows, and websites — that you won’t hesitate to make another.

Instant Video Chats.

2006-09-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Think of it as the next best thing to teleportation. On a Mac, video chatting with friends, family, and colleagues the world over is even simpler (and sometimes faster) than dialing a long-distance phone number.

Only a Mac is so ready to video chat that it brings along its own camera. The built-in iSight camera on every new iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro lets you start a video chat (or join one) at a moment’s notice. There’s nothing extra to buy, nothing to attach, no cords to fumble with, no software to install or configure. Simply start up iChat AV, click your buddy’s video icon and you’re ready to chat with sight and sound — with up to three friends at once.*

With support for video chats between up to four people and a stunning, three-dimensional view, iChat AV practically puts your friends and family in the room with you. See their faces reflected into space, just as though you were sitting around a (very polished) table together.

You can even record your video chats for podcast. The included GarageBand program simultaneously records the audio from your chat and assigns different tracks to each participant — identified by buddy name and icon — for easy editing. GarageBand even captures a real-time still image every time each guest speaks, for the podcast artwork chat. Great for pros and aspiring talk show hosts alike.

Next year's OS today.

2006-09-02T07:23:00.002-07:00

“Want to see what the future of personal computing looks like?” asks Computerworld’s Michael Gartenberg. “Don’t wait for Microsoft to show you; go out and get yourself a copy of Apple’s latest operating system release, [Mac] OS X Tiger. It’s that good.”

He isn’t alone. From Walt Mossberg — “The best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market” — to David Pogue — “The classiest version of Mac OS X ever” — to Eric Convey — Tiger can “revolutionize the way you go about your computer business” — one highly respected tech pundit after another has lavished praise on Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger.”

And for good reason. Mac OS X, the most advanced operating system in the world today, delivers a platform of features designed to make the time you spend on your computer a wholly pleasant and entirely productive experience.

Can you say that about your computing life in Windows?

If you’ve ever tried to find a file you know is hiding somewhere on your hard drive, wait till you try Spotlight. Built into the very fabric of Mac OS X, Spotlight puts lightning-fast search capabilities right at your fingertips, quickly showing search results as you type. And Spotlight searches most of the file types, including images, emails, contacts, calendars, and applications, you have on your drive. Duly impressed, David Pogue says it’s “like Google for your hard drive.”

Has Microsoft delivered such functionality yet?

Vista, Microsoft’s future operating system, promises to bring gadgets to the Windows desktop. Small, highly focused applications ideal for accomplishing discrete tasks, gadgets are a truly great idea. But why wait until 2007? Since it began shipping last year, Mac OS X Tiger has offered a bounty of Dashboard Widgets. Right now, you can use Mac OS X widgets to review your stock portfolio, check the weekend weather, track flights, take screenshots, play Sudoku, or conduct research in Wikipedia. That’s technology you can put to good use today.

And here’s another example: Really Simple Syndication. RSS makes it easy to quickly scan the latest headlines and article summaries from thousands of websites. Unfortunately, if you use Internet Explorer, you need two applications to take advantage of RSS — both IE and a news browser. On a Mac, Safari offers built in support for RSS, letting you see, at a glance, when the latest news items appear. So you never have to leave your web browser to check your news browser because the latter is built into the former.

There’s more. Tabbed browsing in Safari. Crystal clear video conferencing. Parental controls. Easy DIY scripting with Automator. Mail with built-in spam blocking. It all comes with Mac OS X, and there’s nothing extra to buy. In fact, even buying Mac OS X is easier because one version gets you everything. No need to choose among a myriad number of versions. You install the same version of Mac OS X on your laptop as you do on the desktop you use at work or at home. If you do have multiple Macs, you can purchase a Family Pack that allows you to install Mac OS X on up to five Mac systems. And without any nasty activation codes to contend with either.

With Mac OS X, the future’s right before your eyes.

Design that turns heads.

2006-09-02T07:23:00.001-07:00

From its breathtaking industrial design to its elegant desktop icons to everything in between, a Mac delivers a computing experience to savor. And the more you get to know it, the more you’ll want to spend time with it. How many things can you say that about?

Apple designers and engineers agonize over every millimeter of every new Macintosh model and every pixel of the user interface. The result: ergonomic products that are the toast of the design world. You can see obsession with detail wherever you look: the orderly layout behind the removable back cover of the iMac, the pint-sized perfection of the Mac mini, the anodized aluminum alloy enclosure of the MacBook Pro, even the elegantly simple Mighty Mouse.

About the user interface, the more said the better. It starts with the desktop. A unique, friendly background image welcomes you, and photo-realistic icons on the Dock and in the Finder beg to be clicked. Launch the Dashboard and marvel at the colorful widgets — small applications that are as elegant as they are functional. Start a multi-person video conference using iChat and a built-in iSight camera and see an astonishing three-dimensional view of all participants. Enjoy pristine video quality in QuickTime movies.

No detail is too small. Window title bars possess the eye-pleasing look of brushed metal and brightly colored buttons that immediately signal their functions.

So throw out your preconceived notions of how a computer should look, then take a closer look at a Mac.

You can make amazing stuff.

2006-09-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever wanted to make a movie, publish your own podcast, create gorgeous coffee-table books, produce a Hollywood-style DVD, state your views in a daily blog, make beautiful music, or any combination of the above, you’ve definitely come to the right place.

To iLife to be exact. A suite of stellar applications, iLife consists of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand, iTunes, and iWeb. Every one’s a winner. And everyone can perform magic with them. What’s that, you say? On the PC, you can find any number of photo applications, music software, DVD authoring packages, jukebox programs, and web creations tools. And if you don’t like the wares of one developer, another one has a package with just as many features. Maybe more.

And therein lies the problem. You can purchase lots of separate programs from different PC developers, and any one of them may have similar features to those you’ll find in one of the iLife applications. But how many of those applications work hand in glove together? How easily can you transfer photos you used in a photo book to burn onto a DVD or incorporate as a still in a movie or quickly add to a blog? They may work pretty well apart. But how well do they work together?

Seamless integration. That’s the telling difference between iLife and all the great pretenders out there. Independently superb, the iLife applications work together to let you easily create practically anything you can imagine.

For example, thousands of people just like yourself have created movies using iMovie HD. They may never have edited a movie prior to using iMovie, but iMovie put all the necessary tools at their disposal and made the entire editing process drag-and-drop easy. Once bitten with the movie-making bug, those filmmakers are now screening movies shot in high definition and showing them on widescreen displays. How many PC applications do you think can do that?

That’s not all. Thanks to the integration built into the iLife suite, those filmmakers are also incorporating voiceovers recorded in GarageBand; effortlessly plucking high-res photos from their iPhoto libraries; scoring their movies with tracks out of iTunes; adding chapter markers that iDVD uses to create scene selection buttons; and with a single click, using iWeb to publish those movies online for the world to enjoy.

In iLife, creativity rules the day.

It Just Works.

2006-09-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Your toaster doesn’t crash. Your kitchen sink doesn’t crash. Why should your computer? Think of the countless hours you would save if your PC worked on your time — not the other way around. Then think about a Mac.

If you spend more of your precious time figuring out why your PC crashes than you spend taking out the garbage every week, you need a Mac. Still not convinced? Just ask the millions of people who use and love a Mac why it’s become such an integral part of their lives, and most will tell you the same thing: it just works. Letting them do what they want to do. When they want to do it. All the time.

That’s because a Mac offers absolutely flawless integration of hardware and software. Only with a Mac do you get a system built by the same people who make the OS, applications, and the computer itself.

Take a Mac out of its box and you experience that hand-and-glove fit from the get-go. Plug it in. Turn it on. And you’re ready for anything. With a Mac, you’ll find all of the essentials built right in. USB. FireWire. Ethernet. Every new Mac comes with built-in antennas for wireless networks, so getting on the Internet from anywhere is a mere matter of turning on your Mac. No reconfiguring your network settings. No plugging in some clunky wireless card.

The real secret behind the Mac’s crash-resistant performance lies deep within the operating system itself. Beneath the surface of Mac OS X lies an industrial-strength UNIX foundation hard at work to ensure that your computing experience remains free of system crashes and compromised performance. Time-tested security protocols in Mac OS X keep your Mac out of harm’s way. Most Fortune 500 companies, governments and universities rely on UNIX for their mission-critical applications. And now, so can you.

Of course, should you happen to experience the occasional hiccup with your Mac, you won’t get the runaround. Because Apple makes the whole enchilada, one phone call — or better yet, one visit to the friendly Genius Bar at your local Apple Store — can solve both hardware and software problems in one fell swoop. And when you add the AppleCare Protection Plan, you extend your support options to include three full years of free telephone help and comprehensive repair coverage. That ought to save you some time and sanity, too.

Core Animation. Make moving experiences.

2006-09-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the next level in computer animation. No, it’s not a feature film, it’s your desktop. Core Animation lets Mac developers create applications and experiences as groundbreaking as Spaces and Time Machine, without needing to know esoteric graphics and math techniques.

Order from depth

Creating dynamic scenes can get confusing without a systematic approach. Using Core Animation, Mac developers can create snazzy animations in their programs using different media types, such as text, 2D graphics, OpenGL renderings, and video, simultaneously. Core Animation dynamically renders these media layers together, complete with transparency effects and Core Image filter and effects. When content changes, Core Animation updates it, automatically.

Two heads are better than one

Core Animation takes advantage of the multiple cores in most new Intel-based Macs. When developers use the framework for an application, the process runs in its own thread. On a multi-core Mac, this means the application runs on one core, and Core Animation on the other. Core Animation runs on any Core Image-capable Mac (including most Macs shipped in the past two years).

Bring ideas to life

Let Core Animation take the headache out of animation. Previously, developers had to create a scene and manage movement of individual elements on a frame by frame basis. Core Animation opens up the power of Apple’s graphics technologies and proven interface aesthetics to every developer. Look for whiz-bang visual effects in an upcoming crop of scientific visualization tools, media organizers, and whatever else you can dream of.

iCal. Get it together.

2006-09-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

Why keep all the amazing features of iCal to yourself? With Mac OS X Leopard, everyone in your group, family, or company can share calendars, schedule events, and exchange information using iCal.

Gather ’round

Simply posting your group’s calendar to the Internet is a one-way transaction. Turn it into a conversation with iCal sharing in Leopard. Whether you’ve got an activities calendar or a work schedule, your friends, family, and colleagues can participate in managing the group’s events, thanks to support for the CalDAV standard in iCal. And don’t worry about prying eyes: Security features built into iCal let you control who has access to your calendars.

See who’s free

Make things happen with group scheduling in iCal for Leopard. Forget the guesswork and send meeting or activity invitations when you know people can attend. With iCal, you can view attendees’ availability before you schedule a meeting. Of course, if you’d rather let iCal do the legwork for you, a new Auto Schedule feature finds the best time for everyone.

Get the drop on it

iCal for Leopard introduces a new way to share the files and information you need to carry off a successful meeting or event. With the event dropbox, anyone attending an event can share documents, contacts — even video — by simply dragging them into an event. Not using an iCal server to schedule your event? You can still stay organized by dropping files into your events and sharing them by sending invitations that contain your dropbox contents.

Room service

iCal for Leopard not only puts all your people in one place, it reserves the place, too. Reserve meeting rooms and equipment as you create your meeting invitations. When you add a room or resource to your invitation, iCal displays its availability.

iChat. Go face to face, anyplace.

2006-09-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Filled with fun new features, iChat turns any mere video chat into an event. Video backdrops, Photo Booth effects, photo slideshows, Keynote presentations, or an entire Mac desktop — you can share it all with iChat in Mac OS X Leopard.

Chat from anywhere (or just look like it)

Set the scene for a chat with video backdrops in iChat. Drag and drop a picture or video from iPhoto, iMovie, or the Finder into the video preview window to create a backdrop that will fool your buddies into thinking you’re chatting from your living room, the beach, or the moon. Even buddies who don’t have Leopard will see your backdrop.

Chat for effect

Transform your iChat video using the nifty effects introduced in Photo Booth — a new standard feature in Leopard. Add Kapow! to a chat with the comic book effect. Get twisted with twirl. Or soften your image with glow. Just choose an effect and your video changes instantly.

Share and share alike

Remote control takes on a whole new meaning with iChat in Leopard. Thanks to iChat Screen Sharing, you and your buddy can observe and control a single desktop via iChat, making it a cinch to collaborate with colleagues, browse the Web with a friend, or pick the perfect plane seats with your spouse. Share your own desktop or share your buddy’s — you both have complete control at all times. And when you start a Screen Sharing session, iChat automatically initiates an audio chat so you can talk things through while you’re at it.

Show off (without showing up)

Why wait for a darkened room and a projector to present vacation photos or Keynote slides? With Leopard, you can do it all remotely, from the comfort of iChat. Use new iChat Theater to present photos from iPhoto, slides from Keynote, or content from any iChat-enabled application with any iChat or AOL AIM buddy. And do it in style — full-screen, accompanied by a video feed of you playing host. iChat’s virtual presentation room makes a big impact.

Pick up the tabs

With iChat for Leopard, you can keep tabs on your chats — with a new tabbed interface. Pull all your chats (even group ones) into one simple window, then toggle between them using tabs that display your buddy’s screen names. Text bubbles indicate when someone is typing, so you don’t miss a chat when a buddy’s tab isn’t at the front.

Mail. You've got more.

2006-09-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

With Mac OS X Leopard, Mail transforms mere email into personalized stationery. A virtual memo pad accessible from anywhere. To-do lists that can change as often as your errands do. For everything you do with email — and some things you haven’t thought of yet — there’s Mail.

Sincerely yours

Mail for Leopard features more than 30 professionally designed stationery templates that make a virtual keepsake out of every email you send. From invitations to birthday greetings to travelogues, each stationery template features coordinated layouts, fonts, and colors — everything’s designed to keep your mind on the message. You can even effortlessly add pictures to your email via a new Media Browser. Just find the perfect photo and drag it onto your template. Hit “Send” and get ready for some astonished replies from everyone — even folks on PCs.

Noteworthy, indeed

Ever email yourself a quick reminder that ends up lost in your inbox? Mail makes it more convenient to capture and organize all your thoughts into handy notes you can access from anywhere. To write yourself a note in Mail, click on the Note icon and start typing. Brainstorm ideas, jot down lecture notes, or just scribble down a phone number — Mail notes can include graphics, colored text, and attachments. Group your notes into folders or create Smart Mailboxes that automatically group your notes based on topic or interest. Since your notes folder behaves just like an email Mailbox, you can retrieve and read notes from any Mac or PC.

Much ado about To-Dos

Forget manually entering a new item to your to-do list every time an email hits your inbox. With Mail for Leopard, simply click an email or note to create a new To-Do. Include a due date, an alarm, or assign priorities. To-Dos you create in Mail automagically appear in iCal, complete with any edits or additions you make. And, of course, you can always get a little help from your friends by sending To-Dos to anyone via email.

Stop the presses

Thanks to new support for RSS in Leopard Mail, you’ll never miss another article. All the news you’re most interested in is delivered right to you. Just subscribe to an RSS feed in Mail and you’ll know the moment an article hits the wire. Even better, that same article will be waiting in your inbox. Quickly scan headlines and jump between feeds via the streamlined interface. And sorting your news is easy, too. Just set up a Smart Mailbox using search terms that pique your interest and Mail dynamically updates it when relevant articles are posted to your subscribed feeds.

Spaces. Room for everything.

2006-09-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

You do a lot on your Mac. So what happens when all those projects pile up? Easy. Use Spaces to organize all your windows into groups and banish clutter completely. A Space for everything and everything in its Space. Only with Mac OS X Leopard.

Rearrange the rooms

Create a Space for work. Create a space for play. With the click of a function key, you can drag all your application windows onto different Spaces. Keep all your work projects in one Space and that fun flick you made in iMovie in another. Create a communication Space for iChat and Mail. Organize your Spaces however you want just by dragging windows into them. You can even rearrange your Spaces with drag-and-drop ease — shift a Space and every window in it comes along for the ride.

Make yourself at home

When you’re working in one Space and you want to move to another, you can get a bird’s eye view of all your Spaces, or just toggle between them using a few simple keyboard commands. Even the Dock is down with Spaces: When you click on an icon there, Leopard whisks you away to the Space (or Spaces) where you have that application open.

Pick your patterns

Configure your Spaces by visiting the Dashboard and Exposé preference pane in System Preferences. Add rows and columns until you have all the desktop real estate you need. Arrange your Spaces as you see fit, then assign what function keys you want to control them. You can also lock specific applications to specific Spaces, so you’ll always know where, say, Safari or Keynote is at all times.

Time Machine. A giant leap forward for backup.

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You back up your system regularly, right? Well, you would. If you had a better way to do it. With Mac OS X Leopard and Time Machine, not only can you back up and preserve everything on your Mac — including priceless digital photos, music, movies, and documents — without lifting a finger, you can go back in time to recover anything you’ve ever backed up.

Set it, then forget it

The first time you attach an external drive to a Mac running Mac OS X Leopard, Time Machine asks if you’d like to back up to that drive. Set up the drive and Time Machine takes care of everything else, automatically, in the background, so you can get on with your digital life.

Back up everything

Right from the start, Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard makes a complete backup of all the files on your system. That includes your system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, documents — everything you keep on your Mac. As you make changes, Time Machine only backs up what changes, all the while maintaining a comprehensive layout of your system. That way, Time Machine minimizes the space required on your backup device. Since backups are stored on your device by date, you can browse through your entire system as it appeared on any date. And that’s what makes Time Machine different from any backup application you’ve ever tried.

Go back in time

With Time Machine, you can restore your whole system from any past backups and peruse the past with ease. Can’t find a file you want? Enter Time Machine’s time-based browser to see a snapshot of how your entire system looked on any given day — file by file. When you find the file you want, just select it and restore it. Time Machine brings it into the present. You can do the same with a group of files, whole folders, even your entire system. With a single click.