Updates

Apple Updates- Security Update(s), Quicktime 7.1.3, etc. Get yours using Software Update. Read about them here.

MacBook- SMC Update 1.1 - There's a second firmware update for MacBook users. The first one supposedly fixed the 'mooing' of the fans. If you have a MacBook, you know that I'm not talking about Holsteins applauding the latest release from Apple computer. The newupdate supposedly fixes the Random Shutdown issue, and should be applied by all MacBook owners, even those who have had their Mac repaired for this issue. If you are using Software Update, the SMC Update should appear for you automatically. It requires at least one restart of your Mac. Be sure to follow the directions. See more about MacBooks below.

iTunes 7.0.2- This is a major truly FREE update to iTunes that adds a ton of new features. It requires the new release of Quicktime, 7.1.3. The Source panel (on the left) is now clearly split into Library, Store, and Playlists. Under Library: Videos, Music, TV Shows, Radio, and Movies all get their own categories (thank goodness, it was getting to be a painto create SmartPlaylists that were music only, video only, etc.!). The Cover Browser is a beautiful new view that allows you to flip through your album (or movie, or TV show) covers much in the way that we of The Last Analog Generation would flip through the albums in a fruit crate. And if you set up an iTunes account and tell it to, iTunes will provide album art even for the music legally ripped from your own personal CD collection. (Be sure to read What You Should Know, below!) You can select a PlayList, or sort using the column headers in your current view, and all your art sorts with it. Want to browse through Miles Davis album covers? No problem! Search first, then browse!

Tiger is current, Leopard is coming. If you're using an older cat, Upgrade!

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/>

All the Universals- I gave up on tracking all of these, but the Quark Express story is something like this: Version 7 is not Universal. Version 7.02 (?) is Universal, but is actually slower for non-Intel users. Word on the street Quark's quirky upgrade, arrogance, and difficult interface are not long for this world because everyone who can, isconverting to Adobe InDesign. As for the Adobe products? Well, no Universals any time soon, but Adobe has made it clear that Dreamweaver will be part of their Creative Suite and GoLive will most likely GoAway hand-in-hand with Freehand.

Quicken 2007 Mac- Speaking of no Universal version. Intuit has released Quicken 2007. I got current. No compelling upgrade features here. Think of Quicken as subscription software. The way to keep beating back the onslaught of bugs is to buy the latest upgrade. Sure you get "free" quarterly bug-fix updates, but wouldn't it be sweet if Intuit would just make the Mac version at parity with Windows? Or, dream of dreams, if there were a killer product to compete with Quicken!!

Check for more updates at <http://www.versiontracker.com>.

News

One More Ugoogly for Another Nine - Only a short time after my eulogy for Oh Ess Nine, we have to bid farewell to another 'nine' the planet Pluto. And just like the old operating system, Pluto isn't really 'gone', it's just downgraded. EOLed. It's still hanging out there, far away, where nobody should ever have to go. :-)

Apple's Bad News? We'll Cover It ALL if we can! - Apple, sometime BDC, has had a few issues lately. Just a quick overview. 1) iPods are made by Tianamin-Square-style-near-slave-labor in China, good for competitive pricing, bad for image, and Apple has acknowledged and is addressing this. 2) Apple stock options have been calculated in such a (non-standard, possibly illegal) way that Apple has had to re-state its earnings, downward of course, and has been threatened with being de-listed from the NASDAQ for taking too much time to do this. The Steve has publicly apologized for the practice, taking personal responsibility. The media love this, using Steve as an example of a top exec not weasling on the issue. 3) Apple has settled a lawsuit with Creative Technologies for, oh, a hundred million dollars or so, for having 'infringed' on the Creative interface with the iPod. Since the NEXT File browser is essentially the same interface, and was around about a DECADE before Creative, my take is that Apple is just opting for the cheapest, quickest route to keeping the flow of iPods going out the door. 4) Batteries. I TRIED TO WARN my FRIENDS at the APPLE STORE not to gloat about the Dell battery recall of 4+ million Sony-manufactured laptop batteries, but the smirks were there. Anyway, I was right, [I'm smug calling the smug smug! Chris] and a week later Apple announced its own recall of 1.5 million Sony-manufactured laptop batteries, fortunately, not from current models! 5) Speaking of Apple stores, there was a minor firestorm on the web after Apple retail FIRED a bunch of employees for possessing (and showing to people) the latest developer release of Tiger. The general public response was that the employees should have known better, and that Apple's reaction was pretty drastic. The whole thing looks bad, no matter how you cut it. Couldn't these dedicated, devoted, Mac-heads just get a warning?? As I say, Apple too can be a BDC. 6) Speaking of looking bad, there are the MacBook problems. Apple has stopped short of a recall, but there were thousands of us experiencing the Random Shutdown problem on our wonderful MacBooks. [More on this elsewhere in this issue.] 7) Last, Steve is doomed. Yea, it used to be Apple, now it's Steve. A few screwball bloggers complained that Steve Jobs was just not his usual healthy, energetic self at the WWDC. Yegad, he didn't even save a BIG SURPRISE for the end of his Keynote. That cinches it! He's in decline!! Looking a bit thin and frail. Fifty years old is definitely 'over the hill'. No more lunches with Bono or hanging out with John Mayer for you, Steve. ;-)

Is that everything? I hope so. We don't need any more. And Apple stock? Just like the rest of the stock market, totally unaffected by reality, and doing well.. but wait...

Apple Shares Down After Citi Analyst Whines - A Citigroup analyst downgraded Apple shares from 'buy' to 'hold' because he was "discouraged by the lack of new products before the peak holiday season." [ Yahoo] This is 'Weird News', not because it's unusual for Analysts to beat up Apple, but 'lack of new new products"? Didn't this guy go to the "Showtime" announcement? Doesn't he read Unpredictable?? Oh, right! This same analyst predicted that Apple would introduce a wide-screen video iPod at the "Showtime" event, and Apple didn't. How embarrassing! Bad Apple. Bad. You should know by now to follow the advice of Wall Street analysts!! :-)

Delaware Township School Drops Macs, Students Warm - I must have blinked the last year or two when the local school was purging all the experienced teachers with 'too high' salaries. Because somewhere in there they also purged the Macs! The school used to have a balanced, long-term policy of maintaining a Mac lab for the 'lower school' younger kids, and a PC lab for the 'middle school' older kids. Back then there had been a survey about parental computer preferences. Shortly after, the Mac lab was upgraded to all flat-panel iMacs. It was a thing of beauty. This time, no survey - at least, I never received one. I'm not even sure what happened! The Middle School has new flat-panel Dells attached to a Citrix server (a device for sharing 'sessions' on the server, as opposed to just sharing file space), and I'm told that it is very slow and the students have to use generic log-ins because their own logins don't work. The Mac Lab? I think they 'gave' the lower school all the old Dells from the Middle School PC lab. Because instead of beautiful all-in-one white flat panels, the desks are crammed with gigantic, black, CRTs. Take away recess and give 'em Windows. Only the best for our kids. Yuk. But hey, at least they can turn the thermostat down, because the CRTs keep the room plenty warm!

More News: <http://www.macminute.com/>

Unpredictable Reader Feedback

Late Adopter Marc notes, "Why can't I sort my 'Quicken for Mac' by clicking on the column header for 'Payee'? It works on Windows." Yea, Intuit. Why can't he??

Steven Withers from Down Under, provides additional info to his question from our last issue, "What have you got against Mighty Mouse anyway?". He writes, "I've discovered what's *really* wrong with the Mighty Mouse: once the scroll ball clogs up with debris (skin cells, presumably) it's very difficult to clean out. Apple's 'turn it upside down and roll it' procedure doesn't work, and surgery (as in knife) is needed to dismantle it for a real clean-out.<snip>

:-)

At Apple's big event to announce movies on iTMS, Steve was in fine form introducing the new line of product churned iPods (every new model comes out, and you wantone, don't you?) They all have re-designed 'earbud' headphones, which are allegedly "more comfortable for more people". They all require USB (no Firewire), and they all have a new search feature in the interface that allows you to search by letter, including a center-screen indicator that displays the current initial letter you are scrolling through. (If you use iPhoto 6, you have an idea of what I mean.) The screens are supposedly brighter, and battery life improved. Notice the 8 Gig Nano is the same price as the 30 Gig (video) iPod. Ouch! Which one? Which one?

iPodStill notofficially known as the "video iPod", now comes in 30 and 80 Gigabytes, $250 and $350, in black and white.

NanoAll Nanew. Wrapped in brushed aluminum, in colors. It looks just like the "Mini" only smaller, of course. In 2, 4, and 6 Gig versions, $150, $200, $250

ShuffleCompletely redesigned, $80, 1 Gig, also in aluminum, about the size of a matchbook, with a built-in clip & included dock. See the photos and review at iPod Lounge.

iPod Nano (RED) Product - BONO becomes the new Bob Geldoff. Apple contributes $10 US of every purchase of the RED Nano to the Global Fund. But if you're really that keen on helping, how about just donating the $150 (or whatever) directly? Wade through the product-lust mania of the Join Red web site, or take the UNPREDICTABLY recommended path to the Global Fund site.

Imac- The iMac line has been updated with a few notable improvements. They all now have mini-DVI video out. Which means? Which means you can attach your external flat panel display and work on two screens! If you do any kind of graphic work this is great. Put all your palettes on one screen and your 'canvas' on the other. Makes any of the iMacs a reasonable alternative for those who can't afford the MacPro. Also, they all now sport the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Unlike the 'Core Duo' in the last iteration of iMacs, this is a true 64 bit processor. And what does thatmean? It means that the machines are already faster than the previous models at the same clock speed, and everything will be even fasterwhen the OS fully supports the 64 bit architecture. That would be the next release of OSX, currently known as that wiley spotted killer, Leopard. I thought my 20" iMac was huge, now there's a 24" model. Expect the iMac positioned more and more as your home media center. Starting at $999 and, with the 24" model tricked out with the fastest processor, a 500 Gig drive, 256 Mb video RAM, and an Applecare contract, as much as $2918.

MacPro- Honestly, I just can't keep up with all this stuff. "We" are not MacWorld, "We" are me, and I am he and we are all together. Or all alone on this endeavor! :-) If you are in the MacPro league, more power to you. Literally. This is the screaming, fastest, most upgradeable Mac on the planet. 'Starting' at $2499.

MacMini- The Mini has been upgraded. How? I don't know. I'm not going to cover everything okay? The Mini is a model specifically designed for 'switchers' so they can make the least possible investment while they work on the monumental problem of deciding if the MacOS and Mac hardware are really all that great. Have a party. Send your kids to Delaware Township School. Or just bite the bullet and buy an iMac. The rest of us are having fun. :-)

MacBook Pro- I wish they were still called PowerBooks. That's a name that rolls off the tongue. MacBook Pro is almost a tongue-twister. So they've been upgraded a bit, with? The Intel Core 2 Duo. Taking geek-speak to new depths! Allegedly 39% faster than the previous version, and also with a Firewire 800 port, thank goodness! If only they made a 12" model. I think the 15" is just too clunky!

iTV- Apple uncharacteristically 'previewed' this product, due for release early in 2007. Why would they do that? To keep you from buying some dumb PC-based media solution of course! Expect iTV to be the glue that links your Macs, your TV, iTMS, and your iPod. It will UNITE the digital family!! jkjk, but it probably will. With it, the movies you download from iTMS to your iMac upstairs will play on your Phillips Flat Panel HDTV, downstairs, using your Airport Extreme wireless network. For now though, the quality of the download will be LESS than HD. Think of this oddness as the floppy drive that Steve eliminated when the iPod was introduced. The change is coming. In 5 years, the iTMS will be downloading HD movies and you'll have room on your iMac and it'll happen fast. Soon. Real soon. Remember, perfection is always coming in the next release!

Wireless (Bluetooth) Mighty Mouse- Okay, in my last rant about the less-than-capable Mighty Mouse, I said I would review it when Apple made it wireless. I lied. Unless someone gives me one of these soap-bar mice, I'm not going to bother. I'm sure that the wireless is great, and if you already like the Mighty Mouse, it makes it even better. But I don't like it. Even if it had multiple buttons that really worked, it's just too big. I like a more petite mouse, a slender curvy mouse, a mouse that snuggles inside my hand. Puzzler: What kind of mouse does Chris like? Take the second word of the mouse's name, remove the vowels. What remains is a common abbreviation for the first word of the mouse's name. ;-)

:-)

Easy but Not Obvious & Tips

iChat- Chat with more than one person at a time in the same window.

iChat- What does the stacked video or audio icon mean?

iChat- Almost everything you could possibly want to know about iChat!! Well written and free. From the book, " Mac OSX Tiger Unleashed".

Change File Names Fast in the Finder You click on a file on your Desktop, you go get a cup of coffee, and maybe when you come back, the name is highlighted so you can edit it. Why did Apple do things this way? It sure as heck is slower than it was in the EOLed OS NINE!! Sorry, it's just another Easy But Not Obvious interface item. There is a fastway to put a file name into edit mode. Learn this and remember it. You'll be glad you did! 1) Click on the file name or file icon 2) Press [Enter] 3) CHANGE IT. :-)

Find Applications Fast Use Spotlight. (Sorry, this is for users of Tiger or newer OS versions only.) Want to use Activity Monitor (or some other application) but can't remember where it is? If you remember the name of a program, you can get to it fast with Spotlight. Just click on the Spotlight icon (the blue magnifying glass) on the menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut (below). Type the name of the program. Select the application's name from the list that Spotlight retrieves. Spotlight launches the program! This is great for those programs that you only use once in awhile and don't want cluttering up your Dock. Just remember Spotlight!

Find System Preferences Fast Open System Preferences (from the Apple menu). In the Spotlight search window , start to type the name of the System Preference you would like to change. You'll see a list of Preferences related to the word you typed, and they will be 'spotlighted'. You have to see this to appreciate it!!

Intel Mac People Get Universal!! (for MacIntel only) - Oh, SURE.... Apple created this thing called 'Rosetta'- what kind of a name is that, anyway? Does it refer to a a small rose or something?? Anyway, this Rosetta, translates a program, like Microsoft Word, which was written for a Motorola PowerPC processor. Rosetta makes it run more or less smoothly and at reasonable speed on a Macintosh with an Intel processor which at this point is all current Macintosh models! Without Rosetta, right now, no Word on the Mac. Got it? No Word, no Excel, no Powerpoint, no Dreamweaver. See how important Rosetta is? But the thing is, software running under Rosetta is slower, and less stable than software that just runs on an Intel processor. Software that runs 'natively' on Intel Mac Processors is called by Our Friends at APPLE 'Universal', and is indicated visually by the cool blue and white Yin Yang symbol.

Your goal, if you haven't figured this out already, is to get all of the software on your Mac to the "Universal" version. That is, a version of the software that is actually written and compiled for an Intel processor. So your Mac will be as stable and as fast as can be. Makes sense, right? For some important software, all you can do is WAIT. Wait for the next version of Microsoft Office, wait for the next version of Dreamweaver and Photoshop. In the meantime, how you can tell if you are running PowerPC software on your Intel Mac? See the next tip...

Use Activity Monitor. This little program is in your Utilities folder, inside your Applications folder. Get to know it. It tells you what is going on on your Mac. For the Intel question we want to ask (above), do this:

1) From the View menu, go to Columns, and make sure that "Kind" is selected.

2) At the top of the main window, click on the pop-up menu and select "All Processes".

3) Find the Column heading called "Kind", and click on it.

The steps above will display the processes and sort them by PowerPC or Universal. Observe the ones that are 'PowerPc'. You want to get Universal versions of these programs.

Play .WMV Movies on Quicktime PlayerHave you ever tried to play a video and been told that you don't have the player for it? The three main video formats you'll bump into on the web are Quicktime, Real, and Windows - and maybe Flash, but that doesn't seem to even be on the radar as a problem. Quicktime comes with your Mac, and 'Real' makes a RealPlayer that works pretty well on the Mac. Microsoft, on the other hand, would rather Apple didn't own the digital media ballgame, so they have stopped developing the Microsoft Media Player for the Mac. And we don't care, because we have Macs!! Ha, ha, ha!! The Mac Business Unit team at Microsoft helps you play .WMV movies in your Quicktime Player by adding the 'Codec' to Quicktime. And lucky us, that's easy to do, thanks to a company and product called Flip4Mac. Download the free software, install it, and your Quicktime player will work with .WMV movies!! Be sure to review the settings in the Flip4Mac System Preference, because you will probably want to set the Flip4Mac Internet Plug-in so that .WMVs will play in your browser. (A commercial version of Flip4Mac provides more features and advanced conversions.)

What to do when good Macs or iPods go bad Call your consultant, call Apple (in the US) 800-275-2273, take it to the nearest Apple store.

iTunes CD Text - Finally!- Buried deep in the Preferences of iTunes 7 is the option to use CD Text when you burn a playlist to a CD. If your CD player was built in the last 5 years, you probably know what this means. The CD player will display song and album information about the selected track as it plays. Until this release, iTunes allowed other programs (like Toast) to offer this feature. Now it's yours in iTunes if you hunt for it!

iTunes Automatic Downloads from iTMS Did you buy a 'Season Pass' to the 'Avatar' series on Nickelodeon? Are you waiting for the next episode to appear in iTunes? You see the new show at the iTMS, so why isn't it on your computer?

This appears to be fixed in iTunes 7, but earlier versions were not as 'automatic' as advertised. Go to iTunes Preferences and select the [Store] tab. Then make sure that "Automatically download pre-purchased content" is checked. And if it still seems you should have an update and don't, don't fret! Locate the menu item "Check for Purchases". (Not to be confused with "Check for Updates", which is talking about updating the iTunes software.) In iTunes 7, go to the Store menu, or in iTunes 6 go to the Advanced menu, and select "Check for Purchases". You will probably be prompted for your account password, and then you should be good to go!

Edit TOO LONG intros or fadeouts in iTunes Songs I admit it, I like a lot of those Disney Tunes. But I also can't standthe long intro to "I wanna Be Like You" (the monkey song), same story on "'Bare Necessities", so I make iTunes skip the first 35-60 seconds. It's easy to do. Select the song, and do a Get Info on it [Apple]+i. When the Info dialog for the song appears, click on the [Options] tab and look for 'Start Time' and 'End Time'. By default Start Time is going to be 0:00 and End Time will be the length of the song. You can change these numbers as you see fit. Changing them will cause iTunes to start and end at different places, but it doesn't actually 'edit' the content. The whole song is still there. If you burna CD, iTunes will only burn the part of the song that you have asked it to play.

:-)

THE BOTTOM

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