If you’re more interested in iPhone application development than the latest designer case, take a look at Inside iPhone. The site features a knowledgeable blogging crew, forums, code sharing, and much more.

Gordon Meyer writes in PhoneValet & iPhone: Instant Landline Voice Mail:

“Parliant’s PhoneValet has been a valuable part of my automated home for a few years now, but the recent addition of built-in iPhone/iPod touch support has pushed it close to a “must have” tool.

PhoneValet has long had the ability to answer the phone, present a simple (or sophisticated, if you’d like) voice mail system, and record messages. It’s also been able to send email notifications of incoming messages and, more recently, offered a web-based interface to view call logs and play voice mail via the PhoneValet Anywhere add-on.

But for me, it took the iPhone to gel all these pieces into a coherent and very useful whole.”

Google announced that Google Docs can now be retrieved and viewed (but not edited) on Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and iPhone/iPod touch devices. Documents and spreadsheets can be viewed on all of those device types. Presentations can only be viewed on iPhone or iPod touch devices (for now according to the announcement).

I created a quick and dirty (and blurry… sorry ’bout that) 2 minute video demo using an iPod touch. I hope they add editing and Google Gears offline features real soon.

Apple posted a single web page that lists and describes Leopard’s many new features. You can find it at…

Mac OS X Leopard 300+ Features List

Looks like Ars was right about iTunes Plus changes today. iT+ tracks are now 99 cents (US), down from US$1.29, and there are a number of new tracks available from independent labels.

If you’re interested in music production on the Macintosh, here’s a trio of recent postings on the O’Reilly Digital Media Center web site which you may find worth a look.

Last week, I reviewed “Sequel,” Steinberg’s entry-level music software package. Shipping with a huge library of loops, samples, and software instruments, Sequel is a very respectable challenger to Apple’s GarageBand, and well worth checking out if you would like to start making music on your Mac. And checking Sequel out is easy, as Steinberg is offering a downloadable trial version of the software.

Music technology was also prominently featured at last week’s Apple Expo Paris. To find out which three products from that category were (or, rather: “I considered”) the most noteworthy at the show, check out Musique sur une Pomme Américaine.

Nearly a year ago, I posted about the notMac Challenge, an effort to come up with a replacement for .Mac. Just recently, I received some encouraging news that I wanted to share with you:

Several months ago I started the notMac Challenge to generate incentive for a developer to create an easy-to-use replacement for Apple’s dotMac service. Thanks to the generosity of people from around the world, the prize grew to a value of $7,836, and as a result, I’m very happy to announce that Ben Spink has submitted a solution.

Contributors to the notMac Challenge have been testing the submission for the last couple of weeks and after a few minor tweaks, it appears to be functioning well. During the final week of evaluation, I’d like to invite everyone to download Ben’s solution, try it out and post their feedback on the notMac Challenge forums.

You can visit the main page and navigate to the forums, or go directly to the discussion thread that includes Ben Spink’s solution.

Although the notMac forums would be the most appropriate place for technical feedback related to the product itself, feel free to post any other thoughts below.

I just walked through the 3-step process to receive my $100 credit for being an early iPhone adopter. The process couldn’t be easier. You enter your phone number and serial number on the Apple web site, they SMS you an access code, you enter the code and receive the credit that you can use online or in person at an Apple Store.

I haven’t commented much about the early-adopter penalty. Maybe because I’ve been one for a long time. But I can’t ever remember receiving a credit because I bought technology on the first day it was available.

O’Reilly Editor Tatiana Apandi talks to Chuck Joiner of MacVoices about the Women in Technology series on the O’Reilly Network, how it came to be, and what she wants to accomplish by giving a voice to a wide variety of women in the technology industry. Tatiana shares some of her personal experiences from tech conferences and beyond, and how they led her to invite technology women from around the world to share their own stories and their unique perspectives on the topic.

I receive (and ignore) a lot of press releases and new product announcements, but this one caught my eye and looks pretty interesting. MicroNet has just released a low-end NAS storage solution that can put terabytes of storage into your home network for a surprisingly affordable price — their 1TB model lists for just $339.

Aimed squarely at home power users and small office situations, the new Fantom Drives G-Force MegaDisk NAS appliance features an integrated print server, an iTunes music server, and NTI Software’s Shadow zero-touch automated backup, and comes in 1.0 TB, 1.5 TB, and 2.0 TB configurations (list prices: $339, $579, and $999).

If you’ve been amassing a collection of digital photos, music, and movies and don’t have a backup system in place, this new NAS appliance sounds like a very attractive option. I haven’t crossed that line into measuring my data in terabytes yet, but I’m rapidly getting there and I’m happy to see some serious storage solutions hitting the market that won’t break the bank. We’ll try and get our hands on a demo unit of the G-Force and let you know how it performs.

If you’d like to get your weather forecasts in iCal, head on over to Weather Underground, find your city, and check out the top right-hand of the page for the ICAL icon. There’s also an RSS feed.

I don’t have any other ical-format calendaring apps handy, but this might well work in those, too.

(Not sure when WU added this functionality — might well have been there for a while. :)

I’m writing this from the new MarsEdit 2.0, just released by Red Sweater Software. It’s like a familiar friend shows up for dinner and has transformed into a gourmet cook.

After Daniel Jalkut took over development of the app from Brent Simmons, he kept up a steady supply of bug fixes and minor changes. With this newest release, he makes MarsEdit his own.

Check out the full list of What’s New in 2.0, but I’ll say right off the bat that my two favorites (after a bit of futzing around) have to be the revamped interface and the Flickr integration.

This is one of my most frequently used day-to-day applications, allowing me to post to and manage a bunch of blogs without all that inefficient browsing around all over creation. So far, Daniel’s updates have made that job even more of a pleasure.

The NeoOffice developers have released version 2.2.1 of their office suite, bringing some new features that should be quite welcome for their users:

• Support for the native Mac OS X spellchecker
• Support for the native Mac OS X address book
• Support for high resolution printing
• Opening, editing, and saving of most Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents
• The latest features from OpenOffice.org 2.2.1

Download here.

They have also announced the release of the new RetroOffice 2.2.1:

RetroOffice is an X11 application based on OpenOffice.org that has integrated many of the native Mac OS X features from NeoOffice. While very few users will find RetroOffice useful, the following groups of users may find it useful:

• NeoOffice testers and support volunteers that use it for troubleshooting purposes
• Mac OS X users that prefer using an X11 application instead of a native Mac OS X application

Via style.com’s gadget blog comes this spiffy new device by Timex: iControl, which is a wristwatch and iPod remote.

The iControl website has full details, including this compatibility list:

• iPod 5th gen (video), 30GB
• iPod 5th gen (video), 60GB, 80GB
• iPod nano 2nd gen (aluminum), 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
• iPod nano 1st gen, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB

Style.com says it also works with the iPhone, but I wasn’t able to find a confirmation of that on Timex’s site.

The second iPhone update was released earlier this week, officially released for undescribed “bug fixes”. There have been reports that the 1.0.2 update improves scrolling in Safari and that it may even boost the phone’s WiFi reception. The update reportedly uses a validation process to wipe out hacked versions which forces hacked phones to get a fresh install. I don’t expect that will be slowing our iPhone hacker friends down much, though.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve upgraded and seen any change in your WiFi reception, or other interesting side effects from performing the upgrade.

If you signed up for contract-free iPhone service, you might have noticed some “Your last transaction cost $0.00″ messages. It’s hard not to. Sometimes twenty or thirty of them pile up at a time. As of today, it looks like AT&T has finally switched these useless messages off. It’s still to early to tell if all the last transaction messages are gone or only the free ones–I’m guessing the latter rather than the former. In any case, it’s a nice relief to be done of them. Good riddance.

Ben Long has posted an excellent The iPhone Hacking Kit, step by step article on iPhone Central. Want to pop the hood and have some fun? Here you go…

Steve Jobs’s obsession with style is proverbial, and outstanding design has been an Apple hallmark for years, both on- and off-screen. (OK, there are a few exceptions…). During the early eighties, Hartmut Esslinger’s frog design studio had the biggest impact on Apple’s hardware designs.

Now, his son Marc has published an article on a German website, reminiscing about what it was like when Steve Jobs discussed design and product strategy with Hartmut Esslinger late into the night, playing the Beatles’s “Revolution” album from the “White Album” at full blast, while 11-year-old Marc was trying to find some sleep under his Apple-themed bed sheets.

Two interesting quotes from the article:

Apple thinks “thirst” not “glass of water;” an electronic device as a cultural and human statement not just a piece of plastic and technology.

[nowadays] every marketing director [of other frog design customers] would eventually step into the room with an iPod in hand and say: “Build me an iPod, we want to become the Apple of our industry.”

To complement his article, Marc has thrown in some design study photos, some of them previously unpublished. It is stunning how many of these designs still feel “fresh” today despite their age of some twenty years. Even if you don’t understand German, it is well worth visiting the article page for the photo gallery alone. Scroll to the gallery at the bottom of the article and click on any of the images for a larger version.

Here are two Mac virtualization announcements that might interest those of you who need/want to run Linux, Windows, or some other OS in addition to Mac OS X on your Mac.

The Parallels blog reports that its Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac Feature Update Beta is available. This beta adds (or returns) Coherence working with Expose (nice), the return of the Image Tool features, virtual hard drive Explorer that works when the virtual machine is off, and iPhone support with Windows XP and Vista (sync to Outlook).

The VMware blog notes that the 50% discount promotion for the VMware Fusion product ends on Sunday Aug. 5. It is available for $39.95 until then. I’m debating whether or not to buy Fusion just to look at it or just be content with Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Dan Knight at Low End Mac has written an obituary for the Mac mini, basing his assumption of its death on the lack of updates since September 2006.

Dan’s theory boils down to this:

If Apple still considered the Mac mini a viable model, at the very least they would have upgraded it to 1.66 and 1.83 GHz Core2 CPUs or 1.83 and 2.0 GHz Core Duos by now. The fact that they have allowed the Mac mini to languish when an upgrade requires nothing more than plugging in a better CPU tells us that the Mac mini really has reached the end of its road.

The mini’s lack of easy expandability was the main thing that made people hesitate, Dan asserts.

I’m inclined to think that the reason was even simpler than that. Dan writes:

All the Mac mini really had going for it was offering a decent amount of power in a very compact package. It wasn’t enough.

Right, because there was another Apple computer offering the more power, in an even more compact package: the MacBook. Yes, it costs a bit more, but as many reviewers have said, it represents superb value for money. As demonstrated by rocketing sales. I suspect that the MacBook has ended up taking a lot of sales from the Mac mini.

I rather hope that Dan’s wrong, and that the Mac mini has years of life left. I think it’s a great little machine, well-suited to use as a basic family PC, or a geek’s tinkering playground, or even a dedicated server. For the time being, I hope that reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

Film Roll 1.0 is a bunch of little Finder plug-ins useful for manipulating photos in situ.

Nokia Media Transfer 1.0 beta lets you move stuff from your Mac to your Nokia. It’s a 1.0 and it’s a beta, clever.

TabletDraw claims to let you “draw like you draw”.

What’s Narc? “narc is a ‘total conversion’ software package that transforms an Apple Xserve into a network traffic authentication, authorization, accounting, auditing and instrumentation (AAAAI) appliance.”

Aquamacs, the easy-to-use emacs, has been updated to 1.1.

Bloggers rejoice, because Daniel Jalkut has offered up a sneak peek at the forthcoming Mars Edit 2 release, and very nice it looks too.

New stuff to spot (in both the post and the comments that follow it): bye bye drawers, hello sidebars; a new markup selector (for Markdown goodness and more, no doubt); choice of metadata fields to display (like title, slug, URL, keywords, and excerpt); and quicker and easier category editing.

And that’s just the sneaky peeky stuff. There’s much more to come, we’re told. Dunno about you, but I’m looking forward to it.

Apple has posted “Puzzler”, sample code that illustrates iPhone web standards and javascript integration. Take a look at the details on the Puzzler page.

Amazing. Moments after I mastered the .QTL hack to make QuickTime movies launch in full-screen mode from a Web browser (!), Software Update informed me the new version finally supports fullscreen playback. I commenced downloading, headed over to MacFixIt to read about the other new features, and saw this:

The QuickTime 7.2 disaster: Breaks all CFM apps on Intel-based Macs (Office, Photoshop CS2) for some; Problems playing Flash

I’m running a dual G5, so apparently I’m safe, but I canceled the update anyway. What have your experiences been?

Just wanted to drop a heads up that the iPhone Web Development mailing list on Google Groups is lively, helpful and full of great people. If you’re interested in developing web sites specifically for the iPhone (whether you do so to expand an existing site or creating a site specific to iPhone use), you’ll probably want to check out this group.

Here’s the scoop on this weekend’s iPhone development event from Raven Zachary. Note, that Adobe has dropped their requirement for attendees to sign an NDA, so if that was keeping you on the fence there is no longer any need to worry about it.

iPhoneDevCamp is an upcoming gathering, inspired by BarCamp,
SuperHappyDevHouse, and MacHack, to develop web-based applications
and optimize web sites for iPhone. It is a non-commercial event,
organized by volunteers, with attendance free to all. By the
completion of the weekend event, a number of iPhone-ready web
applications and web sites will be launched to the public. The event
will be held at the San Francisco offices of Adobe, and out-of-town
guests are welcome.

Attendees will include web designers, developers, testers, and iPhone
owners, all working together over the weekend to improve the web
experience for iPhone. Development projects will include both solo
and team efforts. While some attendees will wish to work solo during
the event, we encourage attendees to team up, based on expertise, to
work in ad-hoc project development teams. All attendees should be
prepared to work on a development project during the event. You do
not need to own an iPhone to attend (although, a large number of
iPhones at the event will make the development and testing process
much easier).

Attendees will be able to:

• Create new web applications for iPhone.
• Optimize existing web applications for iPhone.
• Migrate Dashboard Widgets to web-based widgets for iPhone.
• Test and optimize web sites for iPhone.

There are more than 30 sponsors for the event including Adobe,
Yahoo!, O’Reilly Media, BMC Software add Laszlo Systems (among
others). iPhoneDevCamp is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.

The event is being held the week following the public release of
iPhone, to allow prospective attendees some time to acquire an
iPhone. This also allows early-acquirers the opportunity to do some
experimentation before attending the event.

Opera, makers of fine cross-platform browsing software, are so proud of their new Opera Mini beta that they’ve made a (not very funny, unfortunately) Apple-baiting “PC and Mac” style video ad.

The idea, it seems, is to point out how much more widely available Opera is, and how free it is (disingenuous, I’d suggest, since all handsets cost money, not just iPhone; and all handsets come with built-in software, just like iPhone).

(And that goes for “free” handsets, too, which you still pay for via your fixed-term contract fees.)

The new features look pretty good, and I particularly like this note from the developers:

Opera Mini 4 beta installs beside your current Opera Mini version without overwriting any of your existing files or settings.

How nice to see a dev team that’s thoughtful enough to tell users a little thing like that before they go ahead and start downloading…

Brent Simmons strikes a chord with his summary of Mac email software failings:

Email is, or ought to be, a keyboard thing–it’s about reading and writing. I’m not drawing anything or applying gradients or moving shapes around–I should be able to set the mouse aside.

Since getting an iPhone, complete with IMAP support, Brent’s been hunting for a new desktop mail client, since his previous favorite, MailSmith, doesn’t do IMAP. But Mail lacks features Brent insists on, and no other product quite offers all of them.

It’s a situation a lot of people (myself included) will sympathize with. I’ve spent many long hours comparing email clients, trying to find something that had everything I wanted. Like Brent, keyboard control and IMAP were must-haves for a long time.

I haven’t solved the problem - I reached the same impasse that Brent did. I suspect a lot of other people are in the same boat.

O2 has won the rights to sell Apple’s iPhone in the UK, according to a report in The Times.

The story says:

Apple’s agreement with O2 is thought to include a continuing share of the revenues generated by each iPhone customer. O2 ’s network will also have to be specially configured to accommodate the Apple handset. The lure of the Apple brand is expected to lead thousands of UK mobile customers to ditch their existing contracts and switch to the iPhone provider.

It also claims that O2’s rival Vodafone pulled out after deciding “that the commercial terms on offer were not viable”.

The O2 press office wasn’t answering the phone when I tried calling just now to get comment or confirmation. Maybe they’ll get back to me after they’ve checked their visual voicemail.

Apple has just posted their iPhone Web development guidelines. (Thanks John.) As expected, the iPhone integration seems limited to a few “special links”.

Mailto: works as expected, opening the built-in mail application with a new compose-mail sheet. Google Maps linksare recognized by the iPhone and opened in the iPhone Maps client. The phone link (tel:) calls the specified number when clicked, e.g. <a href=”tel:1-408-555-5555″>1-408-555-5555</a>.

There are also some useful guidelines to be found about formatting media for smooth iPhone playback, a list of iPhone gestures (double-tap, touch-and-hold, drag, flick, pinch-open, pinch-close), a discussion of the iPhone viewport and more.

The most startling part of Engadget’s iPhone review:

We expected that if you’re an email user, when you plug in your iPhone and iTunes says it’s “syncing your mail accounts,” that means it’s actually comparing and moving messages between the device and Mail.app. Not so. In fact, the iPhone does not interact in any meaningful way with Mail.app, other than to simplify the setup on the iPhone by copying account settings over from the desktop client’s settings.

That’s just … nuts.

CrunchGear claims that new MacBooks coming in October will support iPhone-style multi-touch interaction on their trackpads. Is that a hardware thing, or just a software thing? Might it be a Leopard feature, as opposed to a MacBook feature?

Some nice ideas for cheap laptop stands and lap-protectors, at Ikea Hack.

About this particular outliner makes a welcome return, although this time it’s mainly about WWDC and the culture of innovation and research in computing.

Pierre Igot had a bad experience with his 10.4.10 update:

I had been monitoring the usual Mac news web sites and, apart from a strange audio popping problem on some laptops, I hadn’t noticed any significant issues mentioned in the forums. So I went ahead with the update. And that’s when Mac OS X decided to punish me.

I learned a lot about this device by downloading the iPhone User Guide from Apple. Very helpful.

Ok. So I spent my Friday night standing in line at an AT&T store and I come home and realize the iPhone WON’T EVEN WORK without being activated. So, I attempt to activate it and get a message “Your activation requires additional time to complete.” I then activate my wife’s phone and it just works. It has been almost a full 24 hours and my phone still isn’t working.

Anyone else in iPhone activation hell?
Here are some wired rants:
wired rants

NG

Ok. So I got the iPhone…wow that crazy…just made it…was the with the last 4 people to get one…

Pictures Here
NG

David Pogue got an iPhone before almost anybody, and he’s already written a 304-page book of tips, iPhone: The Missing Manual. O’Reilly will offer a downloadable version within the next three weeks and the printed version later this summer, but you can see a sneak preview right now.

I especially like this shrewd tip for prolonging battery life:

By covering the [ambient-light] sensor as you unlock the phone, you force it to a low-power, dim screen-brightness setting [and bypass] all the taps and navigation it would have taken you to find the manual brightness slider.

I wonder how much ability developers will have to exploit the phone’s other sensors in new ways. It would be cool to control widgets with the accelerometer and proximity sensor.

Given its timezone (GMT -10), Hawaii will be the last geographic area for the US iPhone launch. My friend Ryan Ozawa is lifecasting (streaming live) from the Ala Moana Apple Store in Honolulu. You can find it at:

HawaiiGeek.tv

I’m heading over to other Apple store a few miles away this afternoon.

Today’s Finger Tips video from Apple is mostly reiterating stuff we already knew, but hidden inside are some useful new things.

My favorites are the magnifier:

and the iPhone reset instructions:

In the reset instructions, iPhone guy says: “If an application is not responding…”, a phrase that serves as an important reminder that this machine is still running a version of OS X, and has the potential to crash just as a computer does. The video makes resetting look pretty straightforward … let’s hope people don’t have to use that function very often.

I really hate to admit it, but I am going to wait in line at the Apple Store in Atlanta, GA tomorrow and wait for an iPhone. My wife and I are actually going to meet at the mall around 5PM so that we can be there a bit early, but I hope it isn’t too crazy.

What is funny, is that I am probably the LAST person on planet earth that would wait in line for anything, including Star Wars, Amusement Park Rides, Grocery Stores Lines, or concert tickets. Why iPhone, why do you have this power over me. Well, I admit a big part of the attraction will be trying to write a killer Web 2.0 application for the iPhone.

Am I the only guy waiting in line with his wife for an iPhone on Friday……?

NG

Seth Dillingham needs just a handful more applications to reach his target of 100 great Mac apps, the reward for participants in his charity fundraising event in aid of cancer research and treatment.

The premise is simple: Mac developers donate at least five licenses for their applications, and Seth assembles them into glorious packages of software goodness. You then get to bid for one of these amazing packages in an auction. The retail value of each package is already topping the $24,000 mark; but the winning auction bid will be a fraction of that.

So if you’re a developer who’s not yet contributed, now’s the time to get in touch. And if you’re a mere punter like me, keep an eye on Seth’s site for details of how to place your bids when the auction starts.

Apple just posted a new Final Cut Pro 6 “Working with High Definition and Broadcast Formats” manual (PDF). This accompanies a bunch of updates to Final Cut Studio including Final Cut Pro 6.0.1, Motion 3.0.1, Color 1.0.1, Compressor 3.0.1, Soundtrack Pro 2.0.1, A combo Pro Applications Update that includes most of the previous items, and a semingly unrelated SuperDrive Firmware Update 2.1.

Reading the published reviews, most reaction is very positive. The consensus seems to be that the iPhone’s minor problems and missing features are more than outweighed - to an extraordinary degree - by the quality of what’s offered and the delightful simplicity of the interface. In other words: it doesn’t matter that it can’t cut, copy and paste - it’s still miles in front of any other cellphone on the market.

David Pogue:

The glass gets smudgy — a sleeve wipes it clean — but it doesn’t scratch easily. I’ve walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there’s not a mark on it … Call quality is only average, and depends on the strength of your AT&T signal … The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler.

Steven Levy:

Web-browsing is where the iPhone leaves competitors in the dust. It does the best job yet of compressing the World Wide Web on a palm-size device … Web pages you wouldn’t dare go to on other phones are suddenly accessible, though those that require Flash, Windows Media or Real Media formats won’t work … I found that unless I did a lot of video watching or Web browsing, I could generally last the day, and then charge it overnight.

Edward Baig:

Lots of people (me included) eschew iPod earbuds in favor of their own headphones. Now the bad news: They may not work. Because of how the connector is designed on the Shure headphones I use, I could not fit them into the iPhone headphone jack … Battery life didn’t prove to be a big problem in my unscientific tests — a mix of calling, surfing, listening and watching. Still, it’s a good idea to charge it overnight.

Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret:

In general, we found this interface, called “multi-touch,” to be effective, practical and fun. But there’s no overall search on the iPhone (except Web searching), and no quick way to move to the top or bottom of pages (except in the Web browser). The only aid is an alphabetical scale on the right in tiny type. There’s also no way to cut, copy, or paste text … Its otherwise excellent Web browser can’t fully utilize some Web sites, because it doesn’t yet support Adobe’s Flash technology. Although the phone contains a complete iPod, you can’t use your songs as ringtones. There aren’t any games, nor is there any way to directly access Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Thank goodness Apple made the right choice on this one. In all price plans available for a new iPhone, the data usage is unlimited. The data price for the iPhone was crucial; a device so dependent on data had to offer a data price plan that was reasonable. There’d have been outcry if restrictive data plans forced users to keep a constant eye on how much they were downloading.

You can also activate your iPhone from home, using functionality built into iTunes; annoying iPhone guy tells you how in this video. You’ll need OS X 10.4.10; and you have to sign small print agreements with both Apple and AT&T. Quite what’s in those agreements, we can’t tell you just yet. Be interesting to find out, though.

The iPhone launch hype is gathering momentum, and with the hype comes a frenzy of excess, hyperbole and silliness.

Is Apple guilty of raising expectations beyond the norm? Some say it is:

Even for a company that’s mastered the art of product-launch hype, Apple Inc. has propelled iPhone hysteria into the stratosphere.

But don’t forget, knowing in advance when a new Apple product is going to go on sale is something of a novelty. Usually they are simply announced, “shipping today”, and the hype is restricted to just uninformed speculation prior to a keynote speech by Steve Jobs.

This time, though, we know exactly what’s coming. Apple’s been more forthcoming about the iPhone than any other product. It needs to be, because the iPhone has to be seen to be doing well. Apple wants people queuing up to buy; it wants stores to run out of stock over the weekend. It wants demand to be so great that the clamour for iPhones continues long after launch.

Anyway, if you’re too lazy, or not sufficiently fanboy enough to do your own queuing, there’s plenty of other people who’ll do it for you - for a 1000 bucks.

And once you’ve got your paws on an iPhone, there’s another queue of people ready to sell you add-ons, cases, and related doodads. You know, just in case you had some more money to spend.

John Dvorak says he’s fed up with it all:

I am sick of it. It’s all anyone talks about. It dominates the news. It dominates the podcasts and videocasts and magazines. Hitler got less coverage when he invaded Poland.

But he would say that, wouldn’t he?

As promised, here’s some more detail about the acquisition of Mori and Clockwork by Alfonso Guerra of Apokalypse Software. I sent Alfonso a bunch of questions by email, and these are his replies.

Looks like Apple has posted a new success story over at the developer connection. Checkout offers a Point of Sale system built in Cocoa and Python.

Chris Holland has penned an interesting post over on the Internet Brands Developer Blog, suggesting that Apple may have its sights set on integrating VoIP into the iPhone, making it a truly converged communications device. At first glance, it seems unlikely that Apple would be thinking this away about VoIP (and we KNOW AT&T isn’t thinking this way), but Chris makes some excellent points and his predictions are really some food for thought.

I’ve grumbled about .Mac along with others and don’t think Apple’s online service offers much bang for the buck today, but if it became the integrated SIP provider that Chris envisions that could change everything.

A SIP Address looks just like an E-Mail address. A Person’s SIP Address could easily be stored in the iPhone’s Address Book. Apple could build SIP-capability right into the operating system, pre-configured with a number of existing SIP Providers for one-click setup, while still allowing for custom configuration, following a model very similar to E-Mail.

There are a few SIP Providers out there. But Apple could easily roll out its own SIP infrastructure as part of the .Mac framework, increasing their chances of providing a superior out-of-the-box experience, while promoting the .Mac brand to … competitive usefulness. From here, the sky’s the limit as to what Apple can do, leveraging iPhone’s brand and near ubiquitous and still increasing WiFi penetration. Forget about fighting over 3G vs GSM. WiFi and IP are universal WorldWide.

What do you think? Has Chris been SIPping the VoIP kool-aid, or he is on to something?

Hog Bay Software owner Jesse Grosjean has sold notebook application Mori and timer app Clockwork to a new owner, Alfonso Guerra of Apokalypse Software.

The change is effective immediately and the new owner already has a new alpha version available for download (although when I downloaded it a few hours ago, there were few changes other than names and ownership notices).

Right now, work is continuing on getting the Apokalypse web site updated with information about Mori’s future. The one question on the lips of most existing Mori users will be: what about us and our opinions? At Hog Bay, Jesse Grosjean famously adopted a system where users collectively decided the future direction of the product. It remains to be seen whether this system will be continued at Apokalypse.

There’s also the question of what Jesse Grosjean will work on next. It might be the productivity assistant he’d mused about in the past, or perhaps he has other plans. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some answers to these questions during the next few days.

According to German news magazine “Focus,” Apple is working on an in-car navigation system. Here’s what it says in the article:

After computers, MP3-players, and mobile phones, [Apple] will also offer navigation and stereo systems for cars shortly, starting with Mercedes.

According to information available to “Focus,” the device currently being developed by the US computer maker will combine entertainment, communications, and navigation in one unit.

The new Apple device will be offered exclusively by Mercedes for [the first] six months. Market introduction should be expected for 2009. It is still unclear whether Apple will — similarly to the iPhone — rely on Google Maps as navigation aid.

Although it may seem odd at first for Apple to get into the market of embedded devices, it does make sense product-wise: in essence, the iPhone already combines entertainment, communications, and navigation-like features in one unit. Just add a state-of-the-art GPS receiver and a radio, wrap in a sturdy, industrial-grade case, shake well, and serve!

However, all of the premium car makers already offer sophisticated, highly integrated in-car systems, including Mercedes’s COMAND system, so while it would make sense for Apple to build such a device based on their experience with the iPhone, it remains to be seen how this device would tie in with the car makers’ product offerings.

Last month, ADC introduced Featured Articles to the ADC Reference Library. These articles provide essays on new tools and APIs as well as getting started tutorials. Today, Apple’s developer feed featured these new articles and provided this link to take you directly to the featured articles index.

Apple has posted the results of the 2007 WWDC Apple Design Awards at the Developer Connection. Delicious Monster has taken the prize for best Leopard app, taking advantage of Core Animation, Core Data, Calendar Store, Scripting Bridge, and several other new (and fabulous) technologies. Panic’s Coda 1.0 snagged the best User Experience trophy. CSSEdit 2.5 from MacRabbit won best OS X Developer Tool. WOW: Burning Crusade 2.0 won for best game. This year’s best Scientific Computing solution went to Papers, which helps researchers organize scientific articles. The Dashboard Widget winner was the BART widget, showing the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Finally, Picturesque 1.0 by Zac Cohen, a batch image enhancer, won best student product. Pop over to the Apple site to read more about each of the winners and discover the runner ups for each category.

Meanwhile, in other news…

The OmniPeople have re-made their web site, and it’s looking very nice indeed.

Aquamacs has reached 1.0. This version includes new icons, more keyboard shortcuts and a whole lot more.

Nokia released Nokia Media Transfer 1.0 beta for transferring photos and files from your Mac to selected Nokia handsets.

Apple does a deal with Bebo? Why Bebo? I’ll believe this when I see it.

Phil Dow on WWDC:

Instead of announcing an SDK Jobs announced that developers would be able to write AJAX Web 2.0 applications that could be run directly in Safari on the iPhone. This was even billed as an advantage — developers wouldn’t need an SDK, how great is that? But the phone has a standards compliant browser. Of course it can run web apps based on dhtml, css and javascript. Nothing new here.

And Fraser Speirs:

I thought the ridiculous sight of senior Apple people trying to convince this highly technical crowd that the 3rd party development platform is a web site (albeit with some custom URL scheme handlers built into the iPhone apps) was just embarrassing. We know that’s not what we’re asking for in an SDK. They know that’s not what we’re asking for in an SDK, and the spin was just toe-curling.

Is Safari for Windows a threat to Windows itself?

The number one reason Windows users don’t switch is because they are used to the platform and don’t want to learn something new. Apple is bridging that gap by allowing those people to make the switch by familiarizing them with applications they already know.

Lifehacker’s list of 10 apps that should have been in Leopard.

With the exception of the keynote address, everything presented at Apple’s WWDC is considered Apple confidential information (and all attendees have an NDA in place for this as part of their ADC agreement), so unfortunately I can’t write about any of the information from the Mac IT sessions here in San Francisco. But I can’t help but be impressed by the huge crowds and high level of interest in the IT track here, and I don’t think I’ll be upsetting anyone at the mothership by reporting that yesterday’s IT State of the Union session was one of most popular, with standing room only. The Directory Services session today was also packed, and it’s clear there are a LOT of people here at this “developer” conference who are looking to learn more about what Apple’s doing in the IT realm.

In yesterday’s keynote, Steve made his (admittedly funny) jab at Microsoft about there being many different versions of Leopard, but all costing $129, and ending the joke with the clarification that, of course, there will only be one version of Leopard. His point is a good one, but I know I wasn’t the only person in the room who heard that and instantly thought, “But what about Leopard server?” Clearly Jobs was talking about the client version of Leopard, but it made me wonder if IT folks are really being served well by being lumped in with Mac developers at this conference (as did the huge lines to get into the various IT sessions). I know that developers and sys admins like to rub shoulders and see what each other is up to, that in some cases they have to work extremely closely together, and in smaller shops the same person may even be responsible for both, but as Apple continues to improve and grow their IT offerings is it perhaps time to consider a separate event just for the IT folks?

Of course, the exact same argument could be made about MacDevCenter. We’ve been expanding our own IT coverage lately, and intend to do even more IT-related articles when Leopard Server hits the streets. Let us know in the comments if you think there’s enough interest in Apple IT to support a separate annual technical conference, and if you want to see more (or less) coverage of IT issues here on MacDevCenter in the future.

Apple has just posted today’s WWDC keynote address on the newly designed apple.com. If you couldn’t make it out to San Francisco this year for WWDC, here’s your chance to watch Steve go over 10 of the coolest new features in Leopard. There wasn’t a lot of new ground covered in today’s keynote, and I heard more than one developer grumble in disappointment at the lack of new announcements or information. We did a get a glimpse at the new Leopard finder and desktop, which while not earth-shattering are certainly improvements. And Safari for Windows is at least interesting.

But was it just me, or can you sense the awkward dissatisfied silence from the whole audience when Steve said that they were going to allow third party development on the iPhone after all, but by this he means only browser-based web apps. I think for once in his life Steve didn’t do a great job of presenting his material to this audience. It is after all a very good thing that Apple has decided to provide URL-based access to the iPhone’s telephony, email, and other services, but that point really got lost on the crowd I think, who were expecting an SDK to access these things. We’ve known all along that web apps would be one possibility for third-party iPhone development, and Steve’s “there’s no SDK, just use Safari and standard Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax to develop iPhone apps” message didn’t highlight the power of what they are actually allowing here. (As one colleague commented, “just try getting your web app to make an actual phone call on a J2ME-based phone.”) Personally, I think that there are a lot of interesting possibilities for third-party development with this kind of access to the iPhone’s main features, and I’m not surprised that Apple isn’t letting us get at the OS or place buttons on the home screen, but his message clearly didn’t go over well with the developer audience here in San Francisco.

Let us know in the comments section if you were satisfied or disappointed with what Steve revealed about Leopard, Safari for Windows, and iPhone development opportunities.

So it appears that the iPhone SDK has been under our noses all along.

If you can write apps for the web, you can write them for the iPhone. But that’s the point - can you write apps for the web?

Some people aren’t happy. With honey-thick sarcasm, Rogue Amoeba says Web apps are not applications:

We know that making SDKs is not easy, and so it boggles the mind that you were able to create a complete iPhone SDK so quickly! So much access, provided so seamlessly - it is really quite amazing.

Read the comments following that post for a very quick overview of both sides of the argument. Some consider this announcement an insult to application developers; others say it’s the encouragement they need to start making more use of this web thing.

So let’s do a quick rough-and-ready survey, right here and now: how many OS X developers reading this have ever built any kind of web-based application? Raise your hands. What are your thoughts on Steve’s iPhone plans? Are you distressed or delighted about the prospect of building webapps (and perhaps integrating them, somehow, with desktop apps)?

Jesse Grosjean, creator of notebook app Mori, is working on a new GTD product called TaskPaper.

In a revealing thread on his own forum that begins with Jesse’s thoughts on selling Mori to a third party (indeed, in a more recent thread Jesse says directly: “Also it’s very likely now that Mori and Clockwork’s development will be taken over by another developer,”), he reveals that his efforts have recently been focused on a task and project management tool.

It’s not a replacement for Mori, it’s a much much smaller app, but I think it will be good at managing your project and task list, while you still use Mori as a reference database. It takes a different approach then all the other GTD apps that I’m aware off and so even if you don’t decide to use it in the end I think it should be interesting to play with.

I’ve been using Mori for storage of ideas (and actually for writing of articles, too, something I previously considered a separate task but now I’m not so sure) since my post about idea management last week. I’m enjoying Mori’s simplicity and ease of use. The thought of there being a similarly simple and easy GTD app is quite appealing. Then again, OmniFocus is getting ever-nearer to release, so the competition in the Mac productivity sector is going to be fierce for a while yet.

I may have discovered where all those names from the iPhone commercials are coming from: the class lists of a small Australian High School. The names database from Tumut High School, New South Wales contains a John Appleseed, Class of 1981 and a Shaun David Taylor, Class of 1989. For a while, I was stymied by the lack of an Anna Haro–until I discovered Sharon Anne Diversi (Mclerie), Class of 1991. Maybe it’s a little stretch but the “haro” part of Sharon and the Anne/Anna names do seem to match. Images after the jump.

Just a quick note to let you know that Apple just posted about a dozen new and upgraded sample code items over at their developer site.

I love sample code and shall report back after I’ve had a chance to browse through them.

We’ve long believed around here that the role of Apple products in IT is poised for significant growth, and this recent item in DigiTimes confirms some serious progress in the server realm. DigiTimes cites IDG numbers that show Apple has shipped 8700 servers in the first quarter of 2007, which represents a very impressive 73% growth in server shipments over the previous quarter and places Apple in the top ten list of server hardware providers.

As Mat Lu points out over on TUAW, that’s a strong report demonstrating that Apple is really “moving some iron.” Mat also asks an interesting question:

Since the Xserve are now able to run Linux on a par with other machines, it would be interesting to know how many of these machines are running Linux instead of OS X Server.

I’m curious too. How many of you out there are using Xserve boxes, and if you are, do you run Linux or OS X on it?

When do you hire someone to write manuals for a piece of software that hasn’t seen much change in quite a while? Most probable answer: when a new release is in the works. That’s why seeing this job ad in the June ‘07 issue of German “Sound & Recording” magazine gave me new hope that we will see a not-so-minor overhaul of Apple’s music production suite, Logic, in the none-too-distant future.

The job opening for “Technical Writer/Instructional Designer in Germany m/f” is for Apple’s offices in Rellingen near Hamburg, aka “the former home of the late Emagic,” and the key task for this position is to create “accurate and concise technical documentation for our professional audio production software Logic.” That’s great news for the Logic user community.

But there remains the question of when exactly Logic 8 will see the light of day, as the most natural-fit events during which to let Logic 8 out of the bag — the Anaheim NAMM show in January and Frankfurt Musikmesse in March — are still more than half a year away. That would be an awfully long wait…

Two of what might be termed “venerable” (in computer years) Mac OS X applications have been updated today, apparently coincidentally. ;)

Brent Simmons and NewsGator released a major 3.0 update to the popular NetNewsWire with crazy amounts of spiffy new features.

And a former Simmons app, MarsEdit (now handled admirably by Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater) has been updated to 1.2, bringing support for Growl, Picasa image handling for Blogger blogs, and social networking site Vox.

As widely expected, there are new MacBook Pro machines available as of today.

All three models come with 2GB RAM, and can support up to 4GB. They all come with a Superdrive. The upper two have a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB SDRAM graphics card; the lower model makes do with 128MB. The 17-incher offers an optional 1920×1200 resolution.

And, best of all - LED backlit displays on the 15-inch models, and the Core 2 Duo processor is (according to Engadget - I’ve not seen anything official from Apple about this yet) using the Santa Rosa chipset.

Tempting. Very tempting.

This has got to be the most honest spam I have ever received. And polite to boot. It certainly made me laugh:

Hello, i am here to propose you a deal. I want to be fair, I have stealed Canadian Bank accounts, and credit cards. I spam evry day for credit cards and Bank accounts. Can you accept to send to you the money from these stealed accounts and you to cashout? After that you will send me via Western Union 50% of what i send to you. I can send up to 5k per day.. We can make nice profit… Please reply me —@yahoo.com if you are interested. Thank you very much.

After much hand-wringing and whinging about Apple’s apparent stance of “no third party apps on the iPhone”, news is coming out today based on a New York Times article that Apple may release a SDK for the iPhone at this month’s World Wide Developer Conference. Rumors around the iPhone have reached a fever pitch the past few weeks, and even the Times has been known to get things like this wrong before, but this is one rumor I’m really hoping pans out. Say it’s so, Steve!

It seems increasingly likely that versions of Google’s webapps will be a major feature of the iPhone, when it is finally released. At D5, Steve Jobs said it would be successful because it offers “the internet in your pocket”. And if that’s with a reasonably-priced unlimited data package, he just might be right.

Someone compared a Mac Plus with a brand-new Vista-running PC. And more than half the time, the Mac turned out to be the faster machine. That said, it wasn’t strictly a fair comparison; the Mac Plus wasn’t required to do any modern computing tasks, only those that it could reasonably have done back in the 1980s. So the more reasonable conclusion of this test isn’t “an old Mac Plus is faster than a brand new PC”, but “day-to-day computing tasks aren’t very much faster than they were, despite 25 years of hardware advances”. Or, as the article itself surmises: there’s been zero advance in productivity. Oh, and something else I learned from this article: Vista requires 15 GB of disk space to install itself in. Fifteen. Gigs.

EFF: Mystery data buried in iTunes Plus tracks. I can’t say it’s very surprising. Should people be bothered? Some people hate DRM, but some hate mysterious unidentified stuff even more. Expect outrage, bluster, and conspiracy theories. Not from me, though - I’m keeping an open mind.

Finally, a download snippet: Accelerando is a very interesting collection of Automator actions…

You’ll need to log into your ADC-on-iTunes account to download these new videos.

This is the Zune. This is the Zune playing back iTunes’ Single of the Week. (Any questions?) Sounds great, just as filling (in fact, slightly more so because of the larger file size from the 256 kbps data rate). Overly large picture is after the jump…

Who’da thunk? Black Zunes are still the top sellers, but Pink has risen to the #2 spot. I rather like the brown one, but I’m a rebel. What color is your MP3 player?

For the curious, my iPod is white. I’m not cool enough to pull off black.

Has this page always been at Apple? Or is it, as I”m guessing, pretty much new? I especially recommend that “Modding Mac OS X” book about two-thirds down the page.

Matt Webb, the thinking man’s geek (or perhaps the geek’s thinking man), has come up with something special.

Not special like one of his hugely entertaining and thought-provoking talks, nor special like his astonishing ideas for technology, chunks of short fiction, or early web projects exploring the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. No. More special than those.

Matt’s latest idea is to create a plain text wiki bundle for TextMate. Once installed, it allows you to specify a new, empty directory and to fill it with plain .txt files. Any JoinedUpWords you create in those files become clickable links to new files - an instant hypertext, with the emphasis on text.

Why did Matt do this? Because he likes the wiki way of thinking and is a fan of VoodooPad, but prefers to keep his data in a non-proprietary format:

I’ve had computers long enough to know that I want my data in a format used by many, many applications over many, many years. So I use VoodooPad for arranging and notes I don’t need to keep, and make sure my final presentation notes also exist as text files.

I think that’s a sentiment that a lot of experienced computer users will share. (No criticism of VoodooPad intended, by the way - it’s a widely admired application and deservedly so. I’m sure Matt Webb feels the same way about it.)

So far his bundle is very light on features, but it does the bare minimum you would want or expect. It’s text, and it’s hyperlinked. Fantastic.

I have no idea what SF Mac ISV is. I wouldn’t know one if I tripped over one. However, independent developers may want to check out their planned WWDC get-together for Sunday, the 10th of June. The soirée runs from 5:30 to 8:30 PM with food and drink, allowing small companies and independent developers to network. The sfMacISV webpage is sparse on details but it looks like the event will be free for the first 50 developers to register and $20 thereafter. For more info, contact Chuck Soper via this RSVP page. And if anyone has any further information about who these people are, please feel free to drop a note into the comments.

If you haven’t cruised over to the Apple Store, head over there and look at the specs of the updated MacBook line. When I bought my MacBook last year, US$1299 got you a 2GHz Core Duo, 512MB RAM and a 60GB hard drive (I bumped the RAM in my to 1GB). The new $1299 MacBook has a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, and a 120GB hard drive (nice…).

With only six weeks to go until the originally scheduled date, MacLive Expo Cologne, Germany’s biggest Apple-related trade show, has been postponed to 15-17 November. According to the press release from Expomedia Events, the show’s organizers, the new date was chosen after consulting with “industry deciders,” but no specific reason for moving the event on such short notice was given.

However, I guess it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that the delay of the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard from “spring” to October has at least played some role in the decision: if exhibitors were planning to present new products for Leopard, they wouldn’t have all that much to show next month. The new date in November should ensure that Leopard will have been released by then, and it is also perfectly timed for the holiday season.

Also scheduled for later in the year are Apple-Expo Paris from 25 until 27 September and MacLive Expo London following from 25 until 27 October. Three trade shows in three months and Leopard being unleashed, this autumn promises to be a packed trade-show season for European Mac-heads.

I’m pretty sure I invited everyone who responded to my previous Joost posts. If you want invites, comment on this post only, okay? And please don’t use any cute [at] [dot] stuff. If you don’t want to put your address out publicly, just e-mail me. It’s a lot easier for me to cut and paste into the invite widget than if you make me start editing the addresses with foo[at]whatever[dot]com. Okay?

UPDATE: I’ve now sent out nearly 250 invitations. I’ll keep on with the invites until 5PM EDT tomorrow 11 May 2007. So if you want an invite, please make your request before then.

Update 2: If you’ve received a Joost invite and you’re looking for a way to say thank you, please consider sending a dollar or two or twenty to “Faith in Practice”. They are a non-profit volunteer organization that provides provide surgical, medical, and dental services to impoverished adults and children in Guatemala. For a week at a time, a team flies down to Guatemala and offers free services including antibiotics, surgery, dental work and so forth. You can read about them here and you can visit their donation page here. If you donate, please put the following number into the comments section: FIP number 9951. It identifies my friend Monique’s sister’s group and the money will go to help buy medical supplies for their next trip.

Update 3: I’ve turned off comments. Please do not send me any more e-mail. Thanks! I ended up sending out almost 550 invites. Enough.

Last week Amazon S3 celebrated its first birthday by lowering end-user costs. Instead of paying twenty cents to upload a gigabyte of data, users will now be charged ten cents instead. Downloading data used to cost twenty cents a gigabyte as well. Now the first 10 TB will set you back eighteen cents per gig. The next 40 TB cost sixteen cents per gig and after that the rate drops to thirteen cents each gigabyte.

PUT and LIST requests will now cost you a penny per one thousand and GET (and all other) requests will cost a penny per ten thousand.

There’s no change for storage prices: fifteen cents per month per gigabyte. It makes sense because Amazon’s core customer is not the consumer who wants to do a single system backup but the developer or business person who wants to provide reliable downloads for tens or hundreds of thousands of customers.

I just discovered Yep, which bills itself as “iTunes for PDFs”. And I’m hooked. Like most of us, as the PDF format has continued to get more widespread acceptance, I have been accumulating more and more PDF documents on my mac. They’re scattered all over my system, in my mail attachments, in various folders, and I often have a bunch sitting on my desktop at any given time. And far too many of those pesky PDFs that came from some link I clicked on somewhere come across with meaningless filenames.

With Yep, I’ll no longer waste much time searching for that particular PDF I need, or wondering what that cryptically-named PDF on my desktop is. Yep does just what it claims to, it provides a friendly interface to all of your PDF documents, with expandable thumbnail views and every possible bit of info and meta-data you could want about them. The Yep interface is simple but powerful, with features like tagging and searching across all of your PDFs.

Yep doesn’t copy or move your PDFs like some other similar products, but rather builds a smart interface on top of Spotlight’s searching capability. (One potential downside, if Spotlight can’t find a PDF on your system because you’ve restricted what Spotlight indexes, Yep won’t see it either).

The real power and convenience of Yep comes from its tagging features. It automatically tags all of your PDFs with the folder name they live in, but it also allows for adding more tags to improve your PDF organization. If you like organizing things by tags and the simplicity of tag clouds, and have been wishing for better system for your PDFs, you should definitely give Yep a try.

Just two things to mention today, the first being the latest missive from Steve Jobs, “A Greener Apple”. In this essay, Steve stands up squarely against his environment critics and says Apple is one of the greenest computer companies around, and is determined to be even more environmentally-friendly in future:

Today is the first time we have openly discussed our plans to become a greener Apple. It will not be the last. We will be providing updates of our efforts and accomplishments at least annually, most likely around this time of the year. And we plan to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in our industry. We are also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of our products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share later this year.

Steve Jobs isn’t exactly blogging, but what with this and the “Thoughts on Music” essay back in February, he’s being much more open about Apple’s plans, strategies and corporate opinions than previously. Is Apple opening up a little? I like to think so.

Elsewhere on the online communities map, Flickr has released Flickr Uploader 2.3:

This is an important upgrade which is a Universal Binary application, replacing the previous PPC version. This release has options to set your uploaded images based on content filters and also has some changes that make Uploadr start up faster than before.

Remember I said last week that Friday was going to be the last day for early WWDC registration discounts? Um…. Never mind. Apple has extended early registration until May 11.

Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote at the start of WWDC, Apple has just announced.

And:

At WWDC, Apple plans to show developers a feature complete version of Mac OS® X Leopard and give them a beta copy to take home for final testing. Leopard is scheduled to ship in October.

Rumor sites, this is your queue cue (ahem) to start a-rumorin’.

Ethan Schoonover’s video intro to OmniFocus is today’s hot geek screencast, and goes into a fair bit of detail about how the GTD-inspired app (still in Alpha) will work.

What’s immediately obvious (and not very surprising) is that OmniFocus looks like a hybrid of OmniOutliner and Kinkless GTD, and I write that knowing full well that Kinkless is a set of Applescripts that work alongside OmniOutliner Pro. It’s as if the one has been subsumed by the other, and the result (so far) looks smart and slick.

In the video, Ethan puts a lot of emphasis on the concept of “focus”, comparing the job of a task management application to the lens on his camera - it has to be transparent, and able to focus on the subject at hand.

GTD old-timers will appreciate some specifics: auto synching, nested projects and contexts, drag-and-drop everything, and the filter that lets you find specific subsets of tasks or contexts.

Of course, while Omni has been working on OmniFocus, there’s been a rash of GTD apps released, including the likes of Midnight Inbox, Actiontastic, and iGTD (those are just the ones I’ve tried, there are many more). Quite how OmniFocus compares with these better-established competitors is something we shall have to judge when it is released.

What’s your favorite way of getting things done, and why? If you’ve watched Ethan’s screencast, what’s your opinion of the young OmniFocus, and do you think you might buy it?

In an interview with Reuters Steve Jobs is quoted saying that customers are “not interested” in a subscription-based model for buying music.

What? None of them? How many has he asked?

Late on Friday, Apple released a software update designed to fix performance of MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries.

But additional statements from Apple since that release have been a little more forthcoming. If the update doesn’t fix your battery, Apple may be willing to send you a free replacement, even if the computer is out of warranty.

The qualifying symptoms of a dead battery are:

• Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

Judging by the reactions in the Apple Forums, a lot of users are very pleased to see the release of this update (although a few have reported problems after installing it). It’s fair to say that battery performance, and stories of warping batteries, have been a problem for Apple for some time now. Some action to remedy the situation is welcome, although some sufferers of swollen batteries might wish it had happened sooner. Don’t forget, though, that there was a previous MacBook Pro battery recall in July last year, so it’s possible that some users will be getting a second replacement battery as a result of this new offer.

Personally speaking, the battery horror stories I kept reading were one of the main factors that stopped me buying a replacement portable computer earlier this year.

Brian and Richard, creators of the admirable FreeMacWare site, are handing it over to new owners. They’ve done a great job of highlighting decent Mac freeware, let’s hope the new team keep up the good work.

Script Software has released version 5.3.3 of cross-platform data analysis tool KnowledgeMiner.

Declutter your desktop; a simple desk-hack to help hide those pesky wires.

Tim Gaden’s on the top of all things email-related, as usual, and reveals that the latest WebKit builds improve your use of Gmail (and other webapps) in Safari.

“Steve Jobs solved my MacBook woes” - or words to that effect. Scrivener creator Keith Blount describes his awful experience with a first-generation MacBook and subsequent purchase of a MacBook Pro. In the post, he says:

After the discolouration issue finally got resolved (mainly because I wrote an angry ranting e-mail to sjobs@apple.com and had Corporate Relations sort it out for me), the notorious random shutdown issue raised its ugly head, necessitating a repair.

Fumo, the smokin’ Quicksilver interface. Personally, I’d prefer to stick with something a little less animated.

The makers of MacJournal have been busy; there’s now a Windows version called, um, WinJournal.

Last chance to take advantage of the early discounts.

1. iPhone looks like it will ship on time.

2. Apple hinted that supplies may be initially limited, saying that iPhone availability will depend on initial demand.

3. In January, Apple suggested that revenues would be down now that the holiday season had passed–and they were not.

4. Europe will get the iPhone in Q4 this year

5. I’d love to see Apple’s definition of “incredible”, particularly in regards to Apple TV’s “incredible reviews”. Most of the reviews I’ve seen so far have been mildly positive to quite negative.

Apple just had a Q2 2007 Financials conference call and mentioned Apple TV and a subscription model–but for free software updates not for content–would be implemented. From what I gathered, iPhone and Apple TV will use subscription-type accounting to provide free upgrades that will “surprise and delight” customers. If anyone has further details about what this “Apple TV Subscription Model” refers to, please feel free to elucidate in the comments or drop me an e-mail.

By the way, Apple declined to announce the number of Apple TV unit sales to date.

The OmniZoids have just released OmniPlan 1.1. From the announcement:

The new version contains several stability, import/export, printing, and AppleScript support improvements.

The update is free to license-holders. The release notes are here, and from them you can see that nothing’s changed since 1.1 RC 6. OmniPlan users: what do you make of it?

Apple posted a list of the new Bug Reporter features, which include an improved look & feel. If your bug is closed as a duplicate, you can now find the id for the original bug report which remains active. The active reference number appears next to “State: Duplicate”

If you’re looking to submit your software for consideration for an Apple Design Award, the clock is ticking. Applications must be finished and submitted by the 23rd. Entry form here. (rules)

Apple has just released a statement today postponing the planned “spring” release of Leopard until October. Apple blames the engineering drain the iPhone project has caused for them internally. Many developers with early access to Leopard are not surprised by this announcement, as the recent seeds have still looked far from ready for production, but it is an unusual move by a company that nearly always makes its stated due dates.

From the release:

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS® X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.

While others are in the midst of blogging about exciting things like Apple TV, iTunes DRM, and other high visibility trends in computing, I’m here blogging about….NeoOffice again ?!? Yes, it’s true. This is a product that I follow closely, am very excited about, and is making steady, predictable progress. In fact, I’m blogging about it at this very moment because version 2.1 just hit the streets recently.

While this release just introduced support for MS Office 2007 OpenXML documents, integrated OpenOffice.org 2.1 updates, added support for MS Excel macros, and incorporated a slew of other minor features, I think you’ll be quite pleased with the progress that’s being made. Why not take a few moments to go download it and show your support?

It’s the beginning of the end of DRM. Apple will soon start selling DRM-free music from the EMI back catalogue — but you’ll have to pay a little more for it.

According to the BBC:

The higher price will apply only to single tracks that customers download. On iTunes EMI tracks free of digital rights management (DRM) software will cost $1.29 (99p). Itunes users will be able to upgrade previously purchased EMI songs and albums for 30 cents (15p) a track. Fans will be able to buy “premium” tracks in a variety of bit rates will be of better quality than existing downloads varying qualities up to CD-twice the sound quality of currently available EMI tracks.

Quick prediction: the rest of the music industry will be falling into line faster than you can say “Abbey Road was better than Let It Be.”

More comment and analysis on this coming later…

Productivity fans will be delighted with this latest app, produced by an all-star dev team comprising Jesse Grosjean, Alcor, Merlin Mann, and none other than Woz himself.

It’s called BigNothing, and it knocks their previous efforts (like WriteRoom and Quicksilver) for six. Seriously, it’s hard to imagine a way to get more work done faster.

Here’s a screenshot:

Check out the details: a complete lack of anything on screen, just a single swathe of dull gray color (the precise shade is tweakable in the prefs, of course).

You can invoke it at any time using the simple-to-remember command combo of Option+Command+Space+F12+Y, and it instantly covers up everything on screen. It buries your running applications, Menu Bar, Dock, desktop, everything. It even renders all the physical buttons on your Mac inoperative, preventing you from being accidentally distracted back to your work.

The dev team told me it was designed as the ultimate GTD tool. Think of all those times when the damn computer has prevented you from actually doing any work. BigNothing solves that problem by getting all distractions out of the way from the start, so you’ll have nothing to do except work. Great stuff.

UPDATE: I’ve also heard that the 1.1 update, due in the next few months, will allow you to switch BigNothing off without unplugging, or removing the battery from your Mac. Fantastic!

Unfortunately, last week Napster changed its download system making it International-unfriendly. So no more International Friday Freebies for the time being.

Apple has just released the 1.2 public beta version of Boot Camp, which will now support booting up into Windows Vista. The new version also includes updated drivers for trackpads, graphics, audio, and iSight cameras, and a new Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp info.

I’ve heard some mixed reports about how well Vista runs under Boot Camp. If you are using Boot Camp 1.2 with Vista, I’d love to hear about your experience so far. Is Vista humming or crawling?
Drop a line in the comments section and let us know how it’s working for you.

Just a quick update here. I’m going insane playing with and hacking the Apple TV. I’m trying to write things up in a clear and coherent way–but please let me know which topics are the ones you want to see first (either by e-mail or leave a comment here). Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

I’ve gotten VLC up and running and am trying to learn all the command-line nuances because using the interface is just a wee bit iffy and I want to be able to automate displaying shows without having to return to a desktop machine. Fortunately, VLC works perfectly with the Apple Remote so you can control playback (and playback volume!) directly from the Living Room/Apple TV side of things. I’m hoping to get live streaming of recording and recorded eyeTV shows up and running later today. Joost is running well (with just a few hesitations) on my 802.11g network, so I’m confident that the eyeTV streaming (for standard, not high def) TV will be able to work with VLC. Having bricked one Apple TV, I don’t have the cash to purchase an Airport Extreme (and I’m not even sure my Intel Mini is “n” capable–any hints on how to find out?), so High Def streaming is going to have to wait a bit.

Finally, proof of gaming on Apple TV. Yes, I’m controlling it over VNC. So it’s kind of a lame gaming example, but there you have it.

Perhaps the most famous key combination in computing is the notorious "three-finger-salute" that lets you break out of crashed programs. On the Mac, you press Command-Option-Escape; in DOS and Windows, the three keys are Ctrl-Alt-Del.

A few years ago, someone tracked down David Bradley, the IBM engineer who devised the Ctrl-Alt-Del combo, and asked him why he had picked those specific keys. He said that he’d wanted keys that were far enough apart that they couldn’t be pressed accidentally.

Of course, he didn’t realize how often that ejector seat would be used. In later years, Bradley started joking that although he had invented the combination, it was Microsoft that made it popular. (Here’s a funny video of Bill Gates’s reaction.)

I thought about that today after reading about the FlipStart, a new palmtop PC with a tiny keyboard designed to be operated with your thumbs. It was so awkward to press Ctrl-Alt-Del on prototypes that the company combined the three keys into a single button—sorta defeating the purpose.

The FlipStart merges three keys into one Ctrl-Alt-Del button. Reviewers called it an ergonomic nightmare.

Coincidentally, we just published an unusual article about user interface design over at O’Reilly Digital Media. It’s called “Singing With Your Thumbs.”

What are some of your favorite three-finger salutes?

According to FedEx, my AppleTV is on FedEx vehicle for delivery, even though the estimated delivery is tomorrow by 10:30 AM. I’m now taking bets as to how soon I’ll be voiding my warranty. Closest guess to the actual warranty violation will win bragging rights and eternal fame. (I’ll update this post with the closest guess.)

Panic are up to something, and they need your help.

Daniel Jalkut has released crossword helper Black Ink 1.0.

BlogMate is “the missing blogging palette in TextMate, kinda”, and comes with some warnings:

If you are looking for something more full-featured, I highly recommend Red Sweater Software’s excellent MarsEdit application. MarsEdit is mature, polished, full-featured, and well-supported. Four things that BlogMate is not. Yet.

Walt Mossberg on AppleTV:

We’ve been testing Apple TV for the past 10 days or so, and our verdict is that it’s a beautifully designed, easy-to-use product that should be very attractive to people with widescreen TV sets and lots of music, videos, and photos stored on computers. It has some notable limitations, but we really liked it. It is classic Apple: simple and elegant.

How to stop the eject button delay that was introduced in 10.4.9 affecting your use of the Control+Eject shortcut for bringing up the Shutdown dialog.

The English county of Somerset is not noted for its high crime rate, but if you’re ever using your Mac in public there, be careful.

And finally for today, another great British widget:

Mike Bremford’s Tube scrapes information from the official site of London’s Underground system, providing not-far-off real-time information about delays and line closures.

Red Sweater Software continues its resuscitation of dormant applications (most recently, MarsEdit) with today’s announcement that they are taking over development of Advenio’s MacXword.

Called Black Ink, this crossword downloading and solving program should be an excellent addition to Red Sweater’s stable of apps.

New licenses are $24.95, but they have provided a special upgrade price for existing MacXword owners.

Like I said before, I’m really glad to see an independent developer keeping great programs going.

Now if only I could get someone to make Ancient Art of War Tiger-compatible. ;)

The review is here

Michael Amorose has assembled a list of Fun Unix commands. Don’t miss his Refurb-on-tron either.

MacASCIIinvaders is nice, but if I’m honest, Desktop Tower Defense is nicer and much more fun.

Forgedit is a new, free programmer’s editor for OS X. Nice tabbed interface, and customizable keyboard shortcuts for every menu command too. It’s small and lightweight and might come in handy for some of you. Let me know if you find it useful.

Andrew Grygus writes passionately about the failings he sees in Windows Vista, but concludes with this curious statement:

I find it hard to recommend Apple - applications are limited and it’s a closed proprietary environment run by a person of proven greed. It seems like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

My Apple TV is currently sitting in Shenzhen, China, where the package was apparently received after the FedEx cutoff. Weighing in at 7.1 kgs, the package is “In Transit”.

Click image to open at full resolution.

Our friends at Make just noticed this write-up of how to use a nifty little OS X app that detects Bluetooth proximity (not surprisingly, called Proximity) to create custom Applescipt-based actions based on when a user with a Bluetooth-enabled device comes in or out of range of a Mac’s bluetooth sensor.

Jesse David Hollington’s post describes how he uses Proximity to secure his Powerbook when he’s away from the machine, as well as how to keep his OS X Address Book connected and to iSync his phone whenever it comes back within proximity of his Mac.

Activating the screen saver and performing an iSync are both tasks that are trivial to perform via Applescript. Reconnecting the Address Book and enabling and disabling the screen saver password protection is considerably more complicated, however, as I quickly discovered.

I should point out that most of what I am documenting here has been gleaned from various corners of the web, and therefore most of the ideas are not specifically my own. However, I decided to try and document some of this in one place in order to hopefully save others the several hours of searching that it took me to put it all together.

If you would like to implement the screen-saver security feature based on Bluetooth proximity, go check out Jesse’s post, he presents all of the code and details needed to pull that off.

This reminds me of some telecom hacks I’ve seen recently using Asterisk and Bluetooth proximity detection. With the latest version of Asterisk, you can configure it so that your office phone detects the presence of your cell phone’s Bluetooth signal, so you can achieve things like having your office number automatically forward its calls to your cell phone when you leave the office, or turn off the forwarding when it detects you are back.

Neat stuff. What kind of Bluetooth proximity hacks would you like to see?

Tracking numbers and order status information have been e-mailed to customers. So far, no units have been sighted at any Apple Stores. I’ve called around to the local retailers, who haven’t received any. They’re expecting theirs “by the end of the week”.

The list of WWDC sessions is up, and here are some of the ones that caught my eye:

Discovering Wiki and Group Services in Leopard Server

Leopard Server delivers powerful collaboration and group communication tools to help you define, create, and administer groups in your organization–whether you are a new business just launching, or a workgroup in a large enterprise. The new Wiki in Leopard Server lets you gather, tag, and coordinate resources, people, and assets.

Nine Inch Nails has made available the multitrack session for the song Survivalism as a GarageBand file download (March 13 Current Entry). The track comes in a 104MB Zip archive file.

I first unpacked it on my first generation Mac mini. Sure, this was not a great idea. But, I wondered what would happen. The answer? Not much. I got the too many tracks message after a few seconds into the song. So, next stop, my 2GHz MacBook. Ah, much better.

The nin.com website says that you will be able to upload your mixes back up to the site soon. So, rev up GarageBand, and remix Survivalism.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy!

“Time2hitdaclub (Explicit)” by 8Ball
Representing half of legendary Memphis rap duo 8Ball & MJG, this 8Ball solo outing does the legend proud. All downtempo boom, hairy synths, and lyrics devoted to everyone’s favorite activity after a long week, it’s a track tailor-made for your TGIF moment.

“September Falls” by The Little Heroes
Often compared to groups like The Stills and Death Cab for Cutie, these alt rockers are making a name for themselves thanks to their lush melodies and radio-friendly sensibility. Hear for yourself what the fuss is about with this track from their new album, Cinematic Americana.

“Congratulations (Explicit)” by Defari
With a love for both music and education, this former high school teacher with a master’s degree in history has appeared on albums by Xzibit, Tha Alkaholiks, Dilated Peoples, and Dr. Dre in addition to three albums of his own. This is the latest single from Street Music.

“Get Steady” by Jonny Lives!
Jonny Dubowsky is an NYU literature and philosophy grad. He also fronts a rock band that’s knee-deep in the same music scene that spawned The Strokes and Interpol. Today’s download is the single from their debut album, Get Steady.

“Into Pieces” by Roark
Though he’s worked for a Fortune 500 company, this singer/songwriter from New Jersey says he’d rather be a struggling musician. Good choice, considering he’s got perfect pitch and well-honed melodic instincts. Today’s download is from his debut album, Break of Day.

“Roll to Me” by Jeff Baker
Hailed as an “important, emerging new talent” on the All About Jazz site, Jeff Baker won the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival’s vocal soloist competition when he was only 16. Get a taste of his wide-ranging talent with today’s free download.

“Burn” by Amber Rhodes
“Country music is all about the stories,” says this 25-year-old crossover artist, whose writing reflects her Lexington, Kentucky roots as well as time spent honing her skills in the Big Apple. Hear the result on this track from her album, Goodbye Yesterday.

The death of US Analog TV is scheduled to take place on the 19th of February, 2009. After that date, all US TV programming will be broadcast digitally. AOL reports that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will offer every US household up to two $40 coupons that residents can apply to purchasing set-top converter boxes that will translate digital signals into analog format, so people can continue to watch their TVs using free over-the-air signals.

The article suggests that the NTIA plans to offer up to 33,750 coupons. That’s just a wee bit short of the 73 million TVs in America–even if most of those TVs are already hooked up to cable or satellite.

My parents and most of my relatives and friends are completely unaware of the upcoming analog-to-digital revolution. I wonder how well this NTIA plan will help them make the transition.

Readers last week will remember my mentioning Journler as a favorite app for journaling and miscellaneous text accretion. Thus it will not be surprising that a new application just announced from the same developer has got me excited: “Lex: Project based informating management”

Lex is Journler but document centered and document based instead of entry centered and single database. The tagline is “project based document management.” The idea is to organize your documents using the same technologies available in Journler but organize them according to completely independent projects with the documents at the center.

Also, Phil has committed to a March 22nd release date for Journler 2.5, come hell or high water, which I would assume means irregular sleep patterns between now and next week. ;) Good times.

Computerworld’s Scot Finnie has switched to Macs and OS X after years of using Windows. He’s presently going through the now-familiar pattern of trying out dozens of Mac apps to find the ones he likes.

Scot has begun drafting what he calls the “A-list of Mac software”, apps that he considers the best in each category.

His article makes for an interesting read. Some of the gripes he has with various apps (such as Mail lacking support for rules applied to outgoing messages) are well-known and perfectly valid. Others are a little more controversial. Here’s what Scott has to say about BBEdit:

It’s woefully inadequate for HTML editing. BBEdit is extremely powerful, but I’d rather use the Unix command line than its clunky, sometimes ridiculous user interface. BBEdit continues to be my primary text editor because it does things no other program does, but there’s no way this product is a useful HTML editor. Those of you who are using it that way, you’re using a tool akin to an iron maiden — it’s just painful. Give yourself a break and find something else.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy! In other news, ever hear of Michael Brennan? Nope, neither had I. Apparently eMusic had this contest where Mr. Brennan made their 100 millionth eMusic download. The Barenaked Ladies composed a song in his honor, which you can download for free from the eMusic site for the next month or so. Like the Napster freebies, it is MP3 without DRM. I’m not sure whether the download works internationally or not, so let me know in the comments.

“Different Than You” by The Exies
Formed in Los Angeles in 1997, The Existentialists have seen the ups and downs of the music industry from touring with Mötley Crüe to losing their record contract after returning from that very tour. Today’s download is a sneak peek at their new album, due out in April.

“Wouldn’t Wanna Go Without You” by Dalminjo
This Norwegian producer, who now has four albums to his credit, cites inspirations including the the synth sounds of Orbital and Masters at Work and the drum ‘n’ bass of 4 Hero. This downtempo track is from his current release, One Day You’ll Dance for Me Tokyo!.

“Ghostriders” by The Rewinds
After opening shows for established acts such as Snow Patrol, Eisley, and My Morning Jacket, this power-pop group from Birmingham, Alabama signed with Universal Records. Today’s download is from their recent self-titled album.

“Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame” by Sunny Sweeney
Country’s newest starlet realized her calling only after exploring a variety of occupations including dog walking, waitressing, and improv comedy. Hear her do what she does best on this track from her debut album, Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame.

“Feel the Sway” by Matt Wilson
A lifelong percussion student, this jazz drummer/composer has just delivered his seventh album, The Scenic Route. Wilson was recently voted Downbeat’s “rising star” drummer for the fourth year in a row. Download today’s track and find out why.

“Mojito” by Times 4
This San Francisco jazz quartet provides the perfect sounds to ring in the weekend with this dedication to their favorite libation. Today’s free download and other fresh modern jazz compositions appear on their sophomore album, Relations.

“When We Were Golden” by Crush Luther
Warped Tour audiences may already know the fresh pop/rock sound of this five-piece band from Toronto. With such unexpected influences such as Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits, their self-titled album is already a hit with critics. Hear for yourself on today’s free download.

It’s been an incredible two weeks of field testing in beautiful locations. So, which is better: Aperture or Lightroom? Micah Walter says in his sumation, Aperture vs Lightroom - An O’Reilly “Inside Aperture” Field Test, “I really like Aperture, on a number of different levels. I think it’s a well-rounded program that’s much further along in its development than Lightroom is at the moment. Aperture gives me an environment I can really enjoy working in, and one that makes perfect sense to the non-linear way my brain likes to work.”

The Lightroom interface with the Develop module open

Michael Clark sees it differently in his wrap-up, Lightroom vs Aperture - The Results, “A big part of why I chose Lightroom in the first place, and why I will continue to use it for my workflow, is because I came from using Adobe Camera Raw, so I’m comfortable with the sliders. I prefer Lightroom’s simplicity of design and its user interface.”

So which one is for you? I think you’ll have a pretty good idea after reading these two excellent field reports.

Woo hoo! AppleTV is nearly here. QT 7.1.5 and iTunes 7.1 are both available via software update.

Using iTunes 7.1, you can now enjoy your favorite iTunes movies, TV shows, music, and more from the comfort of your living room with Apple TV. iTunes 7.1 also supports a new full screen Cover Flow and improved sorting options to let you decide how iTunes should sort your favorite artists, albums, and songs.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy!

“Love Fades” by Amnesty
Providing a counterpoint to early Parliament, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Sly & The Family Stone, this relatively obscure Indianapolis outfit’s previously unreleased early ’70s recordings, now available for the first time, bring a heavy funk all their own. Get a taste with this free download.

“Death of Me” by Tony Lucca
Despite being named the Best Male Singer/Songwriter at the 2001 L.A. Music Awards and opening for such acts as *NSYNC and Marc Anthony, this guitar-playin’ bard has kept a level head. Today’s free download is from his fourth album, Canyon Songs.

“Against Myself” by Joel Kroeker
On a quest to expand the boundaries of pop music, this well-traveled songwriter from Winnipeg has released his sophomore album, Closer to the Flame, which includes this insightful tune about seeking inner harmony.

“Magic City” by 2XL
This twin-brother rap duo has overcome childhood adversity and is now climbing the charts, thanks to this track produced by hitmaker Scott Storch. It’s the lead single from their debut album, Neighborhood Rapstar.

“I Love This Game” by Master P
If you’re a fan of professional basketball, you’ve definitely heard this ode to the game by the No Limit rap mogul, who also happens to be a former NBA player. Downloading today’s track will help you root for your favorite team between games.

“Peoples” by Sabotawj
Hailing from the rich and storied underground hip-hop scene of San Diego, CA, Sabotawj’s mission is to “bring the originality back to the culture.” Check out today’s free download from his new album Key 2 Da City.

“Getting Clean in the Dirty South” by Sparks The Rescue
These teenage phenoms have been rocking shows all over Maine and New Hampshire, sharing stages with contemporaries such as Hawthorne Heights, Saosin, and A Change of Pace. Today’s free download is from their five-track EP, The Secrets We Can’t Keep.

Looks like the AppleTV is delayed by a few weeks. I just got an email from the Apple Store.

Thank you for ordering the new Apple TV, an easy to use and fun way to
wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac or PC on your
widescreen TV.

Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we
now expect to begin shipments in mid-March, not in February as originally
anticipated.

Last week, developers Brent Simmons (Ranchero/NewsGator) and Daniel Jalkut (Red Sweater) announced that the blog-posting application MarsEdit would be taken over by Red Sweater. Exciting news for longtime MarsEdit users, a group that includes Brent himself:

Daniel knows that “operators are standing by” — I’ll give him the help he needs make this transition successful. A big part of my motivation is selfish: I’m a MarsEdit user, and I want to see the product keep improving. But, more importantly, I want to make sure MarsEdit users are happy, and this is the best way to do that. (From a Q&A at newsgator.com.)

Presto change-o, and Daniel is already putting out version 1.1.3, which he describes as “mostly a bug-fix and rebanding release.”

Since I post to multiple blogs on various platforms, having a dedicated application like MarsEdit or Ecto has become integral to my workflow thanks to the efficiency it lends. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on future development.

It’s a pleasure to see developers cooperating like this, keeping notable apps like MarsEdit going rather than being “disappeared.” Makes me ponder what other apps, whether on hold like MarsEdit or abandoned like so many have been, could be resurrected by today’s crop of developers.

Have any ideas? Who would be your ideal developer + old application pairings?

UNEASY Silence reports that the new Bandwagon iTunes backup service that I posted about a few days back has hit a few stumbling blocks. Their $69/year unlimited-storage introductory price had me wondering how the developers were going to make any money. The developers are wondering the same thing right now.

As of 24 February, they have stepped back from their initial offer and have opened up a forum on their blog to discuss more realistic pricing that will allow them to stay in business.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy!

“Within a Mile of Home” by Flogging Molly
This genre-defying septet got its start playing countless gigs at the L.A. bar Molly Malone’s. They’ve been compared to raucous Irish rockers The Pogues and Black 47. Hear them for yourself with this live track, taken from the documentary Whiskey on a Sunday.

“The Strikes” by Nakatomi Plaza
Based in Brooklyn, NY, this punk-rock trio has embraced the DIY ethic for the past eight years, touring and promoting themselves relentlessly. Today’s free download is from their Frog Octopus Wolf EP, a precursor to their upcoming third album, Unsettled.

“The Upper Ten/The Lower Five” by Ghost Stories
After years of playing in different groups, musician Ron Lewis was ready for his own project. The resulting album, Quixoticism, was nearly seven years in the making. Its songs, including today’s free download, were recorded in an empty house on just eight tracks.

“Sultanas de Merkaillo” by Ojos de Brujo
Barcelona’s internationally renowned flamenco collective has expanded their audience by fusing different styles of music, including hip-hop, rock, and reggae/dub. These influences can be heard on their new album, Techari, which includes today’s free download.

“Somewhere Girls” by Secretary Bird
Some may know singer-songwriter Mike Semple from his work with Friends of Dean Martinez and the score to Fast Food Nation. His current band, Secretary Bird, is likely to win him even more fans with this title track to their new album.

“Sweet Weepin’ Jesus” by Kemp Harris
In the tradition of stark, thematically driven albums such as Sam Cooke’s Night Beat, singer-songwriter Kemp Harris’ sophomore release, Edenton, is a journey back to the raw-boned gospel, R&B, and blues of his youth.

“Weapon X” by X-Clan
The legendary hip-hop group is back with a new album after years away from the scene following the death of one of their own. Return From Mecca continues the Clan’s stream-of-conciousness style and puts commercial hip-hop stereotyping on notice.

If you live near a Dollar Tree and you own an iPod, you might want to pop by and see whether they have any iPod Video XtremeMac TuffWraps in stock. The 3-Pack iPod accessory cases, which usually sell for $30-$35 per 3-pack have been sighted in these dollar stores for a buck. My local store had them sized for 30GB, 60 GB and nanos but stock will vary by location.

Also on offer for a buck: XtremeMac’s AirPlay FM transmitter for the iPod (older style ones, with the port next to the jack). Better yet, this comes with a free one-month 3-audio Audible membership–albeit only for new customers. This is the same transmitter you find at Amazon for about $7 and up.

With the official release of Lightroom 1.0, it’s a good time to take a look at the respective strengths of both offerings from Adobe and Apple. Along those lines, something kind of fun is brewing on the O’Reilly Digital Media site. On the Inside Aperture blog, Micah Walter is field testing both Aperture and Lightroom on a real shoot, and posting his findings daily for this week. His first post, Aperture vs. Lightroom: Let the Games Begin, sets the stage on location in the West Indies.

Over on Inside Lightroom, Michael Clark is conducting a similar comparison, and has posted his first round of thoughts in A Comparison: Adobe Lightroom vs. Apple Aperture. Both Micah and Michael are working photographers with good technical chops. I think they will handle this comparison with skill and fairness.

If you’re weighing the pros and cons between these two applications, you might want to follow what these guys have to say.

Every Mac person has that friend who’s got the black MacBook. They spent the extra $150 for the black shell, just to be that one different guy carrying the matte black hotness. However, they still get a white power adapter, remote, and all the rest of the accessories. Is it just me, or is this one of those giant ideosyncracies of Apple? How the heck did that make it past His Steveness? Shouldn’t all the accessories for the Black MacBook come in matte black as well?

So, recently I bought an Airport Extreme, one of the flashy new 802.11n models that Steve released unannounced at MWSF, and I absolutely love it. 802.11n, for the uninitiated, is a draft spec for wireless that vastly exceeds the current 802.11g standard, in range and bandwidth, and should be finalized any day now. However, my friend Jay noted that the new 802.11n Airport don’t work with the TiVo wireless network dongles UNLESS they’re in 802.11b/g compatibility mode! Rumor has it this will be fixed eventually, but in the meantime, TiVo users, be wary!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy! Be aware, however, that the Napster site is pretty slow and unresponsive today, so if you’re having any problems with downloads, you might want to try again later.

“The House Under the Hill” by The Finches
This San Francisco-based duo writes and performs songs about fantasy architecture, filial love, and travel anxiety, all with a tip of the hat to Leonard Cohen and Francois Hardy. This song is from their debut full-length album, Human Like a House.

“My God, It’s Full of Stars” by Aerial
These Swedish rockers rock. In one year, Aerial toured Europe and made their sophomore album The Sentinel–a collection of focused tracks packed with the great guitar work for which the band is known.

“Be My Valentine” by Dr. Elmo
Nothing says “romance” on Valentine’s Day like Dr. Elmo. This veterinarian’s comedy carol, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” has sold over 10 million copies. Today’s download is another tongue-in-cheek ditty dedicated to the day of love.

“A Friend of Mine” by Piebald
Already veterans of Boston’s indie scene, these high-school comrades have seven albums to their credit and have headlined shows with My Chemical Romance. Today’s download is from their latest album, Accidental Gentlemen.

“Steady as She Goes” by James Yorkston
Hailing from a small village in Scotland, this former punk rocker turned acoustic singer-songwriter first gained recognition with Radio One god John Peel. His latest album, The Year of the Leopard, has finally been released in the U.S.

“The Great Compromise” by Kingsbury
After releasing two EPs, Orlando, FL’s very own complete their full-length debut despite losing two of the original members. While most groups would have lost their focus, Kingsbury has never been better. Today’s download comes from The Great Compromise.

“Lest I Fall” by Man of Sorrows
Pushing the boundaries of hardcore metal, these lads from San Antonio, TX mix in Latin percussion with their crunchy guitars and low-end driving drums. Your typical metal? Probably not. Consider this the new sound of Christian metal.

There are few things that I love more than a good parody, and one of them is a parody of a parody. When Justin Timberlake did his appearance on SNL and did his best Color Me Badd impression with Andy Samberg, I laughed like crazy. Timberlake’s Dick in a Box skit was the hit of YouTube for weeks, and it still makes my wife laugh like crazy. So, what’s this got to do with the Mac? Well, a couple silicon valley women have parodied it perfectly for Valentine’s Day with their Mac in a Top video that may or may not be safe for work (which is why I didn’t embed it here!) but is a hilarious, if adult, look at the popularity of the Apple brand. Check it out, and chuckle. Just not at work. Unless your workplace, well, has a sense of humor.

Objc-appscript is:

high-level Apple event bridge that allows you to control scriptable Mac OS X applications from Objective-C programs

Rixstep: You’ve just hosed your system, dude! You’re toast!

MacUser: Where is the Mac news?. A good question. News about some kind of update to Mac hardware - any Mac hardware - is long overdue from Apple. Before Christmas, I was pondering the purchase of a new machine about now, but I think I’m going to hang on a little longer.

A fun thread on the Camino forums asks: Who are you, Camino users?. The thread’s been open (and active) for months now… not too late to dive in.

UK Tinderbox users: look out for the forthcoming Tinderbox weekend in Cambridge. You couldn’t pick a better location.

Lynda L. Fudold writes in that she’d like to see a Lazy Web-style resource for Mac apps:

I’m not a coder, but an Apple Authorized Business Agent, as well as
active participant in a couple of MUGs, and I’ve attended a couple of
O’Reilly Mac OS X conferences.

I happened to have had a conversation with a prospect/client
yesterday, who is pining away after a piece of software no longer
commercially available, that ran on Mac OS 9, and previous Mac OS’s.
This is the second time someone has said to me, gee if software xyz
were still available…

So, I’m wondering, is there a format out there, on your site or
elsewhere, for folks who’d like to see something developed, or to
submit ideas to the guys and gals who have the skills for writing the
code?

I’m not aware of a resource like this, but I think it’s a very interesting idea. I’m curious if the Mac developer community would like to see us add something like this to Mac DevCenter.

Does something like this already exist? Would you use it if it did? Would developers monitor a resource like this for possible projects? Please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Apple just posted a fabulous article which does exactly what the name of this post suggests. If you’re interested in QC and/or Widget building, pop right on over and read it.

I haven’t tried this yet, but with Dashcode, “you can simply drop your Quartz Composer composition in the widget without writing a single line of code. Note that Dashcode is going to ship with Leopard, but is available now as Beta software”.

Honolulu’s second Apple Store opened this morning in Kahala Mall (about 5 miles from the town’s first Apple Store in Ala Moana Shopping Center). I wanted to see the event for myself and, of course, get the free Apple t-shirt given to the first 1000 people. That’s the shirt’s logo in the first photo.

The store was scheduled to open at 10am. I arrived about 8:10am to find about 150 people already ahead of me. I heard (but did not verify) that the first person in line arrived at 3am (a bit too early for me).
The crowd started building quickly and it seems the mall’s security team was not expecting the speed at which the line was growing. We were moved around a bit and security started placing poles with rope rails to keep the walkways clear. I’ll guess there were at least 400 to 500 people in line before the doors opened at 10am.

Apple kept the crowd (at least the segments that could see the store) entertained with a group providing Hawaiian chants, Hula, and a Hawaiian Blessing of the store.

You can see about 2 minutes of video to see a bit of the pre-opening activities yourself.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy!

“The Chase” by Original Recipe
Their formula is simple: Go to the record shop and purchase the most ridiculous records you can find from the $1 bin, go back to the “studio,” drink a little too much, and sample them. Here’s a fine example of this drunken technique from their debut Noisette.

“Beesting” by Buildings Breeding
What started off as an experiment and a farce on MySpace became the “local indie-pop supergroup” of Davis, CA, due to their well-written tunes and subtle musical accents. Today’s download is from their self-titled debut.

“Assisted Living” by Clair De Lune
Known for their contrast of beautiful songwriting and furious energy, this quintet from Minneapolis has just released Assisted Living, an album that has been described as “full of beautiful cacophony and sentimental anger.”

“Song of Yesterday” by Alexa Ray Joel
Being the daughter of a pop-star dad and supermodel mom can’t be easy. However, blessed with the gift of perfect pitch and encouragement from parents Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, she’s following her dreams. Today’s download is an original tune from her Sketches EP.

“Leaving the Nest” by Benjy Ferree
After a failed attempt at an acting career in Hollywood, this Washington, D.C. bartender was accosted by Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, who convinced him to pursue music and later produced the EP Leaving the Nest.

“Katie Cruel” by Karen Dalton
The late folk-blues songstress was a favorite of Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, and others. Dylan said she “had a voice like Billie Holiday and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed.” This track is from her only fully realized studio album, In My Own Time, finished in 1971.

“Nothing” by Sounds Like Violence
Phrases like “mind blowing” and “positively magnificent” have been used to describe the long-awaited debut by these hard-rocking Swedes. Hear for yourself with this track from With Blood on My Hands.

Steve Jobs says its the Major’s fault that music, including music from iTunes, has DRM on it. The Majors say it is Apple’s FairPlay that is the problem. Now we may be able to find out.

Jobs has been forced out of his protected forcefield and publicly stated that Apple will “embrace wholeheartedly” DRM-less downloads. EMI, for their part, is planning on releasing their entire catalog without DRM to the highest bidder according to the Wall Street Journal, link via Chicago Sun-Times. Now we get to see who is telling the truth.

We should look for a couple of things;

1. Will digital downloads take-off if they are not limited to playing on specific players?
2. Will piracy significantly change?
3. Will another music download site threaten iTunes dominance?
4. Is this viral? Will DRM-less movies be next?

About a month ago, in the aftermath of the iPhone announcement, I wondered aloud what the future of multi-touch might be. Stupidly, I concentrated my speculation on small, handheld devices and tablet-style computers. But why should multi-touch environments be small..?

Would you like a 23-inch MacBook? Of course you would. Jeff Porten knows how you can use an old PowerBook as a secondary screen for another, newer notebook. It’s a hack, but it works, and might be a good option if you don’t mind lugging two laptops around:

I’ll answer the question that I’m sure many of you have been pondering: yes, this setup is entirely portable. I toss both laptops into my Brenthaven backpack and I’m good to go. My guess is that the total weight I’m carrying is in the ballpark of 25 pounds; in any case, the bag doesn’t feel any heavier than it usually used to when I was just carrying around my 17-inch PowerBook (and maybe a book or two).

The most interesting Mac news today is from no less than Steve Jobs himself, author of an extraordinary short essay about the state of DRM in the music industry. It’s extraordinary not just because of what he says, but also the mere fact that he’s saying it this way. He must really have wanted to get this off his chest.

The biggest name in online music today is Apple. Their successful iTunes store sells songs by the Billion (Yes, with a capital B) to consumers across the globe. Personally, I’ve spent more money on iTunes buying albums and songs than perhaps I’d care to admit to my wife or to my accountant. At last count, I had close to 2,000 tracks from the iTMS, all with its built-in DRM called FairPlay. Lately there’s been a lot of hullaballoo concerning FairPlay and DRM as a whole. Apple’s been largely silent on the subject, conspicuously so for a market leader. Today that silence was broken as Steve Jobs himself released a statement on music on the front page of Apple.com.

The statement is unequivocal in its terms: The record labels require us to license their music for sale using FairPlay. We think FairPlay is a good system, but to license it to others would compromise its integrity. If you can convince the record labels, specifically the big four, to license their music to us without DRM, we will include it in our store. Specifically, Apple points out that the European concern regarding DRM lands almost squarely in their own backyard, as Bertelsmann owns half of Sony/BMG, and Vivendi owns Universal outright, as EMI is an entirely British-owned company.

Steve’s hint is far from subtle: convince the labels to go DRM-free and Apple will gladly follow suit.

It is a truly interesting day for DRM and Apple and all of the music-loving world. Well done, Steve.

A nice treat from the folks at Zune: 30-odd free unDRMed MP3s ready for download, including tracks from Wierd Al, Barenaked Ladies and the Shins. Perfect for your iPod, Zune or other MP3 player.

Before I run out for the weekend, I just wanted to point everyone to Infinite Loop’s interview with Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba. Well worth a read–I was particularly interested in the Apple TV discussion. And there’s a hilarious discussion of the Rogue Amoeba name and logo as well.

Welcome to another edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These un-DRMed MP3 files are free for a limited time and can be downloaded from just about any country. Enjoy!

“Spring Hall Convert” by Deerhunter
This Atlanta-based psych-pop collective has endured financial strain, death, and lineup changes, but has persevered and come out the other side with a rocking sophomore album, Cryptograms.

“Seasons” by Julie Sokolow
Using only her voice, a cheap acoustic guitar, and the built-in microphone on her computer, this Pittsburgh singer-songwriter put together Something About Violins, a collection of eerie lo-fi productions reminiscent of Cat Power and Julie Doiron.

“P-Body” by Sean Price
From the Boot Camp Clik, the self-proclaimed “brokest rapper you know” is back with Jesus Price Superstar, featuring more of the self-deprecating, knucklehead rhymes that have made him one of the more entertaining MCs to bless the mic.

“Breaking Glass” by Uncut
Originally a dance-rock outfit, this Canadian foursome traded their computers for guitars and have toured with current heavies including Metric, Sloan, and the Walkmen. This track is from their latest album, Modern Currencies.

“Soul Bird” by Jackie Mittoo
This reggae legend recorded this track in the early ’70s after leaving his native Kingston for Toronto. The album to which it belongs, Wishbone, branches out into funk and soul and has finally been re-released. Enjoy.

“Altar of Goat Skulls (EXPLICIT)” by 7000 Dying Rats
You can’t really call them a group, since their lineup “seems to be dictated by whoever we happen to be drinking with at the time” according to singer and multi-instrumentalist Toney Vast-Binder, the collective’s ringleader. Today’s grindcore excursion is from their newest album, Season in Hell.

“Thick Ropes (EXPLICIT)” by Planet Asia
Hailing from Fresno, California, Planet Asia has become one of hip-hop’s hardest-working yet underrated MCs. With a large collection of independent singles and albums already under his belt, he worked with producer Evidence (of Dilated Peoples) on his new album The Medicine, featuring today’s free download.

Like a lot of people, I viewed Flickr user soyburger’s photo set, showing his basement full of stylishly-displayed retro Macs, and had to scrape my jaw back up from the floor afterwards.

And also like a lot of people, I wanted to know a little bit more about a person who would go to such lengths to collect and display old Macs. So I emailed soyburger (real name Jeremy Mehrl) to ask him to tell me more. Here’s what he said.

Wow. If you work with audio on a Mac, check this out. Audio Ease’s upcoming Soundabout displays a waveform preview when you highlight an audio file in the Finder or iTunes. With simple clicks and drags, you can then extract just the part you want, convert the file to an MP3, e-mail it, insert it at the cursor position in Pro Tools, and more. Just watch the demo movie; I bet you’ll be as dazzled as I was.

(The iSight commentary is clever, too, eh?)

In addition to the “Mac OS X State of the Union” video (as noted a week ago), Apple has made another video from WWDC 2006 available to ADC subscribers with just the free ADC Online Membership.

Where last week’s OS X video was mainly targeted at developers as it focused on highly technical details of Apple’s operating system, the new video titled “IT State of the Union” gives a higher-level view on Apple’s offerings for IT users in corporate and education environments.

To download the video, go to ADC on iTunes and log in to have iTunes show you the way to the the ADC section of the iTunes Store. You will find the new video and the accompanying slides under the left-most tab.

Notice, by the way, that there was an interesting change of names: that left-most tab has been renamed from “Mac OS X State of the Union” to “Online Member Videos.” Let’s hope that this means more ADC videos that do not require a paid ADC subscription will be added to that section in the future.

The BBC, our beloved public service broadcaster, has been leading the pack in terms of web content for years. It has been offering a free “Listen again” service over the web for all its radio output for some time now, and everyone’s been wondering when it would do the same for TV.

That time has now come. The BBC Trust today gave a green light to the initial plans for BBC iPlayer, opening a consultation period during which those with an opinion are asked to offer their views. They can do so by downloading the proposals document and answering a questionnaire - both of which can be found at the Trust web site. Responses have to be in by March 28.

The important part of the document, as far as British Mac users are concerned, is on the second-to-last page:

The seven-day catch-up over the internet proposal requires users to have a up-to-date Microsoft operating system for full functionality. Review the provision of this service on a platform-agnostic basis (or across major platforms) within a reasonable timeframe and subject to value for money considerations and as technology allows.

Nice to see an update to Notae, bringing a bunch of welcome new features to this notes- and snippets-storage app. It now supports web archives and PDFs, better tag navigation, and a Quick Note feature. In this new form, it competes more directly with Yojimbo. By way of a super-quick test, I important imported (ahem) all my Yojimbo notes into Notae 2 and did some messing around; Notae’s search is noticeably faster, in my opinion.

There’s also an update for SubEthaEdit, which is pretty much all about tabs. For those of you who’ve been crying out for more tabs everywhere you look, this is good news indeed. Funny; for years I craved more tabs in all the apps that didn’t have them, but when they appeared (in editors, mail clients and the like) I found I never used them. TextMate remains a strictly one-document-per-windows experience for me. Anyone else out there not fussed about tabbiness?

Finally, and spotted via FreeMacWare.com, there’s PagePacker, a desktop app that produces a neat design-your-own fold-up Hipster PDA that you can clip into your new shiny orange iPod shuffle. Remind me: how did we survive before iPods?

You know, when your nose is buried in shell scripts and webserver config files, it still sometimes takes you by surprise how ingrained in the culture the iPod — and by extension, Apple — has become.

Take this Jayson Stark article on ESPN.com, “Greatest hits, in the palm of your hand”. I enjoy reading the bullet points in the voice of Fred Armisen doing Steve Jobs. ;)

It’s hard to say exactly which moment it was that we realized the iPod had taken over our entire civilization. But it might have been this one:

The day we first heard, last summer, that baseball players were using their iPods to do their pregame video studies — as opposed to, say, their pregame Shakira video studies.

What we have here, friends, is one of history’s most amazing gizmos ever. Name any other invention of all time that you can use to:

• Listen to every song ever recorded by Green Day.
• Watch the last 77 episodes of “24.”
• Show off pictures of your kids.
• Hear actual ESPN.com employees yelling at each other through the miracle of one of our inimitable (thankfully) ESPN podcasts.
• Play Sudoku.
• And sort through every at-bat Todd Helton has ever had against Armando Benitez.

The much-linked UK Get a Mac adverts are a work of genius. Not because of the scriptwriting, but the casting. Those two guys are David Mitchell (PC) and Robert Webb (Mac), a comedy double-act with a cult following here in the UK. Their Peepshow series, about two self-obsessed flatmates called Jeremy and Mark, who have very similar characters to PC and Mac, is one of the funniest things that’s been on telly in recent years. They’ve also done sketch shows on TV and radio.

From the Peepshow series notes:

On the surface, Jeremy and Mark are quite horrible people; underneath they’re even worse.

See? Even their old characters are just like computers. Excellent.

A host of European countries are concerned about iTunes music downloads and how they only play on the iPod. The latest to speak up is Holland where the Dutch authorities have said;

“What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod. When you buy a music CD it doesn’t play only on players made by Panasonic. People who download a song from iTunes shouldn’t be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives.”

Welcome to another week’s edition of Friday Napster Freebies. These free downloads are in un-DRM’3d MP3 format and can be accessed from around the globe. So load ‘em up on your iPod or other portable music player and enjoy!

“Weekend Warriors” by A Change of Pace
These Peoria, Arizona high-school buddies share a love for pop-edged alternative rock that has led them to the Warped Tour and touring stints with groups like Senses Fail. This track is from their recently released sophomore album, Prepare the Masses.

“Senorita Mia” by Louie Cruz Beltran
“I was born to play congas. I am a rumbero,” declares this Bakersfield, California percussionist. His love for Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms has led him to perform with heavyweights such as Santana and Coke Escovedo, his mentor. Today’s free download is from his album It’s My Time.

“Elephant Gun” by Beirut
Led by high-school dropout/musical prodigy Zach Condon, Beirut combines musical styles ranging from indie-folk and lo-fi rock to Eastern Euro gypsy. This track from their new EP, Lon Gisland, offers more of what made them one of 2006’s surprise success stories.

“If You Could Read Your Mind” by Clinic
This quartet from Liverpool has been winning over shoegazers and critics alike since 1997, creatively flavoring their indie rock with a strange, sour beauty (they’ve even toured with Radiohead). This track is from their latest effort, Visitations.

“Keep on Lovin’ Me” by Bleu Collar
This Los Angeles-based hip-hop group comprises MCs Reese One and Basik, and as their collective name suggests, they’re not afraid of working hard to build a following. When not rocking sold-out shows, they’re recording tracks like this one from their forthcoming EP.

“Kiss Your Soul” by Jon Quesnel
Jon Quesnel (pronounced Ka-Nell), a 22-year-old from suburban Minnesota, has a passion for soulful melodies and plies them with a disarmingly powerful voice. Today’s download is from his debut album, Packin’ Up My Bags.

“Told You So” by The Guggenheim Grotto
Already a hit in Ireland, this track from the Grotto’s critically acclaimed debut album, …Waltzing Alone, demonstrates their deft blending of contemporary folk and pop styles.

I’m beginning to see all kinds of innovative uses of Amazon’s S3 (Simple Storage Service) pop up around the net, and here’s a neat one that I’m going to try myself. The problems that Matt Thommes is trying to solve around his iTunes music are the same problems I’ve been grappling with myself.

There are three things I wish to accomplish:

1. Eliminate the limit on my music storage capacity.

2. Access my music from anywhere in the world.

3. Access my music directly from iTunes on my laptop - not with an iPod or external digital music device.

I’m a big fan of iTunes, and when I made the leap (and the significant effort) of ripping my music library and beginning to use iTunes as my primary interface for finding, selecting, and listening to my music, I’ve never looked back. It’s just such a more powerful and flexible method for accessing and enjoying a large library of music than dealing with hundreds or thousands of individual pieces of media. (I’m not however an equally big fan of the iTunes Music Store and the associated DRM, but I’ll save that rant for another post).

Matt describes a method for storing your iTunes library on Amazon’s S3 service, effectively solving all three of the stated problems. It looks easy to set up, though the cost is not insignificant. At Amazon’s plan of 100 GB of storage plus 1 TB of transfer for $6.29/month (on a 1 year contract), I’ll spend around $75/year for this service See Updates below. But it may very well be worth it. I’ll report back on my experiences.

Update: As Chris points out in the comments, I grabbed the wrong pricing info for S3 from a hastily read comment to Matt’s original post, that pricing was actually for a cheaper online storage alternative from GoDaddy. Amazon’s S3 pricing structure is a pay-as-you-go scheme costing $0.15 per GB-Month of storage used and $0.20 per GB of data transferred. This makes it tough to predict what the actual costs of hosting my iTunes library would be there, since it’s dependent on how much I listen to it. But clearly, it would end up being a lot more than $75/year for a 100GB library that gets used regularly. Thanks, Chris!

Update 2: After reflecting on the comments here and having a couple of conversations with people much smarter than myself on these matters, I’ve come to the conclusion that this really isn’t a practical idea for two important reasons. First, the chances seem very slim that the performance would be acceptable, and several people who have tried managing large iTunes libraries over the internet have reported to me that iTunes hasn’t performed well in this scenario. Second, S3’s pay-as-you-go data transfer plan, while very attractive for some types of applications, isn’t really a good option for using S3 as a remote hard drive that you’d be accessing quite regularly. I’d be willing to consider a reasonable flat fee for this kind of convenience (assuming it worked well), but the idea of having to think about how much it is costing me to listen to my music, and having that cost be variable and dependent on how much I listen to, has dampened my enthusiasm for this idea. So I guess I’m blushingly reneging on my promise to set this up and report back.

Download copies from http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/. There are two manuals: a general users’ guide and a more involved “Designing Airport Extreme 802.11n Networks”.

I immediately jumped to the bits about setting up a remote USB disk, which seems like the feature I’d like to use the most. Didn’t see much about port forwarding.

Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to really go through anything in detail and it’s late and I need to go to bed. I just wanted to get the news out tonight so you eurofolk and eastcoasterian types could enjoy reading through the docs.

There’s a cool Mac educational contest just kicking off over on Macinstruct. The Tutorama contest invites individuals to submit educational tutorials on anything related to Apple hardware and software products. They’re looking to find the most innovative and creative step-by-step tutorials, video podcasts, Flash movies, and computer-based trainings on Mac-related topics. There’s over $4,000 of prizes including iPods, books personally-signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and a Mac Mini. Judges include No Starch Press publisher Bill Pollock, Macworld Senior Editor Dan Frakes, former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki, and award-winning author Robin Williams.

These kind of contests can be a win for everybody. The general public gets to find out about great tutorials they might not have otherwise found or heard of, and the tutorial developers can get some nice goodies as well as greater exposure for the best work. I’ll keep my eye on this one and report back here on the winners.

The Apple Xserve RAID now ships with 750GB drive modules, which increases the maximum capacity of each RAID unit now to 10.5TB. While that’s certainly great news, there’s one other part of the update that might not be as pleasing to fans of the fibre channel storage devices.

As part of the update, Apple also released Xserve RAID Admin Tools 1.5.1, which includes a new RAID Admin utility and the new firmware needed by current units to recognize the newer drive modules. The surprising change is in RAID Admin, which no longer has a LUN Masking configuration option.

I spoke with Apple Enterprise support and heard that LUN Masking is no longer a feature of the Xserve RAID, but that any LUN masks already present would be preserved even after using the new RAID Admin utility. However, I didn’t confirm if this is still the case once new firmware is applied.

The Apple support tech I spoke with couldn’t provide a reason for the change, but confirmed that the remaining option for assigning storage to hosts, zoning on the fibre channel switch, is what Apple now recommends.

Last October, Apple published session videos of the 2006 World Wide Developers Conference on iTunes. Unfortunately, access to these videos requires the Leopard Early Start Kit, which, in turn, requires a paid subscription to the Apple Developer Connection. The 90-minute “Mac OS X State of the Union” feature, however, has now also been made available to those ADC members who have signed up for the free-of-charge Online Membership. Even if you’re not developing software on the Mac, this video is well worth watching if you are interested in an up-to-date (as of August 2006) overview of the technical foundations of the Mac’s OS.

If you don’t have an ADC account yet (if you do, you will have seen the related email announcement already, anyway), go to the Apple Developer Connection website and sign up for the free ADC Online Membership. Then head over to the ADC on iTunes page and log in to bring up the ADC section in iTunes. You will find the video and a PDF with the presentation slides under the “Mac OS X State of the Union” tab.

Have a few cups (or pots, depending on your connection speed…) of tea while downloading the 500MB movie — which is then placed in its own playlist in iTunes for convenient access —, and enjoy the show!

I’m back from America’s largest musical instrument and software trade show, where the big software surprise was…the Pause button.

There were no major updates from Apple (Logic/GarageBand) or MOTU (Digital Performer). Ableton (Live), Digidesign (Pro Tools), Steinberg (Cubase), and Sony (Acid) were showing revs they released last year. Cycling ’74 had an unmanned kiosk. And Spectrasonics, a NAMM fixture for its powerful demos, stayed home.

No new Reason, but Propellerheads did play sounds from its upcoming Thor “polysonic synth.”

Of course, there were still acres of cool new music gear to fondle, and I’ll be sharing my favorites over on the O’Reilly Digital Media blog. But when I asked several developers privately about the dearth of new DAW software, they all said they’d been struggling with porting their code to Intel Macs. (The Windows developers, of course, have their own challenges with Vista, although Cakewalk did score a hit by announcing Sonar would be Vista-compatible this month.)

By all accounts, music software performance on Intel Macs is much improved; several musicians said their MacBook Pros outran even quad G5s. But as one programmer told me, “Everyone used a lot of workarounds to make things run in OS X, and those don’t work anymore on the Intel chips.” He predicted that within the next year or two, we’d see some major advancements.

Personally, I hope those advancements are in usability. At the annual Grammy Soundtable, it was striking how many of the top producers on the panel used multiple parallel DAWs to make their music. More than a decade after Opcode merged MIDI and digital audio in a single program, we’re still searching for the best flow.

Daniel Steinberg has written a deep and fascinating analysis of the history and the current state of Java on Apple products, Java to the iPhone: Can you hear me now?, reflecting on his 10 years of covering Java on the Mac platform. Daniel notes that in a recent interview about the iPhone with John Markhoff, Steve Jobs said, “Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.” Is this the beginning of the end for Java on the Mac, or possibly the desktop altogether?

Developers are looking at Flash and at AJAX as platforms for rich desktop (yes desktop) applications. If Java becomes irrelevant on the PC and on the device then we will enter a new phase in it’s life. There will be plenty of uses for Java for a good long while but we are entering the FORTRAN phase or the COBOL phase.

Finally, I wonder if Steve Jobs has decided that Java has no place on OS X on the iPhone, what will its role be in the future on Mac OS X on the Mac?

If you care about Java on the Mac, you should definitely click through and read Daniel’s entire post.

(Note: I’ve turned off comments on this post to encourage people to place their comments on Daniel’s original ONJava blog post).

Welcome to another week of Friday Napster Freebies. Once again, here’s a week’s worth of free music you can download and enjoy on your favorite media player.

This week, I’ve been corresponding with reader Doug Ransom about ways to play with or enhance this feed. Among other things, I mentioned to him how you can use the command line say utility to convert song descriptions into audio files. e.g. say -o blogtext.aiff "put the actual text here". If you have fink and lame installed, you can then convert the aiff output from say into MP3 files. Doug has also been working on building a podcast version of my Friday posts to load the music and descriptions automatically into iTunes. More as this develops. Have a great week and enjoy the music!

“Time2hitdaclub (EXPLICIT)” by 8Ball
Representing half of legendary Memphis rap duo 8Ball & MJG, this solo outing does the legend proud: all downtempo boom, hairy synths, and lyrics devoted to everyone’s favorite activity after a long week.

“That’s My Way” by Samantha Jo
Already the recipient of numerous awards for her songwriting, expect this country up-and-comer to make a lot of noise this year. Check her out on this track from her new, self-titled album.

“I’m Not Worthy” by Andre Williams
This multi-talented singer, songwriter, and producer has written with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, and Edwin Starr and has worked with Parliament, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Spinners. Enough said.

“In the Morning” by Junior Boys
This dance-floor cut from the Canadian synth duo is sure to get the party started. Taken from their newest collection of electro niceness, So This Is Goodbye.

“Soul Traveler (featuring J2 & Prince A)” by Destruments
Few groups have what it takes to combine classic hip-hop and soul and still make it sound original, but these San Franciscans’ pure, organic approach gets the job done.

“Reel” by Jawbox
Jawbox is one of a few groups to successfully make the switch from credible indie label to a major. Today’s download is taken from their reissued major label release, For Your Own Special Sweetheart, which many fans doubted at first but later embraced.

“A Little More Time” by The Early November
Armed with a solid demo and a huge internet buzz, this New Jersey–based quintet strengthened their fanbase with their performances on the Warped Tour. Today’s download is taken from their ambitious triple-disc album, The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path.

Apple has published Jobs’s keynote from last week in full as a free download on the iTunes Store. As far as I can recall, this is a first for Apple. The five most recent keynotes are available as QuickTime streams in the Apple Events section of the QuickTime guide, but not as downloads.

Do any of you readers have a spare Joost token you can throw my way? Thanks in advance. (erica@mindspring.com)

Oh, for anyone who is not familiar with Joost, take a look here.

It’s true. Even polar scientists need storage space:

One Xserve RAID one is scratch space for data analysis. The IceCube array produces a lot of data, and the researchers try to only transfer the most interesting fraction over the satellite internet connection. This storage will lets researchers sift through some of that data. The less interesting majority is written to tape to ship to Madison, WI, once a year.

The second Xserve RAID provides storage for a backup server, storing snapshots of home directories, web, mysql, postgres, ldap, mail, and a few other critical pieces of data. It is currently configured very conservatively for just over a week of history, but there is expected to be plenty of room for several weeks worth.

One largely unreported snippet that emerged during Macworld week was that Tinderbox now ships with a bundled copy of Yojimbo.

But why? Why does a hugely powerful text/database environment like Tinderbox need something like Yojimbo alongside it? What’s the benefit for Tinderbox users?

This morning, I watched Merlin Mann doing one of his excellent interviews for twit.tv, in which he (jokingly) described the two apps as “the tag team carbon combination from hell”. The point of the bundle is that Yojimbo is designed to make importing information very easy indeed. The idea is that it’s so easy to import stuff, you don’t need to stop and think about the process, you just do it. If something is too complicated, if it requires thought, people just won’t use it.

For the purposes of this software bundle, Yojimbo is supposed to act as an inbox for Tinderbox. It’s easier to get new data into Yojimbo than it is to get it into Tinderbox. But Tinderbox does a better job of organising data, and making sense of it in the long term.

I wanted to know more about the thinking behind this bundle, so I got hold of Eastgate’s Mark Bernstein on iChat to ask him a few questions…

This Flickr set of pictures from the inside of the Apple manufacturing plant in Ireland is interesting for all sorts of reasons, but the one thing that caught my eye most was the way the staff on the factory floor depend on old Macintosh computers to keep things working smoothly.

Just because you’re putting together the latest models of iMac and MacBook, it doesn’t mean you can’t get your job done with an aging G3 Blueberry iMac - maybe an eMac if you’re lucky.

The canteen food doesn’t look very appetising, though.

UPDATE:As noted in the comments, the photos in this set appear to have been deleted. Ho hum. Use your imaginations instead: above the heads of the factory staff, old iMacs and eMacs were suspended on a rack. Elsewhere, even older machines (again, see the comments) lurked on shelves. And the food? A bacon sandwich.

ANOTHER UPDATE:I got this amusing comment from a reader: I worked in Apple Cork facilities in the late 1990s. They were still using LocalTalk (peer-to-peer PhoneNet) networks, QuickMail, and pizza-box Performas with custom FileMaker databases (for quality control) on lines that were building Wallstreet and Yosemite (which everyone pronounced “yo-see-mighty”). My own computer was a PowerBook 5300 that was made up of three broken 5300s; it had a cracked case and couldn’t close. Still, I can’t fault Apple — those machines did
their jobs and wouldn’t die.

Via TUAW

Even when I’m speaking at Macworld, I have camera in hand. So here’s a collection of photos and anecdotes from a terrific week of Macdom in San Francisco:

I have a gallery of images posted on The Digital Story that include the podcaster meetup, live recording of MacBreak Weekly, the O’Reilly booth, and Steve’s keynote address.

Kevin Miller posted a cool pre-keynote candid on The Digital Story.

Colleen Wheeler wrote a nice wrap-up with photo of the O’Reilly authors from the Book Passage event on the Sunday before the show.

Quite a week indeed…

Largely unnoticed and without much fanfare, Apple finally made some changes that are going to be very beneficial to Mac software developers: The Mac OS X Downloads page got a makeover, complete with RSS feeds, a top downloads section, staff picks and recently added sections.

And, after just 4 or 5 years, the “Mac OS X Software…” menu item in the “Apple” menu finally points to something useful - the Mac OS X Downloads page.

Does the iPhone connect to iChat? Can you use it one-handed? Does the Web browser support Flash or Java? Is the virtual keyboard at least as quick and easy to use as entering text with a regular cellphone’s number keys?

You will find the answers to these and many other questions in two iPhone FAQs compiled by David Pogue over at his New York Times blog:

The Ultimate iPhone Frequently Asked Questions
Ultimate iPhone FAQs List, Part 2

P.S.: While you’re there, don’t miss David’s “The iPhone Up Close” video!

Update: TidBITS has also published an iPhone FAQ, titled iQuestion the iPhone. It’s written as an amusing interview with iPhone itself and is well worth a read.

Welcome to the week of January 6 - January 12 edition of Friday Napster Freebies. As always, these freebies can be downloaded from around the world. So if you’ve got an iPod, a Zune, iRiver, Creative Zen, or whatever, get ready to enjoy another bunch of DRM-free MP3 files to feed your player. Here are this week’s selections:

“Buddy Bye” by Johnny Osbourne
This “Godfather of Dancehall” has built a 25-year-long career with his warm voice and soulful singing style. Download one of reggae’s all-time classics, “Buddy Bye,” taken from King Jammy’s Selector’s Choice Vol. 1.
[Jan 12]

“Better That Way” by Janell Marie
This folk rockin’ Oregon native knew she was born to sing since experimenting with a mini microphone and a cassette recorder at an early age. Growing up on a steady diet of classic rock and the Beatles, she’s grown to appreciate all styles of music. Today’s download is from her upcoming EP, Better That Way. [Jan 11]

“Time” by DJ Drez
With his numerous independently released mixtapes and full-length albums, this DJ has become a staple of the Los Angeles underground hip-hop scene. Check out his more worldly forays into Indian and North African music from his latest offering, Jahta Beat. [Jan 10]

“When I Wake” by The Changes
Chicago’s very own indie rockers were the only unsigned band to be invited to perform on the 2005 Lollapalooza tour. Since then, they have toured with the likes of Ted Leo, the Walkmen, and Kaiser Chiefs. Check out today’s track from their current album, Today Is Tonight. [Jan 9]

“Dart for My Sweetheart” by Archie Bronson Outfit
This UK trio have come a long way since being discovered in a local pub by the president of their label, Domino Records. Download this song from their current album, Derdang Derdang, and see why they were nominated for Best New Act on the 2006 MOJO Honours List.
[Jan 8]

“Murderer” by Barrington Levy
One of reggae’s most respected performers, Levy has enjoyed unusual career longevity. Since releasing his first single in 1974, he has gone on to record with many of today’s biggest artists. This track is one of his classic dancehall smashes taken from the collection Original Ragga Muffin, Part One. [Jan 7]

“The Apothecary” by Enter the Haggis
Since their inception in 1996, ETH have built an international touring and recording career on their high-energy performances and unique approach to Celtic-based music. Today’s download is from their latest album, Soapbox Heroes. [Jan 6]

The Macworld 2007 Best of Show list (and YouTube video) is out. You can find the list on Macworld’s site at:

Macworld Video: Best of Show

An update of my favorite 2006 Mac app (Parallels Desktop for Mac) was one of the winners. The other Best of Show winners are:

Toast 8, Roxio
Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate (Build 3120), Parallels
Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe
Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe
Prey, Aspyr Media
George, Chestnut Hill Sound
IntelliScanner mini, IntelliScanner
ModBook, Axiotron
LCD2690WUXi, NEC
Apple TV, Apple
iPhone, Apple

So, by now, many folks have seen the Keynote, but there’s an incredible demo that Phil Schiller did with CBS News. This being the early Twenty-first Century, and CBS having a brain slightly less small than the rest of the networks, they put up their demo with Phil on You Tube.

Thanks, CBS. Now I’ve drooled all over my MacBook Pro, and June can’t be here soon enough. Though, they did provide Craig Ferguson’s discussion of Apple vs. Microsoft, which is found below the cut here.

There was a lot of talk when Linksys released some new IP phone models recently with the iPhone name about how this might impact the long-rumored Apple phone. (I reviewed one of the those iPhones over on our ETel site). When Steve announced the iPhone yesterday, pretty much everyone assumed a deal had been made with Cisco (who owns Linksys) for the name. Then we saw a non-committal press release from Cisco, which made it sound like a deal was in the works but not yet signed, sealed and delivered.

Now news is hitting the wires that Cisco has filed a trademark infringement suit against Apple over the iPhone name. This could get interesting. I suspect the price Apple is surely going to have to pay for those six letters just got a lot higher.

When I reviewed the Linksys iPhone back in December I asked my contact at Cisco about the name and was told that Cisco acquired Infogear Technology Corporation in 2000, and Infogear had trademarked “iPhone” all the way back in 1996. I was also told that the CIT200 was the first Linksys-branded product in the iPhone family, which has been shipping since October of 2005.

Although Apple clearly stole its thunder with the iPhone, the Axiotron ModBook remains the most exciting Mac-related News on the Macworld showfloor.

The ModBook is the first ever commercially available tablet Mac. Although Steve Jobs is reported to see little future in Tablet PCs, clearly he is thinking in terms of shipping millions to masses through the Apple Stores and not about actual solutions that require Tablet PC input.

Which are manyfold in the area of portable data aquisition. May it be surveys, scientific experiments, business process modulation or profane stuff such as taking meeting notes, a pen based tablet has many niche uses of which Axiotron is undoubtedly aware. The coolest thing is the GPS built in which makes the ModBook an excellent navigation and data aquisition instrument.

The price of the product reflects its nature as a speciality article by being roughly twice the price of the MacBook it is based on. But I can imagine a lot of projects where it will come in handy and I am sure that Axiotron will be hard pressed to fulfill demand.

Everything we’re seeing today suggests that the iPhone will be a closed platform, unable to install new applications. I’ve heard rumors that it will be upwards of 18 months before developers are allowed to make applications for the iPhone, and that may send a susurrus through the developer community as the ideas for mobile applications are back-burnered. This may send a wave of frustration through many potential customers as they see the iPhone as a dead-end.

This is probably not as bad as many people thing it will be.

For one, you have a fully capable web browser. It’s Safari, afterall, built to be fully operable much like the Safari you’d normally use to upload photos to Flickr, or work with BaseCamp & Backpack, or operate any of a nearly infinite number of CMS systems and other blog-like interfaces. Filemaker Pro is extensible via the web, and you can make that a secure interaction in Safari. Since it’s got the web, you’re not tied into Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or any other Lazy-Sunday-mentioned mapping client will be fully operable on the new iPhone.

So, in that there aren’t, or won’t initially be, standalone applications for the iPhone, yes, many developers are currently feeling disappointed. But think of it this way: if you can encapsulate that application in HTML or AJAX or any number of other web technologies, your users will be able to use it on the iPhone. Not shabby.

What does the rest of the world think about Apple’s announcements yesterday? Let’s see now…

Jason Kottke made a quick mock-up to see how the iPhone compared with other devices in terms of size and “holdability”. Pretty well, it seems.

The Age in Australia compares the co-inciding keynotes from Apple and Dell, remarking that while the Apple event was overflowing with people, the hall for the Dell speech was barely half-full. What’s more:

One person in the audience, Mark Parisi, said he liked seeing the products Dell introduced but he also was eager to leave the hall to get to some Internet access to find out what Apple had announced.

The iPhone is a threat to manufacturers of high-end phone handsets, reported Reuters. It quoted one analyst saying:

This (iPhone) does have the potential to shake up the competitive landscape even if it’s not a device that’s targeted to mass consumers. It’s clearly targeted towards the highest-value subscribers and they are the most profitable subscribers.

Engadget soberly reminds us that, technically speaking, iPhone is not a smartphone:

i.e. not a smartphone by conventional terms, being that a smartphone is a platform device that allows software to be installed

Just in case you’d missed it in the flood of iPhone news, Bare Bones has released updates for BBEdit, Yojimbo and TextWrangler today.

• BBEdit 8.6 includes better Java and TeX language support, and now also supports Markdown (hooray!). There’s a bunch of other changes and some bug fixes. It’s $30 to upgrade from earlier versions of BBEdit 8, and it requires OS X 10.4.
• Yojimbo 1.4 brings Applescript support, among other things, and is a free upgrade from all previous versions.
• TextWrangler 2.2 comes with “more than a hundred” new features and fixes, and continues to be free for all.

Like Chris, I have some questions about the iPhone that have been running around in my head since the keynote…

• What’s inside?
• On the Phone menu screen (above), what does the Notes widget do? Will it sync with Notes in Mail?
• Similarly, will the Calendar widget sync with iCal?
• How do I get photos I’ve taken with the phone into my computer? Will iPhoto just import them automagically?
• Will the next version have a built-in iSight?
• Does it come in white too?
• How do I add software? Can I stick anything on it, storage space permitting?
• Where’s the SDK?

Amid the iPhone frenzy, Apple quietly released an all-new Airport base station device today. Selling at $179, it supports the new 802.11n standard (as well as backwards compatibility for versions a, b and g).

There are three Ethernet ports, one USB, and “multiple antennas” for better reception (I put that in quotes because I’m just not sure how many antennae the old base station unit had…). According to the tech specs page, it comes with software called “802.11n Enabler for Mac” - so that’ll be the thing that wakes up the sleeping 802.11n compatibility in recently-purchased machines.

The device is, as you’d expect, being touted as “perfect for use with Apple TV” and can also act as a hub for network-shared drives and printers, something that’ll be easier with the addition of a USB hub. I suspect this might be pushed as the ideal hardware solution for backups via Time Machine, once Leopard is released.

I am so hyped about today’s keynote, it’s hard to know even where to begin. iPhone. Apple TV, neé iTV. And so forth. There’s even a brand new Airport Extreme base station over at the Apple Store, shipping with 802.11n and which may or may not support USB hard drives. (I’ve got to check on this fact-wise.) Just right to go along with the iTV. (Forgive me. I’m used to the old name.) I really wish that iTV had a tuner. (It does not.) And that it could record on the TV end. (It does not.) But it does have a 40 GB hard drive in there, which can store “up to 50 hours video”. Which of course, I’m going to swap out for a much bigger drive as soon as I get my hands on it. Because I’m a geek. And we geeks do that. Let’s just say “bye bye” to the warranty already. The remote control looks very frontrowish, as does the graphical on-screen interface. The syncing capabilities make it a kind of headless video iPod, if you follow what I’m saying. Anyway, I’m still too freaked and excited by the whole thing to post coherently. More later when I collect my thoughts.

Where should I begin?

All good stories begin at the ending, and then provide context. This one shall not deviate from that mold. At the end of the Stevenote, Steve brought up The Great One’s favorite line: “I skate to where the puck will be, not where it is.” Apple has long been the company at the head of the curve, ever pulling the masses forward with their energy, design, with their joie de vivre and their incredible attachment to things electronic. The reason I’ve loved Apple always is for the enthusiasm with which they venture. They design computers and software (and phones, now) that have come to fit their lives, to enhance them through the adaptation of technology, both new and old.

Apple excites and entices. Apple enables. Apple makes products that let us take our stuff with us. First it was just music, with the iPod. Then photos, then movies and TV even. It became an amazing companion for the traveler, for the commuter, and began to extend the presence of the computer beyond the desktop or laptop. The iLife, defined by movies, by pictures and music, began to expand, and today it got another chapter with the iPhone.

Over the next few days, as people get their hands on test handsets (which I’m sure will happen at Macworld, I can’t imagine Apple doing something this big and then telling even the pundits to wait.), we’re going to hear a lot about the capabilities and features of the phone and their various merits and demerits, and all of that will be valuable. But none of it is nearly as valuable as the enthusiasm that was generated today. I haven’t been this excited about a product in a long, long time.

The message is clear to every other wireless phone company: start skating, you’re way behind.

Wow, where to start?

At the beginning. A few days ago, when Apple posted the gauntlet-throwing “The first 30 years were just the beginning” sign on its home page, it effectively announced to the world: “This time, we have something special.”

And special indeed. Today’s announcements from Steve Jobs fulfill almost all the Mac enthusiasts’ dreams of the last two years or so. Finally, Apple has a living room media device and a portable computer that rivals the coolness of the iPod combined with the geeky joy of the old Newton.

Just when you thought you’d seen all the best Mac bargains possible (I’m thinking in particular of festive delights like MacHeist and MacSanta), TidBITS comes along with another enticing offer.

The TidBITS Archive CD 1990-2006 is a compilation of 6,500 articles from all 860 issues of everyone’s favorite Mac email newsletter.

1990! That’s when a Macintosh IIci was a cutting-edge machine. For anyone with even a passing interest in Apple’s history, this qualifies as something of a treasure trove. That said, I’m not sure there’s much on the CD that you can’t find by digging around in the TidBITS archives; so perhaps this is something that will only appeal to the true TidBITS fans.

The CD will normally sell for just shy of 50 bucks, but if you order before the end of January you can pick it up for only $29.95.

With Macworld Expo 2007 opening tomorrow, I’m starting this place to keep track of product announcements of interest to home security and automation enthusiasts. I’m starting out with just two, but I’ll update this as more come to my attention. If you’re aware of any, please leave a comment.

Indigo 2.0
The latest version of Perceptive Automation’s home automation software goes gold with a new client-server architecture, enhanced support for Insteon devices, irrigation systems, Universal binary, and a new “control pages” features for building AJAX-based web sites to control your home. Upgrade ($90) and introductory pricing ($180) is available at their website. Macworld Booth: N4234-6

Phone Valet 5
This home and small business phone automation package adds several new features including unlimited voice call trees, expanded Address Book integration, and something called “CCT”. That’s “Call Completion Technology,” a patented approach to ensuring that incoming calls are smoothly directed to a live person or voice mail, if no one is available to answer. See their website for details. Macworld Booth: S1912

Toast 8
OK, it’s not exactly related to home automation, but there’s such a big overlap with home theatre geeks that I’m going to include it anyway. Roxio Toast 8 Titanium includes TiVoToGo functionality. Finally, Mac users can transfer recorded shows to their iPod, Mac, or burn them on DVD. There are plenty of other new features, but for me, this is the only one that matters. More details at their website. Macworld Booth: 314

Nisus Software has announced a new product, Nisus Writer Pro, which adds new features to the old Writer Express code.

These new features include line numbering, text wrap around images, tables of contents, and cross-referencing. Here’s a screenshot, the first of a gallery of screenshots that might interest you. Personally, I find that initial shot of the document window with all the palettes and drawers open a little off-putting - it’s a good idea to browse through the whole gallery, then you get a much clearer idea of how some of the new features work.

I say the software’s been announced, and it has, but at the moment there’s no clear date for an actual release. The Nisus guys say there might be a beta release soon, so if you happen to bump into any of them at Macworld, be sure to nag them about it.

A moment of silence for Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, who passed away this weekend in Japan. Food shortages after World War II helped inspire his creation. If there is a universal cuisine of programmers, Jolt Cola and instant ramen are surely prime components. The “Cup Noodle” featuring ramen in its distinct styrofoam container was introduced in 1971 and has littered the desktops of programmers around the world ever since.

A big howdy to everyone stopping by to pick up their weekly dose of Napster freebies. These freebies can help you fill up your iPod or Zune or Zen or whatever with fun new artists. The links provided here appear to work without limitations in many countries around the world. As always, if you have any feedback drop me an email or leave a comment below.

“For You” by Raul Malo
Influenced by Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, this Miami-born Cuban led The Mavericks to Grammy and Country Music Association awards success. While his recent solo work has seen him return to his Cuban roots, it’s still infused with his love for American country. [Jan 5]

“Glassbottom Lights (Remix)” by The Tyde
Half the members of this So-Cal rock group are also members of Beechwood Sparks. Download this track and get into the synthy dance remix courtesy of James Figurine (aka Jimmy Tamborello, of Postal Service fame). [Jan 4]

“Lady Don’t Tek No (Live Version - EXPLICIT)” by Lyrics Born
This S.F. Bay-area rapper was the first to put out an album on the influential Solesides label (also home to Lateef and DJ Shadow). The label may be gone, but the music is still strong. Check out this track from the live album Overnite Enco [Jan 3]

“Step Out of the Shade” by Amy Speace
This talented songstress fuses folk, country and pop styles in her music. Check out this breezy number from her latest album, Songs for Bright Street. [Jan 2]

“There’ll Be Some Changes Made” by Tess Williams
This hard-stomping take comes from Williams’ live album Totally Tess. Though she’s a relative unknown, her bluesy delivery and this jazz standard’s subject matter are just the thing to start the New Year off on the right foot. [Jan 1]

“Lost in Boston” by The Walkmen
These guys hustle. Not only have they done world tours and appeared in the TV series The O.C., but they also run their own rehearsal space and recording studio in New York City, where they make music like this rocker from A Hundred Miles Off. [Dec 31]

“Untitled Pt. 1″ by The Punks
This noise-rock outfit from Olympia, Washington creates experimental, improvised soundscapes that may be baffling to some, but have kept the quartet recording and playing for fans for three years running. Download this “song” and draw your own conclusions. [Dec 30]

You might have already noticed the release, a couple of days ago, of WriteRoom 2.0. There’s been some discussion of it at [TUAW] and Ars Technica’s Infinite Loop.

Some users are critical of Jesse Grosjean’s decision to charge a (very moderate, in my view) fee for the new release. That’s a shame, because WriteRoom is more than just a simple full-screen mode. The new features I’m excited about are the typewriter scrolling mode (makes typing long screeds of words much easier) and the live word count (appears in the lower-left corner of the screen, very unobtrusively).

Other World Computing and Axiotron throw down the gauntlet and announce the first Tablet Mac to be unveiled at Macworld 2007. This is going to be interesting. (Axiotron Press Release)

Friday has rolled around once again, and this week many of you have new digital music players to enjoy. Load ‘em on up with this fresh heap of Napster freebies.

“Make Love” by Jess Klein
Even with six albums under her belt, Jess Klein’s latest is her most revelatory. City Garden, which features today’s free download, is an emotional work which Klein hopes will “release and heal.” Download this track and get soothed. [Dec 29]

“Ella y Yo” by Aventura
Known for their excellent musicianship, look for these Dominican sensations to enjoy a long and prosperous career. This reggaeton offering features one of the genre’s heavy hitters, Don Omar. [Dec 28]

“Can’t Stop” by Ozomatli
This Los Angeles collective’s infectious mix of salsa, hip hop and jazz-funk has earned them a Grammy and countless fans. Download this track and be among the first to get an early taste of Ozo’s highly anticipated new album, Don’t Mess with the Dragon, currently set for release in March. [Dec 27]

“Two Ton Paperweight (EXPLICIT)” by Psychostick
Originally from Odessa, Texas, this band has undergone many transformations on their way to becoming what you hear today. Almost everyone can relate to this hardcore ode to a less-than-dependable hunk of metal (also known as a car) from Psychostick’s debut album, We Couldn’t Think of a Title. [Dec 26]

“Greensleeves (Alternate Take 6)” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
Merry Christmas from the man behind the music for the beloved Peanuts TV specials. This alternate take from the Charlie Brown Christmas sessions (done as a bossa nova rather than the jazz waltz version used in the show) is from the newly expanded and remastered soundtrack. [Dec 25]

“Jingle Bells” by Lisa Loeb
Pop star Lisa Loeb remembers that Christmas is really for the kids and offers this “gift,” as featured on Kid’s Club–Holiday Fun Volume 1, a diverse collection of children’s holiday favorites. [Dec 24]

“Mais” by Pierre Aderne
Originally released in Brazil in 2005, the third album from this former competitive swimmer has made its way around the world and has become a Top 10 album in Japan. This track features one of Aderne’s diverse Brazilian musical styles. [Dec 23]

Here’s part 2 of my round-of of the year’s Mac news and opinions here at the Mac Devcenter blog. If you missed Part 1, here it is.

Another astonishing thing happening in the Mac developer community. 100 developers signed up for MacSanta, offering 200 products.

This practically proves that there is a need for a Mac Marketplace.

Here’s this week’s edition of Napster Freebies. To sum up the feedback from the last few weeks, these links seem to work internationally and do not require a Napster account to use. If you find otherwise, let me know by email or add a comment below. I hope you enjoy the music and that you discover an artist or two this way.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by Aaron Shust
This staff member and worship leader of the Perimeter Church in Atlanta paid his dues playing colleges and coffee houses, drawing on influences including Motown, Bob Marley, and U2. Hear the result in his take on this enduring carol. [Dec 22]

“Stalk U” by Los Abandoned
Los Abandoned unite the Casio keyboard with gritty electric guitars and bittersweet ukulele to form their post-punk/Latin-alternative sound. What does that sound like? Download this track and find out. [Dec 21]

“How Long” by Kenny White
Veteran songwriter/composer Kenny White has done everything from commercial jingles to working with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Dwight Yoakam, and Gladys Knight. This track is from his latest album, Never Like This. [Dec 20]

“The Awful Things” by Simon Dawes
Malibu’s most wanted indie-rockers keep it loose, clanky, and cool on this fan favorite from their first full-length album, Carnivore. Enough chunky guitars, melodic hooks, and hand-claps to satisfy the most jaded power-pop aficionado. [Dec 19]

“Grim Reaper Blues” by Entrance
On his fourth Entrance album, Guy Blakeslee realizes a fully amplified electric orchestra to channel his free-flowing spiritual theater, equally inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Timothy Leary, and Delta-Blues legend Charley Patton. [Dec 18]

“When We Were Young” by Life of Riley
Houston-based alt-rock brothers Cassidy and Brice Campbell made a name for themselves producing hits for Christian groups including Inhabited and Modern Day John. This wistful rocker is the first single is from their new band’s debut album, Days Aw [Dec 17]

“Posters” by Jeffrey & Jack Lewis
Already known as an underground comic book artist and for his association with the Moldy Peaches, Jeffrey Lewis has just released his third album, recorded with his bass-playing younger brother, Jack. Is that a snippet of Gilligan’s Island melody we detect at the top? [Dec 16]

A new version of iTerm is out today that brings some very noticeable speed and font rendering improvements. If you tried iTerm before and didn’t like it because it felt slow and the display appeared ever-so-slightly fuzzy, get this update and see that things are looking a lot better. It now looks and feels just as fast as Terminal…plus it has tabs and other niceties that Terminal doesn’t.

Try it and feel the improvement.

And while we’re on this topic, does anyone have any intel on Leopard packing a new Terminal?

Was 2006 a good year for Apple? Yeah, I’d say so. If only for the incredible speed and smoothness of the transition to Intel, not forgetting all the new iPods, Core 2 Duo processors, and hints of what’s to come (in the form of the iTV and Leopard sneak peaks).

How have we covered things here at the Mac DevCenter blog? In an informative and entertaining way, we hope. Here’s an overview of the news from the first half of the year; I’ll post the second half tomorrow.

PreFab Software just released the 2.0 update to their UI Browser software. For those of you unfamiliar with this product, it allows you to select any on-screen element and determine how to address it via AppleScript and System Events. This can save you a huge amount of effort when you attempt to script Applications without (or with inadequate) AppleScript dictionaries. The 2.0 update is now a universal binary with enhanced functionality to make the scripting process easier. You can read about the specific updates here.

Parallels released Parallels Desktop for Mac Beta-2. This beta update addresses what I’m guessing is one of the most asked for features: USB 2.0 support (vs. the slower USB 1.1). The USB 2.0 support is not complete yet as Parallels admits in their press release: Work with critical USB 2.0 devices like external hard drive, printers, and scanners at full native speeds. Just plug and play! A heads up; “isynchronous” devices like Bluetooth devices, webcams, etc. do not work with USB 2.0 yet, but we’re working hard to get them up and running.

Parallels Transporter lets you migrate a VMware Workstation or Microsoft Virtual PC image to Parallels. Add all this to the Coherence mode made available in the first beta and enhanced in this one and you have to wonder how VMware’s Fusion for the Mac will fare when they release their first public beta (presumably in a few weeks during Macworld).

Looks like I’m not the only one who was wowed by Parallels Desktop for Mac in 2006. Macworld’s readers gave it the nod for the favorite Mac software for 2006.

Readers’ Choice Awards: Parallels Desktop and 24-inch iMac

In the latest innovative move by Mac software developers to pool their resources and help promote their products, the MacSanta holiday discount campaign has been launched. By simply using the discount code “MACSANTA” before December 25 on a variety of different Mac software sites, customers can save 20% off the list price on some of the most popular and respected Mac applications.

It may not quite be the Mac Shareware Store that Oliver Breidenbach is calling for, but with participants like BareBones Software (BBEdit) and Rogue Amoeba (Audio Hijack Pro), you can definitely get some deals on some great Mac software. If you want to see a list of the companies participating, join the campaign with your own products, or read a silly Mac holiday poem,
visit the MacSanta site.

The notMac Challenge is a recent effort that aims to create the incentive for developing a .Mac replacement in exchange for $10,000. From the official website:

Since Apple decided to start charging for dotMac, I’ve spent $495 to keep some useful files remotely accessible on my iDisk and sync my bookmarks, address book and calendar between computers. While I find these features incredibly useful and convenient, I have no need for any of dotMac’s web-based services, and as a result, I don’t think I’ve been getting a good value from Apple. I know that workarounds exist that allow one to take advantage of dotMac’s services without a dotMac account, but they require a level of technical proficiency that I just don’t have. I’ve no doubt there are a lot of people like me.

The goal of the notMac Challenge is to create the incentive for someone to make an alternative dotMac solution available for the general public. Since this is something that could benefit a large number of people in the Mac community, I figure what better way to create that incentive than to invite anyone interested to contribute to the reward.

To make the stakes even richer, I’ll match every contribution up to a total of $10,000. So, if you contribute $100, I’ll double it for a total of $200. Hopefully, in a short amount of time, the prize pool will be large enough to encourage someone out there to liberate the less technically literate of us from the obligation to pay Apple $99 a year.

Sounds neat, doesn’t it? It’ll be especially interesting to see what kinds of developers step up and how all of the administrivia works out assuming geographically separated developers who don’t know one another try to coordinate and manage the work to a schedule. Heck, just doing the “general contracting” for an effort like this could be quite time consuming if enough parties were involved. Still, $10,000 sounds pretty reasonable considering that much of this work could be pieced together with some existing high-quality applications and a relatively minor amount of custom scripting.

Of course, a fixed $10,000 prize doesn’t address the recurring cost of web hosting for thousands of potential users, so perhaps that figure is just for the initial development of an out-of-the-box notMac server?

In any event, I wish these folks the best of luck. It’s always exciting to root for the underdog.

Last month, Andrew at MacWork.com wrote an intriguing post about one of his customer’s Powerbooks getting literally fried by a botched cable modem service call. After a rash of questions and doubtful comments he’s now posted all the grisly details, with photos, in MacInferno Part II: The full story of how the cable company incinerated my Powerbook.

If you like seeing toasted hardware, it’s worth checking out. I’ve had my own experiences with inept cable technicians before, but this one definitely takes the cliche to a whole new level.

Since last week, more and more international readers have e-mailed me to let me know that they’ve been able to download tracks from the O’Reilly Friday Napster posts. Because of that, I’m just going to stop saying “US Only”, because clearly it isn’t. As always, if you enjoy these posts or want to give me some feedback, drop me an email or leave a comment. And don’t forget to tell your friends to pop by on Fridays and pick up their freebies to fill up their iPods.

“Tightwire” by Tom Langford
Over a decade has passed since Langford hitchhiked through Europe, living on bananas, tea, and toast while playing in cafés and bars. Download this track to hear why XM Satellite Radio named him Best New Acoustic Rock Artist of 2005. [Dec 15]

“Do the Coup D’Etat” by Hot One
Not content with having made the transition from post-punk rocker to busy film composer, singer/guitarist Nathan Larson assembled this politically charged band featuring musicians who have worked with both David Bowie and Guided By Voices. [Dec 14]

“Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” by Romeo
Following in his father’s footsteps, the son of rap mogul Master P has already has four albums and his own Nickelodeon show under his belt. Not one to rest on his laurels, the young man is back with a first single from his latest release, God’s Gift. [Dec 13]

“Confidence” by Motion Man (with Kutmasta Kurt)
You may know this Kool Keith cohort from his many appearances on the Wake Up Show and his work on the Masters of Illusion album with another Keith crony, beatsmith Kutmasta Kurt. The two team up again for this cut from Motion Man’s Pablito’s Way [Dec 12]

“Down” by Terron Brooks
Terron Brooks is an accomplished singer/songwriter/actor who has performed and won fans all around the globe. He has also performed on Broadway in the The Lion King and Hairspray. “Down” is from his new album, coming in early 2007. [Dec 11]

“Calima” by Armik
This accomplished, passionate flamenco guitarist turned pro at 12, has had a unique instrument created for him, and had his music played during the 2004 Summer Olympics. Listen and be moved. [Dec 10]

“Drown You Out” by Amity Lane
Members of former band Trust Company changed their name after getting caught up in the major label shuffle. Now with a new label and a new album, they continue to rock, as on this appropriately titled free download. [Dec 9]

Bumped: If you’ve got a Photoshop CS2 license, you will soon be able to download the Mac CS3 beta. Details here. John Nack of Adobe states the beta should be available within the next 24 hours. FAQ is here.Update: Download is now available here. You’ll need to generate a serial number for the CS3 beta by entering your CS2 serial number here. More updates and first impressions after my download completes and I get time to start playing with the software.

Next month’s Macworld show in San Francisco is going to be a busy one for us here at O’Reilly. We’ve got a full line-up of authors speaking at the conference, giving in-booth talks, and participating in special events, and of course some great new books to peruse. We’ll be offering a 25% discount on all of our Mac and Digital Media titles during the show, and if you buy two or more books you’ll also get a free T-shirt (while supplies last).

We’ve also cooked up a special pre-Macworld event that will be held at the esteemed Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera on January 7 at 7:00 p.m. An expert panel of O’Reilly authors, including Derrick Story, Mikkel Aaland, Stephen Johnson, and Ken Milburn, will be on hand to discuss the state of digital photography and answer questions.

For all the details about O’Reilly’s Macworld events, including a speaker schedule, check out O’Reilly Happenings at Macworld SF 2007. And if you’re at the show, please stop by and say “hi” — we’ll be at Booth #2112 in the South Hall. Hope to see you there!

So, the Illuminous rumors are spreading. Personally, I don’t expect Aqua to be replaced, so much as refined. Every new release of OS X has introduced some changes and refinements, and this will no doubt be the case in Leopard. There’s been a lot of use of bezels, head-up display panels and of shiny black emphasis in recent changes to Apple apps, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see this year’s refinements heading in that direction too.

Find out what happened when a very old iBook running OS X 10.3 ran out of hard disk space. (What’s more interesting is the reason why it had run out…)

It is true that older users love Macs? In my experience, yes. My mom (62) is deliriously happy with her recently-purchased MacBook.

Writer is a no-distractions writing tool based on Khoi Vinh’s Blockwriter idea, which I ranted against before. I downloaded it and tried it out, but I still can’t see the point of a writing app that doesn’t allow you to delete, and leaves you with text littered with struck-out characters. After five minutes of typing, all I was left with was a mess.

Meg Pickard is a recent newcomer to OS X, but is having problems with iPhoto. And I can sympathise with her on this one. Picasa is one of the few Windows apps which I think does a better job than the OS X equivalent (iPhoto).

System icons as soft furnishings. This is why Mac owners get the “cultist” label…

Until yesterday, I was completely unaware that Amazon even offered free MP3 downloads. I have no idea how often these change or how often they update their site. This is a first and very experimental post. Let me know whether the links work for you or not.

“Today is the Day” by Apollo Sunshine
Eyes by by Apollo Sunshine
Apollo Sunshine’s new CD, Apollo Sunshine is likely unlike anything else you’re listening to right now. While the record fuses together familiar sounds, it’s a genre-crossing earful that sounds all-new. Try one track exclusively on Amazon.com, then grab another.

“Why Bother It All” from Koufax’s Hard Times Are in Fashion
“Shame and Scandal” from Madness’s The Dangermen Sessions, Vol. 1
’80s favorite Madness is back with a funky bunch of cool covers on The Dangermen Sessions, Vol. 1 and indie rockers Koufax hit their stride with Hard Times Are in Fashion. Download [a] free track from each new release.

“Plasti-Queens” from Shrinking Violets
“Before Kings” from Geoff Byrd’s Shrinking Violets
Great pop songs with catchy hooks that invite you to sing along? Check. Melodies and a great voice? Check. If you’re a fan of Gavin DeGraw or Rob Thomas types, but still love classic pop songs, check out Geoff Byrd’s music. Trust us: You can say you heard him first after he becomes a well-known star. Download two free tracks from Geoff’s CD, Shrinking Violets.

Do you live somewhere without an iTunes store? Or even somewhere with an iTunes store but without any freebies? Feeling a little bit left out and ignored as all those marvelous free items pass you by? Want to get in on the action?

Well, it seems like there may be a slight loophole in the Napster Freebies system. Several international readers (from Australia, France, Germany and the UK) report they’ve been able to download tracks from my O’Reilly Friday Napster posts but not from the Napster site itself.

Do these freebies work for you? Do they play back in iTunes and on your iPod? Let me know in the comments.

“American Me” by C.L. Smooth
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth made some of the most memorable tracks of hip hop’s Golden Era. Now on a solo mission sans his super-producer partner, C.L. delivers the title track to his solo debut, picking up where he left off. [Dec 8]

“The Land of Pure Imagination” by Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.
His early, insatiable hunger for music led this veteran keyboardist/arranger/singer to gigs with Jellyfish, Moog Cookbook, Air, and Beck.Those influences are reflected in this track’s wild synths, tempo shifts and ’70s-style guitar riffs. [Dec 7]

“The Mating Game” by Bitter:Sweet
Take one founding member of the Supreme Beings of Leisure, mix with the daughter of a founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, and you get this cool duo. Listen and be swept away on a sultry yet zany Las Vegas/James Bondish excursion. [Dec 6]

“Fall Away (State I’m In)” by Chris Ayer
This well-traveled bard has been described as “Bright Eyes mixed with James Taylor in the form of James Dean.” Hear it for yourself with this track from his debut full-length album, This Is the Place. [Dec 5]

“Turn” by Socratic
After years of marching with the emo pack, this Garden State foursome has come into its own with the help of producer John Goodmanson of Hot Hot Heat fame. Get it first on Napster. [Dec 4]

“Showbiz” by Lyrycyst
After surviving childhood abuse, this Kansas City, Missouri phenom embarked on a musical mission. This edgy hip-hop grinder from the diverse American Dream presents his positive message while showcasing his substantial skills. [Dec 3]

“What’s Wrong with Me (Nouvelle Vague Remix)” by Skye
Time in the limelight has taught this former Morcheeba singer about inner strength, which she says has helped her writing. “This record is more personal,” she says. “This is my own journey.” This remix lends the track an even more organic feel. [Dec 2]

If you ever needed an excuse for buying some shiny new software for your Mac, today you’ve been offered one on a plate. No less than 15 Mac developers have clubbed together to support the Child’s Play charity, which provides toys and games for children in hospital.

If you buy any of the apps listed here today (Thursday December 7th), your money will be donated directly to Child’s Play. Each of the developers has agreed to forego their earnings on these apps, just for today, and donate that money instead. Congratulations are due to all of those enlightened developers for their support.

And if you’ve been thinking about buying Pukka, Delicious Library, VoodooPad, WebNoteHappy, iRooster, Slingshot, Knox, Rolling Credits, or any of the other dozen or so excellent apps included in the deal, now is probably the best time to do it. You don’t just get your app, you get free warm fuzzies thrown in.

Parallels released a new beta (Build 3036) of Parallels Desktop for Mac (my personal favorite Mac App of the Year). The list of enhancements and new features is long… really long. Head over to the forum posting at Parallels to read the full details.

Parallels Desktop for Mac (Beta) Build 3036

A couple of the ones that interest me most are:

• Drag and drop files and folders between Windows and Mac
  
• Read/write Apple Boot Camp partition
  
• Coherence: Display individual Windows apps as if they were Mac OS X apps
  

Windows Vista Build 5744 froze at startup after rebooting to install the new Parallels Tools for Windows. But, hey, its a beta. And, maybe I missed a step somewhere when upgrading Parallels Tools. In any case, I have a backup image of it and can either try again with that or install a real released Build 6000 instead.

I’m upgrading my Parallels virtual machine of Ubuntu Linux as I type this blog item. And, that seems to be going well. I can try Vista again later.

In today’s Chicago Tribune, Dan Lewis, a Mac user from Aurora, Illinois (home of Wayne’s World, by the way) talks about his Mac-based home theatre setup in the article Computers serve films on demand. He’s using an iMac as a media server and a Mac mini aside his TV to provide instant access to 100 DVDs, 12,000 songs, and over 4,000 photos. The article touches on Front Row, Bonjour, and other familiar pieces. It’s a neat example of living the “digital lifestyle” and points out how inexpensive it can be to put together a rather sophisticated solution, provided that you use a Mac.

DataPlot is a new graph plotting tool for OS X. Here’s a very positive review by a beta tester. According to developer David Adalsteinsson, it handles hundreds of thousands of rows without complaint, and has hooks into the command line and Automator.

Special discounts day for UK customers on December 1.

Here’s a GTD idea that’s new to me, and looks very neat: a TextMate bundle for Backpack. Via Hawkwings (which has more screenshots).

Our Fraser’s been busy again, making kid-friendly web browsers.

Today’s Security Update announcement includes fixes for holes in WebKit, Finder, Airport, PHP and others.

After being out all week (my parents’ 50th anniversary), I finally got around to writing up this week’s iTunes Freebies post over at TUAW. It should go live later this evening or tomorrow morning.

Sorry about the delay.

So Twitter is suddenly the hot web meme of the moment, and I’m a Twitterin’ with the best of them. And it’s fun.

But I don’t like keeping a browser window open just for browsing and posting Twitters; and I don’t tend to have a compatible IM app open very often either. I’ve been on the hunt for something that’ll do the same job, but unobtrusively.

Terminal is a great application for the occasional user of the Mac’s command line; it’s clean, fast, and always there. But many system administrators, developers, and others who work with the command line daily find that Terminal isn’t really what they’re used to, mainly because it’s missing features commonly found in Linux terminal emulators, like tabbed session windows and advanced profile support. IT pros looking for these timesaving features on the Mac, then, have come to rely on iTerm, the open source (GPL) terminal emulator that has recently received several much-anticipated updates

In fact, there was some concern about the state of the iTerm project as updates were slow in coming over the last couple of years. Still technically in beta, iTerm has had its share of bugs and stability issues. The thought that these might not be fixed concerned many loyal users, some of whom are able to use the Mac to do their work only because of iTerm. However, the days of sporadic releases appear to be over. In the last two months alone, iTerm’s hardworking developers released three updates (the latest being version 0.9.3), each with significant feature additions, bug fixes, and UI improvements.

For example, one common complaint of iTerm has been its text redraw speed, especially when compared to Terminal. The new releases address this, providing a “Display Refreshing Rate” slider that allows fine tuning of redraw speed against CPU usage. With this set at its default speed (in the middle), iTerm appears just as fast as Terminal at paging through a document in vi, for example, and consumes roughly the same amount of CPU. With this setting cranked up, iTerm zooms through the pages, and handily beats Terminal. And even at the “fastest” setting, the CPU hit has not been much of a problem for me, rarely surpassing 30% on my Core Duo MacBook Pro (iTerm is Universal Binary).

Other recent enhancements to iTerm include terminfo support, an Execute field in the toolbar, macro support in profile connection strings, and Growl support. Check the version history for full details, but it looks like iTerm is back, and it’s better than ever.

How Suw fixed her iBook.

Jim Roepcke on resolution independent UI: Most people will use that to increase the resolution of the UI, but I’ve used it to decrease the resolution… at a 0.75 factor, I can comfortably fit 4 windows on the screen. In fact, at 0.5, I can fit nine poker table windows on the screen simultaneously with no significant overlap. Awesome!

Mira brings Front Row-like functionality to older Macs, using an Apple Remote and a USB receiver.

Eastgate has posted some very informative Tinderbox screencasts. I learned more from watching these than from several trial sessions with Tinderbox over recent years.

Jonathan Sanderson on Apple’s customer service: Listening to the customer and addressing the problem will beat lying and not fixing things, every time.

Our friends over at Makezine found an interesting article by Ryan Faas on using a Mac today as a media center. Building a Mac Home Media Center, Part 1: How To Get iTV Capabilities Today, For Less, has some good information for anyone considering using their Mac in this fashion. We also recently published an article by Matthew Russell on how to turn your Mac into a TV/PVR using Miglia’s TV Micro USB tuner and EyeTV software, Miglia TVMicro and EyeTV: Easy TV on Your Mac.

While iTV is on the horizon, Ryan points out that there’s an awful lot you can do right now if you don’t mind fiddling with things a bit. I own an older Powerbook with a damaged screen and have been thinking about doing something along these lines with it, so this article is very timely for me. I’m especially looking forward to the second installment where he covers using a Mac as a PVR, but this first article also had some helpful tips that I wasn’t aware of, like this information on completely controlling an infrared-capable Mac with the remote control:

Use the Apple Remote to sleep/wake a Mac in your entertainment center. If you install a Mac mini (or other Mac model) as a unit in your home entertainment center, you might want to operate it completely from the remote (as a piece of home theater equipment instead of a computer). Not only can you invoke and navigate Front Row all from the Apple remote but you can also put the computer to sleep or wake it from sleep by holding the play/pause button on the remote for three seconds. Pressing any button on the remote wakes the computer. This approach can also be helpful if you want to use a TV (or external display) with a MacBook or MacBook Pro while keeping the computer closed because you can connect the TV or display, sleep the computer by closing the lid and wake it with the remote.

Are others out there happily using Macs as their media centers and PVRs? I’d be real interested in hearing your success stories. And your not so successful ones, too.

Allan Odgaard made it plain in a recent post that TextMate 2.0 will require Leopard.

I thought his list of “costs” for maintaining backwards-compatible code was very interesting:

Today’s freebies roundup is hosted over at TUAW.

Tom Yager put an Xserve through the paces and came away very impressed. In his InfoWorld article, Apple Xserve: The final review, Yager praises just about everything he can about Xserve, including the high-quality engineering, ease of deployment, accessible standards-based components, and new lights-out management support. But he was especially impressed with Mac OS X Server Tiger 10.4.8 and its overall cost, noting appreciatively (and repeatedly) how OS X Server comes pre-loaded with full versions of most commonly needed server software.

Apple is going to sell complete server platforms that buyers purchase, operate themselves and actually own. Seriously. The customer pays the advertised price for an Xserve (starting at $2,999) and gets a server loaded and pre-configured with a server software suite that alone meets the needs of the majority of Intel x86 rack server buyers. There are no subscriptions, no priority update service fees, and no client, device, mailbox or CPU licenses. None of the services is grayed out pending your purchase of an unlock key. Xserve has no try-and-buy, no time bombs and no trip wires telling you that you need to upgrade from Express this or that to Professional this or that. Xserve never phones home to beg for Apple’s permission to use the server software already loaded on your system.

No, I did not turn into Babe Balmer over night…

It is a topic that is close to my heart since we are looking for a talented Cocoa Developer ourselves: the opening of the CocoaDev Job Board. It is good to see this kind of thing happen.

Barebones has sent out an announcement that Yojimbo 1.3 is out now, and the big new feature is tags.

Tags can be added via the Quick Input Panel, the Inspector, or a new Item Details bar that replaces the Encryption bar in previous versions.

I’d show you a screenshot, but at the moment barebones.com seems to be somewhat clogged up with people downloading the update and I can’t reach it at all. More details and opinions later on, once I’ve had a chance to get my hands on it.

The new Core 2 Duo based Apple MacBooks are available now. I’m still making good use of the original model I bought this past Spring. But, the new models not only have a faster CPU, Apple also gave the 2GHz models new standard configurations. The white 2GHz model now sports an 80GB hard drive and 1GB RAM in its standard configuration (vs. 60GB and 512MB). The black model bumps the standard hard drive size to 120GB. And, the prices remain at US$1299 and $1499 respectively.

To get into the spirit of the American election, the iTunes store offers a selection of political podcasts for your listening enjoyment. It’s not exactly Voter Rock, but there’s plenty to choose from whether you’re an Elephant or a Donkey.

US: Smile (Radio Edit) by Lily Allen
It’s hard to figure what the best part of this track is. The dusty old reggae loop, Lily Allen’s cool London drawl, or that little thing she does with her voice when the chorus comes. It’s the purest of bubblegum pop, dressed in an array of 21st century gear, but just as reliant on a sweet, infectious little melody and catchy rhythmic bounce as any great pop tune. Her sassiness comes out in the vocal, where she dismisses the appreciation of a cheating ex-admirer with the right amount of flippancy and vulgarity. Get this track for free today - it’s one of our favorite pop tunes we’ve heard in ages.

US: Don't Be Shy by Spektrum
Sometimes there can be a pretty good excuse for not dancing: certain physical ailments, spacial restrictions, and funk-free music are all pretty good reasons for not hitting the dance floor. But barring the first two: this free Discovery Download basically rocks you from head to toe within the first few seconds. Think Basement Jaxx at their freakiest and you’ve got an idea of the sort of wiggly disco-funk on display here. Now get down and get involved.

US: Ven Aqui by Los Bunkers
This Chilean quintet takes its inspiration from the first wave of the British Invasion (the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones) but are filtering its sound through a newer wave of that genre’s offspring (think Oasis or Franz Ferdinand). “Ven Aqui” takes a bare-bones reggae skank and builds it into a crunchy riff with hand claps and just a little bit of stylish attitude.

Australia: Here We Go Again by Vanlustbader
Coming at you draped in a dark, thunderous cloak of precise, nearly mechanical drums and washes of synthesizers, this Brisbane outfit delivers a fine slice of pop noir with “Here We Go Again,” our free Single of the Week. It’s another tale of unrequited love, this time dolled up in the same sonic flashiness that producer Jim Abbiss has previously brought to acts like Arctic Monkeys and the Editors.

Canada: The Body Says No by The New Pornographers
The New Pornographers - is there anything they can’t do? First, they blow our minds with their fabulous power-pop, now they’re giving us music for free! This explosive take on Mass Romantic’s “The Body Says No” was recorded exclusively for CBC Radio 3. It’s our first of three tracks from the Radio 3/Mint Records archives, as we celebrate Mint’s 15th anniversary. In the meantime, enjoy this free Single of the Week.

UK: All In Good Time by Ron Sexsmith
Usually our Single of the Week is based around new acts that are on their way up. This week differs slightly with the inclusion of a song from Ron Sexsmith. In an idyllic world, Ron Sexsmith’s songwriting genius would be as well-known as the current whereabouts of Pete Doherty. This track from his newest album Time Being - “All In Good Time” - is a Byrds-ian pop song, with Sexsmith’s slightly melancholy notes descending over the uptempo rhythm. He’s one of the top pop songwriters in the world today. We jest you not.

France: Where's My Place by Adam Kesher
Le groupe bordelais Adam Kesher est un pur combo avec un peu de guitare minimale, un peu de percussion disco, un peu plus de leurs propres éléments soniques et un chœur cassant, aspirant à d’autres sommets. C’est une musique de danse pour les cerveaux embrouillés. Le groupe rappelle un peu The Rapture de New York, mais avec une qualité décrochée qui rend les choses un peu imprévisibles. « Where’s My Place » est notre Single gratuit de la semaine.

It’s a strange, strange world. One consequence of Apple’s switch to Intel processors is the ability to run Windows on a Mac. And a consequence of that is Windows developers writing Windows software - on a Mac.

According to an article by Don Hunt, the Internet Home Alliance is launching a pilot program, based in Atlanta, to equip homes with clothes washers and dryers that have the ability to communicate with computers and other devices on a home network. This allows the washer and dryer to communicate status information through TV screens, computer monitors, and cell phones.

The idea is that when a load has finished a message can pop-up on your television letting you know its time to move the clothes to the dryer. Or, if you’re surfing the web, the dryer can ask you if you’d like to add an extra “fluff” cycle to the current load.

The article says that the system doesn’t use an particularly groundbreaking technology. Indeed, if you’d like to try some of this out for yourself, I’ve included some pointers below. You won’t be able to get your dryer online, but you can have notifications about CallerID and other events of interest. No need to wait for the future, get a taste of it now with just a little elbow grease.

See my previous articles Macintosh Home Monitoring and Growling PhoneValet for the basics of notification systems. If you’d like to have CallerID info sent to your television, look into CID clients such as CIDTrackerX (for Macintosh), CallerID Sentry (for Windows), and YAC (for Windows and TiVo). If you prefer a standalone CID-on-TV solution, then consider the TV Messenger which overlays CID info onto any connected boob tube. With the exception of the TV Messenger, you can use these tools to display other types of messages, too. Have fun experimenting.

You need to sign up for a (free) Napster account in order to access these free MP3 files.

“Bread on the Table” by Tom Wurth
An Iowa farm kid turned Grammy nominee in just four years, Wurth lets it rip with this honky-tonkin’ ode to the middle-class squeeze. [Nov 5]

“Send Someone Away feat. Jose Gonzalez” by EMBEE
The well-known DJ (and Swedish Grammy Award winner) joins forces with Scandinavian vocal star Jose Gonzalez on this mellow electro-tinged ditty. [Nov 4]

“Life of the Party” by Little Brother
This highly regarded North Carolina trio delivers another hip-hop gem in the tradition of A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots [Nov 3]

“Shadows” by Honeycut
Blending electronic elements with well-honed pop/R&B instincts, Honeycut brings a new Bay Area sound to this steamy mid-tempo mover from their debut album. [Nov 2]

“Nature of the Experiment” by Tokyo Police Club
Edgy, ear-opening indie rock that takes quirky to the next level. They’re Canadian, by the way. [Nov 1]

“The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg” by Iron Maiden
This precision blast lulls then roars, proving the British metal heroes’ demon-ushering power remains strong — just in time for Halloween. [Oct 31]

Fabulous walkthrough of the Zune on-board interface at Engadget. It’s a bit over 13 minutes long.

Ghost Action, a new Getting Things Done app that synchronizes with iCal.

ThisService turns any script (shell or Apple-) into a proper Service menu item. Nice.

Computerworld has a good review of the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro machines. Turns out their review model ran significantly cooler than a comparable Core Duo computer. The ventilation slots on the newer machine have been redesigned: “Instead of a row of tiny vertical slots, the new laptops have six horizontal openings, each about an inch wide that allow more air in.”

While we’re on the subject, Steven Frank’s written his own mini-review, and says: ”If you’re like me, you try compiling something, and here this machine shines. Doing development on the single core G4 was always a bit slow, especially once I got used to my multi-core PowerMacs at work. But I can see getting a lot done on this MBP.”

OmniWeb is only $9.95 during November! (Version 5.5.1 has just been released, too; mostly bug fixes.)

Gleam is a Flickr uploading app with all the latest UI shinies.

If you’ve been following the hunt-the-monkey antics over at TUAW, you’ll have discovered that the “Hunt Hubert” game (which is featured on many Mac Sharewire sites today) ends at the Who Is Hubert site with an link to download SillySoft’s American History Lux for free. (It normally retails for $15.) As for Hubert: “And if you’re wondering who Hubert is, you’re out of luck for now. We can’t talk about it.”

So how’s the game? It plays a lot like Risk, which means that I got extremely irritated at it within a few minutes. If you like Risk, you may want to download a copy and give it a try.