A little Dilbert Siri humor for your Friday enjoyment.

apple.com/stevejobs

I was doing some testing of the camera in the new iPad 2 and had this strange artifact start showing up on the sensor. It seems to be triggered by bright white points. I’m not sure at the moment if it is a defect or simply a shortcoming of the low end camera sensor Apple is using in the iPad 2. I get the effect in both video and stills. If you are experiencing similar issues or are a smart camera sensor engineer and know what’s causing this, please post in the comments or shoot an email my way (maccast at gmail dot com).

While certainly not a new concept (I think Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow beat Apple to the punch), today I noticed iTunes 10 lists a “Books” entry under my Apple TV. There doesn’t appear to be a corresponding tab for syncing (or streaming) book content to the device though.

So, could this be a sign of a feature to come? Most likely not. It’s probably just a glitch that will be remedied in a future software update. I don’t think there would be much value in being able to sync or stream iBooks to your Apple TV. The one possible exception would be the new “enchanced” iBooks that have multi media features built in. Even then I don’t think there is enough demand to warrant Apple TV support. Plus, the feature seems even stranger if you consider you can’t buy or read iBooks on your Mac yet. Seems like Apple would add support to the desktop long before they’d bring books to the boob tube.

Update:
@h1ro on Twitter mentioned that the Books section might be for syncing of Audiobook content which does fall under the Books section in iTunes. Makes perfect sense and that though occurred to me too. Trouble is, as pointed out above, there is NO corresponding tab in iTunes 10 to manage that content on the Apple TV.

Update #2:
OK, so as @Jose_Gutierrez pointed out, @h1ro is correct. The Books section IS for audiobooks, I just couldn’t see it. Even though I own 15 audiobooks and those are in my iTunes library I can’t sync them to my AppleTV. You see, the feature only supports audiobooks purchased directly from iTunes. Mine were purchased from Audible.com and added to my iTunes library. Even though I can play those books in iTunes, sync them to my iPhone, iPod, and iPad, I can’t play them on my Apple TV. To make things worse and even more confusing, the audiobooks sold on iTunes are “presented by” Audible.com. That is seriously messed up. See kids, this is why DRM is a fricken bad idea.

When I ran the same video after installing the “Gala” build of Flash I saw a significant drop in CPU usage. The CPU load hovered between 30 and 40%, roughly about a 50 to 60% decrease in load. I also didn’t have my fans kick in.

With “Gala”, you can tell when the Flash hardware decoding has kicked in by the appearance of a small white square in the corner of the video. Adobe says that in addition to improved playback of H.264 video the hardware enhanced version of Flash should also result in improved battery life. Might be welcome benefit for long Hulu video watching sessions when away from a power outlet.

To be fair I also switch YouTube over to the HTML 5 beta and tested the same video at 720p. Again in my very non-scientific benchmark test I noted that Safari’s CPU load went up to about 20% with the video playing.

A friend of mine recently posted on Twitter an image like the one above. Very logically he posed this question… How does 3.65 + 0.35 = 3.75? Is this some strange new cult of Apple mathematics? There appeared to be missing 256MB of RAM. Concerned for my friend’s memory loss and a bit puzzled myself, I opened my Activity Monitor. You can see, I had exactly same result. Being the Mac geek that I am, I didn’t panic. I figured there had to be a logical explanation. Maybe this was like hard drives where they say 1 TB on the box, but in reality you get less. That happens because when marketing the hard drive they base the numbers on 1GB equaling 1,000 MB instead of the actual 1024MB that it should. In the case of my RAM that wasn’t it. So what gives?

A quick Google search revealed the logical answer. It’s something I should have realized immediately but didn’t. See, I have a newer 15″ Macbook Pro with an integrated NVIDIA 9400M GPU and it uses… You guessed it. 256MB of shared RAM.

Mystery solved.

Yup. A nice greasy virtual fingerprint keyboard. The iPad, like it’s smaller siblings the iPhone and iPod Touch, loves grease (and cat hair BTW). Luckily it also has the same oleophobic coating as the mini pads too. A simple wipe with a soft lint free cloth resolves the issue. Still kinda funny. For sure you’ll want to keep a cloth around and handy for when you finished fondling your favorite new iThing.

I knew that you Mac Geeks across the pond were used to paying a bit extra for your Apple kit, but I hadn’t realized it had gotten this bad. As I write this, picking up this Mighty Mouse would set you back approx. USD $16,000 and change. Don’t know about you, but for that price I would expect it would have a whole different kind of multi-touch. What might be more amazing than the price tag on this item though, is they seem to be going like hotcakes. “Only 1 left in stock–order soon”.

Obviously someone in the Amazon.com stockroom wasn’t minding their comma and got over excited with the zeros. Thanks to Roz for the tip-off.

What is Movember?

What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime and testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-35.

So, during Movember (the month formerly known as November) I am growing a mustache to show support. The funds raised go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG).

How to Donate

To donate to my Macstache you can either click this link to donate online now using your credit card or PayPal account

Or, write a check payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 353272 and mailing it to:

Movember Foundation
PO Box 2726
Venice, CA 90294-2726

All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Thanks for your support,

Adam.

For a long time now I have been a fan of the “Joy of Tech” comic produced by Nitrozac and Snaggy. As a matter of fact I have had a link to their comic on this blog since it’s inception. They do awesome work and are great contributors to Apple pop culture. You may also recognize their work in the TWiT podcast album art.

The past couple years, just prior to Macworld, the “Joy of Tech” has put out a Macworld celebrity sightings checklist. You can see this years edition here. Last year I began hoping that my Mac celebrity status might rise enough to someday earn a spot on their list. When the comic posted this year I carefully inspected the faces and was very happy to see friends and colleagues like Veronica, Leo, Andy, Chuck, Don, and others all prominently displayed. But alas I didn’t seem to join the ranks this year. Then I noticed a small grouping in the lower corner. There was Jonny, Woz, Sinbad, Derrick, Walt, and could it be? For a brief moment my heart swept and my ego swelled. Was that me? Should I fire up Twitterific and tweet it to the world?

Needless to say… no tweet went out. After that brief moment the euphoria wore off and I came to my senses. It was Robert Scoble. But hey, it’s not all bad. I apparently have a passing resemblance to famous tech blogger Robert Scoble. Plus, if anyone asks if it IS me, I figure I don’t have to go out of my way to deny it. Right?

What is Movember?

Every year 1 in 6 men in the United States will develop prostate cancer and every year in the U.S. 28,000 men will die from the disease. The sad thing is that if detected early 90% of prostate cancer is curable. All it takes for early detection and all that requires is a simple exam.

So, during Movember (the month formerly known as November) I have growing a Moustache to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation and their fight against prostate cancer. The money raised is donated directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and will be used to fund high-impact research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.

How to Donate

To donate to my Macstache you can either click this button and donate online now using your credit card or PayPal account

Or, write a check payable to the ‘Prostate Cancer Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 1695001 and mailing it to:

Prostate Cancer Foundation
Attn: Movember
1250 Fourth St
Santa Monica, CA, 90401

All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Thanks for your support,

Adam.

Those of you who are old enough will maybe remember the 80′s hit Jenny by Tommy Tutone. The song repeated over and over again 8675309, the supposed phone number of a fictitious girl named Jenny. Back then the song drove anyone across the nation with that phone number nuts as they were overwhelmed by annoying random phone calls.

Today, most movies, TV shows, songs, commercials, etc. use a “555″ number to avoid this type of issue. So imagine how strange it was for me last night when I saw one of Apple’s latest iPhone 3G ads prominently featuring what looked like a legitimate phone number. In the new Work Friendly ad for the iPhone 3G there is a point when they display a contact entry for Scott Frankel and right there in the middle of the screen is an actual (408) phone number. Two actually, because there is also a bad edit in the middle where the screen magically changes mid-shot and adds a second “office” number. After my initial shock wore off I began to wonder. Why would Apple use a “real” number in an iPhone ad? Was this simply a mistake by the ad agency? A clever marketing campaign? I could see by the zip code it was a Cupertino number, so was this a secret hotline into Apple’s headquarters? Well, any Mac geek can probably guess what I did next. Of course. I grabbed my own iPhone and started dialing.

The first number, Scott’s “mobile”, simply had a call failure each time I tried it. The second “work” number went straight into a generic voicemail box. Now, I didn’t leave a message, but I have to wonder what would happen if you did. What is the point of all this? Is there a point? In the back of my mind I was kind of hoping this was a great viral marking scheme and the start of some cool iPhone/Apple treasure hunt like the kind of campaigns the folks over at Mac Heist have crafted in the past. But alas, it doesn’t appear to be so. Seems like a missed opportunity. Truth is, it’s probably just a prank on some poor unsuspecting intern who works at Apple. This guy is now wondering why he gets like 3,000 voice mails a day and why the folks in marketing snicker at him as he shuffles out of his cubicle each day to go have lunch. Maybe he should give Jenny a call and see if she’s available to join him?

Today, Psystar tried to put all naysayers to rest by posting this video on their web site. They claim it shows their Open Computers running OS X Leopard, Ubuntu 8, and Windows Xp Professional. Now I am not refuting their claims, but as I watched the video I did notice some things that seem just too wonky not to point out. Besides I always love a good conspiracy theory.

As the video opens we see the alleged Open Computer running OS X on the far left. There is a bundle of small cables under the desk below the system and it looks like they are probably Ethernet cables. Nothing too unusual but, as you will see, they later seem to disappear. Even more unusual is the space below the desk on the right where there is an empty wire rack shelf system. Note that at this point in the video there seems to be nothing there. Also note that the area to the right of the display is empty. These two points will become significant later.

As the camera pans right we see the Ubuntu machine and the Windows box. Both have several cables coming out the side of the computer and running to the right toward the monitor.

Now notice the Mac system… no cables coming off to the right like with the Ubuntu and PC systems. Also notice that the bundle of Ethernet-like cables pointed out in the opening scene no longer seem to be visible.

Next the video transitions into showing the Open Computer supposedly running Leopard and the Mac version of Quake 4. What is interesting in this shot is there now seems to be an extra cable running from the right of the monitor toward the area of the desk where the empty wire shelf system sits. That shelf is also no longer empty as it looks like it now has a strange blue box sitting on it. At first I thought the cable near the monitor might be the mouse cable, but in the Quake demo scene you can clearly see the mouse cable moving with this mysterious second cable above it. The thicker cable does seem to be the monitor cable and it is going off to the right not the left. Remember, the Open Computer that is supposed to be running OS X Leopard is to the left of the monitor, not the right. Interesting.

Finally, the closing shot shows the exterior of the Psystar offices. When reports of Psystar and their Open Computer (initially called the Open Mac) first surfaced on the web, several reports noted that they changed their address as many as 3 times. Now that fact alone is strange enough, but throw in a phone number with an oddly high number of 6′s, plus the fact that they seem to want to keep things private and you have the makings of a full blown conspiracy.

Can someone ring up Fox and see if he is available to come down to Florida?

In the scene Mr. Incredible gets a secret message delivered in the form a ultra-thin tablet-style computer which he slips out of a manila style envelope. Take a look at the two images below (thanks Robert for the caps) and you’ll see what I mean.

I’m twenty years old and a total geek, but I’ve only had owned mobile phone for about 3 weeks. My first phone was a V3 Razr, which was okay, but after owning the (hacked) iPod Touch and always thinking “I could click this number and call it if this were an iPhone” the Razr felt very limited. Even more so when browsing the web with the Opera browser or playing any games. Then came Sunday January 19th, the day I lost my iPod somewhere in New Jersey. The next day I went out and bought an iPhone.

Despite not owning a mobile in the past, I have spent quality time with Treos, Razrs, various Motorala models, and the iPhone. So my post isn’t completely without merit and experience. Browsing the web on those phones does not at all compare to the experience Safari provides on the iPhone. I would go so far to say that for the average consumer the only advantage they have are physical buttons, which allow you to dial numbers without looking when you’re driving… which we all do despite how dangerous it is. So in my fanboyish way I’ll check that off as Apple looking out for my safety.

A large portion of complaints I’ve heard are fixed, fixable, or just trivial. SMS messaging and overall performance of the phone has been greatly improved with the recent 1.1.3 update. The Software Development Kit (SDK) will be providing us with plenty of third party software without any hacks. Edge may not be the fastest, but isn’t nearly as slow as some people would have you think. iPhone does not sync with iTunes over the air, record video, send pictures and video messages to other phones, copy and paste, work with Exchange, have an easily replaceable battery, or have a slot for adding more memory. But the question I asked myself before buying was if I, or anyone, really needs those things.

Some complaints are like the lack of Exchange support are completely legitimate and crippling to some business customers. However the majority of complaints can, and likely will be fixed in future updates. The fact that the battery is not accessible to consumers is the biggest shame on Apple. If you’re going to spend 400 USD on a phone you should be able to access the battery without Apple/ATT getting involved. You will likely never seen an iPhone with a card slot to add a petty couple gigs of storage, and Apple has never released an iPod where you can easily access the battery. Perhaps this is just a train of thought we will have to get used to.

Apple has a decent chat client on OS X with iChat, so why this wasn’t available to us on the iPhone at launch is beyond me. When looking at the overall picture the iPhone keeps you connected in every single way your Mac’s default software does except for instant messaging. Doubtless this will be addressed by Apple in the future or by a third party, but Instant Messaging was a standard part of mobile phones well before the iPhone came to the scene. I’ve used the web-based clients and they are nice, but a native iChat client would allow notifications and a lot more features. You could list loads of apps that should be on the iPhone, but given how third party applications are just around the corner there really isn’t a problem. (Though I must admit I painfully miss Labyrinth and themes.)

The biggest problem is if you’re using the iPhone on anything but a Mac it can be a totally different experience. iPhone really is designed around iLife, so even if it works without flaw you’re not getting the same experience a Mac user is. Telling it to sync with Outlook and “My Pictures” just isn’t as intuitive and smooth. For example take a look at the Apple support forums; you will see plenty more threads from Windows users begging for help than Mac users. I am one of those people. I only own a PC at the moment, there is a Mac mini in my house. The problems were so annoyingly painful I decided to just sync to the Mac Mini until I get my own Mac. There are literally dozens of threads on the Apple support forums with people asking for help with the same problems over and over, getting no replies. Even if it is a small portion of the user-base, these issues are understandably annoying. This is the collective fault of Apple and Microsoft I’m sure, but the responsibility in my eyes is with Apple to provide a complete experience for any operating system they support.

This all said, I’m still fresh with my iPhone. As time goes on and we see more updates and the first third party apps you can expect to hear from me again.

Update: Thanks to all who commented and provided feedback. Looks like this error is spawned by my Twitter client checking the server feed too often. I changed the setting and all is right with the tweets! ]]> http://www.maccast.com/2008/01/09/twitterpated/feed/ 6 http://www.maccast.com/2007/11/21/life-with-an-old-mac/ http://www.maccast.com/2007/11/21/life-with-an-old-mac/#comments Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:26:33 +0000 Charles Sporn http://www.maccast.com/2007/11/21/life-with-an-old-mac/ Despite being a blogger here for almost 6 months, I have not posted at all for many reasons, one of which will soon become clear. Therefore, an introduction is in order. My name is Charles Sporn, I am a Mac-head, I run a website called Freecasts.net (can you guess the domain name? If you guessed http://freecasts.net, you are right!), I also have a semi dead podcast called “Fredric’s Fantastic Freeware.” For the past 9 months, my main computer was my MacBook. I used it for my video editing, audio production, and more photo editing than I ever thought I would be doing. Not to mention I used it at school. Then about 2 months ago, the screen broke. I still don’t know how it happened, all I know is that it wasn’t covered under my warranty. Because of that, Apple wanted to charge me $800 to fix it. I decided against that because the computer cost $1400 new. That left me with the problem of my broken laptop. Since I needed a computer for school, my mom got me a PowerBook G3 which I have been using for the past 2 months.
My first question when I got it was could it run Tiger, and if so how well? Well it runs 10.4 very nicely in fact. It won’t win any speed competitions, but it does run.
The next question is what can and can’t it run. Well, all the software I need for school runs very well. That software amounts to TextEdit and OmniOutliner (I ditched MS office for mac 2 years ago and urge fellow Mac users to do the same, but that is neither here nor there). What it doesn’t run is anything iLife or iWork. iLife I don’t care too much about since in my day to day life I do my photo editing in Photoshop and Aperture, and I do all my audio production in Logic. However, not having iWork is very annoying.
The last question I had was the battery life on it. It being an old computer, running a modern OS usually means 10 minute battery life. Not so here. I get about 3 hours to 4 hours depending on what I am doing.
If I had to pick one thing about it that I would change, I would add a wi-fi card. That is obvious. I miss web surfing while reclining on my bed.
So how has my life been with an old Mac? Not bad, but far from great. The biggest upside, It will make me applicate my future MacBook Pro more. Do any of you readers live on an old Mac? Post your experiences!

For Halloween this year I decided to go as one of the most feared creatures in all of techdom. The dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). Bwahhaahhahhhhh!

Stupid me. I though I was being smart by pre-ordering Leopard on-line so that I could get my copy in advance of the 6:00 PM retail launch time. It was a great idea and I was even more excited this morning when I began seeing images and getting reports from listeners who were already receiving their copies. Last night I had checked my tracking info and saw that my copy of the fast cat was already in Texas and due to arrive on my doorstep by 10:30 AM PST. My plan was working, joy! Today, I patiently awaited my kitties arrival. The anticipation was exciting, but much to my dismay 10:30 came and went. At 10:32 AM I went on-line to check the package’s status and was met with the horror you see above. The package was in Indiana at 4:47AM?! How could that be if it was due to be on my doorstep in California at 10:30AM? Does FedEx already have teleporter technology they aren’t telling us about? Nope, FedEx had screwed me. I called, they placed a “trace” on the rouge feline, and said they would call later to let me know where she was (yes OS X is a woman). Well, I just got the call and was told that my copy of the latest OS is stuck on the ramp in Indianapolis and won’t be delivered until Monday. Thank you FedEx.

Enjoy the party everyone, hopefully it’s still going when I can join in next week.

This is a landmark case for the European Commission (EC) who seems to be actively pursuing large US companies with large market share in their respective fields, and it appears that Apple is next on the EC’s radar.

Apple and some of its music partners are currently facing investigation by the European anti-trust officials for the pricing of items in the iTunes store. The commission wants to discover the reasons for different pricing in different territories of the European Union (for people who aren’t in Europe, you can only purchase from the country which your credit/debit card address is located. Apple also has different prices in the different stores). This is no joke for Apple as the EC has power to fine a company up to 10% of there worldwide revenue.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs said recently, “We think prices should be the same. We think anybody in Europe should buy off any store.” but then contradicting this a Reuters report is claiming an Apple spokesman said, “there is nothing in it’s contract with Universal obliging it to operate national stores or to set a higher price in countries such as Britain”, so what’s stopping Mr Jobs from doing what he says he wants to do?

Many analysts and the commission believe the reason Apple takes this position is due to the record labels putting pressure on the company to operate the variable pricing structure in different EU countries. The trouble is it contradicts and is possibly in violation of the anti-trust laws which operate in the EU. The record labels claim they charge different rates to cover different royalty payment rates which are overseen by different agencies depending on the country and are negotiated on a country by country basis.

I live in the UK and feel it would be much better for consumers if we had one European iTunes store from which we could all purchase. It would be a lot easier for everyone, as content is not consistent along with the pricing.

I just saw this on the Fake Steve Jobs web site. Looks like Microsoft has a Flash header on their Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 page. In the image a streamer flows through displaying different words at random. One of the words is “viruses” and other is “built-in” so at the right moments it will actually read “viruses built-in” or “built-in viruses” (see above). Too hilarious. See it for yourself.

Follow up to this story. (Taken from the comments)

This unit died a few days after talking with Adam. After a run of course.

I contacted Apple as the unit was under warrenty and they had me send it in for repair. It was returned today with note saying that they were unable to complete the service request.

I called Apple Customer Service and talked to a tech and his supervisor. They were both courtesy but unable to do more than offer what amounts to a $30 discount on a replacement, which is better than a sorry and a pat on the back. But not by much.

While it may not look like it from the picture, the unit actually was taken out of the case and wiped down after every or at least most runs.

The Apple Rep. that I talked to say that the new Ipods are constructed from the same materials as my 1st gen and would be just as subject to corrosion. So If you plan to run with your Ipod you had better get a good sweat proof case.

The thing that kind of bugs me is the Apple and Nike ads on the TV and Web that show a runner dropping his nano into a pocket on the sleeve of his Microfiber shirt and trotting of on a run. No where do they mention that actually do this regularly can destroy you Ipod.

I will replace the nano but you can be sure that I will have a waterproof not water resistant case this time and I will spend more time cleaning it after each run.

keep running

Checkout the video below from iJustine (tastyblogsnack.com). It shows her opening her 300-page AT&T bill. It had to come in a box rather than an envelope?! Come on.

The issue is, even though the iPhone data plan is unlimited, AT&T itemizes every bit (and byte) of data along with it’s associated charge. That means when you load a page in Safari, every graphic, image, video, sound, etc. is listed line by line in your bill. Now luckily, iPhone owners can opt-in to receive their bills electronically. If you have an iPhone you should set this up immediately. Do it now, don’t wait.

My big problem with this is that AT&T (and Apple) should know better. With an unlimited data plan it makes no sense at all to itemize charges like this. Let’s hope they hear the complaints coming from their customers and change this practice soon.

[Email to the Maccast, 7/29/2007]
I actually converted my parents to Mac when I was in college. Two years ago I gave my mom my year old laptop that ran Windows when I purchased my Power Book for school. My parents are as far from computer literate as they come… they had a computer that was running Windows 98 and was turned on about 3 times a year before I gave them my old laptop.

I listened to my mom complain that whole year about the Windows laptop I gave her because she didn’t know how to use it for anything other than the same tasks she does at work and wasn’t willing to put in all the time to learn it (not to mention all the “tech support” calls I would get from her asking me to fix it… from 200 mi. away over the phone…)

A year later when I upgraded to the Intel chip Mac Book Pro I decided that instead of selling my year old Power Book right away I would give it to my mom to use and maybe start enjoying the tasks she wants to do at home. I spent the weekend at my parents place and sat down with her one day and introduced her to the OS and explained that anything she didn’t know how to do she could figure out on her own if she “thinks simple”.

After only one week and 2 phone calls for help my mom was off and running with her new Mac. The digital camera she bought was finally getting used as was the mini DV. She started a mailing list to family and friends, created a DVD for a family event, doing all kinds of photography and basically having fun with a computer! After those initial 2 calls I haven’t heard a word from her all year about needing help to figure something out or fix something.

Giving that computer to my family was the best thing I could have done. I escaped untold numbers of phone calls for help, my parents have started enjoying/understanding technology and other members of my family heard about it and have purchased macs for themselves.

Reprinted with permission

I wanted to tell you about my experience with Apple. I had my iPhone for 5 days when I realized that it had stopped working correctly. If I used the earbuds, or the speaker, everything was fine. If I held it to my ear I couldn’t hear the call and the other party on the call couldn’t hear me. I called Apple and went through all the troubleshooting procedures, and the technician determined that it was a hardware issue and needed to be repaired. He arranged a “loaner” for me and told me to send in my own phone when the loaner arrived, that all the instructions would be in the box.

Well the box arrived Monday morning (I had called Saturday evening) and I have to admire Apple’s thoroughness. The box iteself has all three shipping labels on it, in layers. I peel off the top label and it has Apple’s shipping label, and when Apple fixes my iPhone the final label will send my phone back to me. Inside the shipping box is a pamphlet that explains the process, 3 inches of foam padding with a small white box in the middle (for the iPhone), a pad of shipping tape and a paper clip. I’m not kidding, they included a paper clip in a little baggie. This is because you need a paper clip to remove your sim card from your phone before you send it to them. Apple wanted to make sure I had this high-tech and rare tool.

Leave it to Apple to think of everything.

Live Maccast Chat: If you are reading this before or during the keynote and want to chat about it live join us on iChat/AIM in the room: maccast. To access it using iChat:

1) Launch iChat
2) Go to: File–>Go to Chat… and enter ‘maccast’m as the chat name.

See you there.

From Dale Mugford:

As always, there are surprises unforeseen or unlikely that Apple makes happen at each year’s WWDC. Last year for me, it was the 802.11 draft-N Airport Extreme, which was not even mentioned in the keynote but was included as an update to the online store.

This year, I am wondering whether, despite having little to no word or mention on any rumor blogs, whether the Airport Express will see some kind of revamping for N or not.

As others around the web have guessed, I think Apple’s coming out with a full force Leopard attack, to reverse the negative lull that inevitably followed the notice of its delay. They surely want to ramp and rev it up, get people excited, and unveil features which will make Time Machine look like a minor addition. Leopard, despite being still months away, is an important move for Apple, one which will hopefully build on the Intel transition and propel sales of Macs higher in the market.

And there’s that iPhone thing. One wonders whether Apple has been hard-pressed to pump out the hardware in production while pushing hard to finish up software aspects in time for release. Could there be anything else that the iPhone will offer?

Unlike Alex, I think the Mac Mini may be toast. If it isn’t, it’s going to belong in the new small square box family, adopting the form factor of the Airport Extreme and the  TV.

From Jack Hodgson:

FWIW, I considered writing something, but when I looked around, I realized that I had no real leads on what will be announced. I’m gonna be just as (pleasantly?) surprised as anyone else.

From (me) Alex Curtis:

My top three hopes/predictions:

• Newton-like Assist: If you’ve never had the pleasure of using an Apple Newton, you probably don’t know what you’re missing. One of the neatest features of the Newton, besides handwriting recognition, was an service called Assist. Assist, when asked, could examine the meaning of text and do things with it. So, if you received an email that had a lunch appointment in it, simply tap Assist, and the Newton would add the event to your calendar, with the appropriate person’s info (taken from their email address which it would associate from your Address Book), and add them to the invite list. Assist could also grab info from an email’s signature, and automatically populate an Address Book card with the info (for some time, I used to just send emails to my Newton, just so I didn’t have to type out all the info into Mac OS X’s Address Book). Google Calendar is only starting to provide these kinds of features, but it still has a long way to go before it catches up to the Newton’s technology, which is some 10 years old. It would be great if Apple remembered it had this technology and ported it to Mac OS X Leopard.

• More extensible Address Book: The wealth of information that users can store in their Address Book is really staggering. And even though many Mac OS X applications can pull from that data, it’s rarely used in advanced ways. For instance, each contact can be associated with one or many other contacts (even though currently, there’s no look-up query for those fields to make it easier to populate). By tying those associations into social network-like services (maybe through .Mac?) like LinkedIn, Address Book users could find whole new ways to leverage the contacts they’ve made—and built right into the OS. Family trees could be easily generated as well. Adding this kind of basic intelligence to AB would help other apps like Mail. Imagine being able to sort incoming emails by people associated with a specific person or family. Crawling your previous emails to find relationships between contacts that you didn’t previously realize?

• iSync Phone Plugin Creator: So many phones out there support SyncML in some way or another, but many manufacturers don’t bother to build support for iSync. Enabling more users to “crowd source” the problem would go a long way to more Mac adoption. There’s rumor that we may actually see this kind of app, let’s just hope it’s true! It would be nice if this app also provided ways to sync not only contacts and events, but music, photos, and video too.

From our fearless leader, Adam Christianson:

I personally think we are likely to only see a demo of the new Leopard and get a detailed overview of what is in the final release. I would also like to see Jobs announce iPhone and Apple TV development workflows, SDKs and support. I expect Apple to require development for both platforms go through matching certification programs. I think it is possible we also see the quiet roll out of new iMacs or Mac Minis during the week.

How about you? What are you hoping to see at tomorrow’s WWDC 2007 Keynote? Drop a comment below with your best predictions.

This bin is in the entryway of Microsoft’s Zune Headquarters and is there to encourage employees to recycle their iPods in favor of a Zune. This picture was recently posted to Flickr and apparently some Mac sites, like MacWorld UK are saying the bin represents , “child-like and unrealistic behavior”.

I think it’s actually kind of funny for two reasons… First, I like that Microsoft has picked a clever and funny way to take jabs at their competition. Let’s face it, it’s not easy to be taking on the most popular music player in the world. Things like this might serve as a rallying point for the Zune team boosting morale. Secondly, and what made me chuckle more, is how pathetically large the bin is in relation to the iPods it contains. I guess the management was a little more optemistic about their employee’s willing to trade their iPods for a Zune. Note that most, if not all, of these iPods seem to be older units. I don’t think I see a single 5th gen in there, do you?

iPod Amnesty Bin (via fimoculous)

Like many others, I use Skype and Call Recorder to record my podcast, Uncontrolled Airspace. They’ve been working great together for months now. I highly recommend both.

But this past week I did a stupid thing, and this morning it bit me in the butt.

Simply put, if you upgrade to Skype 2.5, make sure you’re also using the latest version of Call Recorder: 1.0.7. If you’re still using 1.0.6, like I was, then only one side of the conversation will get recorded. And you don’t want that.

A previous post on the MacCast blog discussed some practical predictions on Apple’s iPhone, and the MacCast community commented on it. Some aspects we collectively got right, others not so much. Let’s take a look.

How Apple would create iPhone

• Prediction: Not from bottom up.

• Reality: from scratch.

I underestimated Apple’s dedication to this device. Yes, they created the iPod which is a data retrieval device. I thought because the iPhone was a different animal, one that both retrieves data, but creates it as well, that Apple wouldn’t spend the resources needed to build a mobile device. Boy, was I wrong. Severely wrong.

Of course, Apple did what it always does. It went in a new, unexplored direction, thought about how the ideal mobile device would work, and then painstakingly executed on that ideal building from their existing technologies and inventing new ways of interfacing with a mobile device.

Operating System

• Prediction: Symbian S60

• Reality: OS X

What I said:

Would Apple invest the time to engineer a mobile OS for a much more capable handset? Start with iPod functionality, add making calls, texting, emailing, adding phone numbers, playing games (oh wait, we have that on iPods now, dern!), surfing the net, taking photos, etc. There’s a lot of work that goes into a mobile phone, and even though Apple secretly developed OS X on Intel, I doubt that lab has shoe-horned Tiger onto a RAZR.

I also said that I thought it’d just be a gussied-up version of S60 with slick UIs crafted in Flash. Wrong.

Clearly Apple took the time and they did the work—over two years on one device. It’s not a RAZR, but they apparently poured the OS X secret sauce into a mobile device. To me, it is perhaps the most amazing mobile device. Ever.

Design

• Prediction: Far better than Motorola collaboration, intuitive Jonathan Ive-ish hardware.

• Reality: Way far better than anything in the market, ever. Intuitive Jonathan Ive-ish hardware.

I may have been right, but it was an understatement.

Browser

• Prediction: Safari

• Reality: Safari

Yes, it’s Safari, but I know, it’s not really what I predicted (specifically on Symbian S60, not on a mini version of OS X).

Synchronization

• Predition: Via iTunes

• Reality: Via iTunes

In the post where we discussed how the iPhone would interface with the Mac or PC, we said it would continue to work the way Apple had interfaced with the iPod—which is via iTunes. iTunes currently acts as the content and data manager, and there’s no reason for that to change. Apparently Apple agrees.

Platform Development

• Prediction: Symbian S60, open development platform; fear that Apple would keep development platform closed.

• Reality: Not S60; reports that development platform is closed.

This one I, unfortunately, may have been partly correct, though I really wish I were completely wrong. It’s not the Symbian S60 platform, where an already healthy developer community exists. Instead its a version of OS X. Development-wise, you might think this would be a bonus for the Mac platform. But there are reports that Apple will act as a gateway to the iPhone and that the platform is otherwise closed off from developers.

If true, I believe this is a gigantic miscalculation. I can understand two reasons for why Apple would do this. One is to protect the GSM network to which the iPhone attaches. I believe this to be bogus because there are plenty of other smartphone platforms like Palm, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, that all attach to both GSM and CDMA networks and are all open to development without risk to the underlying network. Two, I believe may be anti-competitive, and if maintained in the long run could harm the progress of the iPhone.

On the issue of third party apps running on the iPhone, Steve Jobs is quoted in John Markoff’s recent NYTimes.com article as saying:

“These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment.”

I’m not sure which way that statement leans, but hopefully this rumor is not true and we will know more when the phone is closer to release (and maybe even more with the release of Leopard).

But enough about what we rightly or wrongly predicted—what do you think about how the iPhone turned out?

Twas the night before MacWorld
And all through the hall
Not a vendor was stirring
No, not at all

The attendees lay snuggled
asleep in their beds
While visions of iPhones
danced in their heads

The iPhone is here!
It’s coming right quick
We’d been told this before
(A marketing trick)

The rumor sites spewed
complete information
Its color was puce
It had teleportation

It holds all your podcasts
All of them fit!
Like Amateur Traveler,
MacCast and TWiT

The screen is quit large
But small in its case
Through SETI it picks up
strange signals from space

The battery life
is well more than an hour
It keeps running for years
on nuclear power

And what of the iTV
promised last fall
will that debut
in this hallowed hall?

We saw that box
was sleek and quite skinny
Comfortably fitting
atop of my mini

The rumor sites claim
that it now has a drive
and streams from location
unedited, live!

It hold all my movies,
my songs and my shows
An plays them at random
as only Steve knows

Its picture are cleared
by well applied science
I hear that doubles
as a kitchen appliance

The rumors say iLife
is set to reprise
with a new holographic
ui a surprise

The video iPod
surely we’ll see
which unfolds to reveal
a flat screen TV

When all of a sudden
There arose such a din
My alarm clock is ringing
And I have slept in

I sprang from my bed
And jumped in the shower
The keynote of Steve Jobs
Begins in an hour

Wired, on the Cult of Mac blog, posted a thoughtful article about the key part of the Apple Phone’s success—good mobile-phone-to-computer synchronization. It was a point made in a recent post by Engadget’s Ryan Block, and I’d say most people would agree with it.

But from that general and broad notion, I think Wired misses a lot of the progress Apple has already made with their existing applications. They also miss a large potential opportunity and downside of the introduction of an Apple Phone for Apple users.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Steroids!

The Wired article talks about iSync, and with an Apple Phone, we’re going to need an “iSync on Steroids.” My response is, don’t we already have that? On the Mac we have this app called iSync. The way I understand it (please correct my over-simplifations!), iSync is just a GUI front-end for just one aspect of the underlying Sync Services built into Mac OS X that can be used to coordinate specific data (contacts and events) on your Mac with other applications or devices. But Sync Services can be made to synchronize all kinds of data, not just contacts and events, and its use is not exclusive to the iSync app.

In the case of one syncable device, the iPod, earlier versions of iSync and iTunes shared a lot of their preferences. Today, Apple provides a lot of content synchronization for iPods through iTunes alone. Yes, there’s what we think of as iTunes related content, like music, videos, podcasts, but there’s also contacts (pulled from Address Book or Outlook 2003), events (pulled from iCal or Outlook 2003), Photos (pulled from iPhoto, Adobe Album or Elements), games (from the iTunes store) and notes. You don’t see each one of those “independent” applications launch every time you connect your iPod to your computer. Instead, iTunes manages all of this mass-content synchronization, and it’s cross platform on Mac OS X or Windows, to boot! It’s not one just one way, either.

Even though your iPod is primarily a content display device (as opposed to a data entry device), your iPod still has valuable information of its own to share. Music, video, and podcast playcounts and playback marks are sent from your iPod to iTunes. and iSync already allows for contact and calendars to be pulled from your phone back to it’s respective app on your Mac (I think in the case of the ROKR E1, this works with Outlook as well). There’s no reason a real data entry device, like an Apple Phone, that takes pictures, records audio and video, etc, couldn’t be made to sync back content to a computer as well. In fact, we’ve already seen evidence of this capability existing in the error codes of the latest iTunes 7, maybe for beta testers of an Apple Phone?

Opportunities and Pitfalls

So, I think that the synchronization technology Apple’s already put out suffices, without it being on steroids. But, to my other point, I think introducing an Apple Phone presents a double-edged sword. On one side, with a synchronization system in place on Mac and PC, Apple has a tremendous opportunity here to lure mobile manufacturers, and software and content developers into using it. Microsoft has ActiveSync, but anyone who uses it knows that it’s a closed system, a mess, and generally only works with Microsoft Mobile devices. An open, easy to use, cross-platform sync system via iTunes, has a lot of potential, and could entice many to buy more Apple products.

But there’s that pesky other side of the sword. It’s the side that I worry to even bring up on a Mac-centric site because we can all be zealots sometimes. Still, I think it needs to be said. My concern is that, just as with the iPod, Apple has the potential to close out other mobile device manufacturers from taking advantage of all these great synchronization technologies. True, with the iPod, it’s said to be done for our benefit—to ensure the best user experience; but is that an excuse for being anti-competitive? With the introduction of an Apple Phone, my big concern is that Apple may lock out competitive mobile devices from synchronizing content as well.

Before you start ripping on me in the comments, to counter my own point, there is evidence against this. Currently, iSync mobile device synchronization appears to use fairly open standards and specs for allowing a phone to sync with your Mac, and a number of the major manufacturers build to those specs (yes, there are a lot of them who unfortunately don’t). And this hasn’t happened with the one iTunes blessed phone—the Motorola ROKR—and there’s little to prevent manufacturers from creating their own technologies that work well. But we all know how lack-luster that ROKR is and as Mac users, we also know how difficult it is to ask developers to dedicate resources for a platform that is less than 10% of the market. There, I said it, let the comment flames begin!

I Still Want my Apple Mobile Phone!

An Apple mobile phone (or “Apple Mo-Pho” as I like to call it) that synchronizes perfectly with a Mac will be great for consumers. You know you want one! I hope Apple takes this opportunity to lure other mobile device manufacturers to the Mac platform, thus keeping them competitive while providing even more incentive for consumers to buy Apple’s great computers.

Note: the image of syringe borrowed in the graphic from OcularVision.

Look what is now on Apple’s home page. I think Macworld is going to be ahh-mazing! If you are going to be around in San Francisco next week don’t forget about my Thursday night events. You’ll find full details here, but at 6:00 PM we have the Mac Podcaster meetup at the Apple Store San Francisco. Then starting at 8:00 PM is the Mac Mingle Party, co-produced with Deb Shadovitz from Mac Efficiency and sponsored by RadTech, TeachMac, iProng, Now Software, and MacSpeech. It should be a ton of fun and I hope you all make it.

On the front page to the Apple website, Apple not only welcomes us to 2007, but they also tease us: “The first 30 years were just the beginning.” Below the text is a black Apple logo, backlit with bright beams of light.

Apple was founded on April 1, 1976 and according to Wikipedia, Wednesday, January 3rd marks thirty years since Apple Computer was incorporated. Of course, we’re all anticipating big announcements from Apple at next week’s Macworld— so this is really a perfectly timed tease. Check back for MacCast MacWorld coverage and be sure to share your thoughts in post comments and the MacCast forum.

Happy New Year, Mac Geeks

This popped up on YouTube and I just had to share. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I have been using computers for about 25 years, and have owned a variety of different platforms. Over the last 15 years I’ve owned nothing but PCs running DOS, then Windows. I had never owned an Apple product (and never thought I would), and really didn’t know much about them. In high school I learned Pascal on an Apple IIe, then wrote for the school paper using one of the very early Macs. Several years ago I worked for a magazine publisher and there were many Macs there that the designers and editors used. I was around Macs then and picked up a little, but was never really that intrigued.

About 2 years ago I saw an iPod and was completely blown away. I had heard about them but never really thought that it was something I would want…. until I held one. So I bought one the next day and have been thrilled with it ever since. After my iPod experience I became interested in Apple and started following Apple news and products. Then I saw a Jobs keynote where he showed the iMac, Front Row and Dashboard and I must say I was more than a bit intrigued. It looked like such a beautiful platform that really focused on style and elegance. For several months to follow I read a lot about Apple and the Mac and listened to the Maccast.

About a year ago I decided I was going to buy an iMac, but already had a desktop PC and didn’t really need to replace it, and didn’t have room for 2 computers on my desk. So I continued to follow the Apple news and wish that my PC had as much style. Then the Intel news dropped followed by BootCamp and knew that I was ready. But knowing that I wasn’t going to get rid of my PC, I still couldn’t really figure out how to accommodate 2 desktops. Then the MacBooks were released, and I knew that would be perfect for me.

One of the first things I noticed when I first saw a MacBook was the keyboard. I worried that the chicklet style keys would feel strange. But after initially visiting the Apple store and trying the keyboard, I found that it was very comfortable, and would not be an issue. Another thing that stood out was the display. I have seen and used lots of laptops, but the MacBook was one of the best I’d seen. Everything was very sharp and clear. Another surprise was the white power adapter and remote that came with the black MacBook. I really wanted black, and felt that if I were to pay extra for black, the parts should all be black as well.

I went to the Apple store in Cleveland with the intentions of buying a MacBook, but unfortunately they didn’t stock the configuration I wanted (1 gig RAM, 120 gig drive black MacBook). I left a little disappointed, but went right home and ordered it from the Apple site. A week later I got the shipment from FedEx and the box was so light I wondered if the computer was actually in there. But I opened it up, and sure enough, there was a beautiful matte black notebook. The box also contained the power adapter, the Front Row remote and box of DVDs.

So I booted up my new Mac and went through the setup. Everything was very simple and straight forward. Within a few minutes I was up and running and on my way to learning the OS. I already had a wireless network in my house so the first thing I wanted to do was try to get on the network and try to surf. Before I even had a chance to find the network setup, I got a dialog that listed 6 wireless networks that I could join! I have used several wireless notebooks in my house before and never saw any other than my own. So I selected my network and was instantly on the Internet with no fuss. Soon I had my calendar set up and imported my contacts so the basics of what I needed was done.

The next step was my iTunes music. I have an external drive that I use for my music on my PC, so I tried plugging it into my MacBook and instantly it recognized the drive and I was able to launch iTunes, select my library and start playing music. After a few moments I was happily browsing my iTunes library, but I was a bit disappointed in the speakers. I don’t expect much from speakers on a notebook, but these are not loud enough and generally don’t sound very good. In the next few days I also found that my MacBook doesn’t always recognize my USB drive when I plug it in. I never had this problem on my PC, but then I never unplugged it from my PC once it was initially set up. I also found that I can’t write to that USB drive. I posted a question about this and someone replied that it might be due to the fact that it’s formatted as NTFS, so I’m going to try reformatting it as FAT32.

The next device I tried was my digital camcorder. I plugged in the USB cable and it was not recognized. I tried a reboot and still nothing. I did a little research and found that I needed the firewire cable instead, so I ordered that and once I plugged it in, it was instantly recognized. I tried importing and editing some video using iMovie and it worked beautifully. But I must say that my problems with the USB drive and the fact that I needed a special cable for my camcorder left me a little frustrated. I’ve also experienced two lockups and get what I’d call the equivalent of a Windows blue screen. I had no devices connected at the time, and I was running only Apple software. I’m very tolerant of computer idiosyncrasies, but I somehow expected that these things would never happen on my Mac because so many profess that “it just works”. In my very limited experience, I’d have to say that it’s on par with a typical Windows PC.

I’ve now imported most of my data with the exception of Quicken. I was ready to buy Quicken for Mac but in reviewing my needs I’m wondering if I really need it. I can do so much with my bank online that I may abandon Quicken altogether. But for web, email, pictures, video and music (which is the core of what I do at home), my MacBook is turning out to be a great machine. I’m booting up my PC less and less and hope to be all Mac very soon. I’m loving the Mac OS and I’m starting to wish we used Macs at work… but that’ll probably never happen. I’m also starting to consider the iMac again and replacing my Dell with a dual boot iMac.

Registration for the annual MacWorld conference has opened and it is not too soon to make your plans to attend. Adam is planning on being there. Why register now?

Register by December 11, 2006 with Priority Code: E-SFVA for the Platinum Pass and receive $3,995 worth of training, for only $1,495.

Important Deadlines:
Before October 30, 2006 – Register for your complimentary Exhibit Hall registration. Use Priority Code: E-SFVA

Before December 11, 2006 – Register for your Conference of choice at Early Bird pricing. Use Priority Code: E-SFVA

click here to register

One theory I have for this trend comes from an experience I had just last night, but the same scenario has played itself out many times over the past year. While at the Apple Store checking out the new Mac Pro there was a guy next to me doing the same. We got to talking over specs and other stuff and I soon discovered he was a recent switcher and was considering purchasing the Mac Pro for his business. He told me his first Apple purchase was an iPod and because of his experience with the iPod, plus the arrival of the Intel Macs and BootCamp, he felt comfortable enough with Apple to buy a MacBook Pro. After the MacBook Pro he picked up an 23″ HD Apple Cinema display to use with his aging PC, but the graphics card was not compatible with his old motherboard. He was now at the Apple Store to return the display and while there decided to just replace the old PC with a new Mac Pro and 30″ HD Cinema display. He also told me he may pick up a Mac Mini for his wife sometime in the near future.

So you see what is going on here?

This guy switched and in the course of a few months went from a PC user to the owner of (potentially) three Macs. And this is not the only story like this I have heard over the past year. Both Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User) and Tim Verpoorten (Mac Reviewcast) switched and became owners of multiple Macs rather rapidly.

Macs are a disease (and I mean that in a good way). The Mac infects you and spreads like a virus. There is no cure and it will quickly be passed to family and friends. I myself have three Macs in my household which are all in active use and my immediate family, save one, are all own Macs. Now, I am not saying PC users don’t have multiple systems in their homes too, but often times their second PC is more of a toy for the kids and is used to keep real viruses out.

So I guess it’s true. Apple does have viruses. The good news is, the viruses are the Macs themselves.

Just for fun I played with maxing out options (see graphic on the right). I opted not to get the Fibre channel card or the modem, but still checkout the price? Wow, at least I don’t have to fill it with gas to make it run. ;)

[ Apple ][ Music Video Link ]

The MacBook Pro. YES. New Intel based Pro Mac laptops. SWEET! These things are seriously cool and have horsepower up the wazooo. Just check the specs page and you will see what I mean. I was getting a bit worried that this MacWorld was not going to live up to the hype and it almost didn’t. Now I only wish I had an extra $3,500 bucks lying around. Apple is ready to go with a new Intel native OS X update (10.4.4) and all iLife offerings in Universal Binaries. The Pro apps are getting updates soon and you can get a DVD with all the updates for $49.00 USD. Adobe and Microsoft say their updates are on the way and Steve claims the Rosetta performance on the new machines is “great”. I wonder if what he considers “great” is the same as what I consider “great”? I’ll let you know when I get may hands on a real system at the Apple Store.

Overall I would say this is nat as big a MacWorld as I thought it would be. I am still disappointed we didn’t see a Mac PVR system and the iWork ’06 update is pretty much a nothing update if you ask me. I know I won’t be upgrading. Personally iLife ’06 is the biggest news in my world. I can’t wait to try the new Podcasting features. I will try to get a post-MacWorld cast up soon. Stay subscribed.

Mac Geek out.

This story is so amazing, I hope you believe it. But honest to God, it’s 100% true.

So I bought a Nano for my uncle as a gift when they first came out. About a month ago, I get a phone message from someone at Apple. They say the Houston Police have contacted them and that they (the Houston Police) have my Nano and to please contact officer Richards and they leave me her phone number.

As I live in NJ, I thought it was some type of phone scam, plus, I don’t have a Nano! 3 days go by and I get 3 more messages from Apple with the same message. So I break down and call Apple to see if they have any record of these calls they’ve made to me. They put me through to Apple – fraud or “loss prevention” I think it’s called. And yup, sure enough, they’ve got my info and had been contacted by the Houston police.

Now I am really curious, what is going on. So I call Officer Richards and she picks up on the 1st ring! She tells me that they had recovered a Nano from someone and knew it was “hot” or stolen merchandise, called Apple, gave Apple the serial # and traced it back to me. Wow. She asks me if it’s mine and I say, “no, I don’t even have a Nano” totally forgetting that I had purchased one for my uncle and hang up. Story over? Not yet.

I call Andy, a friend of mine and my uncle’s and I tell him this wild story because he loves this type of thing and he says that my uncle had told him that he had lost his nano on an airplane from JFK to Houston!

So I have my uncle call the officer, he has to describe what songs are on the nano, and about 3 weeks later, ta-da, he gets his nano back.

Moral of the story: The police in Houston aren’t that busy and Apple rocks.

Thank you to all the Mac Geeks who made the MacCast such a joy to produce this year. I wish you all a very happy and safe holiday. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza and a joyus Festivus to you all.

[Link to Sky News Video] (Requires Windows Media Player)

From the, “Boy isn’t that stupid” department, listener Ira pointed out to me that the new version of Netscape, Netscape 8, is now available for download. There is currently no Mac OS X version, but Netscape kindly offers that Mac users “Download the Windows Xp version”. Now, while I am sure they mean this as an option for those Mac users who also own a Windows PC, the text is not that specific. I wonder how many new or novice Mac users will download the Xp version and spend a few minutes in frustration as they attempt to run a .EXE. Either that or Netscape has some inside knowledge about then new Intel based Macs ability to run Windows apps? Maybe those rumors of Intel Mac OS X multi-OS virtualisation technology are really about to come true? I doubt that is what they meant. Darn.