MacCast 11.09.2008 - Show #244
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Media/Links
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Opening
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Opening Music
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Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
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Mandaandthemarbles.com
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Sponsor
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Faronics
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Deep Freeze and Power Save Mac
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They also make products for Windows and Linux. Mixed labs with the same software.
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Free 30 day trials available
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News
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Rumors of new iMacs and Mac Minis on the way
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MacNN reported earlier in the week that one of their sources pointed to a November 10th update of the iMacs and Mac Minis
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No technical details, but they claim Mac Pro (also due for an update) don't have enough new chips ready for large scale production.
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Pushing Mac Pro announcement to Macworld in January
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This one was squashed quickly by Apple
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Commenting to Macworld, Apple spokesman Bill said, ““Our holiday line-up is set,” .
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Mac share down in October
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Electronista reported on latest figures from Net Applications, which looks at browser statistics
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According to their figures Mac browser usage fell 0.24% in October to 8.21%
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iPhone usage was up 3.12% to represent 0.33 % of the market.
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Of course Net Applications just looks at browser traffic and there are many factors that could impact their stats. The report would also be in contracts to Apple's recently announced sales number which showed very strong increases in Mac market share.
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Apple lowering iPhone production in the quarter
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A post on MacRumors claims that Friedman Billings Ramsey analysts are reporting that iPhone production could fall "more than 40%" in the 4th Quarter of 2008.
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Historically Apple would normally cut production in the fourth quarter by about 10 percent.
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Some feel the reduction is due to lowered expectations considering the economic crisis, while others point to a production surplus generated in the 3rd Quarter.
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More new Macbook & Macbook Pro issues
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Issues with the new glass trackpads not registering clicks sometimes for some users.
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One user claims to have been called back by Apple after emailing Steve Jobs ( sjobs@mac.com) and been told Apple is aware of the issue and researching it.
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According to Apple Insider another customer experiencing the same problem mailed Jobs at a slightly later date and was told that a patch is forthcoming.
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New hinge not tight enough?
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AppleInsider also has word of several threads on Apple's support forums where new Macbook Pro 15" owners are reporting unreliable and flaky wi-fi connections
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The issue is not easily repeatable and seems to vary from hot spot to hot spot.
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It's not related to WEP or WAP security and seems to be an issue between the latency of the Mac and the wi-fi base station.
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Users seem to think the issue was triggered in the latest OS X or Airport Extreme software updates.
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AppleInsider reported that entry level Macbook Air orders are being delayed. Customers who ordered the revamped models received emails from Apple telling them the new ship date is late instead of early November. The unit are now supposed to ship around Nov. 24th.
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Apple staff is going, coming, and told to go
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Tony Fadell, Apple's senior vice president of the iPod Division, and his wife Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resource are reducing their roles at Apple to spend more time with their family.
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Fadell, who is considered to be the "Father of the iPod", will remain on as "an advisor to the CEO". His wife will remain on until the end of the year after her successor is in place.
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Fadell's replacement is supposed to be former IBM executive Mark Papermaster. He will be joining Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, if IBM and the courts let him.
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His hiring triggered a lawsuit by IBM because of a non-compete contract which prevents him from working for any competitors for at least a year after leaving IBM
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Late this week a New York judge did order that Papermaster must "immediately cease his employment" with Apple pending a hearing which is scheduled for November 18th.
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Papermaster is not Apple's only new hire
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Their 10K filing shows that they have increase full-time staff by over 48% this year, adding about 10,400 new employees according to a MacObserver article.
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They also increased their number of temp employees by about 1,000 from 2,100 in 2007 to 3,100 in 2008. An increase of about 48% also.
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Most of the employees were likely hired at Apple's retail store which Apple continued to expand vigorously throughout 2008.
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Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.3
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Adds iPhoto and Aperture support for 4 new cameras. The Canon EOS 50D, the Nikon D90, the Sony DSLR-A900, and the Nikon Coolpix P6000.
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Also “addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability.”
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AT&T news might be good for iPhone owners
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Electronista has details on a US$275 million dollar AT&T deal to buy Wi-fi provider Wayport.
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If it goes through AT&T will add about 20,000 more access points in the US.
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Wayport has hotspots in McDonalds, and in Four Seasons, Marriott Vacation Club and Wyndham hotels.
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Would bring AT&T hotspot total outside the US to 80,000 locations.
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Good news since AT&T opened up their Wi-fi hotspots to iPhone owners for free.
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iLounge reports that at the Web 2.0 Summit AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega said and sanctioned AT&T solution for tethering 3G iPhones is coming soon. Tethering would allow you to use your iPhone to give Internet access to your Mac or PC.
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Of course he failed to mention when the feature would be coming or how much extra (if any) they plan to charge you for the privilege.
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Sponsor
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Audible
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They are back.
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Get a free audiobook when you sign-up for a trial of Audible Listener Gold.
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Areas of My Expertise by John Hogeman (PC).
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Feedback, Comments and Commentary
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Correction to a story on Kensington locks
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Kensington has said their laptop locks are "100% compatible" with the new MacBooks introduced in Oct.
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This despite a report that ran on MacNN and I reported on here on the Maccast.
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Several listeners confirmed the compatibility of their new Macbooks with Kensington locks.
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Another way of hiding external drives
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Last show I mentioned some methods by changing permissions
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Several people pointed out that you could simply not show the icons on the Desktop or in the Sidebar by using the Finder preferences and adjusting the settings under the "General" and "Sidebar" tabs. Uncheck the external drives for the User account.
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Of course it could be confusing for that user if they ever did try to connect their own external drive. Say a USB key. Also, it is not very secure and easy to re-enable.
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Keeping iPod Touch iCal colors & iPhone word processing
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Play questions from Paul
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Listener Jan covered the workaround for iCal color mis match in the 7/24/2008 show.
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Many was to access and store documents on the iPhone/iPod Touch
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Air Sharing, Discover, Files lite, Data Case, File Magnet.
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Editing is a bit trickier.
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Most solution involve emailing results and no app to edit an existing document
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gOffice - web based, confusing inconsistent UI
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MobileFiles from QuickOffice - Access documents in your MobileMe account. Plan on brining Word and Excel editing apps soon.
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Write Pad - Handwriting recognition. Clunky, accuracy tricky. Do support "graffiti" like gestures.
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Magic Pad - offers rich text, cut and paste, etc.
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Evernote - simple text only, but syncs.
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Corrupt SyncServices crashes Mail
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I had a couple people run into this issue this week. Chris' Mail would crash at launch.
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Apple support article pointed to a an issue requiring resetting the SyncServices file
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You can verify that this is your Mail issue if you also try to launch iSync and that crashes too.
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To reset SyncServices the easiest thing to do is:
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Open iSync. (if you can)
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Choose Preferences from the iSync menu.
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Click Reset Sync History.
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If that won't work the TIL article link above has a Terminal command you can run to reset the service.
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It is NOT recommended to remove the SyncService folder manually.
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Get Netflix Streaming on your Mac
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To get into the Netflix "Watch Instantly Program"
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Need an Intel Mac and Microsoft Silverlight installed
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Go to netflix.com/silverlightoptin
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Hacking the Apple TV
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Creating a patchstick
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ATV USB Creator - Open Google Code Project
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Buy from Apple Core, LLC - USD$49.95
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Why would you want to:
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Expand the capabilities of the AppleTV
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Add additional services. Boxee, Couch Surfer, RSS, SSH, other kinds of media sharing and access.
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Resources
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AwkwardTV
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Review: miniStack v3
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Newer Tech miniStack v3
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Sizes from 160GB up to 1TB
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Same form factor and styling as the Mini, about 2/3 the height.
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3.5" 7200RPM SATA drives with 8MB, 16MB, or 32MB data buffer
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Ports: 2 FireWire 800, 1 FireWire 400, 3 USB, and 1 eSATA port
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Prices range from USD$134.99 to $239.99. Can also get the enclosure for $109.99 and add your own 3.5" SATA.
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MobileMe resetting assigned ringtones
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Jason was running into this issue
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Assigning custom ringtones to people in his address book on the iPhone, but they keep getting reset.
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Fond the answer in a thread on the Maccast forum
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Apple support article
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"The ringtone setting is not synced with the MobileMe servers, so any time your contact data on the phone is replaced with data from MobileMe, this can occur."
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According to the article is appears that since Mobile Me doesn't contain the ringtone data syncing with Mobile Me could reset the setting. There doesn't appear to be any solution other then to tun off Mobile Me syncing?
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Macbook wakes from sleep
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Play Len's comment about "snoring" Macbook
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Apple has a support article on this topic.
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Turns out there are many things that can wake your Mac from slumber or prevent it from sleeping
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Hard drive access (even if you're not using the computer, a running application might be accessing your drive, such as when downloading a large file or listening to music in iTunes)
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Moving the mouse or using a portable Mac's trackpad, pressing a mouse button, or pressing a key on the keyboard
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Some System Preferences settings (see below)
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Open applications. Applications can be designed to keep the system awake and prevent idle sleep indefinitely.
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Input devices - Bluetooth devices if you have enabled the "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer".
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Expansion cards - PCI and Expansion cards (Express 34?)
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Additional drives, such as USB, FireWire, DVD, or CD drives
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Troubleshooting sleep issues
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Sharing preferences: Enabling sharing for any connections can potentially disable sleep. Turn off file sharing if it's not being used.
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Bluetooth settings: Bluetooth can wake your computer if you set the "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer" checkbox in Bluetooth System Preferences.
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Is a keyboard and mouse connected and working correctly?
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Do you have any other external USB or FireWire devices connected? Try removing them one by one or disconnect when not in use.
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Is Spotlight indexing? This can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours after a new installation. Indexing prevents idle sleep.
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Additional Software: Try a Safe Boot (hold the Shift key on startup) to help isolate a software issue.
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Sound check: Put your ear near your computer. Do you hear the sounds of hard disk access (a clicking or "clacking")?
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Energy Saver settings: If the computer and display sleep timers are set to Never, the computer will not sleep.
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Searching Spotlight for partial filenames
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Marco noticed something annoying about Spotlights default search behavior
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Activating via Command+Spacebar or Command+F from the Finder it will search the the whole Mac by Contents.
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Partial matches work for finding Apps. "P B" for example will bring up Photo Booth. But this doesn't seem to work for file or folder names. "older" for example only returns results that have the word "older" in them.
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The default searches the file "contents" on the entire Mac.
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Activate Spotlight search via Command+Shift+F it will add a "filename contains" search filter automatically.
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Search filters in general are very helpful and can be added by clicking the "+" icon in the search filter bar at the top of the search window. Hold the Option key while clicking the "+" will turn it to an "..." and allow you to add filters that match "Any","All", or "None" of the filter parameters. (basically AND, OR, or NOT).
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Closing
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Podcast Marketplace
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Thanks to my sponsors
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Circus Ponies, Notebook
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Smile on my Mac, DiscLabel - Great for your holiday projects
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Faronics, Deep Freeze
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Merlin 2, Project Wizards - Project management, Gantt Charts, MS Project import/export
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Zarra Studios, iWeb Buddy - iWeb post-processor, Add Google analytics, and work with multiple domain files.
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Audible, free audio book with Audible Listener Gold
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Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
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281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9
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PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
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MacCast Forum
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"Adoram Flores" by Henrique Amorim
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A track from a Brazilian artists and listener off his new album
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Artist's web site
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EOL: Reflections of your Mac self
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A Flickr pool dedicated to images reflected off the new Macbooks and Macbook Pros
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