So are you addicted to Widgets? Have you downloaded to many and are now overwhelmed? Do you need a better way to remove Widgets? Well in addition to Widget Manager, listener Mihkel advises adding one more widget to your collection, Imagery Media’s Widget Deleter. This is a Widget to delete widgets. Just find that pesky widget and hit delete.

A number of Mac Geeks have recently sent in this link to a Flikr site featuring a mini image history of Apple’s homepage. Enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernelpanic/sets/283374/

Our friend Craig over at the Behind the Scenes Podcast ran across this book and felt it was a good read for anyone wanting an overview of new features found in Tiger.

This is an excellent book for anyone looking for an overview of all the new features in Tiger without going too far in depth. It’s a 4-color book throughout with plenty of screenshots and written by Robin Williams, who has an excellent reputation for making tech information accessible. It may not be for hardcore geeks, but for switchers and other people new to the Mac, or anyone else who wants an overview of what’s there without having to wade through a 600-page book it’s worth looking at. Peachpit has the Spotlight chapter available for download so you can get a feel for what it’s like:
http://www.peachpit.com/content/downloads/peachpit/promo/TigerPLS.pdf

Hey Geeks. As you know I was lucky enough to attend and participate in the 2nd annual Mac Gathering event in Hollywood, CA last Sunday. This event was put together by Deborah Shadovitz and her team of dedicated Mac geeks. Some of you may recognize Deborah, she wrote the Office 98 Bible and the Adobe GoLive 5 Bible and her magazine credits include MacAddict, MacWorld and Mac Design magazine, just to name a few. This year the keynote speaker was Sinbad. I was not aware he was such a Mac geek, but after hearing him speak there was know doubt he’s a Mac fanatic. In the speech Sinbad discusses how we need to all master our Macs, in other words don’t get lost in the latest and greatest technology, but discover how your Mac can help you be an expert at what you want to do. It is a truly inspiring and of course funny speech. Myself and several attendees were lucky enough to be able to chat with Sinbad as he walk the vendor floor. He also took the time to stop and chat with many of the vendors there, including the folks at Circus Ponies and MacSpeech. What’s cool is, as he mentions in his talk, he wasn’t just giving them lip service. These are products he actually uses and loves. If you can make it I encourage you to mark your calendars for next years event and for those of you who missed it this year you are in luck. Our friend Dorothy at TigerBright recorded the keynote and Deb and Sinbad gave permission for me to share it with you. In the clip you will hear Sinbad being introduced by Michael McCarty who is a great storyteller and Mac geek himself. Enjoy!

[Download Sinbad Mac Gathering 2005 Keynote] MP3/~28MB

BONUS: The audio from the Podcasting panel I was on is posted over on Shelly Brisbin’s podcast site. Here is the direct link to the MP3

New MacCast listener David is a switcher from a year ago and had written a great series documenting why he has decided to make Macs his platform of choice.

You can find his series of articles here:
http://www.atpm.com/11.03/segments.shtml
http://www.atpm.com/11.04/segments.shtml
http://www.atpm.com/11.05/segments.shtml*

* this article was linked to the official website for worldwide Macintosh User Groups, and made its way across continents.

Maybe this will help some others who are considering taking the plunge. Enjoy!

Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050516.mp3 [14.1mb 30:50 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 60. First Tiger update OS 10.4.1 update released, second manufacturer now making iPods, snother new iPod commercial launched during SNL, Apple stop injunction from Tiger Direct lawsuit and Apple officially announces 1st Canadian Apple Store. A comment about the MacCast forum spam attack, update on the 10 Top Reasons to Switch contest, summary of The MacGathering event, using Tiger to set up safe email for kids and why should I switch to Mac?Plus, what is Jabber? New music, “Burn in Hollywood” by Awe Persona. You’d listen if your mother told you to. Shownotes in HTML or OPML

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050513.mp3 [14.6mb 31:55 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 59. Gates says iPod success is unsustainable, 1st Tiger update continues to loom, Apple may be leaving KHTML for it’s own technology, Apple settles lawsuit with rapper Eminem, Apple releases DVD player 4.6, Apple granted patent on Tablet computer design, Toshiba announces 45GB next-gen DVD, Malicious .MOV files possible in Tiger, Toast 6.1 blocks iTunes download burning and XBox 360 Demos were running on Macs. listener comments on MBox Tiger incompatibilities, Opinion: Curt’s 2 cents on Macintosh gaming and more Tiger tips for removing Widgets. Reminder I will be at the 2nd Annual MacGathering in Los Angeles, CA this Sunday may 15th. Please come out and say hi. New music, Waiting by Taxi Doll. Listen up. Shownotes in HTML or OPML

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Hey Mac Geeks,
The Geek, Todd Cochrane from Geek News Central has worked tirelessly over the past few months and today has announced the availability of his new book, PODCASTING: Do It Yourself Guide part of the ExtremeTech series from Wiley publishing. The book is only $19.99 and is available on pre-sale over at Amazon.com. Todd is incredibly dedicated to the podcasting medium and I can only assume he poured his heart, sole and experience into this book. If you are interested in starting a Podcast or even if you are just curious, you want to get yourself a copy of this book.

Editor’s note: I am providing information of books related to Podcasting because I have had many people ask me about it. Since these books are just becoming available and in fairness to all authors I am listing books for anyone who asks. The listing here is purely informational and in no way an endorsement from the MacCast. As I receive review copies and if I have time to read them, I will try to provide formal reviews. Reviews will be clearly distinguishable as they will be categorized in the review section of the web site.

Thanks to listener Bryan for sending in this little bit of inside info. It looks like Apple is busy prepping new TV ads and they have been finding talent in local Apple retail stores. Check out Bryan’s story.

About a month ago I was shopping at the Apple store in SoHo Manhattan when I woman with a video camera asked me to answer a few questions for her. I said sure, did my thing, and went home. Well, last week I got a call from a production company in L.A. Apple might want me to be in their next commercial! How cool. So on Monday Apple flew me to Los Angeles first class with about 50 other Mac geeks. We all had a casting call and about 30 people got picked. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of them, but the lucky ones are filming right now. We all received a free iPod Shuffle 512 for our time and had a great L.A. experience. I’m excited to see the new commercial as I will know everyone in them.

All in all a pretty good Mac geek story I thought you would enjoy.

If you want to hear more from Bryan, check out his Podcast: Comic Geek Speak

I received this great email from listener Scott. I think it proves once you give a Mac a try you’ll be convinced it is a better experience.

I was a PC person for a little over 20 years starting with the Commodore 64 and working my way up. I have spent hundreds of hours working on my own computers and helping others with theirs and it never really gets old.

I just recently bought my first Apple product, the 40gig ipod photo and totally fell in love with it. I work in aerospace on the graveyard shift and I get to listen to audiobooks all night and that helps a lot. After finding out how awesome the ipod was I decided to take the plunge and buy my first Mac. I got the new 15″ Powerbook 1.67GHz model with a gig of RAM and the extra 64MB of RAM (128MB) on the ATI Radeon 9700 so now I am REALLY REALLY in love.

I still have a really high end PC that I mostly just keep around for gaming now but use my Mac for everything else. I only wish I had given Mac a chance years ago.