[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/maccast/MC20070903.mp3]
Download today’s show here!
MC20070903.mp3 [31.4MB 01:08:35 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 198. New iPods on Wednesday? Apple brings TV shows to UK iTunes. NBC and Apple fight over iTunes. 1 in 6 US Laptops an Apple. Special report on Apple Store Glasgow opening. iPhone unlock on sale tomorrow? iChat SMS Correction. Some WalMart/iTunes follow-up. Tweaking mouse setting for different users. VM, Swapfiles, and Sleepimages. Oh my! How to become a Mac developer. Double duty backup hard drive. Recipe Software for the Mac.

200th show coming and I’m giving gifts.

New music, Derek Malone by 3 Blind Mice [ Buy on iTunes ]

Ha ha. Oh, this is so good it just HAS to be fattening. – The Family Guy (1999)

Shownotes in: HTML or OPML
Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Just a few comments about the opening of the Glasgow store in Scotland on Saturday just gone. The store is at 147 Buchanan Street which is the major shopping street in Glasgow, and the store is located slap bang in the centre. I arrived just before 9am on Saturday and was somewhere between 5-600 in the queue. When I was in town about 7.30pm on the Friday evening there were 3 people queuing already so there had been some die hard fans there waiting. In terms of queuing time it took about 50 mins for me to get into the store itself as they fed people in about 20 at a time after the initial 100 or so.

On entering the store the first impression is of the amount of space there is between the door and the glass spiral staircase which is off to the left in the corner of the store. I expect this will be used for the bands that will be performing each Tuesday evening as part of the ‘Live From Glasgow’ special events that are planned. Upstairs next to the 2 Genius bars there are 4 iMacs set up on low tables with ‘ball seats’ specifically for use by kids – whether the location of these kids iMacs is specifically so that parents can be at the Genius bar have a convenient distraction to keep their kids happy, or just a happy coincidence I don’t know.

Whilst the Genius bars were operating the bookings made through the Concierge system weren’t being honored until Monday, but I was still able to get my Macbook reviewed for the discoloration of the bezel and trackpad that became apparent last year, and which I’d been waiting for an Apple Store to open locally for me to get resolved – I was able to leave my Macbook and have it repaired under warranty and available for collection the next day (1 benefit of getting in early ;-) ). The store was full of Apple staff (including quite a few US accents).

One thing I found interesting is that there did NOT seem to be an iPod HiFi on display anywhere, it certainly wasn’t next to all the 3rd party speaker systems, but I didn’t go around every display stand/ table.

Not that any of you across the pond have been waiting for this or anything, but if you haven’t seen it yet you might want to head over to Apple UK and checkout the main graphic.

Thanks to listener Jeremy for the tip off.

Ok, Microsoft is not the first company you think of when you think creative, artistic, or avant-garde. They also tend not to be too trendy or hip. Well, the folks over at the Microsoft Mac Businiess Unit (Mac BU) seem to want to try and up old Mr. Softies’ cool factor. To that end, they have created a new “social” networking site to showcase the more creative side of Office for Mac. The new Art of Office site is an online community where users can go, share, view, and download some of the most unusual (and I have to admit, somewhat cool) Office .doc, .xls, and .ppt files I have ever seen. The site has a nice web 2-oish look and feel and it might just change your thoughts on what you can do with a spreadsheet. The Mac BU says they, “wanted to give Mac users an outlet to showcase (their) creativity and passion”. Now, I’m not sure I believe we are all suddenly going to drop Photoshop and FinalCut for PowerPoint and Word, but I will give the BU props for their efforts. They are at least trying to “Think Different” and make Office more appealing (or at least interesting) to a Mac crowd. The site is definitely worth a look and I have to say I was impressed by some of the things I saw there. Check it out for yourself at http://www.artofoffice.com/. Who knows, maybe you can be the next Van Gough of Microsoft Word.

As of late I’ve been trying to solve the ever-worrisome issue of efficient and effective data backup for my personal information at home. I recently purchased and installed a product that’s put my mind at rest – at least for now. It’s the D-Link DND-323. This is a dual SATA drive NAS enclosure that allows you to configure the drives as a redundant array (RAID 1). I was able to pick up the D-Link product, and 2 500GB drives for about USD$400. This gives me just about 500GB of total storage space. The D-Link site does not show Mac compatibility for this product, but I’ve had no trouble managing and connecting to it from my MacBook Pro. The device is simple, runs pretty quiet (mine’s tucked in a basement) and has some pretty useful features:

• Easy to use web interface for management
• Gigabit network jack
• Built-in USB print server
• iTunes server (iTunes shows a Shared library)
• Email alerts for things like drive failure, overheating, etc.
• FTP server that can allow you to access your files remotely over the Internet (some security issues if you’re familiar with FTP)

All in all I’ve been very pleased with the device. It’s comforting to know that my family videos and pictures, as well as my digital music and important documents are being stored safely. It’s not bullet-proof, but honestly, you could ramble on forever in perinoia over backups if you let yourself. This offers a relatively low cost & simple solution to data backup. It runs the EXT2 file system and does not support NTFS – so don’t plan on using something like this in a Windows business environment where you need to set specific user permissions. The device, however, does support embedded user accounts that you can setup and manage from the web interface.

Checkout a full in depth review of the D-Link DNS-323 at ExtremeTech

Update
Editors note: I received an email from a listener in Japan who uses this also and had a note for any international listeners who may be dependent on a solution with double-byte character support.

I read the review on D-Link DNS-323. It’s a nice neat device except one thing… It does not work well with double byte character sets (or Japanese UTF-8). It doesn’t recognize Japanese file names using OS X (it works with XP, though…). Since I’m Japanese, this is very critical… I ended up creating a huge disk image on DNS-323, and coping Japanese files to the disk image…

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/maccast/MC20070826.mp3]
Download today’s show here!
MC20070826.mp3 [38.2MB 01:23:22 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 197. New iTunes rivals surface. iPhone Update 1.0.2. iPhones unlocked in hardware and software. New iPods September 5th? Apple slow to patch JAVA bug. iPhone dead spots correction. Correction on Tiger Cache Cleaner. Buying a video camera. Migrating from PPC to Intel. Re-installing Mac Bundled iLife. I have something to say: Logic updates. Saving iWeb shared Web Gallery photos. Sending SMS in iChat. 200th show coming and I’m giving gifts.

New music, Looking Back by Cruelty Free [buy].

Special thanks to our sponsors
The Gadget Locker
20% off Select Items

Circus Ponies
30-day trial of Notebook

God bless the Internet. – American Pie (1999)

Shownotes in: HTML or OPML
Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

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.

Ok. Reality is, this is likely more about not having to pay $7.95 postage every time they mail a customer a bill; but at least the trees benefit too.

Listener Wyane just let me know that AT&T delivered a free text message to his iPhone informing him they will no longer be itemizing data charges on his bill. Hooray! Here is the text of the message:

AT&T free msg: We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need a full paper bill? Call 611.

So kudos to AT&T for responding to this issue fairly quickly. Question is, why wasn’t this problem thought of ahead of time? Oh well, welcome to big business in America.

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/maccast/MC20070819.mp3]
Download today’s show here!
MC20070819.mp3 [21.2MB 00:46:20 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 196. Next gen Intel Xeons on the way. Apple retires Appleworks, or have they? Jobs ups share count. iPhone Europe just weeks away? iPhone battery lawsuits, please. Lennon 3rd Beatle on iTunes iWeb 2.0.1 Update. Woz linked with Kathy Griffin. iLife ’08 font issues resolved. What are vintage and obsolete products? 802.11 lowest common denominator limitation. Capturing audio from difficult sources. Cleaning up your caches. 200th show coming, I’m giving the gifts.

New music, Go by Loveless [ Buy on iTunes ]

Special thanks to our sponsors
Smile on My Mac
20% off Textexpander

Audible.com
Get your free audiobook

I love robbing the English, they’re so polite. – A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Shownotes in: HTML or OPML
Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Take a look at this. Listener Bryan has an iPod Nano that is less than a year old and has developed some serious pitting and corrosion along the bottom near the dock connector and headphone jack. The iPod has never had direct contact with water, but Bryan is a runner. He uses the iPod while exercising and has it in a Belkin Sport Sleeve while he’s running. The best guess is that the damage has been caused by sweat. From the picture it looks like the unit is one of the original iPod Nano’s and not one of the current models that have the anodizing. I assume the newer model would be more immune to this kind of problem, but would love to know your experiences. Have you experienced any damage like this with your iPod?

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

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