ShapeShifer developer Jason Harris has brought together a team of Mac Cocoa programmers for a 3-day event of extreme coding with gifts for the Mac community and for charity. The web site Cocoa Dual has all the details, but in essence the participating developers, including Disco’s Austin Sarner, iClip’s John Casasanta, and VoodooPad’s Gus Mueller, had 3 days to create a holiday themed Mac application. The apps are all available for free download via links on the Cocoa Dual site. In addition, for those truly geeky Mac geeks out there, all the source code for the apps can be downloaded as well. After you download and checkout the apps, you “vote” for your favorite app by making a donation to a charity chosen by the applications developer. The Cocoa Dual web site will then keep track of which app (and charity) garners the most donations and that app will be declared the winner of the “duel”. The competition will run until Dec. 26 at midnight MST when all donations will be tallied. It’s a great idea. We all get seasonal apps from some of our favorite Mac developers and some money is raised for several deserving charities. Now, what about the developers themselves? Well, in addition to the warm feeling of doing a good deed, the developer who’s charity has received the most donations will get a small gift from the other developers in the group. So go grab a couple stocking stuffers for your hard drive and spread some holiday cheer with a donation or two. Heck, there is no rule that says you can’t make more than one donation so why not donate to them all? Happy Holidays.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 171. An iPhone, but not from Apple? Is Apple developing OS X Mobile? Apple addresses Quicktime flaw with security update. Some Apple, iTunes Store and Apple Store updates. Intel to launch another Quad core chip in January. Security researchers target OS X with “Month of Bugs” A new file system makes it’s way into Leopard. Apple makes nice with South Park fans. Could iTunes Gift Card explain “slumping” iTunes sales? A possible fix for iPods not playing purchased music. My procedure for clean installing OS X. Podcaster Meetup at Macworld.

New music, White Top Cadillac by A Thousand Cures

Promo from JogTunes podcast.

The first man to raise a fist is the man who’s run out of ideas. — Time After Time (1979)

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Well, true to the predictions on Gizmodo the iPhone was announced today, but it is not the device Apple fans have been waiting for. The iPhone is a new product from Linksys. It is a “dual mode” phone that connects to your computer and allows you to make both Voice Over IP (VoIP) calls and standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) calls. It offers VOIP integration with both Skype and Yahoo! Messenger Voice and includes other features like information services and multimedia integration. You can search for local business information and make calls directly from results with the push of a button. The integrated media viewer gives you the ability to access music, photos, and streaming video directly from the Internet and see the content right on the iPhone. So while not the Apple iPhone we had envisioned the Linksys version does have some nice features.

Now for the proverbial rain on the Mac rumor mongers parade… the Linksys iPhone product page does state that, “iPhone and Linksys are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc.”, so if Apple does have a phone product ready for launch at Macworld it will obviously not be called an “iPhone”. iTalk anyone?

DEVONtechnologies has just updated it’s popular DESKTOP TRANSPORTER software to version 2.0.1. For those who do not know what Transporter is, it is a “remote desktop solution that allows users to use other Macs on either the local network or the Internet without physically accessing them.” Version 2.0.1 adds some bug fixes and a few cool new features. It now includes a status tab which displays your Mac’s local IP address along with what port Transporter is currently listening on. Also in this settings panel is a function to set the resolution/size of the monitor you are controlling. One of the welcome improvements is a greatly improved online help system with details on setting up port forwarding and links to networking tools and utilities. Transporter 2.0.1 is a free upgrade to all Transporter users and for everybody else it is $29.95 with a 4 week trial and discounts for students and teachers.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 170. Are iTunes sales slumping or not? Apple may be carrier for iPhone service. Three new iPods for 2007? Adobe to release Universal CS3 BETA on Friday. Correction on the show number. Exporting a disk catalog list from the Finder. Explaining the different “types” of memory in OS X. Apple explanation and fix for “blue tint” issue. Re-download old iTunes Podcasts without re-subscribing. iPod Shuffles losing their authorizations? Comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts. Why you can’t curl up in bed with a good 17″ MacBook Pro. Review of Disco. MacCast at Macworld and Mac Podcaster Meetup. 2nd Anniversary Maccast wishes from Frat Pack Tribute Podcast.

New music, I Love My IPod by Daphne Kalfon

So long, Earth. Catch you on the flip side. — Apollo 13 (1995)

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The MacCast always seems to get me thinking. This time, Adam, you got me thinking more and more about the topic of Digital Convergence. There are so many things going on in this area right now, I thought I’d share with you some of my observations.

The impact of the following issues are nothing less than dramatic . . .

• Professional music and video is now competing with amateur music and video (the democratization of content).
• New devices are being introduced daily that can support all different kinds of media.
• People don’t have any more TIME to spend on content/media absorption

than they already do today (most important).

• Viewing habits of an attention-span challenged generation are kicking in (people want shorter bursts of content).
• VOIP is now ubiquitious and PC video chat applications actually work.

Traditional media, brick and mortar retail stores, service providers, and new network-based services are all hardening for battle. The consequences of this battle will be severe and permanent.
Continue Reading »

I was recently invited to sit down with one of my listeners who is also a podcaster. Laurence Anderson and Douglas Bell do a show called the Previewcast. Larry wasn’t able to make the recording, but Doug and I had a nice time chatting about Apple and Macs among other things. The Previewcast recently received one of the infamous Apple legal letters because of some images used in their album art. The story made for a fun start to our conversation. Things went on from there and I had a great time. If you want to take a listen the show was just posted up on the site. Enjoy.

MacHeist Kicks Off “The Week of the Independent Mac Developer” with Bundle Sale
I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of MacHeist. If you don’t know what it is then you can find articles all over the internet about it. However, this week and this week only, they will be selling a wonderful bundle of apps for $50. And the best part is 25% of the proceeds will go to a charity of your choice. The apps you will get are: Delicious Library, Boinx’s FotoMagico, DEVONthink Personal, ShapeShifter, RapidWeaver, iClip 4, Disco and a Pangea game of the your choice. The charities you can give to are: The United Way, Direct Relief International, AIDS Research Alliance, Preventcancer.org, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, The Hunger Project and Save the Children. Best of all, if $50,000 is raised then you get NewsFire and if $100,000 is raised you will get TextMate. This is a great chance to buy some great shareware for a discount that goes to a great cause.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 169. Apple acquires Proximity asset management company. Kevin Rose leaks new iPhone info. Universal Photoshop in Q2 2007? New Zealand iTunes and Apple Online Stores arrive. Apple claims no ownership of “podcast”. Apple gains right to “digital media” download patent. Another Apple Rumor roundup. Correction on the Beatles. Resolution Independence. The good, the bad, the really ugly. Saving photos from damaged flash cards. What to do if your Mac got the “blues” after 10.4.8 update. MPEG video files get “muxed” up in Quicktime. Cataloging your archived files

New music, Baby It’s True by Mario Carrillo and the Bashers

One hundred thousand sperm and you were the fastest? — Vertical Limit (2002)

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Here is a great opportunity to spread a little holiday cheer this season and pick up a great Mac app or two at the same time. 12 Mac developers have teamed up
Child’s Play, a Seattle-based charity started in 2003 by the guys at Penny Arcade. Child’s Play collects donations of toys, games, books and cash and delivers them to sick kids staying in children’s hospitals across North America and the world. To date the charity has collected over a million dollars in donations.

This year several Mac developers have joined the cause and organized Child’s Play Day. On Thursday December 7th if you purchase any one (or more) of the 17 products from the 12 developers listed below, 100% of the proceeds from your purchases will be donated to Child’s Play. To participate you just make a regular purchase through the various online stores (on Thursday) and then the money will be collected and sent to the charity. It’s simple and you will help bring the joy of gaming to a sick child over the holiday season. Of course, you can also donate directly to Child’s Play by visiting http://www.childsplaycharity.org

Chimp Software (Store)
iRooster — Wake up to the world’s best music–your own–with iRooster, the Mac OS X alarm clock.

Clickable Bliss (Store)
Billable — Helps you keep track of the billable services you perform for a client and then lets you create and manage invoices based on those services.

Code Sorcery Workshop
Pukka — Fast, light productivity booster for people who use the del.icio.us bookmarking service. Multiple accounts, tag completion, private bookmarking, full AppleScript support, keyboard navigation, Growl, and much more. Stop waiting around and start bookmarking faster!

Elgebar Studios
Freeze Frame — Allows you to completely freeze an application, making it use absolutely no CPU cycles.
Pencils Down — Lets teachers create tests quickly and painlessly.

Flying Meat (Store)
VoodooPad — A personal desktop wiki. You put your brain in it.
FlySketch — Draw, highlight, everywhere.
FlyGesture — Move a little, do a lot.

Happy Apps (Store)
WebnoteHappy — Organize and remember the web pages that matter to you with WebnoteHappy – a better bookmark manager with tagging, note-taking, and del.icio.us integration.

Houdah Software (Store)
HoudahSpot — Your files at your fingertips. HoudahSpot is the frontend most Spotlight users don’t know they’re missing. Find files you didn’t know you had.

Martian Technology (Store)
SlingShot — The easiest way to keep your iTunes music (and your files) in sync between two Macs.
LifeBoat — Back up your important data on your external drives, instantly.

Mere Mortal Software (Store)
Safe Place — Securely store your passwords, credit card numbers, software activation codes, or any other information you want to keep handy and safe from prying eyes.

MK&C
Knox — Simply secure encryption and backup.

Prosit Software
iDictionary — Dictionary & Thesaurus Tailored For Your iPod
App Stop — Take Control Of Your Applications

RQS (Store)
Rolling Credits — Make typographically stunning — visually pleasing — completely unboring movie credits.