Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050806.mp3 [16.9mb 36:56 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 78. Apple launches the iTunes Music Store Japan, Amazon may be planning a digital music service, “Trusted Computing” technology not in current OS X Intel developer systems, Apple defines bloggers as “unhealthy”, Sony PS3 UK website hints of OS X support on console and Steve Jobs to deliver Apple Expo keynote in Paris. Mighty Mouse hands on review, more information on uninstalling Apple apps, “Podcaches” Promo, how to move files with “cut” in the OS X Finder, listener review of RapidWeaver. eMacCast delays, sorry. Mac music and audio production related sites, communities and podcasts, listener review of QuickSilver and my interview with Amber MacArthur is happening this Sunday. New music, Heidi by The Bombhappies.

I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.

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Listener Steve (reboot98@gmail.com) took advantage of a tax free day for computers, clothes and school supplies in Missouri.

Is a new Mac store opening?
Are they just now releasing Tiger in the Midwest?
Are they giving away Ipods? Well actually yes but only to teachers.

This weekend is a tax free holiday in Missouri, for computers, clothes and school supplies. Looks like everyone was using it to buy Macs.

You didn’t do this mouse dissection in biology class. This is so cool. If you want to get a great look on what makes the new Mighty Mouse tick, head over and checkout this great article on ArsTechnica. Head over and read the full article, it gives more gruesome picts and all the gory details.

Here are some pics of the Apple Retail Store opening at The Woodlands, Texas

Special thanks to listeners Charlie and Eugene for sending these in.

A Brief and Warped History of the Mac, part 6 (in which the Mac rocks)

Welcome back to my column – I imagine that many readers will be wondering when this insight into the past of the Mac will end – well this is the final part of the saga. The story flows much like Star Wars if you’ll allow me to recap with a strained analogy.

The first part of our story was the discovery of computers and the growth of Apple computers with the Apple II. Next came the action packed ordeal of developing the Mac, but this ended in the sad loss of one of the Mac’s parents – Steve Jobs. No clones though, they didn’t attack quite yet.
By part three, things had gone seriously pear-shaped with Apple doomed to financial and technological purgatory.
In part four, a New Hope was revived with the purchase of NeXT. Last week, I covered the story of how Apple took that and rebuilt the Mac OS – and this is largely where the analogy falls down – no-one gets their hand cut off. However, The Mac Strikes Back would be a fitting title for that section.
But in this final part we will see how the story unfolds up to now and word count allowing, even ponder the future. This is the story of the triumphant Return of the Mac.

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Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050803.mp3 [17.4mb 38:02 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 79. Apple releases the Mighty Mouse, HP discontinues iPod sales, Apple using DRM to prevent OS X Intel on non-Apple hardware, Mac OS 10.4.3 seeded to Feeder 1.2 with iTunes Podcasting support, judge stops Georgia schools purchase of 63,000 iBooks, more Apple retail store opening this weekend and Apple expands iPod Trademark to include video. More Follow-up on iPod -36 errors, using Macs in your business environment, a rant on restrictive software authentication schemes, how to uninstall Mac applications and strange tales of iTunes, converting tapes to CD. New music, Waste Another Night by My Little Radio

Autobots, transform… And roll out!

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Correction: I just received my new Mighty Mouse (awesome BTW) and it turns out the side buttons work by squeezing the mouse and are both assigned to the same action. So it looks like it is a 4-button and not a 5-button mouse. Listen for a full review on the next MacCast!

So this is a really horrible case of bad timing. I recorded the new show and it is ready to go. Just when I am ready to give it to you, I see an email from Libsyn saying they are transitioning and upgrading their servers on August 1st and 2nd. In testing right now, I see the servers are moving really slowly. I can’t even get the new show to download most of the time and in one case, when it finally did start to download the show, several seconds were missing from the beginning of the show. I think I am going to wait a couple of hours to see if they can get stuff sorted out. I am really afraid if f I update the feed now many of you won’t get the show and that would be awful. The new show is coming, please be patient.

Update: (1:00 PM PST 08/03/2005) I think Libsyn is still having issues, but I cannot wait any longer. I am going to go ahead and update the feed. Sorry in advance to anyone who has issues with the download. Please don’t swamp me with email saying there are issues. I already know. thanks.

FlexPed™ will offer the flexible mounting and positioning of the ever popular THOUGHT OUT designed PedHead™. The new FlexPed™ will cradle portable devices virtually anywhere including cars, boats, and walls etc. The product will be available in September for under $50.00. For more information please see www.thoughtout.biz (in a few days).

The PedHead™ mechanism that can also be found on the Ped2™ which allows setup adjustability for virtually all devices including the design inspired iPod with or without cases or skins.

Images (click to enlarge)

Here is another great story from Albert who also successfully runs his business using Macs.

My Wife and I started Due, three years ago. It started out as a little maternity boutique down here in sleepy Santa Barbara.

Because we used Macs in our past careers, (in advertising and PR) we decided to run the store on Macs too. It wasn’t an easy choice at the time because there was only 2 advanced retail applications that ran on the Mac, and one of them had poor industry ratings.

So we went with POSIM (Point of Sale Inventory Management) produced by Ensign, a company based in Utah. http://www.ensign.com

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You don’t often get stories of businesses switching to Macs, so whwn I received this story from listener Jamie I wanted to share it with you.

Thought you might want to hear about my Mac experience.

I am a business owner of a computer software/support company. I have for years been slaving over books and updates to keep current on programming languages and new support bug fixes. In my offices I have several Windows Servers and Windows XP laptops and desktops. You guessed it, I am (was) a PC geek.

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