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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 238. Apple’s stock options backdating black eye healed? Maybe. Strong rumors of new Macbooks soon. Secrets found inside 2nd gen Touch. iPhone 2.1 seems to be delivering. Mac OS 10.5.5 update. Apple claims more home notebook share. Bill and Jerry break up the act. Quicktime exploit and iPhone trojan found. Apple recalls iPhone 3G wall adapters. Customize Address Book fields. Backing up your Keychain to the cloud. Cycle through windows within an application. Use iTunes outside your own country? Apple’s watching you. 2nd Gen iPod Touch review. Does new iPhone software reduce GSM noise? Some iTunes 8 extra features. Software and ideas for maintaining your Mac.

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New music, London Calling by Radio Nowhere

EOL: Buttons aren’t toys, their cake! (Link)

Solitude’s always better with somebody else around, ya know? — House (1986)

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Frequent emailer to the Maccast Robert noticed a little something in the recent iTunes 8 update. Something that has become a very common and un-Apple like annoyance in iTunes updates. For some unknown reason Apple re-designs or moves significant functionality between versions of the software. With iTunes 7 the one that got me was them moving the “chapter” options for enhanced podcasts to the menubar. In iTunes 8 the most confusing example is their removal of the 3 tab options (General, Importing, Burning) from under the ‘Advanced’ menu in the iTunes preferences. iTunes 8 simply has one ‘tab’ of Advanced options. The other two former ‘tabs’ have mysteriously vanished. Or have they?

The import and burning options have actually been moved to other locations. In case you find yourself searching for these options, like I have been over the past few days, here is a quick overview of the process for setting these options in the latest version of iTunes.

Importing Settings

To set the import settings do the following:

1. In iTunes 8, choose ‘Preferences’ from the ‘iTunes’ menu (Command + , ).
2. In the ‘General’ tab, press the ‘Import Settings…’ button.
3. In the dialog box set up your desired import format, bit rate, etc. and click ‘OK’ when finished.

CD Burning

To burn a CD do the following:

1. In iTunes 8 create a playlist. If you want to burn a whole album you can drag the album from the new ‘grid’ view over to the playlist section in the left sidebar. This will create a new “playlist” for that album. Now select the playlist you want to burn.
2. In the lower right corner of the main iTunes window click the ‘Burn Disc’ button.
3. Now in the dialog box set up your desired disc burning options. You can choose the burning device and speed, select the disc format, set the gap between tracks, etc. Then insert a blank disc and click ‘Burn’.

I am not sure why Apple chooses to move major functionality between versions like this. I personally find it annoying, but at least now you know what has changed this time around.

A quick video unboxing the new iPod nano.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 237. Wrap-up of Apple’s “Ready to Rock” event. New iPod Classic. New iPod Nanos. New earbuds. New iPod Touch. New iPod Shuffle colors. iTunes 8. iPhone/iPod Touch 2.1 software update. iPhone Security Flaw Confirmed. Fix coming. First Vista Seinfeld ad airs. Apple finally acknowledges father of the media player. Can Pystar win against Apple? Non-apple iPhone apps don’t launch, what’s up? The 9:41 vs. 9:42 iPhone discrepancy. Use Mail “Stationary” to spruce up emails. Reset iPod warnings Review: Koi Pond for iPhone/iPod Touch. Mac making unusual chimes at start up. Speeds on the Macs USB buses. External drives, bus powered or not?

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New music, You Don’t Need and iPod by Uncle Seth

EOL: Mac Vader Pro

There’s always work at the post office. — Hollywood Shuffle (1987)

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Update Apparently iChat/AIM has an incredibly low 35 person room limit. I had no idea. So we have set up an IRC Chat room for those who can’t join the iChat. Here are the details:

server: irc.efnet.net
room: #maccast

Join us for Live Maccast chat open right now and going through the end of Apple’s live “Let’s Rock” event today (9/9). The Apple event begins at 10:00 AM PST.

Join us on iChat/AIM in the room: maccast.

To access it using iChat:
1) Launch iChat
2) Go to: File–>Go to Chat… and enter “maccast” as the chat name.

or Click this link to join now (AOL Instant Messenger or iChat account required)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 236. New iPhone ads spotlight App Store. MacBook Air Software Update 1.0 released. Apple looking to post a strong quarter. What is wrong with 3G? Rumors brew, possible Sept 9th iPod event? Psystar sues back. Bloomberg glitch kills Steve Jobs. Feedback to App Store and Apple comments from last show. Your Mac is smart, use it. Smart folders, playlists, and more. Phishing scams targeting more Mac owners. MobileMe not for all Me’s Review: Recorder for iPhone. iPhone Apps like rabbits in iTunes, cleaning up the dupes. Time Machine warnings can be confusing. iPhone lore: 9:42 AM. Keyboard navigation for Open Save dialogs.

EOL: Wings Over Wallstreet

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Smile on My Mac, check out Text Expander

New music, Walk Right Over Me by The Gathering

Never lower your eyes to an enemy. — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

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As promised here is the video of Jonathan Coulton (jonathancoulton.com) performing Code Monkey during the Coverville 500 event in Las Vegas, Nevada during the 2008 New Media Expo.

Clip used with permission from Jonathan Coulton and Brian Ibbott

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. A special episode of the Maccast recorded live from the show floor of the New Media Expo 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This show features special guests Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User) and Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken).

Links
typicalmacuser.com
macosken.com
coverville.com
jonathancoulton.com

Special thanks to our sponsor:

Circus Ponies – The Easy Way to Get Organized on the Mac. Try it FREE for 30 Days.

New music, Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton, performed live during the Coverville 500 event

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 235. Winners of Smile on My Mac contest announced. iPhone 3g shows strong results. Rumors of iPhone Nano are back. More apps disappearing from the App Store. iPhone phone home, iPhone phone home? NPD Group says Macs cost twice as much as PCs. Rumors of new Macbooks strengthen. Apple finally prepping new displays. To shutdown or not shutdown that is the question. Installing apps outside the Applications folder. iDisk, what is it good for? Open and Save dialog box trick. Has Apple spread itself too thin? Get more WiFi details from Airport menu bar item

New music, North Wind by The Pharaohs Of Rhythm

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Not to be rude or anything, but this isn’t a great time for me to have a house elf in my bedroom. — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

EOL: Meet the iPhone Nano
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Those of you who are old enough will maybe remember the 80’s hit Jenny by Tommy Tutone. The song repeated over and over again 8675309, the supposed phone number of a fictitious girl named Jenny. Back then the song drove anyone across the nation with that phone number nuts as they were overwhelmed by annoying random phone calls.

Today, most movies, TV shows, songs, commercials, etc. use a “555” number to avoid this type of issue. So imagine how strange it was for me last night when I saw one of Apple’s latest iPhone 3G ads prominently featuring what looked like a legitimate phone number. In the new Work Friendly ad for the iPhone 3G there is a point when they display a contact entry for Scott Frankel and right there in the middle of the screen is an actual (408) phone number. Two actually, because there is also a bad edit in the middle where the screen magically changes mid-shot and adds a second “office” number. After my initial shock wore off I began to wonder. Why would Apple use a “real” number in an iPhone ad? Was this simply a mistake by the ad agency? A clever marketing campaign? I could see by the zip code it was a Cupertino number, so was this a secret hotline into Apple’s headquarters? Well, any Mac geek can probably guess what I did next. Of course. I grabbed my own iPhone and started dialing.

The first number, Scott’s “mobile”, simply had a call failure each time I tried it. The second “work” number went straight into a generic voicemail box. Now, I didn’t leave a message, but I have to wonder what would happen if you did. What is the point of all this? Is there a point? In the back of my mind I was kind of hoping this was a great viral marking scheme and the start of some cool iPhone/Apple treasure hunt like the kind of campaigns the folks over at Mac Heist have crafted in the past. But alas, it doesn’t appear to be so. Seems like a missed opportunity. Truth is, it’s probably just a prank on some poor unsuspecting intern who works at Apple. This guy is now wondering why he gets like 3,000 voice mails a day and why the folks in marketing snicker at him as he shuffles out of his cubicle each day to go have lunch. Maybe he should give Jenny a call and see if she’s available to join him?