shownotes_20060616

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
    Mandaandthemarbles.com
News
  Bill Gates will step down in 2008
    Bill Gates announced Thursday that as of July 2008 he transition out of a day-to-day role at the company.
    He will work part time for Microsoft and full time for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundations works on global health and education issues.
    Gates was never comfortable with the success, recognition and money.
  Apple lowers iPod Nano and other pricing in the UK
    Apple has cut prices by £10 on all three nano models—the 1GB nano now costs £99, the 2GB model is £129 and the 4GB nano is £169
    iPod HiFi was dropped from £249 to £229
    iMac prices were also lowered £50-£100 and Mac Minis were dropped £50
    Correction on Canadian 30GB iPod price. I said $249 CAN, it should have been $349 CND.
  New iPods you won't touch
    This is a strange rumor
    According to one of Apple's Asian manufacturing partner, Hon Hai Precision, Apple getting set to introduce an iPod with “none-touch" technology.
    iPod spoken interface patent. New Nike iPod product.
    The company owns the Foxconn iPod factories, which were recently accused of labour abuse with sweatshop like conditions in "iPod Cities".
      Apple responded saying they plan to investigate
    Interestingly analysts have recently lowers estimates on iPod sales by as much as 12% so new models may be right on time.
  Is Apple going to make an Ultra-portable?
    Benjamin Reitzes of UBS Research Institute seems to think Apple is readying an Ultra Porable Mac (UPM) for MacWorld in 2007. Newton?
      No optical drive, no keyboard. Inkwell is good, but come on.
    Didn't we have that already? 12" PowerBook and 12" iBook
    The machines would ues NAND flash memory
    DigitTimes claimed Apple would use NAND earlier this year.
    Intel "Robson cache technology" uses FLASH memory instead of HD for startup and frequently used Apps. Better battery life and near instant boot times.
  Boston may be getting the next Apple Flagship store
    After being denied appoval earlier this year to build a three story retail location in Boston’s Back Bay, Apple was given the go ahead to destroy an existing building at 815 Boylston Street to make way for a new building.
    Apple submitted a new design that was not given approval, but the Back Bay Architectural Commission said they liked Apple's direction and gave approval to the demo.
    The Boston Globe reports that Apple's design includes a glass facade with stainless steel columns, a spiral staircase and a skylight with a green roof.
  Users reporting stains on White MacBooks
    There are several reports of stains appearing in the hand rest area of many new white MacBooks.
    I have slight discoloration on my iBook G4 but after 3 years
    These look like they could be caused by heat and not dirt or wear
    Some reports say the stains can be cleaned off with a non-acetone nail polish remover. Use clear, or blue colored non-acetone nail polish remover, other colors wil tint the plastic. DO NOT use acetone or isopropyl alcohol on your Mac.
Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  How to clean your Mac
    Water. Damp soft cloth.
    iKlear Apple Polish
  Response to Norway and EU iPod/iTunes policies
    Adam pointed out a good article on the Financial Times site
      "Walled Gardens" are not new. Razors, Inkjet printers.
      Cheap printers result from the "walled garden" aproach.
      Walled gardens are more damaging to consumers when they need to share. Microsoft Office.
      No one is forced to use iTunes or an iPod simply because Apple is the big player
    Verizon and VCast, my new RAZR phone has diabled firmware.
    Other online services don't support Macs or iPods.
    iPods play other formats, MP3, AIFF, WAV, etc.
    Apple created a DRM model and a consumer experience that works for consumers and the Record labels.
    You can burn a CD with Apples DRM and then convert into any format you wish.
    Clear up that ELUA issues are not limited to Apple.
  App for helping manage multiple iWeb sites
    Several listeners pointed out iWebSites from
    Basically creates new Domain.sites packages and renames old ones. You can then switch which site is the defualt one.
  Additional tools for removing OS X Languages
    Can seriously reduce the amount of used hard drive space. Can easily be 1GB of localization files.
    Some tools in addition to doing a custom OS X install
      Monolingual, free (open source)
      TinkerTool System, maintainece and enable other "hidden" 7.00 €
      DeLocalizer (has not been tested with 10.3 or greater)
  How to find special charater and bring back KeyCaps
    Use the International system preferences and click Input Menu
    Turn on Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer (OS X KeyCaps). Adds flag to menu bar and then you can access:
      Character Palette, easy access to Currency symbols, Math symbols, stars, Greek symbols, Braille Patterns, etc.
      Keyboard Viewer, just like KeyCaps. Lets you see what key combinations give which characters for a given font. For example Option + 8 for a bullet (•).
    PopChar X also provides easy access by adding a little icon in the left corner of the menubar next to the Apple logo. ($29.99 USD)
  Turn your spare change into iTunes
    Listener Chris pointed out
    In the US and the UK CoinStar has machines to count your spare change and turn in for cash. They have machines in Canada, but couldn't tell if Gift Cards are an option there
    Now you can by-pass their fees and get GiftCards for Amazon, Borders Books, Starbucks and iTunes.
    You can also donate your change. March of Dimes, Red Cross, Unicef and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
  How to display which iPhotos are in which Albums
    Listener Johnathan needs to be able to see from the Library whch photos have been placed in which albums.
    You can use a Smart Album to sort out which images are not in an Album
    Any other thoughts let us know.
Closing
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  Geek Cam and Widgets
    The Mac Geek Cam is BAck
    Cam Widget and RSS Widgets. Thanks to Jon at The Flip Side
    Thanks to Joe “The Dead Herring” Sayer and Matt Hoult for programming and Jason Saunders for the design work on the original MacCast RSS Widget
  "Electric" by Slim
    On the PodSafe Music Network
    Artist web site
    All music can be viewed at music.maccast.com