Core 2 Duo MacBooks released

All models feature Intel Core 2 Duo chips running at same clock speeds as previous chips (1.83 and 2.0 GHz)

The 1.83GHz models other specs remained essentially the same.

The 2.0 GHz models now have:

Double the RAM to 1GB standard

4MB shared L2 cache from 2MB

80GB 5400RPM hard drive on 2.0GHz white and 120GB 5400 RPM drive on Black model

6x DL-supported super-drives

Pricing remains the same. USD$1,099 for the 1.83GHz White, USD$1299 for the 2.0GHz White, and USD$1499 for the 2.0GHz Black model respectively.

A graphic on the MacMini specifications page briefly showed a Intel Core 2 Duo chip and a dead link to an Intel Core 2 Duo page. Prompted speculation, but like an error as Apple updated the MacBook pages.

Sundance Channel available on iTunes

Episodes of Sundance Channel documentary series “The Hill,” “The First Amendment Project,” and “The Staircase” are now available on iTunes.

They will also be offering a free advanced preview download of a new six-part documentary series “One Punk Under God”. It will be available from December 5th through the 12th a week before the series premiere on December 13th.

Nvidia to acquire Portal Player

Nvidia has agreed to buy PortalPlayer for about $357 million in stock.

Portal Player had long supplied the audio processing chips in IPods up to the 5th gen.

They lost to Samsung for the 2nd Gen nano and iPod Shuffle

Nvidia recently beat out Broadcom to supply the multimedia chips for the next gen video iPods possibly bringing 3D to the next version.

Apple offers PowerMac G5 powers supply repair

Monday Apple began a repair extension program for Power Mac G5 systems

Powermac G5 REP

Systems fail to start up when a user presses the computer's power button or display no LED activity.

The failure is a result of a specific component failure within the computer's power supply.

Affected models were sold between approximately October 2005 and August 2006 and feature Dual 2GHz, Dual 2.3GHz or Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 processors.

Matt Hoult wrote a nice piece on Maccast.com about Apple's REPs

Justin Long is no longer a "Mac"

According to a report from Radar Online Apple is working on new ads with PC (John Hodgman), but Justin Long is out.

Justin's representative said, "Justin's a movie star, not a commercial guy." Arrogant! I think I am among the few people I know who knew he was in NBCs Ed. His recent films include such oscar worth titles as Dodgeball, Accepted and Herbie Fully Loaded. Please.

Who do you pick to be the new "Mac"?

Who's the new "Mac"?

John Krasinski (Jim on NBCs The Office)

Follow-up to OS X remote access solutions

SpyMe by Readpixel, remote control software with some nice features.

SpyMe

Hamachi X.

from the same company that does LogmeIn.

Zero config VPN so can access networks, iTunes sharing, Bonjour as if on LAN. Centralized "mediation" server so you can find your systems even with DHCP addresses, behind firewalls, etc. After connected it is handed off and you are direct VPN.

Hamachi X

Great Screencasts Online Premium Extra Episode (SCO0065) that covers it. Don't forget the MacCast offer that is going on.

Maccast Screencasts Offer

VNC doesn't offer support for file transfers. Timbuktu is a nice commercial option.

iTunes CD ripping fails? Be patient.

Listener Zac was having an issue where some CD would fail to play or RIP in iTunes. They would still mount and be recognized.

7th Son Podiobook

This one is a bit strange, but insert the CD, and wait for the drive to fully stop spinning. THEN either rip or play and it works.

This issue has apparently been around since iTunes 4.

Apple is not the best choice for non-warranty service

Listener Gary's new 80GB 5.5Gen iPod suffered and unfortunate fate and had it's screen cracked.

Apple wanted $350 to fix it. It's like going to the dealer. Why do they charge so much?

Go to a site like iPod Restore. They can repair LCDs for USD$99.00. They send you a box and shipping labels for $29.00 or if you send it it you can overnight return shipping for $10.00

iPod Restore

Apple won't cover "cosmetic" issues

In light of recent problems with laptops Apple needs to do something

MacBooks with discoloration, cracks, black paint wearing off, paint blobs, etc.

MacBook Pros paint chipping and flaking off. This was common issue with PowerBooks.

Call, take your Macs in, complain.

Corrupt MIME mail attachments from PC users

Play question from Rob

There can be a lot of factors, but a common one is the PC user sending RTF formatted email which is commonly used in Outlook. Exchange uses something called TNEF (Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format, pronounced tee-neff).

Solutions:

1) Ask them to send you emails in Plain Text or HTML format. They can change this in Outlook prior to sending the message

2) Get TNEF's Enough. Allows Macs to read and extract files from Microsoft TNEF stream files (the winmail.dat files). Drag the file out of Mail and then open the file with TNEF Enough.

TNEF Enough

3) Ask them to ZIP compress the attachments before sending them to you.

Solutions for long term storage of large files and data

Listener Sabine already has 250GB drives full and want to archive video projects of her kids growing up

Hard drives seem to be a good option. Fast, low cost per GB, easy to backup. What about longevity? I have heard between 5 and 30 years. Note most manufacturers warranties are only 5 years.

On-line services. Off site storage. Costs increase as storage needs increase, can be difficult for larger files, do you trust someone else with your data?

CD/DVD, Very inexpensive and relatively easy. Hard to manage and can be time consuming. Longevity is debated and varies by format and materials use din manufacturing (20 - 300 years, but looks like most low cost types and formats we buy you can expect 20-30 years).

Tape backup. Low cost. Can be difficult to find Exabyte is one company I know of that supports Macs. Longevity is the same as most magnetic media 10-30 years.

www.exabyte.com

The other factor is technological obsolescence which is also debated, but 20-25 years seems reasonable. So in 20 years you could have a hard time finding a way to connect that SATA drive to your smart homes brain.

Best strategy may be to keep getting the biggest baddest storage drive at the moment and become digital pack rats lugging our data the same way we do with our homes.

You have heard of speed reading, try speed listening

In Quicktime 'Window-->Show AV Controls' (Command+K)

Can change treble, bass, pitch and playback speed. Works with QuickTime audio and video files, not sure if it is a Pro feature or not.

For Podcasts that are in AAC format (I couldn't get this to work with music) you can speed them up on iPods, don't see a way in iTunes.

1) Select the AAC file in iTunes.

2) Control+Click (Right click) and choose 'Show in Finder'

3) Change the file extension from .m4a to .m4b. It will ask you to confirm and now say the file is AAC protected and give it the lock icon

4) Force the track to re-sync to the iPod. I uncheck did a sync (I have it set to not sync unchecked files) and the checked and synced again.

5) On the iPod, go to 'Settings --> Audiobooks' and set the speed (Slower, Normal, Faster). Now all Podcasts and Audio books with .m4b extension will play at that speed.