The British Invasion of Get a Mac

Apple has now done 6 versions of the Get a Mac Ads for the UK

Office at Home, Restarting, Virus, Trust Mac, Tentacle, and Pie Chart

Play Tentacle.

David Mitchell (PC) and Robert Webb (Mac), known as the British comedy act Mitchell and Webb.

The UK PC looks, to me, a little like a Matthew Broderick, with a few pounds added on.

iTunes movies coming to EU, well...

Apple may be preparing the first phase of a European roll-out of iTunes video.

According to their economy minister, this Spring Luxembourg will will provide full-length television series in various European countries (no details on which countries. Any that are EU members?).

IN a report from AFP it says that Apple has been in discussion "for several months" with Luxembourg authorities on the implementation of the system.

The report also points out that Apple choose Luxembourg for the first phase because of it's relatively lower Value Added Tax (VAT) vs other countries. The highest rate in Luxembourg is 15 per cent, as opposed to 19.5 per cent in France.

Shuffle now more colorful

The iPod Shuffle s now available in five colors: blue, pink, green, orange (instead of black) and the original silver.

USD$79 for 1GB

Apple 802.11n Enabler Now Available

Can now buy the 802.11n Enabler from Apple for USD$1.99

802.11n Enabler

Need one of these Macs

* MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo
* MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo
* Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme option
* iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except the 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac)

Apple pays bloggers legal fees and then some

Apple lost a court case against AppleInsider.com and PowerPage.org, where they attempted to subpoena the names of sources of a leak of Apple's "Asteroid" device (vaporware?).

THe win was big for bloggers, podcasters and other on-line journalists.

Apple was ordered to pay all legal fees plus a 2.2 multiplier (or, "loadstar") of the actual legal fees which was argued for by the EFF who represented the bloggers.

Creative reports big profits, thanks Apple

In December Apple paid Creative the $100 Million dollar payment to settle 5 lawsuits over the Creative Zen iPod user interface dispute.

This resulted in Creative posting a $92.2 million dollar profit in it's second fiscal quarter. That's an 82 million dollar increase over the same period a year ago.

If you take out the Apple payment and investment gains Creative's net profit for the quarter is only 9.9 million (still respectable), but only a 1.7 million increase form the same period a year ago.

Creative sold 2.5 million MP3 players for the quarter compared to Apple's 21 million iPods.

New Intel tech to boost Mac performance later this year

Intel has announced plans to use 2 new materials in it's next-generation 45 nanometer (nm) transistors to produce new versions of it's Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Xeon processors by the end of the year.

Codenamed "Penryn," the chips Penryn will use a new material with a property called high-k, for the transistor gate dielectric, and a new combination of metal materials for the transistor gate electrode.

Intel claims the new chips will offer record-breaking processor speeds and reduce power consumption.

Vista EULA may be trouble for Mac owners

A report on Mac Observer reveals that the EULA in Microsoft VIsta is causing some trouble for Mac owners who want to use the new OS under Parallels.

Mac Observer sites details on the Parallels site that alert users to the fact that the Home Basic and Home Premium are not licensed for use in a virtualization environment. You will need to purchase at least Business Edition (USD $299.00, full).

Issues with Vista on Parallels

Not only that, but other restrictions in the EULA seem to indicate that, "you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker."

So in other words, if you use Virtualization you may not be allowed to access or play DRM'd content via Windows Media Player under the EULA. This is still in debate.

Doesn't only effect Mac owners as many PC users run multiple OSes using VMWare and other virtualization products.

Also of note, is that using a Vista "upgrade" now invalidates the original XP license, so you can't continue to use your copy of XP on an old PC. This seems logical to me though.

Tip: Better control of Exposé Hot Corners

This trick is from Svante (S-vanta)

In the system preferences for Dashboard and Exposé, one can actually press down the command key while selecting functions for screen corners. Afterwards, the function will only activate if the command key is pressed at the same time the cursor moves to the corner. This prevents windows from flying everywhere unintentionally.

Backup your iTunes purchases, please.

Recently had a couple of emails from people who lost their iTunes library and subsequently purchased content.

Apple won't 'easily' let you re-download. Heard many reasons why, bandwidth costs, licensing costs, etc.

Backup. How many time do I need to tell you?

iTunes phone support number

Listener Scott told me about this Slate article

by Timothy Noah:
It is with great pleasure that I can now report that telephone support for iTunes is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. You need a little patience, but if you follow these steps, you will get a live person. Here's what to do:

1.) Telephone the following number: 800-275-2273. This is the Apple Care Service and Support Line.

2.) When you hear the recorded greeting, enter 70. The recording will very likely reject that entry at first. If so, try again.

3.) When you're prompted to say the product that you need tech support for, say "iTunes."

4.) When you're prompted to say what type of computer you're using, say "a Windows machine" or "Macintosh."

5.) When you're prompted to say whether you're calling on behalf of a school, answer "yes" or "no."

6.) This will get you a live person. Please note: You will need to state the serial number of your iPod before you can proceed.

Making and recording phone calls with your Mac

Play comment + question from Ryan

Macs modem doesn't support caller-id or voice calling. Need an adapter.

Phone Valet + Podcasting add-on (~$200). Couldn't tell if it would do outgoing calls.

Phone Valet

Telephone Hybrid. Costly. Telos One (USD$600.00)

Telos One

iTunes speaking another language?

Listener Keith logged into the iTunes Store recently and noticed all the text was in Japanese and the pricing in Yen.

I had the same thing happen and once before I was switched to German. It just seems to happen, possibly near updates?

Easy to fix, just go to the main page and scroll down to the bottom. Near the center is a drop-down to control which country your are viewing.