MacCast 05.02.2008 - Show #225
Media/Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
* Mandaandthemarbles.com
www.mandaandthemarbles.com
V News
V iPhone coming to Canada this year
* Could this announcement be more vague?
* Ted Rogers, President and CEO of Rogers Communications, made a statement this week saying, “We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year.
V Strings point to iPhone as an iTunes remote
* TUAW found strings in the latest iPhone beta that refer to iControl
* Remote to allow iPhone or iPod to control shared iTunes over the network to play videos, music, etc.
V There have been web based services you can run locally to do this, but this would be integrated into iTunes and an iPhone app. Think iTunes remote with screen.
* Latest version of RemoteBuddy has a AJAX browser based remote
www.iospirit.com
V New iPod iTunes Ad
* There is a new silhouette ad running in prime time rotation in the US.
* First such ad to surface in a year, since May 2007.
* Same old same old with silhouette dancing with white iPods, shapes and bright colors.
* Music featured is ”Shut Up and Let Me Go” by The Ting Tings.
* Foreshadowing the demise of the iPod Classic?
V iMacs revved to 3.06GHz
* Al Intel iMacs get a speed bump
* Intel core 2 Duo systems using specially designed chips according to Electronista. Tweaked to run using just 55 watts of power. Main board remains the same as in the "Santa Rosa" systems.
* 2.4GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz, or 3.06GHz processors with faster 1066MHz frontside bus
* 6MB shared L2 cache
* 2GB SDRAM of 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM standard on all but the low end model.
* 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics BTO option on the 24"
* Priced from USD $1,199.00 to $2,199.00
V Apple Store help like a rainbow.
* According to a report on ifoAppleStore
V Clothing and slogans will change to better distinguish their roles
V Genius and Creative employees, dark blue
* Creative: “No pain, all gain”
* Genius: “Not all heroes wear capes”
* Specialists, light blue (previously Concierges ), “I can talk about this stuff for hours”
* Concierges, bright orange, “I know people”
* Business Partners, dark blue, buttoned-down shirts (polo?) with “Business” embroidered on the sleeve
* Back-of-house, traditional black, “Some artists use brushes. I prefer boxes”
* Manager: “My place. Your place”
V BBC comes to iTunes US, iTunes rentals same day as DVD
* BBC America has added content to iTunes.
V 3 shows at the standard $1.99 each
* Torchwood (Series 1 and 2)
* Little Britain (Series 3 only)
* Robin Hood (Series 2 only)
* Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, NEw Line, and others will be releasing iTunes rentals on the same day as DVD releases.
* Apple is also selling films via Apple TV and may be taking a $2.00 loss for the priveledge. Apple sells films for $14.99, but the Wall Street Journal reports they may be paying studios a $16 whole sale price.
V 3G iPhones cheaper from AT&T
* Fortune has a piece that says AT&T will subsidize up to $200 of the cost of the device (expected at $399 8GB and $499 16GB) with a 2-year contract
* Deal only from AT&T stores and device would be locked to AT&T network
* The Fortune source also says the device will be 2.5mm thinner, will contain a GPS chip, and is expected to go on sale around June 29th (iPhone 1-year anniversary).
V Rumors that Foxconn has been tapped to make the 3G iPhone to the tune of 24-25 million units
* 3 million to be available at launch in June?
* Looks like SOME AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspost now offer free iPhone access, according to MacRumors. Special "page" asks for the iPhone number. Can be fakes for laptop access by spoofing the user agent.
V Apple brings Java SE 6 to Leopard
* Apple released Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 for 64-bit Intel Macs.
* Adds support for Java SE 6, specifically version 1.6.0_05
* Update is Intel 64-bit only and will not work on PowerPC-based or 32-bit Intel-based Macs.
V Sponsor
V Circus Ponies
* Notebook
www.circusponies.com
* Free 30-day Trial
* Task lists are great for make to-do and can publish to HTML for web sharing
* Version 3.0 is coming soon and current owners will get a free upgrade.
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Maccast One Minute Tip is Back!!
* From our long lost friend John Chambers
www.oneminutetip.com
* Sharing podcasts.
* Play tip.
* Podcasting How to
commoncraft.com/podcasting
V Make sure you Mac can breathe
* Listener Andy noticed his G5 PowerMac temp rising and the system shutting down.
* I originally suggested resetting the SMU, SMC, PMU.
* Turns out it was layers of dust blocking the fans. I get this on the lower vents of my iMac G5.
* Sometimes adequate ventilation is all you need.
V Listener Jim also had a fan issue, but in his case when sleeping his Mac would lock up (not wake) and the fans would be running full speed.
* In his case it was Spotlight attempting to index external drives, adding them to the "privacy' list resolved the issue.
* Hopefully the impending 10.5.3 update will contain a fix.
V Safari has a local SQL database
* Listener Rick noticed an option under Safari 3's security tab to set the size and to "Show databases" and was wondering what that was.
* It the HTML 5 Client-side Database Storage API and it's built in to Webkit. The have a notes demo.
Webkit HTML SQL Demo
* When on a page using the feature you can view the stored data using the Developer menus Web Inspector. activate the Safari 3 Preferences-->Advanced tab
* This will be really handy for iPhone web apps.
V Confusion when troubleshooting with clones
* Listener was having keychain access issues where he couldn't unlock the admin screens with clicking the lock icon. It would unlock and then immediately lock again.
* Tried everything including repair from the Keychain Access Utility.
* Had a clone backup, so decided to restore from that and thought it worked, but turned out he actually booted from the external and was running off that.
* When you begin troubleshooting going back and forth from a cloned backup, set the desktop of the clone to a different desktop.
* Ultimately had to do an Archive and Install to fix the keychain access issue.
V Human-powered transcription app
* JT pointed me at Transcriva (USD $19.99)
bartastechnologies.com
* Audio playback, multiple voices, markers, etc.
* Looks like it has a nice clean simple interface
V Mail eating memory and crashing
* Listener Daniel was having issues with Apple Mail crashing. Saw in Activity monitor that after launch Mail.app would quickly eat up memory.
* Turns out it was RSS in Mail. There was a file being rapidly created/deleted continuously in the ~/library/Mail folder.
* Fixed the issue by unsubscribing from RSS feeds with Mail and then deleting the 'RSS' folder and the 'Available Feeds' file within ~/library/Mail.
* Was able to then re-subscribe to the RSS feeds without issue.
V Where do Recovered Files come from?
* James wanted to know why sometime 'Recovered Files' show up in the trash.
* Can appear on restart of your Mac, especially after a crash or improper shut down
* Many apps use temporary files and they are usually managed by the app and removed. If that doesn't happen they find their way into the trash.
V Sometimes they have a name that will not allow you to delete them. Find them in the terminal under ~/.Trash
* Does Option+Empty still work?
* Check in Finder if file is locked. Get Info, under General.
* Might be permissions, run repair permissions or change with Get Info...
* Make sure an app that may be using that file is not open. Can sometimes be a background app or shared app.
* Remove special characters from the filename.
* Use the command line.
V When is a backup, not a backup?
* When you destroy the original during an erase and install
* Dana reminds us that when you do that, your cloned backup is now the only copy unless you have another form of backup.
* I recommended DVDs and/or offsite storage for most critical files and documents.
* 2nd cloned backup. I have a second drive just for TimeMachine, but will clone to that as a second backup before doing an erase and install.
V Closing
V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Audible.com
audiblepodcast.com/maccast
* Circus Ponies, Notebook
circusponies.com
* Smile on my Mac, Textexpander
smileonmymac.com
* Faronics, Deep Freeze
faronics.com/mac
V Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
* maccast@gmail.com
V 281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9
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* MacCast Forum
forum.maccast.com
V "All That I Know" by Collective Soul
* Their latest single is Podsafe
* iProng has them on the cover of their latest issue which you can downlaod for free
www.iprong.com
* From the Podsafe Music Network
music.podshow.com
* Artists web site
collectivesoul.com
V EOL: GTA iV Apple Parody: Fruit
* An Apple parody Easter-egg in the latest Grand Theft Auto game.
GTA IV: Fruit