shownotes_20090511

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
    Mandaandthemarbles.com
Sponsor
  Faronics
    Deep Freeze
    Save on IT costs or just the home hassle.
      Set up the mac and take a snapshot of that configuration, "freeze it". Now when system reboots it restores to that state.
      Global or user-specific ThawSpace capability for retaining data.
    Free trials available
News
  Rumors of Apple buying Twitter
    The story ended before it began.
    Twitter is not for sale and there is nothing there that Apple could really want, except maybe some cloud expertise, but that's not worth $700 million.
    Apple did do a cool business profile of Twitter and their use of Macs on Apple's site
  Mac browsers hold April share
    Ars Technica looked at the April Net Applications data and noted that despite slumping unit sales in the latest earnings call Apple more or less held it's browser share.
    The browser data showed Safari with a 8.21% share of the browser market down just a bit from 8.23% in March
    When looking at OS, OS X was also down at 9.73% vs. 9.77% in the prior month. iPhone OS however gain 0.1% moving from 0.60% in March to 0.70% in April.
    Globally Apple is doing better than in the states
      Macworld UK has 1st quarter 2009 numbers from Gartner showing Macs with a 6.6% year over year growth resulting in a 4.8% marketshare.
      That puts them in the UK top 5 for unit sales.
  Blackberry squeezes out iPhone in US sales
    Electronista has numbers from the latest NPD group survey that shows the Blackberry is still tops when it comes to US smartphones
    The BlackBerry Curve 8300 series was the top selling phone in the 1st quarter of '09. iPhone 3G came in second place.
    The Blackberry Storm (3rd), BlackBerry Perl (4th), and G1 (5th).
    So far this year RIM has shipped about twice as many handsets as Apple. 7.8 million juicy juice handsets vs. 3.8 million iPhone 3Gs.
  Apple tops in quality and satisfaction
    Even if browser shares are down and another fruit is leading in sales, Apple is still tops when it comes to quality and satisfaction.
    Apple's iPhone topped the list of J.D. Power’s 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study. (iLounge)
      The iphone lead in the ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design categories, but suffered a bit in the battery category.
      Still overall Apple scored a 791 out of 1000. Besting LG (772) and Samsung (759)
    The New Your Times says Apple swept the competition in the latest Consumer Reports laptop computer-ratings issue
      Judged on performance, ergonomics, versatility, display, speakers, battery life and weight.
      Apple had the top spot in every category. 13", 14-16", and 17" category.
  Apple and Google may be getting too close
    The Mac Observer reports that the Federal Trade Commission has taken a look at Apple's Board of Director roster and thinks they smell something fishy.
    At issue is the fact that two Google Board of Director's members, Eric Schmidt and Arthur Levison, also both server on Apple's Board.
    The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 prohibits members of competing companies from serving on each other's boards
    There is no doubt that Apple and Google have competing products
      iPhone vs. G1
      Safari vs. Chrome
      Mobile Me vs. Goggle Cloud apps.
    If the FTC decides things aren't kosher then Schmidt and Levison may need to resign from Apple's board.
  Apple may help with in contract iPhone replacements
    According to iLounge, Mac NN and others Apple is now offering a lower cost replacement for phones that suffer at the hands of their owners.
    Can now get a refurbished or new replacement iPhone for USD $199, according to Apple's Out of Warranty FAQ.
    Covers things like damage from liquids or cracked screens where device is still functional.
    Damage not covered includes:
      catastrophic damage, such as the device separating into multiple pieces.
      inoperability caused by unauthorized modifications
  Rumors of App Store Approval changes
    With parental controls in 3.0 OS more apps might be able to get approval. Some developers reported getting rejection letters suggesting they could resubmit without modifications after the 3.0 update
    Already approved apps my have issues if they don't work in 3.0
      Apple is now only reviewing apps using the 3.0 software (sign we are getting close to release?).
      Apple sent letters to developers letting them know that if their apps don't run under 3.0 they could be pulled from the app store.
    Most apps should run without modification under 3.0. Some however don't and developers are felling the Apple pressure.
Sponsor
  Audible
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    Over 60,000 titles to choose from
    I am using it a lot to "re-read" books. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Chronicles of Narnia
Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  Sharing Automator tips and tricks
    Play comment from Bob
    Set up a section on the Maccast forum, you can share and link to Automator workflows to share
    On line resources
      Automator World
      Automator Actions Downloads on Apple.com
    Disclaimer about downloading programs. Community is somewhat self policing.
  Mac screen sharing
    Jack has pointed out something interesting to consider if you enable and use Screen Sharing
      In the System Preferences-->Sharing you can set this feature up in Leopard.
        Need to have Back to My Mac, DynDNS, fixed IP to make this work via the Internet. Also may need to open ports on your firewalls and routers.
          TCP: 5900 - 5902, (3389 for connecting to Windows machines)
          UDP: 4500 (for Back to My Mac users)
      If you use a user account and share a screen of a user who is logged in as an Admin you now have admin access
        Not too big a deal because:
          You need to have an account on the remote system. Would likely need direct access to the machine to set this up.
          Machine has to be on and logged into an admin account
          You still need to authenticate to perform most operations even as an admin.
    Securing the connection
      In the Sharing-->Screen Sharing preferences
        Don't need to always have it on.
        "Allow access for: Only these users:"
        Under "Computer Settings..." you can check the option for "Anyone may request permission to control screen".
    Easier way to share is to use iChat
      Has a "Share my screen with..." and "Ask to share screen..." option
      Don't need to know the users IP address.
      May still need the ports open though.
    Alternatives
      VNC, Go to my PC, Log Me In
  Review: Kensington Hands-Free Visor Car Kit
    Pros
      Battery charger and 2 batteries for up to 20 hours of talk time
      3 "presets"
      Auto-off sensor
      Pair with up to 3 phones with a swap button
    Cons
      Speakerphone so even with the noise cancellation it still sounds distant.
      Cabin noise is still an issue
      Mic and volume controls on one edge, so can't use car visor without repositioning the device.
      About the same price as a nice BT headset USD $119.00
    Kensington Hands-Free Visor Car Kit
  Bluetooth issues with new Mac Pro
    Michael was having his Bluetooth mouse and keyboard lose signal and pointed to this thread.
    Issue is reportedly effecting a number of new Macs from the Mini's to the iMacs. Seems to be desktop Macs and I didn't see reports of issues with notebooks.
    I'm not a fan of Bluetooth for mice and keyboards for this reason. It just seems flaky.
    AppleInsider said back in April that 10.5.7 may contain a fix.
  Control your Mac with your head
    Eyetwig iTracker
    Allows you to control your Mac cursor using the iSight and head movement
      Menu item with hotkey to turn on tracking.
      pause to activate click
      I had to tweak the sensitivity settings and it took some getting used to, but after a minute or two it was working
    Demo on their site works for 10 minutes
    Have built a framework for other developers to be able to use in their apps. Free for Open Source and free apps. Contact the company for use in a commercial app.
  One iTunes + multiple Macs = pain
    Sal moved his iTunes Music to a NAS, but noticed that when he pointed his other Macs to the location they didn't see the Podcasts, movies, etc.
    It's all about the Library File. That's the metadata key.
    The trouble is it's easy to move the music files location, but much more tricky to have all iTunes use one set of Library files
    To quote Steve Jobs... Sharing one complete iTunes Library with multiple machines on the same network is a "bag of hurt".
    Some things you can try
      Move the entire iTunes folder to a central volume making sure the "ignore permissions" option is checked.
      Maintain multiple local copies of your music (one on each machine), but use a syncing tool like ChronoSync, TuneRanger, or SuperSync to keep them sync'd up.
    My advice is don't bother and use built-in sharing for streaming music from one iTunes to another. Won't work for movies or video. :(
Closing
  Podcast Marketplace
    Thanks to my sponsors
      Circus Ponies
      Smile on my Mac
      Faronics, Deep Freeze
      Audible
      CocoaTech, Path Finder 5
  Winners of Things Packs
    To make it more fair I just randomly selected from all submitted entries.
      Edward Lynn & Christopher Linton
    Some of my favorite "to-dos"
      Leave a message on Michael Dell's answering machine with a recommendation to shut Dell down and give the money back to the shareholders. (note: this time, try not to laugh before hanging up.)
      Iron black turtleneck and jeans while saying, "One more thing" into the mirror
      Re-park the car from the disabled parking space
      Have 'fridge restocked with bottled water
      Give Lauren from the Microsoft ad a free 17" MacBook Pro
      In a friendly but firm way, tell Cook to get his name off of my office door
  Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
    maccast@gmail.com
    281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9
      PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
    MacCast Forum
  "All We Need is Love" by Michael Rossback
    From the Podsafe Music Network
    Artist's site
    Buy on iTunes
  EOL: The Many Typefaces of Jobs
    Designer Dylan Roscover created an awesome portrait of Steve Jobs using various typefaces and the text from the “here's to the crazy ones” TV ad campaign (via Cult of Mac)