MacCast 03.25.2010 - Show #295
Media/Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is "Say Anything" by Manda and the Marbles
* Band's MySpace page
V Sponsor
V Citrix
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V News
V New Mac hardware rumors
* Mostly coming from AppleInsider and other sources
V 27" LED Cinema Display
* Basically the same features of the current 24" model with a 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution
* Apple has supposedly been waiting for LED display component prices to come down.
V 12-Core Mac Pros
* 2 Intel Westmere 6-core processors. Xeon 5600
* 2.66, 2.8, 2.93, and 3.33GHz
* Available in June?
V Macbook Pros, processor delay?
* DigiTimes is reporting that Acer is eating up supplies of the Intel mobile core i3,i5, and i7 processors
* Delay for new Macbooks and Macbook Pros?
V Apple's iPad developer Black-ops
V Businessweek is reporting if developers want a pre-release iPad for testing they must take some extreme measures
* 10-page Agreement
* Locked to an immovable object in a blacked-out room
* Photos to show you are in compliance
V So who getting the hardware?
* Electronista sites analysts at Flurry who say 44% of those getting pre-relase iPads are game developers
* 14% eBook creators
* Oddly only about 5% news.
V Developers have to make apps without a solid feel for how controls will actually work
* Simulator is good, but you cant gauge the physical distances from device edge to controls
* Some are making cardboard or plastic "prototypes".
V Apple started taking submissions of iPad apps for Apple Store approval
* Apps must be in by March 27th for consideration of the April 3rd launch
* Must be tested and built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5
* iPads are also reportedly shipping to reviewers this week.
V iPad, is the content coming together?
V AppleInsider reports on a WSJ piece
* Apple wanted an all you can get TV subscription service, but may be settling for lower $0.99/episode pricing
V Networks aren't playing.
* Worried about lost cable subscription fees.
* What about their own streaming?
* Are advertising fees enough?
V Wall Street Journal reports the books deals are in place with the largest book publishers.
V Apple has 5 major publishers ready to go at launch
* Random House seems to be a hold out, with their CEO not liking the 70/30 split and fixed pricing model. He prefers the wholesale model.
V Recent iBookstore pre-launch leaks from AppAdvice show many iBook bestseller titles at $9.99 (same as Amazon kindle price)
* In Apple's model this would result in publishers getting a less than wholesale price after Apple takes it's 30% cut.
* Seems good for consumers, less cost to produce, what about authors?
* Apple's catalog at launch should be at least as large as Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook.
* Also, reports Apple has done a deal with Perseus Books Group, an independent publisher and the largest distributor of works from other independent publisher. Including Zagat, Harvard Business School Press.
V Books purchased through the iBookstore will have Fairplay DRM and won't be compatible with other e-readers.
V Some opponents say that the DRM locking books to the iPad will hurt the iPad as a reader.
* Amazon has DRM, but books are portable to it's somewhere on a number of devices.
* Sync over the air with Whispersync.
* Apple will fully support loading your own eBooks in ePub format.
* iBooks can use VoiceOver
* MacRumors and other reported that viewing CBS.com with the iPad simulator showed possible HTML 5 versions of video maybe to support iPad viewing?
* 9 to 5 mac reports that you can now 'Gift' apps in the App Store
V Is your Mac about to get less secure
* We've often known it's security through obscurity on OS X, but things may get less obscure next week during the CanSecWest security conference
* According to TUAW computer security researcher Charles Miller, whose done work for the NSA, and is know for finding OS X security vulnerabilities, plans to reveal 20 zero-day exploits for OS X.
V A Forbes piece offers a little more detail
* He actually discovered 30 bugs, 20 in Preview alone.
* Sounds like he'll reveal the Preview bugs, which could allow a hack to exploit the Mac if the user opens a malicious PDF in Safari or Preview.
* Why publicly, potentially exposing millions of users?
V Oh, the iPhone got PWND too
* 2 Hackers at the conference used a web site that when browsed to in mobile Safari was able to copy off the iPhone's SMS database (including deleted SMS messages).
* The hack to about 2 weeks to prepare, but the SMS theft took all but 20 seconds
* The hacks say it's possible because the iPhone's implementation of code-signing is too lenient.
V Full priced iPhone available from US Apple Stores
V 9 to 5 Mac, with confirmation from Apple Store and Gizmodo says Apple Retail Stores can now sell full priced iPhones to US customers without an AT&T agreement
* 1 per person per day, no ID and no proof of At&T contract
* $499 8GB 3G, $599 16GB 3GS, and $699 32GB 3GS
* They are not unlocked, so without doing a jailbreak you'd still have to use AT&T and couldn't operate them outside the US?
V Apple leads PC in operating revenue
* Silicon Alley Insider has an interesting piece looking at some 2009 PC industry numbers from Deutsche Bank.
* Of the top 10 PC makers Apple has had a 7% share of total PC revenues, but a 35% share of operating profit. Beating other PC makers including Dell (21%) and HP (24%).
* Deutsche Bank speculates that Apple's profits are helped along by not having to license it's OS from Microsoft.
* Critics say Apple is not staying competitive on pricing and is gouging it's customers. Investors like to see strong profits, but Apple is also know for not paying dividends and is sitting on a 25 billion pile of cash and short-term investments.
V Sponsor
V Smile On My Mac
* TextExpander 3 is out and it's awesome!
V Loaded with new features, biggest of which is it's no longer a preferences pane, but an app.
* Means they can do a lot more with interaction in the OS
* Spotlight search of snippets from the menubar
V Other awesome new features
* Specify multiple fields in a snippet to be filled in at expand time.
* Built-in support for Dropbox sync of snippet library.
V Pricing
* $34.95 single, just $44.95 for family
* $15.00 upgrade from earlier versions
* Free upgrade if you purchased after November 1, 2009
* Free trail still available, more details on the site.
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Tip: PDF to iPhoto
* Play comment from Kevin Price
* The only issue I have with this method is each page is converted to a JPEG. You could place them in albums to group them, but it could get messy when emailing and the print quality might not be that great. Still a neat trick.
* In that same print dialog I like to use the 'Print PDF to Web Receipts' folder. Places PDfs in ~/Documents/Web Receipts
V What's your iPad for?
* I haven't quite figured it out yet. Mine will for sure mostly live in the house, likely the living room.
V comScore recently surveyed over 2,000 soon to be iPad owners and they say that 37% plan to read eBooks and 34% plane to read magazines and newspapers
* That would say eReader interest is high.
* I for one think comic book could be amazing on the thing.
V AppleInsider says Sybase commissioned a survey and of 2,443 people questioned working mobile was a number one response (vague?).
* Also, watching movies, TV, video and gaming/entertainment.
V Huge reports that gaming will be big, too.
* Flurry reports that the iPhone/iPod Touch currently has 19% of the mobile gaming market beating out the Sony PSP at 11%, and eating away at Nintendo which has 70% share according to their numbers.
V I think mobile surfing, rss, and reference will be a big use on my iPad.
* I'm very excited about Instapaper and OmniOutliner on the iPad.
V Applecare, should you care for iPads.
* I had a dilemma confront me while checking out with my iPad pre-order. Applecare for USD $99.00
* I ALWAYS buy it with my Mac, especially anyone with an integrated LCD, i.e. not a Mac Mini.
* I don't get it for iPods or iPhones.
V Mostly it's about the replacement cost vs. the device cost.
* $69.00 on a $199.00 iPhone - 1 more year of coverage
* $349.00m on a $2,100 Macbook Pro - 2 years coverage
* The iPad Applecare is $99.00 and add 1 additional year
V You can purchase Applecare extended coverage anytime during your initial year coverage
* Add a reminder to your iCal.
* In my experience most failures either happen in the 1st few months, or after the 1st year.
* New hardware tends to have higher cases of failure.
V Applecare does not cover consumer damage, water damage, etc.
V Some people prefer credit cards that offer this type of coverage.
* AMEX doubles the default manufacture warranty (not extended) and offers 90 day protection from accidental damage and theft. Up to $1,000 per incident.
* Applecare is transferable and can sometimes help with re-sale value.
V Applecare success stories
V Michael purchased a top of the line 24" iMac without Applecare. After 15 months of use it had a logic board failure.
* Apple naturally said he would need to pay for the cost of the repair, about £600 ($1000).
* He called Apple back to see if he could get a discount or something off the repair.The rep said that wouldn't be fair to those who bought Applecare, but after checking with a supervisor they covered the cost of the repair.
V John had to have his 2 year old 24" iMac repaired and when it came back the fans were stuck on.
* He phoned up Applecare and they offered to replace it.
* They sent him a new 27" iMac.
V Ashok's wife spilt some water on her Macbook Pro keyboard. She dried it out, but the delete key didn't work.
* After going to the Genius Bar they explained that since it was out of AppleCare she would have to cover the costs of the repair.
* When she came back to pick it up they waived the labor fees and she just had to cover the part.
V Finder has x-ray eyes
V Found a cool Terminal hack that will change the Quicklook effect when Quicklooking folders in Snow Leopard
* Type the following into the terminal: "defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1"
* Then 'relaunch' the Finder. Control+Option+Click the Finder icon in the Dock and choose 'Relaunch'
* Now when you Quicklook a folder it's cover will be see-through and show stacked icons of the items it contains.
* To switch back use the same command, but change the 1 to a 0. Again you'll need to re-launch the Finder.
* If you prefer a GUI for these types of Terminal hacks check-out the app "Secrets"
V Where did that come from?
V Saif sent in a cool little tip.
* Command+Shift+Click any icon in the Dock and it will open a Finder window and select that item. Great especially if you keep folders or documents in you Dock.
V This trick also works for items in your Finder Toolbar.
* Drag any folder or file into the Toolbar to have it always handy.
* Command+Click the items in the Toolbar to move them around or remove them
* In most applications you can also Control+Click the filename in the titlebar of the document window to see it's path. Clicking an item anywhere in the path will open that folder in the Finder.
V Closing
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V EOL: iPhone App A to Z
* All the letters of the alphabet blocked out using apps and home screens on an iPhone. (via TUAW)