shownotes_20100927

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is "Say Anything" by Manda and the Marbles
    Band's MySpace page
Sponsor
  Smile
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      Redact feature will black out your selected text to protect sensitive information
      Works with OCR'd text too.
    More advanced image adjustment and enhancement features
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    Free trail available.
News
  Apple's entertainment interests grow
    According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Apple has entered into a multi-year licensing deal with Rovi.
      The filing doesn't specify what was licensed.
      According to the Rovi website they are, "global leader in digital entertainment technology solutions."
      If your like me you didn't recognize the name Rovi, but you may know their prior name, "Macrovision"
      They have a catalog of entertainment metadata for TV, movies, music and games.
        This is speculated to be what Apple may be licensing
      The companies site lists their program guide and copy protection technologies as what they license.
      Gene Munster see the deal as more evidence that Apple is working on dedicate TV and DVR products that they will release in the next 2-4 years.
        Way to stretch Gene.
  Security Update 2010-006
    Addresses a vulnerability in AFP (Apple File Sharing Protocol).
    A remote attacker may access AFP shared folders without a valid password
    An error handling issue exists in AFP Server. A remote attacker with knowledge of an account name on a target system may bypass the password validation and access AFP shared folders. By default, File Sharing is not enabled. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.6. Credit to Pike School in Massachusetts for reporting this issue.
  Apple's mobile profit vs unit sales
    Canaccord Genuity and IDC posted numbers that show how Apple's mobile market share has little to due with the short term impact to their bottom line
    From January to June 2010 Apple's unit share of mobile handset sales was around 3%. Their share of the industry profits however, 39%.
    That beats out Nokia, Samsung, and LG who's combined handset profits accounted for 32% of the industry profits so far this year.
    Canaccord Genuity estimates that Apple gets a 50% gross margin on iPhone sales with an operating margin above 30% while more others in the industry eek a 10% operating margin.
  Apple readying CDMA iPhone for launch?
    We continue to hear rumors of Apple prepping a CDMA iPhone
      This time from an analyst who says he's checked with Asian suppliers who are set to make 3 million shiny new "Verizion-ready" devices in December.
      Pegatron Technology has been signed to start building CDMA-based iPhone 4 models in November, and is expected to ship upwards of 10 million units by mid-2011
    Most are convinced that Apple will end the AT&T exclusivity in the US and add Verizon
      I think it's time.
      With european sales numbers braking records, we've already seen how opening up carrier partners can fatten Apple's bottom line.
      Rumors of a Qualcomm deal
      A new survey from Credit Suisse says 23% of AT&T iPhone customers are ready to jump ship when and if Verizon gets the device.
    Despite all the blogosphere's wishful thinking
      Verizon's CEO said they want Apple, but they need to "earn" it.
      Statement seems to point to their build-out of LTE network and showing they are ready for the massive amounts of data traffic that crippled AT&T
    I still have a gut feeling that most if not all the initial supply of CDMA iPhone's are bound for China
      Apple just launched the iPad and iPhone 4 in China to huge demand
        China Unicom sold out of supply on launch day
        100,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders, but initial supply of 60,000 units
        iPad launched just a week before the iPhone 4
        Plans to build 25 retail stores in China in the coming years
          Opened up 2 this past weekend in Beijing and Shanghai. Total of 4 in China.
  Apple TV rental battlefield
    Looks like TV execs aren't feeling Apple's $0.99 TV rentals
    First Time Warner CEO Barry Meyer and then NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said the price is just too low.
      Meyer worried the price would eat into sales of "seasons".
      Zucker claims $0.99 rentals will "de-value" their content. (I think his love for reality TV programing and for Jay Leno already accomplished that).
      Seems like a repeat of the Music industries "album" sales argument.
    Seems to me more like media "quote" fodder to attempt to keep leverage against Apple
      Both are on Hulu, with ads, but free or $9.99/mo on the new Plus service
      Both are also on Netflix streaming at $8.99/mo.
    Since the new Apple TV supports Netflix I guess in a way Apple wins whether the networks play the rental game or not.
      Drop in TV show purchases and loss of "rental" revenue since they aren't available.
      Most TV shows I don't care to own. I'm watching a TON of streaming.
        At Netflix price I estimate I'm paying $0.20 an episode.
  Updates to iWork for iOS
    Brings ability to export in Office compatible file formats for Numbers and Keynote. Pages already had .DOC export.
    Support for file transfers directly from iDisk (Mobile ME) and Web DAV servers
    Pages
      Option to display Word count
      Group and ungroup objects
      Open .txt files from Mail
    Numbers
      Open CSV files from Mail and other apps
      Group and ungroup objects
      Import and export Numbers ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
    Keynote
      Group and ungroup objects.
      Support for audio in builds when importing Keynote ’09 presentations.
      Add animated builds to grouped objects.
      Lens Flare, Spin and Wipe build animations.
      Revolving Door, Swoosh and Wipe slide transition animations.
    All 3 apps also get numerous bug fixes and other updates
  Surprise, Apple customers generally satisfied.
    Apple topped the PC category of the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
      Scored 86%, 2% higher than last years rating which was Apple's previously highest score
      Apple beat out the next highest competitors (Dell, Acer and HP) who all scored 77% (9% lower)
    On the smartphone side Apple topped the latest J.D Powers and Associates customer satisfaction survey
      Despite any "antenna issues" customers gave Apple an 800 out of 1000 score
      They had "Among the best" rankings in 5 out of 6 categories.
      Only getting an "The Rest" 2-"star" score in Battery Function (I assume because it's not removable?).
      Motorola (791) and HTC (781) and Industry Average score of (764)
  Apple TV shipping rumors
    Reports of some customers being charged late last eek
    Reports of Apple sending emails to customers who ordered Apple TV with expedited shipping.
    I haven't seen those emails and I have an order placed with overnight shipping.
  Macbook "Almost" Air rumors
    A strange report out of the DigiTimes
    Saying Quanta has orders to produce a new 11.6-inch MacBooks for Apple
    The units would also reportedly lose the internal SuperDrive in favor of an optional USB 3 external unit.
    Good news there is I guess next gen Apple products are getting USB 3 ports.
    So basically a sub-$1,000 Macbook Air? Oh, and it will land here in this year.
    And since we're miniaturizing things…
      The 7-in iPad design is finished and ready to go in Shenzhen, China.
      More like a big iPhone 4 w/o the forward facing camera (kills the rumor in my opinion).
  iTunes 10.0.1 Update
    iTunes 10.0.1 makes it easier to share your favorite music with your friends on Ping. You can now Like or Post about music right from your iTunes library.
    You can also easily see the recent activity of a selected artist in your library, or of all artists and friends you follow on Ping using the new Ping Sidebar.
      Replaces "Genius Sidebar"
      Updated Terms and Conditions
        Using the Ping Sidebar, iTunes will send information to Apple about the content you select in your iTunes library.
        Hide the Ping Sidebar or opt out of Ping to not have that data sent to Apple.
    Addresses an issue where the picture quality of a video changes depending on whether the on-screen controls are visible.
    Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit while interacting with album artwork viewed in a separate window.
    Fixes a problem that affects the performance of some third-party visualizers.
    Addresses an issue where the iTunes library and playlists appear empty.
    Resolves an issue that created an incompatibility with some third-party shared libraries.
    "Ping" dropdown next to currently playing track and when selecting other tracks in your main library
      Quickly "like" or "post" to Ping. Can also access artist profile and other iTunes Store pages.
  Daylight savings time bugs
    The States doesn't switch over until November, but in the southern hemisphere there appears to be mayhem.
    The clock app is reportedly waking up New Zealanders an hour early
    I have a listener in Brazil who has 2 October 16th. (they switch on the 17th) and when he has an event that spans the 16th and 17th and then syncs the bug manifests itself.
Sponsor
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    Kamalert
    Personal safety and video surveillance app
    Can set up "panic" buttons for personal safety and medical emergencies.
      Can SMS or email preset contacts with a message and your location.
    Surveillance can use the camera to monitor for movement
      Can send pictures via SMS and email
      Sound an audible alert
      Great for traveling, keeping an eye on the cookie jar, an unruly pet, whatever.
Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  Self diagnosing Mac issues
    Last show I said don't be afraid to take your Mac into Apple if you think you have a hardware issue.
      Concerned Genius worried that too many people would haul their systems in needlessly and create extra load on the system.
      If they can't replicate the issue then there isn't much they will be able to do.
      You need to do some things prior to taking it in. Up to and including re-installing OS X (pain in the butt, I know).
    Rule out software conflicts
      Add ons, third-party extensions and control panels, 3rd party hardware
        Update software, drivers, firmware
      Are you up-to date on your OS and Mac firmware updates?
      Re-apply the latest OS combo update for your system
    Do the "rubber-chicken" dance
      Zap the PRAM
      Run Disk Utility and verify the drive and repair permissions
      Clear the caches, rotate logs, etc.
      Create a new "test" user account
      Swap out cables
    Re-install the OS.
      Bottom line, "Beachballs happen".
      Clean out the kurfuffle.
  Hide the new "Ping" drop-down
    Quit iTunes, and open Terminal.
    Enter this line:
      defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool TRUE
    Restart iTunes.
    To reverse the setting repeat the steps and replace the "TRUE" with "FALSE".
  Running hardware tests
    Email from Hamish who is having trouble with his Power Mac. Has 8GB of OWC RAM and is concerned about RAM issues
      Main symptom is beach balls when just a few apps are open.
      He did take his system to Apple and they ran overnight tests
      Activity monitor showing low "free" memory, but high (5-6 GB) "inactive". Also high number of "page-outs".
        High "inactive" isn't much of a concern and may account for the "page-outs".
        At one point the physical memory must have been "maxed" out.
    He asked about running his own hardware tests
      Apple Hardware Test
        Used to be on a separate disk
        Newer Intel based Macs on OS DVD
          10.5.4 and earlier on Mac OS X Install Disc 1
          10.5.4 and later on Applications Install Disc 2
        Disconnect everything except Apple Mouse and Keyboard (dig 'em out if need be)
        Insert the appropriate disk and restart or boot up and holding down the "D" key.
        Old school 8-bit Mac icon with "chip" should show up on the screen.
        Perform the basic tests
          Basic tests will take several minutes
          If that doesn't find anything you can repeat and perform the "extended testing".
          Extended tests can take an hour or more.
      3rd Party testing tools
        TechTool Deluxe (Included with AppleCare)
        TechTool Pro
  Backing up movie collection
    David has been building up a movie collection mixed with iTunes purchase and his own back-ups
      iTunes stuff is in iTunes and back-ups are on an external 1TB drive (no backup)
    With hundreds of GB of data or TBs even, what to do.
    Until we have iTunes cloud we are stuck on the iTunes stuff to backing up ourselves.
      Our own stuff we also have to manage
    Solutions:
      Drobo + Cloud
        Could be another "RAID" solution
          NAS, mirrored 2 disk drive, etc.
        Move the iTunes folder to the Drobo or set up a sync of the iTunes movies folder to the Drobo as a back-up.
        I like ChronoSync for setting up automated sync. (USD $40.00)
      3 external drives
        1 is the 1TB drive you have already
        2 and 3 are clones of the 1TB. Use Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner on a schedule.
        Drive 2 and 3 rotate off-site depending on the frequency of adding new content
        Drive 3 could be replaced with an off-site backup solution
      2 bare drives and a drive dock.
      Archive content to DVD as you acquire it
        If you stay on top of it this isn't a horrible solution, but it can be time consuming.
  Review: Switcheasy iPad Case
    Play review, tip and question from Steven
    Switcheasy Nude case for iPad
    Online backup service that supports NAS
      Wikipedia article with good comparison chart
      Really difficult to determine which services offer NAS support. Seems like many don't.
        I tested CrashPlan and I could get it to backup a shared drive from my Mac
      Other option may be to get a local drive and use a tool like ChronoSync to sync the data from the NAS to the local disk.
        Gives your a second local copy of critical NAS files.
        Careful as some online backup services only support the main boot drive and not even attached storage.
  Choosing off-site backup solutions
    Play question from Jake
    Drobo gives you a redundant local backup and should work well if you keep it connected locally.
      Drobo FS is their new solution for network backup
    Off-site is slow for large amounts of data
      100GB will take over a month
      Some services limit the max size of individual file and also restrict some types of files (say video).
    For off-site many of the services offer a "mail-in" option to see the data on their servers.
      Additional fees
      Have to send in your hard drive, so may need a second drive.
    DIY using external drives or bare drive docks.
  How big an iPad do you need?
    Play question from Garrett
    Covered travel and the iPad on a recent Maccast Member episode.
    Usage and what other devices will determine your size.
      Games (esp. 3D ones), media, video, etc.
      Large PDF documents (construction and drafting plans)
    Do you use another device for your media?
Closing
  Mac Computer Expo 2010
    I'll be doing the Keynote Panel at the North Coast Mac User Group Mac Computer Expo in Petaluma, CA in October
    iFuture.
    Victor Cajiao, Jeff Gamet, Bryan Chaffin, Chris Christensen and I will discuss Apple changes and their meaning for the future
    It's free
    Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 9am – 5pm Petaluma Community Center
  Podcast Marketplace
    Thanks to my sponsors
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  Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
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  "That's Gravity" by Geoff Smith
    One from one of the original Podsafe artists
    From Musicalley
    Artists web site, has video.
    Buy album on iTunes
  EOL: Etch-A-Pad
    Cool new case makes your iPad look like a classic Etch-A-Sketch