shownotes_20110925

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
    Mandaandthemarbles.com
Sponsor
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News
  Thunderbolt Displays are here
    Apple's new Thunderbolt Displays are here and they are getting some great reviews.
      One of the better and more Technical ones is the review from Anadtech. They have a great 15-minute video too.
    Some things to know
      Requires a Thunderbolt equipped Mac, basically the 2011 models. Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Mac Mini. Will not work with a DisplayPort Mac
      Number of displays depends on your model
        Macbook Air can only drive 1 Thunderbolt display.
        The 13-inch Macbook Pro can drive 2, but not it's internal display at the same time.
        The 15 and 17-in Macbook Pros can drive 2 external displays and the internal.
        The Mac mini can drive two Thunderbolt displays plus a display connected via its HDMI port, but only if the mini has an AMD graphics card.
      Older Mini Display Port Apple Displays will not work when connected to the Thunderbolt Port connector on the back of the Thunderbolt display.
        Macworld found that they did work however if connected to the Thunderbolt pot on a Promise RAID connected to the Thunderbolt port on the display.
    If you own an Air the Display gives you 3 USB 2.0 Ports, Firewire 800, Thunderbolt, and Gigabot Ethernet
      Anadtech noted that speed of Firewire and Ethernet were comparable to if you had native support on the motherboard
        Makes sense because it's PCI Express
        Also they note there are discreet controllers for each interface on a motherboard in the monitor.
    So you get a lot of bang, but it's also a lot of bucks at USD $999.00
    If you do buy one Apple did release a Thunderbolt Display Firmware Update
      The copious release notes say it improves the stability of the Apple Thunderbolt Display.
      Good to know because a stable display is important on both counts.
  Final Cut Pro X, now with more Pro
    When the latest version of Final Cut Pro came out many professionals complained about the lack of some critical features
    While not all the features pros are looking for are back, nor will they all ever be, Apple did push out an updates that addresses some of the concerns
    The biggie for this update is import and export of projects and events in XML format.
      This now means there is a workaround to bring older Final Cut Pro 7 projects into the new version of the app
    Also added was GPU-accelerated export which should significantly speed output
    They also released a development kit for camera makers to that they can add new camera support without having to wait for Apple to release a major update to the app.
    Apple also promised an update in 2012 to bring back multi-cam editing and support for broadcast video monitors.
    Finally, Apple may be hoping to win new users with a little free sample. You can now get a free 30-day trial of Final Cut Pro X available from Apple's web site
  When are we getting an new iPhone already?
    Apple event October 4th?
      D All Things Digital reports the event will be held at the Town Hall on Apple's Campus
      Typically larger events are held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco
    Invites should go out by this coming Tuesday September 27th.
    iOS 5 and iCloud released early the following week between the 9th and the 12th?
    iPhone 5 on sale October 14th?
      The 9th-12th and 14th and 15th dates reportedly blacked out for Apple Store employee vacations
      Al Gore said iPhone 5 in October
    This all assumes there even is an iPhone 5, which some sites say really may just be an iPhone 4s. Arrrg.
    So what DO we know?
      There should be some event and some new device announcements soonish? This isn't even 1 00%, but if Apple wants new stuff out for the holidays (and we assume they do) then this needs to happen.
      T-Mobile will NOT be getting an iPhone this year. Based on a statement by their Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman.
    The reality of leaks
      Reported Otterbox images of iPhone 4s cases (3 million?). Where do they get this stuff
      Otterbox posts a teaser banner that reads "iPhone 4s or iPhone 5? Yes." - Blogosphere goes wild.
      Guess what? it's all marketing and prep.
      They have NO NDA with Apple, no inside info. They are just planning based on rumors.
      Those iPhone 4s images, just early packaging designs. They want to be ready day 1 for whaever Apple announces.
  iPhone 5 shortage, blame the bubble
    BGR says Digitimes is reporting a possible problem with iPhone 5 screens being supplied by Wintek
    A “delayed bubble” is apparently showing up between the panel and the lamination layer after the displays are sent out for assembly.
    A Wintek spokesman wouldn't confirm the story and only said that the company IS meeting all it's delivery schedules
    Wintek supposedly is supplying 20-25% of the iPhone 5 display panels, so shortages at the factory could result in constrained supplies at launch.
  PDF Trojan targets Macs
    Security firm F-Secure notes the new trojan, Trojan-Dropper:OSX/Revir.A
    It masks as a Chinese language PDF file that when opened installs a back door program
    The backdoor is a simple Apache web server that responds to instructions from a remote server
    At this point it seems to be a proof of concept as at the moment it doesn't appear to be getting any remote instructions
    It installs a launch agent and you can check for the infection by launching Activity monitor and looking for a a process called "checkvir". If present, select it and Quit the process.
      You can then remove it from the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder. On Lion use the Go menu in the Finder with the Option key held down
      The files are called "checkvir" and "checkfir.plist"
    Apple should be able to add this to their XProtect maleware detection
    Another security flaw was fond in Lion earlier in the week
      Allows an attacker with access to a logged in Mac, say via SSH or VNc, to change the password on that account without requiring authentication
      The current beta of OS X Lion (10.7.2) didn't appear to have a fix, but since it's yet to be released there is hope.
      The exploit does require access to an account on the same Mac, which isn't common for most home users.
  Apple set to lead holiday tablet sales
    Gartner released a report on the future of the tablet market
    Worldwide tablet sales for 2011 are expected to by up 261 precent selling 63.6 million units compared to the 17.6 million sold in 2010
    Apple is expected to sell the most with a 73.4 percent share of the market, but that is down 10% from 2010.
    Gartner doesn't expect any one hardware vendor other than Apple to have more than a 5% share of the tablet market this year, although if you compare platforms Android devices as a whole are expected to ship about 11 million units which accounts for a 17.3% share of 2011 tablet sales.
    The holiday season is expected to belong to Apple in the tablet space and predictions are that Apple will continue to have a majority share of the tablet space through 2014
    Suzanne Michel, a member of Google's legal team and former FTC official, testified at a Senate Judiciary hearing that iOS devices make up 2/3rds of Google's mobile search queries
    Reasons cited for Apple's success
      A superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services
      Foresight in creating a market for tablets and locking up key component supplies like memory and screens giving them a competitive price advantage
    I think the app marketplace and Apple's majority position are also key.
      App choice and variety ensure the iPad can deliver the custom functionality consumers are looking for.
      Apple being the dominant platform ensures that many developer will choose the develop for the iPad first.
      The iPads platform success is also causing businesses and developers to push the application and capabilities of the device. It's creating new applications and markets for Apple to sell even more devices.
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Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  The confusing side of simple names
    Apple's simplified product naming scheme may be good for marketing and buying, but several of you pointed out the dilemma that comes up when you need service
    Marty and Brent both mention this.
    It definitely makes self service support more tricky.
      "I bought my Macbook Pro in January 2011, but it's actually the Mid-2010 model, and not the newer Early-2011" model
      Easy way to check using Apple's support site and your device serial number
        1) Go to Apple Support Site
        2) Click the 'Online Service Assistant' under the 'Self Service' section
        3) Enter your serial number.
          Go to the Apple Menu and choose 'About this Mac…'
          Click on the area that shows the OS version.
          It will cycle to the serial number
        When you hit 'Continue' the Model Name will be displayed
    If you've registered your Apple products with your Apple ID you can use your Apple Support Profile to view this information. Just good luck finding a link to this on Apple's support site.
    There are also 3rd Party apps like MacTracker to figure this stuff out, but it's hardly user friendly
    Apple would probably say that when and if you need support you can take the Mac to a Genius Bar or call support and they would help you sort it out.
    Does make it difficult to know what parts to get if you are planning a self service upgrade.
      Again if you are technical enough to be doing your own upgrades it's probably assumed your technical enough to know how to use the System Profiler to figure this stuff out.
  Reviewing Arne's backup strategy
    Play comment from Arne
    The often forgotten part of backup, recovery. Your strategy only works if you can recover
      You can't set it an forget it
      Make sure you can still read data off the drives. Run disk utility on the drives occasionally and make sure there are no issues
      Consider swapping for new drives every few years.
        Keep the old drives too if you can as a archive. Debate on longevity ranges, but if you have it it might work.
        Drive also tend to fail right away or at end of life
      Maybe want to rotate more frequently?
        This depends on your data and how critical it is.
        With rotating once a month you could lose up to one month of files.
        Granted this is only if something catastrophic happens, like a fire so in the scope of things it may not be a big deal.
  Address Book sync with iPod Touch
    Jason has a Mac and an iPod and had been maintaining contacts in both places, but not syncing. He had some questions before he pulled the trigger.
    Does turning on the 'Sync Address Book' option in the info section in iTunes replace the data on the device or on the Mac?
      The answer is 'both' or 'either'
      Actually when you enable the feature for the first time it should ask.
      Do you want to merge data, replace data on the device/service, or replace the data on your computer.
    Whatever you choose it's a good idea to backup both the iPod data and the Mac's Address Book data first
      For the iPod, just connect to iTunes and let it do it's backup
      In Address Book
        1) Launch Address Book
        2) From the File menu select 'Export…' and choose 'Address Book Archive…'
        3) Name the backup and choose the location to save the Address book Archive (.abbu) file
      Restore
        For the iPod, connect to iTunes and choose Restore
        In Address Book choose 'Import…' from the file menu and select the Address Book Archive file.
    Use iCloud (Mobile Me)
      If you choose to use cloud syncing you should turn off iTunes sync first
    Other syncing like Google or Exchange Server
      Google sync actually uses Exchange I think
    I would pick one syncing method and stick to that exclusively
    You can mix syncing services, but it will be more variables to deal with if something goes wonky.
  Lion tap to look up dictionary trick
    Found this neat tip on Cult of Mac
    In Lion I love the integrated dictionary look up. Highlight a word, right+click and the first choice id "Look up (the word you selected)".
    You get a pop-up panel with the dictionary definition, thesaurus, and wikipedia entry.
    If you have a trackpad there is an even quicker way. Focus the mouse cursor over the word and double-tap with three-fingers.
    The setting is set in the "Point & Click" tab of the "Trackpad" System Preferences, so if it doesn't work for you check and make sure the setting is checked.
Closing
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