Join us for a live Maccast Skype chat starting at around 9:30 AM PDT. We’ll have the conversation going until the end of Apple’s live “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll” event which starts today (09/09) at 10:00 AM PDT. We are using Skype this time because iChat rooms have a 35 person limit. If you have Skype already installed, use the link below to join If you don’t have Skype you can download it and use it for free at Skype.com. The Skype room limit is 150, so it will still be first come first served. See you there.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 256. Apple gearing up for VOD service? Sacconaghi chatting up Apple’s bright future. New iPhone going matte. Apple may be taking the App Store offline. A bunch of iPhone stories and stats. Security and Java Updates from Apple. Mobile Me adds easy iDisk File Sharing. A couple more Snow Leopard features leaked. Apple wants to keep option to jail Jailbreakers. 17″ Unibody Macbook Pro dissected. Quicklook in the Finder. iPhone calendar colors now syncing? Resize Faces add new face box the normal way. Macworld 2009: Intuit Quickbooks. Understudy adds Hulu and Netflix to FrontRow. Apple TV syncing and storage. Protecting yourself from Trojans

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New music, Buy You a Life by Young Dubliners (iTunes)

EOL: Apple Disk ][ Mini (Link)

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

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MC20081123.mp3 [32.8MB 01:11:38 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 245. Mac OS 10.5.6 release may be soon. Will we see a new cat in the new year? What new hardware will Macworld bring? Apple should weather December. New Macbooks using DPCP. Apple discontinues 23″ Cinema Display. Updates, updates, updates. Apple TV updated to 2.3. iPhone updated to 2.2. More malware and trojans target Apple. Mac Mini Home Theater Special Feedback. Syncing Firefox bookmarks to iPhone Review: Choosy. Mac web development tools. Home Inventory software for your Mac. Simple personal banking software.

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Wizard 2 – Merlin is professional-grade project management application software designed specifically for the Macintosh operating system. Written using the latest Apple technology for Mac OS X, Merlin’s rich feature set and intuitive tools allow you to focus on your work, not the software.
Smile on My Mac, check out DiscLabel

New music, “Massachusetts by The Predicates (iTunes)

EOL: Real World Photoshop CS4 UI (Link)

Oooh! Look at her! I could use a love potion on her! — Willow (1988)

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Frequent emailer to the Maccast Robert noticed a little something in the recent iTunes 8 update. Something that has become a very common and un-Apple like annoyance in iTunes updates. For some unknown reason Apple re-designs or moves significant functionality between versions of the software. With iTunes 7 the one that got me was them moving the “chapter” options for enhanced podcasts to the menubar. In iTunes 8 the most confusing example is their removal of the 3 tab options (General, Importing, Burning) from under the ‘Advanced’ menu in the iTunes preferences. iTunes 8 simply has one ‘tab’ of Advanced options. The other two former ‘tabs’ have mysteriously vanished. Or have they?

The import and burning options have actually been moved to other locations. In case you find yourself searching for these options, like I have been over the past few days, here is a quick overview of the process for setting these options in the latest version of iTunes.

Importing Settings

To set the import settings do the following:

1. In iTunes 8, choose ‘Preferences’ from the ‘iTunes’ menu (Command + , ).
2. In the ‘General’ tab, press the ‘Import Settings…’ button.
3. In the dialog box set up your desired import format, bit rate, etc. and click ‘OK’ when finished.

CD Burning

To burn a CD do the following:

1. In iTunes 8 create a playlist. If you want to burn a whole album you can drag the album from the new ‘grid’ view over to the playlist section in the left sidebar. This will create a new “playlist” for that album. Now select the playlist you want to burn.
2. In the lower right corner of the main iTunes window click the ‘Burn Disc’ button.
3. Now in the dialog box set up your desired disc burning options. You can choose the burning device and speed, select the disc format, set the gap between tracks, etc. Then insert a blank disc and click ‘Burn’.

I am not sure why Apple chooses to move major functionality between versions like this. I personally find it annoying, but at least now you know what has changed this time around.

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MC20080304SP.mp3 [79.4MB 1:26:44 128kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. An enhanced podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. A special episode of the Maccast looking in depth at the new Apple TV Take 2 with Ara Derderian from the HDTV podcast at htguys.com.

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MC20080124SP_04.mp3 [6.9MB 0:07:31 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. A special episode of the Maccast from Macworld 2008. Keep multiple iTunes libraries in sync with SuperSync.

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