Once-proud HP reduced to shamelessly peddling Apple MacBook knockoffs – MacDailyNews – Welcome Home: ““It’s painfully obvious where HP drew its inspiration for its newest Envy laptops,” Dana Wollman reports for Engadget. “It’s not because of any single design choice, like the aluminum unibody chassis, island-style keys, glowing logo or giant clickpad; it’s all of the above!” Wollman reports. “HP’s latest 15-incher is the most flagrant Mac imitation we’ve seen in some time, and the resemblance is close enough that you could, at first glance, mistake the interior for an MBP. “

Wollman reports, “Of course, HP threw in some flourishes that keep it from being a total facsimile: the lid and underside are black, not silver, the keyboard area has a thin red ring around it and there are Beats-branded volume controls on the laptop’s right side.””

GarageBand Mac gets updated to pull in iPad projects | 9 to 5 Mac GarageBand Mac gets updated to pull in iPad projects | Apple Intelligence: “The 47MB update is available now through Software Update or via Apple’s site as a standalone installer.”

Help Library: “”

What I think Obama is meeting with Jobs, Schmidt, and Zuckerberg about – The Oatmeal: “What I think Obama is meeting with Jobs, Schmidt, and Zuckerberg about “

iClarified – Mac OS X – How to Green Screen Using iMovie ’09: “This entry needs translation. To help us and submit a translation please click here

These are instructions on how to use the iMovie ’09 green screen feature to change the background of your video clip.

Step One For this tutorial you will need two video clips; one that has been recorded with a green screen background and one that is the background you would like to change to.

Launch iMovie ’09 by clicking its icon in the dock or in the Applications folder. “

Incredible “Psychedelic” Steve Jobs Portrait | Cult of Mac: “It took Athens, Greece-based artist Charis Tsevis about a week of 16-hour days to create this trippy mosaic portrait of Steve Jobs for Brazilian magazine ALFA.

Tsevis is an old hand at innovative Apple collages, whose work has appeared in Fortune and inspired a send-up of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

This one is something of a departure, taking us back to the colorful early days of Apple history. More on the inspiration behind it and close-ups after the jump.”

Dieter Rams: Less and More Interview from Gestalten on Vimeo.

MacDailyNews – Apple iPads takeover CNBC’s Fast Money set (with stills): “MacDailyNews reader ‘Joe Architect’ alerted us to flip on CNBC a few minutes ago and we noticed right away that Apple’s iPads have taken over the set on CNBC’s ‘Fast Money’ set. They may have been there for some time, but we just noticed them today”

Brabus’s iBusiness is a Mercedes-Benz S600 tricked out Apple style: “We’ve seen the iPad implemented both at school and at work, but in your car? That’s the idea behind the iBusiness, a Mercedes-Benz S600 that’s been tricked out with Apple gear aplenty by Brabus. Get this — you can see the two iPads and keyboards in the back seats, but there’s also a Mac mini in the back and a 64gb iPod touch as well. The display above is a 15.2′ TFT display, and all of the gear connects to the Internet via a high speed 3G system. The iPads can also control the car’s multimedia system, navigation systems, and the built-in telephone system.”

Secretly Monitor Employees Using Their Macs | Tips and Tricks | Mac360: “Andrew Grove, one of the founders of chip giant Intel, is credited with saying that ‘only the paranoid survive.’ Many in positions of authority believe it to be true.

If you have an office or school full or Macs, or just a family of Mac users, do you know what they’re doing on their Macs? Macs can be guarded with secret monitoring and recording apps that capture everything a user does on their Macs. Everything.”

So you forgot your Mac password… uh oh. Don’t worry, it happens and you aren’t out of luck. You’ll need to reset the forgotten password and there’s several ways to do this, we’ll focus on the two best methods; one does not require a Mac OS X installer CD and is a great hack, and the other is much more simple if you happen to have a Mac OS X DVD laying around.

[From Forgot Mac Password? How to Reset Your Mac Password (with or without CD) - OS X Daily]

iPhone Explorer lets you use an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad as if it were in disk mode or a flash drive. iPhone Explorer is an iPhone browser for Mac & PC that lets you browse the files and folders on your iPhone as if it were a normal USB flash drive or pen drive. You can use the easy drag-and-drop methods to add or remove files and folders from the iPhone. Compatible with all iPhones and iPod Touches including the new iPhone 4 and iOS 4 firmware.

[From iPhone Explorer - A USB iPhone browser for Mac and PC]

Leopard and Snow Leopard have the ability to edit pdf files, move pages around, and even merge two pdf documents together. It’s built right in. In OS X combining pdf documents is now easy and you don’t need a third party program to do it! Here is how to join two or more pdf files together into one.

[From How to merge pdf files with preview in Leopard | Macintosh How To]

Style Sheets, easy and quick

Design beautiful, innovative and fast-loading web sites… with a beautiful, innovative and fast app. CSSEdit’s intuitive approach to style sheets and powerful previewing features will make you deliver awesome standards-based sites in no time!
Everyone is welcome: CSS newbies and power users

Because of CSSEdit’s unique focus on style sheets, it offers a wide range of features for any level of expertise. Starting out? Selector Builder and advanced visual editors will gradually help you understand CSS instead of dumbing you down.

For anyone well-versed in CSS, the Live Preview and intelligent source environment are invaluable tools to get your website or application styled in a fraction of the time it took before. Add powerful X-Ray web page inspection, and you’ve got an unbeatable CSS debugging suite.

[From MacRabbit - CSSEdit - Web 2.0 in Style]

[From One iPhone, Two Different Numbers, Courtesy Of Toktumi’s Line2 App [Review] | Cult of Mac]

“Don’t mean to be alarmist, but the odds are increasing that Microsoft’s business will just completely collapse,” Henry Blodget writes for Business Insider. “The market still thinks Microsoft’s long-term prospects are pretty good, though. The stock is trading at a respectable 14X P/E. The company has cash flow gushing out of its ears. The consensus is that Microsoft will keep growing, just more slowly. But the odds are increasing that even this will prove to be wishful thinking.”

[From MacDailyNews - Blodget: The odds are increasing that Microsoft's business will just completely collapse]

Apple products often spawn ecosystems of product categories to facilitate their existence. The iPod and iPhone, for instance, gave birth to speaker docks, FM transmitters and protective cases. And now an ecosystem of products is materializing for the iPad: they include cases of all sorts, bean bag lap rests and, yes, clothes. Suits, to be specific.

Upscale Manhattan tailor Mohan’s Tailor Shop, which boasts a clientele including Barry Bonds, Walt Frazier and Gary Carter, recently unveiled a custom made suit with a jacket pocket to accommodate the iPad (as reported in the WSJ). The impetus for it was the result of several customer requests for the feature; since its unveiling, the tailor says it has received about “100 calls and scheduled several dozen appointments with customers over the next several weeks” for a fitting.

Mohan’s must be pulling off some magic of its own to fit Apple’s “magical” device in a jacket pocket. At 1.6 pounds, I’m guessing the iPad may pull one side of the jacket lower than the other, thus necessitating some kind of counterbalance.

Personally, I’d rather just use a bag.

[From Pocket protector, meet your cousin: the iPad suit]

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.–There is one clear star emerging at this year’s D: All Things Digital conference: Apple’s iPad.
In addition to all the stage time that the tablet got during Steve Jobs’ talk last night, it is also dominating the discussion with other presenters.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg sang Jobs praises for several minutes, before declaring: “His greatest accomplishment is going to be this tablet.”
“As Steve said last night, there is something indescribable about the connection,” Katzenberg said. “Our children are going to get educated on it. They are going to play on it. They are going to consume more media on that than any other (device).”
Katzenberg said he now only carries his BlackBerry and iPad and not a traditional laptop.
“The laptop is yesterday’s news,” he said.

[From At D, all hail the iPad | Beyond Binary - CNET News]

The Windows era is over announces Joe Wilcox at Betanews. Is it?

He certainly makes a compelling argument. Like other tech behemoths before it, Microsoft’s products are simply being rendered irrelevant by new technologies, new ideas, and new products that have come out of the blue and swept them aside.

Largely thanks to Apple’s innovation and success in the consumer space, mobile computing is no longer a niche product. It’s mass market, and the iPad is going to spawn so many copycat products that the stores will be swimming with them. Apple showed the way, and everyone else in the tech business saw instantly that they should follow along, as fast as possible.

Or as Joe puts it: “A new era dawns.”

What’s more, Joe says Microsoft no longer has the loyalty of its partners. Intel sells chips to Apple now. HP has purchased Palm and is working furiously to make new tablet devices. It’s as if the industry has seen Microsoft’s future, and wants to distance itself from it, to break the connections.

So as Apple breezes past Microsoft in the market cap stakes, where next for Windows? Are the improvements made in Windows 7 enough to turn things around, and slow the momentum? Is Joe right to say the Windows era is over?

[From Joe Wilcox: “The Windows Era Is Over” | Cult of Mac]

SEATTLE — Apple has surpassed Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world by market capitalization.

Apple’s move comes as the company’s iPhone, and now its iPad tablet computer, have taken on more of the personal computing tasks once handled by computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system and other programs.

Market cap is the dollar value of a company’s outstanding shares. On Wednesday, Apple Inc.’s shares slipped $1.11 to close at $244.11, making its market cap about $222 billion.

But Microsoft Corp.’s stock fell $1.06, or 4.1 percent, to close at $25.01, for market cap of about $219 billion.

The only U.S. business with a higher market value is Exxon Mobil Corp. The oil company’s market cap is about $279 billion, based on Wednesday’s closing price of $59.31.

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of Exxon Mobil)

[From Apple Dethrones Microsoft As World's Biggest Tech Company]

[From MacDailyNews - AutoCAD returns to Mac; first screenshots posted online (with image)]

Cupidtino is a beautiful new dating site created for fans of Apple products by fans of Apple products! Why? Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common – personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and of course a love for technology. We believe these are enough reasons for two people to meet and fall in love, and so we created the first Mac-inspired dating site to help you find other Machearts around you.
Cupidtino will launch in June 2010 exclusively on Apple platforms – Safari, iPhone and iPad apps. It’s time to share the love.

[From Cupidtino ]

Perian calls itself “the Swiss Army knife for QuickTime,” a description that’s pretty much spot-on.

Technically, Perian is a “QuickTime component” and it’s a preference pane rather than an application (which means that after installing, you’ll find it in System Preferences, not in your Applications folder).

But if the technical details leave you blurry-eyed, all you need to know what what Perian actually does. It gives QuickTime – the video player that comes built into your Mac – additional super powers, enabling it to play video files it would otherwise have refused to play.

That means you can watch AVI files from Windows-using friends. You can watch bits of video in dozens of formats (here’s a list) and it will all Just Work. Once you’ve got Perian installed, you won’t have to worry about it, nor will you be troubled by pesky conversions from one format to another just to view the latest hilarious lolcat.

Perian is free (so you don’t have to pay for it, though donations are welcome), and it’s open source (so you can take it to pieces to see how it works, if you wish), and it’s a really good idea to have it installed on your Mac. You’ll need 10.4.7 or higher.

(You’re reading the 4th post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps we at the Cult value most. Read more.)

[From 50 Mac Essentials #4: Perian | Cult of Mac]

Back in December, I reviewed LogMeIn Ignition for the iPhone. For the uninitiated, LogMeIn is a service that allows you to sign onto your computer remotely to access the desktop. They had just released the Mac client, and the iPhone version was a great way to get to your files over a 3G connection. Ultimately, the only problem was the size. It’s a touch difficult navigating around on the tiny screen, but it’s better than nothing, right?

Well now they’ve released an iPad version of the app and here’s the good news: If you already have the iPhone version, just install the App onto your iPad via iTunes, and check for an update. That’s what I did, and 10 minutes later I was surfing my computer using the iPad.

The extended real estate of the iPad makes using your desktop remotely substantially easier than on the iPhone. Your finger becomes the mouse, with one tap becoming a left click, and all of the typical multi-touch features still working the same way. As is to be expected with a program like this, the connection isn’t as fast as it would be if you were in front of your computer. But it’s not like you’re going to hammer out a presentation on your desktop via your iPad. For me, I see this as being a great program for those “Oh Crap” moments when you’ve forgotten a file at home and need it immediately, or if you just want to show a buddy something you have at your other computer.

The iPad’s big screen makes programs like this shine. Yes, LogMeIn works on the iPhone, and it works pretty well. But adding those extra inches of room on the screen with the iPad makes it much, much better.

[From LogMeIn Ignition for the iPad - Apple Gazette]

Steve Jobs has posted a rare open letter on Apple’s website entitled “Thoughts on Flash.” Here it is verbatim:

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs

April, 2010

[From MacDailyNews - Steve Jobs posts rare open letter: Thoughts on Flash]

Introduction
When we ordered a Time Capsule, we chose the 500 GB model, since this was sufficient and also less expensive than the 1 TB. However we had in mind that as the price of large disks came down, we would one day change the disk for a larger one.

[From Hardmac.com : Le "Macbidouille" in English - Changing a disk in the Time Capsule]

Adobe Platform Evangelist: ‘Go screw yourself Apple’
Friday, April 09, 2010 – 05:27 PM EDT
“By now you have surely heard about the new iPhone 4.0 SDK language that appears to make creating applications in any non-Apple-approved languages a violation of terms,” Lee Brimelow, Adobe Platform Evangelist, blogs for The Flash Blog. “Obviously Adobe is looking into this wording carefully so I will not comment any further until there is an official conclusion.”

MacDailyNews Take: Brimelow then inexplicably proceeds to comment further. This marks just the first of his many lies.

Brimelow continues, “What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe.”

MacDailyNews Take: Whiners whine and liars lie and sometimes they’re one and same. We already explained this quite clearly earlier today: “Flash is a proprietary, resource-hogging, browser-crashing abomination and we don’t want ported software; software designed for the lowest common denominator is inferior to software designed to take advantage of individual platforms’ strengths.” Adobe should understand this implicitly because they long ago turned their backs on the very platform that made their company in order to design their apps for Windows, the lowest common denominator. That is why Mac users suffer with inferior Adobe software today.

Brimelow continues, “The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible.”

MacDailyNews Take: So, Adobe doesn’t want to own the proprietary toolset to generate profits by controlling the Web’s multimedia platform. The angels just want to provide creative professionals with blah, blah, blah. Well then, Adobe should drop Flash into the dumpster where it belongs, and embrace the creation of cross-platform tools that enable people to deploy open standards, such as HTML5, that will work on as many devices as possible, including 85+ million iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.

Brimelow continues, “Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.”

MacDailyNews Take: Adobe won’t do that because they’d go under. Real creative professionals use Macs. Adobe can’t live off Window sufferers trying to use pirated Photoshop or Adobe’s craptastic Premiere.

Brimelow continues, “Personally I will not be giving Apple another cent of my money until there is a leadership change over there. I’ve already moved most of my book, music, and video purchases to Amazon and I will continue to look elsewhere. Now, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you do the same and I’m also not trying to organize some kind of boycott. Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy’s to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face. Chances are I won’t be buying my wallets at Macy’s anymore, no matter how much I like them.”

MacDailyNews Take: Adobe’s Platform Evangelist relegates himself to second-rate media services and that’s supposed to be some big statement?

Brimelow continues, “Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.”

MacDailyNews Take: Pure class and absolutely nothing new; it’s exactly what Adobe’s been saying to Apple Mac users for the last 15 years.

In the end, only one of these two companies will be screwed. It isn’t Apple.

[From MacDailyNews - Adobe Platform Evangelist: 'Go screw yourself Apple']

To kick start Apple Week here at CotyGonzales.com, I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of Apple T-Shirt suitable for any Apple Fanboy or MacHead! And chances are, if you’re a MacAddict like me, you probably own a few of these shirts already! Later in the week I’ll be posting a list of Official Apple Released T-Shirts. They have a long history of releasing T-Shirts to members of specific Apple projects – be on the lookout for that coming sometime this week!

[From 101 T-Shirts for Apple Fanboys and the Mac Faithful! | Coty Gonzales | T-Shirt Reviews, Interviews and Coupon Codes]

The vast selection of free 3rd party applications available for Mac OS X always surprises people when they’re new to the platform. Among that abundance of software is a collection of free Mac video converters which can cover nearly any situation you could find yourself in.

[From 6 best free Mac video converters to handle nearly any file format | MacYourself]

BookBook is a one-of-a-kind, hardback leather case designed exclusively for MacBook and MacBook Pro. Available in Classic Black or Vibrant Red, BookBook brings three levels of security to your prized Mac. First, the hardback cover and spine provide solid protection from the rigors of the road. Second, the vintage book design disguises MacBook for superior security. And third, the stylish case protects you from being like everyone else because BookBook is totally original, just like you.

[From BookBook - BookBook - Twelve South]

Free & open-source DVD decryption

Fairmount is a free tool which allows on-the-fly decryption of DVD content for convenient access. Fairmount does not perform the actual decryption, it simply forwards the data to VLC Media Player, which is used for the decryption. Hence, VLC Media Player must be installed for Fairmount to work.

[From Metakine - Fairmount]

Apple CEO Steve Jobs hit the star-studded red carpet at the 82nd Academy Awards yesterday evening.

Oscar night was big for Jobs. He not only traded in his trademark turtleneck for his tux, but his company also debuted its first-ever iPad ad, which was aired twice during the three-and-a-half-hour Academy Award broadcast. (Watch it here).

See photos of Steve Jobs, famous for his California-casual uniform of jeans and New Balance sneakers, in his black-tie ensemble.

Twitter user @WayneSutton was one of the first on the blogosphere to remark of Steve Jobs’ attendance at the awards. ‘OMG it’s Steve Jobs! I’m the only one yelling at him! #oscars #kodakredcarpet,’ Sutton tweeted.

[From Steve Jobs' Oscar Cameo: PICTURES Of Tux-Wearing Apple CEO On The Red Carpet]

If you are a smoker, you can’t help but know the health hazards that come along with the habit. If you are an Apple owner who smokes, you need to be aware that Apple frowns on smoking and is now stating that smoking voids the warranty of Apple computers.

The problem is that the residue that smoking leaves inside the computer is being termed a health risk. One consumer claims that when he took his MacBook into an Apple store for repairs related to an overheating issue the store refused to work on the computer.

[From Apple won't work on Macs owned by smokers]

There are several situations where you might want to dump a DVD to your hard drive to watch later. For instance, I get significantly better battery life when watching a video from my hard drive than I get when watching it from a DVD. If I’m stuck in a plane for several hours, having my movie on the hard drive can be the difference between finishing the show, or running out of power halfway through. I use a PowerBook and in OS X 10.3 and earlier you could just use the built in Disk Utility to copy a DVD to your disk, but it stopped working in 10.4. However with a few free tools you can accomplish the same thing and more.

[From » Travelling with Movies on a Mac]

coconutIdentityCard is a small app that reads out where and when your Mac and your iPod were built by Apple.
Just plug in your iPod while the app is running and it will show you the information about your iPod instantly.
Because it’s UniversalBinary, it will run also on the new Intel-Based-Macs.
Format of the date: dd.mm.yyyy
You also can enter any 11-character Apple serial number and the app will identify the build-location and the date when the product was built.

New since 2.1: coconutIdentityCard is able to check your serials against internet-databases of stolen Apple products. (A negative result is no guarantee that it isn’t stolen)
Currently coconutIdentityCard checks the database of www.powermax.com – if you know other databases, please send me an email with a link to the database – I will try to add it soon.

[From coconut-flavour.com - [coconutIdentityCard 2.4]]

Apple Mac owns 90% market share for ‘premium’ PCs costing over $1,000 with $499 iPad coming soon
Monday, February 01, 2010 – 05:14 PM EST
“Windows 7 did little to slow the Mac’s sales trajectory during fourth quarter, according to NPD. Year over year, Apple doubled US retail unit share — from 5 percent to 10 percent — for PCs selling between $500 and $1,000. More startling, Apple increased its unit share from 79 percent to 90 percent in the market for ‘premium’ PCs, meaning those selling for more than $1,000,” Joe Wilcox reports for Betanews. “In July, I reported that Apple’s revenue share for PCs selling for more than $1,000 was 91 percent, because of higher average selling prices; nearly all Macs sold for more than $1,000. Now Apple benefits from 90-percent unit share, too.”

[From MacDailyNews - Apple Mac owns 90% market share for 'premium' PCs costing over $1,000 with $499 iPad coming soon]

It’s been a long time coming, but the last hurdle is gone — Apple has lifted the restrictions against 3G VoiP calls from the iPhone Software Development Kit.

The implications of this are pretty huge. Not only does this mean that VoIP apps like Skype [iTunes Link] can now be easily updated to allow VoIP access over 3G on the iPhone, it also means that the 3G-enabled versions of the new iPad should be able to take full advantage of VoIP over 3G as well. The iPad does come with a microphone and a speaker, so while you won’t be able to hold the device up to your ear like a phone (although it would be pretty funny to watch you try), calls over Skype or another VoIP program should theoretically be just as clear on the iPad as they are on the iPhone’s tiny speaker. This has the potential to really shake up the wireless industry, especially in the U.S. — with pay-as-you-go 3G on the iPad costing no more than $30 a month, the iPad suddenly seems like a very attractive alternative to the iPhone with its far more expensive (and contractually obligated) carrier plans.

iCall [iTunes Link] has already been updated with VoIP over 3G enabled, and with all restrictions now lifted, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before Skype and other VoIP apps follow.

[From iPhone SDK updated: VoIP over 3G now permitted]

“Yesterday we reported that Google’s long awaited own-brand phone, the Google Nexus One, hadn’t enjoyed the best start in life, having only sold 20,000 units in its first week in the US,” Adam Bunker reports for T3.

The Nexus One “has just had its price slashed,” Bunker reports.

“Up until today, anyone in the US who’d wanted to upgrade to the Nexus One on T-Mobile had to pay out $379,” Bunker reports. “With the price cut in effect, this figure stands at $279… Not only that, but anyone who’s already upgraded receive a $100 refund.”

[From MacDailyNews - And so it begins: Google discounts 'Nexus One' by $100]

Dvorak predicts Apple among 2010’s ‘winners’ and Microsoft, Dell among ‘losers’
Thursday, December 31, 2009 – 10:12 AM EST
“The biggest hint of things to come in 2010 and beyond are tied up with three specific pieces of information that appeared near the end of 2009,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “The first two were the iPhone sales figures and the iPhone Internet usage rate. The third was the fact that Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle was the No. 1 high-tech Christmas gift.”

HERE

Microsoft Is Losing Fight for Consumers, Analyst Says

[From Microsoft Is Losing Fight for Consumers, Analyst Says - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com]

The floodgates are beginning to open. Just last week we had the first live streamer, Knocking Live [iTunes link], that worked from iPhone to iPhone. Now, Ustream is offering a free app [iTunes link] that lets you put a live or recorded stream on the web that multiple people can watch from a web browser.

This is a rather stunning turnaround from just weeks ago when Apple did not allow any live streaming of video from the iPhone. This app supports the 3G and 3GS iPhones, and allows streaming over the 3G network and Wi-Fi. You can record the stream to your iPhone for a later upload, and it even works on 3G phones that don’t have built-in video record capability.

[From Stream audio and video live from your iPhone with Ustream Live Broadcaster]

When Apple revealed its documents and templates detailing the process of creating iTunes LP and Extras for small studios and indie artists to take advantage of, it also noted that for the time being, submission would be manual, but that automated electronic submission was on its way. A new report suggests the vehicle of delivery for that submission could be none other than Apple’s own iDVD media authoring program, part of the iLife suite.

[From Rumor Has It: iTunes LP Authoring and Submission Coming to iDVD ]

In a series of new ads airing tonight, Apple Inc. [AAPL 205.88 5.96 (+2.98%) ] tries to come to carrier partner AT&T’s [T 26.78 0.76 (+2.92%) ] rescue.

But is it too little too late?

For weeks, Verizon [VZ 31.33 0.90 (+2.96%) ] and Sprint [S 3.90 0.14 (+3.72%) ] have been having their way with AT&T and Apple’s iPhone. One of the year’s best commercials has to be the Verizon ad featuring the iPhone as the newest resident of The Land of Misfit Toys. The issue, and it certainly resonates, is that while AT&T might have a very nice 3G network, its coverage is rather limited when it compares to that offered by Verizon. The two even got into a legal spat because of Verizon’s very clever “There’s a ‘Map’ for That” campaign, com

[From Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue - Tech Check with Jim Goldman - CNBC.com]

It’s always nice when, as a Mac consultant, I can play with the latest hardware and software and get paid to do it. Last week was no exception, and when I received a call from a new client who wanted assistance with a Mac mini Server, I jumped at the chance. Since the introduction of the Mac mini in early 2005, I’ve been using “regular” Mac minis as servers, and they’ve worked flawlessly. I had two servers of my own at Macminicolo.net for quite some time, and Brian Stucki, the owner of that Mac mini colocation firm, noted in a discussion a few years ago that the failure rate on the mini hardware is phenomenally low. I’ve set up Mac minis with Mac OS X Server for architectural firms, PR companies, design firms, non-profits, and a number of other companies that needed centralized control of digital assets, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money to do so. Usually after setting up these servers, I rarely, if ever, need to go back and fix anything.

[From Working with the new Apple Mac mini Server and Snow Leopard Server]

Known for not buying furniture, Jobs was photographed in his Los Gatos, Calif., living room for Time magazine in 1982.

[From Rarely seen Steve Jobs - Bare essentials (4) - FORTUNE]

Apple iPhone owners wondering if there is a case of swine flu nearby can now find out instantly with a new program that tracks outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Outbreaks Near Me is an application for the popular smartphone developed by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[From New iPhone app tracks disease outbreaks | MNN - Mother Nature Network]

As part of its Bearing Witness 2.0 project, the Huffington Post is rounding up a few of the best local stories of the day.

Mable Randon is suffering from the late stages of cancer. She’s bound by a wheel chair and only breathing with the help of an electrically-powered oxygen machine. Rucks Russell of KHOU in Houston reports that the local power company sent her a disconnection notice because of late bills. She applied to the Critical Customer Program, a payment plan seemingly tailor-made for people in Randon’s condition who depend on electric life support — but she was denied.

Her provider, Freedom Power, already had the most complaints of any energy company in Texas. The Texas Public Utilities Commission launched an investigation into Randon’s case on Wednesday, which will keep the power on for the time being. Texas-based Amegy Bank has set up a charity fund to help her keep her lights on.

KHOU also has a video.

******

Darla Tolliver and her husband, Jim, are just $28,000 away from owning their home after making payments since 2001, reports Claire Galofaro of the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia. But now, after Jim lost his job, they are three months behind on their mortgage, and fearing foreclosure. “It’s like you’re in quicksand, and the more you struggle and try to get out, the more you sink” remarked Darla. “My life is in that house…the thought of losing it is unbearable.”

******

Bessie Mae Berger, 97, is homeless. She lives with her two sons in a Chevrolet Suburban, reports Bob Pool of the Los Angeles Times. Her sons, Larry and Charlie Wilkerson, are both unemployed and get by on disability checks and food stamps. A damaged nerve and degenerative arthritis, respectively, forced them out of work years ago. They now panhandle for extra change — Berger holds a sign reading “I am 97 years old. Homeless. Broke. Need Help Please.” Because they insist on living together, they have been repeatedly denied government-subsidized housing, and are running into brick walls navigating government aid programs. “There’s a million empty homes here in California, but they can’t seem to find one we can live in,” said Larry. The Times also has an affecting audio slideshow, showing how the family lives in their own words.

[From Power Company Trying To Switch Off Cancer Patient's Oxygen Machine]

Most electronics industry analysis is obvious at best and misinformed at worst, but this one made us chuckle. Analyst firm Broadpoint AmTech has released a report that claims that, rather than diminish sales of OS X, Microsoft’s impending release of Windows 7 may actually help sell Macs. They cite the chart above, which seems to show a boost (especially after Vista) in Mac sales right after Microsoft releases a new OS version.

Now, even they admit they’re making connections here that probably aren’t there — there are tons of factors involved in both sales of Windows OSes and Mac computers (we’d just mention that Windows 7 seems to be getting fairly good reviews so far, and while no one would argue that Vista wasn’t a disaster, I’d argue that iPods and iPhones were much better “Mac sales helpers” after 2001 and 2007 than Windows would ever be), and there’s no real evidence here that Microsoft’s releases have any bearing at all on their competitors’ numbers.

But it is a nice thought for us Mac faithful to hang on to anyway — in the next few weeks, as Windows users vibe on their new and shiny and have their super fun release parties, we can know that if we just wait, Mac sale

[From TUAW -- The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

WASHINGTON—What would you say if you heard the U.S. Army has four video surveillance installations that are based on Apple’s OSX operating system, and use Apple servers? Or that a large government entity had just initiated an all-Apple installation?

The government doesn’t use Apple, does it?

Chris Gettings, CEO and president of VideoNEXT, a video management software manufacturer, is betting the government does, and it will. The VideoNEXT software is tuned for the Red Hat Linux and Apple operating environments, along with Windows, so that a user can go with both Red Hat’s operating system or Apple’s, in addition to Windows.

Gettings said Apple and Unix/Linux are attractive to government customers because of reliability and ease of use. “It just runs,” he said of the Apple platform. “You’re not going to have some of the memory-leak issues that seem to plague different versions of the Windows systems. And mission-critical customers appreciate that.” And while Red Hat is a Unix-like platform with its Linux, “with Apple they couple the Unix reliability with a world-class user interface. That’s the stumbling block on Red Hat. It’s a little bit complicated … The user interface for Apple is marvelous. It’s so easy to use and intuitive. It’s the hallmark of the platform.”

[From Government going Apple? - Security Systems News]

The environmental organization is singing hosannas and heysannas to the Cupertino-company for taking a green stand and resigning from the US Chamber of Commerce. Apple walked away from the organization on Monday over Chamber actions seen by Apple as opposing efforts to limit greenhouse gases.

Chamber President Thomas Donohue says his organization does want to see “legislation to address climate change,” though the Chamber is against current proposals that, he says, will “significantly raise energy prices, (and) throw more Americans out of work.”

[From Greenpeace praises Apple's US Chamber of Commerce exit]

Friday, October 09, 2009 – 02:00 PM EDT
“The latest smart-phone numbers from Canalys show that Apple’s gaining share like a bat out of hell,” Henry Blodget reports for The Business Insider. “The company has gone from 2% global share to 14% share in a year.”

Blodget reports, “RIM’s creeping higher worldwide–now 20%–but it’s losing share in the US. Nokia’s still dominant worldwide, but it’s slipping (44%). Everyone else is getting crushed.”

In the US, the market breaks down basically as follows:
• Research In Motion: 52% (down from 56% last year)
• Apple: 23% (up from 7%)
• Google: 2%
• Everyone Else: 23%

Blodget reports, “Again, Apple’s gaining share astonishingly fast…from 7% to 23% in a year. Imagine what will happen when the company cuts loose from AT&T… Microsoft, meanwhile, is toast… Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst says, ‘The main loser has been Microsoft’s highly standardised Windows Mobile platform. Its smart phone market share has now fallen below 10% and the trend is likely to continue as many of its OEM partners, including HTC, Motorola and Palm, are focusing investment on other platforms.’”

[From MacDailyNews - Apple's iPhone gaining share like a bat out of hell]

Look at the text scrolling across.

It’s one thing to have your computer crash. It’s another to have it crash in front of thousands of sports fans. This latest humiliation took place Saturday at the pre-game festivities for the Oklahoma/Brigham Young game at the at the brand new $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Reader Jeff tells us that they had a breakdown on the scoreboard screens: first, the screens went blank, then displayed some odd ASCII gibberish, then announced to the assembled crowd that things weren’t going so well in Microsoft land. Jeff was there with his trusty iPhone to capture the moment for us, and we present it to you on this day when you’re not working, either.

It’s not the first time this kind of embarrassing stuff has happened; Microsoft had another glitch at the Beijing Olympics last year. But hey, it could happen to anybody, right? If you’ve seen another example of an embarrassing public computer-based slipup (PC or Mac — we don’t discriminate on comedy), feel free to send us a tip!

[From TUAW -- The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

[From bingfail.png (PNG Image, 1024x1082 pixels) - Scaled (90%)]

Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,

Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple computers and your personal spiritual quest. I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.

I’m writing now, shortly after my 101st birthday, to request that you support Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser’s proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. This will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years.

I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into a wonder child.

Sincerely,

A. Hofmann

[From Ryan Grim: Read the Never-Before-Published Letter From LSD-Inventor Albert Hofmann to Apple CEO Steve Jobs]

“Steve Jobs has never been shy about his use of psychedelics, famously calling his LSD experience ‘one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.’

[From MacDailyNews - LSD-inventor asked Steve Jobs to fund psychedelic research]

[From YouTube mobile uploads increased dramatically since iPhone 3GS]

[From 6 Ways to Correctly Delete Applications « AppStorm]

[From TUAW -- The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

[From Apple mauls Microsoft with ‘Snow Leopard’ OS X upgrade pricing ]

[From The dying goodwill toward AT&T]

[From Dell: No Relief in Sight - BusinessWeek]

[From Apple - Education - IT Professionals - Online Tutorials]

[From Prices so low, they're practically insane: Panic 3-day sale is on]

[From Deathmatch: BlackBerry versus iPhone | Mobilize - InfoWorld]

[From Apple MacBook PRO 15" Keyboard Keys - Type K23 - MachinaElectronics.com]

[From Old Apple ad captures the swinging lifestyle of the 70’s | Edible Apple]

[From MacBook and iMac Busted in Canadian Counterfeiting Raid | Cult of Mac]

[From Building a Hackintosh : b#]

[From 34 Stunning & Free Mac Screensavers for OS X « AppStorm]

Listened to: Bodysnatcher from the album “III – A Story of Survival” by Mandingo

[From THE DIRECTORS BUREAU SPECIAL PROJECTS]

[From Mactracker - get info on any Mac]

[From Apple - Pro - Pro Tips]

[From How Switching To a Mac Can Save You Countless Productive Hours | Computer Repair And PC Repair London]

[From How to Password Protect a File or Folder in Mac OS X Leopard | eHow.com]

[From Feature: Get Back to Your Mac Without Paying for It]

[From Mac360 - 4 Free iPhoto Tools You Need To Have On Your Mac.]

[From Enable the Tab Key to Skip between OK and Cancel Buttons]

[From Computerworld > Why even IT pros are demanding Macs]

[From Snow Leopard Server Takes on Exchange, SharePoint — RoughlyDrafted Magazine]

[From Thumb Tack Mic Turns iPod Into Recording Device | Cult of Mac]

[From How to Make Symbols on a Mac: 12 steps - wikiHow]

[From iPhone App Demos | Videos of Apple iPhone and iPod Touch Apps]

[From MacDailyNews - Confirmed: Bernie Madoff is an Apple MacBook Pro user (with photo)]

[From HOW TO: Access your Mac from anywhere - Armchair Philosophy]

[From MacForge: Open Source for the Mac Community]

[From Dell 4Q Net Slumps 48% On Global Sales Woes, Margin Drop]

[From Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3 - Crave at CNET UK]

Listened to: Deliver Me from Mine Enemies from the album “Masque of the Red Death Trilogy (You Must Be Certain of the Devil) (1 of 2)” by Diamanda Galás

[From MacDailyNews - Apogee discontinues Windows development to to focus all resources on Apple's Macintosh platform]

Developer 1: “It needs to look, work, and feel like the iPhone, but — you know — not be.”

Developer 2: “Instead of putting the icons on a rectangular grid, let’s do a (one two three four five six) hexagonal one!”



Developer 1: “Brilliant! Book it. Done.”

[From Windows Mobile, Android, Flash make headlines at Mobile World Congress - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

Listened to: Frequencer Departure Flying At Daybreak from the album “Electronic Mind Waves” by Elektriktus

[From Mac-savvy Obama staffers frustrated with legacy White House - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

Listened to: Party Time from the album “Inner Feelings” by Roy Porter Sound Machine

[From Windows: Just Another Program To Run On A Mac - Faster Forward]

[From Obama team chose Apple on election night - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

[From
Apple's iPhone makes headway in corporate market
| U.S.
| Reuters

]