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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 144. Bill Gates will step down in 2008. Apple lowers iPod Nano and other pricing in the UK. New iPods you won’t touch. Is Apple going to make an ultra-portable? Boston may be getting the next Apple Flagship store. Users reporting stains on white MacBooks. How to clean your Mac. Response to Norway and EU iPod/iTunes complaints. An application for helping manage multiple iWeb sites, iWebSites. Additional tools for freeing up OS X disk space by removing extra languages. How to find and use special characters and bring back the lost KeyCaps utility. How to turn your spare change into iTunes music. How to determine which pictures are in which albums in iPhoto. New MacCast widgets now available on MacCast.com.
UPDATE/ WARNING: I have been made aware of a potentially BIG issue with Monolingual if you own an Intel Mac. By default Monolingual is set up to remove the PowerPC “architecture” on Intel based Macs. Removing this architecture will cause Rosetta applications to no longer run. So if you use Monolingual make sure to uncheck all the options to remove architectures. If you have already been effected by this issue I have heard you need to do an Archive and Install of Tiger to get Rosetta functionlity back.
New music, Electric by Slim
I am a baaaad man. — Gone in 60 Seconds (200)
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I have staining on my handrests on my ibook G4 I bought it 7 months ago, not yet one year old and can not wash it off either.
Great shows. I agree the mac should go with the smaller macbook instead of the ultraportable. In k12 education, I’d like to see a 12″ screen/keyboard with the boot times (flash boot) of a handheld (A laptop case with “guts” of handheld). The processing capabilities of handhelds is enough for classrooms and resetting the device is easy. As textbooks go online the larger screen is necessary. Efficient WP requires a larger screen.
Many pc manufacturers make a small laptop ( 6-8″x7-9″) the keyboard is indeed smaller, but not cripplingly small. They are so convenient for travel. I would love to have a Mac in that size range.
Many pc manufacturers make a small laptop ( 6-8″x7-9″) the keyboard is indeed smaller, but not cripplingly small. They are so convenient for travel. I would love to have a Mac in that size range.
On ultra portable Macs and fun with triangles.
Apple’s has decided to give all Mac notebooks a full size keyboard.
This means the you could put about an 11″ diagonal widescreen on it.
So the footprint of the screen would be around 6″ by 9.75″
12″ powerbook screen is 7.25″ by 9.75″
You’d go from a 12″ powerbook with a foot print of 8.5″ by 10 15/16″
to an 11″ with a footprint of 7.25″ by 10 15/16″, assuming there is the same amount of space around the screen.
That makes the trackpad either small or oddly shaped relative to the screen.
Might require a ThinkPad type eraser head pointer.
I think the trackpad issue is what kills the small ultra portable. Unless you go to the smaller keyboard or drop the trackpad or some third thing.
RE the “green roof” Adam mentioned for the new Apple Store in Boston… a green roof refers to a rooftop garden. We have one in Chicago, where King Ritchie Daley is a strong advocate of green roofs, and put one atop City Hall. It doesn’t mean a green glass ceiling!
Long live MacCast!
RE the Norway and EU iPod/iTunes complaints.
The response in the most recent MacCast rather highlights the shows US origins. Europe isn’t a federation of states like the US. Europe is a collection of distinct countries each with its own sovereign and separate legal systems. It is about as unreasonable to expect that the Norwegian users of iTMS to agree to a contract under English law as it would be to expect users of the US iTMS to agree to a contract operated under Venezuelan law.
In the UK there are, in fact, two separate legal systems; one for Scotland and one for England & Wales. It’s worth noting that the European stores are operated under English law rather than the historically more rational Scottish law.
I’m not a lawyer so take what follows with a pinch of salt but I believe the nub of Apple’s problem is that in many European countries buying music or software gives you the ‘right of ownership’ of the item rather than the ‘right to use’ item which EULAs generally assert. Under US & English law, EULAs are legally binding but there was a case involving Microsoft Germany where the attempt was made to prosecute a user for violating the EULA only to find the EULA was null and void under German law for the above reasons.
I would surmise that this is the root of the interoperability problem. If you own the track, rather than owning the right to use the track, you own the blob of data that encapsulates the music. Any kind of artificial bar on your ability to play the track on the device of your choice would probably be against consumer-protection law. So the “burn it to CD & re-rip argument” is merely a work around to the lack of ownership iTMS’ EULA asserts.
Apple probably wouldn’t be required to make iTunes sync with any device but would be required to license FairPlay to any interested parties. The cost of licensing can be expensive but probably not extortionate.
Thanks for the follow up on all the legal stuff. I love that walled garden analogy. When I started thinking about it, you see that everywhere. Buy a car and you are limited to the brand parts for repairs. Buy a new faucet, you need specific washers to fix drips later. Photo papers processed best when matched with same brand film. Coffee machines all have their own filter. It’s endless and everywhere.
As for licensing, there’s a lot of people to protect, owners, consumers, artists, manufacturers. I suppose until we get to the Star Trek Utopian life, when everyone does work just because they want to, we’ll be stuck with something legal and disagreeable. That’s why I find the whole Firefox/Wikipedia open source ideal, everyone pitching in trend, so inspiring.
I for one would love to see a Mac ultra portable handheld computer. I’ve been looking a PDAs and having a hard time worrying that most of them won’t sync up with my Mac.
I think Adam’s defense of Apple’s “walled garden” system by comparing it to razor blades and printers is , no pun intended, like comparing apples to oranges. I have a Canon printer, but I can buy cheaper ink cartridges from Amazon or another vendor. Similarly, I have a Gillette Sensor razor but save money by buying generic razor blades made for that razor. As far as I know, music I purchase on iTunes can’t be played on anything but an iPod.
I think Adam is making inaccurate comparisons. I love the show, but it seems sometimes that he is too quick to defend Apple by explaining away their missteps and mistakes by saying, “Well, these other companies/ industries do that too…”
Dave B,
I like your name-brand to generic comparisons. To that end, when you download ‘name-brand’ iTunes music onto your computer, you can easily burn a CD (one step) and play it in your ‘generic’ car CD player, home CD player, etc. You can also take that CD and rip it back to non-DRM music (a second step) for any other MP3 player. Of course, it takes one or two extra steps, but so does searching out generic ink or generic razors.
One thing to note, though – neither Canon nor Gillette recommend using generic refills. In fact, Canon, Dell, HP and other printer manufacturers warn that using generic ink cartriges can actually damage their printers and thus void warranties. That may or may not be a true claim – probably not – but it’s their warning to stick with the name-brand supplies.
Food for thought.
Jason
Thanks for making those points Dave. I was thinking the same thing when I read Jason’s comments.
The more I think about it, there are lots of devices that force or urge you to use their propritary formats. Coffee makers, cars, computers, blenders, cell phones, etc.
This is one reason why I like The MacCast so much. It gets me to think of things in a different way. Before Adam had mention the “walled garden” I had never thouoght of other devices that have similar restrictions. Thanks Adam!
Just to be clear and give credit where it is due. The “walled garden” stuff came not from me but from this Financial Times article (registration required). As I mentioned in the show a listener pointed it out to me and I thought it made some good points, so I shared it, but the analogies are not mine.
Ultra portable does not just mean orgami.
Also there are things like the 11″ sony vaio, with a ultra low voltage pentium m. It’s considered ultra portable because small size and long battery life about 8 hours. Sony has done a pretty good job on such a laptop and sets the standard that apple will have to attain or surpass.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=0SprOi4ojjhrMGq_1OFhMWEnVJYwhVeb1Kw=?CategoryName=cpu_benefits_1&Dept=computers
Apple doesn’t have to do the UX series like thing, something like that has no real market I think I’d agree with Adam on that. But look at the TX series. Light, thin, very long battery life.
Hi there everyone, thanks for another MacCast Adam.
After reading that Apple discussion thread on the staining on the MacBooks, I’m now really worried about my sister who I finally made a switcher and purchased one which arrived last week. I just hope this doesn’t put her off Macs altogether if things start going wrong. It is a lovely laptop.
Thanks, Adam, for clarifying the remarks you made on the previous show that made me so upset.
I just don’t know of any alternative to DRM. Software licensing is just a form of digital rights management. In most cases, copying an entire book is much more expensive than simply buying it, especially if you factor in the time spent to do the drudge work. Copying and sharing music, in contrast, is incredibly cheap and easy.
If you want the music industry to survive, as is, you have to have DRM of some sort. That is, if you like the four major labels dominating with indies scrambling for crumbs, you are stuck with DRM. It is just too easy to share music for free for the industry to maintain a revenue stream.
To become free from DRM, we would have to see the entire system of making and distributing music turned on its head. Some would call that a “paradigm shift.” Good luck with that.
Monolingual. Be very careful if you use an Intel Mac withh PPC application. Monolingual will disable Rosetta. Google search “Rosetta Quits” before you use this program. I still haven’t got it fixed. No PPC program will work, think MS Office, Quicken…..
“Monolingual. Be very careful if you use an Intel Mac with PPC application. ”
I did the same thing. I uninstalled the Rosetta support and spent father’s day reinstalling everything
Woah, thanks Fred for that little warning, I wasn’t goig to use Monolingual myself, but I’m sure it’s saved a lot of people a lot of hassle.
A question; why does it have that feature in if it’s obviously bad?
Wow! I really appreciate the heads up. It did save me a lot of hassle!
Not to beat a dead horse, but there’s a new and well-timed development on the HP Ink isssue referenced above and in the MacCast segment. LINK http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/06/21/hp_ink_refilling/
HP has begun an attack on ink refillers – a patent infringement attack, no less – in an effort to curb the sale (and use) of generic inks for HP printers.
So the iPod/iTunes partial-propriety issue is really not that special after all. HP says so in black and white.
i ‘ve heard alot about the palmrest on the macbook gets horribly dirty, luckily my macbook, which i just bought about 3 days ago is still clean. however, the bottom of the case is having color changing isuse. the white bottom case near the left side ports are getting strips of gray on them. they seem like are from the inner layer of the plastic, which i suspect is the over heating that has changed the color of the plastic. anyone else is having this problem? should i contact apple? please help, i would really appreciated.
At least now I know why my Office apps stopped working ;8-( MONOLINGUAL!
Glad I make clones, although I am having trouble booting from the clone last night after a carbon copy clone restore seemed to fail in the middle. I’ll try a clean install and migrate from the clone disk instead tonight.
I did not notive because I use non-rosetta apps most of the time and didn’t have a problem.
Symtom – one bounce and nothing after starting app.
Jerry
Thanks for your comments about the European legal issues. I wish Apple would explain to them how this system works, and why it would be impossible for them to comply with any court rulings in this matter. This seems less about fair practices and anticompetitiveness than about a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology involved. They say iTunes material cannot be used on other players; that is simply not true as you pointed out. They say the iPod cannot play material from other stores; is that Apple’s fault? But above all, isn’t it kind of crazy that these people are so angry at Apple, yet they desperately want to buy Apple products? I think it speaks to the massive popularity of iTunes and the iPod that people will sue just for the ability to use these products in more ways.