As happens every time during these things the Apple online store is down, sure to be updated after the keynote will all the new sugary sweet Apple products. Yummy.

I think it may be down for a little more than an hour though.

Shooby showed this to me last night and I just saw it again on The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Flickr Find: Seen at WWDC 2006 – “Introducing Vista 2.0” banner. These images are from Mac Geek Gernot Poetsch. He is posting WWDC banner images from Moscone hall to his Flickr account. This one has a quote that looks like it says, ‘Introducing Vista 2.0’. One thing is for sure, Apple has a great sense of humor when it comes to poking fun at their rival.

There is another, not so visible image on Gernot’s Flickr account called Hasta la Vista. Vista. While these images are funny and look genuine, you have to wonder why Gernot didn’t position himself to get some better shots. I hope not, but this could turn out to be just some nice Photoshop work. It’s funny regardless.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Looks like VMWare has posted the links and information on their site to “pre-register” for the Beta of their new product for OS X. From their site… Love your Mac even more with the ability to simultaneously run any PC OS—Windows, Linux, NetWare and others—on Mac OS X. Switch between operating systems by easily tabbing between applications and share data between the two operating systems by dragging and dropping files on the fly—all without needing to reboot. This looks like it will be a nice competitor to Parallels and has been a popular option in the PC world for sometime. If you are at WWDC the company will be giving demos in the Yerba Buena room of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco from 12:30 PM to 8:00 PM on Monday August 7th.

Well the big event is on in just a few hours. Unfortunately there is no live video stream of the event (but I am sure you can expect a delayed QuickTime stream to show up on Apple.com a few hours after the keynote). So that’s the bad news. The good news is there will be many blogs and sites offering near real-time “text” based coverage of the event. Below you’ll find a list of several sites that should be delivering all the WWDC goodness about as fast as they can auto-refresh it (please don’t flood the servers). I myself will be blogging my reactions and impressions along with some other Mac Geeks over at http://wwdclive.wordpress.com/. Also if you would like to get in on some reral-time chat with other MacCasters, then fire up iChat (AIM) and go to the chat room ‘maccast’.

Updated: Added more links to live coverage.

WWDC Coverage
WWDC Live (I’ll be blogging here)
MacNN
MacRumors
MacTeens
The Apple Blog
PodTech (Podcast with Photostream)
ars technica (IRC)

Listen to today’s show here!
MC20060803.mp3 [25.8mb 00:56:17 64kbps]

A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 152. Scandinavia still not satisfied with iTunes, but France has a change of heart. iTunes Europe sells over 200 million songs. NBC ‘Heros’ on iTunes three weeks early. Apple .Mac outages annoying users. Apple removes Discussion Board support staff. Apple recalls MacBook Pro batteries. Misquote leads to iPod life-span complaints. Hackers demonstrate wireless vunerability on a MacBook, headlines don’t tell the whole story. Apple releases 4th security update for 2006. MacCast One Minute Tip #19 – Hot Corners. Follow-up on Network attached storage, lots of recommendations. A warning, beware of aging power adapters. Resetting the PMU/SMU to fix power issues, sleep and other issues. How to have your Mac read to you. Loads of speculation on upgrading Intel Mac processors. A tip for Enhanced MacCast listeners, burn audio CD with chapters. I explain the “subliminal” image in last MacCast.

New music, That Song (Is Stuck In My Head) by Full Minute of Mercury

Promo from Answers for Freelancers

With excitement like this, who is needing enemas? — Short Circuit (1986)

Shownotes: HTML or OPML
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I just saw this post over on ArsTechnica and was a bit taken back. Seems like Josh Aas of the Mozilla group was out browsing for music and discovered the Wu-Tang album “Think Differently Music – Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture” and after buying a CD single noticed something familiar about the image of the full album featured on the back of the single (see image on right). Well it turns out this is not just a new album, but a whole new record label formed by members of Wu-Tang called Think Differently Music Group. There is no word yet on whether Apple has any connection to the project, but I would think it is highly unlikely. The article notes that Apple still owns the trademark on “Think Different” and that the Wu-Tang page has a ® next to “Think Differently Music Group”. I see some trouble brewing here. After all the hoopla from Apple Records over Apple and the iTunes Music Store, can you imagine what kind of trademark questions this is going to raise? The Wu-Tang lawyers may need to start sharpening their pencils and their tongues. That or the Wu-Tang should be getting their pens out and preparing to write some fat checks. If your interested the album is available on iTunes.

Apple’s Mighty Mouse can’t seem to catch a break. I’m still amazed at the bad reviews it gets. And almost all the reviews of the new wireless version seem to have the same ‘Too little, too late’ mantra.

This review may be a little different. I have been using a Mighty Mouse exclusively for the past ten months, and I couldn’t be happier. It seems to address nearly every beef I’ve ever had with other mice. These three points are where the Mighty Mouse shines for me most:

1. Size & Weight
I have a problem with large, bulky mice (I don’t have dainty hands, by the way). The way I mouse, I basically use my thumb and ring finger to move, and index and middle for clicks. I have never liked ‘mitting’ my entire mouse. Too many mice that are ‘ergonomically’ designed seem to REQUIRE you to do a full on, sweaty-palmed wrap around. As a lifelong Mac user, I’ve always worked with quick mousing and lots of keyboard shortcuts. I don’t get stuck into the right-click, click, right-click, click mode that Windows traps you in. That is just too slow and constricting for me.

The Mighty Mouse is svelte, lightweight, and easy to glide. It has a low profile and symmetric Tic-Tac like shape. It’s easy to grab, move the pointer, and get back to the keyboard. You don’t need to conform your hand to the shell of the mouse just to move it.
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