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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 160. Mac OS X 10.4.8 update, Aperture 1.5 released. iTunes 7.0.1 Update released. Intel shipping “Quads” staring in November. Another Apple preview, .Mac Webmail. New Jersey’s new iTunes tax? Apple and SecureWorks now working together. New iMacs have 802.11n capable chips. Hide System updates you don’t need. Transferring Outlook info to Mac using O2M. Will NAND flash memory bring us new laptops? OS 10.4.8 adds click wheel zooming. MacCast needs some Wiki love.
New music, Pandemonium by Ocean Street.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking. — Airplane! (1980)
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I disagree with the statement that it’s “really apparent” that iTunes users were set up to be beta testers for iTunes 7.0. It’s impossible for the lab testers to simulate every possible hardware and software combination under which iTunes might run. Hardware W with OS version X with iTunes plugin Y with Shareware Z running can never all be covered in the labs. I didn’t have any problems and none of the Mac users I know had any problems. Millions of users with a rate of error of 0.1% will give you thousands of complaints. It may be that this had more errors that your average .0 software release, but that it common with .0 software releases, no matter who the author is.
You mentioned that the Intel-based machines required a second restart after installing the 10.4.8 update – I just wanted to comment that I have an old PowerPC 400MHz iMacDV running Tiger that has required a second restart for (at least) the last 3 updates. This machine stalls on the startup grey screen with the spinning “click” spinning, and spinning, and spinning… never stopping or moving on. I force a quit and do a restart and all is well again, each time. There have been no evident problems with the system operations, so I’ve just chalked it up as a quirk with this old processor and the auto-restart script.
Hey Adam –
The 99 cent Apple Music Store experience is one that we do not get here in WA either. Tax really does take the sheen off the ol’ smooth Apple feeling of getting a song for under a buck. So now New Jersey Mac Geeks will feel the pinch too.
I think it has some to do with where one receives one’s credit card bill. If there is sales tax and a physical Apple presence, like a store, in that state ya gotta pay the tax.
Wah.
Gotta pay tax for QT Pro, the MPG-2 codec and all the other online stuff from Apple as well.
double wah.
However – we build & open schools and have some pretty decent roads in our state so perhaps it is worth it.
Later,
A.G.
I would take to an ultra portable mac like a duck to water. I remember all the people in the Apple store used to carry around 12″ iBook macs. Even they were a little too big to be really portable.
It’s like this.. If you’re at a restaurant, you don’t want to pull out a 12″ notebook Mac. That would be kind of obtrusive. But a little 5″ screen, ultra portable fanless, silent mac? That would be acceptable.
Bottom line is – the smaller the device, the more places you can take it – which is good! I would not carry around a 12″ notebook mac with me all day. Too heavy, don’t need that much power for what I do.
Harry
Have you done any research about how many states charge sales tax on iTunes?
Texas has always charged sales tax on iTunes, and this sure ain’t no welfare state! New Jersey certainly is not setting any trends in taxation with this move. (I lived in New Jersey for a year about 20 years ago: do you still have no sales tax for clothing items less than some pretty high amount? I thought that was a pretty cool exemption.)
I’m all for a sub-notebook. But it would have to be really sub note book, I agree, a 5 or 6 inch screen would make for one lean mean machine. Essentially a pda sized device with pen input and/or flip keyboard would be a real companion but I doubt it will happen. In the end, Apple may just bring out a 12″ macbook which is not really about the new direction and promised innovation and exciting product announcement Steve Jobs promised for ’07 minus iTV which is way cool. On a tangent, the unveiling of product announcements in ’07 should make it clear what Apple really means by innovation and exciting product announcements.
Thing is with all the miniaturized power available today it’s very possible to build, it’s a question of the market. I’m afraid with all the die hard mac fans here, we would be a bad measure – we’ll scoop up anything Apple related.
Quite frankly though, I was very impressed with how the 5G and 5.5G ipod play video, it really is incredible, a testament of how far HD technology has come. Say, doesn’t Intel have a cpu design just for sub-notebook design – thought I heard or read that somewhere.
In any case, it’s all about the road warrior spirit!
You guys are all up in arms over the tax issue. Here in Poland, the iTunes store doesn’t even figure into the equation called my life. No such thing as iTunes, the store – no way to buy a tune or flick here, sigh.
From the nitpick department: “… I didn’t know how to pronunciate a bunch of different words…”? That means “to pronounce or declare” as in the sense of “to pronounce dead” and not “to pronounce a word”. It is, of course, in the urban dictionary as a word made from “pronounce” and “enunciate” meaning to pronounce a word.
Scroll wheel trick works in iPhoto with .avi files played by Quicktime. Cool.
Pronunciation.
it’s good to help each over learn new stuff but pronunciation can be region based so some words are going to sound weird to some listeners no matter how Adam says them. I’m Australian and we speak the same language ‘in theory’ but I regularly have to work at understanding American English. Context is very important here. My second point is part of the joy of listening to podcasts for me is the rawness. I’d hate podcasters get too smooth and polished like commercial radio announcers. Two of my favorite podcasts (after Maccast of course!) are Coverville and NeatLittleMacApps and the way Brian and Frank mangle English is a sheer joy to listen to.
Ryan,
To nitpick a nitpicker, “pronunciate” is the word that is made up by people who try to infer the verb from its related noun, “pronunciation.”
I think “orientate” (instead of “orient”) that people derive from “orientation” is the most egregious case where people make up words that way. But, then again, I hadn’t “considerated” “pronunciate!” ;-)
Just wanted to chime in about the NJ taxes. First, the situation. NJ has a massive deficit! Billions, upon Billions of dollars. What caused this can be summed up in a single word, negligence. We had a series of crappy governers who didn’t finish their term for a variety of reasons (Whitman left to become EPA chair, McGreevey left because he is gay, literally). Gov. Corzine, the former Wall St mogul that he is, is getting straight to work to re-pay that debt. And of course that means taxes. He doesn’t like it, but what else can you do – its either that or cut programs. And considering how much money gets sunk each year in the urban black holes known as Camden, Newark and Trenton, that doesn’t seem like a very popular option. Its complicated.
The biggest taxes will come from sales, clearly. Everyone pays sales tax so everyone will feel it – compared with the relatively small number of people who buy music online. Also up for grabs are gym memberships, which I find incredibly annoying. At least we still have tax-free clothing shopping (a major source of revenue from PA and NY residents). Now if we could only have one of those tax-free computer weeks like they have in PA, we’d be set.