Apple now has 3 new “Get a Mac” ads up on their web site. These are the ads that, until recently, seemed to only be playing in some Apple retail stores. The ads are titled “Counselor”, “Self Pity” and “Better Results”. The “Better Results” ad is the much anticipated and talked about ad featuring Brazilian super model Gisele Bundchen. I don’t know if these are airing on TV yet, but my guess is if they didn’t start airing last week we will probably see them starting today.
[ View Apple Get a Mac Site ]

The idea behind a new program ScreenRecycler is that most Mac users have some old computer sitting right next to their main computer on their desk that is gathering dust. ScreenRecycler is intended to let you use that machine as a second monitor for your main computer.
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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Live from Podcast Expo 2006 in Ontario, CA. A special episode recorded in the Orange County Podcasters booth on the show floor of the Podcasting and Portable Media Expo. Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User) and myself took the opportunity to sit down with some great podcasters who also happen to be Mac users. We spoke with Fr. Roderick (Catholic Insider), Rob Walch (Podcast 411), John Chambers (One Minute Tip) and Chris Christensen (The Amateur Traveler). We discuss how they became Mac users, what some of their early systems were, how they use Macs in life and in podcasting, plus a whole lot more. It was a lot of fun talking with these guys and I hope you have as much fun listening to this as we did recording it.

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Links
The Catholic Insider
Podcast 411
One Minute Tip
The Amateur Traveler
Rouge Amoeba Fission
Revolution in the Valley (Amazon)
Folklore.org
Mac Folklore Radio

I often ask myself, just how many items can someone review and still give a fresh and interesting evaluation that readers will be willing to read. This was more difficult to answer than I first thought, but I came to two conclusions. Firstly, it helps if the product is useful and well thought out and secondly, it pays dividends to actually use the product.

The Danger Mouse from MacMice fits nicely into both of my realizations and I am sitting here right now writing this review whilst actually using the product. I feel instantly at home with it for many reasons and all of these reasons fit into the ‘well thought out’ category.
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While those in the professional Mac community often enjoy industry-standard content creation tools provided by powerful programs like Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, and Logic Pro— there are also many Mac users in the educational arena who have long reaped the benefits of easy to use, intuitive and powerful educational software made by Apple.

Apple has long prided itself in the educational community, offering solutions for both educators and students alike for over 25 years. Because of their continued effort to produce fun yet powerful software like the iLife suite of applications, it’s no surprise that recently a group of 10 year-olds from schools in New South Wales, Australia have been producing some extraordinary material.

Recently The MacCast received a letter by Paul Meldrum, Senior Education Officer of the Catholic Schools Office, in Broken Bay. Paul wanted to write and let us in on the incredible work of the students of New South Wales.
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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)

Shownotes: HTML or OPML
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It has come to my attention in the past few days that some of you are reporting issues downloading the latest MacCast (9/25) in iTunes. The strange thing is this issue seems to be effecting only a small handful of listeners and I personally had no trouble downloading the episode. So you know, I have been working very hard over the past few days to identify and fix the problem. As far as I can determine the problem seems to be with some of the servers at Libsyn, the company who hosts my media files, which are assigning the wrong MIME type to the enhanced AAC files. I am working closely with Libsyn to try and resolve the issue and it should be fixed soon. Until then feel free to download the AAC version of the show directly from this link. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

A little bit of information can go a long way—this is especially the case in Mac OS X. As you may have read in my previous two posts in this series (1 | 2), taking some time with your Mac’s built-in Address Book app can pay off in spades in functionality in other applications. Last time we looked at Mail app, this time, we’ll take a quick look at a few native and 3rd-party OS X apps.

Browsers

Didn’t think that your web browser would bother looking up information from your contacts? Think again. There are at least two web browsers made for OS X that will allow you to look up a contact’s website, without even launching Address Book.

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So you are all aware by now of the debate that Apple has opened up through their recent legal wrangling with the folks over at Podcast Ready (in case you missed it, you can catch up here). Now many people, myself included, had felt that Apple was getting a bit heavy handed in it’s quest to protect it’s iPod and related trademarks. The main source of debate seems to come when you ask the question, “Is Apple attempting to trademark ‘podcast'”? After reading the letters sent to Podcast Ready by Apple, which are posted on the Podcast Ready web site, my personal opinion is that Apple does seem to be objecting to the use of Podcast in the Podcast Ready name, but does not object to it’s use as a “descriptive term”. A quote from one the the letters reads:

“While Apple, of course, has no general objection to the proper use of the descriptive term “podcast” as part of a trademark for goods and services offered in the podcasting field, it cannot allow marks that go beyond this legitimate use and infringe on Apple’s rights in POD and IPOD“.

As near as I can tell, Podcast Ready has two applications at the US Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) for the term “Podcast Ready”. One is a service mark (Serial number, 78813822) which Apple has no objection to and the other is a trademark (Serial number, 78761085) which is the one Apple is opposing. Now I don’t understand this from a legal perspective, but I think the basic argument is that Apple is OK with the term “podcast” being applied to services, but has chosen to go after any marks where the term “podcast” is applied to a physical product. The Podcast Ready trademark application is for, “Portable listening devices, namely, MP3 players”. Where Apple is choosing to make this distinction seems to be a fine line and one that has sparked a heated debate in the podcasting community.
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Recently I was lucky enough to have Bill Palmer (iProng) and Shelly (Shelly’s Podcast) invite me to be on their iProng Radio Show. It was their first of the five live podcasts recorded at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo. I was on with Bill, Shelly and Dave Hamilton from The Mac Observer, iPod Observer and Mac Geek Gab. It had been three weeks since Steve Jobs’ Show Time event and we discussed the new iPods, iTunes, 7, Apples upcoming iTV product, and more. The show is posted on the iProng Radio site if you want to listen or you can simply point your favorite podcatcher at the iProng Radio feed and subscribe.