Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050803.mp3 [17.4mb 38:02 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 79. Apple releases the Mighty Mouse, HP discontinues iPod sales, Apple using DRM to prevent OS X Intel on non-Apple hardware, Mac OS 10.4.3 seeded to Feeder 1.2 with iTunes Podcasting support, judge stops Georgia schools purchase of 63,000 iBooks, more Apple retail store opening this weekend and Apple expands iPod Trademark to include video. More Follow-up on iPod -36 errors, using Macs in your business environment, a rant on restrictive software authentication schemes, how to uninstall Mac applications and strange tales of iTunes, converting tapes to CD. New music, Waste Another Night by My Little Radio

Autobots, transform… And roll out!

Shownotes: HTML or OPML
Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Correction: I just received my new Mighty Mouse (awesome BTW) and it turns out the side buttons work by squeezing the mouse and are both assigned to the same action. So it looks like it is a 4-button and not a 5-button mouse. Listen for a full review on the next MacCast!

So this is a really horrible case of bad timing. I recorded the new show and it is ready to go. Just when I am ready to give it to you, I see an email from Libsyn saying they are transitioning and upgrading their servers on August 1st and 2nd. In testing right now, I see the servers are moving really slowly. I can’t even get the new show to download most of the time and in one case, when it finally did start to download the show, several seconds were missing from the beginning of the show. I think I am going to wait a couple of hours to see if they can get stuff sorted out. I am really afraid if f I update the feed now many of you won’t get the show and that would be awful. The new show is coming, please be patient.

Update: (1:00 PM PST 08/03/2005) I think Libsyn is still having issues, but I cannot wait any longer. I am going to go ahead and update the feed. Sorry in advance to anyone who has issues with the download. Please don’t swamp me with email saying there are issues. I already know. thanks.

FlexPed™ will offer the flexible mounting and positioning of the ever popular THOUGHT OUT designed PedHead™. The new FlexPed™ will cradle portable devices virtually anywhere including cars, boats, and walls etc. The product will be available in September for under $50.00. For more information please see www.thoughtout.biz (in a few days).

The PedHead™ mechanism that can also be found on the Ped2™ which allows setup adjustability for virtually all devices including the design inspired iPod with or without cases or skins.

Images (click to enlarge)

Here is another great story from Albert who also successfully runs his business using Macs.

My Wife and I started Due, three years ago. It started out as a little maternity boutique down here in sleepy Santa Barbara.

Because we used Macs in our past careers, (in advertising and PR) we decided to run the store on Macs too. It wasn’t an easy choice at the time because there was only 2 advanced retail applications that ran on the Mac, and one of them had poor industry ratings.

So we went with POSIM (Point of Sale Inventory Management) produced by Ensign, a company based in Utah. http://www.ensign.com

Continue Reading »

You don’t often get stories of businesses switching to Macs, so whwn I received this story from listener Jamie I wanted to share it with you.

Thought you might want to hear about my Mac experience.

I am a business owner of a computer software/support company. I have for years been slaving over books and updates to keep current on programming languages and new support bug fixes. In my offices I have several Windows Servers and Windows XP laptops and desktops. You guessed it, I am (was) a PC geek.

Continue Reading »

Here is a great story of an experienece listener Michael had at his local Apple Retail Store:

I just had to tell the story of a great experience at my favorite Apple store in Salem, NH (at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem New Hampshire)!

On July 14th on the way to the White Mountains of NH for some camping, I stopped in to pick up a 12 inch iBook, an extra 256 MB of RAM and a trusty apple care plan for it. I was in and out in no time and en route to my first campground.

Continue Reading »

Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050729.mp3 [13.7mb 29:56 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 78. New Mac Mini and iBooks released, iPhoto 5.0.4 update released, Apple opening two more US retails stores this weekend, planned Apple Music event in Tokyo. Could it be iTunes Japan? iTunes Phone to debut in August, yeah whatever. Apple will supply 30,000 iBooks to Florida schools, buy some pants, get a song, Canadian “iPod tax” will not be moving forward thanks to Supreme court. Survey shows Podcasting far from “mainstream”, even with help from iTunes and Sharp sales reps brag about their chip in new video iPods. Using your DV camera for iChatAV, Windows Media player issues under Tiger. Are XBrite™ LCDs better? Follow-up on the iPod -36 error. Vote for MacCast at Podcast Awards.com. New music, Wrong Way by Secret Suburbia.

Ninty percent of the game is half mental.

Shownotes: HTML or OPML
Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Correction: I said the new ATI Radeon 9550 did not support Core Image. Apparently I had read wrong information and several listeners pointed out the fact that the 9550 DOES support Core Image. Carry on.

Reinvented Software is proud to announce the release of Feeder 1.2. Feeder is an application for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds on Mac OS X. Version 1.2 introduces full support for working with the iTunes RSS extensions announced with iTunes 4.9, including an iTunes Music Store preview.

Feeder is packed with thoughtful features to enhance the experience of creating and managing feeds from start to finish including auto-complete and templates to save repetitive typing, automatically updating publication dates and much more. Feed content can be rich with images, links and formatting: Feeder’s editing features help you add these easily and generates a preview to show how your feed will look in a newsreader or RSS-aware browser.

Continue Reading »

The first time I heard that the Beatles’ AppleCorp had sued Apple Computer, Inc. back in 1981 over the “Apple” name, it stung. Then when AppleCorp and Apple Computer settled another lawsuit in 1989, I was somewhat disappointed that the Beatles felt entitled to additional financial compensation from Apple Computer. And now that AppleCorp is planning to take Apple Computer back to court for a third time, I am absolutely outraged.

As a product of the final years of baby-boomerdom (1960), I grew up listening to my two older brothers’ hand-me-down Beatles’ albums (ancient large music discs made of black vinyl plastic). When I was very young my older brother, Ted, had me convinced that Paul McCartney was the greatest man on earth (behind God and himself, of course). My friends and I would often pretend to be the Beatles, and I proudly took on the role of Ringo Starr and used an old tree stump as my drum set.

Continue reading at macfriends.com …

THOUGHT OUT has agreed, the best interest of the long-term success of the now named Ped™ product line is recognition away from the coincident relationship of iPed to the iPod. This new recognition of Ped™ branding will show the true value of our products. Our products work with many other devices on the market as the designs are intended to achieve greatest result with iPods but not limited to them only. Essentially, current and forward implementations of our products should be understood they are not only for iPods.

The Ped™ product line design is an elegant “device Ped-estal” that should function with many other consumer devices that consumers may desire.

iPed to Ped™
iPed2 to Ped2™
iPed Shuffle to Ped USB™

Look for the new branding name Ped™ as THOUGHT OUT quickly phases out the previous brand name.

Also, be sure to checkout the full lineup of “Ped” products at www.thoughtout.biz. And watch for a great new “Ped” coming soon.