Sorry gang. The day got away from me and it is already early Saturday morning. I will post the show tonight (04/02). Since it is now the second, this is not a joke. ;)

Well at least one MacCast listener has added a Mac Mini to his living room. Here are Peter’s comments and pics. Check out this setup.

The following is a set up I use for my Mini Mac downstairs next to the warm stove! It is connected to the router upstairs with airport. I have a Samsung 17 inch LCD connected to a magazine rack with a Ergotron arm. I use a bluetooth mouse and a TouchStrokes software keyboard. The power brick is on a bookshelf behind me and the Mini is on a shelf on the back side of the magazine rack. See pictures attached. I will also take the Mini, mouse and power supply with me and hook it into a monitor at work or elsewhere. Monitor runs around $200.00, Arm around $99.00.

I forgot to add that I am using airport express and thus print to my
printer in my computer room where I also have a 20 inch iMac.

I wanted to give you quick user review of a product that’s been around for a while, called the Podium Coolpad by Road Tools. It’s a notebook riser that does several things. Most importantly, it elevates the laptop to improve passive cooling, it spins around and lifts the screen up to an adjustable height to optimize your viewing angle, and it provides a stable surface when you’re working in less-than-ideal settings, like on your lap, on an airplane tray, or in bed. One edge of the laptop sits on top of 4 rubber-capped posts that you assemble from stackable lego-like pieces to lift the screen to the desired height. It’s relatively cheap (retailing for $30), really durable, and very portable. You can get a better idea of their design on their website, www.roadtools.com.

So, my wife and I own 2 Coolpads and have been using them for over 3 years without a hitch. The first time I gave it a second thought was the other day when I noticed that I had lost a screw, so I emailed Jim at Road Tools. I asked him for the specs on the screw so that I could pick up a replacement at the hardware store. To make a long story short, he not only offered to send me a replacement screw, he also included some newly developed attachments for the original Coolpad – more on these updates in a moment. I then asked him if it would be OK for me to share my story because I wasn’t sure that he wanted to be inundated with emails from people asking for replacement screws that they’d lost. Here is an excerpt from his reply dated March 27:

“Sometime soon I intend to send a press release … to let CoolPad users know that we would like to fix any CoolPad problems or replace any parts. We are gearing up to handle as many fixes as requested.

We’ve sold a lot of these over the past few years (over 500,000) so we expect to handle quite a few requests but that’s OK because we really like to keep all of those Coolpads in good working order.

These things are made by very dedicated disabled workers in the Nashua NH area. They take pride in their work and are as eager to support the CoolPads as I am.”

SO. Jim and his crew are INVITING everyone who owns a CoolPad to let them know about any problems. This is potentially as many as half-a-million emails with some type of request that probably yields little or no monetary benefit for them at the end of the day. I don’t remember the last time I heard of a company that cares this much about customer satisfaction and the work they do. Just wanted to spread the word on a little company with a lot of heart.

By the way, the samples of the product upgrades they sent me are awesome! First, there’s an extension bar for wider laptops: it replaces the 4 rubber-tipped caps with a single long bar that extends beyond the width of the coolpad to give you an extra-wide support. It was designed for the 17 inch powerbook, but I’ve been using it with my 15 inch model and it really does a great job. Or, if you want to use the original styled 4-post system, Jim sent me some new rubber caps that have improved gripping action for the bottom of your laptop. These upgrades are simple, but elegant and really well executed to improve the value of the product. I have not seen any mention of the extension bar or the new caps on the Road Tools website, but in his latest email, Jim said that he thinks the extension bar is now included with the CoolPads being sold through Apple Store and at Staples.

Reviewed by MacCast listener Daniel

Here is all the Apple April Fool’s gags I have come across today:

Apple Hires DVD Jon (Techtree.com)
Apple sells iPod Socks (Damn, this one is not a joke)
iPod Treo (cNet Reviews)
Apple iHome Media Center (The AppleBlog)
Tiger Woods signs deal as Apple Spokesman (Mac Daily News)
iPoc Apple PDA (Pocket PC Thoughts) – Thanks Russ!
EU Bans Sale of Macs (Digit UK)
Jobs Joins IKEA (The Register UK)
Apple Japan Announces and the Pulls the iPotty (iPodLounge)
Apple in Talks to Buy Palm One (TreoCentral)
Apple Announces Product and Marketing Plans (TidBits)
Apple Announces iPad, Partners with DELL to Sell (NoteBook Reviews)
The iCopulate (ThinkGeek.com)
The PodShave and PodShave Lady (PlayList Magazine)
iJuice and MiniMovie (eQuinux)
2 Good 1.0 (App4Mac)
ScreenCleaner Pro (Ambrosia Software)
Youe Mac Life Goes Off Air (Your Mac Life)
First Look At iTunes Phone (Mobile Music Blog)
Monkeys Prefer Windows Over Mac (Silicon.com)
Apple Adopts Windows Media for iTunes (Mac Observer) – Thanks Buck!

Just received confirmation from listener Terry that the PlayPod update will fix any feed issues with the MacCast. Please read the response, especially the warning about backing up your subscription URLs since you will need to resubscribe to all your feeds. UPDATE: Please read comments below from the developer on backing up your feed list and reporting bugs.

By downloading the latest version of Playpod I now get your Maccast feed up to the most recent podcast. So, all playpod users will have to upgrade to the latest version of the software.

One word of caution. When you install the latest verison it wipes out all of your old feeds. So, users may want to record all of their feeds so they can resubscribe in the latest version of playpod.

I get a lot of questions about issues with wireless routers and we have covered it some on the show. Listener Chris sent me this comment and I think it is a good reminder that the firmware should be one of the first things to check when you start to have any issues with a piece of aging hardware.

It has worked fine w/ my 2 PC for the entire month. When I got my new iBook a month ago it would work fine for 10 minutes then the router would lock up. I would need to reset it by unplugging it. This happened pretty much every time I used it. I went to the Linksys web site, grabbed the latest firmware, flashed the router. That fixed the problem. I was out 4 revisions back from the latest firmware. Just a reminder for people to check the router firmware if they’re having similar problems.

Hey geeks. For those of you using PlayPod I just received this email from the developer

I am the developer of PlayPod. I heard you mention to your listeners that some people using PlayPod weren’t getting your updates. Just wanted to let you know that PlayPod 1.0b6 fixed a nasty bug that prevented some feeds from automatically downloading podcasts.

Kind Regards,
Ian

Ian G. Gillespie, Ph.D.
IGG Software, LLC
www.iggsoftware.com

I recommend going over to www.iggsoftware.com and getting this update.

Listen to today’s show here!
MC20050330.mp3 [19.8mb (43:21) 64kbps]

A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 43. DVForge response to Mac virus challenge, Gartner Dataquest warns of Mac spyware, HP renews interest in iPod, New 10.3.9 and 10.4 builds relased Tuesday, rumor of iTunes Australia soon, more iPod crime in NYC and AppleInsider rumors of new consumer Macs. Listener review of ElGato’s EyeHome, PlayPod issues and updating bookmarks, correction on educational discounts for high school students, Mac’s support for microphones and recording and a bonus review of the Sony Playstation Portable. New music from Se La by Neto. You should hear this. Shownotes in HTML or OPML

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3

Listener Mike sent in this great explaination on why AppleCare is not available in Florida

Just want to shed a little light on the AppleCare in Florida issue. I am a Product Specialist for AppleCare tech support.

From what I understand, Florida state law (Chapter 634 of the Florida Statutes) requires companies to be licensed to sell extended repair or replacement services. Apple currently does not meet the requirements defined by this law. The law is in place to protect the large elderly population from “warranty scams.” Unfortunately, I do not know what the requirements are to become licensed.

AppleCare CAN be sold to businesses, agencies, non-profit organizations and educational institutions as long as they have a valid Tax ID, proving they are a business.

If a consumer enrolls AppleCare on a machine and they live in Florida, Apple is required by law to refund their money. This has been the case for several years, and only the Florida legislature can change these requirements.

Here is some great info from listener Art:

Really like listening to the MacCast podcast. I just heard your latest podcast (March 28, 2005) and you talked about browser performance and optimizing it. There are a few programs that you can download to optimize web browsing performance.

1.) SafariSpeed (http://www.scifience.net/safarispeed.html)
This program optimizes Safari by disabling the page loading delay, which is built into Safari. It only seems to work in Safari and not in other browsers.

2.) Panter Cache Cleaner (http://www.northernsoftworks.com/panthercachecleaner.html)
This program optimizes not only Safari, but also other browsers by optimizing or cleaning the file cache.

As for why it would seem that web browsing on PC seems to be faster than doing so on the Mac, there is a website that might answer the question (http://www.xvsxp.com). This is a website that compares OSX and Windows XP as objectively as they can. In the web browsing section, they mention that some websites are specifically coded for IE for PC by web developers. And I personally think that when a company tests its website before launch, they usually only test with a PC and not a Mac.

Hopes this answers the questions that were asked on the podcast. Continue the great work.