Well, true to the predictions on Gizmodo the iPhone was announced today, but it is not the device Apple fans have been waiting for. The iPhone is a new product from Linksys. It is a “dual mode” phone that connects to your computer and allows you to make both Voice Over IP (VoIP) calls and standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) calls. It offers VOIP integration with both Skype and Yahoo! Messenger Voice and includes other features like information services and multimedia integration. You can search for local business information and make calls directly from results with the push of a button. The integrated media viewer gives you the ability to access music, photos, and streaming video directly from the Internet and see the content right on the iPhone. So while not the Apple iPhone we had envisioned the Linksys version does have some nice features.

Now for the proverbial rain on the Mac rumor mongers parade… the Linksys iPhone product page does state that, “iPhone and Linksys are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc.”, so if Apple does have a phone product ready for launch at Macworld it will obviously not be called an “iPhone”. iTalk anyone?

I wanted to bring something a little different to my readers, because I felt it would be the right thing to try and entice you away from your screens for a little while. Spending hours in front of your Mac is a fine way to spend your day, but can induce back ache and eye strain if you overdo it. So, why not pick up a copy of ‘How to Get Rich – by Felix Dennis’.

Now, I am not a massive reader, but two things drew me to this book, firstly the title, as I wouldn’t mind a bit (or a lot) of extra money, but secondly the man behind the book. We have all heard of the publication ‘Mac User’ and some of us may have seen ‘Personal Computer World’ on the shelf, well these are just a few titles by Dennis Publishing, founded in 1973 by Felix Dennis. He sold the two magazines and made millions and continues to do so in various ways.
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DEVONtechnologies has just updated it’s popular DESKTOP TRANSPORTER software to version 2.0.1. For those who do not know what Transporter is, it is a “remote desktop solution that allows users to use other Macs on either the local network or the Internet without physically accessing them.” Version 2.0.1 adds some bug fixes and a few cool new features. It now includes a status tab which displays your Mac’s local IP address along with what port Transporter is currently listening on. Also in this settings panel is a function to set the resolution/size of the monitor you are controlling. One of the welcome improvements is a greatly improved online help system with details on setting up port forwarding and links to networking tools and utilities. Transporter 2.0.1 is a free upgrade to all Transporter users and for everybody else it is $29.95 with a 4 week trial and discounts for students and teachers.

The MacCast always seems to get me thinking. This time, Adam, you got me thinking more and more about the topic of Digital Convergence. There are so many things going on in this area right now, I thought I’d share with you some of my observations.

The impact of the following issues are nothing less than dramatic . . .

• Professional music and video is now competing with amateur music and video (the democratization of content).
• New devices are being introduced daily that can support all different kinds of media.
• People don’t have any more TIME to spend on content/media absorption

than they already do today (most important).

• Viewing habits of an attention-span challenged generation are kicking in (people want shorter bursts of content).
• VOIP is now ubiquitious and PC video chat applications actually work.

Traditional media, brick and mortar retail stores, service providers, and new network-based services are all hardening for battle. The consequences of this battle will be severe and permanent.
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AppZapper 1.8, an application that allows you to uninstall any application, widget, preference pane or plugin was released. When you drag and drop an application to be uninstalled onto AppZapper, it goes through the system to delete preferences, caches and support files that many applications generate when they are launched. This latest version runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and above.

The 1.8 version of AppZapper includes the new UnZap feature. If you accidentally zap an application you can use the UnZap feature to restore the application and its related files. In addition, there are improvements to the zapping engine, support for zapping on localized systems and authentication for non-admin users.

All current users of AppZapper can update for free.

You can buy AppZapper for the low price of USD$12.95. The Family Pack which registers all members of the same household sells for USD$18. A free shareware version that allows you to zap five times before you are required to purchase the software is also available. If you would like more information about AppZapper or would like to purchase it visit www.AppZapper.com

MacHeist Kicks Off “The Week of the Independent Mac Developer” with Bundle Sale
I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of MacHeist. If you don’t know what it is then you can find articles all over the internet about it. However, this week and this week only, they will be selling a wonderful bundle of apps for $50. And the best part is 25% of the proceeds will go to a charity of your choice. The apps you will get are: Delicious Library, Boinx’s FotoMagico, DEVONthink Personal, ShapeShifter, RapidWeaver, iClip 4, Disco and a Pangea game of the your choice. The charities you can give to are: The United Way, Direct Relief International, AIDS Research Alliance, Preventcancer.org, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, The Hunger Project and Save the Children. Best of all, if $50,000 is raised then you get NewsFire and if $100,000 is raised you will get TextMate. This is a great chance to buy some great shareware for a discount that goes to a great cause.

Apple thinks you should try their digital photography program Aperture. They think if you try Aperture that you will like it. They believe that so strongly that they want to let you try it free for 30 days.

Manage thousands of images with complete control and flexibility. Sort through shoots and choose selects in record time. Make professional-quality adjustments with simple, powerful tools. Whether you shoot RAW or JPEG, Aperture puts everything you need into one unrivaled application. Try it free for 30 days—and don’t worry, Aperture never changes a pixel of your originals. So start today, experiment with abandon, and see how simply amazing your photography can be.

Download your free copy here

Here is a great opportunity to spread a little holiday cheer this season and pick up a great Mac app or two at the same time. 12 Mac developers have teamed up
Child’s Play, a Seattle-based charity started in 2003 by the guys at Penny Arcade. Child’s Play collects donations of toys, games, books and cash and delivers them to sick kids staying in children’s hospitals across North America and the world. To date the charity has collected over a million dollars in donations.

This year several Mac developers have joined the cause and organized Child’s Play Day. On Thursday December 7th if you purchase any one (or more) of the 17 products from the 12 developers listed below, 100% of the proceeds from your purchases will be donated to Child’s Play. To participate you just make a regular purchase through the various online stores (on Thursday) and then the money will be collected and sent to the charity. It’s simple and you will help bring the joy of gaming to a sick child over the holiday season. Of course, you can also donate directly to Child’s Play by visiting http://www.childsplaycharity.org

Chimp Software (Store)
iRooster — Wake up to the world’s best music–your own–with iRooster, the Mac OS X alarm clock.

Clickable Bliss (Store)
Billable — Helps you keep track of the billable services you perform for a client and then lets you create and manage invoices based on those services.

Code Sorcery Workshop
Pukka — Fast, light productivity booster for people who use the del.icio.us bookmarking service. Multiple accounts, tag completion, private bookmarking, full AppleScript support, keyboard navigation, Growl, and much more. Stop waiting around and start bookmarking faster!

Elgebar Studios
Freeze Frame — Allows you to completely freeze an application, making it use absolutely no CPU cycles.
Pencils Down — Lets teachers create tests quickly and painlessly.

Flying Meat (Store)
VoodooPad — A personal desktop wiki. You put your brain in it.
FlySketch — Draw, highlight, everywhere.
FlyGesture — Move a little, do a lot.

Happy Apps (Store)
WebnoteHappy — Organize and remember the web pages that matter to you with WebnoteHappy – a better bookmark manager with tagging, note-taking, and del.icio.us integration.

Houdah Software (Store)
HoudahSpot — Your files at your fingertips. HoudahSpot is the frontend most Spotlight users don’t know they’re missing. Find files you didn’t know you had.

Martian Technology (Store)
SlingShot — The easiest way to keep your iTunes music (and your files) in sync between two Macs.
LifeBoat — Back up your important data on your external drives, instantly.

Mere Mortal Software (Store)
Safe Place — Securely store your passwords, credit card numbers, software activation codes, or any other information you want to keep handy and safe from prying eyes.

MK&C
Knox — Simply secure encryption and backup.

Prosit Software
iDictionary — Dictionary & Thesaurus Tailored For Your iPod
App Stop — Take Control Of Your Applications

RQS (Store)
Rolling Credits — Make typographically stunning — visually pleasing — completely unboring movie credits.

Just in the past few days, the digital protections (or DRM) in which TiVo wrapped its recorded programming were defeated to allow the content to be played on a consumer’s networked device of choice. And I’m sure I’m not the only member of the MacCast community who has been waiting for the TiVoToGo functionality, but I’m excited at the possibility of watching even more recorded content on the go.

What I find interesting is that in the few days since this hack was made available, some previously held DRM hostages are wishing they had never been freed.
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The latest build of Parallels Desktop, the Virtual Machine software which allows Intel Macs to run Linux and Windows in a Mac window alongside Mac OS X, has just been released and I’ve been running it all day – so here’s a quick look at it.

For anyone unsure about using Beta software, don’t worry. This is very stable. I’ve been running Photoshop, some video editing software called TMpegEnc and everything worked just great.

If you avidly watch the videos section on Digg.com as much as I do, you know how frustrating it can be when you occasionally come across a video which requires Windows Media Player. And you can guarantee it’s always the video you really want to watch which refuses to work even using the Flip4Mac Quicktime add-on. Before Parallels came along this meant having to either wait for someone to post a converted version somewhere else, or loading the link on your Windows PC (if you have one). Or how about those sites which simply refuse to run in anything other than Internet Explorer, or those which require Windows Java?
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