Intel Yonah Chips available early January?

CoolTechZone claims to have insider knowledge of the launch date being January 6th.

www.cooltechzone.com

Intel’s Yonah is the new dual-core chip and successor to Intels Pentium-M

Expected to provide around 68 percent better performance than current Intel notebook chip

Macworld San Francisco takes place between January 9-13, 2006.

13.3" Widescreen iBook Rumored

Think Secret claims the Intel-based iBook due in January will be a 13.3", 1280x720 WXGA widescreen notebook to replace the current PowerPC based 14" model.

They also report that the 12" model will remain, but just for a few more months.

iPod Mini fan manages 8GB upgrade

Jason Parry details the project on his site and it seems pretty straight forward.

8GB iPod Mini Upgrade

Using a new Seagate Technology compact-flash type II+ hard drive called the CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive. ($200-$250)

CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive

Seagate Drive uses the same orientation and pin placement as the original Hitachi drive.

Also recommends replacing the battery at the same time. You can get a double-capacity battery from Sonnet Technology. ($29.95)

Double-capacity Sonnet iPod Battery

This was all done an a first generation iPod Mini, but the author seems to think it should also work on the second gen models.

Student Advisor ousted for encouraging students to use Macs

An article in the New Jersey Asbury Park Press, the Ocean County College board of trustees voted not to reappoint Karen L. Bosley as faculty adviser to the student newspaper (The Viking News), a post she has held for 35 years.

Asbury Park Press Article

While Bosley feels she the decision was made because of the newspaper's periodic criticism of college President Jon H. Larson and his administration's policies. She says the reason she was given for not being renewed was, "that the paper contains too many errors and that student staff, because they use Macintosh computers, are not being prepared for the real world."

Lots of new iTunes stuff

Google search now has music results based on band names, albums and songs that offer links direct to sources for making purchases, including Apple's iTunes, RealNetworks, eMusic and Amazon.com.

iTunes has added customer reviews and rating for podcasts. Also added top daily top podcast results by category.

PayPal offering free iTunes when purchasing iTunes Gift Certificate using your PayPal account.

10 free songs with the purchase of any $20 iTunes gift certificate and 25 free songs when purchasing a $50 iTunes gift certificate.

Purchases must be made using PayPal by December 31st, 2005 and free songs must be redeemed by May 31st, 2006.

Apple cancel iTunes ringtone project. According to the UK Register. The project was supposedly part of iLife '06 (expected MacWorld announcement?) and featured ability to remix ringtones before transfer to your phone.

Is HBO next for iTunes Video content?

They are already featured prominently for their podcast offerings

HBOs CEO Chris Albrecht expressed hopes for some sort of deal. ""I'm very excited by the video iPod. At some point, I think we would have some arrangement with them."

Lots of Feedback on removing Firewire 400

Play comment from Sergei on USB ports on camcorders

My DV camera does have USB, but for photo transfer. Some may do video, but I heard the quality may not be as good as Firewire. Can you get camera control via USB?

Play comment from Kevin

Many people pointed out that Firewire 800 is backward compatible, which I know.

The O'Grady article made it sound like Apple was only removing 400 from the lower end models (iMac, iBook, Mac Mini) and not replacing it with 800. After re-reading the article I guess it's possible Apple may add 800 to the low end models.

Follow up on insurance "riders:

Play comment from JK

Most insurance "riders" or additional coverage will only cover theft, damage, etc so you still want AppleCare.

The previous caller must have had a different product offered by her insurance company because she said hers would cover repairs.

The "original" Widget App

There is a new version of Yahoo! Widget Engine (Konfabulator) available.

widgets.yahoo.com

Talk about the "original" widget app, Konfabulator.

Advantages of trying Yahoo Widget Engine.

Cross-platform, always on desktop widgets.

MesaDynamics Amnesty Widget Browser

Amnesty Widget Browser

Allows Dashboard widgets to live out side Dashboard.

Method from MacOSXHints.com for moving widgets out of Dashboard

macosxhints.com - Dashboard Trick

Sharing Mac and PC files over a network.

Play question from Conrad

To share files with someone using a Windows computer, open System Preferences, click Sharing, and then select Windows Sharing. This will share your Public folder in your home folder. It will also show the address you will need to use to map the share in Windows. I know it works with Tiger and Windows XP.

Apple - File Sharing with Windows

Use your .Mac account. You can also use this to mount public iDisk shares.

Windows iDisk Utility

Foldershare. Syncs files/folders between systems. Recently purchased by Microsoft, but the have a Mac client. Free for now.

www.foldershare.com

Not network, but works for smaller files. Good old "sneaker" net with a USB thumb drive or external hard drive. Format it on the PC using FAT 32.

SharePoints to allow sharing of folders other than you Public folder

Hornware.com—SharePoints

Will new Macs feature "Intel Inside" branding?

An interesting article on BusinessWeek

Intel Inside Mac - businessweek.com

I really doubt Apple will share the branding spotlight. With Apple's design sense I really can't see an ugly Intel badge being slapped all over their clean sexy product.