Disney purchases Pixar

Disney purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock

Puts Steve on the Disney Board of Directors

Will this mean more Disney content on iTunes? Is there a conflict of interest?

Apple did add more Disney content to iTunes on Wednesday. Several short films from the 30s and early 40s.

Intel announces 45nm chip success

Intel announced that they have successfully created a chip using 45nm technology

The current Core Duo chips use a 65nm technology. Smaller processes tend to increase speed and lower power consumption

Intel and IBM both have said they plan to sell chip based on 45nm processes around mid-2007

Early Intel release slowing PowerMac sales

Everyone thought the Osbourne effect would slow pre-holiday Mac sales, but it turns out the Intel release may be.

No one wants the G5 and G4 PowerPC models because of Apples 2 and 4x faster marketing claims for new Mactels.

Retailers are also not offering discounts on obsolete models.

Apple will most likely quickly release more new Intel models to avoid slowing sales.

ThinkSecret had eluded that Intel macs sales were slow too. They said because consumers are waiting to buy Intel Macs until the Universal software is there, especially on the power app end.

ThinkSecret was wrong. According to American Technology Research sales for both the Intel Mac models, the iMacs and MacBooks, are strong.

I personally think there will be more

Old holes may make OS X vulnerable to hackers

Neil Archibald, senior security researcher at software security specialists Suresec says they did an audit of OS X and found several old unpatched security flaws.

www.suresec.org

These flaws have been patched in other alternative OSs

Archibald claims if Apple used software auditing tools more regularly they would be much more secure.

Apple to open second London retail store

Grand opening of its Apple Store, Brent Cross on Saturday, January 28th at 9.00 am. Located at the Brent Cross Shopping Centre,.

Worldwide Apple plans to open 40 retail stores this year.

No "crossgrade" charge for Aperture

Apples Aperture site has this statement:

www.apple.com—aperture

A Universal version of Aperture, which will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers, will be available before the end of March 2006. New and existing owners of Aperture will be able to crossgrade to the Universal version at no additional charge via Software Update.

MacSpeedZone questions MacWorlds Core Duo Mac Speed tests

MacSpeed Zone claims their results show then new Intel Core Duo iMac is almost as fast as the Quad Core Power Mac.

Mac Speed Zone Intel iMac Tests

New systems don't seem to be taking full advantage of the multi-core processors. It is unclear if the bottleneck in the software is at the application, or OS level.

If you look at their comparisons in many tests the Intel Mac does not seem to be maxing out the processor. For example on an iMovie import the Intel Mac is only 67% faster than the iMac G5 1.8Hz, but the iMac uses 45% of the processor for the task and the Duo iMac only uses 7%.

Next Mac OS X Update in the works

A new build of OS X (10.4.5) for PowerPC Macs Mac OS X 10.4.5 is available to developers as a combo update.

No Intel version available.

The update includes improvements to the Crash Reporter and XInstall Framework, and fixes for issues with CoreGraphics and Widgets, RSS Visualizer and background columns, WebCore, Quartz composer, and FileSync and PHD. The update also improved iDisk synchronization and corrects a problem where Mac OS X would fail to connect to a Cisco server if NAT was not used.

A recent job posting also shows that Apple is looking for a Finder Software Engineer. The speculation is Apple planning the "next generation Finder" with improved performance and more enhanced Spotlight features and integration for and upcoming version of OS X.

You're not paranoid, your Mac is watching you

Apple has filed a patent for an "Integrated Sensing Display."

Apple Patent - Integrated Sensing Display

"An integrated sensing display is disclosed. The sensing display includes display elements integrated with image sensing elements. As a result, the integrated sensing device can not only output images (e.g., as a display) but also input images (e.g., as a camera)."

An integrated iSight is more obvious, you know it's there and you can cover it up.

Of course you can always put a cover over your display or close the laptop lid.

Is .Mac Homepage going extinct?

Listener Lee pointed out that iPhoto will only publish via iWeb now.

There are many more design and style options available on Homepage

Is Homepage being replaced? iWeb even has it's own domain and space in iDisk

Homepage is in Sites directory (homepage.mac.com)

iWeb is in the Web directory (web.mac.com)

More details on MacBook battery life

Play comment from Matt

Jobs on MacBook Battery

iWork and Microsoft Word compatibility

Listener Alex says he uses the conversion features in Pages every day to convert file to a Word format for school

File-->Export-->Choose Word format

Pages of course will also open .doc files

Alejandro points out that Text edit can also import and export Word .doc files

Accessing the AIFF file in a Gragband 3 Podcast project

Play tip from Ben

Craig Patchett point out if you simply delete the "Podcast" track and then export to iTunes you get the file in the AAC format.

www.btscast.com

Make a duplicate of the project first or don't save the file so you don't lose your enhanced stuff.

More PowerBook Issues

Many are reporting a strange audio issue with 15" and 17" Powerbooks (some 12" ones too).

powerbookdefect.info

The audio will loop or "echo" and amplify for about 4-5 seconds and then return to normal.

Appears to happen under heavy audio and video load.

Apple seems to be aware of the issue and recommends only running one audio application at a time as a solution (workaround)

Apple on Powerbook audio issue

CPU Errata is common

Listeners confirm that it is common for all processors to have errata

AMD Athlon 64 has 123, The G5 PowerPC has 23

The issues well documented and published are worked around in software. Important, say if you are making a driver.

New .Mac feature, access iDisk from your browser

Go to www.mac.com and log in.

Scroll down on the left side and you will see the iDisk (globe icon). Click.

New window will open and you can access and use your iDisk from any browser (Mac or PC). Upload, create new folders, etc.

Lots of feedback on Lightroom

The Lightroom vs. Aperture debate is great

Many people wrote in support of Lightroom, noting that even in BETA it is fast and seems to perform better than Aperture, especially on less harware. One listener reports acceptable performance on his MacMini