Aperture 1.1 Update

Lower price ($299.00 USD, was $499.00 USD), Universal

Beatles may be planning to offer music downloads

Statements made during the Apple Corps vs Apple Computer case make some think the Beatles catalog may eventually be sold on iTunes

Neil Aspinall of Apple Corp said they were in the process of re-mastering the entire catalog and creating digital booklets for to offer downloads.

He does NOT specifically mention iTunes.

Buying iTunes while in flight?

Reports that Apple has talked with Aircraft in-flight entertainment (IFE) system providers about providing iTunes downloads on airplanes.

Create a version of the iTunes Music Store on board the plane

Customers could purchase, maybe even with frequent flyer miles, songs while in flight and transfer them directly to the iPod.

Needs a system to allow transfer back to iTunes and their computer.

True Video iPod missed the party

Think Secret is reporting that the wide-format touch-screen video iPod was supposed to be released for Apple's 30th birthday, but was "significantly" delayed due to problems with the display and touch-screen interface

There are also claims that Apple is having trouble making deals for content and that Apple wants a pay per download model while the studios want subscription.

Apple orders 13.3" LCDs

Apple has ordered 1.2 million LCDs from Asustek for use in its forthcoming Intel-based iBook

Rumors that the MacBook could be announced today along with Apples 2nd quarter financial report.

Would expect to ship in May or June

Steve Jobs declines to write Woz forward

According to the Seattle Times Woz told them that Steve Jobs agreed to write the forward to Woz's autobiography, but recently backed out after seeing some excerpts.

Woz didn't have a reason why Steve Jobs decline, but speculated he must not have liked something in the book with features, "stories about what really happened, how things were really done, key elements of it"

I have contacted Leo Laporte who knows Woz and I hope to get the real story straight from him.

Apple form letter not what 9-year old expected

As part of a school project nine year old Shea O'Gorman sent a letter to Steve Jobs

Story and Video

In it she made suggestions on how Apple could improve the iPod nano, which she owns.

She received a form letter response from Apple's senior counsel, Mark Aaker, saying Apple does not accept unsolicited ideas, and asking her not to send any more suggestions.

Aaker called her personally to apologize and also held a meeting to change the companies policies for responding to letters from children.

All this happened after the girl's family contacted the local news media.

Boot Camp stranding Mac owners in Windows

Reports of some people not being able to boot to the OS X partition after installing Boot Camp on their Intel Macs

Remember it is BETA software. Backup. Backup. Backup.

Triple Booting with Boot Camp

Because 3 OSs are better than two, OnMac.net figured out how to get your new dual-persona Mac to have an even bigger identity crisis. The procedure is on the site, but one trick is you don't partition with Boot Camp.

Triple Boot Mac

Using a method called "chain-loading" and using the lilo bootloader from the windows xp. They loaded Mac OS X, Windows XP and Gentoo Linux (any Linux/Unix should work).

Select Windows and the get another choice for Windows or Linux

Lucky Lucky Charms

General Mills is running a promotion and giving away a free iTunes song in specially marked boxes of cereal.

Including Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Cookie Crisp and Cinnamon Toast Crunch

1 in 10 boxes will get 5 bonus songs.

Burst.com files lawsuit against Apple

In a response filed by Apple to have their patent claims invalidated, Burst.com has filed a countersuit.

Burst says Apple violated it's patents which cover "the delivery of music or video over the Internet 'faster than real-time.'" Burst holds patents that cover sending an hour-long video across a network in a few minutes.

In looking at the filings it seems like most of them were dealing with VCR and tape technology. This also seems like a very broad extension of the original intent of the patents.

In March Microsoft settled a similar Burst.com lawsuit by paying $60 million for a non-exclusive license to Burst’s patents.

Leopard will make an appearance at WWDC

Apple has updated it's web site for the World Wide Developer conference and confirms they will debut Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) there.

Apple WWDC 2006

It also sounds like attendees will be leaving with a developer preview copy of the new OS

New firmware update for Intel Macs

Version 1.0.1 of the Firmware for the Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro

Updated computers would now run "on localized systems that use languages that read right to left.

My initial impressions of the Intel Mac Mini and Boot Camp

The Boot Camp install was a piece of cake.

Most annoying part was how long it too to install XP.

Over 30 security patches to install, plus anti-virus and anti-spyware

The drivers are great, even remapping the Apple key to be the Windows key.

Apple Universal Access, VoiceOver and GarageBand

Play comments from Chris

Apple has made a start with a pretty full featured screen reader, but has a way to go.

Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP come with a very limited built-in screen reader called Narrator.

Several apps missing VoiceOver support. Garageband, iTunes, etc.

That annoying blinking question mark at start up

Victor was seeing the folder with the blinking question mark on startup and it was really slowing his boot times and was wondering why.

This is a case of OS X not being able to locate your OS X system software and is usually easy to correct

Go to System Preferences --> Startup disk and select your OS X system

Make sure the mouse button is not accidentally being pushed down at startup. This actually a good way to eject a CD at boot-up

If the above does not work it may be more serious

Make sure you have a good backup

Boot from OS X CD/DVD and run Disk Utility and repair disk and permissions

Try to select your Mac OS X startup disk using either Startup Manager (option key at startup) or the X key.

Startup Manager is on any later models: iBook, Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics), Power Mac G4 Cube, PowerBook (FireWire), and iMac (Slot Loading).

Reset the PRAM.

If none of this works you may have a failing hard drive, check with tools like Drive 10, TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior

If you verify the disk is OK or you repair the disk and still have issue reinstall OS X

Update on GarageBand 3 for the MacCast

Play question from Wyane

Multiple Applications Folders

Play question from Gavin

While you can have multiple Application folders, it is best to only have one at the Root

Applications folder in your Home folder will only be accessible to you.

Sometimes these extra Applications folders are accidentally created when you do an upgrade or migration

Review: iSlicker

Review of the iSlicker

www.islicker.com

MacCast 25% off coupon code: enter 'maccast' at checkout.