Apple Update the U2 iPod

30GB Black iPod Video with the red click wheel

New Apple U2 iPod

Black stainless steel back with the bands signatures engraved on it

Exclusive iTunes Music Store coupon you can redeem for a 30-minute video of music videos and band interviews.

$329.00 USD

Apple Creative battle round 2

Apple files a second lawsuit against Creative

Apple claims Creative is infringing three patents relating to using icons, and displaying and editing data.

Apple is taking a play from Creative book and asking that the International Trade Commission block imports of Creative players. They also are seeking cash for damages and a court order blocking CReative from further infringement.

Apple stockpiling Flash memory... new Nanos?

According to industry insiders Apple is placing orders for significant quantities of NAND Flash memory from a number of suppliers including Samsung and Hynix.

It has been rumored for a while that Apple would announce new Nanos with up to 8GB of storage. Maybe that day will soon come.

In other iPod news an analyst thinks Apple and BlackBerry may be on the verge of a partnership. They would produce an "AppleBerry" (lets work on the name guys) combining iPod features with the RIM wireless technology.

The same analyst predicted an Intel blackBerry partnership and say Intel recommended to Apple that they work with RIM

Apple drop plans for India support center

The Times of India is reporting that Apple laid off the 30 employees it had hired so far for a new tech support center in Bangalore, India.

In the report they state that Apple told the employees that, "the company is reevaluating its operations and has thought of pulling back its Indian operations,"

Apple is giving the employees two months salary as severance.

The report also states that Apple has said it will continue planned support center growth just in other countries.

New Apple Retail Store in Minnesota

Apple will open it's 4th retail store in Minnesota this weekend

The Apple Retail Store at Ridgedale Center opens at 10:00 AM on Saturday, June 10 in Minnetonka, Minn.

Apple Retail Stores

Internationally there are rumors Apple may be planning to open a large retail store east of Roma in Italy this fall.

Apple adds new @Work section to US site

Features links to stories and content of interest to science, small business, education and creative professionals.

Apple @Work

The site also has info about seminars, training and events.

Apple Back to School promo offers free iPod Nano

Students who purchase a new Mac and an iPod between June 5, 2006 and September 16, 2006 can get a $179.00 back from Apple in a mail-in rebate.

Click the link on MacCast.com and support the show.

www.maccast.com

New sexy Apple Intel Print ads featuring Gisele

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen was reportedly in Manhattan last week doing a photo shoot contracted by Apple

The shoot was mentioned in a post on her official web site, but then quickly removed.

Gisele Website (Brazillian)

The reports state that the ads will be for the new Intel macs, but don't say when or where they will run.

Gisele was reported paid more than one million dollars for the shoot.

Even More Airline power discussion

Who knew this was such a big topic for Mac geeks

Play comment about Seat Guru

www.seatguru.com

MacBook Pros may draw too much power. 85 Watts.

The first Kensington 33060 adapter mentioned only provides 75 Watts

Make sure you get the Watts your Mac needs.

Also in most cases the planes max power output is 75 watts so you will not be able to charge more power hungry laptops and they will actually trip the seat power outlet.

It is also recommended that you take the battery out of your laptop, so the unit gets power and does not try to charge the battery at the same time.

What is the best Mac Browser?

Listener Nathan who is a recent switcher called in to ask

Tons of Mac Browsers

Safari, Cocoa and default included with OS X so most use

Firefox, fast, cross platform and extensions, most standards compatible

www.mozilla.com

Camino, Same Mozilla render engine as Firefox but with a native Cocoa interface.

www.caminobrowser.org

Opera

www.opera.com

OmniWeb, costs $29.95 USD

www.omniweb.com

Shiira, Based on Web Kit like Safari and written in Cocoa. designed to be better and more useful than Safari.

Shiira Browser

Tons more, see the Darrel Knutson, list for Mac browsers past and present, over 100.

Mac Web Browsers Past and Present

A fix for iPod photo sync errors

Listener Aaron was having trouble and tried the 5 Rs along with rebuilding the iPhoto Library (hold command+option when launching iPhoto) with other tips and nothing worked.

Deleting the iPod photo cache folder worked for him. (Pictures-->iPod Library-->iPod Photo Cache).

I would backup iPhoto completely before rebuilding the Library or deleting the photo cache.

Good place for iPod Repair

Play question and answer

iPodResQ. For $29.00 USD you get to and from overnight shipping to get a repair estimate.

www.ipodresq.com

iPodMods

www.ipodmods.com

TechRestore

www.techrestore.com

Using you iPod for recording

Listener Matt was looking for a solution for on the road recording using his 5th gen iPod

Older iPods were deliberately cripples and only allowed recording at 8KHz

The workaround was to install and use iPod Linux (3rd and 4th gen)

ipodlinux.org

5th Gen iPods allow recording at two levels, Low (22.05 KHz, mono) and High (44.1 KHz, stereo)

Until recently no mics available. Two due out this summer.

XteremeMac MicroMemo ($59.95 USD)

www.xtrememac.com

Belkin TuneTalk ($69.99 USD)

www.belkin.com

Both have built in Mics and Speakers and offer the ability to attach your own mic.

Scheduling events using iCal

Listener Max has a school web-page that has assignments added each week and was looking for a way to have that automatically open each week for him to review

Was thinking of using CRON.

Cronnix to make scheduling easier. Still need a script (shell, perl, applescript, etc)

Cronnix

Use iCal

1) Open Safari and browse to the page you want to have scheduled to open.

2) Click on the icon to the left of the URL in the location bar and drag it to your desktop. This will create a file that is a link to the page.

3) Open iCal

4) Add an event at the time and day you want the page to open. Set it to repeat each week.

5) Now in the alarm for the event choose 'Open file' and select the URL file you created in step 2 and set the alarm to happen '0' minutes before the event.

This trick can also launch AppleScripts or Automator tasks.

There of course are many other ways to automate stuff but many don't know about this feature in iCal.