Apple conducting audit of Chinese "iPod City"

Apple has started to investigate the Foxconn iPod factories where allegations of unfair treatment of the workers have been made

Apple will examine working and living conditions as well as interview workers and managers. They will also make sure wages and overtime procedures are being followed and that the factory is operating within Apples vendor code of conduct guidelines.

We have to recognize that different countries have much different standards of what a "good" wage is.

The report said $600 US a year, which is less than half a typical yearly salary in China.

IPhoto update adds new card templates

iPhoto 6.0.4 is out and adds new greeting card and postcard templates

Recommended that you backup iPhoto Library before upgrading

Rumors of Apple iTunes Movie deals abound

A lot of buzz again about a possible deal between Apple and the Movie studios to sell movies on iTunes

Apple seems to want to hold firm on a $9.99 selling price, but studios want variable ($9.99-$19.99). Movies on other services are up to $27.99 USD

I agree with Chistopher Breen at Playlist Magazine, what about quality and burn-ability?

Better device for watching video? New-iPod or Ultra-portable Mac?

50 Cent wants affordable Macs for inner-city residents

A small note at the end of a recent Forbes article says the rapper is in talks with Apple to produce a new line of affordable computers.

50 Cent is also working on a marketing deal with Apple to promote his 3rd album dune around Christmas

MacCast One Minute Tip #16 - Google Sketchup

Play MacCast One Minute Tip

Google Sketchup

One Minute Tip Podcast

www.oneminutetip.com

Warning about Monolingual on Intel Macs

Monolingual will remove PowerPC architecture by default

This will cause Rosetta not to work

Need to Archive and Install OS X again to fix it

More tips on restoring user accounts

You can do an Archive and Install

Your current OS X is copied and replaced along with the included apps (iTunes, utilities, etc)

Apps that install stuff into the system, printer software, Adobe apps, etc will also need to be re-installed

All other apps, user accounts, preferences are left in place

In Tiger, home folders can be simply copied back after a clean install

1) Copy the original home folder from a backup to the Users folder.

2) Now, from the Accounts preference set up a new user using the same short name from the home folder you just copied.

3) Mac OS 10.4 will re-permission that home folder to the user ID you just created

This tip only works in OS 10.4 Tiger

More ideas for keeping your Mac clean

Shari points out the Protection Pack from MareWare which sells for $19.95. Soft hand-rests with adhesive that won't leave residue and a keyboard cover.

Marware Laptop Protection Pack

Listener Kevin likes a product from Monster Cable called iClean. Does not leave residue.

Monster iClean

Apple may be secretly recalling discolored MacBooks

I have it from a reliable source that Apple has told Geniuses to "capture" discolored MacBook that come into the store.

I believe this means the will send it in for service, not sure if they will give you a replacement.

Not all models seems to have the issue as many that have been in Apple stores since the launch are not discolored.

What a "Green Roof" really is.

Several listeners pointed out that in Chicago (and I assume many other places) a "green" roof is a roof with grass, trees, plants, etc. Basically a roof top garden.

Green roofs not only look nice and are environmental, but can provide better cooling and insulation for the building

It would be cool if Apple recreated the Icon Garden which was removed from the Apple campus.

Keywords to determine which iPhotos are in which albums

A followup trick suggested by many listeners

1. to create a new keyword for each album:
choose Preferences --> keyword --> create a new keyword (click the + sign at the bottom)

2. to label all your photos in an album with that keyword:

a) select an album

b) Edit --> Select all (Command+A)

c) Photos-->Get Info (Command+I) --> keyword tab --> checkmark the keyword

3. In the Library choose View --> Keywords (Command+Shift+K)

Files won't stay put when dropped on second desktop

Play question from Scott

If you know the answer, please post to the followup area on the forum

forum.maccast.com

Speed up saving in GarageBand 3

Tom pointed out this tip and I thought the same thing when Adam Curry mentioned this "limitation" in GarageBand

GarageBand 3 added a feature to include an iLife preview of projects so you cold use them in other iLife apps. This causes a "mixdown" to occur on every save.

You can turn this feature off to speed things up

Open garageband -->Go to preferences --> Turn off iLife preview

Managing network connections and locations

Play question from Dave

How to manage locations

Go to System Preferences-->Network

Select the location you wish to manage from the Location drop down

From this menu you can also add new locations or edit existing ones (rename, delete, etc)

From the Show drop down you can

View the network status for all active connections

Configure each connection

Manage network port configurations for that location

Enable and disable ports for that location

Change port names

Change preferred connection order

Podcasting PowerPoint and Keynote Presentations

Listener Bob was looking for a way to do an enhanced podcast of a presentation

ProfCast podcast presentation software

www.profcast.com

Records live presentations, with audio playthrough (speakers)

Allows export to GarageBand (editing) and publish to iWeb, FTP or local folder.

Create an enhanced podcast

Creates the RSS file