New MacBook Pros

Apple released the Intel Core 2 Duo versions of the Mac Book Pros on Tuesday

Apple claims the new systems are up to 39% faster then prior models. Feature double the RAM and storage.

choice of either 2.16GHz or 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor

2.16 15" 1GB RAM, 2.33 15" and 17" 2GB of RAM

FIrewire 800 port on all models

Dual Layer DVD burners (DVD+R)

120GB and 160GB 5400RPM drives with 1GB of RAM standard. Up to 200GB (4200 RPM) of storage and 3GB of memory. Is a 7200 RPM 100GB drive option available.

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Pro models are priced at USD$1,999.00 and USD$2,499.00 and should be shipping this week, with the 17-inch model priced at USD$2,799.00 shipping next week.

Listener Alex discovered that there are new HD BTO options for 24" iMacs and Mac Pros. 750GB drives priced at $399 for the upgrade and $599.00 for each additional drive.

A post on MacRumors claims the wireless card in the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is identified as a D-Link RangeBooster N 650 which is another "draft 802.11n" card

Also Apple added a MagSafe Airplane power adapter USD$59.00. May have missed it before.

Only provides power, no charging

Connects to in-seat EmPower and 20mm power ports. Does not support auto adapters.

"DVD Jon"'s new venture. Selling iTunes DRM

This is an old story, but has cropped up again for some reason.

Jon Johansen has cracked Apple’s FairPlay digital music copy-protection technology and plans to license the code to other companies.

He started a company called DoubleTwist Ventures in REdwood City, CA and they claim to have one client who will begin selling DRM'd music compatible with the iPod.

This will be great until Apple updates the firmware on your iPod. The music tracks can be changed so they will need a way to distinguish the DVD Jon Fairplay from the Apple Fairplay files?

Intel Xserve ship date slips to November

The systems were announced in August and Apple is taking pre-orders but units are expected to ship in mid-November and not in October as originally announced.

Bluetooth proof-of-concept exploit released.

A security memo from security firm Intego

Inqtana.d Bluetooth, which provides attackers with a root account on affected Macs.

Installed on a Mac OS X system via Bluetooth from a computer or PDA running Linux by exploiting a rfcomm security hole in Bluetooth.

Installs a user account named bluetooth with root access that can be connected to via Ethernet or Airport.

Proof of concept (not in wild) and only exploits 10.3 systems without the Security Update 2006-005 or 10.4 systems not updated to 10.4.7

Apple releases preliminary 4th Quarter Financial Results

Of course these are subject to change

$4.84 billion in revenue with a net quarterly profit of $546 million.

Gross margin was 29.2 percent, up from 28.1 percent in the same quarter last year.

International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Other highlights

1,610,000 Macs shipped (30 percent increase over same quarter last year)

8,729,000 iPods were shipped (35 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter)

58% of company revenue from Macs. 61% of Macs sold were laptops.

Mac Pro sales slow due to lack of Universal Adobe Creative Suite

Earnings from previous years will likely need to be restated on account of the 15 instances of backdated options the company discovered.

Apple store iPod thefts on the rise.

The Apple campus store has had 3 thefts in the last couple weeks

Monday two iPods and 10 software packages

Nine black 80 gigabyte iPods -- about $3,141 worth, were reported stolen from the Apple employee store over the weekend.

Two iPod nanos were reported missing in a shipment from Elk Grove that arrived at the company's headquarters on Oct. 17.

Apple releases iPod Shuffle fix

iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0 for Mac and Windows on Apple's download site

Apple Software Downloads

The update will completely erase all music and data and reinstalls software version 1.1.4

Use the iPod shuffle Reset Utility to fix the following issues:

With the iPod shuffle switched on, pressing the Play button will cause amber and green LEDs to flash for a few seconds, and the unit will not play any music, nor can you sync music to it from iTunes.

On a Windows PC, iPod shuffle will appear in My Computer as a “Removable Disk,” however the iPod shuffle volume will not mount correctly. The unit is listed in Device Manager under “Disk Drives” as “Apple iPod USB Device.”

On a Mac, the unit will only be recognized in Apple System Profiler under Hardware -> USB and will not appear or mount in the Finder.

When attempting to restore, the unit may not be recognized at all. However, if it is recognized, the restore may fail with an error dialog “Firmware update failure. Disk write error” or another error. It may take 3 restore attempts before the error appears. Note: iPod shuffle may take several minutes to be recognized.

Apple also release FinalCut Express HD update

Which "addresses compatibility on specific hardware." Ooooh.

Apple Software Downloads

New Apple patent filing shows iPod with touch sensitive bezel

An Apple patent application was published on October 26, 2006 and describes a full screen iPod with a touch sensitive bezel.

Touch Bezel iPod Patent

Controls can adapt to the screen contents to provide an input method for the user.

One example shows playback controls on the display across the top. a scrollbar on the left side (slide finger). select songs and menus on the right side and volume controls along the bottom.

This is genius and makes much more sense.

MacBooks showing early signs of wear?

O'Gradys PowerPage has reports of some MacBook owners claiming their MacBook cases are developing cracks and distorting under normal usage.

CrackBooks?

The image on the site shows 2 images of a tiny crack on the edge of the case just below the left handrest.

Correction on fixing iPod restart issue

Turn of EQ on the iPod, not in the iTunes files.

MacBook RSS fix is now working

I had another source tell me that for them replacing the heatsink only was working in 100% of the cases.

I confirmed with my original source who said they were getting refurbished heatsinks at first which may have accounted for his initial results

A big part of this issue may have been the wire that connect the heatsink sensor to the motherboard.

Repair can be done in-store now on a faster turnaround.

iPod virus follow-up

Classic he said she said with Apple pointing fingers at Microsofts flaws and Microsoft saying Apple should have better control over it's production of iPods.

Apple said the virus was introduced by a Windows system used to test compatibility at the factory.

The infection was only from the one system and not on the network so cases should be isolated. The virus seems to have been from a peripheral device attached to the computer.

Software recommendations for managing serial numbers

Many people recommended "Wallet" from Waterfall Software

Wallet

Works for serial number, passwords, credit cards and you can add your own groups, fields, etc.

Simple clean interface.

Wallet uses Blowfish encryption

.Mac and iPod Sync

Browser integration. Click to send login info to your browser.

Many others recommended Yojimbo from BareBones

Yojimbo

It is an information organizer.

Store almost anything in Yojimbo—text, rich text, images, PDFs, even serial numbers and passwords.

Review on MacCast.com

Can use Apple Keychain Access and secure notes

Organize the registration emails in your favorite Mail app. I use labels in GMail and folders in Yahoo! and Apple Mail. Search to find the keys.

Migrating Outlook contact to Address Book

Listener David has this great trick

MS Outlook doesn't have a way to export ALL contacts to a .vcf file. Only one at a time.

All iPod contacts are stored in a single file in the "Contacts" folder called iSync.vcf.

iTunes for Windows allows you to sync your Outlook contacts

1) Use the "Update Outlook Contacts" feature in iTunes, and let it sync all of your Outlook contacts to your iPod.

2) Connect your iPod to the Mac, open the "Contacts" folder and double click the iSync.vcf file to import the contacts into Address Book.

If you have the latest iPod and iTunes updates, it will even transfer your contact photos, if you've set them in Outlook.

Managing iPod playback order

Play comment from Dickie

I believe the order in iTunes is synced to the iPod.

Getting around the iTunes tax

Listener Jim confirmed this for me.

Buy an iTunes gift card and then use that to make your iTunes purchases.

Speeding up the Dashboard

Over time the "startup delay" for the Dashboard can slow to a crawl.

Vincent pointed out this great tip from Rob Griffiths over at MacWorld

Speed up Dashboard

Here is a tip that can speed up the launch time of the Dashboard

1) Drag all the cache files in the DashboardClient folder, found in your ~/Library/Caches folder, to the trash and empty the trash.

2) Restart the Dock. In Terminal issue the kill command (type killall Dock). Using the Activity Monitor (in Applications -> Utilities) type 'dock' into the search box, click once on the Dock process, then click the Quit Process button, then the Quit button in the resulting dialog.

3) The Dock will restart automatically; after it does, try loading Dashboard and see if it is faster.

To permanently prevent the Dashboard from caching

1) Navigate to the DashboardClient folder, select it, then open the Get Info window (Command-I).

2) In the General section of the Info window, click the Locked checkbox. Now the Dock will not be able to write the cache files. Remove the lock to re-enable caching.

iTunes 7 missing podcast bug

Play comment from Simon Toon

Converted podcast files do seem to "disappear"

Can delete them from a smart-playlist by holding down the option key when you delete the podcast from the playlist.

More tips on deleting Mac Apps

Listener Andreas uses Spotlight to help find files

1. Go to the PROGRAM folder an copy (Apple + C) the name of the program you want to delete.

2. Right away delete the program

3. Open Spotlight and paste the name of the App (Apple + V) and search the computer so that Spotlight will find all related files for you.

4. Select the files you want to remove and delete (Apple+Delete) them.

But watch out within the Spotlight search results the files are still shown until you empty your trash. That could be confusing at the beginning.

Software to better manage and use iPhoto keywords

Play tip from Tomasz

Weekly Photo Tip

Keyword Assistant

Locating large files in OS X

Play question from Danny

I use Spotlight

1) In the Finder press Command(Apple)+F to bring up Spotlight

2) When the search window appears make sure the search is set to "Computer" (or the desired location). The default the "Kind-->Any" and "Last Opened-->Any Date" are set. Change the "Last Opened" option to "Size-->Greater Than--> XXX MB'

3) The search will return any files on your system over the given size.

Fix for the iCal Alarm issue

Listener Kevin sent in this fix.

Warning, it is a bit extreme and could cause other issues. Have a backup and know what you are doing.

1. Back up iCal database. In iCal choose File-->Backup Database...

2. Delete iCal (using AppZapper)

3. Use "Spotlight" and find and uninstall the following:

alarmsCache.plist

com.apple.iCal.helper.plist

com.apple.iCal.AlarmScheduler.plist

4. Restart

5. Use Pacifist to reinstall iCal from your OS X CD

Pacifist

6. Restore the backed up database...

Backups and drive formats

Play comment from Peter

The recommendation for Mac backups is that you make them to HFS+ formatted volumes. Can partition drives if you need Mac and PC support. I just use 2 drives. One for PC support and transfers and a different one for Mac Backups

OS X can read NTFS, but not write to it. OS X can read and write FAT32.

SubRosaSoft CopyCat X supports Windows, Tivo and Linux drive cloning

CopyCatX

MacDrive from Media 4 to read/write HFS volumes on a PC

MacDrive 6

Toggling info in the iPod graph in iTunes 7

Listener Jon discovered this one

In iTunes 7 if you select your iPod in the devices list you get a summary view with a colored bar graph that shows how music / videos / photos / and other on your iPod. Clicking that bar graph will toggle the display between showing the size, length, and how many items in each category.

iLike not the first iTunes music social network service

Several people wrote me to say they have been using Last.fm for a while now.

www.last.fm

iLike is now in public BETA

www.ilike.com

Fixing battery, power and fan issues on your Macs

Play comment from Bryan

Apple support

Apple Support

ScreenCasts Online Enhanced Podcast Tutorial and Offer

Don McAllister does the great ScreenCasts Online podcast and let me know that episode SCO0042 is all about GarageBand 3 and doing an enhanced podcast. It is available for free download in the archive section of the ScreenCasts Online web site.

ScreenCasts Online Archive

That is great, but Don has done something special for me and you

MacCast listeners can get a 6 month Premium Extra! membership to ScreenCasts Online for 20% off the regular price making it just USD$28.00.

Get access to the next 26 weekly video tutorials in High Definition (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop (960x540) or iPod (640x480) versions (or all three!).

6 Extra! Members Only shows, one each month

Access to all available resolutions of the 70+ episodes in the archive covering topics like iMove HD, Keynote 3, iDVD, Flickr, etc.

Optional free DVD of all the ScreenCastsOnline shows since January 2006.

Special offers and great savings on Mac software, products and services. Some savings, like 40% off OmniOutliner Pro, could cover the $28 cost of your subscriptions

Plus if you sign up using the MacCast code (17A77) a portion of your membership goes to support the MacCast.

Go to ScreenCastsOnline/MacCast for details, the coupon code and to sign-up now.

ScreenCasts/MacCast Offer