Disney claims success with iTunes. Where are the others?

Disney CEO Bob Iger said they have sold nearly 500,000 movies through the iTunes Store since mid-September 2006.

12 Million ABC TV Shows since October 2005

To put this in perspective Disney reports they sold 5 million copies of the "Cars" DVD since it's release on Tuesday.

FOX movies coming to iTunes?

Peter Chernin, President and COO of FOX revealed in his fiscal 1st quarter results call that Apple and FOX are in talks to sell movies on iTunes and that things are going well.

X-Men and Star Wars on iTunes, count me in!

Apple delays 17" Core 2 Duo Macbook shipments

Units were supposed to ship this week, but listeners report getting emails stating the units will ship next week

No reason was given for the delay.

Rosetta performance increases under 10.4.8

MacWorld reports that Rosetta under 10.4.8 shows increase in Word and Photoshop performance of between 3 and 36 percent

The best performance increase was in the Mac Pro/Quad 2.66GHz Xeon.

The release notes for 10.4.8 say the update "improves the accuracy of Rosetta numerics and addresses Altivec translation issues on Intel-based Macs," which may account for the performance increase.

Buy the album after a track, Apple may want to give you credit

You buy a single track for $0.99 and now you want the whole album. The album has 13 tracks and sells for $9.99, but you already have one track. Buying the other tracks will cost you $11.88. So do you pay more or buy the same track twice?

Cnet is reporting a rumor that Apple and the record labels understand the single track vs. album penalty and deciding to help.

They will give you credit for the single tracks you already purchased if you decide later you want the album.

The report also indicates that Apple may be becoming a more savvy music seller noting that they have started selling some classic rock albums for $7.99 with some other titles as low as $5.99.

Apple appoints new legal leader

Donald J. Rosenberg, formerly with IBM, has joined the company as senior vice president and general counsel.

This fills a position left vacant in May when Donald's predecessor Nancy Heinen, abruptly resigned.

There are reports that Heinen has hired her own counsel in connection with Apple's stock option scandal. It has not been stated publicly, but she resigned one month before Apple disclosed the irregularities and the recent investigation concluded there were, "serious concerns regarding the actions of two former officers." Ooops!

IPod integrated in-flight entertainment coming

Apple has partnered with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to integrate iPods and in-flight entertainment systems.

The systems will offer an in-seat iPod connector to allow charging of iPods and video playback on the in-seat displays.

The systems should be available on flights from those airlines in mid-2007

Apple is also working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to expand the in-flight iPod integration in the future.

Apple release EFI Firmware updates for Intel Macs

For all Intel Macs.

Fixes several Boot Camp, start up, and wake-from-sleep issues.

May not be needed for the INtel Core 2 Duo MacBooks or MacBook Pros.

X11 Update - Also another update to X11 fixing some font issues with the last update and enabling better support of GLX stereo visuals.

Digital RAW Camera Update 1.0.1 (PPC and Intel) - improves RAW file format compatibility for some digital SLR cameras.

Suggestions for the new "Mac" in the Apple ads

Justin Long actually came out on his own blog and denied the claims

Justin Long Blog

He is shooting some holiday versions of the ads now.

Surprised Apple hasn't stopped doing them.

Thanks to some people for suggesting me, I'm flattered.

Other suggestions from the thread include... Matthew Gray Gubler (CBS Criminal Minds), Zach Braff (NBC Scrubs), Veronica Belmont (cNet)

The next "Mac"' guy

The best idea that I have heard from many people is that Apple has the PC become a "switcher".

Issues with "fsck" and full hash tables

Play question from Chris

My research show that this may happen when the disk gets extremely full or is severely de-fragmented. Free space or use a tool like iDefrag or Drive Genius to defrag the disk.

iDefrag
Drive Genius

System utility fsck (for "file system check" or "file system consistency check") is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in the Unix system. Pronunciation is debated, I like F-S-check.

Silencing your Mac at startup

Can mute the Mac before shutting down. Plug-in a set of headphones before booting up.

Startup Sound Video

Sleep the computer rather than shutting it down.

On Intel Macs the headphones are seen as a distinct output source and preferences are maintained separate from the internal speaker. On PowerPC Macs it is still seen as a different output in the sound control panel, but volume changes are mirrored to the internal speaker.

On Intel Macs that means you can set the internal speaker to mute and have headphones or external speakers at a different level.

Software solution, StartupSound Preference Pane. Version 1.1 BETA adds Intel Mac support (other versions are PPC only). The site notes that it can cause issues with some Macs starting up, so be aware.

Startup Sound Prefs

Move the "full screen" movie controller

Rick points out a recent tip on MacOSXHints

www.macosxhints.com

In the full screen viewing mode for Quicktime 7 or iTunes 7 when you move the mouse you see the overlaid video controller.

Grab any edge or part that is not "active" and you can move the controller around the screen

Unfortunately it doesn't remember the position.

Quality Issues with MacBook Pro and Powerbook G4 LCDs?

Listener Jason points out this thread on Apple's Discussion Boards

Bad MacBook Pro LCDs

In the thread there seems to be lots of debate and different issues. Some say bright bottom, darker on the sides, darker in the corner, etc. Possibly uneven backlighting, other think issues with viewing angles on new displays.

Another thread has a theory that the entire batch of LCD panels made by Samsung (model 00009C57 and after) are affected and claims a very early batch of LCD panel (model 00009C56) look better.

I personally did notice some images from posted pictures looked uneven, but wonder if that is just angles and the nature of LCDs. My iBook changes dramatically as I change the angle.

I will need to check the new MacBook next time I am in a store.

Listener Elizabeth tells me about a problem surfacing with 17" Powerbook G4 LCDs

Powerbook G4 LCD Issue

Lines of dead pixels surfacing on displays

Mostly 17" 1.67Ghz models purchased between March and April 2005

The Apple store in TX told Elizabeth it was a cosmetic issue, Hardly.

I am assuming most of the people who on on the discussion thread did not purchase Applecare. Will take longer to get resolved as Apple will eventually need to make a REP for the issue. Call Apple and get it reported even if you don't have Applecare.

Thoughts on refurbished vs. new Macs

Listener Steve was wondering about my thoughts on Apple Certified Refurbished products

You can get a great deal, they are reconditioned by Apple, they carry the same warranty and you can add Apple Care.

Check them out on Apple's site

Apple Certified Refurbished

Secure empty trash

Play comment from Henry

When you use secure empty trash the data gets overwritten with junk data. A normal empty trash just tells the system those areas are available for use, the files are still there.

Uses the UNIX command 'srm' (secure remove). srm can do a 1, 7 or 35 times overwrite. I believe the command from Finder-->Secure empty trash does a 7 x overwrite.

Recovery of files not securely emptied is possible and depends a lot on what you have done since deleting the files. You have better luck if the area on the drive where the files were has not been overwritten.

File recovery apps

Data Rescue II

File Salvage

My thoughts on the Zune

People have asked.

Zune Website

Does not seem like an "iPod" killer. I have not seen one but am hearing it is larger, heavier and has lower battery life (despite what MS marketing says).

Has a cool rubberized texture and feel, larger screen, but same resolution as the iPod. Built-in FM tuner. (with Podcasts who wants (needs) FM? Wouldn't Satellite be better?

It is getting a lot of bad press.

Doesn't work with Windows Media player or Plays for Sure.

New Zune Marketplace.

Operates on points?! 79 points per song USD$0.99. ($5 = 400 points ) Subscriptions may be a better model, at least until they dump Marketplace like they did MSN Music.

Can re-download purchased music up to 5 times. Hello, Apple?

Microsoft and Universal deal? Universal gets a cut of each Zune sold ($1).

Wi-fi sharing?

3 days or 3 plays

All music falls under the 3 and 3 rule even stuff you rip yourself.

Can only transfer a song once to each person

Can't sync or buy music via wi-fi.

Biggest glaring hole, NO PODCASTS

Scary iSight Trick

This site has a little "hack" that will activate your iSight camera and display the image back to you embedded on the web page.

Scary iSight Trick

This only allows a locally-attached iSight to be viewed locally

Works if you have Tiger and an iSight or other web-cam. Uses Quartz Composer's video input object and attaches it to a Billboard