An iPhone, but not from Apple?

As Gizmodo's Brian Lam promised it came out Monday, but from Linksys. See post on MacCast.com

The Linksys site claims they and parent Cisco have a trademark on iPhone which the do, but a Mac NN article points out the so do 3 other companies. 2 were refused, but on is issued to Ocean Telecom and this actually refers to "MP3 and other digital format audio players."

The existence of multiple iPhone trademarks may mean there is no one dominant claim and so it may make it open for Apple to try and use too.

Is Apple developing OS X Mobile?

ThinkSecret is reporting that Apple is developing a slimed down version of OS X for embedded devices

The report says the company has plans to use the new OS in a "couple" of devices next year with the new iPhone being the first.

Apple addresses Quicktime flaw with security update

Apple released Security Update 2006-008.

Security Update 2006-008

This fixes the issue in QuickTime for Java and Quartz Composer.

According to Apple, "Java applets may use QuickTime for Java to obtain the images rendered on screen by embedded QuickTime objects and upload them to the originating web site. When this facility is used in conjunction with Quartz Composer, it becomes possible to capture images that may contain local information,"

Some Apple, iTunes Store and Apple Store Updates

Apple added Soduku and Royal Solitaire to it's iPod Game offerings

Apple has removed the iSight from sale on the online store.

Other Firewire Web Cams?

Fire-i from Unibrain, out of stock. New model in January

Fire-i

Used? iBot from Orange Micro and Pyro 1394 from ADS Tech

USB Drivers,

iChat USB Cam from eCamm or their iMage USB Camera (no drivers). Also make iGlasses and Call Recorder.

eCamm Network

maccam, open source USB drivers

maccam

IOXperts, Firewire and USB WebCam drivers

www.ioxperts.com

Apple has posted a Holiday "Get a Mac" ad, "Goodwill"

"Goodwill" Holiday Ad

Intel to launch another Quad core chip in January

Intel will show off it's new Intel Core 2 Quad chip at the CES Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January.

This is the 3rd chip in Intel's quad Core line up. They already have the quad-core Xeon 5300 for servers and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for gamers.

Most people. myself included, already felt we would see an "Octo" Mac Pro (8 core) announced at MacWorld. My assumption would be that Apple would use the quad Xeon since the dual core version currently power the Mac Pro.

ArsTechnica already did a brain transplant of a MacPro and inserted the 4 core Xeons. The bummer is there were no current apps that could successfully tax all 8 cores, meaning that even if we get a MacOctopus Pro it may be a while before we see it's full potential.

Security research targets OS X with "Month of Bugs"

During the month of January an independent security researcher, Kevin Finisterre, and a hacker known as LMH will announce one OS X security flaw per day in an effort to

The flaws will range from low risk to high risk and will span across the OS from kernel vulnerabilities to software flaws in iLife and other apps. The team also will try to produce working (proof of concept) exploits for every vulnerability they disclose.

The team says they were encouraged into action by the negative response given to David Maynor and Jon Ellch (the team who disclose a wi-fi vulnerability in OS X at a hacker conference) by pro-Apple fan.

The team hope their stunt will raise awareness of security issues among the Mac community and help improve security in future versions of OS X.

The team claims they are not doing anything illegal, have contact with Apple and are willing to help them in any way possible

In response to the event, Anuj Nayar, an Apple spokesman said, "We always welcome feedback on how to improve security on the Mac"

A new file system makes it's way into Leopard

There is a lot of news about Sun's ZFS file system showing up in the latest OS X Leopard builds.

I don't understand it, but luckily Maccast.com's Dale Mugford does.

Apple makes nice with South Park fans

After all the confusion around the South Park Season 10 Season Pass on iTunes, it was sold in two parts A and B for US$12.99 EA.

Listener Christopher and others who bought before the split was clear are now getting the full season. Apple has sent emails with links to download the whole season.

For some reason Comedy Central decided to split the season and Apple changed the listing in iTunes to add the A and B after the fact. The cheap price should have been a clue. Most Season passes run in the US$30 range.

Could iTunes Gift Card explain "slumping" iTunes sales?

I though about this recently when I heard the Forrester report was based on credit card processing data.

Listener Jimmy pointed out that the iTunes gift card is the #4 best seller in Electronics on Amazon.

A possible fix for iPods not playing purchased music

From listener Marie (says she works in iPod Applecare)

From the Finder, choose Go --> Go to folder

Type: /iPodName/iPod_Control/iTunes

Find a file named iEKInfo. Create a copy of it and store it on the desktop

Find a file named iTunesDB. Copy this and store it on the desktop as well

Create a new account & mark it as an administrative user

Restart the computer (log out) & log in to it

Launch iTunes. Sign into your iTunes Store account under this user

Download the free single of the week from the iTunes Store

Restore the iPod on this new user account

Manually sync the free single to the iPod after restoring

Eject the iPod and see if the song plays (9 times out of 10 it does)

Log back in to the original affected user

Manually sync some older purchased content to the iPod

Eject the iPod and see if this music plays now.

If it does, the user ought to be able to go back and auto-sync the rest of the library to the iPod

My procedure for clean installing OS X

Listener Rick was asking since Leopard is on the horizon and I have mention I like to do clean install with each OS update.

First, backup, backup, backup.

Spring clean. Move off old data that has been lying around cluttering up your Mac. Burn DVDs or CD of old documents, projects, images, music, etc.

I use SuperDuper to make a bootable "cloned" backup of my system. I actually do this every night.

Since you will be erasing your drive your "backup" is your primary until you restore. For that reason backup really critical files beyond the "clone" backup. You can use another external drive or DVDs/CDs. For example, I backup iPhoto, iTunes and my Documents folder (my files projects, etc).

Sync to .Mac. This covers my Address Book, iCal, Mail settings and Safari bookmarks.

I will reinstall my applications from scratch, so I don't worry about those.

Collect all your software installers, license and registration codes, etc and have those handy.

Boot from OS X and do an 'Erase and Install'

Create an account and then run software updates for OS X. May need to run it multiple times. If this account has the same name as your old account it will be replaced when you do the migration in the next step.

Once OS X is fully up to date I attach the "cloned" backup drive and then run Apple's Migration Assistant (Applications-->Utilities). Choose 'From another Volume in this Mac.

I migrate my User Account , Files and Folders and Network Settings. This brings back the content of my User folder including iPhoto and iTunes Libraries, etc.

The Migration assistant can also restore your Applications, but I just reinstall those clean including all application patches and updates.

Finally run Disk Utility and repair permissions.

Podcaster Meetup at Macworld

Begins Thursday night 6:00 PM at the Apple Store San Francisco with your favorite podcasts and discussing their take on the best (and worst) announcements from the show floor.

A who's who of Mac podcasters

Adam Christianson, MacCast

Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Scott Borne, MacBreak

Ken Ray, Mac OS Ken

Merlin Mann, 43 Folders

Todd Maffin, CBC Radio (Canada)

Dave Hamilton, Mac Geek / Mac Observer (maybe)

Chris Breen, Macworld (maybe)

Bill Palmer, iProng

Chris Christensen, Amateur Traveler

Shelly Brisbin, Shelly's Podcast

After the panel you will get a chance to mingle with the podcasters at a local lounge or bar. Location TBD soon.