MacBooks still plagued by cracks

New images of a MacBook with hairline cracks have surfaced on Jason O' Grady's ZDNet blog.

This time they are near the vents and hinges on the back of the case. I previously reported on cracks under the hand-rests.

How large an issue is this? Apple is obviously replacing any cracked cases under AppleCare

Rumor of Leopard delay

Digitimes (notoriously bad at rumor prediction) claims Apple will delay Leopard's launch until October to build in Bootcamp support for Windows Vista

The publication "T3" claims apple will release Leopard at NAB on April 15th along with a new FinalCut Studio and 8-core Mac Pros.

PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster is also predicting a mid-April Leopard launch

Apple officially says they are on-schedule for a Spring launch. Means end of June at the latest.

10.4.9 not recommend if you use FinalCut 4.5

MacNN has a report of a reader having "serious" issues trying to run Final Cut Pro 4.5 and Final Cut Express 3.0 on systems running 10.4.9

Apple says they two versions may drop frames when attempting to capture.

Final Cut Pro 5 and Final Cut Express 3.5 are not effected

Elton John expands iTunes offerings

Sir Elton John is bringing his entire catalog (400 tracks) exclusively to iTunes first. On sale beginning March 26th and exclusive on iTunes through the end of April. The launch is to coincide with the release of a new 18-track compilation album, "Rocket Man The Definitive Hits."

Elton John on iTunes

Elton already had some albums on iTunes, but this new deal brings more than 30 more albums to iTunes.

Rumors say iMac may be due for a facelift

Several sites are reporting that Apple has tasked their design wizard Jonathan Ive with trying to "slim down" the look of the current iMac design

The current models are sometime called the "Leno".

Follow-up and warning on Save PDF to Web Receipts

Error discovered in tip from last show

Uses the web page title as the filename, so if you use the same site often it can overwrite older files.

Two ways to fix it

Create a "PDF Services" folder at either ~/Library/ or Volume/Library/, then add an alias in any folder you want to have your PDFs saved to. Name the alias what you want to appear in the Print-->PDF... dropdown. Now files with the same name will have a number appended to them.

Edit the Automator workflow that currently exists at Volume/Library/PDF Services to append a date and timestamp to the end of the filename.

Patch available for Stuffit Finder bug

Listener John points out there is a patch for the Stuffit Expander 11.0.2 contextual menu Finder bug.

Stuffit Patch

Apple TV first impressions, tips, and thoughts

Apparently works with some SD TV. Mine is on order and should be here this week.

Apple TV

Support for 480i sets with component video inputs

Apple likely didn't wanted an easy "cut off" spec.

Is running a custom version of Mac OS X. Using an Intel CPU and NVidia GPU

The 40GB HD has 33GB of available space.

USB Port on the device is confirmed as a "service" port. No HD expansion or iPod connection.

Current iTunes Movies and TV shows are reported to stream great of 802.11G

Can decode 720p and display up to 1080i. Cannot decode 1080p

Apple's new Export to Apple TV option (Quicktime Pro) or a tool like VisualHub from Textspansion can encode your own content to 2720p H.264.

VisualHub

Apple TV is ultra quiet. In the 7-10db range.

Comes with ONLY a power cable. Apple is selling $15.00 - $20.00 XtremeMac cables (HDMI, Component video, TOSLink Audio, etc).

Has software update built in, so Apple can push out software updates in the future.

Content is synced in this order of priority: Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, Photos.

Playback continuity, just like the iPod and iTunes.

Has already been hacked of course

Playback of XVid files (from iPodNN), involves removing the drive and connecting it to a Mac, installing the SSH server Dropbear, the video container Perian, and a custom script lets the Apple TV play files outside of its normal MPEG-4 and H.264 standards.

Uses Quicktime reference movies which means the originals are not synced.

Someone reports having done a 120GB HD upgrade.

Engadget has a how-to. Basically remove the drive (5,400 RPM 2.5" IDE), connect it to a host computer, clone the drive, expand the media partition, remove any Spotlight files (if created), put new drive back in.

Upgrade AppleTV HD

Apple TV is obviously ideal for those who rely heavily on iTunes for their media hub.

Play John's review of AppleTV

Handy iPhoto Maintenance Tip

Chris suggested using iPhotos built-in option to help optimize iPhoto performance.

Hold down the OPTION-COMMAND keys while opening iPhoto until you will see this dialog box offering to: 1. Rebuild the small thumbnails, 2. Rebuild all thumbnails, 3. Rebuild the iPhoto Library database, 4. Recover orphaned photos.

Chris says it does all 4 about once a month and it has really sped up iPhoto boot times for his 30,000 plus image library on his 20" Intel iMac.

The process is slow, 45 minutes to an hour for Chris.

Make sure you have a full back-up of iPhoto before hand, just in case things go bad.

Review: Pioneer DEH-P5900IB

Play review from Brian

Pioneer DEH-P5900IB

Quality of using iPod dock connector (line out) vs. headphones

SIK Cables and FlexPed from Thoughtout.biz

www.thoughtout.biz

Using Smart Playlists for Podcasts. Advantage of continuous playback.

Reverting your installed version of OS X

Archive and install OS X from original disks

Update to your desired version using the appropriate "Combo" update from Apple's support web site downloads area.

What to do with old Apple hardware?

Play question from Greg

Repurpose. Media server, file server, child's computer, kitchen terminal, web radio, etc.

Re-sell, Craigslist or eBay. Whole systems or as parts. iBook G3s still selling for between $300-$500 on eBay.

Museum. Keep for posterity or convert to art. Macquarium, digital picture frame, etc.

Donate to school, shelter, etc, but keep in mind they need newer equipment. If you don't have a use for it they might not either. Check with you local User Group to see if they have a donation program.

Recycle. Do not trash electronics.

Doing more with words in OS X

Listener Max pointed out, that if you highlight and drag a word from most documents and apps and drop it on Safari it will do a Google search for that word.

Can also command+click (right+click) to get corrected spelling, look up in Dictionary (change contextual menu setting to launch app or display panel), search in Spotlight, search in Google.

Command+Control+D plus hover over word to get contextual dictionary.

Tap the Services menu for more

Send to Mail, create sticky note, speak text. summarize (this is way cool).

Changing your spell check language

Antonio uses OS X localized to British English, yet OS X's built in spell check feature and the "check as you type" option (Edit-->Spelling-->Check as you type) would correct against the US dictionary. How do you change that.

1) In any Cocoa based app, bring up the spell check dialog (Apple+Shift+:)

2) Near the bottom left there is a drop down for language. Change it to the desired language English, Australian, British and Canadian English, French, Spanish, Dutch, etc.

3) Close window.

It will stay set to that language for all applications that use the OS X built-in spell check.

I recorded this tip as a TeachMac Module and made it available for free.

Make a Maccast module for TeachMac and earn double reward points until April.

www.teachmac.com

Use the Module Maker and type in 'Maccast' as the source. Also watch the free module on making modules. You can submit module proposals via the Teach Mac website and Byron will help you craft a successful module.

This is for you and to help build the Teach Mac Library

You earn money and points

100% of your module price goes to you. 25% of net profit from subscriptions is also shared with module makers.

Earn points on the first 2 free modules and paid modules. 1 point per free module and for modules priced up to $10. 1.5 points for $15.00 modules.

Teach Mac is a non-profit with proceeds going to Created Equal, main project at the moment is Oasis Project. Self sustaining shelters for victims of domestic violence.

www.createdequal.com

Warning of Apple Store Order Phishing email in the wild

Listener Joe sent me a copy and I have since had reports of others receiving it.

Looks like an order for an 80GB IPod from the apple store, but order status link goes to applestore.ms

OpenDNS.org

www.opendns.com

Sound Issues after 10.4.9 Upgrade

System volume for many seems to be "louder" in 10.4.9. So if you were at 50% it is now perceivably louder.

Is it a bug or a feature is the debate.