MacCast 08.02.2008 - Show #234
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Opening Opening Music
Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles Mandaandthemarbles.com News Next iPhone OS Update gets to developers As we discussed last episode, according to iLounge, Apple has started seeding developers with beta version of the iPhone 2.1 software GearLive reports that the firmware update contains new GPS-related functionality, including tracking speed and direction MacRumors added the update seems to have early support for notification services, a feature Steve Jobs announced in the WWDC keynote and said would be ready in September. The first version of the beta eluded to support for push services, a second beta showed up late this week and includes a rough implementation of the Apple Push Notification Service API,. It has also been rumored that a 2.0.1 firmware update is in the works to bring bug fixes. Users are reporting all kinds of issue with the 2.0 software effecting iPod Touch, 1st Gen and 3G iPhones. Latest reports are of non functioning GPS on some units Although a success with users developer aren't completely happy with the App store Some developer still can't get in Macworld's iPhone Central reports on a list of complaints It's taking a long time for updates submitted to Apple to get pushed to the public. Apple isn't communicating with developers about when applications will be pushed live. Apple is not providing any sales information, so developers have no idea how their apps are doing. Apple responded to this on Thursday and now registered iPhone developers can find their daily stats through iTunes Connect. Overall I think most are just frustrated that Apple doesn't communicate iPhone 3G starting to crack under pressure? Reports are surfacing on Apple's forums and other Mac enthusiast sites of 3G iPhones developing cracks in the back plastic. Reported more on the white iPhones, but that may just be due to them being easier to see. Seems to be on edges near the steel ring, on the bevel and around buttons and headphone jack. Hard to tell if it's isolated or a wide spread issue at this point. So far Apple seems to be replacing units that they can verify with issues and without any other signs of abuse. Apple makes it easier to get your iPhone 3G Apple has made some changes at it's retail stores to make the iPhone 3G buying process go smoother They are pre-screening customers in line to avoid a long wait only to find out they are not eligible or don't pass credit checks Also being more upfront on how many phones they have in stock and giving pre-screened customers cards so customers can pick up right away or return later the same day. Still can check Apple's site at 9:00 PM to check availability for the next morning. Supplies seem to be healthy in the US. Mobile Me is finally fixed, maybe? According to Apple's new Mobile Me support blog, Mail servers and historical data was restored on Tuesday They also said a sync bug that may have caused contact and calendar data to temporarily disappear from users' iPhones was fixed as well. Lack of communication was probably the biggest frustration for most users through the Mobile Me debacle Apple offered chat support for effected users, but a piece on TUAW says Apple appears to be booting some customers off the service if Apple's records don't indicate they were effected by the outage AirPort Extreme Update 2008-002 Recommended for all Intel-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS 10.4.11 (Tiger). Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, and compatibility with Logic, MainStage, GarageBand and other audio applications. Rumors of new Macbooks, chipsets, etc. 9 to 5 Mac Co-founder, Seth Weintraub has some interesting rumors about the upcoming Macbook revision Thinner than current MacBook and MacBook Pros and slightly more rounded, taking design cues from the MacBook Air. The trackpad is glass, multi-touch and uses gestures. The screen isn’t multi-touch. One piece of aluminum. Eco-friendly, yet sturdy. Manufacturing process is completely different. Last week(s) of September. Some sites think Apple is likely use the new Intel Centrino 2 platform with faster and more efficient Core 2 Duo processors. Apple may also switch to the X4500MHD integrated graphics for the MacBooks. Other rumors say Apple will not use the Montevina chipset at all. They will stick with Intel's processors, but use chipset from AMD, Via, or maybe even use their own (PA Semi) designs. Apple warned retailers this week that iPods and Mac note books might be in short supply. Telling them to stock up now and prepare for delays of up to 4 weeks on iPods and 3 weeks on notebooks. iPhone ripples generating smartphone tsunami During a quarterly earning results call Roger Wireless president Nadir Mohammed said sales of other phones virtually ground to a halt the day of the iPhone 3G announcement in late April. Rogers has committed to buying at least $150 million in iPhones. Sony reported a 47% drop in revenue for the quarter, saying it was a result of declining Sony Ericsson sales. Citing phones like Apple's iPhone, LG's Viewty, and Nokia's Nseries as taking share away from their mid-range and high-end phone offerings. Electronista reports on a Reuters story claiming that Nokia has been slashing phone prices with the most heavy cuts being taken on media and smartphones like N81, the 5310 and the 5610 Electronista also has a piece on Microsoft missing it's 20 million Windows Mobile licenses in a year goal, selling 18 million. At least one analyst feels some part of the 2 million shortfall could be contributed to iPhone 3G anticipation. iTunes 7.7.1 update Apple says, "includes fixes to improve stability and performance". TidBits reports there are fixes for: A bug that caused files with accented characters in artist or track names to become corrupt . The bug only affected versions of Mac OS X prior to Leopard, and only MP3 files (not AAC or Lossless). Fixes a bug that prevented audio CDs from being ejected while iTunes was running. Solves a problem that prevented attached iPods from being recognized quickly. Some reports that iPhone backups are now faster, although not for all users. For Windows users, fixes a problem syncing information from Outlook with the iPhone. Leopard 10.5.5 shows up for developers Apple released a pre-release build of 10.5.5 to developers, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.5 build 9F5. Told developers not to install on Macs with integrated graphics. Hmmm... confirmation of some chip set changes? The update is said to address 82 bugs with focus on AirPort, FileSync, the Finder, graphics drivers, iCal, iChat, Networking, Text Services, Time Machine, and ExpressCard & USB modems. Apple finally patches DNS flaw Apple issued Security Update 2008-005 Which they say, "improves the security of Mac OS X". BIND has been updated to version 9.4.2-P1, and should include source port randomization to help ward off cache poisoning attacks, although some security researches are saying the client versions of 10.4 and 10.5 are still using sequential ports Not a big deal for most people if their ISP has implemented a patch dor their DNS servers. OS X Server has been patched and does appear to be working. The update also patches the ARDAgent flaw discovered earlier this month. Along with those two 11 other areas of the OS received security attention, including updates to Quicklook, rsync, PHP, Open SSL, Disk Utility, among others. The update is recommended for all Intel and PPC users running Mac OS 10.4.11 (Tiger), 10.5.4 (Leopard) , or Mac OS X Server. Sponsor Circus Ponies Notebook, free 30-day Trial Great for to-do lists. You can add to-do's with checkboxes and due dates and you don't even have to keep them together. Place them anywhere in the Notebook and the built-in indexing system will bring them all together in one place. Feedback, Comments and Commentary iPhone security using Wi-Fi General Wi-fi safety guidelines. Open wi-fi is generally open. Unless you are connecting using secure traffic protocols like SSH, SSL, or SFTP. FTP and POP and IMAP access (without SSL) is open. iPhone can use VPN. L2TP, PPTP or Cisco IPSec VPN A lot of data on the iPhone, so you might consider using the passcode lock. Be careful with entering passwords and pins. Lot's of wireless, turn off what you don't need. Bluetooth? Location aware apps, know what your iPhone is doing. Finding and removing hidden files Play comment from Michael Use Spotlight in the Finder 1) In the Finder navigate to the directory you want to search in. 2) Choose File-->Find (Command+F) in the Finder 3) In the Search Window select the directory name from the "Search" list 4) In the criteria drop-down select "Other..." and in the search box of the dialog that pops-up type 'invisible'. Select the 'File Invisible' attribute and click OK. You can also check the 'In Menu' box if you want this option to be available from the attributes drop-down list in the future. 5) Now select the 'File invisibility' attribute from the list and in the second drop-down choose 'Invisible items'. 6) You should now see all the invisible items within the chosen directory. You can of course expand the search to your home directory or your entire system Be careful when removing invisible items. You will also likely see a lot of .DS_Store files. Use a utility like Tinker Tool, Cocktail, or a command line to turn on invisible files. Use a Finder alternative like Pathfinder or File Buddy Nullriver NetShare iPhone App Appearing late yesterday, being removed, and reappearing it looks like the app is here to stay and it rocks. Allows you to "tether" your iPhone to a Mac or PC to use the 3G or EDGE network to provide wireless access to the web. Basically you create a computer to computer network between the Mac (or PC) and the iPhone and then use the iPhone as a proxy to the Internet. The set up is a bit tricky (they provide good instruction in the app), but once it is working it works well. Battery life? Very good when you need Internet access and there is no other way to get it. $9.99 on the App store Removing 3rd party apps from sync list Brad has an old app that installed an item in the Sync Services list of the Mobile Me (.Mac) sync tab He no longer uses the app, so how to remove the item? Use an uninstaller if one is offered by the app. Re-run the installer and look for options to remove or uninstall app. If no unistaller and you are running Tiger you are stuck with the item. If you use Leopard you can do a full reset. After a full reset, you may need to re-enable syncing with MobileMe for any third-party application preferences you still wish to sync. 1. Open iSync. 2. Choose Preferences from the iSync menu. 3. Click Reset Sync History. Adjusting Podcast Auto delete settings Glen wanted to know if there was a way to adjust the auto delete setting in iTunes per podcast You can't set different intervals or rules for different podcasts, but you can have some ignore the rules. control+click (right+click) the podcast in iTunes and choose the "Do Not Allow Auto Delete" option. Flagging email for follow-up A listener who goes by eBays is missing the "Flag for Follow-up" feature from Office using Apple Mail.app Found a work around using iCal. Just drag any email message from the Mail window into a date of iCal (month view). The Title and URL will now contain a link back to the original item. You can change the title, date & time, and set reminders to follow up on a specific day. Mail Tags Disable iPhone Backups Walt pointed out an article on MyDigital Life with a terminal hack to disable iTunes iPhone backup. This has been a problem since the 2.0 software and some have started click the 'x' to bypass the back=up which some say runs a risk of corruption 1. Quit iTunes. 2. Open Terminal.app. 3. Type (or copy and paste) the following command, and then hit Return:defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true
4. Open and run iTunes. 5. Plug in and connect iPhone 3G or original classic iPhone on version 2.0 OS to computer for syncing. The backup process should be bypassed and skipped now, and only music or podcasts are synced. Or you could use 'Secrets" to toggle on and off the feature. Closing Podcast Marketplace Thanks to my sponsors Audible.com Circus Ponies, Notebook Smile on my Mac, Textexpander Faronics, Deep Freeze Keep emails coming. Audio comments. 281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9 PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS MacCast Forum "FCC" by Bullethead From listener Jeff Royds Artists website EOL: John Mayer Apple Genius John Mayer filmed providing Mac support for his Dad. I think many of us can relate.