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Opening
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Opening Music
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Music is Say Anything by and the Marbles
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Mandaandthemarbles.com
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Sponsor: Gazelle
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Gazelle
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News
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iTunes Store launches in Russia, Turkey, and Lebanon
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iTunes Store is finally available in Russia, Turkey, and Lebanon
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Music seems to be more affordable than in the States. 15 rubles (49 cents) or 0.89 Turkish lira (50 cents) per track. And albums in Turkey are priced at 9.99 lira, or about $5.59 US.
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iTunes Match subscription reportedly costs 799 rubles per year (close to the $25/yr. US pricing)
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The Russian launch was hit will an embarrassing slip up though. There were reports of some store links resulting in users seeing porn.
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The trouble seemed to be placeholder URLs, set to xxx.xxx.
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The .xxx domain is reserved for porn sites and xxx.xxx is a porn search engine.
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Since the iTunes Store is basically just a web site and iTunes functions as a WebKit browser it happily loaded and displayed the content
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Apple responded quickly to resolve the issue.
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Apple denies Pro Audio "decimation"
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ArsTechnica reported that Apple has responded to claims that it has been severely downsizing it's Pro audio teams and that the "next big audio application from Apple will be for the iPad.", and therfore implying that Apple would be continuing to ignore Pro audio on the Mac.
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The rumors started when the site "Pro Tools Expert" ran a report that the teams were "decimated" and that their sources claimed the Pro audio team was " virtually gone".
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The report further claimed that team in Europe was down to just two employees.
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Apple denied the claim when a concerned customer sent an email to Tim Cook. The email was responded to by Music marketing head Xander Soren.
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Soren said that the team was in tact and "hard at work on the next version of Logic Pro."
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As often happens in these stories, especially in the days of traffic grabbing headlines, the whole thing appears to be a big misinterpretation of the story.
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Russ Hughes of Pro Tools Expert contacted Mac Rumors to make clear that his original report said nothing about Apple's development work on Logic and addressed only the specialist team that assists professional users with using the software tools.
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Pro users have a reason to be edgy though. Many were not happy to the changes that happened in Final Cut X, the MacPro is getting very long in the tooth (although Tim Cook has assured Pro customers something is coming in early 2013), and Logic Pro hasn't seen a major revision since 2009.
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Apple Hiring Former Texas Instruments Chip Engineers
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According to a piece on The Next Web over the past few weeks Apple has been hiring "dozens" of engineers for it's research center in Israel.
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In December Apple acquired the Israeli memory technology firm Anobit and since there have been reports that Apple plans to open a research center in the region.
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TI recently started letting go as many as 250 employees from their Israeli development center and Apple is supposedly turning it into an opportunity to pick up some new talent.
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Since January Apple has been looking to hire hardware engineers in chip development with strong emphasis on electrical circuits, analogue and hardware testing and verification.
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A number of the engineers from TI were focused on development of OMAP, ARM based system on a chip designs, and radio (including WiFi and Bluetooth) chips
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Apple hasn't commented, but under Apple's recent management restructuring Bob Mansfield was put in charge of a new Technologies group which includes all of Apple's semiconductor and wireless technology teams.
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The hirings seem like a good move and also seem to show that Apple is serious about moving forward their own chip designs.
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The A6 was the first fully custom chip design from Apple and it's believed Apple may be looking to develop fully custom chips for their notebook and desktop machines as well.
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Apple has been making big advances in semiconductor designs and acquisitions and hirings like these are quickly becoming a leader in the field.
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Being able to fully develop and customize the chips allows Apple to integrate the hardware and software with their design to maximize performance and battery efficiency.
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There have been rumors that Apple has been also looking to move actual chip fabrication away from Samsung
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So far Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been rumored to be the logical choice
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But analyst Doug Freedman of RBC Capital recently said that Apple may also be talking with Intel.
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TMO's Bryan Chaffin points out while interesting there may be several reasons why Intel is an unlikely partner for Apple's future chip production
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Apple's designs user ARM based architectures, something Intel doesn't care for since it's not their technology. Intel doesn't make ARM chips and that isn;t something they are likely interested in doing.
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Intel doesn't currently make chips for any fabless chip design companies.
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Intel prefers to control chip design and manufacturing,
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iMac upgrades depend on your model
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Now that the new units are hitting the streets we are getting details of how easy or difficult, if not impossible, after market upgrades will be.
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iFixit showed that the 21.5" model will require ungluing the display if you want to change out the hard drive or add RAM.
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On the base model there is no SSD option and iFixit confirmed that the logic board doesn't even have the proprietary connector on the logic board from the factory
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The traces seem to be there, but the connector isn;t installed on the base model, so you only get the SATA connector used for the iMac's 2.5-inch hard disk
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If you opt for a 27" model though swapping the RAM a piece of cake, at least once you find the magic button.
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Cult of Mac points out that there is a memory access port located on the back of the iMac under the stand and just under the cooling vents
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The release button for the panel is under the power cord connector,
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So remove the power cord, push the release button, and the cover comes out to give you full access to the RAM slots.
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The 21.5" mac seems to have the memory slots off center, so (and I'm just speculating) they may have chosen not to provide an access door purely for aesthetic reasons.
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For folks who did order a 27" model depending on when you ordered that Mac may or may not be here before next year
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Apple has moved ship time for new pre-orders into next year
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Even if you ordered when they went on pre-sale November 30th Apple seems to be giving ship date between December 21st and 28th according to ArsTechnica
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That means it still might not land on your doorstep until January.
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iOS 6.1 beta 3
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Apple released it's 3rd beta of iOS 6.1 to developers
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Changes to iCloud set-up
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Now asks you to confirm your Apple ID password for FaceTime and iMessage
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Ask you to confirm how you want people to contact you on these services and lets you know you can change the setting later
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Changes to the default Passbook sample card for UK users
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changing “movie tickets” to “cinema tickets" and “theaters” to “cinemas”.
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Advertising settings
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Previous builds had an Advertising menu to allow you to limit Ad tracking
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That screen had a ‘Reset Advertising Identifier’ button that was non-functional and now appears to work as of this build
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Voice Dial Only
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If you still use voice control vs. Siri you can now set an option so that Voice control only works for dialing.
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Prevents Voice Control from doing things like playing an artist in the Music app when you meant to call someone in your contacts who may have a similar name.
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Cellular Data control for iTunes
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Can now implicitly turn off cellular data for iTunes
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Prevent downloading tracks of 3G or 4G
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Some Macs Made in the USA
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Or at least assembled.
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Really this has already been the case for a very small subset of Mac, refurbished units.
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But then when the 21." iMacs started shipping a few places noticed that at least some of the units were arriving with an "Assembled in USA" label
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It's not really clear how many iMacs are being assembled in the US nor exactly where or by whom
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Many units still carry the "Assembled in China" label
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9to5 Mac worked with readers to track shipments of new Macs from origin and found that at least two shipped from the San José ares and possibly specifically Fremont
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Interesting in that Apple's first Mac plant was also in Fremont before being moved to Elk Grove, CA.
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What is clear now is that this is just the beginning of US assembled Macs
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In an interview with Bloomberg Tim Cook revealed that next year Apple would "bring some production to the US of the Mac"
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He didn't provide too many specifics but did say they planned to invest over $100 million in the effort
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He also said Apple would not do it themselves but would be working with people to make it happen
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Who would they be working with? Well at this point Foxconn seems a likely choice
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Foxconn already has plants in California and Texas and has reportedly been looking to expand their US operations
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The Foxconn chairman already announced plans to bring US engineers to China to train them on manufacturing before sending them back home
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What will be made in the US?
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Cook said at least one Mac model would be made exclusively in the US and early bets are on that new Pro Mac model he said was coming
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Apple is likely to move slowly into US production of Macs.
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In volume the Mac Pro ships in lower quantities than most other Mac models
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It also carriers a higher price point, so higher labor costs in manufacturing are likely to be less of an issue
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Compared to other mac models it's also more easy to assemble. Case, standard mother board, and slotted in components. It doesn't have things like specialized Flash components, soldered in custom batteries, or a glued fused glass display
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I think Apple is being very smart and realistic about this move
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I'm excited to see how this works for Apple, but I also know they will be very cautious
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They are also going to be under a lot of scrutiny, and actually are already getting hit by the detractors
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Macworld already reported speculation that they feel the new plant may be highly automated.
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Bloomberg already has reported that some economists and industry experts projecting that the effort will create approximately 200 jobs.
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They also project the output to be around a million-units
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And of course there are already those who claim that Apple (or their manufacturing partner really) will be relying ax breaks and other incentives for the new facility.
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No matter what is said, this is a great effort and could hopefully have a long term meaningful effect in bringing at least some manufacturing back to the US.
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Feedback, Comments and Commentary
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Track changes now in iOS Pages
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It sometimes seems like someone at Apple is listening to this podcast
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Really I think this feature was in the works long before we mentioned it here, but the timing is eerie
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Apple update it's iWork apps for iOS.
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Overall all says the iWork updates are a "major compatibility update" with desktop software like Office and iWork for the Mac.
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Pages now has a track changes support, which could be a huge deal.
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It will support tracked changes in Pages documents and will also import and export tracked changes from Microsoft Word documents
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I'm not a Word export so I don;t know how robust the feature is, nor how compatible.
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I tried it out though and you do have options to enable track changes and get three views: Markup, Markup Without Deletions and Final.
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Tapping on a change also gives you the ability to accept or reject the change.
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One thing I didn't see was any way to view a full change history, but I don;t even know if that's an option on the desktop.
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iTunes 11 Tips & Tricks
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Adding items to Up Next
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Hover over a track, click the little '>' icon, and choose 'Add to Up Next' or 'Play Next'
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Play next adds to the top of the 'Next Up' list, Add to Up Next will place the track at the bottom of the up next list.
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If you already are playing music, the Up Next playlist become a separate playlist that is inserted in front of the music you are currently playing. Once items on your Up Next list have been played it iTunes will return you right back to your original music.
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Other ways to add to Up Next
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Drag an item, song, album, playlist, into the iTunes LCD window
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Hold down the Option key while hovering over an item. You will see a "+" icon appear near the item. For songs it appears to the left of or replaces the track number, for albums and playlists it appears over the 'play' button.
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Limit search to specific Media type
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The new search box by default will search your whole Library and organize results by media type.
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If you'd like you can change it so that it only searches and gives results for the Library you are currently viewing
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Click the magnifying glass icon in the search box and select the 'Search Entire Library' item. If it has a check next to it this will deselect that option (unchecking it). In the search filed you should see the grey text change from 'Search Library' to 'Search Music' or 'Search Movies' depending on the Library your currently viewing
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When searching specific Media libraries you can also click the Magnifying glass and use the 'Filter' options to further refine your results to specific criteria, like 'artist', 'song', 'title', etc.
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See Track and Artist overlay in Mini Player
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I had a friend who noticed that my Mini Player controls would fade away when I hovered off the Mini Player showing the Title and Artist of the currently playing track next to the album art. His didn't.
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What we discovered was that the Mini Play offers keyboard controls (if you've enabled full keyboard controls in System Preferences > Keyboard).
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You can tell if you have keyboard control because there will be a blue glow around the control in the Mini Player that currently has keyboard focus.
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If any of the Player controls, Play, FF, RW, or the AirPlay icon have focus then the Artists and track aren't displayed.
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Press the 'Tab' key until focus is on the Next Up playlist icon and the track and artists info will appear.
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If you want to disable full keyboard controls completely you can go to:
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System Preferences > Keyboard
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Click on the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' tab
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Change the setting fro 'Full Keyboard Access' from 'All controls' to 'Text boxes and lists only'.
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Note this will impact other apps, not just iTunes.
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Keyboard shortcuts
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Spacebar to play pause
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If you have full keyboard control on in the Mini Player this acts asa mouse click
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Command+Left or Command+Right skip forward and backward
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I noticed that Left or Right arrows without the Command modifier seem to work as well
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Command+Up or Command+Down for volume up or down
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Command+Number key (1-7) to switch Media Library
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Command-1 = Music
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Command-2 = Movies
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Command-3 = TV Shows
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Command-4 = Podcasts
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Command-5 = iTunes U
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Command-6 = Books
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Command-7 = Apps
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Command+Option+U to show Next Up list. 'Esc' to close
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Command+Option+M to switch to Mini Player and back.
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If you have a track selected and press Option+return it will add it as the 'Play Next' item
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in my case it prompts me and says, "You are about to start playback. Do you want to clear the X songs previously added to UpNext?"
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Press 'P' to just add it and not clear the list. Hit return to clear the list which is the default.
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For those of us missing the 'Find Duplicates' feature Walt Mossberg said in his iTunes 11 review that Apple told him they will be bringing it back in a future minor update.
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It's not you, it's your extension
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Daniel sent me an email that reminds us that when something goes wrong with technology what you think is wrong might not always be the issue
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He had been using the web interface for Dropbox in Safari and was suddenly unable to access some of the Share Folder options.
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Specifically he couldn't the drop down menu with the options to work.
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The features did work in another browser, so it seemed like a Safari bug
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After troubleshooting with Dropbox support they recommended looking into Safari Extensions and sure enough one of those was the culprit.
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The thing is that many web based services rely on Javascript and many extensions also leverage Javascript. It's possible for those to introduce conflicts that are out side the control of the host site
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And Safari, Firefox, and Chrome all offer extension.
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This isn't just a browser/web service issue either though.
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Menu bar items, background processes, and preference panes can sometimes cause conflicts
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Some things to check:
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Menubar items
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Login Items. System Preferences > Users & Groups (Accounts) and check the Login Items tab
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System Preference panes. Specifically stuff in the "Other" section.
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Check Activity Monitor. Use the filter to look at 'My Processes' might show background processes for apps you've installed. If you don't know what a process is, Google it.
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If you do find a problem check with the developer to see if they have an update
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App Store update stuck
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Dany would launch the AppStore app and it would tell him there was an update available for iPhoto '11
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After running update in the MacApp Store it would give him an alert that would say iPhoto was already installed and that it could not complete the update.
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I have two recommendations:
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Try manually running the updater downloaded from Apple's support site
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Rebuild the Spotlight index.
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System Preferences > Spotlight
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Click on the Privacy tab and then click the "+" button
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Add your main boot volume to the list. This will clear the Spotlight index
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Quit and relaunch System Preferences.
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Open System Preferences > Spotlight
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Click on the Privacy tab and select your hard drive
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Click the "-" button to remove it from the list
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Quit System Preferences.
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Spotlight should begin rebuilding it's database which can take some time.
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You can also use a tool like Onyx or Cocktail to rebuild the Spotlight Database
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Change change into iTunes Gift Card
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Here's a tip from Ty
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If you have a "coin jar" that is piling up many of you know you can take it to the 'Coinstar' machine at the local grocery store and convert it into dollars.
|
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Trouble is that they normal take a 10% service fee
|
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Now you can opt to get the fee waived and have it put onto a gift card.
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Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, GAP, etc.
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You can also have it donated to charity
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Red Cross, Humane Society, Unicef, World Wildlife Fund, etc.
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Currently they are running a promotion and if you opt for an iTunes gift card they will give you $10 more (ends 12/9, but maybe it will be extended).
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Closing
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Podcast Marketplace
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Thanks to my sponsors
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Circus Ponies
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Smile
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Gazelle
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Gazelle: the fast and simple way to sell your used iPhones, iPad, , and other smartphones. Find out what your gadget is worth at Gazelle.com.
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Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
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281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9
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PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
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MacCast Forum
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Follow me on Twitter
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Checkout the page on Facebook
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