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>> Postings for May 2007

"PC's mother loves him!"

Thu, 31 May 2007

My favourite bit from last night's joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Reminds me of Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson - they appear to be friends when they're both winning...

Andy Penfold | Read more...


DRM free iTunes will still catch the pirates

Thu, 31 May 2007

DRM free downloads are all very well but if you were thinking that meant you’d be able to share the music around you’re mistaken.

Apple and EMI have ensured that should the music you buy from the iTunes store end up on an illegal file sharing site – whether you put it there, or someone else – the file will include information about you. Your name and email address specifically.

Karen Haslam | Read more...


White noise: Icons: Bill and Steve at D

Thu, 31 May 2007

I'm watching the video from the meeting between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates last night - it's great. These men clearly know their stuff (they helped invent it, after all), and they come across engaging, funny, stimulating and - most important - full of enthusiasm.

I am a little annoyed that the clips are currently only available for streaming - I sense that this meeting could be of historic consequence.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Mac and me

Thu, 31 May 2007

Hello, I'm Andy. I'm into fun stuff, you know, video, photos, music, that sort of thing. Oh hang on, I seem to have become Mitchell/Webb (which is which? No-one knows) enacting the virtues of Mac computing.

But hey, despite the deeply irritating ads, I'll adopt the sentiment on this occasion - I like Macs because of what I can do on them, not because of a fondness for Steve Jobs's (admittedly flawless) choice of jumpers.

Andy Penfold | Read more...


Hiding in plain sight: When Backup fails

Wed, 30 May 2007

Apple offers .Mac subscribers a free and simple backup utlility, called Backup. In my experience it isn't always 100 per cent effective, but even when the software fails to fully restore your data there's a clever trick that should help you grab back the information you're missing.

This cropped-up this weekend. My partner was attempting to reclaim some space on her hard drive. She's a photographer who particularly enjoys capturing images at live music events and festivals, and she's beginning to make a bit of a name for herself.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Making iPod sound a picnic

Wed, 30 May 2007

This rubbish weather has got me thinking about sunnier times.

A few weekends ago I enjoyed a picnic in Hyde Park with some friends. We were listening to the music on my iPod - which I’d plugged into the iMainGo, a speaker system that actually zips around your iPod both protecting it and keeping things tidy.

Karen Haslam | Read more...


A week away from Apple

Tue, 29 May 2007

From iPhone rumours and predictions for WWDC to Ann Summers encountering the wrath of Apple over a certain iPod peripheral, a lot can happen in ten days…

I’ve been enjoying the sunshine in Cornwall for the past week. While spending some time in the West Country might mean Cornish Pasties-a-plenty and the ultimate in cream teas, it’s also meant I’ve had no access to the web for a whole week. This means that I have a lot of catching up to do if I want to get back on track in the Mac world.

Karen Haslam | Read more...


Getting things done

Tue, 29 May 2007

When it comes to task management I've discovered a couple of great programs for 'getting things done' that I thought I'd share with you.

First of all I'll point out that 'Getting Things Done' is a time-management and productivity methodology by David Allen doing the rounds at the moment. David Allen's book and site does raise many a heckle due to its American-corporate look-&-feel, but get past this and there are plenty of good ideas about how to deal with 'stuff' (identify it, get rid of it, put the stuff you need to do in the right place). There's a good summary of it here.

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


Apple Scrumping: Tasty Apps

Tue, 29 May 2007

An occasional and completely subjective collection of highlights from the rich world of independently-developed solutions for OS X. This time around let's hear it for a pair of small but highly useful applications from the people at TastyApps.

I like YouTube. It offers a huge diversity of amusing clips for all ages. Right now, I'm particularly fond of this catchy range of children's songs from user gitikapartington.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Online banking coup for Mac users

Tue, 29 May 2007

Online/phone bank First Direct - part of the HSBC group - has now sorted out its problems with Apple's Safari web browser. In March the bank changed its security measures, and this affected Safari users, who quickly turned on the bank.

Much of the criticism of First Direct's neglect of Mac users was voiced on Macworld's forum.

Simon Jary | Read more...


White noise: Productivity bonus

Fri, 25 May 2007

Sir Tim Berners Lee has been granted a special award for his outstanding contribution to the world of creativity, communication and design - the worldwide web. It's interesting to reflect on his special gift to publishers, who can now deliver fresh content faster and cheaper than ever before.

Naturally as a professional freelance journalist I despise the word 'content'. It cheapens the nature of the creation. Whether 'content' is a news story or an award-winning documentary, use of that despicable word to describe it ignores the true value of the creative expression. It's a horrible word, which assumes the works of Shakespeare are the same as those of a hundred monkeys banging away at a typewriter.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Jobs and Gates cage match

Thu, 24 May 2007

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. Two technological titans enter the cage for a no holds barred conversation.

In this corner, weighing in at 175 lbs soaking wet, the Mauler from Microsoft, the Reaper of Redmond, the man who can single-handedly destroy everything you love and care about, Sir Dr William Henry Gates III. And in the red corner, his opponent, the Cuber from Cupertino, the Avenger of Apple, the gentleman who brought you the Macintosh, the iPod, and a reason to live: Steven Paul Jobs.

Dan Moren | Read more...


Steve versus Bill in iWorld face-off

Thu, 24 May 2007

So Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are going to meet and talk live and in public at D:All Things Digital next week. While we wait to see how that turns out, I thought some of you may be interested in this really rather amusing video clip that's doing the rounds.

It features Bill and Steve in hand-to-hand combat in a place called iWorld, but it ends alright in the end (thanks to grandad Commodore). Enjoy it here.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Decadent Microsoft in iPod unreality

Thu, 24 May 2007

Oh it really is truly pathetic. Microsoft - renowned worldwide for embracing and extending the notion of good business practice - has retreated to schoolyard ethics as its empire collapses in the face of Apple's iPod.

The company has launched a brand-new anti-marketing scheme across its Zune group headquarters - an iPod Amnesty Bin. Employees are meant to dutifully drop their music players into the bin, and run hot-foot to the company store to buy themselves a Zune (also available in, erm, brown).

Jonny Evans | Read more...


iPod sex sells

Wed, 23 May 2007

Who'd have thought such an innocent poster could cause so much fuss.

I'm referring, of course, to our Ann Summers iPod sex toy story

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


Hiding in plain sight: Faster Word

Wed, 23 May 2007

The second in my irregular collection of handy Mac and application features you may (or may not) already know about or which have been slightly hidden: this one is one simple step that makes Microsoft Word launch faster.

Do you lose the will to live while you wait for Word to launch? Do you want to make it launch faster? Then you need this tip. I came across it on the excellent MacOSXHints website. It's so effective I needed to share it here.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Amazon warning

Tue, 22 May 2007

I recently purchased an Xbox 360 through Amazon.co.uk. Regular readers might be asking why I'm buying a Microsoft Xbox. Well I like playing games and let's face it, until Apple makes a console it's either Microsoft or waving my arms around in front of a Wii. (I'm not paying £430 for a PS3 - but that's another story.)

As an aside I was looking to test out Connect 360, which offers a viable alternative to the Apple TV. One that also conveniently involved me being able to play the Halo 3 demo doing the rounds.

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


iPod IS the devil: Shock, Horror, Probe

Tue, 22 May 2007

I've read some twaddle in my time, but I'm growing ever-more sick at how so-called security experts can't stop themselves gabbling on about the security threat of allowing iPods to be used in offices. Such 'experts' live in an inverse Narnia, and their attention-seeking notions give me a worse case of indigestion than any amount of Turkish Delight.

Look at the story emanating from the Home Office today, in which the department's getting roundly slammed for buying iPods for some of its top staff.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Hiding in plain sight: Activity Viewer

Tue, 22 May 2007

An irregular collection of tiny but useful Mac features you may (or may not) already know about or which have been slightly hidden - this time round, let's take a look at Safari's Activity Viewer...

I'm quite taken with this recently-understood built-in feature. It's a not particularly well-documented ability, but it seems Safari's Activity Viewer is capable of downloading many file from many websites to your desktop.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Apple Scrumping: Onyx

Mon, 21 May 2007

An occasional and completely subjective collection of highlights from the rich world of independently-developed solutions for OS X. This time around let's hear it for essential system admin tool, Onyx.

It's inevitable. We all get it from time-to-time. S.L.O.W. S.Y.S.T.E.M. P.E.R.F.O.R.M.A.N.C.E... When that beachball spin defines your Mac user life, and when switching between application windows takes, like, forever. The Mac has slowed down - is it broken, or does it simply need a little T.L.C.?

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Action movie

Mon, 21 May 2007

Anybody who's read our Apple TV review knows that one of our major issues with the device is the hassle of converting video into the iPod/Apple TV format. Not that there's anything wrong Apple's H.264 video codec (it's actually pretty good), but it's a time-consuming hassle.

elgato came to visit us today, and showed me its new device aimed at easing that particular burdon. The elgato turbo.264 Video Encoder Hardware is a small USB dongle that aims to massively increase the speed that Macs convert video into iPod and Apple TV friendly formats. Judging by the demonstration that elgato gave me, it works too.

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


Enterprise backup options for the Mac looking up

Mon, 21 May 2007

While backup and recovery options for Apple's enterprise systems haven't always been a strong point of the Mac platform, a new crop of applications and technologies is pulling Mac OS X closer to – and in some instances, beyond – Windows and Linux.

Before looking ahead to what's coming, it's important first to look back. And that means a quick refresher course on Retrospect, a mainstay of the Apple community since Mac OS 7 was hosting email, files and FileMaker databases. The venerable app had solid features and drivers for a fairly large subset of tape libraries. Unfortunately, it peaked in the late 1990s around Version 4.3, long before the introduction of Mac OS X in 2001. Since then, it's been in a steady decline.

Seth Weintraub, Computerworld (US online) | Read more...


Apple TV musings

Fri, 18 May 2007

I've been living with an Apple TV for a few weeks now. It's an enjoyable experience, though it isn't yet an essential digital hub. Apple TV-using goes through the telly, so my Mac content competes with what we have on cable, Freeview and DVD.

Content is king when it comes to enjoying a classic square-eyed moment. Amusement's muse doesn't tolerate too much messing about. You need entertainment now, not a violent disagreement with the remote control.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Facing a Facebook-free week

Fri, 18 May 2007

Facebook is my latest obsession. If you haven’t yet been on there is it worth taking a look – it really isn’t as sad as it sounds.

What you get is a great way to keep up to date with all your friend’s news, share photos, and spread the word about what you are doing. It’s also a great way to network with people you know through work, getting to know them better, which isn’t a bad thing, usually.

Karen Haslam | Read more...


Grinding the rumour mill

Fri, 18 May 2007

One of the problems with Apple's secretive approach to development is that rumours fly faster than Concord in a nose-dive.

You could hear the wailing and gnashing of countless Apple owners world-wide when gadget blog Engadget announced that Leopard wouldn't show until 2008. At Macworld this faces us with a tough choice: do we report the rumour, or wait for clarification?

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


Apple's cool is now uncool

Thu, 17 May 2007

I received a call from Apple's Press office today, asking me if I'd update my review of the iPod shuffle to mention that it now comes in a range of colours.

This I was of course happy to do, but it got me thinking about Apple and its funny relationship with colours. I realised that Apple isn't much fun any more - which goes against its much-loved brand.

Simon Jary | Read more...


Weird science

Wed, 16 May 2007

Why do people confuse success with failure? I'm referring particularly to today's reports on recent surveys which suggest considerable interest in the iPhone, but are being reported as warnings of failure. What's all that about?

You see, first thing I thought when I read a survey claiming one-in-four people would switch networks in order to get their hands on an iPhone was "oh, that's a lot of people".

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Happy Birthday Helvetica

Wed, 09 May 2007

Helvetica turned 50 today, making it officially an old daddy of typefaces.

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. Officially one of the safest fonts around it's used by business managers and corporate studios everywhere. Helvetica is easy on the eyes, safe and unobtrusive. On television there is something called 'The Cult Of Helvetica' because it is used on virtually every rolling title. Everything about Helvetica screams 'reliable'. It's no surprise that it's Swiss.

Mark Hattersley | Read more...


Make CS3 Blend into your Dock

Wed, 09 May 2007

Adobe’s new Creative Suite 3 has come under fire for its zillion versions, but another gripe about it is about the applications’ icons. In case you haven’t seen, each app is represented by two letters slapped onto a colored square - for example, Photoshop’s icon is a blue square with “Ps” written on it. Someone even created a color wheel with all of CS3’s icons, and it’s quite an impressive sight.

Needless to say, they’re not the most subtle or attractive icons for many people, and if Adobe’s applications sit in your Dock, they can visually clash with the other icons. What to do? Why, replace them! On his blog, Joshua Bryant has a great round-up of the best replacement icons for most apps in CS3.

Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen | Read more...


South Park spoof on 'Get A Mac'

Fri, 04 May 2007

A South Park-style 'Get A Mac' pastiche has surfaced online. The amusing iittle clip features two South Park type characters as the Mac and PC. While the PC character takes a crack at the Mac over the relative lack of games for that platform, the Mac character simply needs to send the PC an email virus to make that character crash. As PC recovers, well - to find out more you'll have to watch the clip, you can watch it here.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Reality Distortion: Apple's pregnant pause

Thu, 03 May 2007

Apple's statements on the need to be green were welcome to me. In among Steve Jobs' comments there were some coded messages promising significant product announcements for 2007. Is Apple's long product silence really a pregnant pause for the Mac massive?

When it comes to the environment, Apple has the innovative intelligence, reputation and technical ability to achieve great things in terms of delivering more earth-friendly hardware. It's the kind of firm that may just figure out green solutions to unsolved problems, in terms of electrical components and product design.

Jonny Evans | Read more...


Will Mac-free 2007 be Apple's annus-horribilis?

Tue, 01 May 2007

The year started badly with Apple failing to announce any new Macs at Macworld Expo San Francisco in January, choosing instead to dangle the (disappointing) Apple TV and (risky) iPhone in front of us. In the months that followed we have hoped for, but not seen, an iMac with a touch-sensitive screen, a smaller and lighter MacBook Pro, and a redesigned Mac Pro.

Ok so we got a few more cores in the Mac Pro eventually but even Apple announced that update as quietly as possible, without even issuing a press release…

Karen Haslam | Read more...


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