MacMost: Making the most of your Mac, iPod, Apple TV and iPhone.

   For many of the last ten years the week of MacWorld Expo has been the biggest news week of the year for Apple fans. This year might not be as exciting as 2006 with the announcement of the iPhone, but we had some good news nonetheless.
    Both iLife and iWork and all apps in them are being updated. It looks like iMovie 09 will get some more professional features, and iPhoto will get some new organizational tools. You can read all about the announcements in our special MacMost keynote blog post.
    Apple also announced the new 17-Inch MacBook Pro with similar features to the 15-Inch released a few months ago. One interesting new feature in the 17-Inch is an 8-hour battery that uses some new technology and sits inside the case rather that in a removable compartment.
    Another announcement is that the iTunes music store will finally be switching to a DRM-free model. All songs will be DRM-free by the end of the quarter. In addition, you’ll be able to upgrade your old music to the DRM-free versions. Plus, the $0.99 pricing will be gone, replaced by $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29 prices. Looks like a lot of the older tracks will be at the lower price, making them more competitive with other MP3 services.
    Of course there will be a lot more news this week from companies other than Apple. Many Mac and iPhone-related companies release software and hardware at the MacWorld Expo. Check the MacMost.com Top Apple News page for some of the biggest stories. Also check the All Apple News page to dig deeper and see just about every news story and press release issued this week.

   As expected, this week’s news has been dominated by MacWord Expo rumors. Coming on strong as rumors of an update to the Mac Mini, including a new black and aluminum look and updates that match the video systems in the new MacBooks. This rumor actually makes sense and would fit the level of expectation connected to the keynote given, not by Steve Jobs, but by Apple VP Phil Schiller. A new Mini, along with Snow Leopard details would make sense.
    There is also a new rumor floating around that iWork will be taken online as a set of Web-based apps and part of MobileMe. This seems far more unlikely, as the iWork apps have a lot of functionality that would be difficult to make into Web-based applications. Plus, Apple’s own iWeb, which would seem to be something that should have been Web-based, isn’t.
    Outside of the rumors, the iPhone began selling this week at Walmart, giving Apple another 5,000 locations or so where you can buy the phone. Read my blog post about this strategy. Plus, AT&T began selling refurbished iPhones for only $99.

   It is finally time for the MacWorld rumors to start flying. We’re only two weeks away from the big show now, but it no longer seems like a big show with Steve Jobs sitting it out. Expectations for Apple announcements are low.
    The most outrageous rumors have to do with Apple announcing a new mini-laptop netbook or an iPhone Nano. Other rumors tell of new iMacs or a new Mac Mini. But more sensible rumors say that Apple VP Phil Schiller will simply talk about Snow Leopard during his keynote.
    Outside of the rumors, there is little news. In Britain, Mac users finally get the BBC iPlayer on Macs. This application is used to view BBC programs on computers and the BBC received criticism for originally making it Windows-only.
    The MobileMe service seems to be receiving continuous attention from the developers as Mac OS X 10.5.6 introduced some speed improvements for syncing data — and the Web applications in MobileMe also received updates in the past week.

   Big news this week as Apple dropped a bomb on the Mac community by announcing that there will not be any Steve Jobs keynote at this year’s MacWorld Expo. Even more shocking was the fact that Apple won’t be at next year’s MacWorld Expo at all.
    Not only is this the end of an era for Apple and our community, but it probably means there aren’t going to be any big announcements in January, either. See this blog post about it.
    The Mac OS X team was busy this week with the release of Mac OS 10.5.6. This consisted of lots of bug fixes, and much faster syncing for MobileMe users. There were also some security patches involved, so make sure you run Software Update.
    It’s also time for last-minute holiday shopping. You can get some good gift suggestions for Mac and iPhone users in our latest gift guide.
    We’ve also released a new set of iPhone ringtones this week, featuring Los Angeles artist and podcaster Anji Bee.

   Another slow news week as Apple probably isn’t going to announce anything new until the MacWorld Expo in early January.
    But the iPhone sales division does seem to be busy. AT&T is now allowing customers to order iPhones online, and then activate them at home. Apple started allowing people to purchase iPhone gift certificates a few weeks ago as well, giving you two ways to surprise someone with an iPhone under the tree this year.
    In addition, rumors are flying that Walmart will soon start offering iPhones. This may be a good place to put iPhones since a lot of medium-sized cities and towns in the U.S. don’t have an Apple store, but they usually have a Walmart.
    Iconfactory engineer Craig Hockenberry, who worked on the iPhone apps Frenzic and Twitterific, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs complaining about how there are so many free and 99 cent applications in the iPhone App Store that developing more useful and complex apps is becoming uneconomical. He has a point. You can read his letter here.
    If you were lucky enough to get an new MacBook of any flavor in the last few months, Apple has a firmware update available through the Software Update feature of Mac OS X. Looks like it mostly fixes issues with the power adapter and battery indicator lights.

   The holiday season got off to a good start for Apple, with strong Black Friday sales. This was despite the fact that sales deals offered by Apple on that day were no more special than those in previous years. One interesting addition to the Apple offerings is a gift card good for the purchase of an iPhone. This solves the problem of how to surprise someone with an iPhone while being required to sign up for service before leaving the Apple Store.
    Apple continued into the holiday season by offering free shipping on Monday — traditionally a day for special sales from online stores.
    Topping Apple news this week was the hoopla over a report claiming that an old Apple knowledge base article was instead a call from Apple for Mac users to start buying anti-virus protection. You can check out the MacMost blog post for details.

   Dominating Apple news this week was the release of version 2.2 of the iPhone OS. This included some pretty interesting new features, such as Google Maps street view and the ability to download podcasts directly on the iPhone instead of requiring them to be added to iTunes on your Mac or PC first. See episode 162 of MacMost Now for more details.
    QuickTime update 7.5.7 seems to fix a problem where standard definition movie rentals cannot be watched on an HD screen connected to a Mac. This triggered an HD anti-piracy restriction called HDCP, which is meant only for HD content, not the SD content used for movie rentals in iTunes.
    An update to iTunes itself, version 8.0.2, adds VoiceOver accessibility to control iTunes, plus a quality fix for making .mp3 files with iTunes. A bug was also fixed that may have prevented connecting to the iTunes Store through a proxy server.
    In the United States, this is thanksgiving week, which is followed by “black friday” — a day of shopping and special sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. For the last few years Apple has participated both online and in stores with some special deals. Be sure to check the news at MacMost.com on Friday to see what’s on sale.

   Several small announcements and updates this week from Apple. The AppleTV OS version 2.3 was released, with AirTunes streaming and the support for third-party remote controls. That’s a good idea considering how small the Apple remote is and how easy it is to lose. And, of course, the fact that anyone with a home theater setup (AppleTV’s target market) is using a multi-device universal remote anyway.
    But in other home theater news, Apple has given in to another draconian anti-piracy measure by building in HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) into the new line of MacBooks. That means that you can’t play protected movies you bought from iTunes on large TVs and projectors unless they are “HDCP authorized.” If you are wondering how this is supposed to prevent piracy, or do anything other than upset Apple’s paying customers, you are not alone.
    But then on the other side of the DRM battle, Apple is supposedly in talks with Sony, Warner and Universal to join EMI in allowing Apple to distribute non-DRM versions of their music through iTunes.
    This week we are also finally starting to hear Snow Leopard rumors. The Mac OS X 10.6 operating system is potentially ahead of schedule and may ship earlier in 2009 than expected — perhaps in the first quarter.

   Despite the global economic crisis, 2008 seems to be a year of growth for Apple. A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Apple added more than 13,000 full-time and contract workers. Most of these populate the 50 new Apple stores opened this year. Apple also showed a 40 percent increase in research and development spending. Hopefully that means more cool new products coming next year.
    But one area of 2008 growth, the iPhone App Store, is showing some growing pains. Apple rejected yet another App for questionable reasons. CastCatcher, from developer return7, was simply submitted for an update from version 1.2 to 1.3 when it was rejected because “it is transferring excessive volumes of data over the cellular network.”
    CastCatcher is a streaming radio App, similar to others in the App Store. The developer believes that version 1.3 uses the same amount of bandwidth as these other apps, as well as version 1.2 of CastCatcher, which is still available in the store.
    This is just the latest in a series of puzzling decisions by Apple about which apps to accept and which to reject.
    Significant updates this week include a major batch for the iPod Nano and a new version of Parallels. The iPod Nano update includes support for the new Apple in-ear headphones with remote and microphone, the ability to turn off cover flow, and some bug fixes. Parallels 4.0, software used to run Windows and other OSes in a virtual environment, includes a new look and some significant speed increases.

   Many people have been reading the signs lately and trying to predict the future of the Mac Mini. In fact, it’s death has been prematurely predicted several times before. But Apple responded directly an email from a Mac Mini fan with a phone call. An Apple representative told him that that Apple knows the value of the Mini and seemed to indicate a new version of the machine will be available soon.
    But that probably won’t be until next year, as Apple has stated that no new machine updates will be coming out this year. This is probably to encourage people to go ahead and buy holiday presents and Mac as end-of-year expenses right now. It also makes sense that any major changes will wait until the MacWorld announcements in January.
    The new MacBook Air is shipping, with its upgraded video chips. But the base level machine, with a 1.6GHz processor seems to have been delayed. People with orders have been told they won’t get theirs until after Thanksgiving.
    In iPhone news, it is confirmed that AT&T’s free iPhone WiFi access at Starbucks and other AT&T hotspots is official. We received and email directly from AT&T with the procedure. iPhone users at an AT&T hotspot need to look for the “attwifi” network and then they will be asked for their 10-digit phone number. A free text message will then give them a link to follow to complete the connection.