MacMost: Archives

“The new MacBook Air weighs -3 ounces. Would you like me to get one down from the ceiling for you?”

Another great way to share photos is with Google's free Picasa service. You can use the Mac application to upload photos and then share them with friends or embed a slideshow on your own web site.

MobileMe photo galleries are one of many ways to share photos with friends. You can create them directly from iPhoto. They can be shared publicly or password-protected. You can allow your friends to download the photos or even add to the gallery.

Learn how to use Styles in iWork Pages. You can apply styles to paragraphs or characters, redefine styles already in place, and select all text that uses a specific style. Styles are an important tool for document creation in Pages.

Since the reporting last week that iPhones keep a record of location data, information and misinformation has been inundating the tech news world. This week Apple responded to the reports.
Turns out that iPhones have been keeping cache of cell phone tower positions, not tracking your exact location. And this information is stored on your iPhone and backed up to your computer along with everything else on your iPhone. But it is not sent to Apple or anyone else. The data apparently helps speed up location determination used by apps.

“I’m concerned about my iPhone keeping track of every place I go.”
“Because it is an invasion of privacy?”
“No, because I’m afraid someone will find out how boring I am.”

Update: This technique also now works with the iPhone 4S.
Update: See episode 702 for a new method of doing this.
Learn how I capture the iPad 2's screen to use in presentations and video podcasts. You must use the iPad 2 plus the HDMi adapter. Then bring the HDMI in to your Mac or recording device using special hardware and software.

You can assign rules to keyboard shortcuts with the Mail extension Mail-Act On. This makes it easy to send messages to folders without your hands leaving the keyboard. You can also assign rules to outgoing messages and alter how Mail sets the read status of messages.

Ever wanted to know what goes into creating iPhone cases? Learn how iPhone and iPad cases are designed and tested at OtterBox, a maker of rugged protective cases. See interviews with designers and technicians and look at some of the equipment they use.

Another fantastic quarterly report from Apple was issued yesterday. Here are some of the more interesting points:

Apple reported a profit of $5.99 billion on revenue of $24.67 billion.

In the same quarter last year, those numbers were only $3.07 billion and $13.50 billion.

This was the best non-holiday quarter in Apple’s history, but the numbers almost topped the last holiday quarter to be the best overall.

About 3.76 million Macs were sold, a 28 percent increase over last year. Strong sales of the new MacBook Pros and MacBook Air.

About 18.65 million iPhones were sold, a 113 percent increase from last year, probably due to Verizon iPhone sales.

In the end Tom was thankful that Apple didn’t make the iPad’s screen less reflective.

Many new Mac users have some common misconceptions about their Macs and how they work. See if you are operating under any incorrect assumptions. Add to the list of common misconceptions below.

You can have Pages automatically create a table of contents based on the styles you have assigned to paragraphs in your text. With a little more work you can also have the table of contents automatically insert numbers and subchapters.

With the most recent iOS on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch you can use AirPrint to print a document from some apps to some printers. Find out which printers are compatible and how the printing process works.

A long-anticipated update to Apple’s video editing application is close to release. The new Final Cut Pro X will come out in June. It is a complete rewrite of the software to take advantage of multiple processor cores for better performance.
In addition, some new features including editing while importing, resolution independent playback and scalable rendering. It will support resolutions up to the very high quality 4K format. It will also recognize faces in shots allowing for a variety of localized effects.

“My new stock prediction algorithm takes into account futures markets, analyst reports, word currencies and Steve Jobs’ complexion.”

Learn how to find information on the web by bypassing search engines and going right to information-rich sites like WIkipedia, IMDB, AllMusic and Twitter. You can also use map searches and site-specific searches to find information.

You can record multiple microphones each into its own track in GarageBand. First you must set up an aggregate device using the Audio MIDI Setup utility. Then you need to enable multitrack recording in GarageBand and give each track a channel from the aggregate device. To get all microphones working well it takes some trial and error.

If you must browse the web using your MacBook, iPad or iPhone on a public wifi network, you will want to use https whenever possible. Many major sites allow you to force https using an account setting.

What’s next for Apple? With the iPad 2 selling furiously worldwide, the rumor mill tries to forecast what is in store for the rest of the year.
Many observers note that it is time for an iMac update. Some rumors point to early May with new processors and the Thunderbolt port to match the MacBook Pro.
Rumors of a new iPhone vary between a normal late June release or a delayed release in the fall that may include 4G capability. Apple will most likely update iOS to version 5 at the same time. Some say this will include deeper voice command integration.
We’ve been expecting a major update to the Final Cut Pro video editing suite, and some are now saying it will be announced later this month. In addition, the next iPod Nano may get a camera like the previous version.
There are also continued rumors that Apple will be adding a cloud service to their product line. It may simply be a way to store your iTunes music online rather than on your hard drive.