MacMost: Archives

Apple news was dominated this week by the announcement of all new iMacs, a new unibody white plastic MacBook, new Mac minis and a new wireless mouse. In addition, Apple released its quarterly financial results, pleasing investors and sending the stock price sharply upward.
The new iMac line comes in two screen sizes: 21.5-inch and 27-inch. Both feature faster processors, more memory, larger hard drives and better graphics chips. The 27-inch can also come with new Intel quad-core processors. The new iMacs have an SD card slot and LED-backlit screens.
The new Mac minis also receive speed, memory and drive upgrades. But more interesting is the release of a special Mac mini server product, with two 500GB drives instead of an optical drive. The server comes with Mac OS X Server instead of the desktop version of the OS, and seems to be aimed at business workgroups, not home media serving.
The new MacBook is an update to the only model in the MacBook line, giving it a unibody construction made from white plastic as opposed to the aluminum body of the MacBook Pro. It also updates the laptop with an internal 7-hour batter like the MacBook Pro.
Apple replaced its Mighty Mouse with the new Magic Mouse, a wireless-only mouse with a touch-sensitive top that responds to clicks and gestures. The iMac now comes by default with a wireless mouse and keyboard.
In its financial report, Apple made $1.67 billion profit from $9.87 billion in revenue in the last quarter, beating expectations. A record of 3.05 million Macs were sold in the quarter, up 17 percent from the previous year. In addition, 7.4 million iPhones were sold and 10.2 million iPods. This is an increase in iPhone sales,but a decrease in iPod sales. However, more of the iPods sold were iPod Touches than in previous reports.

Check out the first MacMost Apple Trivia Quiz. Test your knowledge of Apple history. See how many out of 20 questions you can get right.

 

In addition to being a general upgrade to the iMac line, the new iMacs have 12 new and interesting features that you should know about.

You can use GarageBand to edit your video's audio. You can filter the audio, add music, adjust the volume and re-arrange the sound.

Gary Rosenzweig looks at three ways to save and view Web pages outside of Safari, from his new book the MacMost.com Guide to Switching to the Mac.

Interactive Data Corp released its computer sales estimates for the third quarter and declared that Apple now has 9.4% of the U.S. market. This is up from last quarter and last year, even though the numbers include cheap netbooks and Apple has no netbook on the market. Apple still lags behind HP, Dell and Acer in quarterly sales.
A dangerous bug has been reported by some Snow Leopard users that wipes their home folders clean. It isn’t clear why this has happened to a few users, but the connection seems to be logging out of your account, logging into the guest account, and then logging back into your main account. Apple acknowledged that this happens, but only in rare cases. Keeping a Time Machine backup is the best way to protect yourself from this, or from any number of mishaps.
Apple has released a performance update for Leopard and Snow Leopard that “prevents hard drive stalls” — their notes don’t go any further explaining the issue or why the update is a specific download and not a part of the Software Update system. You can find them here for Leopard and Snow Leopard: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL946, http://support.apple.com/kb/DL947.

I often get asked about iPhone cases. People want to know which one is the best one, or which one is right for them.
Not only is it hard for me to tell which is best, but I can’t even pretend to have seen or used even a fraction of the hundreds of cases out there.
But I can see the problem. After all, if you go to an online store, you can see there are hundreds of cases. If you go to a retail store, like the Apple Store, you only see a fraction of those. My local store has a maybe three dozen cases on display. I figure that’s only 5% of what is really available.
So I created a new section of MacMost called the iPhone Case Finder. Basically it lists all 700+ iPhone and iPod Touch cases, including only ones that are in stock or can be shipped quickly. So you don’t need to look at hundreds more that you can’t really get.
You can narrow the search by color, manufacturer, iPhone/iPod model and a variety of style choices.
The results are then put in a list that you can roll over to dig deeper by viewing images and reading descriptions. Then just click to go to Amazon and buy one if you fall in love.
Hope you like this new section and find it useful.

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the section on printing and sharing pictures from his new book the MacMost.com Guide to Switching to the Mac.

Learn how to start your own blog using a free blogging service. Get tips about which topic to choose, what to do to get off to a good start, and learn about common blogging mistakes.

Learn about the new book from MacMost.com. It is a complete guide to learning to use Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Written for both switchers and people who want to learn more about their Mac, the book teaches the fundamentals of using the operating system and the applications that come with every Mac. You can find out more about the book at https://macmost.com/book.

At Adobe’s develop conference this week it was revealed that Flash, the popular tool for building Web site games and applications, can soon be used to develop iPhone apps. These apps would be compiled native apps for the iPhone, not simply files that play back in a Flash player as they do on the Web.
Flash is the main significant features of the Web that is missing from the iPhone’s Safari Web browser. However, these apps would be no different than today’s stand-alone apps that you can download from the iTunes App Store. They would be created using Flash, but appear as apps no different that what is developed today using Apple’s XCode tool. However, it would mean that a whole new set of developers could create apps without needing to learn to use new tools. It would also allow old Flash content to be turned into new apps for the iPhone.
Apple resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week. Apple disagrees with the Chamber’s opposition to EPA policies concerning greenhouse gas emissions. Other companies, such as Pacific Gas and Electric and Nike have also left the Chamber.
Rumors continue to build behind the fabled Apple Tablet device. Now some say that Foxconn, who already makes many of Apple’s products, will be the manufacturer, and the device will appear early next year.
In addition to continued Tablet rumors, other rumors point to new iMacs and MacBooks coming soon. There is even talk of a new Mac mini with a lower price point.

The title bar in Finder and document windows is more than just decoration. You can drag the proxy icon to copy or attach files. You can use the title to determine the file path and jump to parent folders.

The Image Capture program on your Mac can give you direct control over the pictures on your digital camera. You can even take pictures with your camera while connected to your Mac. You can also create Web pages and PDFs using your photos.

Interviews with iPhone app developers from the 360iDev conference. The developers talk about their apps, what they like about making iPhone and iPod Touch apps, what they don't like, and how others can get started in the business.

The MacMost.com Guide to Switching to the Mac is now in stock in local and online bookstores. You can purchase it today at Amazon.
MacMost.com founder Gary Rosenzweig quickly gets you comfy with your new Mac, demonstrates the “Mac way” to perform every common Windows task, and shows how to do more with Macs than you ever could in Windows… way more!
But the book isn’t just for switchers. It is for anyone who wants to get the most from their Mac. Even experienced Mac users will find useful tips, tricks and techniques.
It’s all here — everything from choosing the right Mac to creating your own videos and DVDs. Rosenzweig covers the latest Macs and the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. Best of all, he focuses on what today’s computer users need to know, including loads of coverage of using your Mac on the Web.
Every Mac switcher needs a friendly Mac expert to show them the ropes. With this book, you’ve got yours!

• Discover what’s different about your Mac’s hardware and software — and what’s similar, too
• Navigate the Finder and learn how Mac files are organized
• Make the most of the Mac’s built-in applications
• Move your stuff from your PC to your new Mac
• Use Safari, Mac’s great built-in Web browser
• Set up Mac email, instant messaging, and audio and video chatting
• Share, back up, and archive your files
• Choose and use Mac business and productivity applications
• Organize your music and buy new songs with iTunes
• Import, manage, edit, and share your photos
• Create awesome videos with iMovie, QuickTime, and iDVD
• Run Windows on your Mac, if you must
• Keep your Mac up to date and running smoothly

You can read more about the book and see a table of contents at http://macmost.com/book.

The free program Fluid allows you to create applications that display a single site in a Safari-like browser. You can use it to turn sites like Gmail into applications, and also access lots of advanced browser functionality not present in Safari.

You can connect two Macs together by re-booting one into Firewire target disk mode. This allows the first Mac to access the second as a Firewire drive. You can then transfer files between the two computers faster than using a network.

You can use three different methods to create links to the iTunes store. These links will automatically open up the iTunes application and take you to the song, artist, video, app, podcast or section in the iTunes Store.

Apple quickly released a dot-version of iTunes, version 9.0.1 to fix many of the bugs that people reported in the first few days after iTunes 9’s release. The bug fixes affected the iTunes store, iPod and iPhone syncing, Genius mixes and more.
Adobe announced a new version of Photoshop Elements for Mac. Version 8 is advertised as working well with iPhoto. You can use an external editor in iPhoto 09 to touch up or alter your pictures. Photoshop Elements is a low-priced version of Photoshop that leaves out some pro features that most users don’t need unless they work as a professional graphic artist or photographer.
While Apple’s tablet remains just a rumor, Microsoft has announced a tablet product. However, it is only a prototype with no release date and few details. It might give us a clue as to what Apple has in mind. The “Courier” is a two-screen tablet that opens like a notebook.

Snow Leopard includes a new version of iCal that lets you edit events in two new ways that make it much easier to use iCal as your calendar program. You can also easily import and sync Google and Yahoo calendars.