MacMost: Archives

Another week, another Apple news story controversy. Apple audited its manufacturing suppliers and made the report public this week. You can read it here. It is important to note that Apple did this on its own, and other companies that use the same or similar suppliers don’t even do this kind of audit.
They found two main problems: underage workers, and employees working more than 60 hours per week or 6 days per week. The underage worker problem was just 11 workers that were 15 instead of 16 when hired, although they were now either of age or no longer employed.
But some press covered the story like Apple was trying to hide something instead of brining it to light themselves. Other news sources then jumped to Apple’s defense, praising the company for going beyond simple compliance with the law.
Next week is the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and it looks like developer Valve will be announcing a major push into the Mac gaming work. They produce games like Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead.
Rumors this week center around Apple establishing a cloud storage service for music and video. The idea would be that people could buy music and video from iTunes, and not have to store them on their local hard drives. So you could purchase movie after movie from Apple and just access the files over the Internet instead of locally.

You can use the Safari Bookmarks Bar to store you more often accessed bookmarks. But you can also use folders there to store larger numbers of bookmarks and groups of related bookmarks.

The Trash in Mac OS X is a failsafe device to prevent you from accidentally deleting items. But many people use it as a holding place for files that they aren't sure about. Learn how to use the Trash properly so you keep files around that you may need, and delete only the ones you are sure you want to get rid of forever.

If you add birthdays to your contacts in Address Book, it will create a special Birthdays calendar in iCal. You can use this to keep track of your friends' birthdays, although functionality is very limited.

Package files are somewhere between folders and disk images. The most notable one is your iPhoto Library, which is a collection of files protected inside a package file that you can still open and view. Installers are another common type of package file.

The free program Scratch from MIT allows you to learn how to program using a simple drag-and-drop interface. You can make and share your own games. You can even view examples made by others. This is great for children and adults who want to learn basic programming.

Apple shook up the iPhone App Store and the developer community this last week with the removal of about 5,000 apps that it deemed too overtly sexual. In messages sent to these developers, Apple cited complaints from customers as the reason for removing the apps.
For the most part, these apps did not include any nudity, as that was not allowed in the app store. Instead, many of them featured women in bikinis or other revealing clothing.
The controversy over this move comes from three areas. First, the developers were given little or no warning of the change in policy. Second, apps like the one from large companies like Playboy and Sports Illustrated were left in the store. Third, many non-sexual apps were caught in the dragnet, including at least one eBook and the shopping app SimplyBeach which included bikinis in their app-based catalog.
This sort of action also scares developers outside of that genre as it shows how quickly a business built around iPhone app development can be destroyed by a single decision inside of Apple. Many app developers are small and single-person companies.
In other news, the iTunes Music Store served up its 10 billionth song this week. Since its launch in 2003 iTunes has become the world’s largest music retailer.
A school district in Pennsylvania has been accused of spying on students and their families through the iSight cameras of MacBooks given out by the schools. One family filing a lawsuit against the schools says they have proof that pictures were taken in their home by the school district using the cameras. Each MacBook has anti-theft software installed that enables the use of the cameras this way. The irony here is strong, considering the original announcement of the Macintosh in 1984 used an anti-big brother theme.

Most video cameras produce files in a format that iMovie can handle right away. However, some cameras use special video formats that iMovie can't read without your help. There are three strategies you can use to get incompatible video into iMovie: installing software that comes with your camera, researching solutions on the company Web site, or converting the video using free third-party tools.

You can go even further with Print As PDF by printing into Preview and then saving the preview document. You can reduce the file size or apply any number of Quartz filters. You can even make your own filter. You can also save as an encrypted PDF.

If you have a wireless network at home you should set up wireless security. It is as simple as setting a password through the Airport Utility application or the Web interface of your wireless router. This will not only prevent others from accessing your network and using your Internet connection, but it will also encrypt your data.

Looks like Apple spent this week cleaning up some dusty corners. First, they released a Mac Pro update to fix a nasty bug in 2009 Mac Pros that made the processor go wild when playing some audio. The update has been long-awaited by many.
Next, Apple gave the gift of a free update to iPod Touch users. Touch users have had to pay for their OS updates, unlike iPhone users who apparently pay by having a mobile phone contract. These $10 updates have been skipped by many users, leaving Apple having to support older versions of the OS. So this week Apple suddenly made the 3.0 OS update available for free via the regular update channels. Those with an iPod Touch who stuck with version 2.0 of the OS apparently only need to check for updates through iTunes while their Touch is connected. But reports of this working are sporadic, as it would require someone who hasn’t updated yet.
Then Apple decided to deal with a rare hard drive issue that affects some MacBook users who purchased in 2006 and 2007. Apple is reportedly offering a free repair if you have the issue, even though your warranty is long gone. If you think you might be affected, check out this page at the Apple site.
Outside of the mothership, an interesting third-party software development took place this week when Dragon acquired MacSpeech. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the leader in speak-to-type software for Windows. MacSpeech used Dragon’s engine in their Mac software. I guess Dragon decided that MacSpeech was doing well enough for them to enter the Mac market again by simply acquiring the company. So soon MacSpeech won’t just be “close” to NaturallySpeaking, it probably will be NaturallySpeaking.

Learn how to walk away from your Mac without worrying about others easily getting access to your data or messing up your settings. By setting your Mac to log you out, or require a password when you have left it, you can walk away from a Mac in a semi-public area like your work space or home office.

Text Clippings allow you to save pieces of text as small files in the Finder and drag them into text documents and fields. You can create them by dragging text from an application to the Finder.

Gary Rosenzweig tackles the controversial question of whether you need to buy anti-virus software for your Mac. There are currently no active Mac viruses and anti-virus software could cause unexpected problems. Staying informed and up-to-date is a better option.

Typically, the week of MacWorld Expo is the biggest week of the year for Apple news. But not this year. Without Apple’s participation there is little to report, in fact. The Expo is about half the size it was last year, taking up only one hall in San Francisco’s Moscone Center instead of two. And the press releases and announcements are more of the side-show variety, with new iPhone cases, apps, third-party Mac software updates, and a few new gadgets.
Apple’s only major announcement this week is the release of a new version of Aperture, their professional-level photo management and editing software. This new version catches up with the cheaper iLife application iPhoto by adding Faces and Places. Aperture is more in line with Adobe’s Lightroom software, also meant for the professional crowd. Also new in Aperture 3 are a set of new slideshow creation features that produce HD video slideshows.

Audacity is a free open source sound editor that anyone who edits audio should have on their Mac. It allows you to record, edit, alter and export sounds. It can be much easier to use than GarageBand for simple tasks.

The Sonos ZonePlayers are devices for playing music from your Mac or streaming service through your home network. Take a look at the S5 and the ZP90 ZonePlayers and see how they work. You can also get a ZoneBridge to use your ZonePlayers wirelessly. Sonos Web site. Sonos at Amazon.com.

Go beyond bookmarks by using your Safari History as an endless bookmarking system. The trick is to learn how to search your history to find pages you have visited hours or days ago. This powerful feature of the Web browser is often overlooked by new Mac users and long-time users alike.

With so much hype built up around the iPad before its launch, it is not surprising that the device couldn’t live up to it. Many Apple fanboys turned against their favorite company this week, complaining that the iPad doesn’t live up to their expectations. Specifically, many wish it had a camera, multitasking, longer battery life, and support for Adobe Flash.
Other articles are pushing back against this backlash, pointing out how the iPhone was a success and it didn’t have a ready-to-go App Store like the iPad will have at launch.
A pair of updates came out this week for iTunes and the iPhone OS. iTunes 9.0.3 fixes a bug where iTunes forgets what you specify for “remember password for purchases.” It also reportedly fixes bugs having to do with smart playlists and podcasts. The iPhone OS update, version 3.1.3 improves battery reporting and fixes a number of bugs and security issues.

Since the Magic Mouse's surface is one big touch-sensitive area, it was only a matter of time before third-party developers came up with solutions for adding custom gestures. By installing free and inexpensive system extensions, you can assign commands to various swipes and taps.