MacMost: Archives

MacMost's look at what could be in store for Apple fans in 2010. Rumors point to a new tablet product, as well as changes in iTunes. We can also expect updates as usual, including a new iPhone in 2010. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Take a look back at the year in Apple news. Steve Jobs leaves and returns, new iPods, new Macs, Snow Leopard, AT&T and iPhone controversy, the iPhone 3GS and more.

Where do Mac users buy their digital music? Well, overwhelmingly they purchase at iTunes. Despite the many mentions I hear of alternative music sources, nearly 75% buy from iTunes.

I wish I could compare this to the same poll taken a year ago, just before Apple announced that iTunes would be DRM-free. Since removing copy protection, I have removed my own personal boycott of iTunes. (My problem was that DRM hurt honest music buyers like myself much more than it hurt pirates).

For online sales there was a strong runner up in Amazon.com. Amazon has been selling DRM-free mp3 files for some time now and nearly 25% of those responding said they have purchased from Amazon.

But Amazon was only in 3rd place. In 2nd place with a 35% response was “Buy physical CDs, then rip them to my Mac/iPod.” This was the original method for getting music on to your iPod before the iTunes store was born. And it was the method I used for years to avoid DRM.

A lot of other services were listed in the poll, but none received more than a 3% response. This shows just mow much of a hold iTunes has on the industry.

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Here is the original poll post:
Where do you buy your downloadable music? Do you get it from the iTunes Music Store? Or, do you have another source? Perhaps you purchase CDs and rip them to iTunes instead of buying online? Let’s narrow down the scope of the poll by not including free sources of music, but only places where you purchase music. And, of course, the music must be compatible with the Mac and iPod or iPhone. You can select up to 6 answers if you use more than one of these services.

Do you use a dictionary word, date or common password for your online accounts? Then it is only a matter of time before your accounts are compromised. Learn how to use strong passwords for your online accounts to protect yourself. You can use the Mac OS X Password Assistant to create random letter and number combinations. Read more about online password security at http://macmost.com/online-password-security.html.

The MacMost.com Guide to Online Password Security
When you create an account at a Web site you are usually asked to provide a password. What do you choose? Your child’s name? Your dog’s name? Your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Choosing a weak password opens your account up to being invaded. Someone could mess around with your Facebook status and spam your friends. Someone could order gifts for themselves on your Amazon account. Someone could drain your bank account or credit card. Or, worse, they could steal your identity and cause problems that could last for years.

If more than one person uses your Mac, you should set up multiple user accounts so each person has their own space for files and their own application preferences. You can use Fast User Switching to keep multiple accounts logged in at the same time so applications remain running and documents remain open.

With the end of the year here and not much news coming from Apple or third-party product makers, the rumor mill is filling the news void. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are reporting rumors that the Apple tablet device is almost here, with perhaps a January announcement from Apple and availability a month or two later.
Other rumors point to a smaller-than-expected device with a 7-inch screen instead of a 10-inch one. This would certainly indicate a gadget more like the iPod Touch than a touch-screen Mac. We’ll keep tracking the rumors at the Apple rumors page at MacMost.com.
Other rumors talk about Apple offering a subscription music and/or video service that would include some television networks. The idea would be that you could subscribe to the service and get television programs as an alternative to cable or satellite TV. Reports are that Disney and CBS will offer programming over the service, while NBC, ABC and Fox may wait and see.
There is also an update this week in the 27-inch iMac screen situation. Apple has released an update that may fix some screen issues for some new iMac owners.

You can use Smart Albums in iPhoto 09 to get a list of all photos taken with a single camera, like the iPhone 3GS. You can also use other criteria like camera settings, keywords, descriptions, ratings and dates. Smart Albums update automatically and will sync back to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Take a look at Back to My Mac, a feature of MobileMe that allows you to easily connect to your home Mac while away. You can share files and the screen. Back to My Mac will communicate with MobleMe so you can connect even if you are on a different network and have changing dynamic IP addresses.

Skitch is a free tool that can be used to capture your screen and then draw on the image. You can also start with a blank image, photo or any file. You can export the result or upload it to the Skitch Web site to share.

If you want a new 27-inch iMac for Christmas, you’re going to have to settle for next year. Shipping times for the largest-ever iMac have now slipped to two weeks or more. Many are speculating that this is due to the numerous reports of screen problems with the larger iMacs. But Apple simply states that it is due to the popularity of the model.
The reports are of cracked screens or screen flickering. It is apparently in a small minority of the 27-inch iMacs. It is unclear whether it might be caused by a manufacturing defect or damages during shipping.
Apple tweaked the design of the App Store inside the iTunes Music Store this week to re-arrange information on the app pages. Now when you view information about an app, you can see screen shots in a horizontal scrolling area and much of the specifics of each app are in a sidebar to the left.

Web developers creating pages specifically for the iPhone can ask for GPS location data on their Web pages with some simply JavaScript. See a basic example that can be used to get the latitude and longitude of the iPhone viewing the Web page.

A basic look at Energy Saver Preferences. These can be used to reduce the power consumption of your Mac when you are not using it. You can also schedule shut down or sleep patterns, and set how how Mac behaves while it is asleep.

Dropbox creates a folder on your drive that automatically syncs with a remote server. You can then access these files from your other Macs and iPhone, as well as share them with friends or everyone. It is a good way to keep a set of files in sync if you have more than one Mac.

Both real news and rumors combined this week to give us a potential picture of Apple’s future. In the real news area, Apple purchased Lala, a company that ran an iTunes-competitor, with a twist. Lala allowed you to access your music everywhere, by storing it on the Internet, or “in the cloud.” Theoretically, this could mean that the future of iTunes will look more like a service where you buy a license to hear a song, and then that song is instantly available on any of your net-connected devices.
On the rumors front, several analysts are predicting that an iPhone 4G is in the works, and that it may be available on Verizon in the U.S. next year. In addition, more speculation about Apple’s tablet device place a release date for that at March of 2010 at a whopping price of $1,000.
In third-party software news, Google released a beta version of the Google Chrome browser for Mac, and says they plan to have extensions for this version, unlike the earlier Alpha release.
Adobe announced that the Flash player for Mac will be switching to Intel-only in 2010, leaving PowerPC Mac users with a stable but never-to-be-updated version of Flash. They say this is because new performance enhancements will require Intel processors.

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts for Mac users. There are Finder shortcuts, system shortcuts, application shortcuts and more. Many you can find by just looking through the menu bar for that application. You can find system ones by looking in the System Preferences under Keyboard.

But some keyboard shortcuts are more useful than others. And some are harder to remember than others.
So MacMost has compiled a list of our top “power user” keyboard shortcuts. Here they all are on a single PDF page, downloadable and printable: The MacMost Snow Leopard Power User Keyboard Shortcuts. Download it and pass it along!

Instead of letting iTunes update podcasts every hour or in the middle of the day, you can schedule iTunes to check at night. Using a simple AppleScript and scheduling it to run with iCal you can have new podcast episodes waiting for you when you get to your Mac in the morning.

If you want to go beyond the default titles built into iMovie 09, you can create your own titles in a graphic editor. You can bring them into iMovie as titles between clips, or as overlays on top of existing video.

You can customize your Safari toolbar by adding a variety of buttons and re-arranging them. You can also revert to the default set. You can specify which buttons stick around when the window shrinks. Interesting additions include a New Tab button, an Add Bookmark button, Mail and Print buttons and Zoom buttons.

Two major legal battles in the Apple world wound down this week when AT&T and Verizon seemed to call a ceasefire and Apple scored a key victory over clone maker Psystar.
AT&T sued Verizon over its “map” ads that claim Verizon has more 3G coverage than AT&T. AT&T didn’t like how the maps ignore 2.5G Edge networking and seemed to suggest that no connectivity was available outside of the 3G map areas. Verizon did alter the ads to remove a “Out of touch” label for non-3G areas, but AT&T pressed on. However, this week AT&T dropped the suit, and Verizon dropped its countersuit. Perhaps the two companies decided to spend their money improving their networks rather than paying lawyers?
AT&T has since countered with its own ad spots pointing out iPhone features and the ability of its 3G network to handle data and voice at the same time.
Psystar, who makes PCs that come with Mac OS X installed, settled with Apple in their legal case. Apple got them to stop selling their Mac clones and pay $2.7 million. But Psystar’s lawyers say they will appeal the settlement to a higher court, which could take years. An interesting tidbit came from one report stating that Psystar only sold 768 Mac clones since it started.
More iPhone carrier rumors floated around this week as analysts predicted that perhaps both T-Mobile and Sprint may be able to carry the iPhone next year when AT&T exclusivity runs out. Verizon’s involvement seems less likely now, considering their strong anti-iPhone ad campaign for the Droid phone.