Apple Grrl

In amusing news today, CNET UK delivers a feisty look at OS X vs Vista – Elizabethan Duel style. Imagine if the Bard himself took a stab at the rivalry, backed up by his acting troupe in tights and full regalia, and you’ve got the picture. not just any tights, either, but spandex. The characters in this little drama? Baron Vista (in orange), Count OS X (in black) and the person whose attentions they vye for – Maiden Mainstream.

The operating systems are in a duel for Maiden Mainstreams attentions, complete with medievil tasks to complete to the jousting judges satisfaction. The tournament of operating systems has them completing the tasks side by side for comparison. May the best OS win!

Their task is to win the hand of the fair Maiden Mainstream, played as in olden times by the hairy bloke in the dress. They’ll be trying to woo ‘her’ by completing a series of old-world challenges. The outcomes are determined by how good each OS’ security, performance and usability aspects are.

Is OS X trendier, easier and safer than the competition? Or is Vista the new king of the hill? Which one gets the chick? The battle lines have been drawn, gloves have been slapped across faces — it’s time for a smackdown, Shakespeare style.

To read the full comparison, a la Shakespeare, click here. the comparison categories are: Security, Performance, and Usability.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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In recent months some consumers had complained of battery issues with their MacBooks. A few claimed their laptops had caught fire, most just said they were too hot to handle – reaching temperatures unsafe for human laps. Personally, I downloaded the firmware update Apple offers for this and it has worked just fine for my MacBook, but not everyone was convinced that was enough.

Apple has a reputation for listening to its customers and offering viable solutions to problems. The battery problem has been no exception. Apple acknowledged their MacBook battery design had issues today and presented users with a fix. The fix is a simple software update for the battery. Used in tandem with the latest version of firmware for your MacBook, it should solve the hot battery issue for all consumers.

You can grab the battery update from this page.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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The quest for the perfect iPod case or skin consumes iPod junkies everywhere. Do you want one that protects your iPod, or one that makes it your own? Do you think of your iPod as a tool, or as a kind of pet or accessory? If you want to truly customize your iPod, you may fall in love with iFrogz custom iPod cases.

The site works on a build-your-own basis, with full customization possible for around $30 USD. The cases are made with three components – wrapz © , bandz © and screenz ©. The components can be any one a large number of colors and combinations, and the screenz can be plain colored or have a picture on them (the screenz go over the click wheel).

If you’ve been looking for the perfect iPod case, head on over to iFrogz and design one of your own that expresses you perfectly.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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You’ve all heard me gush about Adium, my favorite software for handling multiple instant messager programs. Well, one of the programmers associated with Adium has decided to take on Firefox for Mac. He’s decided that it has some basic functionality issues that need to be addressed. He is soliciting ideas over on his blog, here.

So far he has received the following suggestions:

To start you off, here are some things I know people want:

* Native Form Widgets (currently scheduled for Firefox 3)
* Keychain Integration
* Firefox should have a Unified toolbar (not completely hopeless, it turns out)
* Performance could be better (as always)

If you are a Firefox for Mac user with a wish list, go to his blog and give him your two cents!

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Today is a travel day for Apple Reporter, so let me entice you with goodies for your Mac:

Keyboard skins for your MacBook. Trouble seeing the letters on your MacBook? Type so much the letters are wearing off? Never fear, lettered skins are here, for under $25 USD.

Trivia junkies now have an outlet for their addiction made for the iPod. Now you can show off your esoteric knowledge of all things useless anywhere you go with iQuiz, available at the iTunes store.

Samsung announced its breakthrough in RAM today, touting the develop of a 4GB stacked memory stick, expanding the possibilities of computer memory and reducing space usage exponentially.

Tired of your plain white MacBook 13″? Skin it with a laptop skin representing any of your interests, teams, hobbies or more. Sold by SkinIt.

See more cool Mac stuff every Monday on MacObserver.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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After striking such a successful and well-received deal with EMI for DRM-free music, Apple plans to continue its successful bid against DRM by meeting with the remaining three major record labels. As expected, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner are all upset at the “unfair” deal struck by EMI and Apple. The deal between EMI and Apple embraces the future of digital music delivery, and has little to no resemblance to the bloated cash cow the music industry has been used to. The other three record labels are upset EMI didn’t try for a bigger piece of the music pie, and of Apple’s pie.

“EMI struck a deal that puts all of us at a disadvantage,” said an anonymous music executive. EMI defends its position, saying that consumers were frustrated with DRM protection. “We believe removing it will boost digital music overall,” an EMI spokeswoman said.

It is said that the three remaining major labels will try in typical greedy fashion to push for a share of iPod sales and restrictions on iTunes, among other things. I still hold firm that refusal to let go of old industry standards will continue to hamper the music industry. It is my hope that Apple will stand firm against the price gouging and greed that these companies view as their birthright and force them to change with the times by not giving them the extra money and needless restrictions they seek.

You can read the full article here.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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In June 2006, a story blipped on the Apple radar screen about “irregularities” in their stock option trading between 1997 and 2001. Mac loyalists immediately decried the accusations as false, especially considering the Apple and Steve Jobs reported the irregularities to the Securities and Exchange Commission themselves. Not only that, the stock options did not benefit Jobs or anyone else – they were cancelled in 2003 and never cashed in.

Today it was revealed by The Mercury News (free registration required for viewing) that charges against Jobs remain unlikely, as evidence points to no intentional wrongdoing on his part or on the part of the company. From the article:

An internal investigation released in December found no evidence of wrongdoing by Jobs, but that did not remove the cloud of suspicion over the company’s powerful CEO. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco have continued to look into the matter, including interviewing Jobs – and signs point to the SEC soon finishing its investigation.

Pointing to Jobs’ innocence:

If Jobs avoids criminal charges for the 2001 grant – easily the most explosive revelation in Apple’s backdating report – he may avoid criminal charges entirely.

He has a considerable defense against any charges for his role in Apple’s backdating because there is little, if any, evidence he knew of its accounting implications.

An internal audit also found no wrongdoing by Jobs at Pixar, where similar evidence has turned up general backdating of options on his watch as CEO there.

If you want to register at The Mercury News and get the full story, including a nice summary of events over the years, click here.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Apple is reaching out to the masses by tapping the discount box store with the slightly “edgier” reputation (Target) to sell it’s hip new Apple TV. Each Target will have a fully functional Apple TV display using a High Definition Television, which will give users a chance to disprove the rumors that Apple TV doesn’t have the chops to play well with High Definition screens.

Apple’s choice of Target over other discount box stores like WalMart or KMart reflects their desire to market to a certain “hip” demographic, as reflected in their current “I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC.” ad campaign. Target has been known over that last few years for going out of its way to tap into the market for people seeking hip, edgy trends at an affordable price. They have been using top designers to design their clothing, furniture and household products, so introducing Apple is a perfect fit for their target (sic) market.

Apple TV is currently being offered at Target online for $299 USD, and is scheduled to hit Target stores by the end of the month.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Apple has long been a pioneer of wireless home networking solutions. First to introduce and perfect home networking using the 802.11.b standard they pioneered as early as 1999 and the UFO shaped Airport wireless router, Apple has continued to perfect its wireless technology ever since. It was also the first to take the newer 802.11.g wireless standard to the public with its updated Airport Express and Airport Extreme wireless router line.

Apple is continuing to produce innovative wireless applications, improving on the wireless 802.11.g standard by introducing the next generation Airport using 802.11.n – the very latest in wireless technology, currently under development. Their next home network Airport wireless router is being made to look more like their Apple TV and Mac Mini line of products than the original space ship shaped Airports of the past. This new Airport design has a compact footprint and new features to compliment its new technology.

With the ability to use multiple 802.11 technologies, not just the newest, various connections and USB storage slated to be included, this new generation router from Apple will take home networking to the next level and make network storage and backup functionality to the next level. It includes three ethernet ports, which opens your network possibilities to include your printers and non-wireless computers as well as the standard ability to support up to 10 wireless connections at a time. Because it incorporates the older technology as well, you won’t be forced to update any older computers. Don’t you love how Apple always makes sure expensive upgrades aren’t required to use their newest technology? I know I do.

In true Apple fashion, they have been shipping the majority of their hardware with 802.11.n ready cards since late in 2006. Only a few products, such as the bare bones iMac, have shipped without the card. Once this new router is released in 2008, you can install a small software patch that will activate the added functionality in the card that was shipped with products such as the MacBook and most iMacs. This little upgrade is reported to cost $1.99 – small change to avoid having to upgrade your wireless card, as you would with most PC technology upgrades.

Apple is even offering you the chance to choose your network band with this router. It will work on a 2.4Ghz band like current technology does, or you can choose a 5.8 Ghz band and enjoy less wireless traffic and interference. The new technology also has two-channel combination ability, meaning it will automatically combine two open channels to make one faster channel. This means you can use your laptop even farther away from the next generation base station, and enjoy faster internet and network usability.

The new Airport base stations support several kinds of security, which means you can design a secure network around whatever hardware combination you have. They’ve even included the new WPA2 security for the latest in protection against data and identity theft. In the early models, the USB storage will have to be in a separate USB device. Later models have plans to include storage right in the unit to accommodate your data in one piece of hardware.

Apple has taken the superior capabilities of the new Airport into consideration for its next OS release: OS 10.5 Leopard. Leopard will include a new software program called Time Machine designed to automatically back up your data to the USB storage device you hook up to your Airport. Once again apple steps up to match its innovative hard ware with innovative software included – no extra purchase necessary. The wireless capability of storing to a USB device is the first step on the road to a total home computing and home storage network. Once again Apple leads the charge in innovative technology easy enough for anyone to use.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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By now half the planet has heard or read the Greenpeace article on Apple and how it is not considered a Green (environmentally friendly) company. Greenpeace ranked 14 electronics manufacturers for “greenness” and Apple came in last. I can’t say I’m too concerned as an Apple customer. Greenpeace as an organization started slipping in credibility with me a while back when their Sea Shepherd arm was in a brouhaha off the coast of Japan, among other things. I think they have nice ideals, but perhaps have allowed themselves to slip behind the times. But I digress… apparently I am not the only one who takes Greenpeace with a grain of salt:

An Apple spokeswoman said the company rejects Greenpeace’s ranking system and that its products are among the “greenest” on the market, pointing to more technical ratings used by the Green Electronics Council. “We disagree with Greenpeace’s rating and the criteria they chose,” Apple spokeswoman Sheryl Seitz said, reading a prepared statement. “Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as many BFRs (brominated flame retardants).”

Apple mentioned gong by the standards of the Green electronics Council, which ranked them slightly higher than Lenovo, the company Greenpeace ranked first this year.

The Green Electronics Council, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, runs a web site that allows buyers to judge products on a score comprised of 23 different categories established by the IEE, including the materials used, energy conservation and packaging. Apple scored generally better than Lenovo and Dell.

In short, the Greenpeace study was incomplete, leaving out a variety of chemicals Apple eschews and failing to credit their production of wastes and packaging techniques, among other things that make Apple rank better than Greenpeace’s “last” on a green list for electronics companies. all that aside, how did Apple end up in environmental news yet again? They have been tapped for a fine in the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District that totals nearly $44,000 USD.

What’s the fine for? Air pollution, taken from an April 2006 permit violation. The fine is a settlement that has been reached between Apple and Sacramento Metropolitan. So what did Apple do that was so heinous? They operated an emergency generator for a few days in April 2006 during a non-emergency. It was a permit violation. Because of the Greenpeace list, it made the news.

So what’s your opinion? Is Apple green enough? I say yes.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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You have an inkling you will like the ADIUM X software the moment you see their Duck logo. Then you download it and find that it is, in fact, worthy of quacking to your friends about.

ADIUM X is the next generation of Multiple Instant Messager Management Software for the Mac. It is freeware, although I was so impressed with it that I went back to their download site at adiumx.com to donate a few bucks using their “Donate to ADIUM X” button. The version I downloaded is the latest version, Adium X 0.86, and is a manageable file size that downloaded in less than a minute, self extracted and was a simple “drag and drop” installation.

Adium X supports a wide array of instant messager programs, allowing you to stop having the hassle of opening tons of different programs to talk to your friends and colleagues. Supported instant messager protocols include:

AOL Instant Messenger
ICQ
.Mac
Jabber
GoogleTalk
MSN Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo!Japan
Bonjour
iChat
Gadu-Gadu
Novell Groupwise
Lotus Sametime

The Features

Adium has a vast array of features that make the experience either more pleasant or more convenient. It is truly a well thought-out program. One of the features I especially like is the ability to Combine Contacts. This feature allows you to take a user who has accounts with more than one messager service and combine all of their user names on your contact list into one, so you only see their user name once on your Contact List.

Another feature I like is the Tabbed Message Window feature. This allows me to have several different instant message conversations going at once in only one window – you switch back and forth between user names and conversations by small tabs at the bottom of the message window. It’s very convenient, and it does a lot to eliminate desktop clutter.

Adium also offers what they call OTR Encryption. I’d never heard of it before, but I played with the feature in order to write about it – basically you can type a message, then click a button in the message window to automatically encrypt it. I don’t have a great need for this as a writer (no one has asked me to write any top secret spy manuals yet), but I can see the appeal if you are using messager services in a corporate environment and dealing with potentially sensitive information. The button was easy to use, and the friends who helped me test it reported that my message came through just fine for them – one using MSN and one using Yahoo! Messager.

The File Transfer feature in Adium actually works much faster and more reliably than the one in AOL IM and MSN IM. I was quite impressed – I was able to send several photos and a word document in less than 5 minutes, with great viewability on the receiving end. I did discover that you get better results sending files one at a time, although it does accept a multiple file transfer request.

Adium cites WebKit as the tool that allows them to offer another feature I like Changeable Message Window Styles. This is offered in several of the instant messager programs themselves, but I found the styles in Adium especially pleasing to look at and easy to set up, as well as clear when reading messages.

You can do all the regular formatting in Adium (font changes, color changes, etc.) for viewing both your own messages and those of others. It also offers a brief Message History feature which I liked. While you can opt to use the Log Messages option to save all of your messages forever (which I don’t like to do and so have that turned off), if you don’t want to do that you can rely on the history. Each time you start a new conversation with a Contact, your last 5 to 10 message sentences to each other are displayed in a light grey, so you can resume a conversation if you’d like. It is just enough to jog your memory, without being obnoxious.

Adium also offers features to support AOL’s Direct Connect option and the various programs’ Voice and Video Chat option, which require no special settings to use. Those are all drag and drop style interfaces. Adium offers it’s code to programmers who would like to contribute to it’s fun AdiumXtras pages, where Adium users can download special feautres written for Adium by its end users. Much like Konfabulator’s Widgets, these are little gems you didn’t know you needed, but once you find them can’t live without. I personally downloaded the AdiumXtras for StarWars sounds and some nice emoticon sets that users had created – and the installation was a breeze! I didn’t even have to turn off or restart Adium to install the new features.

Speaking of emoticon sets I should note that you can switch back and forth between the set specific to your favorite messager program set, your favorite AdiumXtras set, or use more than one set at a time. The only drawback to this is that if you use multiple sets, sets with similar commands may cancel each other out (the option is in several sets, so you might not get the smiley you were looking for, but a random one from one of the sets, for example).

One thing I really like about Adium is that you can customize each icon showing beside your user name for each messager program, or make them all the same. You can also customize your Status messages in a much more complete way than in any other program. For example – my Away message still shows the traditional Away symbol to viewers, but instead of seeing the word “Away” or the standard “I’m Away From My Computer Right Now” message they see the quote of my choice. Much more interesting possibilities than the usual messager text inputs. The one drawback is that AOL users will only be able to see the first 42 characters of your message, but that is an AOL problem, not an Adium issue.

I have had no issues with Adium X, however; if you do have issues their web site is quite comprehensive. It has a Support and Development section, a place to post Tickets requesting fixes directly, a place to track how they are coming along on various tickets and debugs, a blog by the Adium creators, and a Web Forum for it’s users and the user-developers of AdiumXtras. It is a nice, clean, easy to navigate web site.

The Synopsis

A fun, well written program to help streamline your cluttered instant message programs into one usable interface. The ability to add and delete contacts universally, as well as the fabulous array of customizable features make Adium a step ahead of other similar programs. I highly recommend this for the multiple messaging software user!

(And don’t forget to customize your Adiumy (the duck icon)!)

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Finding software for your computer that works well and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg is never easy. Half the time you end up going with the software everyone uses, like Microsoft Word, even though it is expensive, because choosing the right alternative is just too difficult and time consuming.

If you bought a Mac, you already have an advantage. Macs come with enough preloaded software that you can literally begin using them right out of the box for text editing, multi media, music, surfing the net, emails, scheduling, and more. Even so, most people want to “customize their ride” with software that is a better fit for their daily use.

Shareware and freeware may come to your rescue. Shareware is software written for certain computer platforms by users of the platform, offered for a free download or limited time demo, with a way to pay a small fee if you like it after your trial period (generally under $20). Freeware is software written and offered for free. The biggest example of this is the OpenSource software movement, made up of hundreds of thousands of programmers.

So where do you find freeware for your Mac? Almost anywhere online, really. The trick is knowing how to look. Before I go into search methods, why don’t I point you to some actual freeware you can try out for your Mac?

AbiWord is the slimmer, trimmer version of OpenOffice’s word processor.

Adium is my instant messenger client of choice, handling all types of instant communication with ease, from AIM to ICQ, all in one window.

Aleph engine for Marathon One game.

AMSN Messenger instant messaging and chat program.

Armagetron is Tron updated.

Audacity is an easy sound recording tool

Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy game.

Blender is 3D modeling software.

Buddy manages your finances and helps you make a budget.

Burn is a program that rips your information to CD or DVD.

BZFlag is a first person tank game.

Cabos, a file sharing program that uses the Gnutella network.

Camino, the native OS X version of Mozilla’s FireFox web browser. Not as many features (yet) but getting there.

CashBox is a basic personal finances and accounting manager.

CC Publisher hosts Creative Commons files.

Celestia is 3D planetarium software

CenterStage plays your audio, video and photos in full screen mode.

ClamXAV free virus defeater.

Coaliscious is a cheat system for del.icio.us.

Colloquy IRC chat client.

Comical online comic viewing program.

Cube is a first person shoot-em-up game.

CyberDuck FTP program.

Democracy: this video player for the masses, does not discriminate against any video format, even Quick Time.

ElectricSheep is a screen saver program.

FireFox web browser, by Mozilla. Quickly becoming an internet favorite. More reliable than Internet Explorer (isn’t everything?) and more compatible with various internet functions than Safari, with plenty of extensions and plugins to make anyone happy.

FreeMind is a mind mapping, outlining and note taking solution.

Fugu SFTP and FTP program.

GIMP is the now famous free design software that inspired Adobe to consider offering Photoshop as an online service for a more reasonable cost.

Handbrake rips your movies from DVD to Mpeg4 Format for you.

iEatBrainz is an MP3 management software tool.

Inkscape is a free vector graphic design program.

iPod Disk allows your iPod to be used like a regular hard drive through the finder.

iStumbler seeks out open Wi-Fi networks for you.

Jomic digital comics reader.

Juice podcasting software.

MemTest tells you how much RAM is available.

Monolingual removes extra languages (This helps you save disk space on your Mac).

MPlayer is a video player that plays nearly every kind of video file format.

MultiAlarm is like a theft prevention alarm for your Mac.

NeoOffice is OpenOffice for the Mac, giving you full capability of programs like the Microsoft Office suite, but for free.

NVu is a WYSIWYG html editor.

Pixen is a free version of Paint.

PySol card games for the Mac.

Quesa is 3D modeling software.

RSSOwl RSS feed aggregator.

Scribus desktop publishing software.

Seashore is a free design tool similar to Gimp.

Senuti is a program that gets music off your iPod and onto your desktop.

Shiira is a web browser with a small memory footprint

Smultron html and text editor.

Stellarium is real time planetarium software.

Stepmania is a clone of Dance Dance Revolution without the annoying Tila Tequila as host.

Sunrise is a web browser designed with web developers in mind.

Thunderbird, the email client created by the makers of FireFox, is a great way to manage multiple email accounts.

Tomato is a bit torrent sharing software.

Transmission is a free bit torrent downloading program.

Vienna, native RSS reader for OS X.

VLC video player playes multiple video formats with an easy to use interface.

XMeeting video conferencing program.

Zombies is a 3D Zombie action adventure strategy game.

That looks like a long list, but trust me when I say it is barely the tip of the iceberg. You can find more at Downloads, MacUpdate, and on search engines like Google. Happy hunting!

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Apple has been testing the newest version of its Boot Camp dual operating system software, scheduled to be released with the next generation OS X, Leopard, later this year. Apple has even gone so far as to post on its web site that it hasn’t been able to solve the issue for users of Boot Camp 1.2 trying to boot the version of Windows Vista that released in January. Luckily for the Mac user, Apple is exceptionally good at problem solving and customer service, so we can rest assured they will have the issue fixed by the time Leopard releases in keeping with their usual high standards, but for now it’s a problem.

Apple has offered a workaround for the problem to help people use their software fully while it continues to address the issue. To use the workaround:

To get around the problem, Mac Pro users wishing to use Windows Vista on their Mac OS X-based machines first need to employ the Boot Camp Assistant software to create a dedicated Windows partition on the secondary drive and then start the Windows Vista installation process as usual.

There are other workaround for issues surrounding Vista and BootCamp. These issues include a computer freeze during Vista installation, among other things. Apple addressed the problem and listed all the possible issues and workarounds here. Other Apple products being hobbled by Vista include iTunes, Apple’s popular music download software. You can find workarounds for iTunes here.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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From the Apple News Page, breaking news on the release of Apple’s next generation operating system, Leopard, and the release of the iPhone:

Apple Statement

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard’s features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones. [Apr 12, 2007]

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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One state’s government sees iPods for the potential learning tool that they are. Michigan is considering a $38 Million budget allocation for the purchase of iPods for every child in school in Michigan. This would mean a tax increase for Michigan citizens, causing it to face the major hurdle of convincing parents to pay to buy an iPod for their own kid as well as someone else’s – a tough mental leap for most people.

Why buy iPods for every kid in school in Michigan? Michigan is acknowledging what many already know – the iPod’s potential as a learning tool. It’s video capability, audio capability, recording capability (with additional software) and it’s interactive quality make it ideal for downloading lessons, tutorials, homework and more onto its compact and portable hard drive. Students could have every book for English on their iPod instead of carting them to class each day. While some subjects aren’t feasible for download on iPods due to the small screen, you can still use the iPod to hold tutorials for them, or to transfer them onto a student’s home computer. The possibilities are endless.

Read Apple’s take on using the iPod in education here.

Read the full story here.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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The first iPod virus has been created. It was created by a Russian computer security firm as proof of the concept that a virus could be created for the iPod as a stand-alone device, as opposed to a virus create for a Pc and transferable to an iPod. This is big news from the firm, Kaspersky Lab, as it means the virus world could encroach more on Macs. At the moment this is the only known iPod-direct virus. Why it may pose a threat to the actual Mac user, as opposed to just the PC user, is because of the portability of the iPod – plug it in and it syncs to your computer, potentially transferring this virus along with the music.

What should Mac owners with iPods do? At some point, with the world of Windoze growing ever intwined with the world of Macs courtesy of the integration of iTunes, BootCamp, Parallells, Windows and more into Mac systems, I’d recommend getting a virus protection program now, while the news is still young, and updating it regularly to get in the habit. Macs will still never be as vulnerable to viruses because of its closed system, but its better to be prepared. You can get protection through a paid service like Norton or by download a free virus protection software like I use: Clam XAV. Hopefully someone will provide a solution for the iPod as well in the near future.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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One of the fun things about Apple are the peripherals companies release to go with their products, especially the iPod line. There are several cool gadgets coming out for the iPod, and a few that have been out that you may not know about yet.

Releasing this week is a keyboard from Razer that has a built in dock for your iPod. It is slated to sell for around $130. The keyboard is to be called the Pro | Type and will be sleek white to match the majority of the Apple line, and will have ten media fast keys for easy navigation and control of your media experience.

[tags]apple ipod ihome ms pac man games nano shuffle gadgets speakers dock keyboard razor[tags]

If you haven’t put games on your iPod yet, you should. They are a ton of fun downloadable for under $5 on iTunes, and give you a portable gaming experience for those times when music isn’t enough to keep you occupied. One such game is the nostalgic Ms Pac Man for the iPod, a true representation of the arcade classic.

iHome has developed a line of affordable iPod-ready radios and other devices. I actually have the iHome under counter kitchen clock radio installed, and I love it. It has great sound for its price range and it was super-easy to install. It fits all iPods, Nanos and Shuffles on the market. Sure, there are plenty of high end iPod intergrated radios and speakers by companies like Bose, but those are out of many people’s price range. iHome gives the average user a chance to increase the usability of their iPod.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Yesterday Apple reported the sale of its 100 millionth iPod. Today market analysts are predicting a continued upswing in the product’s sales and popularity. Apple isn’t known for tooting its own horn on anniversary dates and milestones, but the 100 million iPod mark got a mention. You can read one of the news articles about the 100 millionth sale here.

In fact, says Phil Leigh, president of market-research firm Inside Digital Media, making DRM-free tracks available at iTunes could actually help Apple by driving more music lovers away from peer-to-peer sites.

That’s why analysts like Leigh think Apple will be able to hold on to its dominant share of the music-player market—and perhaps even see a significant boost to the rest of its business. “This is going to be something more than just the doubling of [Apple’s] market share,” Leigh added. “I think it will go from 5 percent to 20 percent. It will have a much more significant affect than what Microsoft have let themselves believe.”

So what makes the iPod so incredibly popular? How did it crossover into the coveted arena of the “must have” item? It it most likely due to a combination of things. It was the first product offered by Apple that offered the Apple cachet and Apple look and feel that the “cool” technology users had always known about at a price point many people could afford. It has Apple’s traditional intuitive design. It has iTunes, which is a solid music and video purchasing interface in spite Apple’s initial reliance on DRM. The fact that Apple is now discarding DRM only makes the iPod / iTunes combo more appealing than ever before. iPod was, in short, the right gadget at the right time marketed to the right demographic.

Apple’s drive to constantly improve and innovate, striving to be on the cutting edge in all of its markets, will hep increase iPod sales as time goes. Their commitment to DRM free music, beginning with the recent EMI deal, will draw in even more customers. They are dealing with the potential issue of DRM free music opening them up to mp3 player competition by increasing the quality and bit rate of the DRM free music files you purchase form them. They continue to bring their A-game in a world that has been faced with substandard, “disposable” technology for too long. Their commitment to quality will continue to push them forward, especially if they continue to keep their customer service rating at the level of excellence they currently have.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Apple aired its first Apple TV ad today. It isn’t up on their site for linking yet, but one enterprising watcher recorded it using a camcorder and posted it to Google video. Enjoy!

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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Hello loyal Apple Reporter readers!

Due to a freak april snowstorm, I was unable to update this weekend. Never fear, there has been a lot happening on the Apple front, so I’ll be double posting over the next few days to make sure you are kept in the Apple loop! After all, an Apple a day keeps the Windoze away!

To start us off, we have a review of the Apple TV as used with HDTV – and it is not looking good. Apparently, Apple has some inherent issues with graphics delivery on an HD system. That’s a huge blow in this first round of Apple TV use, though it does validate my personal decision to wait out the first generation release and see if there are bugs to fix and features to add in the next release.

You can read the full article here.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

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