Apple Grrl

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

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

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

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

Apple started a test program in recent months that made their systems available at Best Buy brick and mortar stores. It worked so well in the handful of Best Buys that carried their products that they have reached an agreement to expand. Now you can get your daily recommended dose of fruit at 200 more Best Buy stores.

The program has been tried a few other times with limited success, notably in 1998 and in 2004. Recent successes have been credited to an increase in store employees trained in Apple product usage and sales (it isn’t just their operating system and look that is different than the Microsoft world). The first stores to add Apple to their product lineup are the stores that have experienced a slow down in sales of Windows products.

In addition to adding Apple computers to the line up at hundreds of select Best Buy stores, other products will make an appearance as well. iPods and Apple TVs will be sold in every Best Buy store when the program starts. The iPhone is rumored to be making an appearance as well, if Best Buy offers Cingular/AT&T sign up along with it, as it is still under contract as a Cingular exclusive.

I think apple making their products more available to more consumers is a smart move. They have been in limited Circuit City stores and nearly all CompUSA stores for some time now, and show significant improvement in sales from it.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

Scott Finnie has been making a public switch from Microsoft to Apple lately, which you can read about over here.

More interesting is his article at ComputerWorld on why Microsoft should be afraid of Apple now more than ever. Read it here.

For the first time in its 23-year history, the Mac is finally able to move fluidly into and out of the world of Microsoft Windows and its applications — both in the workplace and at home. Microsoft’s own Office suite plays a big role in that. Microsoft’s commitment to Office 2008 for the Mac lends additional support.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

microsoft, apple, office

Two new Apple rumors are making the rounds of the rumor mill, one about the upcoming Leopard OS release and one about the design of the iMac.

Leopard has been slated to be released in April 2007 for months now, but the current buzz is there will be a delay in the release. The new possible release date, if the rumors are true? October 2007! I’m not sure I want to wait that long to play with this new toy and all of its bells and whistles, but I guess if the rumors prove true we may have to. What’s the hold up? According to the rumor mill the hold up is the craptacular Vista. Apple apparently has decided to make BootCamp run Vista in native mode, for some reason, and would need the extra time to make that happen.

Update: March 26, 2005 - It is confirmed that Leopard is still on track for a Spring 2007 release.

The next rumor is somewhat more interesting (and more likely) - the rumored overhaul of the iMac design. This design would make the iMac, currently a functional, if slim, design, into an eye catching new machine designed to lure more people over to the Apple kingdom (it is believed the Vista accommodation listed above has the same goal). They haven’t designed a desktop with this innovation in mind since the days of the colored iMacs, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the new design will bring. Something to keep in mind: the 17 inch iMac is not reportedly on the redesign list - only the larger screened iMacs are included. The 17 inch will likely remain functional, and remain in the line up for education, but will not undergo the overhaul and updates of its larger brothers.

Author: Leslie Poston, © 2007, All Rights Reserved

imac, leopard, apple rumors

John C Welch, long a Mac advocate, has published his list of the top 22 Mac Tools. Coming in at Number 22 is the blogware that I use to write all of my blogs, Ecto. I have to agree - I can’t imagine my life without this useful, simple and inexpensive little software tool. I can publish to all 18 of my personal blogs and blogs for hire in one program, without switching back and forth or worrying about logging in every time - Ecto takes care of all of that for me. Plus it allows me to drag and drop files and photos from iTunes, iPhoto and other Mac applications, and it has a built in Amazon module for entering Amazon Associate links. It even makes linking easy, and has a simple interface for switching back and forth between code and rich text editing. You don’t even have to worry about your blogging platform - it accepts all of them, from the free Blogger to the more complex and expensive platform Movable Type.

His list is divided into two parts for publishing purposes - it was too long to print all at once in Information Week. Other tools that made the first half of the list include FTP tool Transmit, SyncServices automatic data sharing (commonly called iSync), the multi-function text tool BBEdit, for those of you with windows Mobile there is Missing Sync, the dynamic duo of ConceptDraw and Omni Graffle Pro that work to recreate Visio-like interface for the Mac, the business AV and social chat tool iChat AV, the ever-present AppleScript, companion piece Script Debugger, email and scheduli