Review: Griffin Beacon Universal Remote

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="Review: Griffin Beacon Universal Remote" class="aligncenter" height="212" mce_src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20241/MAC241.rev_tango.griffin_beacon-470-75.jpg" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20241/MAC241.rev_tango.griffin_beacon-470-75.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="282" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The Griffin Beacon is a universal remote control app and hardware combo that can be used with a huge number of living-room devices.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Instead of an attachment for your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, it works using a separate infrared box which links through Bluetooth. The box must be placed within range of all the devices you want to control. This might be a problem if (for example) your stereo is in a different part of the room to your TV and video.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> After an initial pairing, you re-establish the connection by switching on Bluetooth on your iOS device and pressing down on the Beacon, so there's no lengthy reconnection process to go through.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The actual remote controlling is done using a free third-party app. Simply browse for your remote by device type and manufacturer, and the app lets you test several different remotes to see which is the right one.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> We found it infallible when pairing the various remotes in our living room, though as we started to watch an episode of <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">24</span> we realised we were actually watching the wrong one and our Toshiba DVD player iPad remote had the Menu button greyed out. We managed to get it back by pointing the original Toshiba remote at the Beacon and pressing the appropriate button.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> At £61, the Beacon is a mostly impressive device for a fairly good price. The inconvenience of connecting to Bluetooth devices within iOS has been kept to a minimum, while the app is slick and can easily learn the commands it doesn't have the details for.</div> </div> </div>

Review: Griffin Beacon Universal Remote

The Griffin Beacon is a universal remote control app and hardware combo that can be used with a huge number of living-room devices. ...

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Review: Iomega Mac Companion 2TB

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="Review: Iomega Mac Companion 2TB" class="aligncenter" height="212" mce_src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20241/MAC241.rev_thunder.iomega_1-470-75.jpg" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/MacFormat/MAC%20241/MAC241.rev_thunder.iomega_1-470-75.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="282" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The Iomega Mac Companion 2TB is no ordinary desktop hard drive. Along with the brushed aluminium and smoky black casing, designed to sit comfortably (and look great) on the foot of an iMac or Apple Display, Iomega Mac Companion also has a useful charging feature.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Mac Companion is, of course, Mac formatted out of the box. Connect it to your computer through USB and you also benefit from its two-port hub. If you use FireWire 800 for its faster data transfer speeds, there's a second port for daisy chaining.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> But far more interesting is the high-powered USB port on the side of the drive. It's there for charging iOS devices, and is optimised as a fast-charging port if you're using FireWire, or have the drive powered via the mains but not connected to a computer.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> With the drive connected to your Mac through USB, the charging port delivers 500mA of power and can also sync your iOS device. In our tests, it took just over 13 and a half hours to fully charge a flat iPad 2.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Connect using FireWire and it can no longer be used for syncing, but it delivers 1000mA of power and charges in under seven and a half hours. You can't connect using both at the same time. We think FireWire makes most sense as it gives you faster data transfer and charging, and you can sync using your Mac's own USB ports.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Available in 2TB or 3TB versions, Mac Companion uses a fast 7200rpm drive. In testing, it achieved random read/write speeds of 14.5/14.7 MB/s under USB and 21.8/21.2 MB/s using FireWire.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Given the feature set that's included as standard, it's good value for money too.</div> </div> </div>

Review: Iomega Mac Companion 2TB

The Iomega Mac Companion 2TB is no ordinary desktop hard drive. Along with the brushed aluminium and smoky black casing, designed to s...

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Macworld Expo rebranding as Macworld | iWorld for 2012

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="112" mce_src="http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/725/iworld.jpg" src="http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/725/iworld.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="450" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> In line with the ever-expanding impact of iOS devices and mobile technology on the userbase-formerly-known-as-the-Macintosh-market, the premiere tradeshow for all things Apple will have a new name in 2012. The 27-year-old Macworld Expo event will now be known as Macworld|iWorld: The Ultimate iFanEvent. The branding change acknowledges the reality that iOS is a huge and growing part of the Apple product ecosystem; registration for the January show/conference is open now.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Paul Kent, IDG's maven for all things Macworld Expo -- sorry, Macworld|iWorld -- discussed the branding change with the expo's corporate cousins at Macworld magazine. "We want a heavy influence of OS X developers on the show floor this year," Kent said, but the show will be balancing the iOS impact as well as moving outward to re-emphasize the cultural connections to Apple products.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Music will play a major role this year, with showcase performances at the Music Experience and expanded evening events outside the core Moscone venue. Film and other creative pursuits will take their turn on center stage as well. IDG is projecting about a 20% growth in total exhibitor count, which is a healthy step up from last year; the 2010 and 2011 shows represented a major downscaling from 2009, which was the last time Apple exhibited at the show.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> TUAW has been pleased to participate in Macworld Expo over the years, including our live video streaming interviews in 2010 and 2011. We don't know yet if we'll be back with a booth on the show floor for 2012 at MW|iW, but we'll certainly have some sort of presence -- and we look forward to seeing you there.</div> </div> </div>

Macworld Expo rebranding as Macworld | iWorld for 2012

In line with the ever-expanding impact of iOS devices and mobile technology on the userbase-formerly-known-as-the-Macintosh-market, th...

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Laptop magazine gives Lion the thumbs-up over Windows 7

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="266" mce_src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3483/windowsvlioncjr.jpg" src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3483/windowsvlioncjr.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: 444px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 8px; max-width: 640px; width: 465px;" width="279" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> This week,<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;"> Laptop</span> compared OS X Lion versus Windows 7 to determine which operating system was "better," both overall and in individual features. OS X Lion took Laptop's top overall score, mostly on the strength of Lion's better interface, Multi-Touch gestures, Spotlight, iLife, and Time Machine. Lion's parental controls also got the nod for being slightly broader in scope than those offered in Windows 7, and Lion was also hailed as a more secure OS than Windows -- not for the usual "security by obscurity" reasons that such studies usually like to hammer to death, but for real improvements in the more secure way Lion handles applications.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Windows 7 offered a better multitasking experience for Laptop's money; the magazine considered Mission Control a decent but "confusing" interface in Lion. Windows 7 also took the crown for a better gaming experience -- I don't think anyone will be surprised by that -- and the magazine also considered Internet Explorer a better native browser than Safari. I'll be honest, I hate Internet Explorer more than I'm comfortable describing fully in a "family-friendly" format; however, as long as I'm being honest I'll also say that aside from iTunes, Safari feels like the part of OS X that still needs the most work. Apple's added some gee-whiz features like Reader to its browser, but in terms of overall functionality (and stability) Safari doesn't feel like it's changed much in the past couple years. Unless you're counting the nasty new memory leak introduced with Safari 5.1, that is, or the tab-reloading oddness that's causing issues.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The one portion of Laptop's rankings that I strongly disagree with is the magazine awarding Windows 7 higher marks for value than OS X Lion. The main reason I disagree with their analysis is that they don't actually compare Lion to Windows; instead, they compare Macs to PCs. While it's generally true that Mac hardware is more expensive than "equivalent" PC hardware, if you're going to make an apples-to-apples comparison you need to compare the operating systems themselves and not the hardware they run on. And as we've pointed out in the past, in terms of value for money OS X Lion blows all versions of Windows 7 away.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Naturally, since the magazine put Lion on top it's being roundly accused of a pro-Apple bias by Windows fans who can't seem to accept that Apple does indeed manage to do some things better than Microsoft. But with the sole exception of the "value" category, I'd say Laptop's comparison was fairly even-handed overall. I'll reluctantly admit that Windows is still better at some things than OS X, but just as Laptop claims, I maintain OS X Lion is the better choice overall.</div> </div> </div>

Laptop magazine gives Lion the thumbs-up over Windows 7

This week,  Laptop  compared OS X Lion versus Windows 7 to determine which operating system was "better," both overall and i...

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You're the Pundit: iCloud's Future

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="288" mce_src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6818/applelogo1.jpg" src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6818/applelogo1.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: 225px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0pt; max-width: 640px; width: 186px;" width="238" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Other sites have rumors and speculation. We have the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is iCloud. With so much to offer, what will its true killer feature be?</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> iCloud stands ready to revolutionize the way we think of cloud storage. It brings so many options to the table, it's hard to pick just one. So, of course, that's what we're going to ask you to do. Of all these features, which is going to truly change the Apple user experience most profoundly?</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your iCloud predictions.</div> </div> </div>

You're the Pundit: iCloud's Future

Other sites have rumors and speculation. We have the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today...

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Daily Update for Sept. 9, 2011

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="225" mce_src="http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4369/lightbluetuawdailyupdat.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4369/lightbluetuawdailyupdat.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="224" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"> </div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> No Flash? Click here to listen.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Daily Update for Sept. 9, 2011

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of t...

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Steve Jobs and the quality of leadership

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="118" mce_src="http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4458/jobsamelio.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4458/jobsamelio.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="240" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Hearing the news that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO took me back to the mid-nineties, when I was managing a large software project in London. Our company was a pretty big Apple customer, and it was decided that the newly installed CEO Gil Amelio would drop by, shake some hands and discuss Apple's future at our conference table.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Amelio is a smart and impressive man, and he's known for leading the team that developed the first commercial CCD sensors while working for Fairchild Semiconductor. He later became CEO of another chip manufacturer, National Semiconductor, where he was instrumental in restructuring the company and helping it to regain profitability. Amelio was there to give us confidence after Apple had been pretty bruised under John Sculley and Michael Spindler.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> It wasn't an encouraging visit.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I remember Amelio going on and on about the past problems at Apple, and how he was going to fix them. Click here for an Apple video of 'the speech.' He had a long list of fixes, but what was lacking was a coherent, compelling vision. He was going to do 'something' about the clones, finally replace System 7, and settle down all the politics and warfare between Apple divisions.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I had some specific questions, but he dodged them. It wasn't convincing, and I wondered if Apple was going to pull itself out of what seemed a certain death spiral. After killing Copland and failing to make a deal for the BeOS, Amelio invested in NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. At the end, Amelio got Apple back to making a small profit, after years of losing millions. It was a tiny victory, but certainly not a turn-around.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Amelio was finally ousted from Apple in July 1997 via a boardroom coup engineered by Jobs. The rest is history.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I never met Steve Jobs. But every day he has touched my life. When I check my mail, prepare a presentation, edit a photo, or answer my iPhone, it all happens because Steve had an idea of how I wanted to work. I don't know of any single company or products that have had an equal impact.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Gil Amelio had lots of plans, but plans are not a vision. Jobs laughs at market research, avoids focus groups, and trusts his gut when designing what customers want. That is, what they <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">will</span> want. Other companies try and copy Apple features and designs but usually come up short, because, like Amelio, they had lists instead of a dream.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Jobs is now on the next part of his journey through life, a journey we will all take, sooner or later. It's hard to define exactly the magic that Steve brings to Apple, but it is unique and it is successful. Smart as he was, Gil Amelio could not summon the magic, or as it turned out, much lasting enthusiasm.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Thank you to Gil Amelio for bringing Steve Jobs back. Thanks to Steve for bringing Apple back.</div> </div> </div>

Steve Jobs and the quality of leadership

Hearing the news that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO took me back to the mid-nineties, when I was managing a large software project in...

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Australia fights with Apple on pricing

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br /> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="141" mce_src="http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9978/sydneyaustralia.jpg" src="http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9978/sydneyaustralia.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="274" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Apple apparently hasn't answered back the Australian government just yet about its query this week on pricing for both apps and hardware. The Australian Parliament, including Labor Minister Ed Husic, has been knocking on Apple's door trying to figure out why the company charges more for its products in that country. Originally the issue was partially based on the difference between the American dollar and the Australian currency, but in more recent times, that difference has narrowed, to the point where they're only a few cents' difference. Apple already brought down app prices once this year, but those prices are still relatively high, and the company hasn't moved on hardware prices, sometimes selling computers for hundreds of dollars more than they'd sell for the US.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Apple isn't the only company with higher prices down under -- Australians also face higher prices on video game consoles and their software (which is another issue that the local government is fighting with companies about). A certain percentage of this is politicians rabble-rousing, I think, but Husic is at least threatening more consequential action, suggesting that it might be "time for our pricing watchdog, the ACCC, to take up the case for long-suffering consumers and carry out a formal inquiry." Certainly in the case of digitally distributed software, there shouldn't be a reason for this phenomenon, which Aussies themselves are calling the "tech tax."</div> </div> </div>

Australia fights with Apple on pricing

Apple apparently hasn't answered back the Australian government just yet about its query this week on pricing for both apps and ha...

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TUAW TV Live: The TUAW / TiPB Joint International Commission on Apple Matters

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="98" mce_src="http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4609/tuawlivebannerustream.png" mce_style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" src="http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4609/tuawlivebannerustream.png" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px;" width="179" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I was trying to figure out a clever way to describe today's TUAW TV Live episode with TiPB managing editor Rene Ritchie. I failed miserably... Well, it is a joint effort of TUAW and TiPB, Rene's in Canada and I'm in the U.S., and we'll be talking about Apple, so I guess the long title to this post could make a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">little</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>sense.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> All that silliness aside, today's show should be a lot of fun. Rene's the voice behind the TiPB iPad Live and iPhone Live podcasts and a fellow Apple blogger, which gives us a bunch to talk about.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is useful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.</div> </div> </span></div>

TUAW TV Live: The TUAW / TiPB Joint International Commission on Apple Matters

I was trying to figure out a clever way to describe today's TUAW TV Live episode with TiPB managing editor Rene Ritchie. I failed m...

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TUAW Talkcast, July 31, 2011: Practically August edition!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="175" mce_src="http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2885/343493408bc439ab28bm.jpg" src="http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2885/343493408bc439ab28bm.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; height: 175px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px; width: 240px;" width="240" />Like it or not kids, we've come up on another Sunday night, and you know what that means: Talkcast Time! We have some fake Apple stores to discuss, some beautiful hacks for our shiny new formerly [ROARDACTED] operating system, and my personal favorite, a bit of speculation! Ah, theories. I love them so. It's why I run the home.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> You don't always know who will show up to talk Apple news with us, so it might be best if you just showed up to see for yourself. As a bonus, I'll rock a little aftershow for the live crowd. If they're good.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> It's really all about you, the community, so please join me won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients, basic instructions are here. (If you like Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store.) Talk to you tonight!</div> </div> </span></div>

TUAW Talkcast, July 31, 2011: Practically August edition!

Like it or not kids, we've come up on another Sunday night, and you know what that means: Talkcast Time! We have some fake Apple stor...

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The Washington Post reflects on Lion's first week of availability

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="45" mce_src="http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8695/washpost729.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8695/washpost729.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 8px; max-width: 640px;" width="250" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Like the rest of us, the Washington Post is taking a look at Lion after a week of use. It's mostly positive, but writer Hayley Tsukayama finds Lion a bit quirky. Chief criticisms are the change to natural scrolling (which can be turned off) and some of the complicated gestures when using a track pad. Mission Control also gets a thumbs down.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The positives from Tsukayama's perspective are the stability, overall simplicity and increased security of Lion. The article suggests a person test drive it for awhile before pulling the trigger if you harbor some doubts. I know in my case I turned off many of the new features to make Lion more like Snow Leopard. I was also disappointed in the mail bugs (it just doesn't work with some POP accounts and I have a 13 year old legacy account I still want to use) and my network attached storage is defunct unless I get (fingers crossed) a firmware update.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> OK, readers. After a week of use is Lion a hit or a miss for you? Or more of a mixed bag? What should Apple do to make you happy?</div> </div> </span></div>

The Washington Post reflects on Lion's first week of availability

Like the rest of us, the Washington Post is taking a look at Lion after a week of use. It's mostly positive, but writer Hayley Tsuk...

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Switcher Profile: Apple's 'halo effect' claims former editor of Windows Magazine

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="196" mce_src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3071/halocjr.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3071/halocjr.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px;" width="279" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Cult of Mac writer Mike Elgan recently detailed the years-long process that convinced him to switch to the Mac. His story is fairly typical of many switchers: Once a die-hard PC evangelist, his first Apple product was the iPod, which he appreciated for its ease of use. The iPhone eventually convinced him to ditch his BlackBerry, and the iPad was the be-all, end-all of tablet-based computing as far as he was concerned. Finally, using his son's iMac convinced Elgan to switch away from Windows completely.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> As I said, it's a fairly typical switcher story... up until you learn that Elgan used to be the editor of Windows Magazine during most of the 1990s. It's hard to be a much more die-hard Windows enthusiast than that without having Microsoft's logo on your business cards and paychecks.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The things that kept Elgan away from the Mac platform are fairly standard: familiarity with Windows and reluctance to learn OS X, not wanting to be dependent on Apple for hardware repairs, and not wanting to self-identify with the "fringe" elements among Mac users. But eventually, actually<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">using</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Apple's products on a regular basis convinced the former Windows enthusiast to switch. Outgoing PCMag editor Lance Ulanoff is on the mobile side of this roster, as he's switching from a Blackberry to the iPhone.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The "halo effect" of iPod users becoming enamored of Apple's smaller gadgets and switching to the Mac shortly after has been well-documented over the past seven years or so, and with the introduction of the iPhone and iPad this effect has intensified. Apple's efforts to bring some of iOS's functions to the Mac via OS X Lion can be viewed in this light as a shrewd move to amplify this halo effect even farther. People who are already familiar with the iPad's touchscreen interface may take one look at a MacBook Air running full-screen apps or launching applications via Launchpad and think to themselves, "Hmmm, maybe switching to a Mac won't be so hard after all."</div> </div> </span></div>

Switcher Profile: Apple's 'halo effect' claims former editor of Windows Magazine

Cult of Mac writer Mike Elgan recently detailed the years-long process that convinced him to switch to the Mac. His story is fairly typ...

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Owensboro, Kentucky students to receive 2200 MacBook Airs

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="251" mce_src="http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9789/mba2011new.jpg" src="http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9789/mba2011new.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; height: 418px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px; width: 465px;" width="279" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Man, talk about lucky in Kentucky. Students and staff in the Owensboro, Kentucky district will all be issued Apple's newest ultraportable MacBook Air thanks to US$5 million in stimulus funding, Electronista reports. The MacBook Air's small size and increased durability compared to the plastic and spinning-platter hard disk MacBook were key factors in the school district's decision to go with the aluminum chassis, SSD-based MacBook Air.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Local reporters say students will be banned from "illegal websites" and "gambling over the internet." (As an aside, whoever selected the B-roll for the report seems to have no idea what a MacBook Air is, as the footage instead shows some anonymous netbook). Teachers have already received their MacBook Airs, but students reportedly won't receive them until a month or so into the school year.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I'll admit it, I'm a little jealous of these kids. Back in my day, we had ten Apple IIe units to share among the entire elementary school. No internet, no portable computers, certainly nothing like the iPad... and we were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">thankful</span>. All kidding aside, it's great to see that Apple's remained committed to education even as its cheaper computers like the eMac and the plastic MacBook have disappeared into the mists of history.</div> </div> </span></div>

Owensboro, Kentucky students to receive 2200 MacBook Airs

Man, talk about lucky in Kentucky. Students and staff in the Owensboro, Kentucky district will all be issued Apple's newest ultrapo...

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Macworld benchmarks i5 MacBook Airs

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="251" mce_src="http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/9789/mba2011new.jpg" src="http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/9789/mba2011new.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; height: 418px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px; width: 465px;" width="279" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> After one week on the market, the first good benchmarks of the new MacBook Air models are beginning to show up. Macworld ran benchmarks of the i5-based 11.6" and 13" MBAs and found them to be quite fast in everyday operations. The Macworld lab is in the process of fine-tuning their SpeedMark benchmark for Lion, so the tests were performed by timing tasks like duplicating, zipping, and unzipping folders, importing and exporting files from Pages and iMovie, and so on.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Not surprisingly, the tests showed that the new MacBook Airs were faster than the last generation models and the final generation of the MacBook. The MBAs beat even the current 13" i5 MacBook Pro in the file duplicate and zip tests. Strangely enough, though, the previous model 13" Core 2 Duo MacBook Air bested all comers for importing a movie archive to iMovie '09, had the best results with the Cinebench R11.5 graphics benchmark, and the highest framerate while playing Call of Duty 4.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If you do a lot of AAC to MP3 encoding in iTunes 10, then the 13" i5 MacBook Air is going to be your best friend. It was faster than even the latest 13" i5 MacBook Pro, although not by much. The bottom line is that these new MBAs are fast, due in part to the SSDs used for storage, but slower than their predecessors in some graphics operations.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Why? The previous MacBook Air models used Nvidia GeForce 320M integrated graphics, while the new models use the Intel HD Graphics 3000 capability embedded into the silicon of the i5 processor. The Nvidia graphics chip was faster, but the i5 with graphics is less expensive than the Core 2 Duo / Nvidia combo used before.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> With the specs of the MacBook Air approaching those of the MacBook Pro line and rumors of a 15" Air-like Apple laptop on the horizon, it's interesting to conjecture that Apple may eventually get to one line of MacBooks -- the MacBook Airs.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Macworld plans on running more tests in the future using various configure-to-order options of the MacBook Air, and we'll be waiting to see what they find.</div> </div> </span></div>

Macworld benchmarks i5 MacBook Airs

After one week on the market, the first good benchmarks of the new MacBook Air models are beginning to show up. Macworld ran benchmarks...

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PayPal reportedly overcharging some customers for OS X Lion

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="175" mce_src="http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9242/appmoneycjr.jpg" src="http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9242/appmoneycjr.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; height: 175px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px; width: 200px;" width="200" />OS X Lion is only supposed to cost US$29.99 to install on any Macs associated with your iTunes account. Some Lion buyers who purchased it through PayPal are seeing charges<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">way</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>higher than thirty bucks, however. Multiple users have reported the issue on Apple's support forums, and Lion buyer John Christman emailed us earlier today saying PayPal showed nearly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">$4000</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in fees associated with Lion.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Apple support is now aware of the problem, and it's been classified as a "known issue" that they're looking into. Meanwhile, several affected customers are seeing their bank accounts significantly overdrawn, with all of the heinous additional bank fees that go along with that, so hopefully Apple also makes good on those additional fees.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If there's a lesson to draw from this, here it is: if you pay for iTunes purchases through PayPal, it's probably a good idea to switch to another payment method until this gets sorted out. If you haven't bought Lion yet and you're worried about paying 100 times more for it than you're supposed to, you can always pay for it with an iTunes gift card.</div> </div> </span></div>

PayPal reportedly overcharging some customers for OS X Lion

OS X Lion is only supposed to cost US$29.99 to install on any Macs associated with your iTunes account. Some Lion buyers who purchased it...

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Review: Sonos Play:3 speaker system

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="240" mce_src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7224/sonosplay3stacked.jpg" src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7224/sonosplay3stacked.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="151" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Sonos was nice enough to loan me the new Play:3 wireless speaker system that I mentioned earlier this week, and now I've had a chance to listen. It's good. Very good.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If you're unfamiliar with Sonos, here's a bit of background. The company began in 2003 with an idea of providing whole house wireless systems for much less than custom install jobs. Sonos has been Mac-friendly from the start, a Sonos device connects to your iTunes library and then with several additional pieces you your music where you need it. Control can be through a dedicated hardware controller, or even better from a free iPad or iPhone app. Sonos makes what they call ZonePlayers that connect as a component to your HiFi, or models with amplifiers that can drive speakers. Last fall, my colleague Dave Caolo reviewed the Sonos S5, now renamed the Play:5, a standalone music player with built-in amps and speakers.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Now Sonos has an even lower priced entry, the US $299.00 Play:3. It's a one piece speaker system with digital amplifiers. The speaker enclosure is 5.2 x 10.5 x 6.3 inches and weighs a shade under 6 pounds. It can be plugged directly into your router with the supplied ethernet cable and it's ready to go. To use it wirelessly, you get a $50.00 Sonos Bridge unit and plug that into your router. Then put the Play:3 anywhere in the house, and your iTunes library is available, as well as thousands of internet radio stations. You can also access Pandora, and subscriptions music services like Last.fm, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Stitcher and more.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The Play:3 is a stereo unit, but the drivers are quite close together. I heard a clear stereo effect, but it wasn't a very wide image. Sonos allows two Play:3 units to be placed in a stereo pair mode, so you can separate them as widely as you like. The speakers can be placed vertically or horizontally. Sensors in the enclosure make some adjustments to the sound depending on how the speakers are oriented. The Sonos architecture is very mix and match. You can add a lot of playback units, and they can play music in sync all over the house, or you can have each play different things in different locations. The flexibility is unlimited.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> How did it all sound? Really well for such a small box. I listened to Jazz, some hard rock and some classical. Vocals, always a good test, were clear and defined. I listened to some Bach organ music and the stunning Saint-Sa</div> </div> </span></div>

Review: Sonos Play:3 speaker system

Sonos was nice enough to loan me the new Play:3 wireless speaker system that I mentioned earlier this week, and now I've had a chan...

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Dear Aunt TUAW: Excel pooped on my desktop

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img align="right" alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="179" hspace="8" mce_src="http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3742/auntietuawmed1299609372.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3742/auntietuawmed1299609372.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px;" vspace="8" width="135" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear Aunt TUAW,</span></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> I just started using Lion and for the first time loaded up Excel today. Much to my surprise, I ended up with a whole bunch of Excel temporary files on the desktop (see the attached screen shot)</div> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="158" hspace="4" mce_src="http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7982/screenshot20110707at104.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;" src="http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7982/screenshot20110707at104.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 4px auto; max-width: 640px;" vspace="4" width="141" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> So I go ahead and try to delete them and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">I can't</span>. Lion won't let me. It puts up this message.</div> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="183" hspace="4" mce_src="http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7982/screenshot20110707at104.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px;" src="http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7982/screenshot20110707at104.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 4px auto; max-width: 640px;" vspace="4" width="448" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> And then I try deleting them from the command and they<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">aren't in my Desktop folder</span>!!! I mean, WTF, Auntie. What are these files and why can't I delete them?</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Your loving nephew,</span></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Raoul W.</span></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <img alt="" mce_src="http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8518/screenshot20110310at532.jpg" src="http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8518/screenshot20110310at532.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px;" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Raoul</span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">,</span></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Alas, Auntie has run across these Excel droppings as well in her work and sympathizes. There is a quick solution, however. You just need to restart Finder.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Auntie sees that you're comfortable at the command line, so just use a simple<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">killall Finder</span>. Finder will restart and that nasty detritus will be whisked off from your Desktop.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> For those of you who don't have a "Snuggie" level of comfort with Terminal, Auntie has another suggestion. Choose Apple menu > Force Quit, and then highlight Finder in the list of open applications. The "Force Quit" button magically changes to a "Relaunch" button that will also shovel the Excel dung out of the Mac desktop stable.</div> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="290" mce_src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6839/relaunchfinderwoohoooo.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid;" src="http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6839/relaunchfinderwoohoooo.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px;" width="346" /></div> </div> </span></div>

Dear Aunt TUAW: Excel pooped on my desktop

Dear Aunt TUAW, I just started using Lion and for the first time loaded up Excel today. Much to my surprise, I ended up with a whole ...

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WWDC Interview: FrogPad

<!--CONTENT START--><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="113" src="http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5359/tuawmactech2011wwdc.jpg" width="348" /></p><br/>Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) interviews Linda Marroquin of FrogPad at WWDC 2011. Linda was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward<br/><br/>FrogPad is an intriguing one-handed data entry method, which you can already use with a Magic Trackpad. We'll see if developers utilize it. Meanwhile, the company is hoping to restart manufacturing of physical one-handed keyboards soon.

WWDC Interview: FrogPad

Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) interviews Linda Marroquin of FrogPad at WWDC 2011. Linda was kind enough ...

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Software Update: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5, Mac OS X 10.5 Update 10

<!--CONTENT START--><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="212" src="http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4034/javaupdate510683.jpg" style="width: 460px; height: 353px; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid;" width="276" /></p><br/><br/><br/>Java for Mac OS X 10.6 has just been updated to Update 5, and a visit to Software Update will bring the latest and greatest version of Java to your Mac. If you're still using Leopard, Java for Mac OS X 10.5 is now at Update 10.<br/><br/>According to the release notes, "Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6. Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5 supersedes all previous versions of Java for Mac OS X 10.6." The Snow Leopard release is only for Mac OS X 10.6.6 and later. The Leopard updater is available for Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Mac OS X Server 10.5.8.<br/><br/>The security notes for the updates state that the new version fixes "multiple vulnerabilities in Java 1.6.0_24, the most serious of which may allow an untrusted Java applet to execute arbitrary code outside the Java sandbox." The updaters bump Java to version 1.6.0_26.<br/><br/><a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4593">http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4593</a> has more details about the updates.<br/><a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222">http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222</a> will be the location for information about the security content of the updates, although that information had not yet been posted by Apple at the time this article was written.

Software Update: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5, Mac OS X 10.5 Update 10

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 has just been updated to Update 5, and a visit to Software Update will bring the latest and greatest version of Java ...

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Bodega 1.3 available, a fun alternative to the Mac App Store

<img align="right" alt="" border="1" hspace="8" src="http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/9000/itsajollybodegashoptuaw.jpg" vspace="8" />With most Mac users happily anticipating the availability of the Mac App Store on January 6th, many seem to forget that there has been an App Store for Mac for quite some time -- <a href="http://appbodega.com/">Bodega</a>.<br /> <br /> Bodega is an app discovery and download gateway from <a href="http://www.madefresh.ca/">Freshcode</a>. The app can be downloaded by anyone for free, and the store is constantly stocked with new apps from a variety of Mac developers. The update provides bug fixes as well as performance and feature improvements, while maintaining the fun "corner store" look and feel that has been a trademark of Bodega.<br /> <br /> Ahead of the release of the Mac App Store, Freshcode is pushing Bodega to developers as an alternative with many advantages:<br /> <br /> <ul><li>No approval process for apps, although they must not be blatantly offensive or contain illegal content or information</li> <li>No restrictions on APIs used within apps</li> <li>Developers keep 93% of the sale price as revenue, compared to the Mac App Store's 70%</li> <li>There's no need to write a special version of an app to be included in Bodega</li> <li>No developer program charges or costs</li> </ul><br /> It appears that the Mac marketplace may soon have a surplus of App Stores, since Cydia's Jay "Saurik" Freeman is also developing a similar store. For Mac users, finding and purchasing apps is going to be as easy as clicking an icon -- or several of them. TUAW readers can <a href="http://appbodega.com/">get a taste of Bodega by downloading</a> the app here.<br /> <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/30/bodega-1-3-available-a-fun-alternative-to-the-mac-app-store/"></a> <br /> <h6></h6><a href="http://prmac.com/release-id-20119.htm">Source</a>

Bodega 1.3 available, a fun alternative to the Mac App Store

With most Mac users happily anticipating the availability of the Mac App Store on January 6th, many seem to forget that there has been an Ap...

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