friday 13 january 2006

Dear All -

Sorry to be sending another message so soon, but there is a lot of news about following the Macworld Expo earlier this week.

1.	New machines will not run Classic (System 9)

The newly-released Intel-based machines from Apple Macintosh do not, and will not, support Classic (System 9 under
OS X).

So if you need to run a System 9 program, and are thinking about upgrading your computer, you have a stark decision
to be addressed over the next year or so. Either A) Find an OS X alternative, or a OS X upgrade, to the System 9
program you are using; or B) buy a non-Intel Apple Macintosh computer now which will last you for the next 4-5 years.

A handful of you need to know that the Intel-based machines from Apple Macintosh do not support Virtual PC at present,
but this will come soon says Microsoft.

2.	Google Earth released in beta for OS X

"Google today released the highly-anticipated Macintosh version of 'Google Earth'
 its simulation software that incorporates satellite imagery, maps, and
the company's search functionality that allows users to fly from space directly into their own neighborhoods. "We're
happy to finally have some good news for the, ahem, vocal Mac enthusiasts we've been hearing from," one member of the
Google Earth Team said. The software supports searches for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Users can get
driving directions, save or share searches, and add annotations. Google Earth is available for free, and requires
Mac OS X 10.4 or later."


3.	Spyware in latest iTunes - a departure for Apple

"Apple's iTunes 6.0.2 update, released yesterday, offered this, according to the Read Me:

iTunes 6.0.2 includes stability and performance improvements over iTunes 6.0.1.
What it also offered, but didn't bother to disclose, was the addition of a bit of spyware to the iTunes interface.
As reported on boingboing and other sites, the new iTunes mini store, which appears directly below the song list area
in the main iTunes window, spies on your listening habits. You are not told this is happening, but it's clear that it
must be -- the store's selections change each time you listen to a new song. So at a minimum, artist and title
information must be being sent to the music store, each and every time you listen to a new song. I don't know what
other data may or may not be collected, but even just title and artist is enough to concern me.

Thankfully, there's an easy workaround. Simply disable the mini store (Edit: Hide Ministore, or just Shift-Command-M),
then no data is transmitted. So that's the hint -- if you value the privacy of your listening habits, then hide the
mini store.

This is the first thing Apple's done with iTunes and the store that's really struck me as going 'over the line.' In
past iTunes releases, the store and your library were always distinct. Sure, you could click the link to jump from a
song to the store, but there was no direct tie-in. But the mini store makes the tie-in direct, and since it's sending
your listening habits without your explicit permission, it's clearly a feature that could be described as spyware.
Thankfully, iTunes doesn't continue to send the data when the mini store is hidden, so I would recommend hiding it
ASAP, at least until there's a better understanding of exactly what data's being collected, and how that data can be
used by Apple. (I can't find anything about this data collection in iTunes, the Music Store itself, or Apple's
website-centric privacy policy.)"


4.	Quark Express 7.0 demo

Quark have released a demo version of the new OS X Quark Express 7, and made it available for download, here


I have downloaded a copy of this trial software (155 MBytes) and for £5 will First Class post it to you on a CD.



5.	Rumours

And for the rumour-mongers and conspiracy-theorists amongst you, the following snippet, quoted on one of the 16
news sites I read everyday on your behalf:

"There was something strange about Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote on Tuesday. The pacing was off.

So tonight I'm sitting in a bar when I run into an old friend, who is very highly placed in the Apple world. I hate to
cite an anonymous source, but trust me, he knows. And he tells me the keynote that Jobs gave was not the keynote he
had planned. Some of the speech had been cut out. Key products were missing. My source said there was some stuff,
"some very, very cool stuff," that Jobs couldn't unveil because of "supply issues." "They can't get enough Core Duo
(chips)," said my source. He also said that if he were me, he probably wouldn't order one of the new MacBook Pros.

I asked if there would be MacBook replacements for the 17-inch and 12-inch PowerBooks, but he said, "Oh, it's much
cooler than that. Much cooler.""


Well there you have it - are there more big announcements to come? I don't know!




Any questions? Let me know! Anything you'd like me to write a note on? Let me know!

thanks for being Mac users

hugh

tuesday 10 january 2006

To: the clients and contacts of Hugh Browton, the Mac Doctor:
Date: tuesday 10 january 2006


Dear All -

Steve Jobs stood up at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this morning and made the following announcements:

0.	OS X 10.4.4 is released. New Address book, new Google widget, new Calendar, new 'espn' (what's one of them?) And
see Point 6 below.

1.	iLife is now to be released at version 06, with all 5 components updated, and a new one - iWeb, for creating
websites. iPhoto does new things including Photocasting - publishing your photos to the internet, birthday card
making, new effects and processing of images.

2.	iWorks is now at version 06. Updated, little news from the Expo - see it on website.

3.	The BIG announcement. Apple has released *two* Intel-based machines.

4.	The iMac machine has been upgraded with duo-core Intel processor inside, it's 2-3 times faster, but ships at the
same price. 17" is £929; 20" is £1229. Comes with FrontRow and Remote control; built-i iSight camera; superdrive for
CD and DVD reading and burning, and iLife '06 is included. Available now.

5.	There is a new laptop, called the Mac Book. A very bright 15.4" screen (1440x900). It too uses a dual-core Intel
processor, so is very fast (they say 4x faster than machine it replaces). Thinner (just) than the current 15" PowerBook.
Built-in iSight (video) camera. £1429 for the "slower" (1.67 GHz) version; £1779 for the "faster" (1.83 GHz) version.
Comes with an Apple remote control ("so you can watch videos across the hotel room"!), and a magnetic catch for the
power cable - so if you pull on the cable it comes out instead of pulling the machine off the desk! Both come with a
Superdrive optical (CD & DVD) drive. Available in february.

6.	OS X 10.4.4 runs on the Intel machine in native mode, not in emulation. (That's good.) All Apple applications run
native on Intel - either now or by end-march. (That's *very* good).


Other news - Apple has sold 42 million iPods, 32 million of them in 2005! It is selling 3 million iTunes a day. (That's
over a billion a year!) There is a new FM radio for recent-model iPods. Apple has 135 Apple Stores around the world
which took a billion US dollars in the last quarter. Overall the company made sales of 5.7 billion US dollars in the
last quarter. (So anyone who still says "Oh Apple - a really small company on shaky financial terms - you can't trust it
for the future." is either an idiot, or from Mars, or both). MS Office and MSN will run natively on Intel chips very soon,
and Microsoft has committed to releasing Office for at least another 5 years.




Any questions? Let me know! Anything you'd like me to write a note on? Let me know!

thanks for being Mac users

hugh

friday 06 january 2006

To: the clients and contacts of Hugh Browton, the Mac Doctor:
Date: friday 06 january 2006


Dear All -

Firstly - best wishes for 2006! I hope that you all had a good Christmas, and start to the year.

The big event this year will be the release of the first Apple machines with Intel chips inside, which will make no
difference in the short term, but gives our computer a longer life as Intel chips have a better development route
than the PowerPC chips we have been using. Possibly late in 2006 we will see an early release of the next major release
of the OS X operating system - 10.5 (codenamed: "Leopard").

First announcements may be made in San Francisco on tuesday - I'll send out a note of the highlights shortly thereafter.


In the meantime, here are some other news snippets from late last year:
(As usual - ignore them if not of interest, and get back to me if you want any clarification)

1.	No future for Microsoft's Internet Explorer

"IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER FOR MAC USERS

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further
development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will
end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates.

Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from
Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari."

the Mac Doctor says: "Or Firefox, or Opera, or iCab."


2.	One.Tel moves to Carphone Warehouse

"Another ISP has been bought out (december 2005). One.Tel has been acquired by Carphone Warehouse for £132 million
from Centrica to be able to compete better with BT. One.Tel offers both alternative voice services as well as broadband,
adding to their portfolio which includes Tele2's carrier pre-select business. In addition, they have also agreed
to pay British Gas a further £22.2 million over three years if British Gas customer recruitment targets are met.

One.Tel has 60,000 broadband users which will presumably be transferred to under the TalkTalk umbrella with other
operations. This is a series of acquisitions which have formed the One.Tel group that includes Rednet earlier this year."

the Mac Doctor says: "Funny new world in which we buy telephone service from a gas transport company - and that
(landline-based) business is sold to a mobile 'phone company"


3.	Ipod nano success

In a best effort to meet demand for its top-selling iPod nano this past Christmas, Apple Computer was building and
shipping 100,000 of the ultra-slim digital music players every day!


4.	Adobe's Bridge

"With all the talk about Aperture, it looks like someone at Adobe was paying attention. When I came back from a Christmas
trip, I got an automatic notice that an update to Bridge (1.0.3.106) was available. After a quick and painless installation,
I am suddenly able to view Nikon NEF RAW files in Bridge. All of a sudden I can now open multiple RAW files in the
Photoshop editor too. And I can do all of this without converting everything to DNG files first. In fact I don't have to
convert to DNG at all. This is a huge time-saver. Maybe this has been discussed before, but it was a surprise to me and
an great unexpected Christmas present."




Any questions? Let me know! Anything you'd like me to write a note on? Let me know!

thanks for being Mac users

hugh