shownotes_20100311

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is "Say Anything" by Manda and the Marbles
    Band's MySpace page
Sponsor
  Citrix
    GoTo Assist Express
    Offer remote help to your customers, friends, and family with the click of a link.
    Cross platform, so you can assist your Windows based friends.
    You can try it yourself free for a month.
      Auto renew after the 30 days or set the account to not auto-renew and use a daily pass
News
  US iPad sales start in tomorrow, rumors and info
    Apple announced on it's US site that iPad pre-orders will start March 12th and Wi-models will ship April 3
      In store pick-up is an option.
      All models of iPad will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.
    This after rumors of iPad delays and shortages
      Some early rumor reports were saying there would be as few as 200,000 iPads in the US at launch.
      DigiTimes reported that their sources at manufactures in Twain say they will ship 600 to 700,000 units at launch and 1 million in April.
      FBR Capital analyst Craig Berger says Apple may actually churn out as many as 5 million in the first half of 2010.
    Condé Nast will create iPad versions of Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Reportedly holding off on other zines due to Flash dispute.
    Job's reportedly replied to an email from a Swedish fan saying no tethering on the iPad.
    Jobs was at the Oscars during which the 1st iPad commercial Aired.
      Available for viewing on Apple's web site. Basically a montage of features with the April 3rd date at the end.
      There has been lots of analysis of the spot on the Internet, including noting iBook prices ranging from $7.99 to $14.99
  4th rev of iPhone SDK brings new rumor
    2 new PLIST files in the "gestures" folder show possible new triple-tap and long hold gestures.
    9 to 5 Mac reports that the VideoChat files that were present in prior beta SDKs have now been removed.
  Rumors of hi-def Mac Minis
    AppleInsider and others are reporting next gen Mac Minis will have HDMI ports standard and use Nvidia MCP89 chipsets.
    Likely means the processors will remain Core 2 Duos.
  Tentative rumors of new MacPros
    Electronista is pointing to a ZDNet rumor that we may see new MacPro's next week. Tuesday or Friday?
    We are about due, it's been a year.
    Report says the system will use Intel's 6-core i7-980X chip running at 3.33 GHz.
    Apple usually sticks with Intel's Server grade Xeon processors in the Pro, while the 980X is a desktop processor. Apple also usually doubles-up in the Pros.
    Plus the chips aren't cheap, reportedly USD $999 in volume.
  Apple takes issue with HTC
    Apple suing HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, no mention of Google.
      Seth Weintraub at 9 to 5 Mac believes it's Apple's way of going after Android without directly attacking Google since Apple uses Google technologies, like Maps and YouTube in the iPhone and iPad.
    "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” - Steve Jobs.
      In the PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds" he quotes Picasso, "Good artists copy, great artists steal" and then he goes on to say, “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
        To be fair he later references the talent at Apple having proficiency in areas outside computer science, like music, art, zoology, history, etc., but still there is some irony.
        Was also famously know that the original Mac team flew a pirate flag over their building. And Jobs was quoted as saying, "It's better to be a pirate than join the navy." Although that comment is attributed more to his rebellion again corporate bureaucracy, also strangely ironic in the guise of this lawsuit.
    I ranted about this on the latest iPhone Alley podcast. I'm not fond of lawsuit coverage.
      The patent system as it relates to software is broken, see great piece on Daring Fireball
        Amazon's one-click patent was upheld this week after a 4-year review by the USPTO. Apple is the only company who already licenses one-click. More will need to now.
      I'd rather see Apple's $40 billion dollar surplus going to lawyers.
    What's interesting is the timing since the suit comes not long after Google enabled multitouch features in the Android OS on the Nexus One in the states, something reportedly Apple had asked them to hold off on enabling.
    Computerworld says ARM expects 50 Slate/Tablet style devices this year.
      Suit may be more about the OS and multi-touch than the hardware features. A warning shot to iPad competitors?
      Patents like:
        Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image
        List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display
  Rumors of Apple moving media to the cloud
    Well sort of. CNet claims Apple has been in talks with the studios to allow purchasers to stream content.
    Apple reportedly is having similar talks with movie studios.
    At issue is likely storage issues for consumers. So Apple would create "lockers" in the cloud and store media for consumers.
    I love my Netflix and this solves the media backup issue. I think re-downloads should also be allowed.
  Updates for media pros
    ProKit 5.1 update
      Fixes issues with user interface software resources that are shared by Apple's professional applications.
      Recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express, Soundtrack, Logic Pro and Logic Express.
    Main Stage 2.1.1, part of Logic Studio - Improves overall performance and provides numerous fixes.
      MacNN says it contains over 50 fixes among them addressing a crashing issue with 32-bit Audio Unit Bridge plug-ins.
  Apple didn't stop App Store hack and slash at porn
    Reports that Apple has now removed Apps that offer wi-fi stumbling, due to use of private APIs.
    Reports that "cookie cutter" apps with limited functionality, like just parsing an RSS feed or displaying a "web" view of a blog are being rejected. Basically "marketing" or "spam" style apps.
    The fine line of what is or isn't an app seems to be getting finer
      As Jason O'Grady points out on the ZDNet Apple Core blog, are AppBooks next?
      Mobclix, a mobile ad provider, says book apps now are 27,000 of the 150,000 titles in the store (more than games).
    App Books may conflict with iBookstore books and confuse consumers. What about periodical and newspaper apps, that ePub isn't a good format for?
Sponsor
  Faronics
    Deep Freeze
    Great for running testing and keeping your Mac clean.
      Freeze your Mac then download and install the software to try. When you finish testing you can reboot and all traces of the app will be gone.
      Don't worry about what it put into the Library folder or other system level locations.
Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  Are the chips down for Apple and Intel?
    9 to 5 Mac has an interesting piece speculating why we haven't seen Core iX Mobile Macbook Pros yet
      Intel currently prevents NVidia from using any chipsets that support Intel processors with an integrated memory controller without paying a license for the memory controller to Intel. Lawsuits Are pending.
    Some interesting points
      Apple has preferred NVidia GPUs to Intel's integrated chipsets
      Intel is blocking NVidia in the chips from working on the Core iX boards
  Flash rant follow-up
    Virgin America launched a new site sans Flash, saying they didn't want to have different experiences on different mobile devices. Specifically saying that using Flash was eliminating iPhone users.
  Emailing attachments from iPhone/iPod Touch follow-up
    A number of you emailed with a fairly simple solution to this issue which I failed to mention. Email yourself the attachment and then forward it.
    When I presented the question last week I should have pointed out the listener was already using this solution, but looking for a more robust solution that could manage multiple files and not require editing the "FW:" stuff out of the outbound email prior to sending.
  Backing up bookmarks from multiple browsers
    Play question from Alan.
    Typically the browser bookmarks file will be located in the Library folder of your home directory
      For Safari, there is a 'Safari' folder with a 'Bookmarks.plst' file (actually just an XML file)
      Firefox is in a folder in the 'Application Support' folder and is an HTML file.
    If you back-up your Home folder to the cloud, then you would be covered.
    Syncing to the cloud
      Safari has MobileMe syncing of bookmarks
        Nice because you can sync with the iPhone/iPod Touch, but only good for just Safari
      Google Chrome also has cloud syncing of bookmarks to your Google Docs.
    XMarks
      I have covered other OS X syncing apps in the past, but this app (formerly Foxmarks) seems to be the one most people use
      Works with Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer
      Backup and restore of bookmarks
      Online access, including mobile
  Defining a backup strategy that works for you.
    I got an email from Peter and he brought up some complex questions about what the best backup strategy is.
      Agreed with my feeling that at least using Time Machine with an External volume is a place to start. Better than nothing, but just barely.
        Because just like internal drives, backups can fail and that's the point. No matter what you do, nothing is 100% fool proof.
        TM can fail, files can become corrupt, backup services can go out of business, DVDs can go bad.
    Solution isn't to do nothing (some people will say since no solution is perfect, then why bother).
    Find a system that works for you and give you piece of mind.
      I split my strategy into 4 main categories
        1) Quick recovery
          Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper
        2) Incremental backup
          Time Machine
        3) Off site
          Selective iDisk backups, Dropbox, etc.
        4) Archive
          Burned CDs and DVDs
    My strategy works for me for now.
      I am seriously thinking about using a full cloud based online backup, but haven't done it yet.
    Other considerations
      Drobo
      RAID, mirrored drives, etc.
      What can be replaced easily, what can't.
        You can usually re-download or re-install apps.
        You might not be able to recover photo
        My DV video tapes are still around, but how much longer will there be players if I need to re-encode.
        Flash memory is fleeting
  Spotlight search tips
    Quickly access Spotlight search. Settings in 'System Preferences'-->Spotlight. In the 'Search results' tab.
      Command+Space to access Spotlight menu
      Command+Option+Space to access the Spotlight Window in the Finder
      In this same Preference pane you can adjust which types of items are returned in a Spotlight result and in which order.
    In the Spotlight Window, search options are available under the toolbar
      Search locations, Entire Mac or Home folder
      Search Type, Contents or File Name
    Add filter parameters
      Clicking the little "+" icon in the upper right can add additional parameters to filter down your search.
        Kind, size, dates, etc.
        'Other...' will bring up a window with tons of options.
          'System Files' is a particularly useful one. I add this to the menu (checkbox)
        These are normally additive, i.e. you can add multiple, but the result must match all of the parameters.
      Hold the 'Option' key and the "+" turns into a "..."
        Now you can control the filter in terms of 'All', 'Any', or 'None'
      Click the "-" to remove the parameters.
      You can also click the 'Save' to save the serach as a 'Smart Search' and add it to the Finder Sidebar
Closing
  Podcast Marketplace
    Thanks to my sponsors
      Circus Ponies
      Smile on my Mac
      Faronics, Deep Freeze
      Cocoatech, Pathfinder 5
      Citrix
  Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
    maccast@gmail.com
    281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9
      PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
    MacCast Forum
    Follow me on Twitter
  "Lives of Strangers" by Friday Mile
    Recommended by a listener
    Artist's web site
      Sign up for their mailing list and get a free download.
    Upcoming shows
      March 19 at The Woods in Portland
      April 8 at The Crocodile in Seattle
    Buy on iTunes
  EOL: 3D tribute to Apple Design
    An incredible 3D tribute to Apple design (via Cult of Mac)