[11/30] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Released Security Update 2005-009: The update is available via the Software Update application or as standalone files for Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) client and server and 10.3.9 (Panther) client and server. According to the 10.4.x client Read Me file,

Security Update 2005-009 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users.

This update includes the following components:

apache_mod_ssl
CoreFoundation
CoreTypes
curl
iodbcadmin
OpenSSL
Safari
sudo
syslog

Here are the details:

Security Update 2005-009 delivers the following security enhancements:

Apache2--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2088
Available for: Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Cross-site scripting may be possible in certain configurations
Description: The Apache 2 web server may allow an attacker to bypass protections using specially-crafted HTTP headers. This behavior is only present when Apache is used in conjunction with certain proxy servers, caching servers, or web application firewalls. This update addresses the issue by incorporating Apache version 2.0.55.

apache_mod_ssl--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2700
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: SSL client authentication may be bypassed in certain
configurations
Description: The Apache web server's mod_ssl module may allow an attacker unauthorized access to a resource that is configured to require SSL client authentication. Only Apache configurations that include the "SSLVerifyClient require" directive may be affected. This update addresses the issue by incorporating mod_ssl 2.8.24 and Apache version 2.0.55 (Mac OS X Server).

CoreFoundation--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2757
Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Resolving a maliciously-crafted URL may result in crashes or arbitrary code execution
Description: By carefully crafting a URL, an attacker can trigger a heap buffer overflow in CoreFoundation which may result in a crash or arbitrary code execution. CoreFoundation is used by Safari and other applications. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of URLs. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.

curl--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3185
Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Visiting a malicious HTTP server and using NTLM authentication may result in arbitrary code execution
Description: Using curl with NTLM authentication enabled to download an HTTP resource may allow an attacker to supply an overlong user or domain name. This may cause a stack buffer overflow and lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation when using NTLM authentication. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.

iodbcadmintool--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3700
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Local users may gain elevated privileges
Description: The ODBC Administrator utility includes a helper tool called iodbcadmintool that executes with raised privileges. This helper tool contains a vulnerability that may allow local users to execute arbitrary commands with raised privileges. This update addresses the issue by providing an updated iodbcadmintool that is not susceptible.

OpenSSL--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2969
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Applications using OpenSSL may be forced to use the weaker SSLv2 protocol
Description: Applications that do not disable SSLv2 or that enable certain compatibility options when using OpenSSL may be vulnerable to a protocol downgrade attack. Such attacks may cause an SSL connection to use the SSLv2 protocol which provides less protection than SSLv3 or TLS. Further information on this issue is available at this Web page. This update addresses the issue by incorporating OpenSSL version 0.9.7i.

passwordserver--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3701
Available for: Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Local users on Open Directory master servers may gain elevated privileges
Description: When creating an Open Directory master server, credentials may be compromised. This could lead to unprivileged local users gaining elevated privileges on the server. This update addresses the issue by ensuring the credentials are protected.

Safari--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2491
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Processing a regular expressions may result in arbitrary code execution
Description: The JavaScript engine in Safari uses a version of the PCRE library that is vulnerable to a potentially exploitable heap overflow. This may lead to the execution of arbitrary code. This update addresses the issue by providing a new version of the JavaScript engine that incorporates more robust input validation.

Safari--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3702
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Safari may download files outside of the designated download directory
Description: When files are downloaded in Safari they are normally placed in the location specified as the download directory. However, if a web site suggests an overlong filename for a download, it is possible for Safari to create this file in other locations. Although the filename and location of the downloaded file content cannot be directly specified by remote servers, this may still lead to downloading content into locations accessible to other users. This update addresses the issue by rejecting overlong filenames.

Safari--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3703
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X
v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: JavaScript dialog boxes in Safari may be misleading
Description: In Safari, JavaScript dialog boxes do not indicate the web site that created them. This could mislead users into unintentionally disclosing information to a web site. This update addresses the issue by displaying the originating site name in JavaScript dialog boxes. Credit to Jakob Balle of Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

Safari--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3705
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Visiting malicious web sites with WebKit-based applications may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: WebKit contains a heap overflow that may lead to the execution of arbitrary code. This may be triggered by content downloaded from malicious web sites in applications that use WebKit such as Safari. This update addresses the issue by removing the heap overflow from WebKit. Credit to Neil Archibald of Suresec LTD and Marco Mella for reporting this issue.

sudo--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-1993
Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: Local users may be able to gain elevated privileges in
certain sudo configurations
Description: Sudo allows system administrators to grant users the ability to run specific commands with elevated privileges. Although the default configuration is not vulnerable to this issue, custom sudo configurations may not properly restrict users. Further information on this issue is available from this Web page. This update addresses the issue by incorporating sudo version
1.6.8p9.

syslog--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-3704
Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.3, Mac OS X Server v10.4.3
Impact: System log entries may be forged
Description: The system log server records syslog messages verbatim. By supplying control characters such as the newline character, a local attacker could forge entries with the intention to mislead the system administrator. This update addresses the issue by specially handling control characters and other non-printable characters. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4. Credit to HELIOS Software GmbH for reporting this issue.

Additional Information

Also included in this update are enhancements to Safari to improve handling of credit card security codes (Mac OS X v10.3.9 and Mac OS X v10.4.3), CoreTypes to improve handling of Terminal files (Mac OS X v10.4.3), QuickDraw Manager to improve rendering of PICT files (Mac OS X v10.3.9), documentation regarding OpenSSH and PAM (Mac OS X v10.4.3), and ServerMigration to remove unneeded privileges.

We downloaded and installed Security Update 2005-009 with no problems. Then we used our 1.67GHz 17" Powerbook G4 for several hours without incident. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[11/30] Brief Hands-On Report--Mozilla Released Firefox 1.5 Web Browser: The final version of Firefox 1.5 is now available from this Mozilla Web page. Here are the Release Notes which cover what's new in Firefox 1.5:

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
  
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
  
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
  
• Improvements to popup blocking.
  
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
  
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
  
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
  
• Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
  
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
  
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
  
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
• Many security enhancements.

We downloaded and installed Firefox 1.5 over v1.5RC3. We browsed with the final version for several hours without encountering any problems. We like the Nautipolis theme and were pleased to find out that v1.0.28 works with the latest version of Firefox. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[11/30] The Apple Developer Connection Published Moving Your Project from CodeWarrior to Xcode: Developers should all be moving their existing CodeWarrior applications to Apple's Xcode so that they can create universal binaries, applications that include executable code that runs on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers. Moving Your Project from CodeWarrior to Xcode explains the benefits of transitioning and gets you started. [Bill Fox]

[11/30] O'Reilly Released Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell: For everything users need to know about the Unix side of Mac OS X, there's the all-new Tiger guide, Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell (Lester, Stone, Toporek, and McIntosh, O'Reilly, US $39.95). The popular and complete desktop reference book on Mac OS X now systematically documents Tiger (Version 10.4), focusing on the BSD Unix layer. It familiarizes readers with more than 300 of Tiger's Unix commands, the Terminal application, file management, system and network administration issues, and more. [Bill Fox]

[11/29] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Released Broadband Tuner 1.0 Updater for Mac OS X 10.4.x: The update is available for download from this Apple Web page but it did not appear in our Mac OS X Software Update application. According to the Read Me file,

About Broadband Tuner

The Broadband Tuner allows you to take full advantage of very high speed Internet connections that have a high latency (5 Mbps or greater). The installer tweaks some system parameters.

There is an optional uninstaller that can be used to restore the settings that were in effect at the time just before the system parameters were changed.

What does the Broadband Tuner do exactly?

The installer increases the default values for the size of the TCP send and receive buffers. With larger buffers more data can be in transit at once. A startup configuration file is also updated so that these changes will persist across restarts.

The system parameters are sysctl variables that are set as follows:

net.inet.tcp.sendspace: 131072
net.inet.tcp.recvspace: 358400
kern.ipc.maxsockbuf: 512000

This change has a system wide effect and is applied even if the network is not high speed connection with a high latency, with the exception of modem connections for which the system uses small default TCP buffer sizes.

We downloaded Broadband Tuner 1.0 and installed it on our 1.67GHz 17" PowerBook G4 with no problems. We are currently using a hotel high speed internet connection from STSN (iBahn). Before installing Broadband Tuner 1.0, we got an average of 1.71Mbps download speed for four tests from this Web page. After installing Broadband Tuner 1.0 we got an average of 2.24Mbps for four runs. However, the Read Me states that it is for faster internet connections, 5Mbps or more. So far, we've encountered no problems. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[11/28] Shootout of Three iPod Video Converters--MoviePod vs Podner vs Video2Pod: If you want to watch videos on your new 5G iPod with video, they must be in the proper format. The iPod with video only plays MPEG4 and H.264 formats of all the video formats out there like MOV, DV, MPEG1, MPEG2, AVI, DVIX, ASF and WMV. Movies or music videos bought and downloaded from the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) will be in the correct format but iTMS also offers video podcasts. Unfortunately, many video podcasts play okay in iTunes but are not in the proper format for the iPod with video. One may also have many QuickTime or Windows Media Player or Real Player videos that are also not compatible with the iPod with video.

Many videos compatible with QuickTime can be converted to MPEG4 or H.264 with QuickTime Pro 7.0.3 or iMovie HD or the open source application called ffmpeg. Following our hands-on review of the iPod with video, we posted a note that compared the performance of those three converters on a 1.67GHz PowerBook G4. iMovie and QuickTime were very slow and ffmpeg, while a bit faster is also a bit complex for the average user who just wants to convert some videos to run on their iPod with video.

Since then, at least three applications that automate the conversion process have been produced: Podner 1.1.1, Video2Pod 1.1.1 and MoviePod 1.0. Each costs about $10. They have different features but they all have simple graphical user interfaces, convert many video formats to MPEG4, batch process files and export the result to iTunes. Podner and Video2Pod are based on QuickTime and convert all QuickTime compatible files and support plugins for DVIX. Podner supports WMV with the Flip4Mac plugin. MoviePod converts ASF and WMV files without a plugin and it also supports QuickTime plugins like Podner and Video2Pod. But MoviePod does not presently convert videos to the new scalable H.264 format.

So how fast are they? We produced a short video test file in MOV format from the first four clips of iMovie's tutorial movie, some 28.5 seconds long. Then, we timed how long it took each application to convert the MOV file to MPEG4 at the applications' lowest quality setting and again at their highest quality setting. We also timed how long it took to convert the MOV file to H.264 at the highest setting in the two applications that can do it, Podner and Video2Pod. We conducted the tests on our 1.67GHz 17" PowerBook G4 and our new Power Mac G5 Quad running Mac OS X 10.4.3.

Here are the results using the PowerBook:

Speed Tests (sec) with 1.67GHz PowerBook G4

	Test
Application	MPEG4 Low	MPEG4 High	H.264 High
MoviePod 1.0	8	12	-
Podner 1.1.1	14	14	81
Video2Pod 1.1.1	12	13	78

MoviePod is the speed champ in MPEG4 conversion, convincingly so at the lowest quality settings. However, MoviePod's results were very similar to Podner's and Video2Pod if its "Decode movies using QuickTime" option is checked. This may have some relation to quality that we will get to shortly. Podner and Video2Pod are very close in H.264 conversion times at their highest quality setting but Podner's highest quality also includes multi-pass. It is not clear whether Video2Pod's highest H.264 setting is single-pass or multi-pass.

Here are the results using the Power Mac G5 Quad:

Speed Tests (sec) with 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad

	Test
Application	MPEG4 Low	MPEG4 High	H.264 High
MoviePod 1.0	3	4	-
Podner 1.1.1	6	6	25
Video2Pod 1.1.1	5	6	23

Of course, the times are much faster than using the PowerBook, especially so for MoviePod, and the results are the same.

What about quality? Out of the eight converted videos, only the lowest quality of Video2Pod showed clear pixelation on our iPod with video. The other seven were virtually indistinguishable in quality. At "full screen" in a QuickTime window on our 30" Cinema Display, all showed extensive pixelation. However, the Podner highest quality H.264 was clearly the best, much better even than Video2Pod's highest quality H.264.

In summary, if one is converting videos to watch on an iPod with video, the fastest application with acceptable quality is probably the best. That title in this shootout goes to MoviePod. On the other hand, if one wants to use the converted video on a much larger screen and has the time, Podner's high quality multi-pass H.264 is the best. As we stated earlier, each application has a variety of different features, some of which may trump the speed advantage of MoviePod for some users. Each application has a demo/trial version so check them out. [Bill Fox]

[11/25] Apple Offers $101 Off iMac G5 and iBook G4 and Other Discounts in Black Friday "The Feast After the Feast" Promo: As we announced on Tuesday, The Apple Store is offering terrific discounts on many items. For example, JBL On Stage iPod Speaker system is $31.95 off as is the On Stage II. Shure E5C Earphones are $101 off. AirPort Express is $31 off as is an iSight camera. Apple's Mighty Mouse is $11 off.

There's still time to buy. Click on the ad image at right to be hyper-transported to The Apple Store's special sale. [Bill Fox]

[11/25] O'Reilly Published Digital Video Production Cookbook: This book will show you how to create sophisticated-looking visual effects, dramatic shots, and powerful sequences using low-cost methods adapted from high-end professional techniques. Author and award-winning filmmaker Chris Kenworthy explains how you can use a digital video camera and basic editing software, to create high-end production values with household equipment and a little imagination.

Digital Video Production Cookbook includes easy-to-follow recipes for:

• Creating bluescreen effects
  
• Simulating rain, snow, and other types of weather
  
• Working with backlighting, simulated candlelight, and special lighting effects
  
• Shooting day for night
  
• Staging safe stunts, chase scenes, and fistfights
  
• Makeup techniques for aging, bruises, and serious injuries
  
• Shooting at night
  
• Working with camera movement
  
• Adding special effects such as laser bolts, holograms, and explosions

Digital Video Production Cookbook (Kenworthy, O'Reilly, US $29.95) features clear, step-by-step instructions laid out in a stunning, easy-to-follow format. This book is a master class for amateur and independent filmmakers working in the digital medium. [Bill Fox]

[11/23] Registration Open for The Game Developers Conference 2006 on 3/22-24/06--FREE Video Webcast of 2005 Sessions: GDC:06 is the official event "by game developers for developers" of computer, console, mobile, arcade, online games, and location based entertainment, the GDC attracts over 12,000 attendees and provides educational, networking, and business opportunities for game development professionals driving the $11 billion video game industry. It will be held in San Jose, CA, on March 22-24, 2006.

The Production Track--With the advent of next-gen gaming, the entire production balance will shift to a larger, more distributed scale - expanding development teams, skyrocketing budgets, more complex games, and a growing global market. The Production Track explores both the challenges and the opportunities inherent to these new ventures and will also present proven techniques to take a project from pre-production to market, on-schedule and on-budget. Here are the Production Track highlights:

• Beyond Technology: Process Issues in Next-Gen Development
  Don Daglow (Stormfront Studios, Inc.)
• You Deny, But You’re Lovin’ It: Using Psychophysiology for Product Evaluation
  Byung-ho Park (Doctoral student, Indiana University)
• From Design to Product: A Model for Independent Game Production
  Nicholas Soutter (Aepox Games)
• We Learned The Hard Way So You Don't Have To: How To Outsource Successfully
  Kristine Coco (Midway Studios, Austin)
• Big Screen to Game Console: Case Studies
  Doug Cooper (DreamWorks Animation)
• Reinventing Your Company Without Reinventing The Wheel
  Brian Krueger and Owen Brand (Factor 5)

Complete descriptions of all of the sessions are available on this GDC:06 Web page.

There are also two early bird conferences just before GDC:06, the GDC Mobile 2006 and the Serious Games Summit at GDC:06. Both are on March 20-21, 2006.

Finally, many of the 2005 session are available FREE as a streaming video webcast from a link in the right side bar of this Web page--registration required. We tested it and it works fine with Safari 2.0.2. [Bill Fox]

[11/23] BitTorrent and MPAA Reach Accord on Preventing Piracy of Movies: According to AP, the owner of BitTorrent, a file sharing technology/service for downloading huge files, and the Motion Picture Association of America reached an agreement that BitTorrent will remove any Web links that point to movies produced by any of the MPAA's members. More... [Dana Baggett]

[11/23] FREE Holiday Images for BeLight Applications: BeLight Software posted a free set of Christmas-related images for their software, Mail Factory and Swift Publisher, on this BeLight Web page. The collection contains about 70+ high-quality vector and photo images. This set allows Mac user's to decorate XMAS postcards and envelopes with Mail Factory. The images can be also used in Swift Publisher to create cool XMAS flyers and newsletters. [Bill Fox]

[11/23] Washington Apple Pi to Hold Holiday Brunch On December 3: Washington Apple Pi, the Washington DC metro area Macintosh User Group, is holding a holiday brunch in lieu of its semi-annual Garage Sale on Saturday, December 3, at 9 am at the Old Country Buffet at Fair City Mall, 9650 Main Street, Fairfax, Virginia. In addition to sharing greetings, meeting and eating, a gift exchange will be held.

While the meeting is free, accessible, and open to the public, each attendee is responsible for paying for his or her own meal.

Guests are asked to bring a wrapped gift, valued at $10 or less, appropriate for a Macintosh computer or its master. “It will be a round-robin gift exchange, each person choosing either a wrapped or unwrapped gift. The person whose unwrapped gift was “stolen” will replace it by taking a gift from another participant or one from the wrapped gifts pile. Its fun for all”, explained Pat Fauquet, VP Programs. She also said she was looking forward to seeing the variety of Macintosh-made gifts. Pat continued, “I’m hoping someone will bring their favorite holiday recipe, complete with a sample. What a great incentive to try the recipe!”

More information about this event is available on Apple Pi's Web site. [Bill Fox]

[11/22] The Apple Store Announced Black Friday Special, The Feast after the Feast, on Nov. 25: We received notice of a special shopping event at The Apple Store on Friday, November 25, the day after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Friday is dubbed Black Friday because it is the traditional first day of shopping for the end-of-year holiday season that puts retailers "in the black" (i.e. profitable) for the year. According to The Apple Store's announcement,

Come back to the Apple Store on the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You’ll find dozens of great gift ideas for everyone on your list, and you’ll get free shipping on all items.

Click on the ad image above right to be hyper-transported to the special sale this Friday. [Bill Fox]

[11/22] Cool Mac Software--MoviePod Converts .wmv Files for iPod with video: MoviePod is another simple application designed to convert various video file formats to a format that works on an iPod with video. Like Podner, MoviePod automatically adds converted files to iTunes but to a playlist of your choice. One key advantage of MoviePod over Podner is that it converts Windows Media Player .wmv files without the extra-cost QuickTime plugin Flip4Mac Player Pro that Podner requires. One drawback to MoviePod is that it only converts to MPEG4 and not to the scalable H.264 video format in single-pass or multi-pass modes like Podner. Some may prefer MoviePod's GUI but we think that the choice is more a matter of "taste." MoviePod is $10 shareware. [Bill Fox]

[11/22] Today's New and Old--Xbox 360 and Ted Koppel: Microsoft's second generation game machine, the Xbox 360, debuts today not only as a game machine but also as a second Microsoft attempt at a home media center.

Tonight, Ted Koppel will broadcast his last Nightline. Mr. Koppel became the center of home media when he took over from Frank Reynolds as anchor for Nightline during the Iran hostage crisis some 26 years ago. [Bill Fox]

[11/21] Apple Offers Microsoft Office 2004 with an Up to 50% Rebate--Office Bonus Promo: On Saturday, Apple began offering an up to 50% discount as a rebate on Microsoft Office 2004 when purchasing a qualifying Mac. The promo runs until January 31, 2006. Here are the details and rebate form. [Bill Fox]

[11/21] [Updated] Bargain--$50 Off on Quicken 2006 and TurboTax 2005 for Mac: If you buy both Quicken 2006 for Mac and TurboTax 2005 at the same time, with two coupons you can take advantage of two different Intuit discounts. The rebate coupons are available from this Amazon.com Web page. The first is for $20 for buying Quicken 2006 before 11/30--the rebate has to be claimed within 30 days of purchase. The second is for $30 for simultaneously buying Quicken and TurboTax. The first requires a special proof of purchase off the box and copy of a receipt. The second requires the UPC code and a copy of the receipt. So it seems that one can get both rebates off one purchase of both applications. Buy.com has an additional $5 Quicken 2006 discount coupon for first buyers for a total of $55 off both applications. [Bill Fox]

[11/21] Cool Mac Software--Podner 1.1.1 Update is Out: Podner converts video files to the format for Apple's new iPod with video. It also automatically places the converted file in your iTunes database. Podner 1.1 introduced batch processing and 1.1.1 adds a feature and a couple of fixes:

Release History

1.1.1 - 11/20/2005

New Features:

• Support for two-byte character file names and genres, such as Kanji and Greek
  

Fixes:

• Corrects potential batch processing duplicate file contents issue
  
• Preflight now includes late check for alternate output folder
  

1.1 - 11/18/2005

New Features:

• Batch processing
  
• Support for non-square pixel aspect ratios, as in DV source material
  
• Support for MPEG muxed audio in QuickTime reference movies
  
• Automatic and manual software update checking
  

Fixed:

• Corrects a potential non-responsive Cancel button situation during the first few seconds of MPEG muxed audio extraction

We favorably reviewed Podner. v1.1.1 is available for download via MacUpdate.com. [Bill Fox]

[11/19] Do-It-Yourself AirPort Extreme Card Install in Power Mac G5 Quad--Not! Surprise, surprise. There is another change in the Power Mac G5 Quad from its predecessors, i.e. in addition to the red glow from the front grille on startup, the chime sounding through the built-in speaker even with headphones attached to the front jack and the change from the T-type AirPort antenna to a strip--all good ideas so far. We found out about the additional change the hard way when we went to install our AirPort Extreme card. It is not possible, at least not now, for a user to install one!

Previous Power Mac G5s have a slot under the optical drive and a nearby antenna wire with connector for installing an AirPort Extreme card as shown in this Apple instruction sheet. One just slides the card into the slot and snaps on the antenna wire. Our new Power Mac G5 Quad has the slot but the antenna wires are bare. The ends of the wires are tinned but there is no connector to snap into the AirPort Extreme card's antenna port.

We don't think this is a manufacturing slip-up in our Quad because its manual is missing the usual passages describing installation of the card. It merely notes that one may be "...installed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider or at an Apple Store retail location." In fact, Apple's Discussion Board (see here) mentions that there may be an entirely different AirPort Extreme card (Part No. MA252) for all the dual-core Power Mac G5s but none are available.

AirPort Extreme ready it is not, at least not yet. Ah, the virtue of patience...and the depth of one's pocket. [Bill Fox]

[11/19] Apple (Apparently?) Appealed iPod Battery Issue Settlement: According to a November 15th notice on the Apple iPod Settlement Administration Web site,

On October 24, 2005, a notice of appeal was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, against the approved iPod Settlement. As a result, Settlement benefits will not be provided unless and until the appeal is resolved.

Presumably, the appellant is Apple. But if Apple is appealing, why did it initially agree to the settlement? Anyway, we hope whomever appealed wins. This is another consumer class action settlement that basically lines the attorneys' pockets and gets relatively little for the consumer on a very questionable issue based on our experience with the original iPods. We have two that still get over 7 hours on their original batteries. [Bill Fox]

[11/19] A Rare Interview with Jonathan Ive, Apple's Design Chief: He joined Apple in 1992 from the London design consulting firm Tangerine where he was a partner. He was Apple's chief designer when the iMac was released in 1998 and the rest is history. News.Telegraph was able to get a rare interview, calling Ive "...the most important British industrial designer of our time." More... [Dana Baggett]

[11/19] TidBITS Published Take Control of Switching to a Mac: An increasing number of Windows users are switching to the Mac, but as easy as Mac OS X is to use, making the jump from Windows is still a daunting proposition. In a new ebook, Take Control of Switching to a Mac, best-selling author Scott Knaster (TidBITS Electronic Publishing, ISBN: 1-933671-04-1, PDF format, 93 p, November 17, 2005, $10), who has worked at both Apple and Microsoft, guides switchers through the process of making the decision to switch, choosing the right Mac model, setting up the Mac, choosing the appropriate Macintosh applications to replace common Windows programs, and moving data - documents, email, address books, and Web bookmarks - to the Mac. Scott then teaches readers the basics of using a Mac from the perspective of someone who knows only Windows, starting with an explanation of user interface differences and moving on to lessons on how to use the Finder effectively, search with Spotlight, manage applications and windows, connect to network resources, download software updates, and more. A collection of five key Macintosh features and five useful tips help readers move beyond the basics and become more capable with their new Macs, and the ebook offers extra help for those who must share documents with Windows users or run the occasional Windows application. In keeping with the practical nature of all Take Control titles, Scott includes essential troubleshooting advice in case problems appear, along with a glossary to help familiarize Windows users with Macintosh terminology. [Bill Fox]

[11/19] Apple Revised the Offerings from Five Hot Deals Retailers:

PowerMax has fantastic prices of superb products for your Mac, including Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition, Xerox Phaser 6100/DN Color Laser Printer, Keyspan PS-4A 4-Port Print Server, Canon PowerShot S2 IS 5MP Digital Camera, Wacom Intuos2 12"x12" USB Graphics Tablet, Timbuk2 Large Laptop Zip Briefcase, and much more.

ClubMac has great deals on essential Mac products, including Micromat Techtool Pro 4, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher Edition, Canon PowerShot Pro 1 Digital Camera, LaCie Extreme Triple Interface 250GB External Hard Drive, Kensington Comfort Type USB Keyboard, Adobe Photoshop CS2 Upgrade Version, and much more.

MacMall has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including Epson Stylus CX4200 All-in-One Printer, iRocks USB 2.0 4-Port Hub FREE with mail-in rebate, MacCase 15" Messenger Bag with FREE Stealth Black Sleeve, Logitech Cordless Desktop LX501 Keyboard and Mouse with $20 mail-in rebate, Roxio Toast 7 Titanium with $20 mail-in rebate, and much more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional Upgrade Version, AutoFX PhotoGraphic Edges Vol. 6 Upgrade, Canon Digital Rebel XT Camera, Corel KPT Collection, Electric Rain Swift 3D 3.0 Standalone, Epson Stylus Photo RX620 with $50 mail-in rebate, and much more.

O'Reilly has exclusively Hot Deals discounts for many of it's most popular Mac titles, including Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition, Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell, iWorks '05: The Missing Manual, iLife '05: The Missing Manual, GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual, and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[11/18] Report on The First Annual O'Reilly European Open Source Convention: Europe has become fertile ground for open source projects and innovators. European governments are beginning to integrate FLOSS (free/libre and open source software) in innovative ways, and open source communities--particularly on the professional level--are multiplying and gaining influence across the continent. To support and further this open source momentum, O'Reilly Media held its first O'Reilly European Open Source Convention (EuroOSCON) at the Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam on October 17-20, 2005.

Nearly 500 developers, programmers, hackers, and systems and network administrators attended tutorials, sessions, on-stage discussions, informal events, and hallway conversations focusing on almost every aspects of the open source platform. Mature technologies were explored alongside newer and less developed tools, allowing attendees to take in the full range of open source's capabilities.

Like OSCON, its US counterpart, EuroOSCON brought together diverse people, projects, and communities. Delegates heard from leaders, experts, and alpha geeks leading the open source charge throughout Europe and the world, including: Simon Phipps, Sun; Alan Cox and Michael Tiemann, Red Hat; Jason Matusow, Microsoft; Damian Conway, Monash University; Larry Wall, Perl guru; David Heinemeier-Hansson, Less Software; Cory Doctorow, EFF; Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media; Chet Kapoor, IBM; Jeff Waugh, Canonical; Paul Everitt, Zope Europe; Paula LeDieu, Creative Commons International; Marcel den Hartog, Computer Associates; Luis Casas Luengo, Extremadura; Rasmus Lerdorf, Yahoo!; Alex Martelli, Google; Autrijus Tang, open source advocate; David Axmark, MySQL AB; Ben Laurie, Apache Software Foundation; Danese Cooper, Intel; and Karoly Negyesi, Drupal. More... [Bill Fox]

[11/18] PC Publishing Released Making Music on the Apple Mac: All Mac computers are suitable for recording music, but which one you choose depends very much on what you want to do. Whether you're a singer/songwriter, a band member, a dance music producer, a composer or a music educator, Making Music on the Apple Mac by Keith Gemmell (PC Publishing, ISBN: 1870775-95-3, 113 pages, $14.95) will point you in the right direction.

There's a section on setting up your studio and configuring your audio and MIDI interfaces for optimum performance. Step by step projects show you how to record with GarageBand, an easy-to-use package with hundreds of instruments and loops, that's free with every Mac.

And when your masterpiece is complete, learn how to organize your music, create playlists, burn CDs and publish your music on the net.

The book's features include:

• Which Mac to buy
• Setting up your desktop studio
• Recording MIDI and audio with GarageBand
• Step by step projects
• Getting your music onto the Internet
• Burning CDs

[Bill Fox]

[11/18] New iPod nano Case--MicroWallet: XtremeMac announced the availability of a new case called MicroWallet for iPod nano. MicroWallet is available in three styles—Leather, Accent and Pastel—made from various materials and with slightly different features. All are designed to have a slim, compact profile that leaves the iPod nano earbud jack accessible even when the MicroWallet is closed. When flipped open, MicroWallet reveals the entire face of iPod nano for complete accessibility to controls and ports.

MicroWallet Leather and Accent offer open access to the iPod nano Dock Connector and earbud jack. MicroWallet Leather is available in saddle, brown, dark brown or black for $29.95 and MicroWallet Accent is available in gray with green or gray with orange for $19.95.

MicroWallet Pastel features a soft, durable exterior and microsuede lining as well as a snap closure that offers access to the iPod nano earbud jack. It also includes a carabiner that can be used to attach the MicroWallet to a belt loop, purse or backpack. It is available in pink or lime green for $29.95 each. [Bill Fox]

[11/18] Friday Chuckle--New Apple iPod Suit? Soap on a Rope: It's not April Fools Day but here is a nice spoof of lawsuits aiming to capitalize on the popularity of Apple's iPod from CrazyAppleRumors.com. [Dana Baggett]

[11/17] From the Dark Side--Sony Recalling Copy-Protected CDs that Affect Only Windows PCs: Sony recently released at least 20 popular new CD titles with a new copy-protection scheme. The scheme places a hidden application on a Windows computer the first time a CD is inserted. The application then limits the number of copies that can be made of the CD. It is technically spyware, it provides a vehicle for malware and its removal can disable the computers optical drive. Apparently, the scheme only works on a computer running Windows. Aren't you glad you use a Mac? More... [Dana Baggett]

[11/17] November Apple Pi Meeting this Saturday Features iLife: The Washington Apple Pi Macintosh User Group, will show how to creatively make family newsletters for the holidays with Apple Computer's iLife software suite at its Saturday, November 19, general meeting.

While the iLife suite is well suited to preparing the traditional hard-copy multi-column family newsletter, Apple Pi will show its guests how to use iLife to present the news in non-traditional soft-copy methods. These electronic formats include Adobe's Portable Data Format (PDF) files or through an internet web site such as home page on a dot Mac public folder. Alternately, text can be combined with photos and other graphics on Keynote slides with music and the Ken Burns slide changing effects. Musical families may choose to record and edit their own soundtracks using Apple's GarageBand for a Keynote slideshow or a Quicktime movie "newsreel." Pat Fauquet, Washington Apple Pi's Vice-president of Programs, explained, "We’re going to talk about how to be creative with our Macintoshes as we plan our family newsletter layout. We will also show how to use iLife to prepare and polish the news product. With a little practice, it can be faster as well as more fun than using a typewriter to produce the same style of newsletter Granny Smith did 20 years ago."

The meeting, open to the public, starts at 9:00 am at the Microsoft Innovation & Technology Center, 12012 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA, 20190.

[11/17] Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

Small Dog Electronics has great prices on top quality Mac products, including Adobe's Creative Suite 2 Premium for Mac Student/Teacher Edition, Dantz Retrospect Desktop 6.0, QuickerTek Aluminum Handle for 12" PowerBook G4 or 14" iBook, Rain Design iLap for 12" PowerBook G4, Matias Tactile Pro USB Keyboard, Aspyr Media The Sims 2, and much more.

CompUSA has money saving deals on a bevy of Mac products, including Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock Series 3 with $30 mail-in rebate, InFocus X2 Projector with $50 mail-in rebate, Samsung SyncMaster 930b 19" LCD Display with $20 mail-in rebate, Hewlett Packard F2105 21" LCD Display with $50 mail-in rebate, M-Audio StudioPro 4 Professional Speakers with $20 mail-in rebate, and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[11/17] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Molly Wood, Jason Snell and Clark Humphrey: This week co-hosts Gene and Grayson Steinberg will welcome CNET editor Molly Wood, who will reveal the nasty details behind Sony BMG's insidious CD copy protection scheme. You'll also hear from Macworld's Jason Snell and Clark Humphrey, author of Take Control of Digital TV. Tune in the internet radio broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]

[11/17] O'Reilly Published Podcasting Pocket GuideSebastopol, CA--Never before has the term "download this" had more meaning than when referring to the latest and greatest podcast. : Podcasting, a hybrid term that smashes the MP3-playing iPod into broadcasting, enables ordinary people to record podcasts of opinions, news coverage, editorials, reviews, and features, and post them on the Web. Podcasting makes broadcasters of people all around the world by making their recorded content available for anyone with access to the Internet. With thousands of free podcast offerings being posted daily, listeners need some help to sift through all of the "noise." This is where the Podcasting Pocket Guide (McElhearn, Giles, & Herrington, O'Reilly, US $9.95) steps in to provide some much needed guidance.

Small enough to fit in your pocket, this portable and affordable guide can help you gain access to opinions and ideas that you'd never find on the radio. Now you can find them all--unregulated and uncensored--on podcasts. Podcasting Pocket Guide is available exclusively at Borders through this holiday season and available at all stores in January 2006. [Bill Fox]

[11/17] QuickerTek Released Wireless Transceiver Bundle for Power Macs: QuickerTek has extended its long distance wireless network products with this bundle, ideal for Apple Power Mac users without built-in AirPort capability. These users can use the Buffalo 54g PCI Card and the QuickerTek 27dBm Transceiver for maximum wireless performance. This bundle is aggressively priced at $239.95, a savings of $40.

The QuickerTek operates like a super antenna, pulling in signals that are up to a mile away - and providing full speed connections. The Buffalo PCI Card provides the means to connect the Transceiver to PCI Power Macs without AirPort capability. The QuickerTek Transceiver can be powered from the USB port or the AC power adapter supplied in the kit. The QuickerTek Transceiver is shipped with a 2dBi omni-directional antenna. You can use a higher gain or a directional antenna if needed.

The QuickerTek Transceiver requires no software to operate and produces 500milliwatts of RF transmitter power amplifying the incoming WiFi signal and sending it to the Buffalo card. So you get greater signal strength for both sides of the WiFi signal thus increasing speed and range. The Buffalo card offers 802.11g speed, reliability, and Mac 9 and OSX compatibility with all the Apple software. We have tested some third party wireless interface cards that don't work with common Mac apps (iTunes for example). Any Apple Power Mac with a PCI slot can use the Bufffalo PCI card. [Bill Fox]

[11/16] Apple Posted Firmware Update for 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 (late 2004): The update for a Power Mac G5 running 10.4.3 is available from this Apple Web page. If it is running 10.3.9, then the firmware update is available from this Apple Web page. According to the Read Me file,

This Power Mac G5 System Firmware Update is only for the 1.8 GHz, (600 MHz bus), single-processor Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) computer. This update improves the reliability of your Power Mac G5, especially after it has been inactive for two hours.

Here are the details:

Some 1.8 GHz models of Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) computers may experience any of the following symptoms:

• The computer may freeze when performing certain video-intensive tasks for extended periods of time, such as a full screen slideshows, QuickTime playback, or some games.
  
• The optical drive may not eject when you've been using the computer for about two hours.
  
• Internet Connect may become unresponsive when you've been using the computer for about two hours.
  
• (This issue can affect either internal or external modems that use PPP as well as DSL modems that connect using the PPPoE protocol.)
  
• Attached displays may not wake up properly after the computer, running Mac OS X 10.4, has been sleeping for an extended period of time. The computer seems to wake up, but the display doesn't.

We do not have this model of Power Mac G5 so we can't test the firmware update for you. [Dana Baggett]

[11/16] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Released Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 3 which improves functionality of J2SE 5.0 on Mac OS X v 10.4 Tiger 10.4.2 and later. It is available via the Software Update application or as a standalone file from this Apple Web page. From Apple Article #302412,

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 Release 3 allows applications and applets developed for the J2SE 5.0 platform to run on Mac OS X v 10.4.2 and later.

This update does not change the default version of Java on your Mac from Java 1.4.2 to J2SE 5.0, though Java applications that require J2SE 5.0 may specifically request it. You can change the preferred Java version for applications and applets by using the new Java Preferences utility. This utility is installed by the J2SE 5.0 update at /Applications/Utilities/Java/J2SE 5.0/.

We downloaded and installed the latest edition of Java 2 with no problems on several Power Mac G5s and G4 Cubes, iMac G5s, PowerBook G4s and a Mac mini. We have not enabled Java 2 SE 5.0R3 as our preferred Java version as yet. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[11/16] O'Reilly Published Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual: This book is a practical and comprehensive guide that explains web site fundamentals and the best techniques and tools for easily creating and maintaining a personal or small-business site that is visitor-friendly, thoroughly modern, and brimming with the slickest new features. Whether creating a first page from scratch, or resurrecting an existing site that's decidedly uncool, readers will learn the best way to build great web sites--from concept phase through to web hosting, and make it stand out with modern formatting practices. In fact, everything about the book is modern: it uses style sheets (CSS) from the beginning, devotes a whole chapter to blogging, and takes into account the hottest new browser (FireFox).

"With the real-world tips and tricks throughout this book, any reader can build a web site that looks like a 21st-century web site," promises Matthew MacDonald, author of the new Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, US $29.95). [Bill Fox]

[11/16] AssistiveWare Publishing Newsletter for Mac OS X Users with Disabilities: AssistiveWare published the AssistiveWare Newsletter: A newsletter written, edited and designed by Mac OS X users who cannot use a keyboard and/or mouse. Learning InDesign in 2 weeks, Joe Barnick, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), edited and designed the newsletter, collaborating with talented individuals from around the world.

"With this newsletter we want to explore the frontiers of assistive technology, provide a platform to share experiences, and also to inspire people of all abilities to use the opportunities offered by Mac OS X to the fullest," said David Niemeijer, AssistiveWare's CTO. "Assistive technology can be so much more than a closed-box solution for a specific task. There is a whole world of possibilities out there and no reason why, say a switch user, should not use Apple's iChat or edit videos with iMovie just like 'the rest of us'."

In the first issue, Bill Lee shares his experience as a Technology Director working with a student in need of a fresh approach to AT. Video editing takes center stage as Jean-Marc Pepin talks about his exciting hobby. Excellent games for new switch users are covered in "Let the Games Begin", the first installment of a permanent column by game guru, Mike Phillips. Walter Pfrommer gives an informative comparison of various head mice on the market. Finally, Joe Barnick chronicles the pivotal role the Macintosh has in his life, something that many disabled Mac users can relate to.

The AssistiveWare Newsletter is a free download from this Web page. [Bill Fox]

[11/14] Hands-On Report--The New Power Mac G5 Quad, How Fast Is It? We ordered a new Power Mac G5 2.5GHz Quad on October 12, the day they were announced. Ours shipped by FedEx from Shenzhen, China, on November 10, and arrived at 2:30 pm on November 11--amazing delivery speed. It replaces our barely year-old dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 which will soon head to eBay.

The Quad has a number of speed enhancements, including two dual core 2.5GHz G5 CPUs (i.e. four cores hence the name "Quad"), faster 533MHz DDR2 memory (vs 400MHz DDR), faster PC Express (PCe) PCI slots--one 16-channel, one 8-channel and two 4-channel slots (vs PCI-X), faster Nvidia GeForce 6600 graphics card (vs ATI Radeon 9600 XT) and two gigabit ethernet ports (vs one). The graphics card occupies the 16-channel slot. It arrived in a new box design that opens on the top rather than the side along with a power cord, a DVI-VGA adapter, a USB keyboard, a USB cable extension for the keyboard, a Mighty Mouse and a black sleeve that holds the usual documentation and software DVDs.

We ordered the Quad's stock configuration that has 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 6600 graphics card. We would have ordered an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT graphics card upgrade for $350 but that option was not available when we ordered. When it finally became available as a CTO option, the Apple Store would not just add it to our order even though our Quad had not yet shipped. We would have had to cancel our order and re-order with an estimated additional delivery time of 7-9 weeks. We opted not to wait so we hope that either the 6600 will suffice, the 7800 GT will be offered as an after-market kit or ATI will release an even better graphics card for the Quad's PCe slot. The workstation level graphics card option, an Nvidia Quadro Pro FX 4500, is too steep for us at $1300 but it is a great option for those who need it.

After unpacking the Quad we popped it open and added 1GB of additional third-party 533MHz DDR2 RAM (two 512MB chips) to bring our total to 1.5GB which we have found more than adequate for our dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5. We also added a second SATA 250GB hard drive, a Seagate, with a clone of the software on the main drive in our dual 2.5GHz Power Mac. Our Quad came with a 250GB Western Digital SATA drive.

The inside of the Quad is much the same as the dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5. The fan assembly in front of the CPUs is a little different, i.e. the design has a more integrated look. But it pops out the same way to allow the installation of RAM on the motherboard below it.

Then we fired up our Quad attached to our Apple 30" Cinema Display via the lower (or left from the front) dual-link DVI port. The other DVI port on the Nvidia 6600 does not support the 30" display. While running the excellent Apple setup assistant, we chose to import our data from our second drive--it took roughly 15 minutes to import some 63GB of data. When we reached the desktop we noted that the Quad had a special build of Mac OS X 10.4.2 (Build 8E90) installed. To conduct our speed tests, we rebooted with the second drive as the startup drive, the same one we used for 10.4.3 speed tests on our dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5.

So how fast is it? To determine this we ran our usual suite of speed tests on our two Power Mac G5s. The speed tests are composed of a series of "canned" benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests that anyone can repeat on their own Mac for comparison by following the steps that we perform.

[11/11] Apple Revised the offerings from Four Hot Deals Retailers:

The Apple Store Special Deals page has unbelievable deals on the hottest refurbished and new, unopened Apple products. Current offerings include the Mac mini 1.42GHz with Combo Drive for only $439, 15" PowerBook G4 1.5GHz for only $1,449, 20" iMac G5 with SuperDrive for only $1,149, and much more. But hurry; supplies are limited and sure to go fast.

MacConnection has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including QuarkXPress 6.5, Belkin Tunecast II Mobile FM Transmitter for iPod with $19 mail-in rebate, Extensis Portfolio 8, Shure E4C Sound Isolating Earphones, Deneba Canvas X, Microsoft Office 2004 Standard Edition for Mac, Epson Stylus C88 Color Inkjet Printer FREE with purchase of any Apple CPU, and much more.

J&R has great prices on top quality Mac products, including Vivendi World of Warcraft, Mythix iWand Presenter, Ignitek iCheer Portable Audio System for iPod Shuffle, Kensington Stereo Dock for iPod, Epson Stylus CX3810 All-in-One Printer with $30 mail-in rebate, Aspyr SimCity 4, Knowledge Adventure JumpStart Advanced Preschool, and much more.

Ramjet has super low prices on RAM upgrades for your Mac, including 2GB DDR Kit for Power Mac G5 for only $275, 1GB DDR Kit for Power Mac G4 for only $98, 1GB DDR2 for Aluminum PowerBook G4 for only $117, 512MB DDR DIMM for Mac mini for only $49, 512MB DDR DIMM for iMac G5 for only $49, and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[11/11] Apple Updated WebObjects to 5.3.1 in Mac OS X 10.4.3 Server: The WebObjects 5.3.1 Update is available for download from this Apple Web page. According to the Read Me file,

This installer updates the Application Server components in Mac OS X Server 10.4 to WebObjects 5.3.1

which is not very informative.

We downloaded WebObjects 5.3.1 and installed the update on our server with no problems. [Bill Fox]

[11/11] Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 is Out and available for download from this Mozilla Web page. The second candidate release contains several fixes to the automated update system.

We downloaded and installed the new release. Downloading proved to be a bit problematic, as clicking the link caused a web page full of text rather than a downloded file. Clicking while holding the "Option" key forced a download but we had to delete the ".html" file extension. Hopefully this is now fixed on the Firefox Web site. We found no problems with brief use. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[11/11] Apple Released Xcode 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.4.x to Developers: Xcode 2.2 is available for download from this Apple Web page. Xcode includes everything needed to develop software for Mac OS X.

Here is what's new in v2.2:

• Build System Enhancements - architecture specific compiler configuration. This allows you to use gcc3.3 for PowerPC and gcc4.0 for Intel in a single Universal Binary.
• Scores of improvements in latest compiler, GCC 4.0.1 - support for building executables with debugging symbols from the PCH physically separated from the Mach-O binary files.
• Linker support - loading only those symbols essential to debug a binary, which greatly improves link time for full link.
• ZeroLink - can be turned on or off globally now.
• Distributed builds include distcc-2.18.3 0- can be launched form the command line, and the distributed build daemon is started by the system launch service.
• New target contextual menu items - build, clean, build and run, or build and debug selected targets.
• CodeWarrior Importer - faster and supports importing Object targets.
• Improved AppleScript Integration - build configurations and breakpoint conditions set via AppleScript. New target properties indicating using native build system, type of product created, and the absolute path of any resolved symlink.
• Debugging Features - attach to and debug an executable that was launched externally. The Log, Shell Command,and AppleScript Breakpoint Actions now support gdb expressions.
• Project Editing and Navigation Improvements - Project Find for large projects is up to 8x faster, and project openingtimes improved. Recursive search paths are considered in Open Quickly navigation. File references can pointdirectly to symlinks. Symbol popup in the documentation window supports keyboard navigation.
• Source Code Management Additions - Perforce passwords are now stored in a keychain, and enabling Perforce SCM for a project automatically enters the last-used depot settings.

We downloaded and installed Xcode 2.2 with no problems. [Bill Fox]

[11/11] The Apple Developer Connection Published Getting Control with Subversion and Xcode: r software developers, keeping track of projects is a major task. Subversion is an open-source version control system that was developed to extend the functionality provided by CVS. Subversion is versatile, feature-rich and is well integrated with Xcode, Apple's Integrated Development Environment. Getting Control with Subversion and Xcode describes how to install and set up Subversion on Mac OS X Server, set up your repository and integrate your Xcode project. [Bill Fox]

[11/10] BeLight Software Released Mail Factory 2.2 Update of its tool to design and print envelopes, postcards, address and shipping labels with advanced merge printing functionality. This update makes Mail Factory a unique Mac application in supporting 3 different Label Printer manufacturers (DYMO, Seiko, Brother) simultaneously. Version 2.2 also adds new postcards designs, the possibility to sort contacts, etc. The v2.2 update is free for current users of Mail Factory.

We favorably reviewed Mail Factory. [Bill Fox]

[11/10] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Leander Kahney and John Rizzo: Co-hosts Gene and Grayson Steinberg will welcome Leander Kahney, author of The Cult of iPod, where you'll learn that being a part of this fast-growing group of music enthusiasts doesn't require a secret hand shake. You'll also hear from author John Rizzo, who runs the popular MacWindows site. Tune in the internet radio broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]

[11/10] Install Macromedia Flash Player 8.0.22 for Security: Macromedia Flash Player 8 is available for download from this Macromedia Web page. Version 7 has a major security flaw according to Macromedia. To determine which version you have installed, go to the ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder and click on the Flash Player plugins. If it doesn't say version 8.0.22 for both, then download the latest and install it. [Bill Fox]

[11/9] Apple Released AirPort Extreme Driver Update 2005-001 for Panther: On the heals of the AirPort Extreme driver update for Mac OS X 10.4.x "Tiger", Apple released an AirPort Extreme Driver update for Mac OS X 10.3.3-10.3.9 "Panther". It is available for download froim this Apple Web page. According to the Read Me file,

This update resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for OS X 10.3.3 through 10.3.9.

We reported the update for Tiger last week. [Bill Fox]

[11/9] Divine Fiat Released a New Keynote Theme--Take Two: Featuring a slate board clapper across the top of each slide and clear easy to read Arial text on a black background, Take Two features your concepts in a classic environment that doesn't get in the way.

While ideal for a wide variety of presentations, Take Two was designed with film, tv and video professionals in mind. The 4:3 and 16:9 photo cutouts are perfect for introducing your employer, clients or potential investors to your next project. Take Two is also ideal for students or professors at film school.

Take Two is a Keynote theme that's all about options. With fifty-five text and photo layout masters, the possibilities are endless. Because Keynote will only allow one title text box and one body text box per master slide we have included an extras file which provides a variety of text box layouts for each of our photo cutout masters. Simply drag them out of our extras file, drop them into your Keynote presentation and your on your way to the perfect pitch.

Take Two is $19.95 and can be downloaded from this Divine Fiat Web page. [Bill Fox]

[11/9] Apple on Team Formalizing OpenDocument Support: The team, led by IBM and Sun Microsystems, met to formalize support for the OpenDocument standard for Office Applications and to promote it. Formalization would occur through the formation of subcommittees within the Web standards consortium Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. The OpenDocument specification will standardize documents based on the Extensible Markup Language file format. It includes those elements required for text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents. Of course, the standard is not supported by Microsoft which uses its proprietary formats to dominate the field. More... [Dana Baggett]

[11/8] Mac Marginalization--No Mac Version of TaxCut for 2005 Tax Year: H&R Block has yet to announce the availability its 2005 version of TaxCut tax preparation software. One of us switched from Intuit's MacInTax (now Turbo Tax for Mac) to TaxCut a number of years ago because it was cheaper and, in at least one opinion, much better.

We wondered why we weren't being dunned already to pre-order TaxCut for 2005. A trip to the TaxCut Web site reveals that one can pre-order TaxCut for Windows in all three editions but none of them list a Mac version. Apparently, H&R Block has dropped the Mac version for 2005 according to a reader post on MacInTouch.

One year we used the Windows version of TaxCut with VirtualPC to show it could be done and save some money. It looks like that may be our only option for 2005 since our returns are too complicated for a Web-based version. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[11/8] Brief Hands-On Report--The First Stable Beta of Camino 1.0 is Out: Camino is the Mozilla open source project's Web browser that's Mac OS X Cocoa native. It's available from this Mozilla Web page. According to the Release Notes,

Camino 1.0 Beta 1 brings you a heavily updated version of the only native Mac OS X browser using Mozilla.org's Gecko HTML rendering engine. We made great improvements, adding new features, improving existing features, and fixing many bugs and performance issues.

Note that this version of Camino 1.0 Beta 1 is close to its final shipping state. It is usable on a day-to-day basis and a large improvement over Camino 0.8.4, but you may still experience bugs, or features that are not complete. The goal of this early release is to demonstrate progress, and for people to report issues early on in the development cycle so that they can be addressed.

Camino 1.0 Beta 1 shares the same code base with Firefox 1.5 (it's based on the Mozilla 1.8 CVS branch), so shares many of the security fixes and Gecko improvements that are in that version of Firefox.

It has been awhile since we've used Camino so we downloaded and installed a copy of 1.0b1. Camino installed by simply copying its icon to the Applications folder. It easily imported our bookmarks file from Safari. Camino also imports bookmarks from Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Internet Explorer and Opera. Camino can be set to block popup ads and server ads on web pages. It can also be set to eliminate underlining of links for more readable text.

We opened several dozen of our bookmarked web pages and Camino rendered them perfectly and quickly. We can now recommend using Camino as a primary Web browser. [Bill Fox]

[11/8] Apple Store Opened its Official Holiday Gift Guide: Joining other retailers in an early (before Thanksgiving Day) holiday sales push, the Apple Store opened its Official Holiday Gift Guide. There's free shipping on items over $50 plus buy now and pay no interest until 2006 with the Apple Credit Account same-as-cash financing. [Bill Fox]

[11/8] CBS/NBC to Offer $0.99 On-Demand TV, Cite Apple/Disney iPod Video Deal: Apple, the great innovator, did it again. In its deal with Disney to offer episodes of several top ABC TV shows as $1.99 downloads for its new iPod with video, Apple broke the mold in TV delivery. Like the iTunes Music Store, CBS and NBC will offer next-day viewing of top TV show episodes according to a Reuters article. The big difference, other than price, is that the CBS/NBC arrrangements do not involve downloading a video file but simply scheduling an episode to show on TV at the time the consumer wants. CBS will work through Comcast and NBC will work through DirecTV. Both services will start early next year. More... [Bill Fox]

[11/7] Commentary--Apple iPod Eminem Ad vs Lugz Ad is Much Ado About Nothing: You may have read that some have commented on the parallels between the new Apple iPod ad featuring Eminem and an earlier one for Lugz shoes claiming that Apple "copied" the Lugz ad. You may even have read that Lugz has sent a letter to Apple asking that they cease and desist from running the iPod ad.

Indeed, there are similarities. Mainly both use an orange cast, a city backdrop, silhouetting and the same genre of music. Of course, Apple has used a city backdrop, silhouetting and current music in iPod ads for some time. Only the orange cast is new. The iPod ad features Eminem with an iPod and splashes of paint and the Lugz ad features an unknown model with Lugz shoes and arrows. You can view the two ads as QuickTime movies--here is the Eminem video iPod ad and here is the Lugz shoes ad.

Has anyone seen the latest Honda Civic ad with an orange cast, a city backdrop and a Civic driving over the rooftops? [Bill Fox]

[11/5] Cool Mac Software--Podner 1.0.1 Update is Out: Podner converts video files to a format that the iPod with video accepts. It also places that file in iTunes for ready updating of the iPod. We reviewed Podner 1.0 and concluded that it was the easiest and fastest means of creating iPod-ready video files. Here are the changes in v1.0.1:

New Features:

• Visual feedback during drag and drop to Podner window
  
• Drag and drop to the Podner Dock and Finder icons
  
• MPEG muxed audio support.

Fixes:

• Frame rate is correctly calculated for MPEG movie files
  
• Frame rate is correctly capped at 30 frames per second in all situations
  
• Podner will no longer accept movie files that have been protected by their creator
  
• Aspect ratios below 4:3 will now be correct

Podner 1.0.1 is $9.95 shareware and is free to registered owners. [Bill Fox]

[11/5] Apple Released Details on Four QuickTime Security Vulnerabilities Fixed in v7.0.3: We reported that Apple released QuickTime v7.0.3 on October 12 but Apple just released the details of the security enhancements included for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later plus Windows 2000/XP in QuickTime 7.0.3. They are:

CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2753--An integer overflow may be exploitable
via remotely originated content
Description: A sign extension of an embedded "Pascal" style string
could result in a very large memory copy. The update treats the
string as having unsigned length. Credit to Piotr Bania
(bania.piotr@gmail.com) for reporting this issue.

CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2754--An integer overflow may be exploitable
via remotely originated content
Description: Improper movie attributes could result in a very large
memory copy. The update checks for a valid non-zero size before
copying. Credit to Piotr Bania (bania.piotr@gmail.com) for reporting
this issue.

CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2755--A denial of service against any application
loading remotely-originated content
Description: A missing movie attribute is interpreted as an
extension, but the absence of the extension is not flagged as an
error, resulting in a de-reference of a NULL pointer. The update
requires either the movie attribute or the extension to be present
for a well-formed movie. Credit to Piotr Bania
(bania.piotr@gmail.com) for reporting this issue.

CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2756--Compressed PICT data may overwrite application memory
from remotely originated content
Description: Expansion of compressed PICT data could exceed the size
of the destination buffer. The update prevents decompressed data
from exceeding the destination buffer size. Credit to Piotr Bania
(bania.piotr@gmail.com) for reporting this issue.

[Bill Fox]

[11/5] Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

The Apple Store Special Deals page has unbelievable deals on the hottest refurbished and new, unopened Apple products. Current offerings include PowerBook G4 15" 1.67GHz with SuperDrive for only $1,599, iMac G5 20" with SuperDrive for only $1,149, iPod 30GB with Color Display for only $249, and much more. But hurry; supplies are limited and sure to go fast.

PowerMax has fantastic prices of superb products for your Mac, including the Canon Pixma IP6000D Photo Printer, MacAlly iKey USB 105-key Extended Keyboard, MacMice MicFlex USB Microphone System, Dr. Bodelin Laptop Bumpers, Marware Bike Holder Accessory for iPod, Microsoft Virtual PC 7.0 with Windows XP, and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[11/4] Apple Free Online Seminars--Seven are New for November: Apple's excellent online events are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer with internet access. They are designed to be no more than 30 minutes in length and offer a wide variety of resources and information for your review. Topics cover solutions using Apple and partner products and technologies.

3D Modeling on the Mac with modo--Watch Brad Peebler, President of Luxology, as he provides a tour of modo and find out how you can turn your inspiration and creativity into amazing 3D models.

A Blueprint for Tiered Storage--Steve Duplessie, recognized independent expert on storage technology, discusses the practicalities of tiered storage & set-up of a solution that works.

Apple in Science: Diversifying the IT Infrastructure-NEW--By incorporating Mac OS X into the infrastructure and supporting desktop Macs, IT organizations have increased the productivity of their research organizations.

Asset Management for Creative Workgroups: With Xserve G5 and Extensis Portfolio Server--Learn how you can better manage your photographs and creative assets with the winning combination of Apple Xserve and Extensis Portfolio Server.

Biotech is in our DNA--Michael Athanas, Ph.D., of The BioTeam will show how to install a fully provisioned informatics cluster on one or more Xserve servers using iNquiry. Topic: Servers/Networks

Build High Performance Tiered Storage Strategies With Xserve RAID--Join Alex Grossman, Senior Director of Server and Storage Hardware, and learn how you can implement a tiered storage strategy using Xserve RAID.

Change Your Infrastructure Legacy: Lower Costs and Simplify Server and Storage Management--Join Alex Grossman, Apple Sr Director, and learn how adding Xserve G5 and Xserve RAID to your IT infrastructure can help you meet today's business demands.

Color Management: From Input to Edit and Print with Mac OS X Panther & ColorSync--Join Steve Upton, industry consultant on color, as he gives you an overview of color management from displays to applications and output.

Computational Clustering in the Sciences-NEW--A number of Apple technologies simplify cluster computing, and for clusters of up to 64 processors, Apple provides pre-qualified solutions to meet your needs.

Computational Clusters for Bioinformatics--Elizabeth Kerr, Ph.D., Director of Science and Technology Markets at Apple, moderates this informative webcast discussion of the Apple Workgroup Cluster.

Cost-effective Storage Deployments for Research Computing--Learn how to achieve better data accessibility and faster storage retrieval in a more cost-effective way with industry-leading solutions.

Deliver Simplified Workgroup Services--Join Douglas Brooks, Server Product Mgr, to learn how to deliver robust workgroup & internet services without straining your budget or stretching your IT staff.

Desktop Management Made Easy with Apple Remote Desktop 2--Join Apple Product Mgr Nader Nafissi to learn why Apple's new, easy to use desktop management software is the essential tool for any Mac system administrator.

Developers win with Mac OS X, Reap the rewards--Built on a rock-solid UNIX core and standards-based technologies, Mac OS X is hailed as the world's most advanced operating system.

Font Management for Creative Professionals--Join Brent Haley, Apple marketing mgr, for an overview of font management capabilities in Mac OS X and to see solutions from Extensis and Insider Software.

Getting Started with High Performance Computing--On-demand rebroadcast of the Dec 16, 2004 webcast discussion of the high-level concepts of high performance computing, issues & obstacles, and more.

Grid Computing in the Life Sciences-NEW--Learn how Xgrid, built into Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, makes it feasible to deploy large computational grids without the addition of software.

Guitarists and the Mac: A Conversation with Pat Metheny--Join Pat Metheny in this free online seminar and learn how the Mac can help you take your music to the next level.

Improve Your Presentation Skills--Watch this free online seminar and find out how to improve your presentation skills.

Information Lifecycle Management--Steve Kenniston, an Enterprise Storage Group analyst will offer insights as to how to manage vast amounts of data while keeping your overhead low.

Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server for High Performance Computing--Learn about the technical underpinnings of Apple's latest OS, and how new features and updates will benefit users of Mac OS X-based clusters and grids.

Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger" for Scientific and Technical Computing--Join Apple in this densely-packed on-demand webcast rebroadcast on how each new feature in Tiger applies to Apple's scientific customers.

Managing Your Creative Assets--Join Brent Haley, Apple marketing manager, for an overview of the latest storage solutions from Apple and an intro to asset management solutions.

Maximizing Mac OS X Application Performance--Re-broadcast of the webcast discussion of the basics of optimization, how and why developers should turn a critical eye to the code they've just written.

Mobile Creative Studio, Portable Workstation, Office-on-the-Go--Join Gail Nishimura, PowerBook product manager, to learn about the latest advancements in the PowerBook G4 line and discover which model is right for you.

Mobile Field Editing with Journalist Dr. Bob Arnot--Join Dr. Bob Arnot to learn how the Mac can help you become a more successful storyteller and videographer by editing video on-the-go using tools from Apple.

Optimize Your Creative Workgroup with Apple's UNIX-Based Server Technology-NEW--Join Brent Haley as he demonstrates how to deploy, manage, and scale technologies for creative workgroups using the latest services included in Mac OS X Server.

OsiriX: Multi-dimensional Image Navigation Software-NEW--Dr. Osman Ratib's presentation at Children's Hospital Boston, Department of Radiology, on OsiriX, an open source, medical imaging application built on Mac OS X.

Perfect Color Starts Here, With Apple Cinema Displays--Join the Apple Cinema Displays product manager to learn how adding an Apple display to your creative system can boost your color-viewing experience.

Powerful tools for 2D and 3D post production--Watch Daryl Obert of Alias and Charles Meyer of Apple as they explore ways you can bring new levels of integration to your post production workflow.

Powering Creative Desktops with Mac OS X Tiger-NEW--Join Brent Haley, marketing manager for design and print market, as he goes under the hood and shows you the creative features of Mac OS X Tiger.

Pre-Visualizing and Presenting Your Ideas with StoryBoard Artist--Watch Jeff Walsh of PowerProduction demo StoryBoard Artist and find out how to convey your ideas with more depth, flair and accuracy than you thought possible.

Russell Brown presents Mac OS X and Photoshop CS2-NEW--Join Photoshop expert Russell Brown for a look at the ultimate digital studio: Adobe Photoshop CS2, a Power Mac G5, and the 30" Apple Cinema HD Display.

The Ultimate Creative Workstation. Discovering the Apple Power Mac G5--Todd Benjamin provides a tour of the Power Mac G5, describing what makes them so innovative and how they will benefit your creative endeavors.

Third-party HPC Solutions for Mac OS X--Apple will be joined by representatives from companies who develop their software or hardware for the platform to talk about their products.

We have viewed a large number of Apple's online seminars and they were excellent. [Bill Fox]

[11/3] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Released AirPort Update 2005-001 v1.0: The update is available via the Software Update application or as a standalone file from this Apple Web page. According to the ReadMe file,

This update fixes reliability and resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for Mac OS X v10.4.3 and later.

We downloaded and installed the update on a variety of Power Mac G5s, Power Mac G4 Cubes, iMac G5s and PowerBook G4s with no apparent problems except for an extra-long reboot time on several of them. The best that we can tell, the update only replaced the extension AppleAirPort2.kext v4.0.2 with v4.0.4. Those Macs and PowerBooks using our AirPort Extreme and Express Base Stations and running Mac OS X 10.4.3 work just as well after installation as before. All use Apple-branded AirPort Extreme cards. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[11/3] Apple Revised the Offerings from Three Hot Deals Retailers:

CDW|MacWarehouse has great deals on cool Mac products, including Nikon CoolPix P1 Digital Camera with Built-in WiFi Connectivity, Auto Kit for iPod, Macromedia Dreamweaver, 8 Upgrade, Belkin TuneStage for iPod, NEC YT37 Projector, Canon LiDE 500F Flatbed Scanner, Dantz Retrospect 6.0 Desktop, LaCie Big Disk Extreme Triple Interface Hard Drive, and much more.

B&H Photo and Video has fantastic prices of superb products for your Mac, including Kodak EasyShare V530 5MP Digital Camera, Samsung Digimax i5 5MP Digital Camera, SanDisk 512MB Secure Digital Card, Canon DC-20 DVD-R/W Camcorder and MiniSD Card, DLO Executive Portfolio for iPod, Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Headphones for iPod, and much more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Wacom Graphire Bluetooth 6x8 Graphics Tablet, Adobe Acrobat 7 Standard Edition, Allume StuffIt Deluxe 10, AutoFX PhotoGraphic Edges 6, Corel KnockOut 2, Corel Painter Essentials 3, and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[11/3] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Enderle, Van Buskirk and Kwok: Tonight co-hosts Gene and Grayson Steinberg will feature noted industry analyst and columnist Rob Enderle, who will provide some fascinating insights into the forthcoming Macs with Intel Inside. You'll also hear from digital music guru Eliot Van Buskirk of mp3.com and Lucius Kwok, author of the popular sound editing application, Sound Studio. Tune in the internet radio broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. A podcast and audio streaming archive will be available after the show. [Bill Fox]

[11/3] Cool Mac Software--Mactracker 4.0.1 Released: Know everything (well, almost everything) there is to know about every Mac ever made, all for free. Mactracker also includes info on Apple monitors, printers, cameras, AirPort Base Stations, iPods, etc. Download the update from within the application or via this Web page. [Dana Baggett]

[11/2] Apple Live Webcast Accelerating Research with the Apple Workgroup Cluster on Nov 8: In this webcast, Market and Product Managers for Servers and Storage at Apple, will explore the latest technologies included in the Apple Workgroup Cluster. The live webcast will occur on Tuesday, November 8, at 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM. Register now on this Apple Web page. [Bill Fox]

[11/2] The Apple Developer Connection Published The Sound of Opportunity Knocking: The Audio Units Community Takes Off: Audio Units is Apple's audio plug-in technology for creating audio effects and virtual instruments for Apple applications such as GarageBand, Soundtrack, Logic and Final Cut Pro, as well as a multitude of popular third-party applications. Building Audio Units plug-ins is a growing business opportunity for developers who love audio. The Sound of Opportunity Knocking: The Audio Units Community Takes Off explains what's involved, how to get started, and how one developer built a successful business. [Bill Fox]

[11/2] Cool Mac Software--ThermographX 1.3.0 Released: Jeremy Kezer just released a new version of his cool (no pun intended) shareware utility. Many Macs have temperature sensing/reporting capability starting with most G3 and some G4 CPUs and extending to our dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 which has seven sensors. ThermographX works with Mac OS X and records and graphs the temperatures reported by the sensors. If you want to know what's cooking when your Mac's fans rev up, check out ThermographX, $7 shareware. Jeremy Kezer has developed a number of useful freeware and shareware utilities for Macs and PowerBooks running Mac OS Classic and X. [Bill Fox]

[11/1] Hands-On Report--Apple Released Mac OS X 10.4.3 Update: Apple released a new update, v10.4.3 (Build 8F46), to the client and server editions of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger." The update is available via the Software Update application or as a standalone download, either as delta or combo files. We recommend using the combo files that are available from these Apple Web pages for the client or server editions. According to the client Read Me file,

The 10.4.3 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.

It includes fixes for:

- AFP, SMB/CIFS, NFS and FTP network file services
- AirPort and Bluetooth wireless access
- Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, and RAW camera support
- disc recording when creating and burning media
- .Mac sync services
- Spotlight indexing and searching
- Dashboard widgets: Dictionary, Flight Tracker, Stickies, and Unit Converter
- Address Book, AppleScript, Automator, Dictionary, Font Book, iCal, iSync, Mail, and Safari applications
- Disk Utility, Keychain Access, Migration Assistant, and Software Update
- compatibility with third party applications and devices
- previous standalone security updates

Here are the details on the included security updates:

Finder--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2749
Impact: File ownership information may be misleading
Description: Under certain situations, the file and group ownership
information displayed in the Finder Get Info window may not be
correct. This update addresses the issue by synchronizing the
displayed ownership with the actual ownership in all situations.
This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.

Software Update--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2750
Impact: Important Software Updates may not install
Description: Software Update can be instructed by the user to
ignore specific updates. If all applicable updates have been marked
in this way, Software Update will exit without providing an an
opportunity to reset the status of these updates so that they may
be installed. This update addresses the issue by asking whether the
ignored updates list should be reset when this situation is
encountered. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X
v10.4.

memberd--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2751
Impact: Changes to group membership are delayed for hours
Description: In certain situations, changes to a group's membership
may not be immediately reflected in access control checks. This may
result in an authenticated user being able to access files or other
resources even after they have been removed from a group. This
update addresses the issue by invalidating the group membership
cache at appropriate times. This issue does not affect systems
prior to Mac OS X v10.4.

Keychain--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-2739
Impact: Keychain Access will continue displaying plaintext
passwords after lock timeout
Description: Keychain Access is a utility distributed with Mac OS X
that is used to view keychain items and change keychain settings.
If a keychain automatically locks due to a timeout while viewing a
password stored inside it, that password will remain visible. This
update patches Keychain Access so that passwords are hidden when
keychains lock. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS
X v10.4. Credit to Eric Hall of DarkArt Consulting Services for
reporting this issue.

Kernel--CVE-ID: CVE-2005-1126, CVE-2005-1406, CVE-2005-2752
Impact: Kernel memory may be disclosed to local users
Description: Certain kernel interfaces may return data that
includes sensitive information in uninitialized memory. These
issues affect Mac OS X v10.4.2 and earlier. Credit to Ilja van
Sprundel and Neil Archibald of Suresec LTD, and Colin Percival of
the FreeBSD team for reporting these issues.

We downloaded and installed 10.4.3 Update from the Software Update application and from the standalone file on several Power Mac G5s, Power Mac G4 Cubes, iMac G5s and PowerBook G4s. The size of the update via SU varied by about 40 MB among computers. It ranged from 56.8MB on a 12" 867MHz PowerBook G4, 450MHz Power Mac G4 Cube, 1.25GHz Mac mini, dual 2.5GHz PowerMac G5 and Rev. A 20" iMac G5 to 97.0MB on a 17" 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 and Rev. B iMac G5.

On thing we noticed right off is that the first restart after installation took an abnormally long time at the white screen with gray Apple logo and spinnning "gear" with attendant hard drive activity. It caused our computers with fans, i.e. PowerBook G4, Power Mac G5 and iMac G5, to run a full blast for awhile and took so long that we almost forced a shutdown on the first updated Mac thinking it had crashed.

There are many improvements in 10.4.3--Apple lists them on this Web page. Among them are fixes for a few issues that we have encountered:

• Spotlight comments entered in the Finder are now preserved when using iDisk syncing.
• Addresses some issues in which the Finder might not be able to connect to an SMB volume.
• Allows your Address Book contacts that are organized in subgroups to be synced to an iPod using iTunes.
• Addresses an issue in which some Mail rules could be lost or duplicated after a .Mac sync.
• .Mac members can enable encrypted iChat sessions.
• Disk Utility can now verify the Mac OS X 10.4.x startup volume.
• Improves compatibility with Microsoft Intellipoint software.
• Fixes an issue with Microsoft Word and Excel 2004 where they could stop responding for several seconds.
• Apple Wireless Keyboards now work in single-user mode.
• Quartz 2D Extreme is disabled.

The last one is odd. Quartz 2D Extreme was once touted as a new Tiger technology but it was never enabled. However, Quartz 2D Extreme could be enabled using a developer tool and it still can be in 10.4.3.

So far we've not encountered any new issues with moderate use since about 6pm ET yesterday. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[11/1] Apple Revised the Offerings from a Hot Deals Retailer:

The Apple Store Special Deals page has unbelievable deals on the hottest refurbished and new, unopened Apple products. Current offerings include the 15-inch Power Book G4 with 1.67GHz processor and SuperDrive for only $1,899! Other great deals include Apple Certified Refurbished Mac minis starting at only $379 along with iPods, iMac G5's, and much more all at unbelievably low prices. But hurry; supplies are limited and sure to go fast.

[Bill Fox]

[11/1] Apple Posted iTunes 6.0.x Icon Guide: Apple recently added a few new additions to the activity and button icons in iTunes 6, like the one signifying that the file is a video file. If you want to know the functions of all of iTunes' icons, Apple recently posted an up-to-date guide on this Apple Web page. [Bill Fox]

[11/1] Dantz Released Retrospect 6.1 Update v6.1.1.101: The new driver is available for download from this Dantz Web page. It provides support for a number of additional drives, most of them Dell Powervaults, including the Sony DW-Q28A (Apple Version) CD/DVD drive. The update also improved support when writing more than 2 GB of data to a network volume. [Dana Baggett]

[11/1] Apple's iTunes Music Store Sells One Million Videos in Less Than 20 Days: Apple announced that its iTunes Music Store customers have purchased and downloaded more than one million videos since they debuted on October 12. Customers can choose from over 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films and hit TV shows for just $1.99. Top downloads include music videos from Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West; Pixar’s For the Birds and Boundin’; and episodes of ABC’s hit TV shows Lost and Desperate Housewives.

"Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods."

So keep watch for further developments for the iPod with video. [Bill Fox]

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