[1/31] Apple Released DVD Studio Pro 4 Updates: The updater is available from this Apple Web page. According to Apple the updater provides:

The latest updates to all DVD Studio Pro 4 applications: DVD Studio Pro 5, Compressor 2, Apple Qmaster 2, and DVD Player 4.

The details are:

DVD Studio Pro 4.0.3 updates compliance for the 1.0 HD DVD Video standard content specification to Tiger and Panther based users. Users with DVD Studio Pro 4.0 or later need to install this update to ensure their projects are compliant with the 1.0 HD DVD Video standard content specification.

[Bill Fox]

[1/31] Apple Revised the Offerings from Seven Hot Deals Retailers:

ClubMac has great deals on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including the Epson Stylus CX4200 AIO Photo Printer for $79 after $20 mail-in rebate; Wacom Graphire3 4"x5" Pen Tablet (blue and white) for $39.99; EDGE 160GB DiskGo! USB Portable Hard Drive for $87; Dantz Retrospect Backup 6.0 Utility (Server Edition); Sonic Impact I-Fusion iPod portable speaker system and much more.

Mac Game Store has great deals on Mac OS X games for your Mac with a special Hot Deals exclusive 5% discount at checkout! Here are some of the great games being offered: The Sims 2 University for $34.95 from Aspyr; Big Kahuna Reef for $19.95 from MacPlay; also from MacPlay comes The Best of Original Mac Games: Vol 1; from ToyBox Games comes Ancient SuDoKu for $29.99; and more.

MacMall has great deals on on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including Sketchbook Pro 2 for $187.99 from Alias; PitStop Professional 6.5 for $556.99 and Instant PDF 3.6 for $167.99, both from Enfocus; iHome IH5 clock radio "Made for iPods" for $89.99 from SDI Technologies; Quickbooks Pro 2006 for $189.99 from Intuit; G-Drive Mini 40GB FW400/800 portable HD for $179.00 from G Technologies; and more.

MacZone has great deals on on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including LG 19" TFT Flat Panel Display for $299.99; TuboTax Premier Hot State Tax Year 2005 from Intuit; Olympus FE-120 6-megapixel digital camera for $229.99; Microtek ScanMaker i800 flatbed scanner for $388.98; Adobe Creative Suite 2 & Flash Design Bundle Upgrade version for $898.97; inMotion portable iPod speaker from Altec Lansing for $128.99; and more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including the Canon PowerShot A610; Geographic Imager from Avenza for $599.00; Nikon D-200 10.2-megapixel digital camera body for $1699.95; Eye Candy 5: Nature Photoshop filters from Alien Skin for $98.95; SanMaker i900 flatbed scanner from MicroTek for $529.95; Wacom Graphire4 4x5" Pen Tablet (Blue) for $99.5; and more.

Small Dog Electronics has great deals on on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including the Small Dog 300GB SATA Internal Hard drive kit for the PowerMac G5 and iMac for $149.99; Audio Production Bundle featuring the Glyph Technologies GT050Q 300GB FW 800/USB hard drive and Sennheiser HD600 Professional Headphones for $645.00; Mac gamer's bundle featuring Pelican Headbanger Earsubs, Plantronics DSP-400 foldable headset; Civilization III Complete; Stubbs the Zombie; Call of Duty; and The Sims 2 all from Aspyr; plus World of Warcraft from Vivendi for $278.00; iPod Super PRo Bundle featuring the Kensington SX2000 iPod speaker system; Shure E4c sound isolating earphones; Small Dog iPod 5G 30G/60G natural leather flip case; Small Dog CAR Tune FM transmitter & iPod charger; Small Dog "The Gripper" mount in white; Small Dog iPod Vent Mount; Small Dog iPod Cup Mount; iKlear Cleaning Kit for iPod, iBook & PowerBook; and $50 iTunes Music Store gift certificate; and more.

Sweetwater Sound has great deals on on a wide variety of products for your Mac, including the Blue Snowball USB cardiod/omni condenser mic for recording on the go for $139.97; Etymotic Research ER-6i in-ear system for the iPod for $149.00; PreSounus INSPIRE 1394 FW audio interface for the Mac for $199.97; M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB audio interface plus Liive Lite 4 software for $199.97; Reason drum machines synthesizers and samplers from Propellerhead for $399.97; inMotion portable iPod speaker from Altec Lansing for $128.99; and more.

[Bill Fox]

[1/31] For Scratched iPods--NewerTech Clean and Polish Kit: Newer Technology Inc. (NewerTech) introduced the NewerTech Clean and Polish Kit, engineered to remove scratches, restore color, and return original off-the-shelf shine to Apple iPods, iBooks, and all high quality plastic technology products.

Each easy-to-use, three-component kit includes a specially formulated Heavy Scratch Remover solution, Fine Scratch Remover solution, and Plastic Clean and Shine protection polish. The NewerTech Clean and Polish Kit utilizes advanced chemistry bonds to remove heavy scratches, abrasions, fine marks and delicate cuts from virtually all plastics and acrylic surfaces without unsightly filling.

The kit is available from NewerTech or OWC for $17.99. [Bill Fox]

[1/30] Hands-On Review--Apple's New iWeb Component of iLife '06: For 2006, Apple added a new application, iWeb, to its iLife '06 consumer suite of applications. The applications that comprise iLife '06 are iPhoto 6, iMovie HD 6, iDVD 6, GarageBand 3 and, now, iWeb 1.0. iTunes 6 and QuickTime 7 are also on the DVD. While each of the applications in the iLife 6 suite have been upgraded with new features and improvements to existing features, iWeb is brand new so we've decided to focus our iLife '06 review on iWeb.

iWeb is designed to be a very-easy-to-use Web site creation tool that also facilitates publishing the Web pages created with iWeb on the internet, especially via a .Mac account. It is, in effect, Adobe GoLive or Macromedia Dreamweaver for the rest of us. Of course, being easy-to-use usually means reduced flexibility and we'll see if this is the case for iWeb.

As a bit of background, Apple's first foray in to Web site creation is a feature of a .Mac account called HomePage. HomePage is still available to .Mac members but is not mentioned on the .Mac main Web page for non-members. It appears that Apple is even encouraging .Mac members to "move" from HomePage to iWeb by demonstrating how to re-publish pages created with HomePage as iWeb pages. HomePage has additional features like general file sharing, resume templates, invitation templates, etc., so we hope it stays around until all of its features are added to iWeb.

When iWeb is first launched, it offers for selection six different templates--Welcome, About Me, Photos, Movie, Blog and Podcast--and 12 different themes, very similar to Keynote and Pages. iWeb reminds us so much of Pages and Keynote that we wonder if iWeb was originally intended to be a part of iWork '06 with Pages and Keynote rather than iLife '06.

Each of the templates is very attractively and thoughtfully designed for its purpose. The organization and topical nature of the six primary templates varies somewhat among the 12 themes. For example, the "Formal" theme's default topic is a wedding but it can easy be changed by the user to other topics.

iWeb's interface will be very familiar to those who have been using Keynote or Pages from Apple's iWork suite. The floating palettes used to modify the text or graphics are similar and change context as one uses them so the desktop is not cluttered with too many palettes. As a long-time user of Keynote, we found it very easy to use iWeb. It even has some very cool features like adding a small reflection to the bottom of a photo.

Fortunately, iWeb's templates and themes are so well designed that many may not ever have to use the palettes. All one really has to do is drop one's own images, movies, songs or podcasts over the place holders on the iWeb page and type over the sample text. iWeb also makes it easy to locate what is needed using the Media Browser (available under the "View" menu) provided, of course, if one's media files are stored with Apple's applications like iTunes, GarageBand, and iPhoto.

If one has a .Mac account, publishing a Web site created with iWeb to the internet is one-click simple. Just click on the File menu and drag and release on the "Publish to .Mac" selection. If one wants to publish elsewhere, iWeb "publishes" the site to a folder that may be uploaded to the internet with an FTP application.

In less than 10 minutes we reproduced the content of today's Macs Only! front page using a standard iWeb theme. We chose iWeb's Blog template because it offers the closest in style to Macs Only!'s front page--check it out. Note that the order of the entries is reversed, an issue that we mention below.

It is very clear that Apple's intent was to create a tool for an individual consumer or family rather than professional Web designers but we tested iWeb's limits to see how closely we could replicate Macs Only!'s main Web page, ads and all. Without any help, other than our familiarity with Keynote and web design using Adobe GoLive, in under half an hour we were able to fashion a Web site in iWeb that is very similar to Macs Only!--check it out. Of course, the technical style is different in that iWeb's Blog structure provides a short "abstract" of the article that is connected to the full article on a single page with a "read more..." link. We used the insert shape tool (Rectangle) to implement the sidebars. Actually, we could have come even closer with more work but that's not the idea of iWeb. It is not a highly sophisticated web design and publishing tool but a very simple one. We think that the results of using iWeb as intended look very professional.

Returning to the issue of simplicity versus flexibility, we found iWeb's simplicity to be somewhat constraining. The four issues the we have with iWeb are that (1) it produces only fixed-width pages, (2) we were unable to group items and lock them together (i.e. if we moved something like the sidebar, then all of the elements within it would move with the sidebar simultaneously) (3) one can not create more than one site in iWeb and publish both to .Mac and (4) we were unable to change the order of the entries or the pages. Fortunately, only the latter is likely to be an issue with iWeb's target user community. We see the logic in the most recent Blog entry being the top-most entry but iWeb should have the flexibility to change the order of entries. If one decides after typing in entries for a given datae that one typed in earlier is more important than the other and it should be first, one should be able to make that happen with drag and drop.

We think Apple has produced an excellent, very-easy-to-use Web site creation tool in iWeb. It will only get better over time but version 1.0 is perfectly usable and does a bag-up job in producing an attractive personal Web site. iWeb is one of the iLife '06 suite of applications that comes with every new Mac. iLife '06 is also sold alone for $79. [Bill Fox]

[1/30] AppleCare Now Available Separately for Apple Monitors for $99: Somehow we missed this landmark event which now appears in the online Apple Store (Mac Accessories->AppleCare & .Mac) for $99:

AppleCare Protection Plan extends your Apple display's 90 days of complimentary support and one-year warranty to up to three years of world-class support.

AppleCare for Apple monitors was previously only available as a free companion to a same-time purchase of a Power Mac, Mac mini or PowerBook. If purchased separately or, sometimes, if they shipped at different times or if the Mac was sold but the simultaneously-purchased monitor kept, AppleCare did not cover the monitor. Finally, Apple has rectified this and one still gets free AppleCare for monitors purchased together with a qualifying Mac. [Bill Fox]

[1/30] Pangea Software's Otto Matic 3.0 Update is Universal: Pangea Software, Inc., announced the release of Otto Matic, version 3.0 which is now a Universal Binary application that will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. Otto Matic is a 3D action-adventure game based on the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950’s. You play a robot named "Otto Matic" who’s goal is to save the Humans from being abducted by the evil Brain Aliens.

The free Otto Matic 3.0 update is currently available for download on the Pangea Software Web site. This new version requires Mac OS 10.4, so users with older versions of Mac OS X should stay with Otto Matic 2.0 which is still available on the Pangea web site. In addition to having support for Intel, the new version 3.0 also adds support for gamepads, joysticks, and other input devices, and allows customization of the game’s keyboard controls.

Pangea is quickly making universal binaries for its Mac 3D games. [Bill Fox]

[1/27] Hands-On Report--Fixes for Problems with 1/9 TurboTax 2005 for Mac OS X Updaters: Two Macs Only! staffers tried updating their copy of TurboTax 2005 Deluxe with State for the Mac using the One-Click Updates selection under the Online menu and got an error dialog (11002:2, -14) during installation of at least one of the five updates. They fixed the problem by installing the 1/9 updates manually but in two different ways as follows:

1. One downloaded all five of the 1/9 updaters and applied all five manually by clicking on the updaters that have a .exe file extension as we have previously noted. He had to delete the ".exe" extension on each file because it kept launching Real Player instead of running. When he finished all five updates, he tried the One-Click Updates command again and a dialog box stated that his TurboTax was up to date. And,

2. The other noted that only one of five updates did not install, mfdiper.exe. So he just downloaded it and ran it without deleting the ".exe" extension. It ran fine and appeared to install. When he tried the One-Click Updates command, however, it again downloaded mfdiper.exe and ran it again--this time it installed automatically without the error message. Trying the One-Click Updates command again, the dialog box stated that his TurboTax was now up to date.

The five 1/9/06 updaters are available for download and manual installation from this Intuit Web page. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[1/27] Apple Added New Video Content to its iTunes Music Store--Now from MTV, MTV2 Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and The N: MTV Networks and Apple announced that hit television programming from MTV, MTV2, COMEDY CENTRAL, Nickelodeon and The N is now available for purchase and download on the iTunes Music Store. The new content features top-rated favorites such as "Punk’d," "South Park," "Dora the Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Laguna Beach." Nickelodeon’s "Dora" is the first pre-school program available on iTunes, while COMEDY CENTRAL’s "Stand-Up" is iTunes’ first stand-up comedy program, and MTV’s "Laguna Beach" and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet 2" are the first reality-based titles available on iTunes. With the addition of these 14 shows from MTV Networks, iTunes now offers over 40 TV shows for $1.99 per episode for viewing on a computer or iPod. [Bill Fox]

[1/27] Super-Fast WiFi Standard 802.11n Approved by IEEE Committee: Approval of the 802.11n standard, that we noted 10 days ago was likely, sets the stage for very stable WiFi at speeds up to 600Mbps. That's over 10x Apple's AirPort Extreme using the 802.11g standard with a maximum throughput of 54Mbps. More... [Dana Baggett]

[1/27] O'Reilly Released Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook: More than just a rogue Excel user, author David Bourg is a practicing engineer and researcher who has used Excel extensively for everything from routine data analysis to sophisticated design optimization problems. In fact, Bourg is often hired to develop custom Excel solutions for other engineers. Over the years, his observations showed him that there is a real need for a book that shows how to apply Excel to a wide variety of complex problems. His answer takes the form of the Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook (O'Reilly, US $44.99), a collection of focused code solutions and accompanying discussions that provides readers with the means to solve both basic and advanced problems. [Bill Fox]

[1/27] O'Reilly Released AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition: AppleScript comes free as part of every Mac OS X system, and with it, users can harness the power of their Mac and control both the system and the applications (such as iTunes, Photoshop, Quark, InDesign, Word, FileMaker Pro, Apple Mail, and more) that run on it. But they need to know how. AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition (Neuburg, O'Reilly, US $39.99) teaches AppleScript as it's never been taught before--with scrupulous attention to detail and clarity. [Bill Fox]

[1/26] Wider, the First H.264 Video Content Bridge to iPod is Real, at least as a reference design. Vydeo Integrated Systems today announced to potential manufacturers the design details of their Wider, a video content bridge for the iPod with video. Expected to be on the market this spring, Wider will connect video equipment to the video iPod and process DVDs, VCDs, MiniDV, VHS tapes and live television into an H.264 QuickTime format at 320x240 resolution file directly onto the iPod in real time, Vydeo claims.

Wider will accept s-video and composite video and audio inputs and supports both NTSC and PAL standards. Wider also has two USB 2.0 ports for transfers to and between a video iPod and a hard drive. It runs on Mac OS X 10.4.x and supports iCal events to schedule recordings.

The printed circuit board will be roughly 3" x 4" so devices should be fairly small. An eyeTV or computer will not be needed. No retail price has been set but Vydeo expects Wider to be relatively inexpensive.

Macs Only! broke the story on this potential device in December. More... [Bill Fox]

[1/26] Apple Pro Tip of the Week--Super Shortcut for Making Apps Launch During Startup: For Mac OS X 10.4.x, just click-and-hold on the application's dock icon until the menu pops up. Then select "Open at Login." If the application has a dock icon in Tiger, there's no need to go through the longer process of opening System Preferences and clicking on the Accounts pane, the Login tab, the "+" button and selecting the application. More... [Dana Baggett]

[1/26] Apple Computer to Show Its New Products to WAPi on Saturday: Apple Computer joins Washington Apple Pi (WAPi), the largest DC Metro area Macintosh user group, to present a post-MacworldExpo show-and-tell general meeting on January 28, 2006, from 9 am to noon. The session, held this year at the Microsoft Innovation & Technology Center in Reston, VA, is a forum for Apple Computer to describe and show its newest products. Apple Pi members who attended the San Francisco expo will share the most interesting third party hardware and software they saw at the Expo.

The WAPI January meeting, open to the public, starts at 9:00 am ET. The meeting will also feature the usual ad hoc tech support, door prizes, and raffles. A special raffle for will feature an iPod Shuffle with hundreds of dollars worth of accessories. [Bill Fox]

[1/26] Intel Succeeds at 45-nanometer Chip Size--More Efficient Processors Coming: Intel announced that it has successfully built a microchip using its new 45-nm process. The current cutting edge in processor chips is 65-nm. According to Intel, the new chip will pack about twice as many transistors in the same space as do current processors, keeping in line with Moore's Law, since the 65-nm process went into production last year.

Apple's Macs will benefit from this development since they are switching over from IBM to Intel processors. More... [Dana Baggett]

[1/26] Tonight on the Tech Night Owl LIVE--Mac/PC Shootouts, BareFeats, State of the Technology Industry and Rosetta Emulation: This week host Gene Steinberg and his irreverent son and co-host Grayson will feature special segments on real Mac versus PC comparisons. We'll be welcoming Charles Gaba of systemshootouts.org, who compares the specs, and Rob Art Morgan of BareFeats, who runs the actual benchmarks. You'll also hear views about the state of Apple and other technology companies from noted industry analyst Ross Rubin of NPD Group, and an update on the technology used in Apple's Rosetta emulation scheme from Bob Wiederhold, President and CEO of Transitive Corporation. Tune in the internet radio broadcast Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. A podcast and streaming audio file will be posted soon after the show. [Bill Fox]

[1/26] Feral Released Chessmaster 9000 1.0.2 Update: Feral Interactive released of the long-awaited 1.0.2 patch for Chessmaster 9000. Good news for chess mavens playing under Mac OS X Tiger, as it improves stability and performance under Apple's latest OS.

This update fixes the following issues:

• Resolved incompatibilities with Mac OS X Tiger, allowing personalities to be loaded.
• Fixed the calculation of time spent on game analysis.
• Resolved issues with invalid FSAA settings.
• Clipped windows and dialogs have been fixed.
• Chessmaster 9000 has the option to suspend operations when in the background.

You will need to be running 1.0.1 before upgrading to 1.0.2. You can download the patch by following this link or by by going to the Feral Support page. We favorably reviewed Chessmaster 9000. [Bill Fox]

[1/25] Steve Jobs' Pixar Nets $6.3 Billion from Disney Purchase--Deal Will Directly Affect Apple: On Monday, Disney offered and Pixar's Board accepted a buyout as we reported Monday. Then late yesterday after discussions with Pixar employees, Disney and Pixar jointly announced that Disney has acquired Pixar, subject to shareholder voting and other particulars, for a net $6.3 Billion in Disney stock. Disney's stock payment is worth $7.4 Billion in a ratio of 2.3 shares for each one of Pixar's but Disney gets back over $1 Billion in cash from Pixar making the net cost of the deal some $6.3 Billion. Pixar Animation Studios will be joined with Disney's animation studios and Pixar's President Ed Catmull will become the President of the combined animation studios. Dr. Catmull will report to Disney's CEO Robert Iger and Disney Studio's Chairman Dick Cook. Steve Jobs, Pixar's CEO, will become the largest shareholder in Disney and will join Disney's Board as a non-independent director.

So what does this mean for Apple? Rather than speculate like others have, we report the words that came directly from Steve Jobs during the 47 minute conference call for financial analysts that followed the deal's official announcement. Those on the call included Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and Robert Iger.

In answer to a question from a Goldman-Sachs analyst on exploiting Pixar's capability "beyond the theatrical window," Steve Jobs stated that great animated movies may be watched by kids "...dozens of times if not hundreds of times..." and they may "...watch them many, many times in many places on probably many devices...." Obviously, Jobs is clearly thinking that Apple will provide most, if not all, of those devices. While there were no other references to Apple, the company will benefit from Steve Jobs increased time and energy to focus on Apple and his direct influence on the consumer media giant, Disney.

Here is the joint press release and the conference call for more details. [Bill Fox]

[1/25] Review of Darwinia--a New Simple Strategy Game for Mac OS X: Introversion Software, a small game developer, recently released Darwinia for a number of platforms including Mac OS X. The story line of this easy to play strategy game is:

Unfortunately, the systems of Darwinia have been overrun by an evil red Viral Infection. This Virus has multiplied out of control and must be stopped. Your task is to destroy the Viral Infection and save the Darwinians from extinction.

Here is a brief AP review of Darwinia. It is available in a box for $29.99 or as a direct download for $19.95. [Dana Baggett]

[1/25] FireWire Depot is Now Shipping PCI Express FireWire and USB Products: FireWire Depot announced that they are now shipping many products using the new PCI Express bus used in the new dual and quad Power Mac G5s. The cards come in various configurations of FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 combinations. [Bill Fox]

[1/24] Matrox DualHead2Go External Multi-Display Adapter Works with 15" PowerBook G4: Well, it has been tested successfully by Fabrizio Pilato with a 1.5GHz 15" PowerBook G4 according to his email to us. The PowerBook G4 is not on Matrox's list of compatibile laptops, probably because they have not fully tested them. But here is a list of known compatible graphics chips:

ATI Radeon X600
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
ATI Mobility Radeon X600 SE
ATI Xpress 200M series / Radeon X300
nVidia GeForce Go 6200 TE 64M
nVidia GeForce Go 6600 TE 128M

The Matrox DualHead2Go is "...the world's first commercially available multi-display upgrade of its type...." according to Matrox. It brings dualhead capability to desktops and laptops with a resolution of up to 2560x1024 shown across two displays. The only drawback is that it only works with analog, not digital, displays. The adapter is small, about 3.9 x 3.7 x 1.0 in, and light, about 4.7 oz so it easily carried with a PowerBook.

Fabrizio hooked up 19" and 23" LCD analog monitors to his PowerBook G4 to create one large desktop which you can see in his review of the DualHead2Go posted on MobileMag.com. The Matrox DualHead2Go was released in mid-November 2005 with an SRP of $169. [Bill Fox]

[1/24] Surprise! Apple's iWork Second to Microsoft Office in U.S. Retail Sales: Apple's iWork consists of a word processing application, Pages, and a presentation application, Keynote, and it is the first alternative to Microsoft Office in U.S. retail sales of office suite productivity software, ahead of Corel's WordPerfect Office, according to an article in News.com. While still a small U.S. retail market share of 2.7 per cent, iWork handily beat WordPerfect Office's 1.6 per cent. The same article quotes iWork's share on Macs of 17.4 per cent. We received our copy of iWork '06 last week and will provide soon our hands-on review. More... [Bill Fox]

[1/24] Bare Bones Software Shipped Yojimbo 1.0 for Mac OS X--Innovative Information Organizer: Bare Bones Software shipped Yojimbo 1.0, a "completely new information organizer that effortlessly fits into the flow of work and digital life...an effortless mechanism to collect, store and find information as needed."

"At some point, we've all tried to invent or adopt a filing system to manage the 'everything else' in our lives," said Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software, Inc. "Regardless of what you store and how you organize, Yojimbo works with you, never against you. You can store whatever you like in it; for example, I've been using it for everything from code snippets and web links to creating a home inventory."

Data entry follows familiar Mac user interface gestures such as copy-and-paste, drag-and-drop, a Quick Input Panel, or PDF Services from the Print menu. Searching and retrieval are instantaneous, using either Yojimbo's built-in search, or the Spotlight search system in Mac OS X Tiger. An encryption subsystem allows customers to encrypt individual data items for storage, without interfering with ease of retrieval.

Yojimbo 1.0 is $39 ($29 education; $69 family pack of 5) and it requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later. For more information on Yojimbo, or to download a fully functional demo version, visit Bare Bones Software's Web site. [Bill Fox]

[1/23] Apple CEO Steve Jobs to Become Largest Disney Shareholder Today? We may know more later today as a variety of sources indicate Pixar Animation Studio's board is scheduled to consider a buyout offer from Disney worth about $6.7 billion. [Reuters reported it is Disney's board that is meeting.] It is an all-stock deal that would make Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney and very possibly a board member if the deal goes through. While this appears to be a good arrangement for both Pixar and Disney, a closer Steve Jobs association with Disney could influence Apple's current leadership in developing the download market for digital media content. It's hard to say if the effect would be positive or negative. [Bill Fox]

[1/23] Pangea Announced Universal Binary Version of Bugdom 2 v3.0--Improves Input Device Support: Pangea Software, Inc., today announced the release of Bugdom 2, version 3.0, which is now a Universal Binary application that will run natively on both PowerPC and Intel based Macs.

The free Bugdom 2 v3.0 updater is currently available for download from the Pangea Software Web site. The 3.0 update will update all previous versions of the game, however, version 3.0 requires Mac OS 10.4. Users with older versions of Mac OS X should stay with version 2.0 which is still available on the Pangea web site.

In addition to having support for Intel, the new version 3.0 also improves support for gamepads, joysticks, and other input devices, and allows customization of the game’s keyboard controls. [Bill Fox]

[1/23] Free Online Income Tax Filing Ends for 30 Per Cent of Filers: For 2005 returns the IRS has set an income level of $50,000 as the cap for filing income tax for free through an online service registered with the IRS. That income level, says the IRS, will allow 70% of income tax filers to still file for free through one of 21 or more online services who have signed up with the IRS. The cap will increase in subsequent years to provide the same opportunity to 70% of filers. Check out the IRS Web site under "Free File" for the list of 2005 return providers and details. [Dana Baggett]

[1/23] Adobe Released the Camera RAW 3.3 Photoshop Plug-in in Final: Version 3.3 replaces v3.3x43 and adds support for 17 additional cameras. The update is available from this Adobe Web page. Here are the detailed release notes. [Bill Fox]

[1/23] VersionTracker Tracking MacIntel-Native Software: VersionTracker.com established what they are calling the Universal Application Resource Center. It will provide software updates, troubleshooting, and news for universal applications, i.e. those made to run on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers.

[1/23] Peachpit Released Adobe Creative Suite 2 How-Tos: In Adobe Creative Suite 2 How-Tos (Peachpit, ISBN: 0-321-35674-8; $19.99), author George Penston offers up the must-know techniques from each of the suite's component applications, and provides strategic tips fro getting the most out of Adobe's enhanced integration of the applications. Whether the reader is a professional artist or designer or dedicated amateur, each of the 100 standalone techniques provides an explanation of how to harness the power of Creative Suite.

Some of the topics covered, include:

• Customize palettes and workspace in any of the applications to suite your
  working style.
• Discover how Adobe Bridge makes it easier to access and organize files.
• Dynamically update files using Smart Objects in Photoshop and Illustrator
• Seamlessly incorporate InDesign documents into a GoLive Web site
• and much more.

[Bill Fox]

[1/23] QuickerTek Released 27dBm Transceiver for Improved WiFi Reception with a 17" iMac G5: The 27dBm transceiver is a little addition to a 17 inch iMac G5 that brings in AirPort signals that just can't be seen normally and sends wireless information back and forth at top speeds. The small 17-inch iMac G5 Transceiver clips temporarily onto the iMac case and the other end connects to the AirPort card inside the iMac G5. It delivers a full 500 milliwatts of RF power. By comparison, iMacs tend to average little more than 30 milliwatts. The 27dBm Transceiver works with Apple AirPort networks including all 2.4GHz Wi-Fi systems. It is Wi-Fi compliant, supporting both 802.11g and 802.11b and works with both Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS 10.x systems. The QuickerTek 27dBm Transceiver has an SRP of $200. [Bill Fox]

[1/20] Maine Issued Request for Proposals for Maine Learning Technology Wireless Classroom Solution: Apple's famous contract to supply iBooks and AirPort wireless networking to all of Maine's seventh and eighth graders expires this year and bids are being solicited by the State of Maine's Department of Education to replace it. The bids are due on February 22nd at 2:00 pm ET.

Macs Only! broke the story that Apple had won the original Maine contract and we have followed it since. We will closely follow this re-bid--stay tuned. [Dana Baggett]

[1/20] Maine Law Requiring Computer Monitor Makers to Bear Recycling Cost is Now in Force: On Wednesday of this week the new Maine law that requires manufacturers of computer monitors and TVs to bear the cost of recycling and safely disposing their products when they are discarded went into affect. Maine is the first state to require this recycling financial arrangement by law like it is in Japan and Europe. More... [Dana Baggett]

[1/20] All BeLight's Mac OS X Software Products Now have Universal Binaries--Updates are Free: BeLight Software announced Universal Binary support for all their products. Popular productivity applications Swift Publisher, Mail Factory, Business Card Composer and freeware Image Tricks have now been re-designed to run natively on both PowerPC and Intel processors. The updates are free for current users from BeLight's Web site.

"Despite raging winds and -4F in Ukraine our Macs are pretty hot and we managed to break through with Binary switch, right after the actual Intel Mac release" says Stanislav Sedashov, CEO of BeLight Software.

We have favorably reviewed BeLight's Mail Factory and Business Card Composer. [Bill Fox]

[1/20] Adobe Released Security Patch for Creative Suite 2, Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2: The security update is available for download as a stand-alone updater (Adobe Help Center) from this Adobe support Web page. The update was posted 1/18/06 but curiously did not show in the automatic Adobe updater for our copy of CS2. We tried to apply it as a stand-alone update but it quit stating that we had a more recent copy of Adobe Help Center installed and that it had to be removed first. Adobe's support page says nothing about this so we did not apply the "update." [Bill Fox]

[1/19] Hands-On Report--Apple Beats Analysts Consensus Earnings Esimate in 2006 Q1 by Posting Record Fiscal Quarter: We listened to Apple's webcast conference call with financial analysts following the release of Apple's Q1 financial report. Mostly, the questions posed by analysts are deftly deflected by Apple's CFO Peter Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook since they seek details on individual products, business segments, future actions or future products. Apple never comments on these things and has even gotten more general in recent years in the categories in which it presents information. Still, there were some interesting tidbits divulged beyond Apple's actual financial report but first here the report for Apple's first 2006 fiscal quarter (10/1-12/31/05).

Apple reported a $565 million net profit on revenue of nearly $5.8 billion, the best quarter of any in Apple's history. That converts to $0.65 earning per share beating by some 7% the most recent finanacial analysts consensus estimate of $0.61, less of a beating than usual. Apple's gross margin dropped slightly from 28.5% to a still very healthy 27.5%. And Apple has now packed away some $8.7 billion in cash and short-term investments, quite a feat after pre-paying some $0.7 billion for future NAND flash RAM. A $0.5 billion final pre-payment installment is due in the current quarter. Research and development expeditures increased 48% over the first quarter last year to $182 million.

Apple sold over 1.25 million Macs, i.e. 667,000 as desktops and 587,000 as portables. As we all know, Apple sold over 14 million iPods. That's up 20% and 207% respectively over the same quarter last year. Revenue from other music-related things was up 177%, Peripherals and other hardware up 7% and software & other up 53%. Retail store revenue was up 91% and revenues from all three world regions (Americas, Europe and Japan) were up respectively 65%, 47% and 91%.

Some interesting tidbits from the slightly less than an hour-long conference call are:

• iPod inventories were lower than desired due to higher than expected demand and the most constrained iPod remains the 4GB iPod nano.
• Apple had 83% of the legal music download market.
• 11 new retail Apple stores opened to total 135 and 40 more will open in 2006, mostly in the U.S. but also Canada, the UK and Japan.
• The week following Christmas was a "big" sales week.
• There was a definite "pause" in Mac sales due to an anticipation of Macworld announcements.
• Can not pin the sales "pause" on either the pro or consumer line.
• The ordering response to Intel Macs has been "strong."
• MacBook Pros shipping in February may not be able to meet the demand during the second quarter. [Order now!]
• Selling iMac G5s and 15" PowerBook G4's only while supplies last.
• Price protection, if any, for clearing remaining iMac G5's and 15" PowerBook G4's was factored into the lowered revenue projection for the second quarter. [Hmm..maybe some discounts coming?]
• Gross margin for iPods was over 20%.
• Apple now has 35,000 iPod retail outlets world wide.
• Apple's music business operated above the break-even mark.
• R&D will continue to climb as Apple invests in its future.
• Apple is pleased with the strong response for its new iPod remote/radio tuner and may have trouble meeting demand.

If you want to listen to a QuickTime re-broadcast of the conference call, go to this Apple Web page. It's also available as a podcast.

Apple forecast the second quarter earnings to be down (as usual in Apple's business cycle) to $4.3 billion. Still, it's a pretty hefty number.

Following the release of the report, Apple's stock declined in after-hours trading. Perhaps this was due to the lowered second quarter expectation. However, if realized it would still be the second best quarter in Apple's history as analyst Shaw Wu pointed out. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[1/19] Retrospect Driver Update for Retrospect 6.1 version 6.1.3.101: This update is available from this Dantz Web page. It adds a slew of new drives that are now supported. [Dana Baggett]

[1/19] Peachpit Released Mac OS X Unix 101 Byte-Sized Projects: In his practical guide, author Adrian Mayo helps readers master essential Unix projects and take charge of the command line. Along the way, newcomers will gain a working knowledge of Unix and those already familiar with the command line will expand their skills.

Based on his popular Unix tips on OSXFAQ.com, Adrian has written 101 of his top Unix tips for this book and expanded them into compact and essential projects that are filled with real-world knowledge and light on theory. Whether the reader wants to search files, write scripts, or configure Apache, Adrian has a project to show them how. The book covers essential Unix commands and concepts; how to browse the file system and work with filenames and file content; basic and advanced shell scripts; and more--Mac OS X Unix 101 Byte-Sized Projects (Peachpit,ISBN: 0-321-37411-8, $34.99). [Bill Fox]

[1/19] O'Reilly Released Running Mac OS X Tiger, The Power User's Guide to Making Tiger Purr: Fully illustrated, this power user's guide doesn't waste time talking about Finder tricks and keyboard shortcuts. It dives in and explains how Tiger is put together and why it works. Most importantly, it gives readers the tools they need to examine how their system is running and how to adjust all the knobs behind its operation and shows how Mac OS X interfaces with the world around it, including wireless and spontaneous networking.

"Mac OS X redefines our expectations of what a computer should be," say authors James Duncan Davidson and Jason Deraleau of the all-new Running Mac OS X Tiger (Davidson and Deraleau, O'Reilly, US $39.95). On the surface, it has a graphical user interface (GUI) "that can't be touched by any other OS on the planet." Under the hood, there's a powerful Unix engine offering stability that will "amaze, intrigue, and serve you."

[Bill Fox]

[1/19] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Quark, Industry Analyst, Macworld Mag, Prolific Author and TurboTax: Tonight, host Gene Steinberg and his irreverent son and co-host Grayson will feature even more interviews from last week's Macworld Expo. You'll discover the new features of QuarkXPress 7.0 with Marc Horne from Quark, Inc. You'll also get a fast assessment of Apple's new developments from industry analyst Ross Rubin. Among our regular guests, you'll hear from Macworld's Jason Snell and prolific author Kirk McElhearn, both weighing on a decision by Apple, now reversed, to collect information on the songs you select in iTunes without your permission. With tax time approaching in the U.S., you'll get an update on Intuit's TurboTax from company spokesperson Scott Gulbransen. Tune in the internet radio broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. An archive and podcast will be posted shortly after the show. [Bill Fox]